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We have a customer, Gail, who comes to us looking for parts, because their subcontractor, “kept buying defective parts in the open market”, and all she wanted was “parts that work”. SGI’s solution was to order parts from three sources and at our expense test all the devices for full functionality BEFORE Gail needed to make any commitment verbally or in writing to buy our parts. “You would do that?” She questioned us. Our response, “Why wouldn’t we want to sell you good parts the first time? Having the parts tested first only makes sense in the current situation.” Those parts that passed were then sold to Gail two weeks later. Production was re-started.
We have a long term customer, Matt, who bought 5000 parts from us at $85. They had been paying $120. We agreed to schedule the order over the next 12 months. We had the devices tape and reeled to their specifications of 100 per reel. Seven months into the schedule, Matt called us saying that his company was having a problem with the parts.
Matt supplied us the date codes and SGI then went to our records. SGI photographs every device on the day we receive it and then again on the day we ship it. We also take a picture of the incoming box, before opening and the outgoing box on date of shipment.
These pictures are then attached to the invoice electronically along with the receiving notes. Within 30 minutes, SGI had been able to document that the parts Matt had a problem with did not come from SGI, and in fact had come from a franchised distributor. Matt was stunned that we kept such in depth records, and was happy to see how quickly we responded.
Recently, Bob – a GSM at a large OEM, called us looking for 400 pieces of a special connector from Tyco. By chance, SGI had just finished signing a new consignment agreement with a SGI partner who had these Tyco parts. When we called to buy the parts, the supplier said yes you can buy them, and we placed the order. However, the
supplier then discovered the lead time for his next order was pushed out, and he said to SGI that “We can not sell you these 400 pieces”. Executives of SGI and the CM got involved and they relented and sold us just 100 pieces. We went to the mat to get these 100 pieces for Bob. The price? $2.90USD each. A week later, Bob called in to explain.
“When I called you I knew you guys where the only ones with the parts, and you knew it too. Yet your price was fair, and your hard work in getting those 100 pieces allowed us to finish a build that was worth $2 Million dollars in revenue for our company and ship it. That in turn, allowed us to have a profitable 2nd quarter, which then made it possible to tell our shareholders (they are a publicly held company) that we did well. Thank you very much.” That same week, a buyer at the CM called us, saying. “Listen, if you guys are that pushy to find parts for us, then we are going to have a very good relationship going forward”.
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