Always innovate
By Ben Brocklesby, director at Origin.
As a manufacturer, it is important to always strive to be better. It is no longer enough to offer a high-quality product and expect to be successful.
As well as taking a more rounded approach to the whole manufacturing process and gaining as great an insight into consumer habits as possible, it is also crucial to understand your partners more deeply.
We often see manufacturers not fulfilling their full potential, simply because they stop innovating. This is not just in terms of technology, but also what they offer to their partners. At Origin, we try and go above and beyond to help our partners maximise their potential, and in the process increase their sales and profits.
We work very closely with our partners, fully supporting and equipping them with tools and training to drive business growth and profitability. This includes offering our ‘Fitter Fitter’ installation training, which helps them to maintain high service levels, while sharing product knowledge and best practice. Plus, we provide them with expert technical advice and comprehensive marketing and sales support.
Such is our ongoing commitment to partner support, we are continuously looking for different ways in which our innovation can help them. We launched Origin Sale Safe (OSS), an online quoting and ordering system to improve the efficiency and speed of ordering, as well as minimising the risk of mistakes. This was designed in-house, for our partners, simplifying the quotation process and saving them time on admin, while increasing overall productivity.
Crucially, Origin partners benefit from our industry leading ‘Your Lead Time, Not Ours’ promise, which has transformed the way the market views delivery times. This gives the partner the option of specifying the required delivery date at the point of ordering, which means that installation scheduling can be done with far more certainty, and cash flow is improved due to not having to wait from ordering to installing.
Customers on tighter deadlines can also be catered for, allowing more projects to be taken on, leading to more profit.
I have touched on just some of the revolutionary ways in which we support our partners. However, I want this column to act as a call to action to all manufacturers to go the extra mile.
With an uncertain political future and ‘buying British’ becoming increasingly popular across all walks of life, now is the time to push on and cement your position at the top of your game.
