Avionics News June 2016 - 63

Advertisers Index
Aero Air .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 71
Aero Standard .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 70

POINT OF COMMUNICATION
Continued from page 4

make money. Well the true fact is that
if you keep giving your money away,
then you can't possibly show a healthy
bottom line.
Making a healthy margin when selling
is a skill and should be the focus of all
sales teams. A healthy margin will assist
in ensuring company profitability.
To be effective at margin selling or
"list less," you have to do more than just
be an order taker. You not only have to
initiate sales leads and convert those to
purchase orders, but you also need your
business structured to achieve the value
adding required.
To only look at a simple profit and
loss statement will not give you the
answers. You must drill down and get
reports on individual transactions within
the profit center and analyze things like
cost verses income of each sale.
Here are a few things to consider.
Have you identified all your income
streams like sales, installations,
workshop, etc.? You must know that all
of these profit centers return a healthy
profit.
Data bases are one of the most
valuable resources to any business.
Are you diligent about collecting data
from each customer? When was the last
time you updated the data? Do you still
struggle and repair old equipment that
is no longer supported by the OEM?
How many times have you converted the
repair of an old piece of equipment into
a sale? Does your organization have an
efficient procedure to make this happen?
Are you up to date with electronic
marketing such as a quality website,
direct text and social media?
It's not rocket science that a few sales
with good margins beats a few sales with
minimal profit.

management structure and a unique
economic climate.
Take the following example.
The U.S. exchange rate is favorable
so you purchase large quantities of
new equipment to take advantage of
this. You have it all shipped as a single
consignment to save freight charges. You
stock it on your shelves and sell it to
your customers at list less. You have just
maximized your profit "margin."
Then, the U.S. exchange rate goes
bad, but you don't worry because you
have stock that you purchased at the
right price. Now here's the twist. Using
your marketing team, you let the other
dealers of that particular product in
the country know you have stock in
country that you will sell to them at the
current cost plus; therefore, you are now
involved in "volume" sales.
What's best?
Whatever fits your business model
is best. However, the truth is that we,
as an industry, have been doing cost
plus for so long now that it will take a
huge culture change to reach the margin
level we would all like. But it is not
unachievable.
It would, of course, entail all facilities
toeing the line and selling at list less, but
we live in the real world and know that
can never happen.
Focus on retaining as much of the
percentage the OEMs give you by value
adding in areas of professionalism and
efficiency. Put some smarts behind the
sale. Don't just be an order taker, and
strive to get to the margin side of the
ledger.
Finally, try to upsell when the
opportunity presents itself. q

Aircraft Electronics Association .  .  .  .  .  . 71
Aspen Avionics  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 48
Astronics  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 39
Avionics Specialist .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 19
AVweb .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 62
BendixKing .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 11
Cal Labs  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 70
Carpenter Avionics .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 70
Cobham Aerospace Communications  . 33
Cobham AvComm  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 57
Continental Motors .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 67
DAC International,
A Greenwich AeroGroup .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 38
Dallas Avionics .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . IFC
Duncan Aviation .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 55
EDMO  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . BC
Fieldtech Avionics and Instruments .  .  . 70
Flight Display Systems  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 26
FLYING Magazine .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 49
Garmin .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 3
Georgetown Instrument Services .  .  .  .  . 30
GlobalParts.aero  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 5
Gogo Business Aviation  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 31
L-3 Aviation Products .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 45
Mayo Aviation  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 70
Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics . . 41
Mizzou Aviation .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 70
Nason Associates  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 40
Pacific Southwest Instruments .  .  .  .  .  . IBC
ProCal Laboratories .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 70
Sandia Aerospace .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 66
Southeast Aerospace .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 32
Tech-Aid Products .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 71

Can we do both?
In rare circumstances, it is possible
to do both, but it requires a disciplined

BRUCE BAXTER
AEA South Pacific Regulatory Consultant
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Tri-Star Technologies .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 27
True Blue Power  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 1
avionics news

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june

2016

63
http://GlobalParts.aero
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News June 2016
