In this episode, The Fabricator's editor-in-chief Dan Davis provides invaluable insights on leveraging technology to drive growth for metal fabrication leaders. He draws apt analogies like Oreo's product innovations and personalized banking to demonstrate how smart investments in production and marketing technologies enable manufacturers to expand revenues. Dan highlights automation, robotics, and collaborative bots as key investments on the production side. He advocates personalized outreach shaped by AI and modern digital tactics for sales and marketing. Like financial firms once did, manufacturers now can democratize technologies to level the playing field. Companies can gain control and cultivate the specialized book of business they desire by taking a strategic approach, properly segmenting, and personalizing outreach. Tune in to glean more tactics to deploy the latest technologies and catapult your fabrication organization ahead of the competition in this Practical CMO episode, "Tech Enables Metal Fab Segment Growth."

About Dan Davis:

Dan Davis is editor-in-chief of The Fabricator, the industry's most widely circulated metal fabricating magazine, and its sister publications, The Tube & Pipe Journal and The Welder. He has been with the publications since April 2002. He has written about U.S. manufacturing trends and issues for more than 30 years.

Links from this episode:

The Fabricator

Dan Davis on LinkedIn

Our guest is Tim Doyle, the Vice President of Sales at TopSpot, a digital marketing agency serving over 800 industrial and manufacturing clients. They discuss the current state of industrial marketing, characterizing it as uncertain yet still seeing strong growth in some sectors. Tim highlights a leadership void in many mid-size manufacturers and how fractional executive engagements can fill gaps. We dive deep into the current state of marketing in the industrial sector. Tim gives us the lowdown - things seem uncertain, but some verticals still see solid growth. He highlights a big issue in mid-size manufacturers - a lack of marketing leadership. The discussion covers aligning sales and marketing, generating qualified leads, best practices for high-performing websites, and the importance of an ongoing marketing strategy. Tim draws on examples from leaders like Dalsin and Nema Enclosures to emphasize being accountable, consistent, and partnering with experts.

About our guest:

Tim Doyle is the Vice President of Sales at TopSpot in Houston, TX. A Michigan native who attended Western Michigan University and studied Public Relations and Advertising, Tim has been an industrial marketing professional since the mid-1980s.

Tim’s role as the VP of Sales is to oversee that the clients’ web strategy aligns with the true goals of the business. He ensures that TopSpot’s integrated marketing strategy meets the needs of all the stakeholders in the business: be it new client development, current customers, employees, and sales representatives.

Tim leads TopSpot’s sales force, educating and inspiring the 20+ person team, located all over the country. He has presented at multiple FMA Events, including their Annual Meetings & Fabtech.

Links from this episode:

TopSpot

Unique markets have different levels of Marketing maturity, use different ways of going to market, have different metrics of success, and view the role of Marketing in their organizations quite differently. Sometimes, it’s too easy to get too focused on what you have traditionally done in Marketing, and also a challenge to look outside your unique market for best practices in other markets which you might adopt. In today’s program, we are going to do a deep dive into the Healthcare market, and do a temperature check on its overall health and growth prospects. We will also characterize organizations in this sector—and try to highlight best practices inside the market, but also identify best practices from other markets which might be beneficial to a Healthcare marketer.

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My guest today is Deborah Fell, Area Managing Partner and CMO at Chief Outsiders. Deborah is an excellent colleague who has brought strategic marketing and dramatic improvements in Marketing programs and performance to her clients. Deborah has worked with healthcare clients in the insurance, mobile clinic, and senior living markets.

You can connect with Mark Coronna through LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcoronna/ 

Guest: Deborah Fell, Area Managing Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders

[email protected] 

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-26-whats-goin…thcare-marketing/

Unique markets have different levels of Marketing maturity, use different ways of going to market, have different metrics of success, and view the role of Marketing in their businesses quite differently. Sometimes, it’s too easy to get too focused on what you have traditionally done in Marketing, and also a challenge to look outside your unique market for best practices in other markets which you might adopt. In today’s program, we are going to do a deep dive on the industrial businesses, and do a temperature check on their overall health and growth prospects. We will also characterize businesses in this sector—and try to highlight best practices inside the market, but also identify best practices from other markets which might be

My guest today is Kimberly Miller, a colleague from Chief Outsiders who has spent the better part of her career in Marketing roles in industrial companies. We'll tap into Kimberly’s industry insights as we look to offer practical guidance.

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Today’s Participants:

You can connect with Mark Coronna through LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcoronna/

Guest: Kimberly Miller, CMO, Chief Outsiders

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-25-whats-goin…strial-marketing/

Kimberly is an industrial marketer with operations and engineering in her DNA.  Working with engineering or operational lead manufacturers, she brings the marketing strength that fuels growth by developing strategies with input and buy-in from not only customers but internal groups.  As a result, her clients align their teams, implement a shared strategy, and achieve their revenue and profit goals.

The value proposition of most businesses is based on what they do well. In many cases, focusing on what the company does--the products they make or the services they offer--is neither differentiating nor compelling. Even more problematic, many value propositions do not offer clear benefits to the problems and challenges their customers face.

In this podcast, we will discuss creating value propositions on the “how” businesses create value instead of “what” they do. Codifying, packaging, and branding a company’s service components can often deliver a message which is more compelling and differentiating. And what’s more, codifying the way customers are serviced is a great way to integrate operations, sales, and marketing.

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Today’s Participants:

You can connect with Mark Coronna through LinkedIn here:

Guest: Dennis Bailen, Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-24-brand-the-how-not-the-what/

This podcast is a very unusual but realistic view of what Marketing does well and what it doesn’t do well. You’ve been promised big results with a quick turnaround. You’ve been told that social media is a silver bullet for increased sales (so far, you haven’t seen an impact). Your marketing team and vendors have overpromised and underdelivered, and you’re disappointed. You’re frustrated.

Perhaps you’re close to giving up on marketing entirely, but something tells you that you shouldn’t—you just need to know how to use it wisely.

In Lies, Damned Lies, and Marketing, Atul Minocha reveals the root causes of your frustration and provides you with the insight you need to utilize your marketing dollars for real results.

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Today’s Participants:

Guest: Atul Minocha, Partner& CMO, Chief Outsiders

[email protected]

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-23-lies-damne…es-and-marketing/

Related Resources

This podcast offers a practical guide about how you can use the Intellectual Property (IP) you already have in your business to enhance your revenues and profits, create more competitive differentiation, make your business more attractive to business partners, and enhance your exit value.

Intellectual Property is a largely unexplored business opportunity for SMBs due to a series of myths. We are going to explode those myths with some ideas to help you drive growth and competitive advantage.

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Today’s Participants:

[email protected]

Guest: Noel Elfant, Principal Attorney, General Counsel Practice LLC

[email protected]

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-22-intellectu…-are-you-missing/

About Mark's Guest: 

Noel Elfant is the founding member and principal attorney of General Counsel Practice LLC. GC Practice delivers general counsel services to individuals and companies that require business-focused, operationally oriented legal advice of seasoned general counsel on a cost-effective, less than full-time basis. Noel was the first general counsel, corporate secretary, and chief compliance officer for Zebra Technologies Corporation, a publicly held manufacturer and marketer of bar code and RFID technologies. Most recently he served as the general counsel for the North American operations of DeLaval Inc. a Swedish manufacturer of dairy farm equipment and cleaning chemicals for the food processing industry and part of the multi-billion-dollar, privately-held Tetra Laval Group. He began his career in the corporate and securities department of McDermott, Will&Emery before joining the legal department at Fortune Brands, Inc., a consumer products conglomerate. Noel earned his JD degree from Northwestern University School of Law and his BA degree from UCLA. He is licensed in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Noel is married to Susy, they live in Northbrook, Illinois, and they have three adult children.

Like many emerging technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into the market through several applications. Emerging technologies are often misunderstood and misapplied early in their adoption. Even when the technology itself is ready for commercial application, individual businesses need the maturity and readiness to use these newer technologies effectively.

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-21-is-it-time…-ai-in-marketing/

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Today’s Participants:

Guest: Christa Martin, Fractional CMO, Chief Outsiders

[email protected]

Most business start-ups fail. The numbers are both compelling and ugly—only 10% of all business start-ups reach $1M in revenue and fewer than 1% get to $10 million.

What if you could beat the odds by employing four tested business practices? In this program, we are going to take a positive track and outline a set of proactive actions every business exec contemplating starting a business, or already actively building a new business, can adopt to beat the odds and achieve your goals.

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-20-four-best-…t-up-to-scale-up/

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Today’s Participants:

Guest: Brett Trainor, Founder, iQuipt Ventures

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The adoption of “digital” in your business may be an initiative you have considered but consistently tabled. With markets rebounding from COVID and with quickly forming preferences which will transform the way business is done online, you may be behind the curve. “Digital” offers increased abilities to manage your employees and your customer acquisition and relationships as online business becomes more of a preference and less of an option.

But “digital” is hard to define, hard to prioritize, and often hard to execute well, following the “Business First, Digital Second” approach.

This expert session will help you structure an effective digital roadmap for your business, starting with digital marketing best practices.

https://thepracticalcmo.com/ep-19-your-first…ing-more-digital/

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About Mark's Guest: 

Beth helps companies develop market-focused strategies and leverage technology to fuel growth and innovation. A digital pioneer, Beth led OfficeDepot.com to $15 million in revenue and profitability in year one. She also ran two digital-first automotive companies and directed all digital marketing for 10 auto dealerships. She has expertise in all aspects of digital - analytics, PPC, SEO, Website optimization, video, mobile, and social media. Recently, Beth led the productization of Chief Outsiders Digital Marketing Assessment.

Host: Mark Coronna, Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders

[email protected]

Guest: Beth VanStory, Partner & CMO, Chief Outsiders

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