There is never a shortage of dumb things people say. In fact, no matter what is going on in our business, good or bad, up or down, scary or comforting, there is always somebody somewhere who will say something dumb about something. And I’m not even talking about the current political atmosphere where a collection of dumb things those people say would fill an encyclopedia…daily.
With an upswing in our own PCB/EMS businesses, I’m having no problem collecting a new crop of dumb things people are saying. Here are a few:
- Business is so good, we can get rid of those customers who are a pain in the next to deal with.
- Business is so good, that we can get rid of all that marketing we’ve been doing, we don’t need any new customers or business.
- Business is so good, that we are going to have to stop selling, we have too much business right now.
- Business is so good, that we should probably let some of our sales people go, we don’t really need them anymore.
- Business is so good, we can charge anything we want, too bad if they don’t like it.
- Business is so good that we have to extend our leads times, they can take it or leave it.
- Business is so, that if our quality slips a bit they’ll have to live with it.
- Business is so good, let’s not even bother to increase our technology, we’re doing fine with what we have.
- Our business is so good, we can let some of these mil-specs go, they cost too much, and we don’t need them anyway.
- Our business is so good, that we are getting business no matter what we do!
- Our business is so good, that we can assume that it will be this way forever!
- Our business is so good, that we don’t need to hire anymore people, we can stay with who we have, no problem.
- Our business is so good, everything we’ve done has worked! Turns out we were right all along.
Don’t laugh, well go ahead and laugh if you want to, it is pretty funny isn’t it? But I can assure you that I have personally heard everything dumb thing that I listed here.
But in the end, it really is not funny at all. Actually, more than being just dumb things to laugh about, these sayings which really represent philosophies that have led to the demise of the American PCB industry. If you take these statements and reverse them you can get a good idea as to what you should do to be successful.
Here are examples of smart things people should be saying:
- Treat all your customers with respect and make them customers for life.
- Marketing is a full time. Don’t market and people will forget who you are. You have to always be in front of your customers.
- Always be selling, always be closing.
- Good sales people are worth their weight in gold. Keep the good ones happy and close no matter what the business conditions are.
- Always charge a fair and consistent price. Your customers will never forget you taking advantage of them.
- Always deliver on time. Your performance is as important as your products.
- Quality is job one…Quality is job one.
- If you’re not increasing your technology, you are dying. Always be finding ways to be better and build better products.
- Mil-Specs are an important credential for your company. Even customers who don’t require Mil-Spec qualifications look to companies that have them because it means they are better than shops that don’t.
- Appreciate all the business you have and assume that here will come a time when it won’t be so easy to come by. Remember those times.
- Nothing last forever. For every boom years there will be down years.
- People are your number one resource. Always be looking to find and hire the very best people. The better the team, the better the company.
- Humbleness is a virtue. If you do everything you are supposed to do you will be successful. If you actually believe that you have found the key to success you’re wrong. Times change, situations change and you’d better change if you want to succeed. Static companies always die.
And it always boils down to one simple rule…the customer is always right, nothing else matters but that. It’s only common sense.
