Global Fastener News

Credit: NFDA

“Take care of the customer,” panelist Kelly Lehman of Pacific Warehouse Sales told the National Fastener Distributors Association.

Lehman credited her father, the late Bob Lehman, for establishing PWS relations with customers. Beyond being customers, he made them his friends, she added.

Kevin Chavis of Star Stainless Screw agreed.

“You have to sell relationships” and built trust. Customers need to know “we want to do business with you.”

NFDA panelists on the topic “What Business Are You Really In?” emphasized serving the customer.

Kelly Charles of manufacturer Sems and Specials noted each customer “has their own personality” and “hot buttons.”

Feedback from customers should be both “formal and passive,” Charles said.

Distributor Mark Beaty of Beawest Fasteners Inc. emphasized the word “respect.” 

“Treat customers how you want to be treated,” Beaty advised. “Respect each other.”

• “Ship accurately,” Beaty said.  When Beawest found it had delivered wrong parts, it added a “double check on all shipments,” Beaty said.

NFDA president Scott McDaniel of Martin Fastening Solutions added that “you are only as good as your last delivery.”

• Not all potential customers are good customers for you. Lehman noted that “I will fire a customer” that PWS has too much trouble with. “We won’t take that abuse,” Lehman said.

Part of success is “picking the right customers,” McDaniel said.

  • AI is part of business now. “There is no denying AI,” Chavis said.

He finds AI providing information to follow up on.  

“AI will involve itself” in your business, but you are “still going to need people for building relationships and trust,” Chavis said.

• Charles said Sems and Specials has gone to daily meetings as needed to handle problems. 

“Everyone is empowered to make own decisions,” she said. “Allow people to make mistakes,” Charles said. “They want to feel included.”

Chavis emphasized communication is vital and is both internal and external.

• “Inventory is the one thing we can control,” Beaty declared.

If a factory has to shut down because parts aren’t available on time, there may be 400 people on the floor idled.

McDaniel noted that shutting down a factory can cost $25,000 a day.  That points to the importance of forecasting.  Know what the signals are.  “Know their business better than they do,” he said.

If you don’t have inventory, a customer may turn to a competitor, Beaty pointed out.

Charles, noting Sems & Specials specializes in “made-to-order products said she has “never had to turn down an order in 22 years” with the company.

“Inventory is king,” Lehman agreed. “If you don’t have it on the shelf, they are going elsewhere. If you have it, you are going to sell it.”

• Beaty noted “something is always going to come at you. Approach in a positive way. Don’t overreact.”

“Your customers aren’t concerned about your problems,” Beaty finds. “Don’t shift the blame.”  Customers “just want it fixed.”

The bottom line is that “customers want to see the right thing at the right time,” Beaty said. Web: NFDA-fastener.org