Software sales

How is Industrial Plant Equipment Software Service Sales done? We all get this experience while doing sales and marketing. A factory, an institution, a company, or a group of companies need an industrial facility, service equipment, device. First they start a market research, basically google search on the internet, identify the sellers, first the technical group vendor makes the contact, ask for information, ask for budget price, then ask for serious lowest price. They have these tedious job done by the newest inexperienced unauthorised engineer of the buyer firm. There is always an inexperienced young professional who does not have final purchase authority against the seller. Suppose there is a need for an industrial steam boiler or device, electronics, software. Each time you are asked to give the best, lowest price at the bottom line of the request. In this case, what needs to be done is first to send a unit price list for the last year. This list should be 20-25% above the final best price of the buyer that you will give to the technical department. Then the documents are passed to the purchasing department within the receiving organisation. There are people in this department who do not know much about what the goods are sold. In the organisation chart, people from the youngest unqualified personnel to the highest level step in and ask you the best lowest price without stopping. If you make a discount every time the name and demand changes, your job will not end. As the seller moves from the technical department to the sales department, give your final buyer your real best price and fix the job there. The task of the purchasing department is to add value to the company and to go below the price received by the technical department. The more price reduction they get, the higher their personal credit will increase within the company. The owners of the company, institution, or factory expect the technical purchasing department to get a drop in the final price of at least 20-25%, there is nothing they will not stop for this price reduction, then they leave the job to time for a while, they put in front of you the lower quality offers of other companies, below those price you are told to get the job they want you to get off. Hold tight, don't go down in price. Once you make a discount on the price, you will open the door to this practice, the negotiation job is never end, every person who has the purchasing authority of the buyer steps in one by one and wants more discounts, the aim is to know where you stop. Where you stand, then the bargain freezes. The worst part of the business is that the top officials of the seller company step in and make personal discounts, all accounts get confused, and project becomes unable to pay the business cost. The principle of foreign thermal power plant design software companies is to make a 20-25% discount from the list price of that year and freeze the given best price when the final price is requested. The people of our geography will not be satisfied with the discounts, especially if the business is software, "Is there any broken fake pirate software?" they ask. However, serious money is spent on software, and a lot of engineering hours are spent to develop software. Software development is not free. People of my country want to get the software for free, and they are surprised when a price is put in front of them. However, after a while, as soon as the bid is taken with pen and paper, calculator, pc excel calculations, those are not sufficient then it is necessary to use serious software to be able to bid seriously. If you do not use serious software, you cannot participate in thermal power plant tenders. If you do not offer a good price, you cannot buy good service equipment. It is essential to comply with the "win-win" principle during trading. It has become a habit for us to look at the offers with a reckless disbelief every time and to ask for price reductions over and over again. However, accepting the best price among the offers would not be right. Placing the order the work or equipment is not enough, the service of the facility needs proper acceptance of the equipment, the purchasing department looks only to reduce the price, not the quality of the goods, the delivery time. If you drop the price further, other companies that you have sold before will be notified very quickly and they will demand serious discounts during renewal, leaving the business to drag on when not given. Until when? Until the technical department informs the purchase of the urgency of the facility and says "get the job done". If it is only to buy, they will never buy. the technical department needs the work and with their pressure, goods, services, equipment are purchased. Last word. Give your final best price then stop there. What if the sale happens? Explain "the price we have given is the last price" for every discount request that will come from now on. Ankara 21 November 2020

How did the evolution from Textile to Energy sector occur in Turkey? 1990s

In the 1990s, within the scope of cost reduction in the textile textile industry, the search for a domestic coal-priority auto producer to establish a self-generating power plant was initiated in the sector. At the dame time, Our American-Turkish joint venture company was established, and we had all the industrial steam boiler design opportunities of our American partner. However, American designs were suitable for the high calorific value coal commonly found in North America. In our country, the calorific values ​​of coal were very low. Compatible with our low calorific value coals Design was difficult, adaptation was difficult, combustion systems were inadequate.

We found a German designer company for two separate grades, pusher type and louvre type, we obtained a long term license from them. Boiler design were complete, compatible grades were okay, at that time there was only a bubble fluid bed design, yet there was not much industrial application in the development stage of circulating fluid bed.

We needed new customers. The market was full of textile mills that use only small firetube type small boilers that burn only heavy fuel oil.

We reached potential textile factories that might be interested, we sent catalog presentations to their senior management, and searched for acquaintances. Gradually, the demands started to come. Most of them wanted thermal power plants that would produce electricity in the range of 5-10 MWe. The price should have been very cheap first. They pointed to coal mines very close to their factories. They indicated the location of the mine, but they had no idea about the quality, elemental analysis, reserve generation capacity of the coal  mine there.

Factories around Istanbul were citing Ağaçlı and Saray coals as potential local coal sources. Ağaçlı was at the lower calorific value of 3000-4000 kcal / kg and Saray at 1000-1500 kcal / kg. Coals were very cheap, but it was difficult to burn economically in industrial-sized steam boilers because of their very low calorific value.

Bursa region mostly pointed to Orhaneli and Keles coal, and Kayseri Malatya to Afsin Elbistan coal. Söke factory wanted Aydın Şahinali coal. There was no suitable cheap coal in the Adana region, the closest Tufanbeyli was very expensive for them in terms of transportation.

First of all, the Istanbul market asked for an offer, then our market people must have informed each other, they said to each other, "An American licensed joint venture firm is offering a domestic coal-fired thermal power plant." We suddenly experienced an explosion of demand.

Mensucat santral in Istanbul, Bahariye mensucat, Bozkurt Mensucat, Nergis in Bursa, Bisaş, Söktaş in Söke, Kayseri Birlik, Adana Bossa asked us for an offer.

First, we gave each of them an estimated budget price. Then, when we came to serious buyer price demands, we started to work on serious offers for each.

The calorific value of domestic coal is low everywhere. The price of US dollars over one million Btu is very cheap, but it is very difficult to burn, maybe easier for large-capacity thermal power plants, but even more difficult to burn in an industrial boiler. American design failed to respond for most domestic coal. We couldn't find a suitable design.

Bubbling type Fluid bed was a new solution. We tried it on some boilers, using the American design for slightly higher calorific coals.

For the steam turbine, we introduced Siemens turbine prices, we went to cheaper market solutions for demands that do not require intermediate steam. We considered a closed steel construction space for the steam turbine. Our steam boiler could work outdoors. At that time, the environmental regulation was not fully formed, electrostatic precipitators, bag-house dust filters were given in small capacity within the scope of the offer.

Meanwhile, similar demands started to come from paper mills. Kartonsan submitted a request then company Modern Cardboard. The requests were in a single page, they did not include much technical information, they specified the desired  MWe capacity and the location of the coal resource to be used. Everything, scope, coal detail, electricity connection information was expected from us.

We prepared the proposals, I first took them to each company myself, presented the proposals to their senior management, explained the project in their conference halls in the environment of their factory. I kept written down the notes of each meeting in the detail that it remained in my mind. I have taken these into my personal archive. These still remain on my 5.25 or 3.5 in floppy disks. While writing an article, I open it and look at my meeting notes.

After the first meeting, we went to Istanbul, Ksyseri, Bursa and Aydın textile factories as in a large team in case of serious demand, and we explained our project proposal. The buyer company teams opposite us knew about textile production, but they did not have enough staff for thermal power plants, the offers we offered for the machine maintenance staff, which operated most of their low-capacity fuel oil steam boilers, our proposals were too complex.

Other firms were also forced by the buyers to create competition, and other local firms started to organise themselves and make similar offers. Offers similar to our offers were requested from foreign companies. Their alternative offers and competitive prices were placed before us, we were asked to compare and give a better price.

In the end, the prices seemed much higher than the numbers the buyers could pay, the financial opportunities of the domestic market were tight, there was not enough credit. Projects were canceled one by one.

Some factories used the new natural gas facility and started to buy autoproducer gas turbines and waste heat boiler packages using natural gas. There were companies that left the textile industry and switched to electricity generation. There were even companies that invested in high capacity  thermal power plants using domestic and imported coal. We observed those who carried these energy investments to the Central Asian republics, Russia and Middle East countries.

Our textile industry has evolved over time, has become staffed, some of them have moved to the more profitable electricity generation sector. Technical Staff grew and developed, as profitability increased, investments increased. Looking back after thirty years, I think that the offers we prepared did not go to waste. We spent a lot of time, worked hard, we made very good offers. We didn't get any orders, but we created the market together, we learnt together what could be what could not be done, why could be done, how can it be done? We learned these together, by trial and error.

During covid-19 times, rules are completely changed now. Overseas contracting is too difficult to execute. China can not participate in local tenders, they can not send sales people to negotiate, they can not send equipment to long distance destinations. So new rules are to be carried out, that is good opportunity for local business.

Prinkipo, 25 October 2020

How to read the International Tender Documents?

In 1984, The factory of the Turkish-American joint venture company, which built military fighter jets in Ankara,  opened a national tender to purchase a high-efficiency water tube steam boiler that could burn Beypazarı Çayırhan coal. The scope consisted of three 20 tons / hour and one 10 tons / hour capacity water-tube steam boilers that will produce at 20 bar 200c superheared steam.

The tender documents would be prepared in English, the invitation would be in English, the bids would be prepared in English, most importantly, all standards to be used would be in accordance with American ASTM ASME standards.

We bought the tender documents, when we put the tender documents on top of each other, it was almost one meter, there was a very detailed standard document for everything that came to mind. First, we duplicated the document containing technical information, we designed the water tube steam boilers in accordance with American standards, we estimated pricing, the steam boilers would be in a closed steel construction building, we made the steel building design, the introduction in English was already ready, we presented  our price dependent Turkish lira with escalation. .

The offers given other than us were not in our setting, the English spelling was not correct, the designs did not give confidence, American Asme. They were not compatible with ASTM standards. The buyer did not force us to discount on the price. We finally got the job, but none of us had read the other standards, requirements, other than technical documentation.

I went to the tender award meeting in two big hand bags with all the tender documents. We thought they were going to push us for the price deduction  for the last time. The American general manager came to the meeting room and congratulated us on the tender. Then the staff in charge brought long wine glasses with white sparkling wine in a tray. Cheers. It was enough for them that the price we gave was the lowest among competing prices. We were glad that the price we gave was accepted exactly.

The team of the buyer firm that controlled us was full of Turkish-American personnel, meetings, correspondence were always done in English. The buyer engineer staff followed us in accordance with the American standards in their hands during the construction process, English forms were filled, welding qualification tests in accordance with American standards were performed, material acceptance tests were carried out.

Finally, acceptance tests were again conducted in accordance with American standards. The job was completed, we didn't make much money at the end of the job, but we gained great experience. The ability to do similar international jobs has been in the memory of our company staff. It was a great benefit in our subsequent work abroad.

Ten years later, the same company opened a tender for a 70 tons / hour at 20 bar 200c superheated steam boiler with equivalent steam output capacity. This time, natural gas and fuel oil firing would be purchased and a high efficiency package steam boiler with watertube. Again, the American standards, which reached a height of one meter, came before us in the annex of the tender document. The price would be given this time in American dollars, and American inflation indexes based on years would be used in payments.

This time, I read all the documents page by page, took notes, took the monetary cost of each request into the final account costs. There were cost  that we surely skipped and could not add price, this time we tried to reduce it more. The same American general manager came to the meeting room, congratulated us, again, sparkling cold white wine was served, and we celebrated with a sip.

Today, purchasers no longer give paper printed documents in similar tenders. Instead, they sell cd. You apply to get the tender documents, you make a certain prepayment, they send you a cd with a single page attachment, you open it with a pc, it comes out with pages full of pdf specs, pages of word forms to fill, you read for days, take notes, price everything. That is required.

Another common application emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic process. Now everything is on-line. Education online, shopping online, meetings online, office work turns online at home, then auctions online.

You can search on the internet, there are many tender invitations online, if you are looking for tenders for the construction of thermal power plants, it is possible to reach the English calls and documents of the tenders opened in Iraq, Georgia, Pakistan and most African countries. Organisations such as the World Bank and the United Nations development organisation provide trainings for recalling international tender documents to public institution employees of developing countries. These tenders have now become standard documents.

However, due to the tightness in our domestic financial system, there is a general difficulty in obtaining the letter of guarantee required to participate in the tender. Our large contracting companies operating abroad can overcome the trouble here by using the commercial banks there. Our big companies can work abroad easily by using young local engineers,

It is now possible to access tender invitations over the Internet, our home office employees can work from home 24/7, read the tender documents, evaluate them, make necessary in-house meetings over the zoom, fill in the documents, and deliver them to the required places. Now, opportunities for long-distance-overseas-intercontinental travel are limited, but in the new world of covid-19, other opportunities open up other opportunities in new times, the world will be completely different after the covid-19 pandemic.

Prinkipo, November 5, 2020

How much does a steam boiler cost Per kilogram?

Buyer people evaluate the goods by weight, they say everything should have a value per kilogram like  watermelon. You prepare a difficult proposal, it becomes huge files, you put the details of the layout, boiler, steam turbine. you add the company catalogs, similar references you made before. Then you send it by mail, sometimes by hand.

One day in the past, I took a steam boiler proposal to a factory in the middle of Thrace, the authorised manager of the factory took me to his room,. He was a mechanical engineer who had been promoted from the chief of maintenance and repair to the factory manager. He and I were in ties. Instead of the existing simple low steam output capacity fuel oil burning fire-tube type steam boiler of the factory, he considered to utilise nearby Saray poor quality but cheap coal, so he  was considering to buy a high efficiency steam boiler with  water-tube that would burn domestic coal with low calorific value. Actually, this was all his own opinion, he had not yet received approval from the boss.

I put the proposal file in front of him and started to explain the proposal slowly. An hour passed, the presentation was almost over, there was a movement outside, they said, "The boss is coming, big guy is coming". A huge black Mercedes rushed through the factory floor. A man descended from inside, dressed in a motley trouser jacket, without a tie, and with no shirt buttons, entered the factory manager's room and sat at his table

the factory manager was standing next to him, almost excitedly at attention. He explained the reason why I was there to the man who came, the man looked at the file with the tip of his finger, searched for the price and found it, then he said to me, "How much is your price per kilo?" He asked.

As I have been addressed to this question many times over time, now I am not answering this question anymore, I collect my belongings and leave the environment as soon as possible, the price of steam boilers is 20-30 US dollars in industrial boilers, and simple cheap steel construction is more prevalent in large thermal power plants. So the price decreases to 10 US dollars per kilo.

These low figures have also been observed in Chinese delivery steam boilers in recent years. In the Covid-19 process, China cannot export large-scale steel construction, they will not even be able to send sales personnel for sales promotion for the next 2-3 years, let's not expect a purchase with Chinese financing for a while. Therefore domestic buyers will only be able to purchase from domestic companies.

The boss of the factory asked for the price per kilo of the steam boiler, I said the total tonnage and the final price, İt was my  inexperience, the price per kilo was about 20 US dollars, the man started counting the unit kilo prices of textiles, cardboard, paper, the comparison of the prices like apple and pear seemed absurd to me, but the recipient is always right I stopped talking with him and waited for the conversation to end. The man spoke and spoke, meanwhile he accused his own staff, criticized, even broke his style.

The meeting ended, I left the factory, I did not visit again, I was distant from the questions, requests, meeting invitations. A steam boiler is not just a tube and pipe construction, it has special design expenses, electrical and electronic instrumentation, special equipment, soot blowers, fans, pumps. In a steel construction structure, the price per kilo can be around 1-2 US dollars, but boilers are quite expensive for sure.

The price of a second-hand scrap steam boiler can be dismantled  somewhere  and reassembled here and the price per kilo may drop to 2-3-5 US dollars. After 20-30 years of use, it is disassembled from the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa factory, and after dismantling, sandblasted, cleaned, painted and re-sold and expected to work for another 30-years, the efficiency of the old design steam boiler is low, it burns more fuel and pollutes more the environment. The investor thinks that "I bought the goods very cheaply", before 2-3 years have passed, the plant will not work, it will collapse, they will give  rehab responsibility to the new young engineer with little authority to spend the correction work, the poor child will not have a hair on his head.

Our market is based on crushing the seller, there is no win-win, the seller has to agree to everything in order to sell his goods, the goods sold in the end become defective,  poor quality not working, waste goods.

We wish we could have covered the costs while bidding. It doesn't work with us. You spend money and go to the workplace of the buyer's address, you spend time, and travelling expenses, they behave in an absurd manner, unauthorised people appear, you get angry with yourself for wasting time and money.

The boss of that factory, dressed in a variegated blob and unbuttoned shirt, gets in the latest model Mersedes and pays whatever its price, but when it comes to the factory's steam boiler, he looks for the cheapest,  he does not see if he works. In the end, it doesn't work, but it remains in hand in poor condition needs rehab.

The situation is different in groups of companies that are educated and cultured from a traditional educated family, and of course they have the priority to buy the cheapest goods, but buying the best at the best price is acceptable norm.

If you have comments or notice any mistakes that catches your eye, please do write to me. There is no name or company name in my articles, do not search for names.

Prinkipo, 03 November 2020

We lost my Father İsmail bey.

We lost my father, the elder of our family, Judge- Attorney- Lawyer İsmail Direskeneli, on Thursday, October 29, 2020 at 15:00 from multiple organ failure. The next day (Friday), following the afternoon prayer in Üsküdar Şakirin mosque, we buried in the Karacaahmet family cemetery. Rest in peace.