Giving Graphite Definition an International Meaning
Semco is proud to be an American company, headquartered in Lorain, Ohio. Like many successful American companies, we have both domestic and international clientele for the components we machine from various graphite grades. Our international clients are important to our business. So far (and we plan for this to continue), our clients across borders have given Semco a graphite grade of A.
Our excellent sales team does its marketing of Semco to international clients primarily through travel to numerous trade shows. After making relationships at these shows and detailing Semco’s track record as a graphite machining shop, we contact these industry peers directly. Sometimes, these peers travel from abroad to find the best graphite company to work with. After these initial conversations, we follow up with phone conversations and sometimes direct visits.
We can’t meet every possible client at one trade show -- that’s why we go to many of these, to broaden our reach as much as possible. Eventually, we’ll have conversations with a potential client about graphite grade choices, graphite impregnation, or component specifications. When an international client sees our expertise, experience, and capabilities, we can start building a relationship with that prospective client.
We Speak the Same Language of Graphite Grades
There are other ways Semco gets international clients. Sometimes, they come to us. The first contact usually happens through our website. We receive a notification from someone who has read about our machining capabilities, wide selection of graphite grades, and excellent industry reputation. We follow up on these notifications with a phone conversation. COVID restrictions have had an unexpected effect on our communications, a large part of which now have migrated to web meetings on apps such as Zoom or Teams. This has led, in many cases, to more convenient meeting schedules and logistics with both domestic and especially international clients. No matter where they are in the world (usually Canada, but also Eastern and Western Europe), we and our international clients speak the same language of graphite grades, tolerances, and casting molds. We have the same graphite definition.
Besides organically adding to our portfolio of clients through word of mouth and referrals from existing customers, we focus a lot on enhancing our web presence to attract clients across America and beyond. Our website is a big part of that effort, including these blog posts where we are able to tell the story of our company and give potential clients insight into our skills, knowledge, and experience. Lastly, we do partner with vendors in protecting our proprietary graphite grades, and also with outfits that compliment our capabilities. These partnerships increase the pool of potential customers domestically and internationally. We cultivate strong relationships with our international vendors and customers because we believe there is strength in business relationships built on communication and trust. We encourage potential international clients to look into our relationships with established vendors, whom we have been doing business with for decades. Semco offers that same level of dedication and attention to new customers as we do to our established customers.