Why Slow Action on Quotation for Brake Shoe & Brake Pad

I would like to share my working experience of a sales person in a manufacturing and trading combo (product: brake shoe, brake shoe lining and brake pad for aftermarket auto spare parts).

I have been in automotive brake industry for about 2 months. I have to say the process of quotation is slow most of the time. That really kill me at the very first beginning. As a person of time and efficiency, I always want to provide an instant and professional service, not just product, to my current and potential clients. No one wants to waste their time, even if they are available. A person can wast his time as what he wants, it should not be by the other person. Thus, I always push our technical dept, purchasing dept and finance dept to quote ASAP!!! While, it has to be a regular process/routine as below.

1.?Inquiry from a client on Monday. It will be great to have a list in EXCEL format, showing OE (Origin Equipment) no./drawing/picture. What’s more better, it will be great to have detailed specification with dimension of core parts, such as thickness of lining if tailored products.

That’s an ideal situation. Of course, we have inquiries like that. But every coin has two sides. The client must be very professional in auto brake shoe and brake pad, which is likely he knows more and deeper than you do. What’s worse, client is trying to compare price from different vendors. Hence, your problem now is not only to offer a competitive price, but to offer a comprehensive service in product and communication, as well as aftersales service. When everything get tough, the tough gets going. It is your show time.?

However, in most of the cases, it is just a rough inquiry. Clients just mentioned brand, or car application, no more at all. We have to know that there are thousands of items of brake shoes or brake pads for diversified brands of vehicles. Even if you find out all items from a certain brand, it will be plenty of applications. How could you identify the most suitable or top-rated items from client’s local market.

Take my recent case as an example. @ Mr. Elmir M. Khalilov

Elmir?is the official importer of under the brand of MG and Haima in his country, and interested in brake pads for cars after 2006. Sad is I sent a brake shoe catalog to him. (The reason is that I can not open their web. From LinkedIn company page, I saw brake product.) While Elmir is nice to feedback that catalog is for old cars, and he need brake pads suitable for cars after 2006. Double checking with brake pad section, there are about hundreds items in our system. Our embarrassing situation are;

• Classification is based on brand;
• Not sure brake pad after 2006; (except OE no, if there any way to identify the year of brake pad, welcome to share)
• Quotation leader is on sick leave for a week; (will be slow response)

I realiz that we are not flexible or prompt enough to handle inquiries. Then I talk to my supervisor and technical leader, they have the same concern and also are willing to share their experience on quotation for auto brake shoes, brake shoe lining and brake pads.

• Automotive brands: there are countless well-known and unknown brands globally. Our company mainly specializes in Japanese and Korean cars, like Toyota, Hyundai, MITSUBISHI, NISSAN, KIA, Honda, etc. The majority of our brake parts is for middle level of vehicle, accounting 90% of our business.
• Full range: new cars keep refreshing annually. As for aftermarket service, we have to catch up with the era, but it is also very important to remain good service to our current clients. Our clients pay for our survival. Besides, R&D takes time and new demand of auto brake system will be slow growing. Survival and development is core that request a business to invest, not just capital, so as talent.
• Profile and Catalog: we will update files to be more simple and attractive. Profile is like a face of our company. IT MUST BE DECENT. We should welcome our current clients to have their opinions on the profile and catalog. This is to improve our catalog to be more native for local market, also a customized catalog to our partner, showing our good-willing for long-run win-win relationship. Brainstorming is more than great. Back to ground, thousands of items, brands, pictures, and contents, testing, certificates, plant facilities, we have to design the layout, ... Changing is a big step for reborn, and looking forward to a fresh Anchi face.

Latest good news, Elmir will send me the list of his target brake pads. And he is willing to show his name on my article. How nice he is!!! I sincerely appreciated your help and support, really means a lot for my first article trial. Thank you, Elmir!!!

2.?Then technical dept cross checks with our system, then it will be our company internal item code to match with client’s item code. 'Yeah, your client is identified officially. ' Technical colleague confirmed.

It seems easy, while it could be an project, especially when Harsh sent me a list with 525 items of brake shoe and brake pad. Harsh toke about 2 weeks to send me the list. The moment I received the list, I knew another busy and meaningful week. (I am kind of workaholic). Cross check the list, 8 items were repeated.

• Repeated items: reported to Harsh and ask for drawings to double check;
• Brake shoe: 136 items. 4 working days to review, 67 items reminds. (repeated and not making items)
• Brake shoe: 389 items. The latest update is that many brake pad item codes match the same internal code, process is still undergoing.

New simple drawing should be attached to new clients. It means that I have to screenshot 67 drawings, put diameter and thickness of lining on the file. It is easier for client to show to their technical dept. What I do is provide convenient solution, and hopefully help client to identify details and settle the deal as quickly as possible. ?

3.?Here comes to the finance dept. Those people are good at figure. Previous price was for reference. What, price increased again? Oh, NO!!! Finance lady will gently explain that lining material was increase by xx percentage, metal stamping was find. Blalala...in total, the price was increased by 6.7%, while to maintain current clients, we just increased 5%. New clients...end with a elegant smile.

Sorry, my lady. I have to rush to my position. It is the end of Thursday. I have to go back to my position, and quickly reply with quotation to my ME client (the Middle East), cause they will be off at the end of today, Thursday.?PS: the quotation is just for brake shoe. Price?for brake pad is to be continued.

After sending the email and reminding Harsh on LinkedIn to check in box and junk box (just in case), I suddenly realized that my eyes are sore. And the most important thing is that I am hungry. Can you imagine that a foodie is unavailable for food right now! My lovely colleague Crystal gave me a cake and 2 oranges. Yuuummmyyy

I love my job and I don’t mean to be slow action about the inquiry. Good things take time and we all deserve it.

You long list of brake shoe and brake pad is still warm welcome. Let’s get the technical and finance dept a headache. Hahahaha