We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jeff Edwards a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeff, thanks for joining us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?
A number of years ago a major oil company approached one of our distributors in Latin America asking how we could prevent downtime and lost production in their producing fields. They were utilizing a similar product in the manner that had been recommended by a major manufacturer.

We studied the application and began to realize, that just switching products was not the answer. Our response needed to be totally outside the box.

Not to get too deep in the “technical” weeds, we recommended using 4 units, placed in strategic locations and incorporating a unique technology that we had currently been using in other industrial arenas. We then invited them to our laboratory for witness testing to validate our proposition.

Once validated, they issued the first order for a producing field and over the course of the next 7 months we provided a 100% return on investment from reduced equipment replacement, not counting the differed production that was eliminated due to the increased uptime that was achieved.

We continued to reduce lost production and overall achieved a 60+% reduction in electronic maintenance; and our product became the defacto standard for surge protection in the country.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Quite honestly I got into this industry totally by accident. I had been working in the telecommunications field when a friend of mine suggested we go to a new product presentation. I only knew it had something to do with electricity. The product was a surge protector / lightning arrestor. The only thing I knew of electricity was that if you flipped a switch, the light would come on. Following the meeting, I told my then partner, I am not sure what this is, but I think we can sell it.

My father in law went to the bank with me in 1987 to cosign the note for the money to buy inventory and launch the business. We have evolved from a single surge protector to a multi-product international power quality company that currently distributes in more than 40 countries.

Two things set us apart in this industry. First, we have a product that is second to none in the surge protection world. Nothing else, at this time, matches the performance of our product line.

Secondly, is our approach to the market. I believe strongly in relationship building and community. We have created, specifically in Latin America, a true family of managers and distributors. So much so, that I have personally attended weddings, child dedications, office dedications, funerals, birthdays and anniversaries across the continent. The highlight of our year is our annual reunion, which has been growing strong since 2004, having only missed one year, 2020. What started out as 2 days and 14 people has grown to 4 days and 70 people and typically becomes a week long family vacation.

Thirdly is our commitment to responsive customer service. Not a week will go by when someone in our Fort Worth office doesn’t comment to us, “Wow, thanks for getting back to me so promptly.”

So whether it is in Dallas or Delhi, our products and support will make your life easier and your company more profitable.

Have you ever had to pivot?
For the last 7 years or so, our sales mix has been 80/20, International to national. So once Covid began to shut down companies and countries… we had to make some drastic changes. Typically my managers are in their territories at least 2 weeks of every month visiting and training, etc. Now, stuck at him. What we did was not only what others did with going virtual meetings, but we actually began broadcasting live product testing from our offices here in Fort Worth.

As we began conducting comparative testing to validate the superiority of our technology, it was amazing the comments that began flowing into our managers. Most of them had never seen surge testing performed live. In our world there are many games that can be played with data sheets. We began exposing them and visually convincing our clients and potential clients that we truly are the standard in this industry.

While this did not result in immediate sales increases, once lockdowns began to end… we have recovered almost completely the 50% drop in revenue in 2020. We solidified our market and now are growing again.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?
This occurred on my second visit to China to speak at an electronics engineering university. At that time we had not differentiated our technology in a measurable manner so as to come across as really unique. So during my flight over I spent lots of brainstorming time to come up with some descriptive verbiage for what we were doing to eliminate electrical spikes. I was totally frustrated! (Our product is made here in the USA, just as an aside.)

Upon landing at the airport, we were met with the chairman of the department, a man with at least 2 PHD’s behind his name. He proceeded to tell me, via translator, from a drawing he scribbled out on a piece of paper, that what he was told that we were doing, was electrically impossible. So just like I knew what I was doing, I asked if he would be at the presentation the next day, he said yes of course. I then let the words out of my mouth, “Great, I will have some slides to show you that will clear it all up.” Guess what, I had N.O.T.H.I.N.G.

I have never experienced a panic attack, but I was close that evening. I got to the hotel and came up with a test scenario and called our lab engineer and described what I needed. My last words were…. “Ricky you test, I will pray and then sleep, and anxiously await the results in my inbox. ”

Before finally hitting the pillow that night the terminology that came to me was “frequency attenuation network.” At least I had that much! What followed the next morning from the lab was exactly what I needed to prove to the professor that what he had described as impossible, was entirely possible and our product could prevent it! I have since been asked on multiple occasions what engineering school I graduated from. I am no engineer, purely a business graduate from Texas Tech University.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ecsintl.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/EnergyControlSystems
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffedwards/
• Twitter: twitter.com/energycontrolsy
• Youtube: youtube.com/c/sinetamer