Our customers tell us that engineers are a highly sought-after audience in terms of increasing sales. This month, we invited Dr. Cheng Wu, President of eFunda.com, to share with our readers what's important to engineers when they are sourcing industrial products.

Here's what Dr. Wu says is important for industrial marketers to do, in order to win the business of engineers:

• Save the engineer time
• Provide detailed product information – including pricing
• Make sure your company has a pre-formatted listing on industrial search sites
• Make it easy to find/integrate your CAD drawings and 3D part files into their designs
• Satisfy engineers' needs, so they become repeat customers

Please tell us about eFunda. Why was it founded and what is it all about?

eFunda was founded based on our own needs. As working engineers ourselves, we found that except for very few advanced projects, most real-world engineering projects involve no more than college level materials. The problem with mechanical engineering is that an average engineer would have to possess a very broad spectrum of knowledge in order to perform his daily job. Not deep, but broad. A single resource that covers a little bit of everything is naturally called for in this trade. Since we could not find one back then, we decided to build one from scratch.

Why did eFunda partner with ThomasNet?

Design is just a part of a mechanical engineer's job. Another important element is sourcing, hence the famous term, Design for Manufacturability (DFM). An engineer needs to have a very clear plan with regards to how his design is going to be made, and as a result, sourcing starts at the outset of the design cycle.

When eFunda was conceptualized, we envisioned a product-centered backbone. From there, we would create original engineering content to help engineers design and, at the same time, we would provide relevant sourcing information, much like a listing service with a different angle of attack. And this is where ThomasNet comes in. As the golden standard in the industrial vertical search business, ThomasNet is our number one choice to partner with to complete the missing part of the eFunda project per our original vision.

What type of information do you think engineers look for when they are sourcing products?

For engineers, cost and functionality of their designs are equally important. They will look at the cost issue almost immediately after they verify that the design will work and this usually leads to quite a few iterations before they finalize the design, the suppliers, and service providers, if any.

What frustrations/challenges do engineers have when sourcing products?

Before the advent of the Internet, lack of information was the key hurdle. In spite of all the green-backed volumes published by Thomas Register, most engineers' top choices for sourcing were either using suppliers they already knew or those recommended by their colleagues/friends. Engineers were reluctant to search outside this existing circle unless they absolutely exhausted their short list of suppliers.

With the Internet, all of a sudden a long list of potential suppliers was available upon a simple search engine keyword search. This poses a different set of problems. Not all suppliers know how to properly present themselves and partial information about their products is sometimes worse than no information at all. Plus, each supplier employs its own website design, so having to navigate through different websites sometimes proves challenging. An industrial search site such as ThomasNet.com is still a preferred way for engineers to source suppliers.

Since you are an engineer yourself, tell us what you think are some of the best ways industrial suppliers can market to engineers.

Let's face it, engineers have enough to do and they want to spend as little time as possible to find their best suppliers. Search engines do work but engineers have to spend time to study each supplier that returns from the query. A pre-formatted listing on an industrial vertical search site is the supplier's best bet when marketing to engineers, followed by keyword search and direct marketing (email blast) to their targeted audience.

How important is it to provide engineers online access to CAD drawings?

It is very important. Again, engineers are lazy, if you will. Anything that saves them time will earn their business more easily. Everything being equal, one supplier could easily earn the business over its competitors if it offers CAD drawings when others don't.

In your experience, what type of influence do engineers have on the ultimate purchasing decision?

Well it depends on the nature of the products. If they're commodity items then as long as the parts meet the specs, engineers do not really worry about the specific vendors for the production. For mission critical parts, engineers have a very short list of suppliers that meet their requirements and they do have a lot of influence on the eventual purchasing decision.

Our research shows that 80% of products for which CAD drawings were downloaded are purchased – do you agree with that?

The whole concept is about designed-in. When you provide CAD drawings, or even 3D part files, it's very easy for an engineer to incorporate your parts into their design because this saves them a tremendous amount of time. Remember, everything being equal, whoever saves them time wins their business. If your parts are in their drawings, your company is much more likely to be chosen as the final supplier.

Let's say I'm a fasteners manufacturer. How can I make my company stand out from the crowd when engineers are looking for the type of products I produce?

To stand out, you want to offer free downloads of your entire product list, complete with full specs and CAD drawings (maybe even 3D part files). You want to assemble sample kits ready to be mailed to qualified buyers, and your prices have to be competitive.

How can suppliers turn engineers into repeat customers?

Engineers are repeat customers by nature unless a supplier tries very hard to push them away. Engineers love to buy from previous vendors. Most companies establish a list of trusted vendors; pushing one vendor through that process takes quite an effort. Again, engineers are lazy and they hate unnecessary processes.

The most important stage of winning an engineer's heart is the first time you do business with them. You need to be found, and you need to satisfy them the first time around. Do not give them a reason to find another vendor. They don't want to leave, so don't make them.

If you have any questions on how ThomasNet can help you reach engineers online, please contact us at 1.866.621.9441 or visit promoteyourbusiness.ThomasNet.com.