– Staff interviews –
Interviewer: Web content manager / Element Imai
Staff interviewed: Sales representative at Suga

Today, we interviewed sales representative in charge of sales and marketing at Suga, which develops and manufactures marine clutches, hydraulic cranes and related parts for shipbuilding!

The item for which Suga receives the most orders is pulleys used to transmit power from marine engines to generators, hydraulic pumps, and other devices.

This is a wheel that transmits rotational power and changes speed by applying a belt, and is handled by the sales representative interviewed here.

The daily schedule of sales representative

Main daily schedule
7:45 Arrive for work
7:55 morning assembly
8:10~ Get to work
– Checking emails and faxes from customers
– Making phone calls – enquiries, orders, technical consultation, etc.
– Consultations and meetings with the production department for complicated parts, etc.
– CAD drawings of marine pulleys and engine joints
– Quotations, order processing,procurement processing, etc.
17:00 leaving office

Pulleys that sell well get orders every day.

What kind of work do you do? What kind of interaction do you have with customers?

sales representative: We often receive inquiries from marine engine dealers. They are companies that manufacture ships and perform maintenance after sales.

And orders for pulleys come in every day.

Marine parts are replaced when they break, so when they contact us, they are basically in a hurry because they want to fix it as soon as possible, and we have to quickly decide when we can and cannot do it.

Things are always tense in the field, so we try to be careful not to ask or say the same thing over and over again.

Suga’s pulleys and pulley adaptors are very popular and easy to use.

Our pulleys are used in sets with pulley adaptors that are fixed to the shaft.

Usually, the pulleys are fixed by shaving the shaft with a key, but in this case, if you want to change the location of the pulley for a while, it can be a big job, for example by shifting the position of the other generators.

However, with our pulley adapters, many marine engine dealers find them useful, as they can easily fix the pulleys without the need to cut the shaft.

It is a pleasure to be able to sell these one-of-a-kind products and to know the company’s strengths and to be able to communicate them to my sales partners when I am working.

And it is motivating when I can hear the voice of the customer.

• I’m happy when I deliver a part that is difficult to make and know that the customer is satisfied with it.
• I am thrilled when I call a customer after delivery to check on the status of the product.

I feel rewarded and happy when I can hear customers’ reactions like that!

For the company. About the future.

At the moment, the company is in a period of poor performance due to the COVID-19, which has made it difficult to sell research equipment overseas.

In these situations, I still want to be as helpful as possible to everyone and do my best in ship sales, where there are a lot of domestic orders, so I try to improve the quality of my daily sales and make my customers even happier than ever.

In addition, we have recently introduced a new processing machine and would be happy to contribute to sales promotion in any way I can.

We are very excited about this machine because it will enable us to respond to the needs of manufacturers that we have not been involved with before, such as manufacturers of food processing machinery.

Everyone at the company is very helpful to me, so,
I would like to do my best for my colleagues!

Summary! Impressions of interviewer Imai.

The words about wanting to work hard for his friends were the coolest.

COVID-19 disaster has reduced the number of jobs abroad.

Suga is a manufacturer that develops items for use in research and development for the future, so I believe it will continue to grow, but sometimes things have to hold still at some point depending on the situation.
I am sure that these bitter experiences will strengthen the company and the staff.

The most important factor to work hard at such times is, after all, a company with people who can work hard [for customers] and [for their colleagues].

Today I learned about pulleys, a component I knew nothing about, and it was great to talk to a nice person!

That’s all!

Interview with CEO

“We believe that by ‘co-creating’, we can help to ‘develop people’ who are creative in their research, development and experimentation.” CEO Ikumasa Suga said.
Click here for an interview with Ikumasa Suga, CEO of Suga.

Employee interview

Other employees were interviewed about their work at Suga and about the company.

Interview with employees
Second life focuses on a place you love and a rewarding experience!　Interview with a sales staff member from Suga, a manufacturer of sputtering and vacuum equipment