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Marcy’s Musings: From Pitch to PO—The Sales Stack

“Nothing happens until someone sells something.”—Attributed to Henry Ford

These days, we talk a lot about “silicon to systems,” the incomplete legislation in the U.S. and Europe around chips, and how an end product is useless until it is complete and functional. It speaks to a larger universal truth: There is simply no “whole” without each essential “part” that makes it up. Now, some parts may be weighted more heavily than others, but the interdependency between all the parts is the only way you achieve your endgame.

Having said that, it is also a foundational truth that a company lives and dies by its sales. Receiving that PO or contract starts the operational chain. It is the purest symbol of the machinations of the business process: You are paying me for something I am doing, making, or sourcing for you. Then, every single thing a business does in executing and fulfilling that sales agreement speaks directly to customer experience and whether more POs will follow. You won't keep customers if you don't make a quality product and provide strong customer service. And in manufacturing, we tend to focus on our manufacturing processes, quality, and output, but you must first get the purchase order for any of it to matter.

Speaking from personal experience, sales is a hard job. It doesn’t matter if you sell circuit boards, media advertising, or the latest widget that got green-lighted on “Shark Tank.” Salespeople must routinely do things that make other people uncomfortable, and they are held accountable for achieving revenue goals that support a whole host of other people’s jobs—something which also makes the average employee fidgety.

I believe salespeople and the sales process are among the most misunderstood and maligned parts of almost any business. I wish everyone was forced to make some cold calls and do a live-in-person customer presentation at least once in their careers to better understand this quirky, unique group of contributors, who, when good at their jobs, give the rest of us job security.

In this month’s issue of PCB007 Magazine, we explore the nature of the sales process. Before the first PO is ever received, so much preparation, work, and time have already taken place. What should the sales process look like in its best iteration? How can your prowess, your sales team, and your sales process ultimately achieve better results?

I know you’ll enjoy a collection of articles included from our resident sales expert and friend Dan Beaulieu, whose 40 years of experience in the field has guided and created strong, effective sales teams. Also included are expert voices from Daniel Beauvois, owner of the component store, and Brittany Martin, the digital marketing manager at I-Connect007. From cold call to the importance of having a CRM to the critical, inextricable and very different roles of marketing and sales, and how to approach a down market, this issue provides PCB sales professionals and business owners with a practical, applicable sales guide to help you gain insight and skill to up your sales game.

Sustainability takes a spotlight in this issue as well. It starts with an interview with Kelly Scanlon and Corey Dehmey, who talk about the partnership between the Global Electronics Association and SERI, and an upcoming summit that focuses on so much more than the traditional mindset of “reduce, reuse, recycle.”  New contributor, Lynn Bergeson, shares an article covering the need for businesses to better leverage chemical data, and Happy Holden breaks down sustainability in electronics manufacturing based on his attendance at the recent INEMI conference.

MKS’ Atotech revisits its IPC APEX EXPO 2025 technical paper on the critical role of vertical plating, MacDermid Alpha discusses direct metallization, and our regular columnists cover a range of topics, including how a sales organization looks when you are an equipment supplier. In a continuation of last month’s discussion, Schmoll’s Kurt Palmer outlines the various inner layer alignment methods currently used in PCB fabrication, and Shane Whiteside recounts PCBAA’s fourth annual meeting in Washington, D.C., and the ongoing work toward achieving acknowledgements for all parts of the manufacturing supply chain and tariff exemptions in the U.S.

Grab a cool lemonade and dive into the July issue of PCB007 Magazine.