I was riding along with Jim Langworthy, one of the top sales producers in the industry that supplies production equipment to the electronics industry. He was not an engineer, but almost all of his prospects and customers were engineers. I was there to watch him sell and take notes on everything he said and did.

Jim was meeting with two decision makers of a multinational electronics company. Iris was the Regional Manager of Manufacturing Engineering and Paul was the Product Manager at a plant that built motherboards.

Jim started by introducing me as an observer, and then talked with Iris about her background, both business and personal, for about fifteen minutes. Then, he reviewed the information about their new capital equipment requirements for assembling motherboards, which he learned from Paul in a prior meeting. That included all of the specifications of the motherboard substrates, the quantities to be built, and the types, sizes and quantities of all the components that would be attached and connected to the boards.

Iris and Paul agreed that Jim's understanding of their new manufacturing requirements was accurate.

Then, Jim asked, "If I can supply you with the assembly equipment necessary to meet these requirements and also show you that we can meet your conditions of satisfaction, what will you do?"

Iris said, "If you have the best equipment at the lowest price, we will buy all of the equipment from you."

Jim replied, "That is not what I asked. We all know that you can't get the best for less. I asked, 'If our equipment meets your conditions of satisfaction what will you do?"

Iris said, "Sorry, I thought that might be a trick question. Seriously, if you can meet our conditions of satisfaction, I will authorize Paul to buy your equipment. Of course, meeting our conditions will include a financial justification."

"Of course," said Jim. "When will you make your decision?"

"Since we already know all of the other machines on the market, there is nothing to keep us from making a decision today. It is something we need to get handled quickly," said Iris.

Jim said, "In that case, we need to discuss your Conditions of Satisfaction. We will go through each feature of the machine, the benefits of each feature, and the detriments of each feature. Then you can decide whether the combination of those features adds up to a machine that meets your conditions of satisfaction, or not. Does that work for you?"

Iris looked at Paul, who nodded his agreement. Then Paul asked, "Are you really going to disclose all of the detriments of your equipment?"

Jim said, "Yes. I provide total disclosure and I expect the same kind of candor from you. It is the only way I do business. Are we agreed on that?"

Iris said, "Agreed." Paul also agreed.

Jim opened his attaché case and took out a four-page questionnaire. He began by reading the first feature out loud, with its one benefit and two detriments.

"One of our machines can handle motherboard substrate boards up to 8 inches by 11 inches with a maximum of twenty, half-inch component feeders. Two machines, in tandem, double the size of the boards they can handle and the component feeder capacity. Add two more machines with a computerized conveyor belt, and the maximum board size becomes 16 by 33 inches, and you're up to eighty half-inch component feeders.

"The benefit is that you can start small and add capacity as needed.

"The detriments are: a computerized conveyor adds an additional cost of 15% to 20% to each machine; and operating machines in tandem requires more sophisticated programming. Does that work for you?"

Iris said to Paul, "It's your system, what do you think?"

Paul said, "It works for me. I like its flexibility and their on-board computers and software are compatible with our host computers."

Iris said, "It works for me, too."

Jim checked off the "Yes" box next to their names and wrote in their comments.

Then, Jim introduced the second feature.

"The component placement cycle rate is 2400 units per hour (UPH). However, the average actual placement rate is about 1,400 UPH.

"The benefit is that any configuration of our machines produces the lowest cost in the industry for any actual average placement rate.

"One detriment is that you need more than one of our machines, plus a conveyor, to match the placement rate of most of our competitors' machines.

"Another detriment is that configuring a multi-machine line takes up more floor space.

"Is that acceptable?"

Paul said, "I ran the numbers. Adding in our floor space costs and four or six machine configurations still gives us at least a 40 percent quicker amortization rate."

Iris said, "That's a no-brainer."

Jim wrote down their comments on his questionnaire, in their own words.

Jim's third feature was, "If any one of the machines in a line breaks down, you can remove that machine and reinstall the component feeders in the same arrangement on a replacement machine. Then, just load the same program into the replacement machine and the line is ready to go again.

"The benefit is that you can have your line up and running again within an hour.

"One detriment is that you need to buy an extra machine and have it available at all times.

"Another detriment is that it takes a trained mechanic to do the change-over quickly. Is that acceptable?"

Paul asked, "Will your company train our mechanics to do the change-over?"

"Yes," said Jim. "We will do that when we set up the equipment. If you want to have us train two maintenance mechanics before the equipment is delivered, you will need to send them to our plant. Does that work for you?"

Paul asked, "What is the average down time per machine, per month?"

Jim said, "I'll get to that next. But first I need to know if the quick-turn around feature meets your Conditions of Satisfaction, or not."

Both Paul and Iris agreed that if every thing else was acceptable, that would be an excellent feature. Jim wrote down their comments.

Next, Jim read, "The average downtime of each machine is a little less than one hour per month, per eight hour shift. That includes scheduled maintenance and the change-overs we discussed. The benefit is that, under normal circumstances, your production line will not have any lengthy shutdowns. The detriment is that with four machines in tandem, you will have up to four hours of shut down, per shift per month. Does that work for you?"

Paul said, "Average down-time for most of our capital equipment is about an hour per month. However, if a machine goes down we usually need to have its manufacturer send a factory trained mechanic to fix it. It usually means that production line is going to be down for at least two days. So, of course that works for me."

Iris said, "It works for me too. But, if we need to send a machine to your factory repair, how long will it take for us to get it back?"

"Just a second while I write some notes, and then I'll look up the feature that addresses your question," said Jim.

Jim said, "If you notify us that you are shipping a machine back, we will immediately ship you a replacement loaner by overnight freight. This will reduce downtime. However, you pay for the freight both ways and, if you don't have a spare, that still may not be fast enough."

"That definitely meets my conditions of satisfaction," said Paul.

Iris said, "Mine, too."

It took another twenty-five minutes for Jim to go through the remaining nine features, confirming that they met their Conditions of Satisfaction. Among them, there were two that got negative responses from Paul and Iris. In both cases Jim responded, "That is something we cannot change. So, is that a deal-killer or are you willing to accept it as is?"

In both cases Iris and Paul decided that the benefits easily outweighed the detriments. So, their overall choice had to be Jim's machines.

At the end of the process, Jim asked, "Is there anything else that we need to discuss before you make your decision?"

Iris said, "Our Operations Vice President will not allow us to issue purchase orders for production systems until we have seen them operate satisfactorily, in our plant, for at least 30 days. So, you will have to send us a machine to try out if you want our business."

"I can't do that," said Jim. "However, I can accept a conditional purchase order stipulating that you can return the machine within forty-five days and pay us nothing if it does not meet the specifications we agreed upon. Can you do that or will you need the approval of your Operations VP first?"

"Yes, I can. It's close enough for me to do that without his explicit approval," said Iris. "If you help Paul write up the purchase requisition, we will both sign it. That way, you can leave with the purchase order, and I will be able to stop at one of our other plants and then be home for the weekend."

"I'll be glad to," said Jim.

Iris said, "Thank you."

Jim said, "You're welcome."

Jim Langworthy is typical of many top salespeople, in several different software and hardware companies, that I observed. Unlike reasonably successful salespeople, most top producers use a structured closing process similar to this one.

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