If we create an environment where people on the production floor can help the company be better, they're more than happy to use their knowledge to do it. Unfortunately, many supervisors and managers have not been given the training, development, and coaching to do the job on their own or to help the company grow. On this episode of the podcast, Gayle Noakes, a 20+ year veteran of the manufacturing industry, joined me to talk about building leaders at all levels to achieve business results. Gayle...
Dec 01, 2020•22 min•Ep. 25
It's time to face reality about sales channels, technology, and how people buy. E-commerce is going to dominate sales. Business was moving in that direction pre-COVID, but the pandemic dramatically accelerated those trends. You can fight this reality, or you can grow with it. On this episode of the podcast, I talked with Kevin Haar, chief operating officer at Super Bright LEDs, about the transition to e-commerce. Kevin and I discussed: What e-commerce can offer now that it couldn't in the past T...
Nov 24, 2020•24 min•Ep. 24
We'd all love to create content and then sit back and wait for the phones to start ringing. But that doesn't work. You have to be proactive. Learn how and where your prospects and customers go to consume content online and deliver it to them in those channels. The only content that works is the content that's actually consumed. On this episode of the podcast, I invited Matt Sciannella, Senior Strategist at Gorilla76, to talk about content distribution. Matt and I discussed: The reasons we need t...
Nov 17, 2020•42 min•Ep. 23
You know the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But do you practice that philosophy as a manufacturing leader? Does it influence who you hire? How you manage your team? The way you interact with your stakeholders? On this episode of the podcast, I invited Dan Erschen, the owner of Wisconsin Metal Parts, a contract manufacturer of metal parts and assemblies, to talk about servant leadership. Dan and I discussed: Dan's personal battle with MS and how it has shaped who ...
Nov 10, 2020•39 min•Ep. 22
When the mandated industry shut down in Michigan happened, one Millennial sought new ways to engage his current customers and share the benefits of automation while working from home. He turned to LinkedIn. Seven months later, his content has reached over 1.5 million views, and he's amassed more than 10,000 followers. On this episode of the podcast, I invited Jacob Hall, the Manufacturing Millennial, to discuss everything from embracing technology and creating video content to engaging young pro...
Nov 03, 2020•34 min•Ep. 21
The term thought leadership has gotten tossed around a lot the last few years. But what exactly does thought leadership mean? Does it simply imply that you write a blog or that you spoke at a local Chamber of Commerce event? Or is thought leadership something more than that? How did you become a thought leader anyway? On this episode of the podcast, I invited Bill Sherman, COO and thought leadership practice lead at Thought Leadership Leverage. Bill helps clients who want to use thought leadersh...
Oct 27, 2020•36 min•Ep. 20
Twenty years ago, we barely had enough info to measure our impact. Today, manufacturing marketers are overwhelmed with data, and everyone wants to sell us software to find, store, clean, surface, and use that data. Why is data such a big buzzword in business, especially manufacturing? On this episode of the podcast, I invited Jon Thompson, co-founder and senior partner at Blue Margin Inc, a company of 38 consultants and engineers who help mid-market companies with an emphasis on industrials use ...
Oct 20, 2020•34 min•Ep. 19
What comes to mind when you think of a great business leader? Someone with all the answers? Someone who grinds away working long hours? Someone with such deep experience and expertise that you don't need to question his or her guidance? Or is a great leader someone who leads by empowering the people around them? On this episode of the podcast, I invited Kevin Snook, CEO of both Saxagon and LUCIDi4 and author of the Amazon bestseller Make It Right, to talk about leadership in the manufacturing se...
Oct 13, 2020•31 min•Ep. 18
From Industry 4.0 to 3D printing to wearable technology, there are so many advancements happening in manufacturing. But it's easy to get sidetracked by these shiny objects. We need to focus on the problem or goal at hand first. And then APPLY the right-fit technology accordingly. On this episode of the podcast, I invited Jonathan Hensley, co-founder and CEO of Emerge Interactive, a digital product consulting firm that works with companies to improve operational agility and customer experience. J...
Oct 06, 2020•26 min•Ep. 17
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...
Sep 29, 2020•41 min•Ep. 16
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. ...
Sep 22, 2020•16 min•Ep. 15
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....
Sep 15, 2020•32 min•Ep. 14
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 ma...
Sep 08, 2020•39 min•Ep. 13
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 o...
Sep 01, 2020•36 min•Ep. 12
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, autho...
Aug 25, 2020•35 min•Ep. 11
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 t...
Aug 18, 2020•32 min•Ep. 10
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, Pip...
Aug 11, 2020•27 min•Ep. 9
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 t...
Aug 04, 2020•28 min•Ep. 8
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...
Jul 28, 2020•23 min•Ep. 7
By 2022 online videos will make up more than 82% of consumer internet traffic. That's 15 times more than in 2017, according to a recent study by Cisco. Video is how your buyers want to consume information, so it's exactly how you need to deliver it to them. On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Danny Gonzales, CEO of both Industrial Sage and Optimum Productions, talked about driving growth through video production in the industrial sector. Here's what we discussed with Danny: How ...
Jul 21, 2020•31 min•Ep. 6
I did something a little different in this episode. As opposed to bringing in an outside guest and interviewing them, I did a solocast. It's just you and me talking about things I've learned while serving the industrial sector for the last eight-plus years as a sales and marketing consultant. Today, I discuss how to stop giving away engineering and consulting services for free. Here are some of my thoughts from this episode: How to package your expertise so you don't go down these long time-suck...
Jul 14, 2020•21 min•Ep. 5
Are you really doing content marketing if you don't create white papers, write blog posts, and deliver long speeches about the benefits of your product? Can a CAD model help educate your prospective buyers just as effectively as a nice, fat e-book can? On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Adam Beck, Director of Marketing at CADENAS PARTsolutions, talked about educating your audience using CAD models. Here's what we discussed with Adam: How to protect real manufacturing models whi...
Jul 07, 2020•24 min•Ep. 4
When a lot of industrial companies start out, they're lean. Nimble. Close to their customers. But as business scales and becomes more complex, they lose the opportunity to be in constant contact with the market. Often, when you go into an industrial company as a new marketing hire, you have to rebuild strategic marketing as a core competency. Know what your customers care about, how the industry is structured, and how you are positioned. Then, tell a story with that information. On this episode ...
Jun 30, 2020•28 min•Ep. 3
Try describing a mechanical thing with a blog post. It's not easy. It's not the right format. But try taking a 3-D model, making it photorealistic, and then doing animations of how it works. Now, you're on to something. So when you think about content marketing, do you think blogs, social media, and podcasts? Or do you think, "What's going to help my audience?" On this episode of The Manufacturing Executive Show, Nick Goellner, sales and marketing leader for Advanced Machine & Engineering an...
Jun 30, 2020•28 min•Ep. 2
I like working with people who get dirty building stuff. That's why I'm committed to serving the industrial sector by producing resourceful, helpful, and objective content. In the past two years, I've written 50,000 words of content, or about a whole business book, to help manufacturers figure out how to grow their businesses. (That was just my writing; my team of 18 people in St. Louis produced a lot more.) So it's a natural transition to ask: What other media could we explore to publish these ...
Jun 22, 2020•6 min•Ep. 1
