The Industrial Executive

When was the last time you really thought about your website? For a lot of businesses, a website is that thing that they don't really think about until it’s time to make an update or update a plugin. But a good website is not only a good idea, it’s crucial to the success of your business. Especially in 2019. But what makes a good website?

If you want to close a new customer, you first have to build a relationship with them. We all know that, right? But what if you could build that relationship by creating valuable content with that potential customer? That’s the magic behind content-based networking. And James Carbury, Founder of Sweetfish Media and co-host of the B2B Growth podcast, is one leader doing this really well. After a few years of working for an entrepreneur, James knew he eventually wanted to start his own company. So in 2015, he launched SweetFish Media where they produce podcasts for 75 really innovative B2B companies. He quickly learned how pivotal relationships are with people he could ultimately do business with. On today’s episode, James dissects a five-step method to help you start using content-based networking to catapult your business forward.

Everybody loves the Mom & Pop business. The company that’s been in business for decades, being handed down from generation to generation. But how do they do it? How do those small companies stay in business year after year, maintaining their edge among the big guys? What are the unique challenges and successes facing these organizations? Craig Bethel, Wealth Strategist & Managing Director at US Trust, was a guest on the Industrial Executive Podcast, talking about the biggest issues facing family-owned businesses, and what those same companies are doing to be successful.

On today’s episode of The Industrial Executive podcast our guest is Wayne Breitbarth, author of the best selling book The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success. Wayne is also the first ever repeat guest this podcast, a testament to his knowledge and to the importance of LinkedIn to strategic success. Last time we talked with Wayne about optimizing your LinkedIn profile so prospects can easily find you. Today, we're focusing on the flip side of that coin — using LinkedIn to find other people, others who might fit your ideal customer or maybe even your ideal employee. Here’s what Wayne had to say.

The fundamentals of business haven’t changed, especially in the B2B space. People still buy from people. But what has changed is the way in which people can connect and communicate. Nelson Bruton, President of Interchanges, a full service digital marketing agency, helps companies fill up their sales pipelines by adjusting to this unique way of doing business. What’s working right now? Conversational marketing. 24/7 live chat is a powerful tool to explore for your business if you’re spending money on marketing like SEO or email marketing. If you’re driving traffic to your website, engage those visitors while they’re on their website. You wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars on a booth at a trade show and then not have any of your salespeople present, right? It’s the same thing in the chat situation. You spend hundred of thousands of dollars to drive people to your website and then when they show up, no ones there. We can do better than that! On today’s episode, Nelson walks us through the different types of chatbots companies are using and best practices for targeting your audience on LinkedIn.

The way your customers buy has changed. That’s no secret. But this is why marketing is currently having to step in to play a bigger role is the buying process. There’s actually research that shows that buyers today want to wait as long as possible before they speak to a sales person. It’s not that they don’t want to buy, they just don’t want to be sold to. So what are we to do with this great reluctance? We sat down with Doug Burdett, owner of Artillery Marketing and the host of The Marketing Book podcast. Doug works with small to medium sized manufactures to help them grow their business by generating more leads. These are companies that feel like they’re wasting money on marketing and are overwhelmed with how to get started. But Doug’s company changes that by taking the fear out of building relationships with your customers and creating content that informs.

Justin Champion is a champ when it comes to content marketing and inbound strategy. As an Inbound professor at HubSpot, adjunct professor at the University of Florida and author of Inbound Content, he’s got all the knowledge we need to elevate our content game. Because the last thing the world needs is more mediocre content. There’s so many people looking for content and there’s so much content already out there--but are they finding what they need? Creating content alone shouldn’t be your goal. In fact, Justin has shared case studies that have shown that more content can actually be harmful to you if it’s poor. How? Because having a lot of content on your website that doesn’t provide value makes you lose authority in the space. So how do you create a content strategy plan that cuts through the noise and gets your stuff found and noticed? Tune in to hear Justin’s three tips.

Engagement is a buzzword, but it’s one that most companies need to pay more attention to. All engagement means is giving people opportunities to connect with you throughout the entire buyer’s journey and beyond. The goal of engagement is to build relationships with people, real human beings, that lead to success for both of you. Their problems are solved, and you grow your business. It’s a win-win. In this episode, show host Todd Hockenberry provides insight on developing a unique engagement strategy that prioritizes people over outcomes.

If someone asked you what sets your company apart from the rest of your competition, what would your answer be? What would you say it is that your company does better than everybody else? Here’s a hint: It can’t be the product that you produce.

Selling isn’t easy, but maybe there are some things that are easier to sell than others, like, say, a robotic arm. But don’t tell that to Ben Toskey, President of MOTIVE Robotics in Minneapolis. MOTIVE focuses on delivering turnkey robotics for material handling applications. More simply put, they help companies that handle any form of materials move the materials around a factory with less human effort. We love the intentional way Ben sells his product. Industrial companies tend to be product-focused and they hyper focus on selling features and benefits, but Ben’s company hits a different note. They think with the end in mind: the desired outcome. Top of mind are the goals of the customer and how his solution could help them achieve those goals.

Plagued by a car dealerships’ monthly calls offering to buy his old car, host Todd Hockenberry shows how industries of all stripes can stop using these anti-relationship marketing techniques to work smarter and more effectively to segment and sell to your existing customers by actually listening to them.

The stakes are high. Welcome to 2019. Open discovery is dead. “Always be selling” is dead. 2019 is about making your prospects feel known, understood, and cared about; and only calling/emailing to help them. Sales roles are declining, 2019 is noisy as ever, and everyone is busy and distracted. Fortunately, Dan Tyre, Senior Leader of HubSpot and Co-author of Inbound Organization, joined me on The Industrial Executive In this episode, Dan offers 6 proven tips to cut through the noise, create opportunities, and have amazing sales calls in today’s environment.

The only constant is change. Even in business. We even change the way we manage change! It’s not any easy thing to handle for most individuals, so is there any hope for successfully implementing change within a large group of (very different) people? Dave Sweet is the President of Mecco Marking and Traceability where he’s been able to put his engineering background to great use when it comes to change management at his company. What he’s learned? It all comes down to the individual components playing well with each other. When he first “brought” change into the company, there was a lot of hesitation. Pretty typical seeing as change tends to bring uncertainty. It’s just natural that people really need to understand the change you’re hoping to implement and have time to digest it before they potentially buy-in. But there was something he learned during this time: as the leader of the company, he needed to focus more on helping people cope with the change vs actually implementing it. His managers would handle the implementation, but as the leader, he needed to help people cope with it.

“E-commerce doesn’t work for me.” “Why?” “Well, we tried it.” “What does that mean?” Many B2B manufacturing and distribution companies don’t view building a like building another physical location. You must invest as you go in the necessary features of the store. Many suffer from having disparate systems that are not well integrated, interrupting their prospects' buyer journey. This is where Karie Daudt, VP of Marketing and Customer Experience at Insite Software, expertly helps B2B manufacturing and Distribution companies build e-commerce sites that keep buyers engaged through the buying process. In this episode Karie outlines why every B2B manufacturing or Distribution company should use e-commerce as a strategic initiative now. Check out Karie’s Executive guide or request an assessment for your business’s e-commerce needs.

“I was 50 years old when I started using Linkedin. I thought there were a million reasons it wasn’t going to work for me.” That was Wayne Breitbarth. He went on to write The Power Formula for Linkedin Success, selling over 100,000 copies. I asked Wayne to unpack why Linkedin is the most strategic platform for industrial, B2B, and manufacturing companies. The short answer: it’s is not just another social media platform, it’s the database we never had. Check out Wayne’s worksheet on how to use “connections of” the essence of LinkedIn, and what Wayne calls the “referral filter”.

We are talking all things associations with Executive Director at MACF, Sherry Reeves, on our most recent episode of The Industrial Executive. Sherry tells about the exciting things happening in small manufacturing businesses and communities and the ways she’s seeing associations, like MACF, support them while encouraging a new generation of skilled workers find their place.

Understanding the role that digital marketing plays is important regardless of industry, although crucial in the traditional B2B space. Adam Robinson, Marketing Manager at Cerasis, chats with us the role digital plays in the world of logistics.

What’s the secret to having a company that is 100 years old? Glenn Williams, President of Bell Performance, joins us on this episode of The Industrial Executive to talk longevity and the unique environment they’ve created for both customers and employees.

Our guest this week on The Industrial Executive podcast was Ken Gieseke, VP of Marketing at McElroy Metal. Ken has worked at McElroy for more than 20 years and has had front row seats to watch the evolution of marketing and sales within the industry. He shares with us how McElroy has adapted to the changing marketing sphere and are watching it drive sales.