You know, the usual:
What is their current customer base comprised of?
Do they specialize in a particular industry and/or application?
What is the potential for product sales in your area?
Do they have a current customer list you can have and will they furnish leads?
How/where do they advertise?
Do they direct inquiries to local reps?
What is your profit margin? Where will you make the best profit? - initial sales? repeat customers? parts/service?
Determine the quality of their customer service - do they have a "hotline" (direct from customers and/or reps?)?
What breaks most often? How have they addressed quality problems in the past?
Will you have an exclusive territory?
Those are all well-known, but rather minor players. You might consider if they could be bought by a large competitor. If so, where would you be?
Do you know anything about PLCs? The more knowledge you have, the better your chances. Every manufacturer has unique advantages. Your job is to encourage your customers to mandate these for their systems (whether they really need them or not) by creating customer desire - just like in selling anything. If none of the companies have anything really special to offer, I'd suggest putting your name in for a bigger brand.
Just my $0.02 ...
