Behind the Scenes of our Customer-Driven and Winning Sales Approach

As a 13-year veteran employee of Panasonic North America, Gina Tokar has seen the company evolve from a primarily consumer focused business to a business technology solutions driven operation. Having held various roles throughout her career with Panasonic she has unique perspective on the transformation and shares her views on the customer-driven focus of Panasonic Toughbook solutions.

Gina Tokar, Vice President, Business Operations, Panasonic Solutions Enablement

Whether it’s sales and marketing, product development, repairs or accounting, every part of what we do at Panasonic is driven by a focus on the customer, started 100 years ago by our company founder, Konosuke Matsushita. His personal philosophy became and remains the core mission of Panasonic – to manufacture superior products for daily use that improve the quality of life for customers and society.

The same applies to the Panasonic Toughbook mobility solutions division where for over twenty years we’ve been welcoming more customers to the Toughbook family of users from organizations across different key verticals. And it all starts with the hard work of our dedicated sales team who approaches every situation with this in mind: what does the customer need and how can we deliver?

Our unique customer-driven approach to sales is what allows us to distinguish ourselves from competitors. One of the most standout characteristics of our Toughbook mobile solutions is that we are dynamic enough to meet customer specific needs across different verticals, applications and environments. Our sales team approaches each customer by first coming to understand what makes them unique and identifying the places where Toughbook technology can make an impact. To do this, our team, which can include product engineers, software specialists and field engineers, will travel to meet customers in person, and learn their day-to-day processes firsthand. Whether it’s a ride-along in a police vehicle or a tour of a manufacturing facility, through these types of one-on-one interactions with the customer, our sales team is able to make a more informed recommendation of the Toughbook product, software, accessories and/or services that will help overcome the specific challenge at hand.

During these visits to the customer, sometimes our sales team will recognize a challenge that Panasonic’s standard technology isn’t suited to tackle. Instead of stepping away, our engineering team takes a creative engineering approach to modify our devices or adapt our solutions so that they can survive in a certain environment or help solve a particular issue. For example, one customer operating outside in extremely hot temperatures noticed that the seal of their devices was eroding upon regular use. Turns out, a specific chemical in sunscreen used by the employees caused an unanticipated reaction with the seal causing damage to the device. In order to remedy the situation, the Toughbook engineering team updated each device with a new seal that would not be impacted by sunscreen use. This scenario, just one of many, demonstrates how our sales and engineering team members truly view themselves as a partner to our customers, and as partners will work with them to help ensure that their Toughbook mobile solutions are tailored to their needs.

As the way people work has evolved to leverage and rely on mobile technology, so too have the Toughbook product offerings. Over the course of the last few years at Panasonic we have shifted our focus to offer additional technology solutions that will help companies respond to evolving trends and ultimately be more successful in what they do. At the heart of this is our transformation from just a hardware manufacturer to a full solution provider. Driven by our “voice of the customer” process, our leading research technologists and field technicians are dedicated to delivering new solutions for the unique challenges of each industry.

For example, our involvement in the logistics and warehousing industry lead to the introduction of the fully rugged, touchscreen driven Toughbook E1 & X1 handheld devices with barcode scanning capabilities. Then based on the feedback from existing and potential customers on what they need to succeed in the omni-channel retail environment, we recently announced the Toughbook T1 handheld and L1 tablet to better suit the needs of customer-facing users as well as being able to enhance stockroom workflow. We also understand that customers need much more than just a mobile device, so we offer our MCL software solution to help customers transition to a new mobile OS environment but keep their legacy software backend systems in place. Behind the scenes of it all is our team of dedicated engineers and professional service experts to support customers from the initial understanding of the use case to deployment and even all the way to end of life device recycling. It’s no longer just about the mobile hardware devices: it’s about a complex mobile technology ecosystem that supports organizations through every part of their operations.

Here at Panasonic, we’re proud to have some of the leading engineering and technology research experts in the industry. Together with our talented sales team, they are shaping the transformation that will continue for years to come as we discover even more innovative ways to deliver for our customers. As our devices become smarter and our mission continues to evolve, one thing stays the same: the desire to sell technology solutions that make an improvement to our customers and their lives – making difficult jobs easier and safer.

To explore more on our approach to mobile solutions, visit our Mobility Knowledge Center.