I recently had the chance to interview Dan Kemper, President of Schur Packaging Systems, Inc.
Dan’s company is in a unique position in that they’re new to the U.S. and dealing with an industry (newspapers) that’s very much rooted in its ways, not to mention its vendor relationships–some of which they’ve had for generations.
Still, Schur Packaging Systems is hunting big sales and succeeding…
Tom: …How did you tackle coming to North America and having competitors who have been around a long, long time?
Dan: …Our very first order, essentially, was one where we were sought out. Obviously it was very gratifying, but we took that one, did a fine job for them, and it became our jumping off point for the industry over here. We were fortunate on that first one, but several of them since then hadn’t hear of the project, so it really was like starting from scratch, walking in and hearing “Who are you guys? What do you do? And why would I even consider talking to you?” It’s a lot of grunt work, a lot of detail work and a lot of “please call so-and-so at this site because I think you’ll get a good response from them and they are very honest about what they have and their experiences with us.” It’s a basic sales game, I suppose, at the beginning of most of these projects.
Listen to the entire podcast HERE ».