The best phone system for manufacturers
Long cycles, accounts with half a dozen contacts: Skipcall remembers every conversation and multiplies your points of contact.
Hundreds of companies use 
to make every call pay off
The situation
What holds you back today
Switchboards to get past before you reach the buyer
6 to 18 month cycles that are hard to keep warm
Technical detail lost between two calls
The answer
What Skipcall changes
Specific to your industry
Who to call in a factory, and in what order
An industrial purchase is almost never one person's decision. The buyer signs, but they are signing off a technical choice made somewhere else, often weeks earlier. Knowing who to speak to first matters more than how many calls you make.
Design and engineering, first
This is where the specification gets written and part numbers get frozen. A product that is not in the spec cannot be chosen by the buyer, however cheap it is. Make this call without mentioning price, on the technical constraint alone.
Production and maintenance, for the real pain
The production or maintenance manager lives with the problem every day: a line down, scrap, a part on back order. They are the ones who raise the need internally, and the only ones who can tell you whether it is a priority this year.
Quality, health and safety, the people who can stop you
This function buys nothing but can halt an approval: ISO certification, applicable standards, safety data sheets, risk assessments and method statements, contractor induction. Better to call them before the negotiation than to discover them after it.
The buyer, once the technical side is settled
They come in at the end and negotiate what belongs to them: price, lead time, delivery terms, liquidated damages, the length of the agreement. The call that works is the one where you can name the internal sponsor and the date of their sign-off.
The site director, only to unblock
On capital spend above what the site can approve, or in an owner managed engineering business where the boss decides himself, this is the last useful call. Made too early, it simply sends the enquiry back down to engineering without speeding anything up.
On a manufacturing account, detail evaporates between calls three weeks apart. A transcript and a summary of every call make a name, a part number or an applicable standard findable again without ringing back to ask twice.
The script
The manufacturing call, by who answers
You are calling a production site about a part, a component or a piece of equipment. The opening is not the same for the design office, for production, or for procurement, and that is the only thing to decide before you dial. The call sells nothing: it is looking for the technical meeting that gets you into the specification.
Opening with the design office
“Hello, [first name last name] from [company]. We supply [parts, components] on applications close to yours, and I wanted to know what you are up against at the moment: temperature, wear, lead time on replacements? I am not ringing about price, I want to know whether what we make has a place in your next specification.”
Saying in the first sentence that the call is not about price heads off the automatic transfer to procurement.
Opening with production or maintenance
“Hello, [first name last name] from [company]. I am not ringing to sell you anything today. On the lines we supply, it is the stoppages for [changeovers, scrap, parts on back order] that cost the most. On that station, what stops you most often?”
Production does not buy, but it raises the need internally and it is the only function that can tell you whether the subject is a priority this year.
Opening with the buyer, once engineering is on board
“Hello, [first name last name] from [company]. I spoke to [name] in engineering on [date] and our part is in the specification for the [name] project. I am ringing about your side of it: terms, lead time and the length of the agreement. When do you open the enquiry?”
A buyer listens when they can attach the call to an internal file. The sponsor's name and the date of their sign-off are worth more than any company presentation.
If they say they already have an approved supplier
“Of course, and I am not asking you to change. I am asking to be on the enquiry next time, as a second source. Which lines are you single sourced on at the moment? That is usually where a second supplier earns its place.”
Second sourcing is an argument manufacturing understands: it is about security of supply, not about criticising the incumbent.
If they push you to the supplier portal
“I will register today. Two questions first: who approves the record once it is submitted, and which purchasing category should I put myself under to be seen by the right person?”
A registration filed with no named approver sits there and nobody tells you.
If they say the budget is committed for this year
“Understood. I will work to your calendar: when do you build next year's capital plan, and by when does a supplier need to be approved to be in it? I will ring you then and not before.”
At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.
Avoid this
Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone
The mistake
Starting with the buyer before the specification is written.
Do this instead
Call engineering or the technical sponsor first. A buyer approached too early sends the enquiry back down to engineering, and you have spent your first contact for nothing. Once your part is named in the specification, that same buyer rings you.
The mistake
Discovering the quality requirements, the applicable standards and the site induction at the negotiation.
Do this instead
Ask on the second call: which certifications are required, which documents have to be supplied, who approves them. That function buys nothing but can stop an approval, and finding out after the commercial agreement puts the file back by weeks.
The mistake
Treating a production site as if it decided on its own when the supply agreement is signed at group level.
Do this instead
Ask on the first call whether a framework agreement exists and at what level it is signed. Depending on the answer, the call to the site either feeds the need upwards or is enough to close. Note it on the account: it holds true for every site in the group.
Frequently asked questions, Manufacturing
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