Industrial Growth Institute Podcast

Why do engineers often struggle as industrial sales people? Why do successful sales reps often struggle as sales managers? In this podcast episode, host Ed Marsh ???? chats with Mike Miller, Director of Sales and Marketing at AZO, Inc. about Mike's journey through both of those traditionally challenging transitions. Mike shares his experience, lessons learned along the way, and techniques he's used to help him and his team thrive in challenging sales circumstances. #TechnicalSales #SalesEngineer #IndustrialSales #MachinerySales #SalesManager #SalesManagement #SalesProcess https://hubs.ly/Q03bkQVm0

It all starts with finding real frustration among buyers in the market. That's where Eric P. Rose, founder of Pinnacle Product Innovation, Inc. starts in his process of helping companies develop new products. Market success rests on finding an unmet need and solving it, not simply experimenting with the stuff that we find interesting and think should matter to buyers. Host Ed Marsh ???? recently chatted with him on the podcast and they covered a lot from Eric's long career in new product innovation. #ProductDevelopment #ProductManagement #ProductRoadmap #NewProductDevelopment #NewProductInnovation https://hubs.ly/Q0399rwp0

Joshua Gentine kind of broke the mold. Yes, he attended University of Notre Dame as expected - and played football for the Irish. But he didn't return to the family business. Instead, he charted his own course, a journey that took him to seminary, consulting, and finally back to the business as a director. A voracious reader and student of people, Josh now helps family-owned businesses navigate the inherent challenges they face to find joy in the family and then joy in the business. Host Ed Marsh ???? recently chatted with Josh to share his wisdom about the barriers to family business growth in the industrial manufacturing sector. #IndustrialManufacturing #ManufacturingRevenueGrowth #Strategy #FamilyBusiness #IndependentDirector #Governance https://hubs.ly/Q0389jgB0

Does your company just fade into the white noise of an avalanche of vanilla content - or even AI produced babble? Would it be helpful to stand out? Authority, authenticity and trust are important components of differentiation, and your senior executives are potentially voices of those that can establish your business in a unique way through thought leadership content, if........ If they are consistent. If they stake out meaningful, defensible, well-articulated, and potentially controversial positions. If their content is well-written and impactful. We all know from consuming (or ignoring!) content that those are big "ifs." And Jake Meth, founder of Opinioned, probably knows that better than anyone. Five years building Fortune's Opinion section meant Jake endured many crappy pitches and learned to sniff out a great kernel of thought leadership to then help craft it into a meaningful piece. That's what he does now, as a "Fractional Editor-In-Chief." And that's what he and host Ed Marsh ???? discuss in detail during this episode. https://hubs.ly/Q03759Xk0

How do you know if you're receiving the full benefit of your industrial trade association membership? In fact, how do you know if membership or mempershipS is the right answer? Those are a couple of the topics that host Ed Marsh ???? recently dug into with long-time industrial trade association executive Stephen T. Sears, MBA, CEP. Stephen is currently the CEO and Executive Director of the EIFS Industry Members Association (EIMA) and brings years of Madison Ave. marketing and government advocacy experience to the role. In this conversation Stephen offers loads of advice from the inside - as the leader of a trade association. His insights include tips on how manufacturers can fully leverage their memberships and the potential value that he sees companies sometimes overlook. https://hubs.ly/Q0367V2H0

How would you market and sell differently if you knew exactly what your prospect was thinking? Of course the answer to that is contextual - you can only answer if you in fact knew what they were thinking. But maybe that's more feasible than you assume. That's what the Five Rings of Buying Insight can deliver. Built upon qualitative research and detailed personal interviews, Adele Revella's improved framework is like the Rosetta Stone for industrial marketing and sales. Listen in as Jim Kraus, president of Buyer Persona Institute, chats with host Ed Marsh ???? in the latest episode. https://hubs.ly/Q0359Mlc0

How often should you train your sales team? Who should do the training? How do you know if it was successful? What's the difference between sales training, sales coaching, sales management? How about sales process vs. sales methodology? If you've ever asked yourself any of these questions, you've got to check out this recent episode during which host Ed Marsh ???? speaks at length with sales legend Dave Kurlan. https://hubs.ly/Q034hnC30

Cycles come and go. Secular changes endure; in markets, in business, and in industrial sales and marketing. We spent >100 years developing and refining "modern" industrial sales and manufacturing marketing. 1900-2005 saw many cycles, but the model was similar. 2005-2020 saw huge changes as the internet enabled drastically different buyer behavior. Some companies are still slowly adapting to that era. But it's already given way to a new secular change. Because secular changes happen slowly, they often can't be fully understood as we traverse them. That's likely true of this one. Perhaps in 20 years it will be clearer exactly what has changed. What's amply clear now is that there are changes, and we need to adapt. In order to adapt deftly, we must first understand the changes, including what's likely driving them. That's what host Ed Marsh ???? breaks down in this episode. https://hubs.ly/Q033hVs60

Join host Ed Marsh ???? as he reviews and recaps 2024's podcast episodes. https://hubs.ly/Q032C8CJ0

David Anderson, founder of engora.tech joins Ed Marsh ???? for this episode. David is on a journey to use machine learning to help engineers improve the efficiency of their component sourcing and specification. He envisions a process through which years of tacit knowledge are included in an engine that simplifies administrative tasks. The implication of that is enormous. In the world he envisions, what's the role of technical sales? Or of traditional industrial marketing? Average will become irrelevant. Expert will remain important and relevant - perhaps even more so. The rubric that David suggests for gauging your effectiveness? Solving for buyer preferences. #BuyerExperience #MarketingToEngineers #IndustrialMarketing #IndustrialSales #ManufacturingMarketing #AIandMarketing #AISales https://hubs.ly/Q031pqmX0