July 2009 Issue |
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By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager
The term “fuzzy logic” is at the root of fuzzy matching, which gets its name from evaluating degrees of equality rather than just determining a yes or no. If you look at the names Dave and David, you can summarize them as follows: (1) They are completely different because the spelling differs, or (2) They are 60% the same because they share the letters “Dav”. Option 2 is fuzzy matching because rather than saying they are exactly the same or different, you would say they are about the same.
The most frequent application for fuzzy matching is removing duplicate companies or contact names in a list, or you might have received a list from a vendor and you’d like to compare it your in-house prospecting list. For example, you’ve seen lists like these before:
You look at the list and instantly know this is the same company and contact replicated three times. However, most common databases see this as three distinct entries even if you instruct the software to look for duplicates.
Thankfully, there are excellent fuzzy matching software packages available to solve these challenges. They work by evaluating the degree of equality rather than the exact match. These packages will tell you the three entries are about 95% equal. These packages range from $500 to $150,000, and you’ll likely need to be comparing thousands if not millions of names on a regular basis for the investment to make sense. You can look at the following:
If you need fuzzy matching services every once in a while or don’t have time to do the matching yourself, check with your list provider. Most have an in-house package to perform the matching. For example, EDA regularly matches customer lists and UCC-1-based buyer lists using MelissaData’s software.
Studying fuzzy matching best practices will help you perform the matching much more accurately. Some typical steps taken prior to matching are:
EDA ListMatchWhen EDA released Catapult in December, fuzzy matching was introduced for all Catapult subscribers. With the new ListMatch tool, you can upload up to 1,000,000 records for automatic comparison to each other and to the UCC-1 filings.
Once your records have been matched to the UCC-1 filings, you’ll know who on the list has a finance history. This will help you evaluate who is in your database. Since most machine tools buyers are in the EDA database, those companies without a match are highly suspect for wasted sales and marketing investments. And for those that match, you can download their finance history.
Plus, if you simply want to remove duplicates from your list, you can download from Catapult your de-duplicated list by unique location. For example, if your uploaded list contained five contacts from the same ExxonMobil location, then your list would automatically be de-duplicated to include only a single ExxonMobil location. When you download these results, only the first occurrence from your uploaded list will be included. Have a look at the introduction video: http://support.edadata.com/Tutorials/ListMatch/Overview.html. EDA EventWatchFor the companies that match your uploaded list, EventWatch updates you with their daily purchasing activity. Here are some valuable ways to use EventWatch:
If I can help with pointing you in the right direction for any list project, let me know.
Trend ChartsTo view the trend charts, download the file here. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the “machine type” drop down box. For example, see vertical machining centers by choosing “VERT MACH CTR” from the box.
If you have questions about EDA sUCCess or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive this trend information. Sincerely,
David P. Austin By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager
A CMS is software for building a web site completely on-line without knowing anything about web programming. CMS based websites are growing in popularity because they provide substantial benefits, such as:
As most readers of this newsletter are small and medium size businesses, this topic could be especially helpful to you. Here are some indicators to let you know if a CMS might be right for you:
Here's how you can setup your own web site within a CMS very quickly:
If you find the setup procedure intimidating, consider asking your ad agency, hosting provider, or paid CMS service to handle the entire setup. Some popular content management systems:
I use DotNetNuke installed on web host www.webhost4life.com for a few personal web sites. The web host automatically installed DotNetNuke when I clicked a button in the host’s control panel. I created a web site for a home town sports league at www.fortworthultimate.com. The site was built over just a few hours and completely for free except for the $10/month web hosting package. From my research, it appears all CMS providers shown above have pros and cons, therefore be sure to visit the web sites above to determine what is right for you.
Trend ChartsTo view the trend charts, download the file here. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the “machine type” drop down box. For example, see vertical machining centers by choosing “VERT MACH CTR” from the box.
If you have questions about EDA sUCCess or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive this trend information. Sincerely,
David P. Austin By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager
Other recommendations:
Trend ChartsTo view the trend charts, download the file here. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the “machine type” drop down box. For example, see vertical machining centers by choosing “VERT MACH CTR” from the box.
If you have questions about EDA sUCCess or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive this trend information. Sincerely,
David P. Austin By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager
1. Get in my foxhole until the bombing stops. The key word that I hear at these companies is ‘expense,’ and they treat every penny out the door as a waste. These companies have cut all spending on marketing, laid off personnel, and are counting every penny. Their time horizon is right now. 2. Get out and fight on the front line. The key word at these organizations is ‘investment.’ These companies are examining how money going out the door is earning a return. They are using the current economy as the reason to finally cut dubious investments, are learning about new methods to reach companies buying despite the economy, and getting ready for the recovery. Their time horizon is the coming months, next year, and beyond.
What you can see from these attitudes are quite opposite reactions to the economy. They are 1) “The economy stinks, so I need to stop marketing,” and 2) “The economy stinks, so I need to learn how to market smarter.” The risk with hiding in your foxhole is that you aren't preparing for the end of the war.
When do you expect the economy to rebound, and how does that compare to your average sales cycle? Be sure that you’re putting enough leads in your sales funnel now so they reach the bottom of the funnel once the rebound begins. If your sales funnel is empty when the war ends, you’ve missed substantial opportunity on the rebound. And besides, you might just make a few war-time sales to boot.
Trend ChartsTo view the trend charts, download the file here. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the “machine type” drop down box. For example, see CNC Grinders by choosing “CNC GRINDER” from the box.
If you have questions about EDA sUCCess or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive this trend information. Sincerely,
David P. Austin By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager
After September 2001, the UCC-1 filing activity varied between 2,650 and 3,750 per month over the next year with an overall upward trend. Let’s hope that machine tool filings can continue to improve similar to the last challenging year that we experienced. February’s UCC-1 filings are looking better.
To view the trend charts, download the file here. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the “machine type” drop down box. For example, see CNC Grinders by choosing “CNC GRINDER” from the box
Open Access to Equipment Histories through the Finance Summary ReportWould you like to see the finance history of a buyer before making a sales call? Now you can! EDA has made available finance history reports, which were previously only available to Catapult subscribers. You can access the lookup feature by scrolling to the bottom of the www.edadata.com home page and clicking the “Buyer Lookup“ button, or go directly there by clicking this link: http://www.edadata.com/buyerlookup/. To get the report for a company, enter their EDA buyer ID on this page. The first time that you use the report, you’ll need to provide your contact information.
You’ll need to know the company’s EDA Buyer ID to use this new feature. You can get this 7-digit ID from a few sources: 2. A lead slip printed at an SME Apex-series trade show (look for the EDA_BuyID field). 3. Call or email me with up to three companies. I will provide the EDA buyer ID for you if it exists so that you can see how this feature works.
Trade Show IntegrationEDA and SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers) work together to boost your show results. EDA appends the Buyer ID to each Apex show (EASTEC, WESTEC, etc.) registrant that has finance history. When you scan a badge, you’ll find this number on the lead listed as “EDA_BuyID.” Use the new free lookup feature to further qualify your prospects during or after the show.
If you’re looking for qualified buyers that didn’t come to your booth, then EDA’s trade show report is appropriate. It provides a method to lookup buyers matching your criteria, such as wire EDM buyers, that don’t know about your EDM supplies. These reports are available for $295 per show.
EventWatch is also new this year at EDA. If you are an active Catapult subscriber, you can upload your trade show leads and receive daily updates on the finance activity for these buyers. You’ll learn when they add equipment and of course which brand and model. Best of all, you can measure the ROI of your trade show investment if EDA directly tracks your and your competitors’ equipment.
Create a Link from Excel or from your Contact ManagerDownload the latest finance history before calling a prospect that you have sourced from the EDA UCC-1 filings. If you’ve imported EDA buyers into Microsoft Excel or contact manager software, you can create a link that directly retrieves the buyer’s finance summary report. Simply use the following format to ask www.edadata.com for the report: http://www.edadata.com/BUYID/?buyid=[EDAbuyerID]. Of course you can always copy-paste the Buyer ID after navigating to the lookup feature through the EDA home page.
Finance Summary DetailsYou can examine several columns in the finance summary report for clues about the following: • Buying frequency – use the pattern in the UCC date to determine if this buyer is regular or sporadic, single or multiple quantity, and tends to purchase during a certain time of the year. • Age preference – use the age column to determine if the buyer likes new or used equipment. • Machine type – use the equipment description column to summarize the buyer’s machine type preferences. You can quickly learn about the types of processes this buyers uses. • Manufacturer and model preference – examine the manufacturer and model columns to see what brand and model loyalties have developed. Look for machine type preferences implied by the model numbers, such as the size, speed, and capacity of each machine. • Financing – in the status column, see if the company typically use a bank (sale) or leasing company (lease). • Expiring financing – see if any equipment is reaching the end of the typical five-year financing period and might be replaced soon.
In addition, the finance summary makes for excellent questioning topics in your sales presentation. You can ask about how satisfied the buyer is with certain equipment you are hoping to replace. Also, you can inquire about the suitability of the equipment to their current processes and future corporate goals.
If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information.
Sincerely,
David P. Austin By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager
When the book’s authors were discussing their research findings, two things were apparent; one, businesses in a supply chain work at cross-purposes, even though they need each other to succeed. Two, there is little evidence that the theory of “win-win” ever helps either party achieve any significant wins. Win-win is part of the American business lexicon. If we all work together, we will all win, and shared prosperity would be the result, executives believe. The authors’ research proves otherwise.
Suppliers and distributors should operate at cross-purposes. This is the only way for both to survive. These cross-purposes are both explainable and legitimate. The book presents some simple guidelines designed to help executives manage the conflicts that occur in a supplier-distributor relationship. In this newsletter, I’ll summarize a few of them. The challenges include:
•Understanding that Win-Win is a myth but mutual success can still be a goal •Understanding the difference between critical issues and “minor but aggravating” ones (the authors call them MBAs) •Understanding the importance of the local supplier rep in the equation
Each of these subjects receives exhaustive explanation in the book, but this summary should help you understand the importance of proactively managing the inherent supplier-distributor conflict.
Exploding the win-win myth is especially provocative. It is such a cherished belief in American business that it is often accepted without question or investigation. The truth is that win-win can often cause more harm than good. When executives believe that win-win exists and there is a shared prosperity, they start believing in entitlements. Entitlements don’t exist in today’s business; just ask the competitors of Wal-Mart who watched their long-standing suppliers cut prices and bend over backward for the giant retailer. It’s not that there isn’t still an opportunity for mutual success. In fact, mutual success is important. However, it is easier to attain success when everyone realizes that cross-purposes are part of every day business. When all is said and done, win-win leads to false hopes and isn’t a very effective way to manage a relationship.
If legitimate cross-purposes exist, conflicts also exist. They are inherent in the supplier-distributor relationships. In the authors’ research, they found ample evidence to support this belief. Suppliers want broad product representation and distributors want products that sell. Distributors want solid marketing plans and suppliers want dedicated sales teams. The list goes on and on. One key to effectively managing these conflicts is to determine which are critical and which are minor. The book offers guideposts to help supplier and distributor executives operate in a world of legitimate cross-purposes.
Among the many guidelines is the important sixth rule: “Don’t overreact to MBAs.” High performing organizations, intuitively or otherwise, recognized which issues needed their immediate attention and which issues simply fell into the MBA bucket. It is important to note that “minor but aggravating” issues can derail the strongest relationships. Both distributor and supplier executives should tread cautiously when dealing with requests. What one party sees as trivial, another sees and critical. Many of these MBA requests come from the supplier rep, which brings us to the last topic.
The supplier rep is a key cog in the wheel but, is generally, under trained and overworked according to the research. These reps are often the ones asked to deliver the bad news to their bosses on the supplier level, and manage the ever-changing demands of their customers at the distributor level. They are usually in their positions for a short period and, just when they figure it out, they are promoted or transferred. They are critical to the success of the relationship, but are often the forgotten soldier when the relationship sours. The rep position is usually filled with entry-level employees who are put in the trenches with a lack of ammunition, skill, and experience. Yet, the research indicates that they are a very important factor in the relationship.
Successful distributor executives understand this relationship is important and manage it effectively. For example, they will help a rep make goals and quotas, as long as they don’t influence the long-term success of the distributor organization. In fact, there were several instances in the research where the first line distributor managers served as unofficial mentors to the local supplier rep.
As you analyze your own supplier-distributor relationships, treat win-win as a myth. The concept is quaint and easy to embrace, but in the end doesn’t clearly define the complex relationships between suppliers and distributors. Legitimate cross-purposes exist and it is better to accept that they exist and manage them. When cross-purposes exist, some conflicts will be important; some will be MBAs. Learn to tell the difference and manage the conflicts accordingly. And, last, but not least, understand the plight of the supplier rep and manage the relationship carefully. The first opportunity for resolution of many supplier-distributor conflicts is with the supplier rep. The ability to create a strong relationship resides with the distributor executive.
The book, Working at Cross-Purposes: How Distributors and Manufacturers Can Manage Conflict Successfully, was published in June 2006 and is available from the Distribution Research and Education Foundation (DREF) at http://www.naw.org/cross.
Trend Chart Download
To view the trend charts, download the file using the link in this newsletter or click here. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the "machine type" drop down box. For example, see CNC Grinders by choosing "CNC GRINDER" from the box. If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information.
Sincerely,
David P. Austin By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager
1. Target recent buyers. The U.S. finance activity for manufacturing equipment shows over 15,500 UCC-1 filings and over 7,000 active buyers in just the last 90 days. By examining this activity, we can see who is actively buying. These companies have the purse unzipped right now despite the tough conditions. Check-in with these buyers to determine what active projects they have.
2. Target first-time buyers. Historically, about 30% of buyers are new to the EDA manufacturing equipment database each year. In the last 90 days, there have been over 6,000 UCC-1 filings listing over 2,800 first-time buyers, closely following the historical trend. These companies are likely gearing up their manufacturing operations. Can you help them become more profitable and productive, especially considering first-time buyers may be relatively inexperienced?
3. Focus on the traditional industries. With President-elect Obama's newly unveiled energy plan as well as the recent trend toward alternative energy, we expect this sector to be hot. This begs the question "What types of companies are buying?" In the last 90 days, these are the top 10 SIC codes:
Clearly, we don't see alternative energy in the top 10 company types - the top company types for machinery sales are the same as we've seen over the last few years. Keep in mind that while we expect to see certain industries emphasized, the cash cows are where we've always found them. There are sales to be made right now in alternative energy; however, make this just one of several focal points rather than your only focus.
Let's keep our attitudes positive; the sales are there to earn. Use the best tools at your disposal to see where the action is today. If you feel that I can help with an action plan based on UCC filings,feel free to call or email me. Happy selling!
Trend Chart Download
To view the trend charts, download the file using the link in this newsletter. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the "machine type" drop down box. For example, see CNC Grinders by choosing "CNC GRINDER" from the box. If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information.
Sincerely,
David P. Austin
By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager, CMTSE
Equipment Activity Trend Down Slightly
This month's trend chart shows UCC-1 filing activity for metalcutting, metal fabrication, and plastics machinery down only slightly. While November's level is lower than recent months, it isn't the lowest month since the post-9/11 downturn. Download this month's chart here and check your specific equipment type for results.
Individual Buyer Behavior
You've received a lead from a company called ABC Plastics, and you're curious if this company is a viable prospect. By reviewing this company's finance history, you can learn about this company's purchasing behavior before responding to the lead and improve your chances of successfully engaging the prospect. Using Catapult, you can view ABC's finance history using the “Finance Summary Report” shown below.
The fleet summary report makes for excellent questioning topics in your sales presentation to uncover the buyer's true needs and build relevance for your sales opportunity.
Trend Chart Download
To view the trend charts, download the file using the link in this newsletter. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the “machine type” drop down box. For example, see Wire EDM machines by choosing “EDM WIRE” from the box. If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information.
Sincerely,
David P. Austin
By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager, CMTSE
At one time, when I received a long mail list or collected data, I would use the Excel sort feature along with lots of cutting, pasting, and deleting. These tools got the job done, but then someone told me about a wonderful Microsoft Excel tool to make this work a breeze. This tool will positively amaze you if you haven't seen it in action before. The tool that I'm raving about is the “pivot table.” A pivot table converts a data list into a dynamic sorted and grouped table. Rather than looking at a long list of boring records, you can see the relationships within the data. For example, you can convert a data list about unit sales per state into a pivot table in about 10 seconds:
Are you ready to get started? EDA has developed several excellent pivot table tutorials. You can access them here. You'll also need some EDA data to use in the tutorials, which you can download here. If you want more pivot table tools after using these tutorials, you can search Google and get many great results. Taking a few minutes to follow a tutorial is how I learned pivot tables, and it has since saved me untold hours and on many occasions made me a magician. I strongly recommend that you take a moment to see how it works. Finally, if you're after a real world pivot table example, just look to EDA's Mojo reports and the trend charts accompanying this newsletter are made from pivot tables. Trend Chart Download If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information. Sincerely, David P. Austin
By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager, CMTSE
New buyers are more than likely inexperienced. They may only know a few equipment brands, and even those perceptions may not reflect reality. The only buyers who know the realities of your brand's performance are those who have purchased your equipment, and certainly you feel those who have purchased from your competitors require additional attention. For these buyers, you have a unique chance to educate them on your brand and combat the commodity nature of the machine tool business. New buyers are also more accepting of new information as they continue on their journey to learn about equipment. This includes information about how to become more profitable and productive using equipment, services, and peripherals your company offers. In my experience, new buyer targeting has been among the most successful applications of UCC-1s. If you're an EDA subscriber, you'll comb new records as they become available in Catapult and ensure the equipment buyers are present in your prospecting database. If you weren't working the new buyer on their first sale, you will soon. Without UCC-1 filings, you'll need to wait for those new buyers to appear on a traditional list source or see you at a trade show. Best of all, new buyers can make for exciting calls for your sales staff because they're the new kids on the block, and your company is in a great position to help them achieve their sales and profitability goals. EDA’s Trade Show Reports for IMTS 2008 and Fabtech 2008 Fabtech will start Oct. 6th. The initial EDA trade show report is available for this show now too. Please contact me if you'd like more information or the order form for these trade show reports. You may also download the order form here. This year's reports are available for EASTEC, WESTEC, IMTS and FABTECH at $295 per show. Trend Chart Download If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information. Sincerely, David P. Austin
By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager, CMTSE
• I know that this company's product X is nearly always accompanied by product Y. What does the sales trend of product Y look like? • How many of the top 25 buyers based on UCC-1 filing data in each state does this company have as a customer? • What do you think the overall size of the market is? • Which companies are the strongest competitors and are they gaining market share? The questions were insightful and shed light on the thought process this investor had when choosing a company. Clearly he'd like to buy a company that has exhibited strong growth, has marketed itself well, and has room for growth. Aside from the thought process however; it was the substantial investment in EDA's market information that was most interesting. He was willing to invest for information that had no other purpose other than make a great strategic decision. In fact he invested more with EDA than some of the companies detailed in the report – companies that can directly use the information not only for strategic decisions but for targeting proven buyers too. So often it's difficult to put a dollar value on the long-term impact of EDA's data. The near-term value comes mostly from the new buyers and top buyers it identifies. Often overlooked is the long-term value that derives from the strategic decisions influenced by the data. These are decisions such as: • New products to develop that address emerging demand and emerging competitors• New offices and personnel that serve growing territories • New capacity that produces extra product to feed growing requirements • New processes to reach buyers that are untouched by your current sales and marketing Using EDA's data for your immediate sales goals is its fastest application for building your business, but also consider the data for your business's big decisions. In the end, you can achieve the same goal as the investment firm: add millions of dollars of value to your company.
With EDA's trade show report, you can determine your target attendee group so you can invite them and measure how many you have engaged as described in last month's newsletter. The TSR has the 13-year finance history report for show registrants. Importantly too, see which customers are coming to the show and make sure they visit. If not, follow up after the show to see if your competitor is working with them. Please contact me if you'd like more information or feel free to stop by booth D-3141 at IMTS. You may also download the order form here. This year reports are available for EASTEC, WESTEC, IMTS and FABTECH at $295 per show. Trend Chart Download If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information. Sincerely, David P. Austin
By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager, CMTSE
Shows are among the most frustrating marketing investments to create ROI, but some companies do very well with shows and prove they are an excellent tool. In comparing practices of the successful and struggling exhibitors, I commonly see the biggest improvement needed in engagement. Engagement refers to having a quality meeting with your target attendees in the booth. At EDA, we help our clients build and measure engagement at shows using the EDA trade show report (the report is described at the end of this article). Identifying the target attendees
Get the target attendees in the booth How then do you ensure top target attendees will visit? Invite them. It's amazing how many people will visit if you simply take a moment to personally ask them. You can mail or call your customers and top prospects to let them know you'll be at the show and ask for an appointment. Once you have them in the booth, you can interview them about their manufacturing pain points and share how your solutions fix that issue. There's also a certain group that won't accept your invitation and needs a little extra motivation. Using give-aways as an incentive to visit your booth can boost response rates substantially. However, invite only those you know are buyers. Omiting students, literature collectors, and competitors by using only high-quality lists, such as your own database and EDA's show report, will ensure a higher ROI. Use caution with cheap give-aways. If your target attendees are high-level buyers, they won't respond to free juggling balls - you must offer something of real, personal value from their viewpoint. Some effective give-aways are iPods, gift cards to popular retailers, and navigation units, and be sure to limit them to one per company. If your budget is tight, consider a “chance to win” drawing for these items. Lastly, more effective give-aways benefit the attendee rather than their company (e.g. avoid 20% off your first order) and cost you substantially less. Turn the visit into a quality engagement Measure your results There are also the target attendees that did not visit the booth. Since you know who they are, your sales staff or marketing team can target them once again to see why they didn't visit the booth. Use the show as your cited reason for the call or mail, and get your second chance at earning their business. Lastly, you can compare your results for the engaged target attendee group year-over-year. What you did at this year's show should build on your positive experiences from the previous show, therefore increasing your portion of engaged target attendees. EDA's trade show report With EDA's trade show report (TSR), you can determine your target attendee group so you can invite them and measure how many you have engaged as described above. The TSR has the 13-year finance history report for show registrants. Here's how the TSR helps you:
To order the trade show report, please download the TSR orderform, select your reports, and fax it to the number indicated. This year's reports are available for EASTEC, WESTEC, IMTS and FABTECH at $295 per show. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Trend Chart Download If you have questions about the trend charts or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive the trend information. Sincerely, David P. Austin
By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager, CMTSE
Identify Buyers Ramping-Up Investments A traditional method of collecting this information is to use a SIC or NAICS search. There is a correlation between industry type and recent revenue growth, and this can show which companies might be in growth mode. Such an analysis can provide the names of some prospects; however, you may find it challenging to sort this list by companies investing in your type of equipment. Additionally, you will miss the companies with inaccurate SIC or NAICS as well as the contract manufacturers supplying the OEMs. Using Catapult, create a query to return buyers with three or more machining centers added since 1/1/2007. This will identify companies with significant recent purchases. Next, open the downloaded data in Mojo Reports to prioritize the list of companies. The top eight results are shown for machining center units:
Using this report, you can find the contact information for these buyers (not shown) by double-clicking on their grand total numbers. Then, a call to each recent buyer will quickly determine their additional purchasing plans. You can also send a personalized mailer to the buyers with less than three units to generate leads from this group. Increasing Trade Show ROI You can achieve the first step using EDA's 13-year tradeshow report for show registrants. Reports are available for EASTEC, WESTEC, IMTS and FABTECH at $295 per show. You can easily filter the report by the type of equipment you sell, resulting in a list of proven buyers sorted from largest to smallest. Since the list has only proven buyers, you can offer them a strong, relevant incentive, via phone and mail, to visit your booth. You can even customize your message to illustrate exactly how your company will boost their profit. Once prospects are in the booth, introduce them to a salesperson who can immediately qualify and engage your prospect. Even if they miss your booth during the show, your sales staff can follow up with the qualified prospects, post-show, for additional selling opportunities. Please contact me for more information on any of the trade show reports. Automation Equipment Now Available
Trend Chart Download If you have questions about EDA sUCCess or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive this trend information. Sincerely, David P. Austin By David Austin, Machine Tool Product Manager, CMTSE
EDA publishes UCC-1 filings, a Uniform Commercial Code form used to register a lien with the Secretary of State. UCC-1 records have the buyer's company name and address, the filing date, and the manufacturer, model, age, and serial number of the machine. We summarize the individual UCC-1 filings nationwide to create EDA sUCCess charts .
Upcoming newsletters will deliver updates to the charts and discuss how individual UCC-1 filings are applied for sales growth. For example, UCC-1 filing users can identify buyers of a single manufacturer and model number, analyze market share, predict top buyers in the coming year, and balance sales territories.
To view the charts , download the file using the link in this newsletter. The default view shows the overall machine tool market trend. To view the trend for a machine type, pick the type from the “machine type” drop down menu. For example, see vertical machining centers by choosing “MC - CNC VERICAL ” from the menu.
If you have questions about EDA sUCCess or the individual UCC-1 records, feel free to contact me. Please forward this newsletter to any colleagues who should receive this trend information. Sincerely, David P. Austin |
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As a sales and marketing professional, you cringe at the thought of having to clean or compare a list of contacts. Manually matching names, companies, and addresses is an extremely tedious task, and thankfully a powerful technology is available to automate the process. “Fuzzy Matching” is the process of matching items based on their degree of equality.
