I’ve spent most of my career in fabrication and manufacturing. Like many of you, I’ve sat across conference tables discussing specifications, visited jobsites where plans changed overnight, and fielded phone calls that started with, “I know this isn’t standard, but…”
Over the years, I’ve come to believe something that seems obvious once you see it:
The best salespeople aren’t just selling products. They’re collecting information. Every customer conversation is an opportunity to learn something your competitors don’t know yet.
Sometimes it’s a new application. Sometimes it’s a problem no one has solved yet. Sometimes it’s frustration with lead times, quality, communication, or service. Other times, it’s simply hearing where the market is headed before everyone else catches on.
The funny thing is, we often think of sales as the end of the business process. Manufacturing builds it. Purchasing buys it. Engineering designs it. Then sales go out and sell it.
I think we’ve got it backward. Sales is where learning begins. Our customers are constantly telling us what they need. The question is whether we’re listening.
Think about how often someone asks for something unusual. Maybe it’s a custom fitting, a different material, an expedited schedule, or a modification that isn’t in the catalog. It’s easy to say, “That’s outside of what we do.”
But sometimes those unusual requests are early indicators of where the market is moving. Today’s exception can become tomorrow’s standard product. Every successful company I know seems to have this in common: they’re curious.
Their salespeople ask one more question. Their estimators wonder why the customer requested something different. Their engineers look for patterns. Their managers encourage people to bring ideas back from the field instead of leaving them in the truck on the drive home.
Some of the best opportunities I’ve seen didn’t come from a strategic planning meeting. They came from someone who was paying attention to what customers were repeatedly asking for.
In our industry, relationships matter. They’ve always mattered. But relationships aren’t valuable simply because they generate orders. They’re valuable because they generate understanding. When customers trust you, they tell you things they don’t tell everyone else. They’ll tell you what keeps them up at night. They’ll tell you what they’re struggling to source. They’ll tell you where schedules are slipping. They’ll tell you about projects that haven’t even been bid yet.
process. Manufacturing builds it. Purchasing buys it. Engineering designs it. Then sales go out and sell it.
I think we’ve got it backward. Sales is where learning begins. Our customers are constantly telling us what they need. The question is whether we’re listening.
Think about how often someone asks for something unusual. Maybe it’s a custom fitting, a different material, an expedited schedule, or a modification that isn’t in the catalog. It’s easy to say, “That’s outside of what we do.”
But sometimes those unusual requests are early indicators of where the market is moving. Today’s exception can become tomorrow’s standard product. Every successful company I know seems to have this in common: they’re curious.
Their salespeople ask one more question. Their estimators wonder why the customer requested something different. Their engineers look for patterns. Their managers encourage people to bring ideas back from the field instead of leaving them in the truck on the drive home.
Some of the best opportunities I’ve seen didn’t come from a strategic planning meeting. They came from someone who was paying attention to what customers were repeatedly asking for.
In our industry, relationships matter. They’ve always mattered. But relationships aren’t valuable simply because they generate orders. They’re valuable because they generate understanding. When customers trust you, they tell you things they don’t tell everyone else. They’ll tell you what keeps them up at night. They’ll tell you what they’re struggling to source. They’ll tell you where schedules are slipping. They’ll tell you about projects that haven’t even been bid yet.
That information is incredibly valuable—if it doesn’t stop with the salesperson. The companies that grow are the ones that make sure those conversations reach engineering, production, purchasing, and leadership. When information moves through the organization, better decisions follow. In today’s market, products eventually become commodities. Pricing changes. Competitors come and go. Technology evolves.