Strategy for Industrial Manufacturers and Machinery Builders

Your Products, Use Cases, And USPs Will Change

It's banal to note that markets change. It's true. But it's really hard to plan and to quantify. We all get that.

As Bill Gates warns "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten."

The key to strategy for industrial manufacturers, therefore, is to simultaneously:

• execute relentlessly on what's working today
• plan for incremental change in the short-medium term
• creatively anticipate the larger-scale changes that will disrupt a market

In the industrial manufacturing space that could include 3D Printing (additive manufacturing), e-commerce, cloud and data (e.g. remote monitoring), changing consumer habits that impact customers' businesses and more.

An effective board with independent directors will ensure the executive staff blends current management with future strategy.

And a strong consultant will blend short-term advice and results with a long-term perspective.

And So Will Your Buyers

As your market changes, your buyers will too.

And yet most manufacturing and capital equipment companies define their ideal customer profile (ICP) according to the same criteria they traditionally have.

That's a mistake.

As your business evolves it changes. As your market evolves, your place in it - and therefore your ICP - changes. As consumer expectations change, your old ICP may fail to adapt - and therefore your target changes.

Strategy must account for this. In most middle-market manufacturing companies, though, product marketing simply tracks competitors. The founder runs R&D according to their interests.

That's not strategy. That's a hobby.

It's critical to understand your buyers before you undertake any product road mapping, sales strategy planning or digital marketing design.

New Product Vitality Index (NPVI)

3M generates >30% of its sales from products which didn't exist five years ago.

Of course....they have big R&D budgets, large sales and marketing teams, lots of resources to make that happen. AND they created the concept of NPVI to hold themselves accountable.

At the same time, $10B in new product sales (30% of approx $30B) is a massive number. To position your middle-market business for success will take much less.

It's doable.

But....it's a massive change management project.

If you want to dabble in tactics, then focus on tweaking the manufacturing of the machines and products you always have, with small, incremental adaptations. That's a strategy by default.

If you plan or aspire to grow, though, then build a team that will help you create and launch new products.

Buying Habits Change Like Markets

COVID probably changed your trade show and T&E budgets. Maybe they're coming back, but it will be a long time before they're the same.

That means a substantial change in how industrial manufacturers market and sell their products.

Revenue growth strategy today requires more than understanding market trends, changing buyer expectations, and creating suitable new products. It requires a strategic (legitimately) approach to using sales methods, technology and digital techniques to identify, attract and engage with buyers.

Your traditional website, marketing and industrial sales org chart, resource allocation and approaches probably won't work.