Getting the best result when speaking to a manufacturer.

[Senna]

I wrote much of this in response to a thread in the B'port forum.

I'm often calling manufacturers of equipment I buy used seeking literature or information.
These calls can sometimes be frustrating but I've developed a procedure which dramatically increases the numbers of great results.
All probably common sense but I'll lay it out there anyway.

My procedure whenever I contact a manufacturer is to first fluff them up a bit with laudatory praise of their product.
I also try to get them liking me by asking about the weather, the area of the Country, their plans for the Holiday or the weekend and other such personal trivialities.
Get them laughing and you've got it made!
I tell them I appreciate the time they spend helping me resolve a problem and this combined with the icebreaker conversation nearly always obligates them, in their mind at least, to spend whatever time I require to solve the issue.
If you're talking to a female it is often even easier to make that helpful attitude appear.
Ladies love hearing folks tell them how pleasant they are to chat with and how helpful they're being.

I've had receptionists scan and send me $100 manuals for free because they liked me.

Lay the honey on thick!

Hey, it works for me anyway!

 

[Marco Bernardini]

Good tricks!
In the old good days of informatics the price of a computer was the same of an Alfa Romeo.
Sometimes it happened to me to need papers in some offices and, when I found an Olivetti M24 (known abroad as AT&T 6300), I wait until the operator left it unattended and swapped the keyboard from Italian to English. It was a quick operation, CTRL-ALT-F1, and the F keys are still on the right side of the keyboard rather than on the top: I was able to type the 3-fingers sequence with a single hand even without to be in front of the keyboard.
Generally the reaction to a different keyboard was deep panic («Oh, I broke something!»), so I offered to "repair" the computer (for free!) just after receiving my papers.
As you can guess, I always got a priority procedure :biggrin: and I gained some celebrity as "voodoo operator".
A friend of mine was even nastier: when he found a nice girl he suggested the "keyboard damage" was due to synthetic clothes causing electro-static accumulation of negative charges… alas, phones with cameras weren't not yet invented, so I don't have proofs of his exploits.

 

[strantor]

The problem is for the hobby machinist, not the industry guy. Very few big money operations are willing to waste time going to great lengths to help out a hobbyist who has no value as a past, present, or future customer. Customer (someone who buys or might buy goods) = money; money talks, and sadly, hobbyists walk. Unless you're talking hobbyist-marketed items, like grizzly, smithy, etc.

I've found that emails sent from my company address get much much better results than those sent from my @yahoo.com address. It's night and day, really. Signature block at the bottom to contain some relevant job description. The cunning type might want to include something like "Purchasing Dept." or "Procurement Specialist" beneath their name for optimum results.

If you're working for the man and you have an issued title, well your honestly level is your prerogative, but if you're a one-man LLC like myself, you really are the "Procurement Specialist," as well as the "Technician," the "VP of sales," and "Research & Development Coordinator," and you can use whatever title (bait) that's appropriate for the game *. When you're a one-man-band you have to be resourceful.

And it doesn't take much to play. File the paperwork, do the taxes, set up a godaddy account, and there you are; as official as can be.

*Some titles are sacred, like "Doctor," "Engineer," etc.

 

[Ray C]

I generally feel the best way to communicate in a prospective business arrangement, is honesty and truthfulness. If a company doesn't want to be bothered with me then, I personally don't want to bother with them. Trust is something that's earned over time. Sweet-talking someone to get what you want may have short term benefits -but what goes around, comes around.


Ray

 

[Senna]

I generally feel the best way to communicate in a prospective business arrangement, is honesty and truthfulness. If a company doesn't want to be bothered with me then, I personally don't want to bother with them. Trust is something that's earned over time. Sweet-talking someone to get what you want may have short term benefits -but what goes around, comes around.


Ray

Hmmmm, I don't recall saying anything about being, in any way, untruthful.
If being happy, polite, positive, upbeat and grateful is considered sweet-talking then I'm guilty.

These people get plenty of business calls every day. They need to to keep the doors open.
In my experience however, these people enjoy a good smile too.
And they often show it.

This is particularly important since we ARE hobbyists. Hobbyists likely aren't going to pay for that new factory. A company, or more correctly the person representing that company, has to WANT to help us.

 

[Cactus Farmer]

Being nice and truthful is not a bad way to start a conversation. IE, I found a Kennametal face mill for cheap, it uses the "dog bone" screws to retain the inserts. One such screw was wallowed out and I called them to try to get a replacement. A nice female asked me if I had an account, no,I replied but I have some of your tools I found on the used market. I always liked your stuff as it is top notch. She when asked if the mill had all the shims for under the insert. I said 4 are good, one is chipped. She took my address and said she would help me out. The package arrived with 10 screws and 10 shims but no payment paperwork. I had written down her name so I called and ask for her. She remembered me and said the parts were a gift to a loyal customer. She also said my word of mouth advertising for them was good enough, besides, the stuff was cheaper than the paperwork would have cost to generate and mail. Can't beat a deal like that.