INTEGRATED PLANT, PROJECT AND CONTACT INFORMATION

Introduction: What project information do you need and whom do you need to contact in order to close a sale? The answer to this question is vastly different for the supplier of a generic product or service and the supplier of a unique product, service, or system. If you are a sub-contractor providing electrical installation services you may not need to know about the project far in advance, you may not need any details about the process, and you may need the names of only a few key people such as the purchasing agent and project manager. Issues are likely to be price and delivery. There are no complex product differentiation requirements.

There are services available from McGraw Hill and IIR which do a very good job of providing information for sub-contractors of generic products and services. The McIlvaine company is focused on providing a better source of contact and project information for the suppliers of unique products and services. The ingredients for success are much more complex. There may be the need to know about a project years ahead of the bid date. There may not even be a project but simply a problem and the potential for substitution of one product for another. The opportunities for generic sales are mostly reactive (wait until a bid is needed). The opportunities for sales of unique products are proactive. Often the opportunity is won or lost by the time the project reaches the bid stage.

The number of people who must be contacted and convinced can be substantial for the successful sale of a unique product or service. The architect/engineer firm may have specialists in the product category as well as project managers who will influence the project purchase. Likewise the end user may have staff people who dictate specifications for purchase of unique products or even assist in specific vendor selection. The project engineer, the plant manager, and for larger systems even top management will influence the final selection.

Price and delivery are often subordinated to performance issues. The effort to convince the prospect relative to performance issues is likely to be much greater than simply providing price and delivery information. Life cycle costs, reliability, efficiency, maintenance, impact on other processes, safety, and other parameters may be important.

So you should consider McIlvaine for contact and project information if your product and service is unique and not generic. McIlvaine provides the following critical information:

1. Information about projects and problems far ahead of the bid and installation date

2. McIlvaine has the names of the staff and management personnel as well as the project personnel.

3. McIlvaine has unique services to assist in proactive rather than reactive  pursuit of sales opportunities

4. McIlvaine has unique services to help convince prospects about performance issues.

Integration of Information: In order to initially sell and maintain a customer there is a great deal of relevant data which is of use.  Integration of this data greatly increases its value. For example, the corporation may have a paper with relevant information about Plant X authored by the key decision maker at Plant X.  But chances are that the salesman will call that plant without ever knowing that the relevant paper exists or that the author is the best contact.

New Sales Channels: There is no substitute for the personal sales call. But many new tools have become available to supplement or in some cases replace the marketing efforts of the past. More efficient organization of the direct sales effort coupled with emailed alerts, customized websites and online discussion groups provide a more effective blend of efforts than the traditional advertising, exhibition, and direct mail approach.

Organization of Plant Related Information: Detailed knowledge about a plant’s operations is often the key to marketing success. Chart l “Plant Related Information” depicts plant details.  Categorization of the plant by industry and application is important. It is also necessary to assign a name or a number to the plant which is unique.  Providing details on each unit process within the plant can be invaluable (size or flows, and information on the suppliers and the specific products supplied). Case histories about the plant and papers presented by plant personnel are also of value.  The McIlvaine “U.S. Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants and People” is a database which incorporates and integrates all of the above. Samples are shown at www.mcilvainecompany.com/water.html#62EI. Note that the unit processes at each plant are hyperlinked to case histories and papers.

Chart l shows “Contact Details”. Email addresses are important as are titles. But two other items can also be useful. They include papers authored by the individual and the conferences they previously attended. If the supplier is selling odor control equipment or chemicals, then the personnel who attended an odor control conference are of particular interest. The McIlvaine Utility People is an example of a database which contains the emails and the previous conferences attended.

Chart 1: Integration of Plant, Project and Contact Information

The contact information needs to be substantial to be useful. There are likely to be many possible decision makers at a large chemical, power, or pulp plant. Decision making may be shared between people at the corporate home office and people at the plant.

Under “Plant Relationships” new projects and expansions associated with this plant are tied to the other information about the plant. An example is McIlvaine Utility Environmental Upgrade Tracking System. Some 80 parameters about the existing operations at each U.S. power plant are supplemented with planned upgrades and expansions. User friendly indices summarize the expansion plans by category. One index lists all the plants planning to install FGD systems, while another index lists plant owners of each plant  as well as former owners. So the relationship of an individual plant to its sister plants and headquarters are established. This database also includes relevant regulatory data.  For example, it identifies those plants which are subject to a specific regulation (126) which requires action by 2004.  Utility Environmental Upgrade Tracking System also identifies the architect/engineers and  OEMs for upgrades and expansions.

Forecast factors provide the data needed to generate forecasts. . For example in the McIlvaine  market report on Ultrapure water, there is data for each wafer manufacturer which is aggregated to determine semiconductor revenues and number of employees in each geographical location at the present time and in future years.