Competitive advantage at no extra cost

Let’s face it: All of your competitors claim they can deliver a good product at a good price. You need to set yourself apart from your competition. What gives you the edge? Having a good product and a good price is only a small part of a good and long lasting business relationship. A happy customer will be a loyal customer. Most often, it is the small details that make the customer happy.

You can save your customer much more than money. You can save your customer aggravation and nasty surprises. Doing so costs you no additional money. It just takes a little foresight and attention to detail.

Many products you ship to other countries than the USA or Canada are subject to ECE regulations. Because your customer is in one of those countries, your customer is not necessarily familiar with those regulations. We notice that every day in our work.

This is where you can provide your customer valuable assistance. It doesn’t cost you anything. It can save your customer a lot of costly mistakes. It sets you apart from other competitors who are indifferent to these regulations.

A few examples:

Many countries are signatories to ECE. Being a signatory doesn’t mean that the country has adopted all ECE rules. Europe usually adopts new ECE rules immediately after they are issued. Other countries don’t.

Russia, for example, is a signatory to ECE. However, Russia does not require brake pads to comply with ECE R90. Armed with that knowledge, you can ask your Russian customer: “Do you want your brake pad ECE R90 certified or not?”

“What’s the difference?” will be the answer.

What should you say?

“Your country is an ECE signatory. Yet, it doesn’t require ECE R90 certification for brake pads. With certification, you have a guarantee for quality. Also, your country cannot block importation if the part is certified.”

This sentence did cost you nothing. Your esteem in the eyes of your new customer just rose several notches. He thinks you are looking out for him. You now can sell him pads without certification at a lower price, and pads with certification for more money.

Another example:

Did you know that your ECE certification is totally worthless unless the name of the certification holder –in most cases, your company – is mentioned prominently on the outside of the package? In most cases, your customer will want his name on the outside of the package. You sold him an ECE certified product. If your name is missing outside, the product just lost the certification, because an ECE rule has not been observed. Again, your customer is not necessarily familiar with ECE regulations. You as an ECE certificate holder should be.

How to solve the problem that your customer wants his name on the package, but the certification is in your name? Simple: Just amend the certification with his trade name. Doing so doesn’t give the customer rights to your certification. It simply allows him to sell your certified product under his name. Smart manufacturers put the trade names of all of their current customers into the certification when it is being applied for. This doesn’t cost anything more. Later amendments cost a small filing fee.

Again, don’t wait for your customer to point this out to you. Often, he does not know it. If your customer gets into trouble because of this small detail, you lose sales. Better take the initiative and say: “Of course we will have to amend the certification with your trade name. We will do this for you as a part of our service.” The customer will be impressed.

On the other hand, we often encounter manufacturers who hesitate when we write into a purchasing contract that the trade name of our private label customer needs to be put into the certification. If we have to explain the ECE rules to the supplier, if we need to show them the rules in writing, then we get doubts whether the manufacturer is familiar with the rules at all. If he doesn’t known simple rules like these, will he know more complicated ones? Will he observe them? This supplier just lost his edge over his competitors.

Last example: Having an ECE certification and making the product according to the ECE rules are two different things. When you enter discussions, don’t just show the certifications. Stress that you will produce the product in strict accordance with the regulations. In your supplier contract, write: “Product and production shall comply fully with the respective ECE regulations as defined by the pertaining ECE rules.” This will impress your customer, and it will make him feel safe and well taken care of.

Sometimes, we encounter suppliers who don’t want to sign this clause when we write it into the contract. We usually recommend to our customer to stop dealing with that supplier immediately.
All of the above doesn’t cost you more. But it will gain you a confident and satisfied customer. You just achieved a big advantage over your competition without lowering your price.

About the author: Bertel Schmitt, Gasgoo's columnist, is CEO of Hong Kong based parts sourcing company Sinamotive. Before founding Sinamotive, with the assistance of U.S. venture capital, Mr. Schmitt was a marketing consultant to Volkswagen AG.