Marine Vendor Woes of Custom Built
Understanding how the internet helps unique solutions
While networking with marine vendors over the past year I have heard this response from a resounding number of individuals, “…we build custom products; I don’t think this internet platform is for us.” I can’t count how many times I have heard this response throughout the past year.
If your organization manufactures or fabricates custom equipment, you’re providing a specialized service that is difficult to compare to standard products. Furthermore, your organization provides a professional service that demands high touch sales and customer service support on the phone and in the field. You are where your customer needs your people. Your product is not an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution, therefore, it doesn’t fit the standard. While your organization creates a unique product solution, your approach to servicing customers fits in a standard box. This response is the normal that I hear regularly.
Electronic commerce, or as it’s commonly known, e-commerce is more than the transaction of buying and selling goods and services over an electronic network. E-commerce includes transmitting funds and data. As everyday online consumers, we’ve been trained to believe that nearly all e-commerce storefronts and purchasing processes fit in a standard box.
Maritant.com is a business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplace for professionals within the Marine Industry. Our main objective is the transmittal of equipment data to bridge Influencer’s problems with Vendor’s capabilities to deliver solutions, even if the product or service may be intangible. The extent of our capabilities as a software as a service company for Influencers and Vendors organizations is only limited by our imagination; limited by your imagination.
Therefore, when I hear members of a sales team tell me they provide a custom service, my response is “We have something in common because we do to.” Maritant builds a custom product in the form of an online platform. For the past year, I have been listening to you, I have been listening to all sides of our industry; from the engineers in the office and the field, operations and procurement from yards and vessel operators, global and regional manufacturer sales reps, distributor sales teams and their dealers.
We’re not about delivering a one-off standard e-commerce solution to one side of the Marine Industry. Rather, Maritant is about putting your organization in control of your brand, your image, your team, your product data and your customers. Our role as a platform is to help both sides of the Marine Industry network and communicate more efficiently. In the coming month of April, we will roll out an RFP/RFQ process that will change the way many marine equipment suppliers will think about marketing and sales for standard or custom-built products and their professional services.
In closing, if your organization creates a unique product or provides a specialized professional service for the Shipbuilding & Repair/Marine Industry, consider the benefits of working with professionals that understand your pain points.
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How do you effectively reach new customers if your organization provides a unique product or service? What advice or tips would you give engineers about locating a unique product solution? Is there any other way we could help you? Share your thoughts.
Chris Stuckey — Grew up along the banks of the Ohio River in Indiana. At 18 yo, moved to New Orleans to study Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering at the University of New Orleans and pursued a career in the Marine Industry. Today, Stuckey is the CEO and Founder of Maritant.com. His mission is to help network Marine Industry Professionals and streamline communication efficiency for businesses excited about the future success of the Shipbuilding Industry.
