The Manufacturing Executive

After I go, what happens to my company?  Every successful business owner eventually faces that question. In some cases, the succession plan seems obvious. In others, it's not at all clear.  On this episode of the podcast, I invited Nick Jackson, Principal of the Mendota Group, which acquires small to medium-sized manufacturing, distribution and service businesses. Nick and I talked about: The difference between a financial buyer, a strategic buyer, and an active investor A step-by-step process for finding an advisor when selling your company What happens after a deal gets closed To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

Many manufacturers rely on events to generate pipeline. What do you do when events shut down? On this episode of the podcast, I share three tangible ideas for reallocating your marketing budget to keep a steady flow of leads coming while trade shows can't help you do it. Make the shift from brochure marketing that's all about you to genuinely helpful content marketing that's about your prospect. Market to your existing customers. Your email list is gold. Learn how to do video based prospecting. It's a lot easier than you might think. Resources we talked about: I Need What’s In Your Brain: Extracting Expert Knowledge for Content Marketing w/ Toby Wall Video-based prospecting: An easy, but comprehensive guide Loom.com for easy prospecting videos 4 ways to build your ultimate list for cold outbound email To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

We hear grumblings about automation taking away job opportunities. But inside the manufacturing sector, companies are struggling to find high quality, consistent human laborers. The real challenge facing the industry is this: Baby Boomers are exiting the workforce, and there aren't enough people in the skilled trades to replace them. Gary Konarska, Executive Director & CEO at American Welding Society, joined this episode of the podcast to discuss how to attract and retain high quality labor. Gary and I talked about: The opportunity cost of college and the value of learning a skilled trade  How to address the shortage of welders Ways to attract fresh talent through creating great content How to upskill the current welding workforce Resources we talked about: Careers in Welding by AWS Leveraged Learning To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

What happens when your competitors are talking about themselves but you are producing resourceful content? You win!  So how can you write helpful technical content for manufacturers? First, it needs to come from the brains of subject matter experts. Second, you need to extract that knowledge from their brains and use their insights to fuel your marketing strategy.  Toby Wall, thinker and senior writer at Gorilla76, joined this episode of the podcast to discuss how to create great content in the manufacturing space. Toby and I talk about: Where should content expertise originate? Why should subject matter experts expect to play a role in content creation? How do you extract expert knowledge and turn it into credible content? Resources we talked about: They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Marketing How to extract expert knowledge from your team and turn it into incredible content “I need what’s in your brain” – Why we insist on interviewing subject matter experts To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

It's 2010. Apple has just released a new product called the iPad. The Lakers just won their fifth championship under Phil Jackson. And the BP oil spill was all over the news. In the marketing world, a trending movement started to take hold. It was called inbound marketing. Today, inbound marketing has exploded, and B2B businesses are taking the next logical step to inbound selling. Brian Signorelli, senior director of sales at Hubspot and author of the book Inbound Selling, joined this episode of the podcast to discuss the history and future of inbound.  Brian and I talk about: -Why inbound marketing's popularity spread so far -Great resources to learn more about what inbound is and why it works -Extending inbound marketing principles into the sales side of an organization Resources we talked about: -Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs -StoryBrand -Inbound Selling: How to Change the Way You Sell to Match How People Buy -HubSpot To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

You can market your products just about any way you want to. You can pour money into trade shows, pay-per-click campaigns, or print ads. Personally, I'm a big advocate of inbound marketing, but inbound means playing a very long game. Because of that, I advocate supplementing inbound with identifying the right people from the right companies for a special sales-plus-marketing solution. I'm talking about account based marketing (ABM).  Now if you want to learn about ABM, go see Sangram Vajre, author, co-founder at Terminus, and the man who sired ABM from 50,000 feet in the air. Or you can just listen to this episode of the podcast where Sangram and I talk about: A solid definition of ABM What intent data is and how to use it Why you shouldn't treat all your accounts the same How small to mid-sized businesses can apply ABM methodology Resources we talked about: ABM is B2B: Why B2B Marketing and Sales Is Broken and How to Fix It Account-Based Marketing for Dummies To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

Back in May, I wrote an article entitled Summer Reading 12 lessons from 12 books for 12 weeks. The author of one of those 12 books, Ian Altman, is my guest on this episode of The Manufacturing Executive! A bestselling author and B2B growth expert, Ian started, sold, and grew his prior companies from zero to over $1 billion in value. He has since spent years researching how executives make decisions. Ian's modern approach has helped many businesses turn marginal growth into explosive growth and thrive where their competitors struggled merely to survive. Ian and I talk about: Why you should flip your sales message The three questions you need to ask to make an informed decision How to weed out wrong-fit clients How to pivot away from in-person meetings during COVID-19 Resources we talked about: Same Side Selling on Amazon Same Side Selling Academy Ian Altman's Website Growth In Crisis Course To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

A few years ago, we at Gorilla 76 took a close look at the common components among our most successful manufacturing clients. Then, we boiled these down to seven specific elements. Once we put them together, we built a model we call the seven core elements of an industrial marketing strategy.  On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive, we discuss these seven key elements of manufacturing marketing: Positioning Website Foundation  Technology Stack  Content Strategy Lead Generation Strategy,  Pipeline Management Strategy  Data analysis Resource discussed on the episode: Downloadable guide and audit spreadsheet To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

Automation cannot replace human labor. Rather, the key is to augment the workforce by equipping humans with the technology they need to be more effective, more efficient, and safer. Tracy Hansen, president of North America and global CMO for ProGlove, a German maker of wearable digital interfaces and operations analytics for industry, joined this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show. She talked about the ways manufacturers need to pivot with technology as they look at how to emerge from this pandemic in one piece. Here's what we discussed with Tracy: How wearable solutions can augment the human worker Examples of the ways wearable technology improves safety, efficiency, and productivity The wearable technology solutions executives should know about ...And what excessive automation looks like and how to avoid it. To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.

Something's not going well, and it's your job to fix it. Where do you start?  You can't rely on your charm and good looks to make a change happen. Instead, you have to work through proven processes that alleviate distress at companies.  On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Rob Tracy, consultant and author of How to Fix a Factory, talked about specific processes that can solve problems at distressed organizations.   Here's what we discussed with Rob: Why Rob wrote How to Fix a Factory and who he wrote it for How value-add reporting can give distinct insight into P&L The 10 core systems that must be operating with reasonable proficiency for the factory as a whole to have good outcomes Rob's new idea called The Business Forward Framework Additional Resource Mentioned in the Episode: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman To ensure that you never miss an episode of The Manufacturing Show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or here.