RFQs are the best! We live from them. They are a daily stepping stone before we can do what we really aim for – growing our business. Your time and efforts are valuable, and this course is about making sure that they are spent in the right place.

We get thousands of RFQs each month, and there are two major questions that will make all the difference:
1. Is this the right customer for NCAB?
Do they appreciate the added value we can offer? Do we have a strong relationship?
2. Is this the right project for NCAB?
Is there room for us to add value here? Can we build a stronger relationship on this project?

Understanding these two basic aspects makes things much more clear! To NCAB, the right RFQ is about the right project from the right customer.

Let’s look at customers first.
A high opportunity customer has great buying power (A+, A and B). Ideally, they value high quality, strong relationships and full responsibility, so they have demanding needs and are willing to pay for NCAB services.
Some customers seem like high opportunity, but when we do lots and lots of quotes and never win, maybe it’s time for a visit? Because we can’t keep putting in all that work with no business. Customers that focus too much on price will just cost us a lot of quoting hours but very little return.
I want to add one more tip. If they let us talk to their designers, that’s usually a good sign that they are interested in our competence, and not just using us to push down prices with their existing suppliers.

Also, pay extra attention with EMS customers. MS customers usually decide the PCB suppliers on about 50 -70% of their spend. The rest is requested by their customer, the ODM. And even if the EMS owns the decision, they usually have a preference of PCB supplier(s) matching their customers’ needs.
This means that it matters to us who their end customer is. If it is an un-demanding end customer, added values will carry less weight in the decision. If the end customer is demanding and maybe have a high cost on the bill of materials, the EMS will usually choose the “safest” PCB supplier – well, most likely us then!
So if you know you are bidding for an EMS, finding out who the end customer is should have a great impact on your actions going forward. Do you know the end customer? Maybe we should pay them a visit?

The right customers for NCAB have buying power and appreciate that we can add value. If the EMS is the customer, then we should know the end customer, because if it’s the right end customer, we know they will pay more the for higher quality and our services.