The Manufacturers' Network

The Manufacturers' Podcast is THE place for manufacturers to connect with and learn from other manufacturers. Not only will listeners get to learn from their manufacturing colleagues, but they will also discover HOW they can help each other as a resource or as a source of help and inspiration. As a manufacturer, it's easy to get pigeon-holed into only focusing on your own industry, whether it be through your industry trade association or your industry colleagues. While trade associations are an excellent source of information for their members, sometimes it's gaining a perspective from someone else in a completely different industry that gives you the solution to your dilemma. Stay tuned for new episodes every week on "Manufacturing Monday's." This drive-time length podcast will give you the information, tips and strategies you need to get your week off to a fantastic start.

Latest episodes

Feb 5, 2024 • 31min

Veteran Champions in Manufacturing: Hiring, Retention, and Advocacy with retired lieutenant colonel Kathy Lowery Gallowitz.

In this episode of The Manufacturers Network Podcast, host Lisa Ryan engages in a powerful conversation with retired Air Force veteran Kathy Gallowitz. Gallowitz shares her expertise in supporting veterans' transition into the civilian workforce, particularly focusing on their integration within the manufacturing industry.Key Themes:1. Challenges of Transition: Kathy Gallowitz underscores the challenges veterans face when transitioning to civilian life, such as identity loss, unstructured environments, and a lack of understanding of their strengths and aptitudes. She emphasizes the need for employers to act as advocates, not just architects, for veterans, outlining a strategic plan to help veterans succeed in the workforce.2. Best Practices: Best practices for attracting, hiring, and retaining veteran talent in the manufacturing sector are discussed, including the use of military skills translators, the involvement of current veteran employees in the hiring process, and the importance of building a veteran voice committee or employee resource group.3. Military Culture Training: Employers are encouraged to invest in military culture training to understand the unique needs and experiences of military personnel. Building a veteran-friendly workplace, offering career ladders, and providing clear pathways for advancement are vital factors in becoming a veteran-ready employer.Lessons Learned:- The episode sheds light on the importance of recognizing the unique skills and value that veterans bring to the manufacturing sector, including safety focus, leadership capabilities, operational discipline, and technical proficiencies.- Gallowitz's journey, from growing up as a navy kid to becoming a career Air Force veteran, is not just inspiring but also provides valuable insights into understanding the challenges veterans face during their transition to civilian life and the workforce.For more information:Vanguard Veteran Overview: https://vanguardveteran.start.pageVeteran Talent Academy: https://vanguardveteran.com/veteran-champion-consulting-training/Complimentary Veteran-Ready assessment: https://vanguardveteran.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/may-2021_-vr-employer-assessment.pdfVanguard Veteran's Employer Consulting and Training: https://vanguardveteran.com/veteran-champion-consulting-training/Invite Vanguard Veteran to Speak: https://vanguardveteran.com/invite-me-to-speak/

Jan 29, 2024 • 25min

Recruitment Marketing: Insights and Strategies for the Manufacturing Industry with Nicole Morgan

Host: Lisa Ryan Guest: Nicole Morgan**Contact Nicole Morgan through Resolute PR's website. www.resolutepr.com/workforce-recruitmentLisa Ryan welcomes Nicole Morgan to the Manufacturers Network podcast. Nicole Morgan is a PR and marketing expert and founder of Resolute PR. She has an innovative approach to addressing changing workforce behavior.#### Background and Work at Resolute PR- Nicole shares her journey, having worked in PR and marketing for nearly 20 years and founded Resolute PR about ten years ago.- Resolute PR takes a holistic approach to addressing client issues by understanding their goals and struggles, with a recent focus on assisting HR departments in marketing open positions.#### Addressing Workforce Recruitment Challenges- HR departments often faced challenges in attracting employees as they primarily targeted those actively seeking jobs, neglecting potential employees who may not be actively looking.- Employers must focus on branding themselves as an employer, emphasizing work culture and value for potential employees.#### Employer Marketing and Employee Recruitment- Employers should focus on marketing job positions through clear job descriptions, regular performance reviews, and transparent employee growth paths.- Encouraging positive employee feedback and addressing negative feedback on platforms like Glassdoor can influence job seekers' perceptions.#### Trends in Workforce Marketing- Trends are shifting towards retention campaigns rather than labor shortage solutions, emphasizing the importance of employee communication and transparency.#### Women in Traditionally Male Positions- Nicole addresses the importance of accommodating women in traditionally male-dominated industries, such as ensuring the availability of women's restrooms and fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce.#### Contact Information- To learn more about Resolute PR's workforce recruitment study and services, visit [resolutepr.com/workforce-recruitment](www.resolutepr.com/workforce-recruitment). - Contact Nicole Morgan through the website's contact form.#### Key Themes- Workforce Recruitment Challenges: Understanding the changing hiring landscape and the need to market job positions effectively to attract potential employees.- Employee Retention: Shifting trends towards retaining top talent through effective communication and transparent growth paths.- Women in the Workforce: Recognizing the importance of accommodating and inclusivity for women in traditionally male-dominated industries.#### Lessons Learned- Employers need to adapt their recruitment strategies to appeal to actively seeking and passive job seekers.- Clear job descriptions and transparent growth paths are key for attracting and retaining employees.- Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is essential for accommodating women in traditionally male-dominated industries.#### Fun Facts- Manufacturing and industrial sectors are adapting to workforce demands by offering flexible scheduling and on-site childcare facilities.- Employers need to prioritize employee communication and transparency, aiming to retain top talent as the employment landscape evolves.

Jan 22, 2024 • 29min

The Battle Against Cybercrime: James Fair Reveals Common Threats Faced by Manufacturers

Connect with James FairWebsite: executech.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmfair/Lisa Ryan: Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. Our guest today is James Fair. James is an IT and cybersecurity veteran with 35 years of experience. He's held every role from entry-level tech to senior VP, and now he's working in cybersecurity. James, welcome to the show.James Fair: Thanks, Lisa. It's an honor to be here. I'm very excited.Lisa Ryan: Great. Please share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing in those 35-plus years.James Fair: Yeah. I've been doing this since computers were around; I'm an old-school guy. What started for me was a passion for technology. At age 13, I got my first real PC. At age 16, I would deep dive into that, and no one would see me for two years. When I came out, I would know everything about it. It's always been a passion of mine to dive into technology. I've been doing technology for a long time, but part of that has always been cybersecurity because back when I was doing it, there was no separate role for cybersecurity. Now you did everything.No one realized there was a separate need for that, and there wasn't because there wasn't much going on out there, or at least we weren't aware of it anyway. Over time, I have developed a passion for helping organizations stay protected, prevent attacks, or deal with them when and hopefully if they ever happen. Hopefully, they never happen to anybody; if they do, I want everyone to be prepared.We do not wait until the cyber stuff hits the fan before deciding to take action. Now, we'll make a plan. They're like, Ooh, what? What do we do in this situation? Let's get ahead of that. That's what I'm after. Let's help organizations be protected and respond better when something does happen.Lisa Ryan: Yeah, and it's scary stuff with all the ransomware and everything else that you're, I've had friends that have gone through that and without proper backup or thankfully they had outside backup, it didn't cost them as much time or money as it could have, but it was a pain to deal with. So, what are some common cybersecurity threats you see in manufacturing?James Fair: We see some similarities across all industries, but mainly manufacturing is, first of all, the common one, ransomware, right? As you mentioned, I want to caution your listeners for organizations and home users; please have backups. You can recover from about anything: fire, flood, theft, ransomware if you have good backups. And I've had tough conversations with people to say, Hey, this lady called me up, just, it was awful. She said, my grandmother passed away last month, and I have all the pictures of her, and they're on my computer, and now there's this ransom note on my computer.What should I do? And that is not a conversation I ever want to have with anybody. Please make sure you're backing up. I don't care what product you use; I'm not selling anything, but please ensure you're backing up your home machines and organizations. Okay, back to your original question.Lisa Ryan: Since we're talking about that, what do you think of cloud backup? I've been using Carbonite for years, but is there something about it going into the cloud, like a product like Carbonite, or should it be a physical backup as well? Or is there? It doesn't matter. Like, where does that fall for? Yeah, home and business.James Fair: The cloud is perfectly acceptable for home and always works. Business may be different in that you may need to recover the data quickly or a lot of data very quickly. And if it's all in the cloud, you have to download it.What's your internet speed like? Because now the rate at which you can recover is based on your internet speeds. We want to have that conversation with each business or organization to see how long they can deal with an outage; let's say ransomware hits, and everything's cleaned up.Now, we're doing the recovery process. How long can they take? Can we prioritize files first? It depends; it is not a great answer. But it depends on the organization that we're working with. Whether they can do both in many cases for larger organizations, we certainly encourage both.Have a copy locally that you can recover quickly. Have a copy on the cloud in case someone gets ahold attackers get ahold of that backup. We worked with one organization that got hit by ransomware, and the attackers had gone in and formatted the hard drives they used for backups. Like they wanted to make sure they could not recover from them.Remember, when attackers are going after organizations, particularly larger ones, they're going to do everything they can to ensure that you cannot recover from that, including one thing we haven't mentioned yet: an exfiltration of data. Nowadays, we're seeing a lot of this: I'm also going to steal your HR data or intellectual property.So, when I come to you and say, Hey, will you pay this ransom? And you say, Nope, I got good backups. I'll go okay, but I have this information. You don't; you do not want to release it to the public. Now, that's being held over people's heads as well.Lisa Ryan: What is X infiltration? What? What is that term?James Fair: I'm sorry—x filtration of data, meaning, okay. I'm going to take information on your servers that you don't want out there in the public, and I will grab that first. Then I will say, Hey, I will sell this unless you pay me.Lisa Ryan: Oh, wow. Yeah. Is there honor among thieves? When you pay the ransomware, will you get your data back, and then you're going to fix it, or will they keep coming after you? That's why it's such a crooked business.James Fair: It is. Yeah. And how do you have any trust in here? To give it a no, I don't want to put a positive spin on this. There is nothing positive about this, however. The attackers want credibility because if, for any reason, you believed that they would not come through on their side of it, people would stop paying.So, they have a vested interest in proving that they will recover your files. Now, I've only done this twice, but in my experience, two times at least. Yes, they got almost all the files back. A couple of corrupted ones couldn't be recovered, but in general, yes. If you pay, you get the files back. Statistically, I've heard something closer to 80% of the time. But in my experience, I'm two for two. Yeah, because the attackers have a vested interest in ensuring their reputation stays good; otherwise, no one would pay these ransoms, and they would no longer be in business.Lisa Ryan: When I also think about phishing, when the CEO is going out of town, and supposedly that person calls the secretary or sends them an email, Hey, I need this kind of cash. And they don't even think, because it's oh no, the CEO's calling me. How would you educate your staff? Because the phishing emails are getting better than Holy cow. I always check the return address and email address to ensure it's something instead of XYZ@GmT@yahoo.com or something.James Fair: Yeah. That is, that is a great question. The most effective technique we see is doing an internal phishing campaign. Some organizations like that feel "big brother" to attack our own people. But I have a different perspective. It's meant to raise awareness. It's intended to get people to look at the reply email because we are humans first. We make mistakes.We get busy. We respond emotionally before we respond logically. If you've ever been cut off in traffic, you may have experienced this. That's what the attackers are leveraging. All these great tools that we put in place, the anti-ransomware, the antivirus, firewalls, everything else, are programmatic, and they're much more challenging to get what you want.But humans, conversely, can manipulate them to some degree. Internal phishing campaigns to raise awareness are probably the most effective tool. And again, it's not meant to get someone; it's meant to look like, hey, here's a quick training for you. In five minutes, you'll know how to quickly check to ensure you're not clicking on something you don't want to.And you'd rather have us, the white hat folks, doing it than find out that someone sent credentials out that they shouldn't have via phishing email.Lisa Ryan: So do they know if management hires a company like you to white hats to send the phishing emails, or do employees know that they may be coming, or do they have training before and then, afterward, to see how much they learn? How, what does that look like?James Fair: Some organizations will dictate what that is for us. Our engagement looks like a very, and yes, they will come to us saying, hey, we have been phished before. We don't want it to happen again. What should we do? And we proffer this suggestion, and they buy off on it.Then we'll do a very easy-to-catch one. Very few people may get caught in that first one to create a baseline that we can do more difficult ones to see how we're improving, where we're, maybe there's a particular group or a few members who need more training than others.And then maybe we come in and do an hour-long security awareness training. I do a lot of those. I'll go into an organization and spend an hour talking about what we're seeing out in the wild. Best practices for security, those kinds of things. These days, you need all those great security and IT tools in place, but you've also had to train the users because we are humans, make mistakes, and are busy.Lisa Ryan: Yeah. On your list of topics here, ransomware was one of them, but you also said breaches through third parties. Is that the same as ransomware, or what would that mean?James Fair: If you consider, I don't know if you recall the target breach from long ago. Target wasn't directly attacked. Someone got in through their HVAC system. The H V A C folks had put a computer in their network that they could connect to do work on the system, which unfortunately had been connected to the rest of the network's backbone. The attackers could break into that H V A C system and then into the rest of the network.So, was that a direct attack on Target? No, not necessarily. It was through a third party. We want to ensure we're careful about engaging with third parties and that they have the proper security tools in place. Because you may have all the best ones in the world, but if the person you're working with doesn't, that can be a challenge.So it's not about us having them; it's also about the people we work with, having those in place.Lisa Ryan: You think about how interconnected everything in manufacturing is with the H V A sys C systems, the production lines, accounting, HR, finance, and everything woven together. So yeah, that would be quite the danger.James Fair: Yeah, it's a challenge. Best practices, and I don't want to get too technical here, is to segment those pieces off that you can't talk to each other except by. Pre-designed paths that any new path can't suddenly show up and start connecting through there.But I want to touch on something because if there's a relevant story, that applies here quite a bit. It was a manufacturing company. They were working with a large vendor of theirs, and there was an email exchange going back and forth between someone in finance and on both sides. And no one knew that the vendor side's email had been infiltrated.Now, many times, we think, all right, someone gets ahold of my credentials, they're going to jump in and start doing stuff immediately. But we've found that's not the case. Often, we see it hanging out; maybe we'll call it. They're watching, seeing what's going on. They're learning; they see who you talk to, who speaks to you, who you report to, and who reports to you.Who are you doing business with? What kind of language do you use? What's your signature? They're learning as we go. They stayed in the system for, we do not know how long because it was into somebody else's organization. This email transaction went back and forth, and they finally agreed to a $150,000 invoice.Immediately, the attackers jumped in and did a reply to all. They had all the previous email transactions in the email, and they said, Here's the link to pay the $150,000 and the email domain, as they got even trickier. You caught that. It was not the actual domain it was coming from. They got tricky.They bought a domain; they figured it was worth trying. The company had a W in the name. They bought a domain with two Vs. Right next to each other. It looked like a W if your brain wasn't paying attention, and unfortunately, someone clicked the link and paid $150,000; that company was out 150,000 and still owed the vendor $150,000.Wow. Phishing is a big deal, and account compromises are a big deal these days; we must watch out. I cannot stress enough the value, and it's not a hundred percent; it's not a silver bullet. Nothing is, but the value of multifactor authentication or two-factor authentication or MFA or, however, you want to call it, having some additional level besides your login and password that you have to enter, that's a huge difference in security for a very minimal impact in efficiency for people.Lisa Ryan: Wow. And I think about two, and this isn't totally with manufacturing because you do have to be at the plant, obviously, but there's still a lot of people working from home. My husband works for a manufacturer but is in accounting; he gets to work from home a couple of days a week. When you look at that rise in remote work and all the interconnected supply chains, What are some things that manufacturers can do to ensure that the remote work isn't potentially causing any problems?James Fair: Yeah, the organization is mature enough. We can start looking at some sophisticated tools. For instance, internally, we use a product from Microsoft called Intune. Intune is designed for a remote workforce, allowing us to set the same parameters. On devices that we would if they were in the office.So it has to have a screen timeout, and it has to have these specific password parameters, and it has to, it has to have antivirus. We can list a whole series of things a computer must adhere to before being allowed to connect and access company data. I encourage people to look at ways to lock down those devices only to have access if certain criteria are being met.Lisa Ryan: And then we're also looking at things like, you want to be efficient, but you also want to be safe. How would manufacturers balance the productivity they need to make money and the cybersecurity that keeps all their efforts safe?James Fair: That is a great question, and as much as it pains me to say it, security and ease of use tend to be at opposite ends of the spectrum.The most secure computer in the world is the one unplugged, sitting in the middle of the room. It's not very effective that way. And the easiest one to use is the one that doesn't require a password, but we want to be somewhere in between, right? It is about finding a good balancing act.The idea is for a security team to come in and say, you have to do this and this and make your work difficult. That's not the idea. That's never what, certainly what we want to present, right? We want to come in and add some security that works with the business model and the businesspeople.And yeah, we'll add a little bit of MFA, right? We will add a bit of overhead to what we're doing in return for a lot of return insecurity nowadays. We want to base everything on risk. A lot of organizations are playing whack-a-mole, whatever's in the news.That's what they're working on that day to try to block it from happening. They're playing whack-a-mole all the time. And while what they're doing is busy working, it's progressing, and they're making the environment more secure. We want to encourage people to consider the most significant risk to the organization.So, let's make a spreadsheet. We call it a risk register. Let's make a spreadsheet and list all the things we can think of. Other people can think of imaginary scenarios. Who knew we were going to have a nationwide epidemic, right? But list all these things that could occur, their likelihood, and how significant the impact is if it does happen. And then, based on that, let's give it a risk factor. Then let's sort by the risk. And we start working on the things that are the highest risk to the organization first. And we're not playing that whack-a-mole with our time.Lisa Ryan: Wow. That's something. It's funny when you talked about passwords; I don't think a day goes by that I do not utter the sentence. I hate passwords because I forget them all the time. I use one of those password keepers, but it only has some. Yeah. Right, there is that. That maintains that security and does not frustrate your employees.James Fair: Better solutions are coming, and better tech is coming. If you think of it on your laptop, the windows, hello. You open it up; it recognizes your face and logs you in. You didn't have to touch a thing, didn't have to our password, right? Phones are the same thing. Passwordless tech is coming more and more. Hopefully, that's a pain that will soon be a thing of the past for you.Lisa Ryan: And the funny thing is because I like crime shows, I think about the number of where they have the criminal, and they're trying to get into his phone, and they hold the phone up to his face and unlock it.James Fair: Exactly. I thought the same thing. Why do you put a ping on it? Otherwise, put our finger on it, right? Cut your finger off. In the worst case, this is horrible. That's a possibility.Lisa Ryan: Exactly. And it wouldn't be on television if it didn't happen at some point. Yeah. I know that you've worked with a lot of these different cases; what would be, and of course, you're not going into the minute details of it, but what would be a real-world case where you worked with a manufacturer and maybe this is a tale to warn what, what could happen if they're not careful?James Fair: Yeah. We worked with 500 users. The organization here in Utah that had been hit by ransomware multiple times. And they brought us on, unfortunately, before we could get everything solidified. They got hit one more time. It was through one of...

Sep 4, 2023 • 30min

Maximizing ROI in Manufacturing: The Hidden Opportunity of R&D Tax Credits with Casey Barka

Aug 21, 2023 • 28min

Felt Marketing for Manufacturers: Uncomplicating Success in the Manufacturing World with Allison DeFord

Connect with Allison DeFord:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisondeford/Email: allison@feltmarketing.comLisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. I'm excited to introduce our guest today, Allison DeFord. Allison is the founder and trailblazer at felt marketing for manufacturers, and also an expert on the manufacturing MA Masters platform and the overly caffeinated host of the Manufacturing Masters podcast.She lives to rid the manufacturing world of the web. We syndrome and guide manufacturers to being seen, heard, and felt by their ideal customers. Allison, welcome to the show.Allison DeFord is Excited to be here. Thank you for having me.Lisa Ryan: Share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with manufacturers.Allison DeFord, it's mostly the fact that they are makers, and that's always fascinated me. They make something from nothing. And for me, it's the people, the stories. Many companies we work with, granddad or grandma, bootstrapped had two nickels rubbed together, but they solved a problem.They created something that didn't exist to solve a problem. And I think the coolest thing about manufacturing is making something from nothing again. And I love its technology side and its evolution over the years. It used to be considered blue-collar, grungy, dark, whatever. It's the complete opposite today. And I just find that very exciting, watching the transformation, and yeah, I live to help people communicate better, and that's the reason that we are called Felt. The most beloved and successful manufacturers are not just seen and heard.But they're felt and connected to the heart of their customers, and that's not an easy task. And we're good at helping them do that, especially small to mid-size manufacturers. That's just my absolute favorite to work with.Lisa Ryan: Yeah. Awesome. And it reminds me of when I was in the welding industry, and it was literally at that time it was everything your mother ever warned you about the same thing, dark, dirty, dangerous.You'd walk in; everything was gross. Now I walk into these plants, and they're bright, shiny, and automated, and as you said, the technology is just amazing, and you start bringing in robots. It's also a recruiting tool because a candidate is walking in. They're like, that's the coolest thing ever. I want to work on that.Allison DeFord And good point, too, because there's all that talk of the robots taking our jobs. No. They're there to take over the repetitive stuff so that you can elevate the talented people that work with you.Yeah. Yeah. And when I've had people on the line on the show talking about automation, a good place to start I've found they have found is, what is the task your employees hate doing the most?And automate that because, again, you're showing them that you're listening to them and you're giving them other things to do that is a better use of their talent than whatever that manual labor task that a robot could do easier and cheaper and not call in sick. .if you could be marketing for any industry, why did you, why else did you choose manufacturing?Lisa Ryan: Why do you specialize in that?Allison DeFord We looked at this model years ago with our own business. We're the test dummy; I don't serve you something I haven't tried myself. And we figured out that distributors, for example, are looking to the manufacturer. For the marketing literature and the support and training, the dealers are looking to the manufacturer, and we thought, why would we want to work with anybody else?But the main, the maker everybody's looking to for the marketing support, that help, and that training. It just made sense to support them; the manufacturer is like that foundational person or foundational component, and it's the backbone of this country. I get excited about that.Lisa Ryan: Oh yeah. If you just look around, you. Somebody has made everything that we're looking at. Yep. Oh. I always joke with my friends that if I'm speaking at a weird, if there's a weird association, chances are I'm speaking to it because there are associations for everything. It is the coolest thing to be around makers passionate about things nobody else thinks about.Allison DeFord: Yes. Until they have to replace them or they break. Lisa Ryan: So I have to ask you, what is the We Syndrome, and how is it hurting manufacturers?Allison DeFord: If you look at most manufacturers' websites, let's say you do the five-second speed test. How many times do they use the word we?Look at their social media posts. How many times are they talking about themselves? And what I have had great success doing is helping manufacturers overcome this. And again, you and I have discussed here some things you can do to help yourself that don't cost any money or a lot of money.This is one of them. Flip the script and address. The viewer address, the prospective customer, or the customer who's coming back to your website or looking at your social media feed, you need to lead with them, not you. And I have this little story that I've shared a million times, and people are probably tired of hearing about it, but I found this image years ago a stock photo. It's this little boy, and he's staring at his navel, and he's like squeezing it together, like making it talk. And he's just fascinated with his navel. And to me, that's the Wewe syndrome. I grew up with cousins. I grew up in Indiana, and many boy cousins ran around with their shirts off, and I couldn't; I was a little jealous.Because it was humid as you know what, And they were just fascinated. They were just fascinated with their own navel and thought I was hilarious. And I, that's what I see companies doing. I've been guilty of it myself. Again, I'm not pointing fingers; three are always pointing back at you.It's to flip the script once and for all and show your prospective buyer or your current customer. This is what's in it for you. This is why you should buy this, and this is why you should buy it from us. This is how it will transform some part of your life or business. Flipping the script on the wee is, yeah, it's imperative, and it doesn't take a lot of effort.Lisa Ryan: No. Just switching those to use. And make a huge difference. It reminds me of my own marketing material that I, it's the same kind of thing, but I called it doing eye surgery, and that you go through and remove every time, I say I love that eye. Are you doing we surgery? Yes. But it's important.When it comes to marketing, it's not something that, You think a lot about when you are a manufacturer that you know, I make this stuff, people are going to come to me. How are you? What are the areas that you focus on when it comes to working with your clients in their marketing efforts?Allison DeFord: The brand foundation is number one. I always say marketing happens from the inside out, right? Or from the top. We talk about shit rolls downhill. Yeah. I find that most small to mid-size manufacturers I encounter don't have a compelling, unique value proposition.They're not leading with what's the promise? What's the thing that makes you different? Why should I care? What's in it for me? They're missing that the unique value proposition is key. How do you get to that? I take a look at who are your audience personas. Who, what do they look like?We don't have that. We have it here, but we don't have it in A P D F, or we've never put it on paper. It's imperative to understand who you're marketing for and on behalf of, not at. The major way we are different is that we're not trained to help you interrupt. We convince.It's connecting to the heart of your ideal customer. Because people don't make decisions rationally. 90% of the time, they make decisions based on emotion. Why not connect on an emotional level that's imperative? It's that brand foundation stuff that's usually missing.Also, they are usually missing a brand personality and a brand voice. I use Target as an example, even though they're a retailer. We can learn a lot from B2C. You see a commercial come on. Or maybe a radio spot or whatever; it's targeted before they even show you the bullseye logo at the end because there's a voice, there's a tone - same thing with brands like Yeti Gerber Knives. I could go on forever. But those are the ones that are memorable because they have, they're distinct, and they mean something to you. And then a strategy. Most manufacturers are missing a cohesive and not like some 80-page document that they're never going to follow, but create a holistic system as I think of the Hoberman sphere, and when you open it up, it's, and it's all connected.So how is your messaging connected? How is it connecting? Is it consistent? Is it relevant? And are you leading with what's in it for them? You have to help people self-serve because they're what, 80, excuse me, percent through the buying cycle before they ever pick up the phone to call you. And if they're millennials or younger, they don't want to pick up the phone, right?They don't want a salesperson to call them ever. They want to do it all digitally, and they want it to feel. Easy. Helping people overcome a lack of content, like we don't know what to talk about, is what we help you figure out. How often should we do it? Where should we do it? Do we have to be on every social media platform?No, you do not, but be where your people are. That's the whole ticket. It's breaking it down and dispelling the myths. Most manufacturers feel overwhelmed with marketing at this point, and I can see why. It's easy. It's easy to do, right? There's much more, and it's changing quickly.So it's like, where do I start? What do I don't know what to do? Guiding them. And what you're guiding, what appeared to me is that it is bringing back the passion for why you started your business. As far as what is that, you talked a couple of times about the promise in your unique value proposition, but why did you even start your company in your garage 20 years ago?What is it that you knew you could do better than anyone else? What is it that you are passionate about? How are you different? And I think if we just even go back to the very foundation. Of, the, of why we even started our business because it wasn't to make cheap stuff that well, we're a penny cheaper than anybody else, and that's why I started my business.There's no passion in that. And we can start to build our branding, or you can also help them build their branding by taking them back to the essence of what makes them unique from every other maker out there. Yes, and I find that most manufacturers make the mistake of talking about what they do, and what they make instead of why they do it, which is what you just said, right?And that's people don't buy from you because of what you make. They buy from you because of why you do it. And what's in it for them? How does it? How does it empower them? How does it make their life easier? Nobody wants to buy a drill, but they do want to make a three-quarter hole, make a hole.Yep. Most manufacturers have such a unique story. Nobody else has, but they've bought into this idea that we need to tell people how long we've been in business, how many square feet of manufacturing floor space we have, our history the more we tell you about ourselves and the, the products that we make, the more compelling it's going to be.And it's not. But when you start from a place of difference, for example, one of our clients is a custom circuit board manufacturer. And when you look at his competitors, everybody's saying the same thing, right? There's a lot of; there's a lot of me too. There's a lot of wee. And we looked at their operation, their business. They have 20 employees.They're not doing gazillions of dollars a year yet, but they've been around for a long time. And I said, you know what you guys do better than anybody else. You uncomplicate something complicated. You uncomplicate circuit board assembly, and your team is down to earth, and there's just this human element with this technological, Piece that I said, that's what makes you guys different.And as soon as we flipped that, and we led with that on their website, I, he's had people ring him up, and we rebranded, changed their logo, and made it a lot more relevant today. And he's gotten many compliments. People are like, oh my gosh, I love what you're saying. I love this.It's speaking to people. Sometimes it's something as simple as you uncomplicate something. Another manufacturer we work with, your natural gift is that you guys make this part of the construction process easy. Your competitors are all big corporate; they're doing many other things.They make it hard. You guys make it easy at every turn, and they said is that unique enough? And they said it is. No one else is talking about it. It doesn't have to be complicated. That's the thing, it's usually right under your nose, and you're just too close to it to see it yourself.Lisa Ryan: And it can be something that everybody else is doing. Several years ago, one of the beer companies came out with a label that turned blue. If the beer was super cold, I'm sorry. Everybody's beer will be the same amount of cold.But because they thought ahead, to make theirs blue. Everybody started thinking that theirs must be colder, but that was because they had something different that nobody else was talking about. You find that one thing you just summed up beautifully that you can own.Speaking of providing services and benefits to manufacturers, I have been an expert on manufacturing masters. I know that is your baby and your passion. Why don't you tell us a little bit about what the Manufacturing Masters platform is and why it's valuable for manufacturers and reps?Allison DeFord: Great question. It's the baby of Darren Mitchell; I give him all the credit. Yeah, he's awesome. He is an entrepreneur; I call him Midas. Everything he touches turns to gold, and he's very down-to-earth. And he created this Netflix for manufacturers because of what he likes to call it.But instead of entertainment, it's education and best practices. And me and my company had the great pleasure of helping him name it and develop a brand, and we came up with the tagline, everything they never taught you in school. That's what you're going to find on this platform. And the cool thing about it, Is you're not being educated by just willy-nilly random people, right?These are up to 130 vetted, battle-tested, and trusted experts. I'm on there talking about marketing. You're on there as well. It's every possible subject that you can think of. And one of my favorite stories, Is Darren was in a room with a bunch of manufacturers, and he was, they were talking about this platform, and the one guy just he'd been real quiet, and he raised his hand.Darren said, yeah, what's up? He said I've been doing my job for 26 years, and until I watched the best practices about, I can't remember what the exact topic was until I watched those on this on manufacturing masters. I had no idea what best practices even looked like for my job, and now I do. He's God; I wish I would've had this years ago.And it was just; it's that kind of transformation that happens. And the cool thing is I also have the gift of working with MEPs and associations to bring this to their entire audience. And Darren has priced it in such a way because he fully. NPS and associations and their value is that when they bring this into their program and offer it to their people, not just one person gets to subscribe.Every person in that manufacturing company gets to subscribe for the same. It's all covered. It's incredible. He keeps opening it up. And I keep saying, wow, when I think you're being too generous, you get more generous. And he said that's the point I wanted to bring this to people like me.He owned a business for 26 years, 25 maybe. And he said A lot of times you feel alone. Yeah. You don't know all the stuff that you need to know. And if you can have this support system at your fingertips, It's on demand; it's short. He purposely made, and you know this, every video is like anywhere from two minutes to, some of mine were 20 minutes because I was one of the ones at the beginning, and he's we have to shorten this up.We have to make it the right size and easy to consume on your time. You can grab this nugget and put it into action.Lisa Ryan: Yeah. Most of mine are in the five to seven-minute range. But the interesting thing about the platform that you alluded to is that regarding people being vetted, it's like any sponsors do not pay Darren to be who I want to be, and I have my own channel on manufacturing masters.Allison DeFord: I felt very blessed that he found me because of my work and invited me to participate. But if I would've just found him and started prospecting and trying to sell him on why I would be such a great expert, there's no way he would've had me unless he did the full background.So that's what I like about it, is that it's real people. Real plants. It's not you don't have. I'm a professional speaker, but I am the exception versus the rule. And you're just getting real people sharing their stories about what they do. And as you said, you've seen people learning in those little snippets of information many times.You must have access to something that I could sit down with, I could watch a five-minute or a 10-minute video, get some great ideas that I can put into practice, and you know what? And if it's not right for me, maybe it's not right this time, and I go on to another expert because I have 139 more people I can watch.And when you were on the Manufacturing Masters podcast, you brought up an excellent point, and I think it segues beautifully with this or ties in, I should say. You said it's not 2019 anymore. We can never return, so this platform is incredibly important and relevant today.Number one, everybody's zoomed out at this point, right? And we're working differently than before, consuming much information, news, and social media feeds. It's overwhelming to me, frankly. It's a.when you have many options. It has to be. Our attention spans are, have shortened tremendously.So that's why I think it was brilliant on his part to make these all very short to the point; he had zero fluff. Nobody's trying to sell you anything, right? It's, let's jump into this topic and

Aug 7, 2023 • 26min

Revitalizing Manufacturing Brands for Growth: Insights with Ed Delia

Connect with Ed Delia: edelia@delianet.comWebsite: Delianet.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddelia/Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturers Network podcast. I'm here today with Ed Delia. Ed is president of Delia Associates, a B2B brand growth firm based in White House, New Jersey. As a second generation of the firm founded by his father, Ed and his team of 12 serve a broad range of manufacturers in various market sectors, helping them use brand power to accentuate growth. Delia Associates has received over 50 industry awards for B2B brand marketing effectiveness in the last four years alone. Ed, welcome to the show.Ed Delia: Thanks much for having me, Lisa. Great to be here.Lisa Ryan: share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Delia.Ed Delia: Sure. Delia Associates was founded in 1964 by my father. Being part of a family and a family business, you grew up around it. I was always. And involved in the family business but never see it as a future occupation. Until shortly after college, I was all set to take a job outside of Philadelphia, and Dad and I had one of those heart-to-heart talks, and he said what do you think about coming into the business?Learning it from the ground up, and you buy me out and take it over? And it took a weekend to think about it. And said, wow, I'm about to pass up on business ownership. I don't think I should do that hastily. I said, yes, let's do this. And when you're in a good place, when time kind of flies, I looked up, and a year passed by, and I blinked.I'm like, wow, okay. Things are moving fast. I'm learning a lot. I'm doing a lot. This must be a good fit for me. That's where it all started. And. A few years later, we executed the buyout process, and then some years later, my dad retired, and the ship was mine. It started as a traditional business-to-business advertising and PR firm.And I always had a real keen interest and passion for brands. After taking over, I started to explore and immerse myself in the power of the brand. I realized at the time there was an unmet need where there were a lot of manufacturers who were our clients. Historically, They've been clients in manufacturing, engineering, processing technologies, and automation.There was no real clear sensibility of brand the power of a brand. It became my mission to bring that to them and to bring that to that audience and help them understand how powerful a brand could be when its marketing programs were enriched with a brand strategy and intent. So that became my life's work to date.Lisa Ryan: Okay. And you think of manufacturing, you think of brands with the large manufacturers out there, but when it comes to your small and medium, mid-sized manufacturers, how important is your brand to near and long-term success and growth of the organization, no matter your size?Ed Delia: It's critical even for the small manufacturers because they all compete. They're competing with companies of the same size, of smaller sizes. And often, they're trying to compete with much bigger entities. For them to have a voice in the mix, they can use brand power to accentuate their reason for being their mission, the value that they bring to we often say to our clients because some of them are small and mid-sized manufacturers, it's not about being the biggest, it's about being positioned as the best.Because when a buyer sees you as the best possible option, and they have that emotional connection through your brand, they're going to say, we're going to go with this firm. They're the best; they're the best fit for what we need right now. And then that's how we aim to position our clients.Lisa Ryan: if they, everybody has a brand, whether they've focused on it or not. And especially in the last couple of years when everything has changed. How would a manufacturer know when it's time to either rebrand or rethink its image and position in the marketplace?Ed Delia: It's a great question, and we often come up against that one. We often say it's time to rebrand, and we see this often when the organization's capabilities have outpaced the image. We'll often hear things from CEOs like we are; we're capable of much more. We're capable of bigger opportunities. We're not getting them. The larger clients or, the bigger engagements aren't seeing our value.And that's because their capabilities, from a capability standpoint, they're up to the task. They can handle the biggest, the strongest, the most complex requirements. But from a brand standpoint, they're just not being seen that way. Often say to Clarence, it's not; we all know about if we use a phishing metaphor; we all know about the big one that got away.But I'm more worried about all the fish that circled the bait and never took a bite because they said, no, this is not a good fit for us. They're not up to the task. They can't handle our needs based on how their brand is positioned. Ensuring that the brand is commensurate with the organization's capabilities is critical.And a lot of times we see that they. The organization has outpaced its identity, and that's when it's time for a refresh. And we see ten other common triggers to rethink or reposition the brand. But that would be a big one.Lisa Ryan: You think of branding or branding and marketing and all of this stuff, which just sounds expensive. What are some low-cost ideas that can get manufacturers to get started about thinking of their brand and then determining where they want to go if they want to make a larger investment, but take that fear and that, oh boy, I'm going to have to write a massive check to get anything done? What, how can they get started?Ed Delia: One of the things that we often do as a first step is to start a very focused conversation around growth before we even endeavor to get into discussions around the brand. Because sometimes, if a manufacturing leader doesn't fully understand or can't wrap their head around the brand initially, they most certainly understand growth.And often, we will work through a bit of a growth model where we help them prioritize the top three to five growth channels for their organization. That is ultimately going to move the lever and the needle. And then, from there, we start to assess whether that growth strategy could be realized with the current brand or if brand revitalization is required.It's not always necessary, and it's not always the first step. It's just an important step when the company is stalled, has hit a plateau, or is being held back by the brand. And then it's easier to make that value proposition because we're like it's not much what we're paying for, it's what we're losing in terms to competitors or the opportunities we're not getting If we had a stronger brand, we would be growing faster and further.It's been proven that well-branded companies will outpace their non-branded counterparts by two to one. There is an acceleration there once you do go down the path.Lisa Ryan: when you talk about growth, that probably means a lot of things to other people. And you said different components of growth. What do you mean by that?Ed Delia: When we look at a B2B or manufacturing enterprise, there are three primary growth methods. You either get more new customers or extend and expand current relationships with current customers. Or you increase buying frequency.Those are the three primary growth methods for a B2B organization or a manufacturer. From there, we've modeled that for each of those methods, there are ten growth channels a manufacturer could engage in to create that growth. Now, what you're left with then is 30 growth channels.That's a lot for anybody to swallow, even a large organization. I never suggest that. What we work with our clients to do is say, what are the top three to five that in the next 15 to 24 months will most readily and rapidly move the needle for this organization? And that's what we prioritize.And then that's what we encourage them, therefore, facing service and sales teams to prioritize. And then that's what's the prioritization in marketing. We're always working towards a growth strategy that, at the end of a period, we can say, how did we move the needle? Did we, ultimately, affect the change?And the strategies could range from either expanding a service line or expanding to a new market sector. Or, in adjacent markets, let's say the manufacturer sells into pharmaceuticals, and they see an opportunity to sell into it. Maybe the veterinary or medical device market is an adjacent or somewhat adjacent industry.Let's look at how to pivot and extend that way. Or it could also be establishing joint ventures or partnerships with other supply chain providers to extend their reach. It could also involve this one that big and large, big and small manufacturers miss asking for referrals and introductions.It sounds simple. But you would be surprised that even the most accomplished sales professionals don't do that or don't know how to do that well; sometimes it's as simple as that we helped the company almost double in two years just by saying, look at all the relationships you have. Imagine if you went out and smartly asked for introductions, and they did, and the growth was phenomenal.Lisa Ryan: I think the critical thing to learn from that lesson is a lot of times, we're going to hire a marketing company to come in and do a rebranding, and we want to do everything at once. And as you said, there are 30 different channels that they could choose from, and then just determining from the standpoint of what is the three that we should at least start with and get those going.Ed Delia: And maybe that baby step is we're going to teach you how to ask for referrals. It's not doing everything all at once. It's doing one thing, getting good at it, then doing the next.So it's almost like you're getting 1% better with everything you do. Over time, that will lead to big changes, but not getting. It sounds like you're helping them not to be overwhelmed with this whole process by reigning them in a little bit. That is very much, very well stated. We often say it's better to execute with excellence than do too much or too little.So I would rather see a company do three to five things incredibly well than try to take on 10 or 15 initiatives and fail at all of them. And that's part of the prioritization, which will get them down the path, the best way, the furthest, the fastest, and the best possible way.And that's where we prioritize. Yeah, it's only sometimes doing it all at once. We also have to consider bandwidth, resources, and what they can do, manage, and afford at a given period. That's commensurate with their organization. That's factored in as well.So I would never put on the table a massive program for a small niche manufacturer that they could never afford or even undertake doesn't make sense. Let's fix some doable strategies and paths that align with our focus and desire for growth, and let's work on those and execute them well.Lisa Ryan: aside from the increased visibility we've been discussing with the brand, what do you think are some other benefits people get when portraying a strong brand?Ed Delia: Interestingly, over the last two to three years, we've been getting more requests for rebranding from the manufacturing community driven by hr.Be driven, being driven by sales and marketing. And the reason is many manufacturers need help attracting and retaining great talent. Often, they have an employee population starting to age and look to retirement. Those people have a lot of tribal knowledge.They know a lot, and they can do a lot, but eventually, they're going to, they're going to say, okay, I'm done. It's time to retire. And there's just not that next generation coming up through the ranks that will take on those positions. And many of the emerging workforce generations, mainly the millennials and a little Gen Y, are just not seeing manufacturing as a sexy path.Although they can do great things in manufacturing, they can make. Some healthy incomes in manufacturing, right? We've been doing a lot of brand development and campaigning around attracting talent versus new customers for our manufacturing clients. That's become a big benefit. And a lot of the leadership and manufacturing are manufacturing realizes we better look the part for this emerging generation; we better showcase as a place that welcomes them is a good place for them too. To come, grow, and develop as our next great employee population.Lisa Ryan: Wow. Yeah. That's such a good point because I know a lot of times on this show, we talk about the workforce and how hard it is to find people who want to come into manufacturing, and then what do you do to keep them? It sounds like. When you have that strong brand, you are creating a workplace that people are proud to work for because it's known, a brand that's respected, and a brand that people are proud to work for and do business with. It would make attracting people to at least check out the organization easier.Ed Delia: Yeah. And the emerging workforce, they, they're. They're a little different than maybe a year in my day when we were entering the workforce and just happy to get a job. Exactly. Let's just get that first job. That's all we care about. They want to work for a place that has meaning, contributes to the greater good, has a purpose, and is on a journey where there's growth. They're looking for a lot more out of the experience of working, and The manufacturing leadership needs to be attended to that and can't stick to the old ways of just saying, oh, just be happy to be employed and have a job.Lots of places and ways for them to do that. And they don't need to be in the manufacturing community to do that. Manufacturers have to work harder, too. I would say the industry at large could be doing a better job at doing some missionary work to showcase that manufacturing is a great career path for the next generation workforce.Lisa Ryan: Oh. There was much gold in what you just said there, but even showcasing manufacturing, what dawned on me too is the manufacturing day, the first Friday in October, to use that as even a kickoff to your branding to show that this is what we're doing in the community, this is how we're interacting. This is our brand, and. Also, to realize that we are not returning to the good old days. Sometimes in my talk, when I'm talking about keeping your top talent from becoming someone else's, and these people come in, and they have that attitude that nobody wants to work anymore, and I can't pay these people enough, and they're not willing to pay their dues.Nobody's going to pay their dues anymore. They don't want to do the crap work nobody else wants to do because they can get tenure and build up their way. It's no, it's a different world where you're not coddling your employees, you're treating them with respect, you're listening to their ideas, and you're creating a workplace VI environment that is in this post-pandemic employee-centric marketplace that we are just not going back to. I'm sure you have dealt with prospects, and many of them understand that they have to change. And then other ones say, I don't need to do any of that. We've been doing it this way for 50 years. Those are probably not the ones you're working with.Ed Delia: No. They and those that may be tried to hold to that. They are quickly changing their tune and realizing that getting people to work for them used to be easier, but now it's not. And now they have to work a lot harder at it. And, some of them are like, do we have to do all that?And I'm like, if you want great talent, yeah. Yeah. You have to fight for it. And if you're willing to fight for it and you're willing to give them a great experience and a great environment, and they're going to stay and grow, You're going to grow, going to grow. Because great talent drives the bus a lot faster than throwing a body at an assignment that couldLisa Ryan: And the interesting thing, too, is we used to worry about losing our people to other competitive manufacturers down the street. Now, with all their options, we're not losing them to their manufacturers. We're losing them to Amazon; we're losing them to Uber. We're learning, losing them to DoorDash because people want to have their businesses and do their own thing instead of being disrespected, told what to do, and treated like another cog in the wheel.So that's the image we need to change with manufacturing, branding, and getting the word out there. We can do that. When you're working, how would you suggest manufacturers develop a realistic growth strategy for their company?Ed Delia: It starts with prioritization, looking at the three primary growth methods, and then assessing the growth channels and carefully assessing which ones are most relevant to that organization. And those are the ones we can then dig into, focus on, and build a real growth strategy, subsequent marketing planning, and then potentially brand planning around that to build a framework they can start to use and work toward.So that everybody, all. Everybody's flying in formation in the organization. Everybody understands what the growth priorities are, and everybody's working. Because when you get that momentum behind it, it will happen. It's going to happen. But with that, if there's clarity or people don't know, manufacturing organizations flounder because they need to know the priority, where they're going, or the focus. They need to know that. And that needs to be reinforced and reemphasized on an ongoing basis. It's not a one-and-done, and you're there. You have to keep working at and working at it, and then you get there, and you get that momentum going. And once that momentum going gets going, it's exciting. It's exciting for all.Lisa Ryan: what have you found to be some of the most effective marketing methods that manufacturing brands can use to reach new audiences?Ed Delia: there's some new and some old right now, and this is something of a post covid getting together and gathering.People love returning to trade shows and conferences because they couldn't for long, and it's human nature to want to gather. In the last year or two years, Our clients have all been very aggressive about returning to shows and meeting and greeting in person to re-establish that human...

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