Stan Renals, Managing Director CEO, Cobar Europe BV

How has Covid-19 affected my business
First of all, I have not been on an airplane since March 10th. This is a drastic change for me since as a consultant to the PCB and PCBA industry, I have been traveling two to three weeks a month for over twenty-five years!

But the interesting thing is that my business has grown during this time as companies, my clients, look for new and creative ways to sell without visiting their customers. Companies have sought me out asking how they can market their companies in this "new normal".

Companies now more than ever are turning to marketing both traditional and modern (Print and social media) to sell their products.

At DBMG, we have developed and helped our customers implement a number of programs that include, technical bulletins, newsletters, white papers, webinars, micro-e-books, focused advertising, and lunch and learns, to help them market their products and services. One company even did a virtual lunch and learn with a real lunch delivered to participants by meal delivery services all over the country!

Even independent sales reps got into the act putting out their own newsletters and sales flashes. In short the age of Covid-19 brought on a renaissance of marketing which I expect will continue into the future as companies were introduced to new methods of selling without visiting customers.

I expect that in some ways the "new normal" will become the normal in 2021 as companies realize that:
• People can work more efficiently from home. The estimate I read recently is that 40% of people who have been working from home will remain working from home.
• Business travel will lessen as companies have found ways to communicate with one another by using conferencing systems like Zoom and TeamViewer. Even site surveys and Qualification audits are now being done virtually using these systems.
• CSR systems such as HubSpot and salesforce will become more popular as a way to work with customers and generate leads for new customers.

I believe that the electronics business will be booming the next few years as more and more new and innovative products are developed. Everything from medical devices to security devices to testing devices to purification devices are being developed as we speak.

And because our eyes were opened to our dependency on offshore sources there will be a move to buy more domestically, to be more self-sufficient within our own borders.

These are all of the indicators that the Post-Covid world will be a very different world that before and that the “new normal’ will become the actual normal in 2021 and beyond.