Account Management, Forecasting, and Long-Term Success
From first PO to a multi-million-dollar account: forecasting, growing, and not getting fired.
Winning the first PO is just the beginning. The real money in PCB sales is in growing accounts over years.
The First 90 Days After a New PO
The first order is the most fragile point in the relationship. One bad shipment can undo months of selling. Your job:
- Stay close. Confirm the PO went into your shop's system correctly. Confirm the design files match what was quoted.
- Communicate proactively. Customers hate surprises. If a job will be a day late, tell them three days early.
- Personally follow the first build. Walk the floor. Know where the boards are. You'll catch issues before the customer does.
- Inspect the first shipment. Review the FAI. Make sure the boards look right.
- Follow up after delivery. "Did everything land OK? Any feedback?" This single email earns more repeat business than any pitch.
Growing the Account
Once the first PO is delivered cleanly, your job is to grow:
- Ask for the next project. "What else is on your roadmap? Anything coming up where we can quote?"
- Offer add-on services. PCBA if they only bought bare. Coating, test, box build, kitting.
- Get on the AVL (Approved Vendor List). Once you're approved, RFQs flow to you automatically.
- Schedule QBRs (Quarterly Business Reviews). Even small accounts benefit from a 30-minute quarterly check-in.
- Multi-thread. Build relationships with their engineers, buyers, ops, and quality teams.
Forecasting
Your manager will ask you to forecast. A simple discipline:
- Commit: deals you're highly confident will close this quarter (90%+).
- Best Case: deals that could close with effort (50–70%).
- Pipeline: everything else.
Update weekly. Be honest — sandbagging or over-forecasting both destroy trust with leadership.
A healthy salesperson runs 3–5x quota in pipeline at any given time.
When Things Go Wrong
They will. Boards will arrive late. Quality issues will happen. A shipment will get lost. Your reaction defines you:
- Own it immediately. Don't deflect to the factory.
- Get the customer information fast. What happened, why, and what you're doing about it.
- Offer a remedy. Credit, expedited replacement, on-site visit. Whatever it takes.
- Follow up after the fix. Make sure it stuck.
Customers don't expect perfection. They expect ownership. The salespeople who handle problems well often end up more trusted than the ones who never had problems.
The Long Game
PCB sales careers are measured in decades, not quarters. The reps who win:
- Treat every customer like they could be a $5M account in 5 years
- Build a personal brand in their niche (industry, geography, capability)
- Stay technically curious — read trade publications, attend events, learn the new processes
- Never burn a bridge. Engineers and buyers move companies all the time. Your reputation follows you.
A great PCB salesperson 10 years in has a book of accounts that produces millions per year on near-autopilot. That's the game. Now go play it.
- The first 90 days after a new PO determine whether you have an account or a one-time deal.
- Grow accounts by asking for the next project, adding services, and getting on the AVL.
- When things go wrong, own it immediately. Customers expect ownership, not perfection.
- PCB sales is a decades-long game. Your reputation, not your pitch, drives lifetime earnings.
Practice questions
Why is the first 90 days after a new PO so important?
Roughly how much pipeline should a healthy salesperson run vs. quota?
When something goes wrong with a shipment, what should you do FIRST?
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