When you're headquartered in an area that has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs in the past year, you have to adapt—or you fold.

Abrasive-Tool Corp. of Rochester, N.Y., has been confronting such challenges for a while, especially in its cutting tools line, explains vice president Mark Hanna.

Hanna estimates that the general Rochester area has “lost eight percent of its manufacturing jobs” over the past year, he says. “Some regions have made very good recoveries, but we've been hammered up here.”

Since 2000, manufacturing employment in Rochester is down more than 30 percent, Hanna estimates. During that time, however, Abrasive's business has “gone very, very well,” he says.

“My salesmen on the road are some of the best technically anywhere,” Hanna explains. “Our emphasis the past few years has been on the high-end, high-tech tools.”

That's good news because those newer, improved cutting products are getting developed more rapidly than ever, Hanna says. The challenge, though, is keeping his salespeople on top of these technical developments.

“In terms of new products being developed, it seems like every six months there's new stuff out there. We have to stay on the ball,” he says.

Over the years, Abrasive-Tool has worked with some large customers, Hanna says, citing Kodak and Xerox as examples. Large companies, and their large product orders, can be great, of course. But Abrasive-Tool also made a conscious effort to go after the smaller to mid-sized companies.

“We've had contracts with the big boys,” he says, “but there have been some shops here that have gone out of business because that's what they relied on. We've dedicated ourselves to these mid-sized shops and to being the one they come to.”

Many of these smaller and mid-sized businesses offer greater customer loyalty, Hanna finds.

“They'll trust you. We have a lot of years up here,” he explains. “Most of my salespeople have 10 to 20 years of experience calling on these customers, so there's been a lot of trust built up.”

If there's a sales technique others can learn from here, it might be to make sure to hold on to those experienced salespeople. Abrasive- Tool pays well but also gives the sales staff a great deal of freedom, Hanna explains.

“We compensate them very well. But we don't look over their shoulders,” Hanna says. “They have free reign with their accounts. If they want to set the pricing levels, they can go ahead and do it. As long as they turn a decent profit, we'll give them the authority to do that.”

He also knows that no salesperson ever made a dime by focusing on paperwork. So Abrasive-Tool's salespeople aren't required to do sales reports.

“They're 'big boys' and they're on their own. If they are not making the calls, the sales numbers will reflect that,” Hanna says.

His concerns for down the road remain the same: the overall economy, specifically in New York State.

“Our taxation here is brutal,” he says. “But we've prospered in spite of the economy. It's a tribute to our technical ability when it comes to cutting tools, as well as a tribute to our perseverance.”