Episode 21
21: Why The Relationships Between Marketing and Sales Teams Are Important - with Allison DeFord
Meet Allison:
She is the founder of Felt Marketing. She and her team are on a mission to strengthen heart and soul manufacturing for generations by helping manufacturers retrofit their marketing to make sales easier, modifying traditional systems with modern components. She's also your marketing expert on the Manufacturing Masters on Demand platform.
Lori: What's the biggest opportunity manufacturers aren't capitalizing on today to make sales easier?
Allison: Love that question. I would say they're still siloing sales and marketing, and they're not. It's a topic we've all talked about for probably two decades, and I still encounter it, even with my clients trying to get the marketing team to meet up with the sales team monthly. I beg I'm like, okay, give us 20 minutes. 20 minutes. I know everybody's busy. And I think that I know that if you would unite your sales and marketing team, you would increase your growth, and you would increase your profits. I guarantee you'll make sales easier. And that's something that we started talking about at Felt probably six, seven years ago. And we put ourselves through our process, and we realized that we were still speaking our language, not our customer's language. And we thought, all right, what do people want more of? What do manufacturers want more of? They don't want more marketing. They want less marketing. They want more sales. And so that was a big shift for us. And so I've been preaching that ever since. If you can bring your sales team, they're in the boots on the ground. So if you can understand, hear from them the stories, the challenges, the wins, and get ideas. The whole reason we exist is to support them and to support customers. And I learned something about a phrase several years ago. I don't know if it was from Bernadette Jiwa or Seth Goden, I think it was Seth, but it was, stop marketing at people and start marketing on behalf of and for them. So if we can shift that one perspective and unite sales and marketing. We will make sales easier. We will help our salespeople sell while they're sleeping and be of service. And that's the whole point of marketing. So what do you guys think? Am I barking up the wrong tree?
Kris: Do you have any simple tricks to create the space for marketing and sales to come together?
Allison: Yeah, well, I had a couple of thoughts. I think this has to start from the top. It comes from leadership. And when I meet a leader that has a sales background, but they don't understand or value marketing, they typically issue my request to bring the two together. And I believe it's just simply based on fear. It's fear of I don't understand what this is. I still think it's smoke and mirrors and fluff marketing. And our sales team is the most crucial part of this company because we make the money and don't have time. We don't have time to be bothered. We don't have time to take out of our day. And so that's the first thing. I think it's got to come from the top down. Second, I think we've got to overcome the fear and simply say, come to the table and say, as a marketer, I always come to the table and say, hey, I want to hear from you, sales team. You have all the knowledge. You are talking day in and day out with the customers and with potential customers. So I need to know what you know. I want to hear from you. I want to hear your ideas. And I think if you're a good marketer, part of our job is to pull it out of them. And I feel like we're good at that. Like I tell people, you don't need special shoes and this isn't going to hurt. It's a conversation. It's dialogue. And trust me, I will artfully pull it out of you. And it's a lot of times those little nuggets that they just take for granted. The thing, too that I find well, I'll give you a super quick example. I was meeting with a client a couple of years ago, and my podcast buddy Ray and I were he was helping me out with this team meeting, and we were desilting and talking about marketing strategy for the next year. And I had several of the salespeople pull me aside. They do this. They're like so they lean in. I'm like, this must be a secret. And they said, this is the first time we've been in the same room together and I don't remember how long. And I said you mean with marketing? And he goes, no, our sales team. He goes, this is fantastic. Plus, you guys are here. So it was like a brick to the head. I thought, wow, okay. Again, that is a leadership opportunity. Not a problem. It's an opportunity. Bring these folks together and encourage it. Encourage that dialogue. I want to see it happening daily. Have the sales team just shoot an email to the marketing director, saying, hey, I just met with such and such client. Here's a pic. We did a selfie. This is something we just help them overcome. There's some brilliant social media content because, again, social media, that's a whole other we could do a series on that, but it's dialogue. It's a two-way conversation. And I think too many people are still using it as an advertising speaker, like blasting, but sorry, that was a segue. But do you guys see the same kinds of things like fear and it's not coming from the top?
And so much more…
Connect with Allison
Connect with the broads!
Connect with Erin on LinkedIn and visit http://www.earthlinginteractive.com for web-based solutions to your complex business problems!
Connect with Lori on LinkedIn and visit www.keystoneclick.com for your strategic digital marketing needs!
Connect with Kris on LinkedIn and visit www.genalpha.com for OEM and aftermarket digital solutions!
Transcript
Lori Heidi, chris Harrington, and Aaron Courtney.
Speaker:Three broads bringing you stories and strategies exploring manufacturing topics
Speaker:that challenge the status quo while laying the foundations for future success.
Speaker:Together with special guests, they'll celebrate what's working and and unpack
Speaker:what is not, so you can learn, grow, and succeed.
Speaker:You want to learn more about your host?
Speaker:Make sure to listen to episode one.
Speaker:Chris, I've been trying to figure out this answer this question.
Speaker:I'm curious your perspective on this in
Speaker:general, but I'm really trying to figure out what do I want to learn in 2023?
Speaker:And I've got a couple of things I'm tinkering with, but I want to be really
Speaker:intentional about where I spend my educational and learning time.
Speaker:But have you put any thought into that for yourself?
Speaker:Well, every year I do take time
Speaker:at the end of December or start of January, and I kind of lay out my
Speaker:individual plans and what my goals are and what I want to achieve.
Speaker:But I can tell you that the first thing that comes to mind when you ask that
Speaker:question is, I want to learn about beekeeping.
Speaker:That's so fun.
Speaker:Our audience will know that I have a farm,
Speaker:and we've tried beekeeping one year, and we lost the bees at Winter, and it was
Speaker:like, oh, it's so sad because we tried to wrap them and we tried to keep them.
Speaker:Of course, we're in Wisconsin, so it's a little challenging to keep the bees.
Speaker:But we have five beehives now, and of
Speaker:course, pollination is so important for a farm.
Speaker:So I really want to dive into beekeeping, so I know that's a little bit more fun,
Speaker:but that's something I'll be focused on next year.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I was thinking, like, do I want to learn an instrument?
Speaker:But I don't have time for that in my life.
Speaker:I don't have time for another hobby sort.
Speaker:So then, like, what can I do professionally?
Speaker:And I think I want to better understand
Speaker:being a better leader to kind of this new generation that's entering the workforce.
Speaker:So I want to be intentional about how I
Speaker:can best serve that audience and make sure that it's a good working relationship,
Speaker:because I think a lot of businesses are faced with that challenge right now, that
Speaker:the generations change, and that's something I'm tinkering with that one.
Speaker:I haven't decided if I want to.
Speaker:Go all in with it or not yet.
Speaker:Yeah, well, I think that's a great one for all of us.
Speaker:I'm curious for you.
Speaker:How many of your staff are of that younger generation?
Speaker:The bulk of the staff.
Speaker:Yeah, that's what I thought might be true.
Speaker:On our marketing team, we have a young
Speaker:group, but the rest are still that older group, but experienced.
Speaker:Very different experienced group, not old.
Speaker:I'll put myself in that older, experienced category.
Speaker:Sure, I'm transitioning to the experience.
Speaker:That's where I've had this realization.
Speaker:But let's talk about the guest we have on the show today, Allison De Ford.
Speaker:She is the founder of Felt Marketing.
Speaker:Her and her team are on a mission to strengthen the heart and soul
Speaker:manufacturing for generations by helping manufacturers retrofit their marketing to
Speaker:make sales easier, modifying traditional systems with modern components.
Speaker:She's also your marketing expert on the Manufacturing Masters on Demand platform.
Speaker:Alison, welcome to the show.
Speaker:Thank you for having me.
Speaker:So excited to have you here, especially because marketing is definitely my jam.
Speaker:So I know we're going to have a super awesome conversation.
Speaker:Yes. And you know what?
Speaker:I'm on Alison De Ford's newsletter for Felt Marketing, and hands down, it's the
Speaker:best newsletter I receive, so I'm always looking forward to receiving it.
Speaker:And I learned so much from you and your team.
Speaker:When you put those together, I know they're entirely so creative and helpful,
Speaker:and I think they're just fun for me as I have conversations with manufacturers.
Speaker:So good job.
Speaker:And I would encourage everybody listening to go sign up for your newsletter as well.
Speaker:Well, I'm going to sign up for it now.
Speaker:So good.
Speaker:My inbox is very heavy with the
Speaker:newsletters, but it doesn't hurt to add one more.
Speaker:I appreciate this one. Yeah, I'm sure.
Speaker:So let's dive into it.
Speaker:Alison, what's the biggest opportunity
Speaker:manufacturers aren't capitalizing on today to make sales easier?
Speaker:Love that question.
Speaker:I would say they're still siloing sales and marketing, and they're not.
Speaker:It's a topic we've all talked about for
Speaker:probably two decades, and I still encounter it, even with my own
Speaker:clients trying to get the marketing team to meet up with the sales team monthly.
Speaker:I beg, I'm like, okay, give us 20 minutes.
Speaker:20 minutes.
Speaker:I know everybody's busy.
Speaker:And I think that I know that if you would unite your sales and marketing
Speaker:team, you would increase your growth, you would increase your profits.
Speaker:I guarantee you'll make sales easier.
Speaker:And that's something that we started
Speaker:talking about at Felt probably six, seven years ago.
Speaker:And we put ourselves through our own process, and we realized
Speaker:that we were still speaking our language, not our customers language.
Speaker:And we thought, all right, what do people want more of?
Speaker:What do manufacturers want more of?
Speaker:They don't want more marketing.
Speaker:They want less marketing.
Speaker:They want more sales.
Speaker:And so that was a big shift for us.
Speaker:And so I've been preaching that ever since.
Speaker:If you can bring your sales team, they're in the boots on the ground.
Speaker:So if you can understand,
Speaker:hear from them the stories, the challenges, the wins, and get ideas.
Speaker:The whole reason we exist is to support them and to support customers.
Speaker:And I learned something a phrase a number of years ago.
Speaker:I don't know if it was from Bernadette
Speaker:Jiwa or Seth Goden, I think it was Seth, but it was, stop
Speaker:marketing at people and start marketing on behalf of and for them.
Speaker:So if we can shift that one perspective and unite sales and marketing.
Speaker:We will make sales easier.
Speaker:We will help our salespeople sell while they're sleeping and to be of service.
Speaker:And that's the whole point of marketing.
Speaker:So what do you guys think?
Speaker:Am I barking up the wrong tree?
Speaker:Absolutely not.
Speaker:I taught at the local university B to B sales and marketing class, and I always
Speaker:found it fascinating that the university combined the two into one course.
Speaker:But I also loved it because it really emphasized how the two need to work
Speaker:together and how they absolutely need to be working together.
Speaker:But it's still a huge challenge that I
Speaker:see, as you said, 20 years this has been preached.
Speaker:Why is it that difficult?
Speaker:I mean, it should be a seamless system.
Speaker:The message is out there, and it supports the sale, like you just said.
Speaker:So why aren't the teams talking when the process is obviously what works together?
Speaker:Yeah, and I really agree with this as well.
Speaker:I know that on our team, something that
Speaker:we've done to try to bridge just one simple activity that I can call out that
Speaker:might be helpful to others, and maybe you can add one.
Speaker:Alison but
Speaker:our marketing team has asked the sales team, and we do this on a regular basis
Speaker:what are the most frequently asked questions right now?
Speaker:So then we take that list and we convert it into content so that we're addressing
Speaker:the exact things that customers are asking our salespeople.
Speaker:And it's so helpful to our marketing team because now they're hearing
Speaker:the information from that customer's perspective.
Speaker:So I think that's incredibly helpful. Historically.
Speaker:I think in manufacturing, when you go to a trade show, which is where many of
Speaker:marketers and sales have historically come together in the booth, so that silo that
Speaker:you talk about, they're usually either in two different floors or they're in
Speaker:completely different buildings depending on the size of the organization.
Speaker:But all of a sudden, in a trade show booth, they're all there
Speaker:together and they're working and they're handing things off.
Speaker:So it's not that they can't work together. Right.
Speaker:It's like we have to create the space for them to come together.
Speaker:And sometimes just a basic activity can start doing that.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Do you have a simple trick?
Speaker:Yeah, well, I had a couple of thoughts.
Speaker:I think this really has to start from the top.
Speaker:It comes from leadership.
Speaker:And when I meet a leader
Speaker:that has a sales background, but they don't understand or value marketing,
Speaker:they typically issue my request to bring the two together.
Speaker:And I believe it's just simply based out of fear.
Speaker:It's fear of I don't understand what this is.
Speaker:I still think it's smoke and mirrors and fluff marketing.
Speaker:And our sales team is the most important
Speaker:part of this company because we make the money and we don't have time.
Speaker:We don't have time to be bothered.
Speaker:We don't have time to take out of our day.
Speaker:And so that's the first thing.
Speaker:I think it's got to come from the top down.
Speaker:Second, I think we've got to overcome the
Speaker:fear and simply say, come to the table and say, as a marketer, I always come to the
Speaker:table and say, hey, I want to hear from you, sales team.
Speaker:You have all the knowledge.
Speaker:You are talking day in and day out with
Speaker:the customers and with potential customers.
Speaker:So I need to know what you know.
Speaker:I want to hear from you.
Speaker:I want to hear your ideas.
Speaker:And
Speaker:I think if you're a good marketer, part of our job is to pull it out of them.
Speaker:And I feel like we're really good at that.
Speaker:Like I tell people, you don't need special shoes and this isn't going to hurt.
Speaker:It's a conversation.
Speaker:It's dialogue.
Speaker:And trust me, I will artfully pull it out of you.
Speaker:And it's a lot of times those little nuggets that they just take for granted.
Speaker:The thing, too that I find well, I'll give you a super quick example.
Speaker:I was meeting with a client a couple of
Speaker:years ago, and my podcast buddy Ray and I were doing he
Speaker:was helping me out with this team meeting, and we were basically desiloing and
Speaker:talking about marketing strategy for the next year.
Speaker:And I had several of the salespeople pull me aside.
Speaker:They do this. They're like so they lean in.
Speaker:I'm like, this must be a secret.
Speaker:And they said, this is the first time
Speaker:we've been in the same room together and I don't remember how long.
Speaker:And I said, you mean with marketing?
Speaker:And he goes, no, our sales team.
Speaker:He goes, this is fantastic.
Speaker:Plus, you guys are here.
Speaker:So it was like a brick to the head.
Speaker:I thought, wow, okay.
Speaker:Again, that is a leadership opportunity. Not a problem.
Speaker:It's an opportunity.
Speaker:Bring these folks together and encourage it.
Speaker:Encourage that dialogue.
Speaker:I want to see it happening daily.
Speaker:Have the sales team just shoot an email to
Speaker:the marketing director, say, hey, I just met with such and such client.
Speaker:Here's a pic. We did a selfie.
Speaker:This is something we just help them overcome.
Speaker:There's some brilliant social media content because, again, social media,
Speaker:that's a whole nother we could do a series on that, but it's dialogue.
Speaker:It's a two way conversation.
Speaker:And I think too many people are still
Speaker:using it as an advertising speaker, like blasting, but sorry, that was a segue.
Speaker:But do you guys see the same kinds of
Speaker:things like fear and it's not coming from the top?
Speaker:I think it's definitely more the fear and just the unknown because like you're
Speaker:saying, it's a smoke and mirrors mentality.
Speaker:Unless you're living in the marketing
Speaker:world, a lot of people just don't understand it, and I think they don't
Speaker:understand it more so today than before because it's constantly changing,
Speaker:especially with what's happening in the digital space.
Speaker:So I don't understand it.
Speaker:I don't get it, and I don't even know how
Speaker:to keep up with what's happening, so I don't want to touch it.
Speaker:Yes, exactly. I agree.
Speaker:It has to come from the top.
Speaker:I would also say that in my own personal
Speaker:experience, because I was in manufacturing and I was a leader in manufacturing, and I
Speaker:never really fully understood the role of marketing, and I
Speaker:certainly wasn't collaborating like I should have been.
Speaker:With them now, running my own company and leading marketing, I'm like, oh, this is
Speaker:great, and it's a lot of work, and we all have to be doing it together, right?
Speaker:So it really has opened my eyes, for sure.
Speaker:But I think this is a great segue into
Speaker:something that you talk about a lot, which is the Weewee syndrome.
Speaker:Can you tell us what you mean by that and how you help manufacturers overcome that?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:When I do presentations and speak or do webinars, I often share this picture.
Speaker:I don't know if you guys have ever seen me
Speaker:speak, but I found this picture years and years ago of this boy, and he's looking at
Speaker:his own navel, how you kind of squeeze it together and make it talk.
Speaker:And when I first saw that image, I thought of my cousins growing up, and they were
Speaker:just always it's like a guy thing, I guess, at least in my family it was.
Speaker:And it struck me, and I thought, oh my
Speaker:gosh, this is what manufacturers are doing.
Speaker:And I've been guilty of it as well.
Speaker:So I'm not pointing the three are pointing back at me.
Speaker:When you are more focused on yourself and your company, and you're leading every
Speaker:sentence, and you're about us, and you're on your home page, we do this.
Speaker:We're good at this.
Speaker:We're all about quality and solutions.
Speaker:If you flip the script and this is how you
Speaker:solve it, flip the script and replace we with you.
Speaker:So whenever somebody comes to your website
Speaker:or they read an email from you, they don't care about you.
Speaker:None of us do.
Speaker:We care about ourselves.
Speaker:It's just human condition, right?
Speaker:Human nature.
Speaker:So it's funny, I was just working with a client literally an hour ago, and they had
Speaker:made some changes to their home page, and they were doing some testing, changing
Speaker:things around, and it said, we're the XYZ site for blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:And I went
Speaker:and then right below it, it said, we serve this many number of the and I picked up
Speaker:the phone and I said, can we make a quick change?
Speaker:And they said, sure.
Speaker:So we changed it. So think about it.
Speaker:We're the blank XYZ site for manufacturers, let's just say to
Speaker:the site or your place for XYZ,
Speaker:you just made it about me, the viewer.
Speaker:And instead of we help helping.
Speaker:So by just these little tiny changes, if
Speaker:you go through your content and you change as many as possible.
Speaker:It's okay to say we sometimes, because you
Speaker:do come from a place of I or of we and you're talking about yourself.
Speaker:But when you're leading every paragraph on your website with all about me, all about
Speaker:what we do, people want to know why you do what you do.
Speaker:But they want to know these three things.
Speaker:They want to know, what's in it for me?
Speaker:Why should I buy this thing at all?
Speaker:And why should I buy it from you?
Speaker:So the what's in it for me is the most
Speaker:important part of conquering the Weebly syndrome, I think.
Speaker:Listen up. Everybody just gave you the three rules.
Speaker:I bet if we all went and looked at our
Speaker:websites today and just revisited that and I love your place for that's.
Speaker:Such a simple change, helping blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:I mean, really good advice there. Thank you for that.
Speaker:It's not hard to change the context of the message, the focus of who it's on.
Speaker:That's what I really should be saying.
Speaker:I've been a huge advocate of this for a long time.
Speaker:I love that you called it the Weebly syndrome.
Speaker:I don't know if that was your branding.
Speaker:I know I've heard Kurt our mutual I don't talk about it.
Speaker:Yeah, well, Kurt Anderson swears I made it up.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:So I don't claim to be in that, but I probably talk about it more than anybody.
Speaker:I don't know, sir.
Speaker:I remember talking about it, saying, best practice is talk to your customer.
Speaker:Don't talk about yourself.
Speaker:And then he was like, yeah, the Weebly syndrome.
Speaker:I'm like, I've never heard it called them before, but I love it.
Speaker:It totally makes sense and it captures
Speaker:someone's attention, I think, when you just say that, like, well, what is that?
Speaker:There's curiosity.
Speaker:And so I think it's fantastic.
Speaker:Very powerful message.
Speaker:And it really can either push someone away
Speaker:or pull them into your website very easily if it's done right.
Speaker:Yeah, great point.
Speaker:There's another phrase that you talk about, Alison.
Speaker:It's the non personality disorder.
Speaker:So what does it look like when a
Speaker:manufacturer is suffering from non personality disorder?
Speaker:And how can they overcome it to make sales easier?
Speaker:Great question.
Speaker:I think the thing that I see the most is
Speaker:when a manufacturer, you can take their website, you could
Speaker:replace their logo with anybody else's, and the messaging is pretty generic, so it
Speaker:doesn't feel like it's from anybody special or specific.
Speaker:And I love to use Target as an example.
Speaker:And I know they're not a manufacturer,
Speaker:they're a retailer, but think about it, because their messaging is so consistent
Speaker:and they're visuals, and everything they do is about design.
Speaker:They talk about design a lot, so you know it's a Target commercial before
Speaker:they even finish or before you even see the logo.
Speaker:My encouragement is this if you're a
Speaker:manufacturer and you feel like, are we suffering from this.
Speaker:Go look at your website, and if it says,
Speaker:we're 50 years old, we're all about quality, innovation, and customer service.
Speaker:I want you to add this to the end of that like everyone else, if you can't.
Speaker:If that wouldn't make sense.
Speaker:No, this comes from us like big ass fans.
Speaker:I'm a huge fan of theirs.
Speaker:Not a client, unfortunately, but I've
Speaker:always appreciated their very specific messaging.
Speaker:You do not confuse them as being acme
Speaker:manufacturing down the road or it's very specific.
Speaker:Same with newpig.
Speaker:The way that they talk, the way their
Speaker:language can't be confused for anybody else.
Speaker:And so if you don't have a personality, most people are afraid to adopt one.
Speaker:Frankly, they're afraid to own something.
Speaker:And so they kind of go for vanilla.
Speaker:And I try to tell people all the time, quality is now a given.
Speaker:So if you feel like you have to talk about it, go back to the drawing board.
Speaker:There's got to be something else, and it's usually right under your nose.
Speaker:And it's funny.
Speaker:I was working with a client the other day, and he said, you know, you had the biggest
Speaker:impact on my business with one question I thought, what was that?
Speaker:And he said, you asked me, what do you know that no one else knows?
Speaker:What is the one thing you do or that you
Speaker:solve or the why that is different than everybody else?
Speaker:And this is my favorite thing to do with the manufacturer, small, medium, or large,
Speaker:is to help them uncover their unfair advantage, because that's what that is.
Speaker:And then help them bring that personality to life.
Speaker:That's what draws people to you.
Speaker:It's that chemistry, right?
Speaker:You're not attracted to a building.
Speaker:You're not attracted to a product per se.
Speaker:You're attracted to the people, typically,
Speaker:that make the thing or sell the thing you're attracted to.
Speaker:Why they started doing it to begin with?
Speaker:Maybe they created something that didn't exist and it solves this problem.
Speaker:That's one of my favorite things about
Speaker:manufacturing, is that they're solving a problem with something that never existed.
Speaker:So they figured it out and they made it.
Speaker:It may be the passion to give back to the
Speaker:community, but it's the why, it's the people.
Speaker:And that's the real power.
Speaker:So if you can really rid yourself of NPD and really own that
Speaker:special gift of Marie, forleo talks about this all the time.
Speaker:The world needs that special gift that only you have.
Speaker:And I feel like every manufacturer has a story and a gift.
Speaker:Start inviting people in that's your differentiator.
Speaker:It's not quality and customer service.
Speaker:And I took notes the whole time, manufacturer or not.
Speaker:Sorry. Probably Rambling.
Speaker:No. Excellent.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:I'm going to ask you, the NPD, is that your labeling?
Speaker:I made it up. Got it.
Speaker:Okay. That's mine.
Speaker:No, because I call it the CS sameness.
Speaker:So it's a C as sameness.
Speaker:And oftentimes we work with our clients who put them stacked up next to all of
Speaker:our competitors and like, hey, look, you all look exactly the same.
Speaker:You're just hanging out in the same ocean right now.
Speaker:And who knows who your next client is
Speaker:going to go to because there's nothing differentiating.
Speaker:You.
Speaker:But I love that it's so important and you're so true.
Speaker:Everyone's quality customer service, that
Speaker:language is not even promotable now because it's expected by the client.
Speaker:The customer has this level of expectation.
Speaker:If you're not delivering quality or
Speaker:excellent customer service, they're going to find someone who is.
Speaker:That's just a given nowadays, for sure.
Speaker:Whenever any kind of term or phrase
Speaker:becomes ubiquitous, you've got to drop it and do something different.
Speaker:Definitely. Like there's a next level.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You guys are reminding me of have you heard of the category Pirates or Focus On?
Speaker:Well, I'll just throw that out there.
Speaker:We should put it in the show notes.
Speaker:That group out there, they're called the category Pirates, and they talk a lot
Speaker:about creating a category so that you are the owner of that category.
Speaker:And when we just talk about us being a product company, then there are probably a
Speaker:lot of companies that solve that product need.
Speaker:But if you can own a category and you're creating a category and then you're
Speaker:educating on that category, so you are the educator of that category,
Speaker:then you're creating demand through that category.
Speaker:So as you guys are talking about, how do you differentiate?
Speaker:That's like a whole different place you can take it to.
Speaker:But absolutely something I've been learning, it's.
Speaker:Becoming a category of one.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Most of the time, I think the most successful companies have invented it.
Speaker:Remember hertz and Avis.
Speaker:And I think Hertz was always number one and Avis was number two.
Speaker:They started owning we're number two.
Speaker:And this is why that's good.
Speaker:And no one else had embraced that before, so why not own it?
Speaker:It makes me think of seven up.
Speaker:The uncola.
Speaker:Exactly right.
Speaker:Or the thing I add to my old fashioned.
Speaker:This is a good time to transition to the segments of I just learned that.
Speaker:So Chris, let's start with you.
Speaker:Finish that sentence.
Speaker:I just learned that.
Speaker:Well, this one kind of unites Alison De
Speaker:Ford and I and all of us, because I think it was episode 14, we had Darren Mitchell
Speaker:on the show, and he talked about manufacturing Masters, and I highly
Speaker:encourage everybody listening to go check out Manufacturing Masters.
Speaker:They really are the how to site for manufacturing business.
Speaker:But I was just talking to Vince over there, and he mentioned that there are now
Speaker:over 100 masters on the program available to learn from.
Speaker:There are over three and a half thousand manufacturers using the platform, and
Speaker:these participants are from over four countries.
Speaker:So I'm just so excited about this tool for everyone and wanted to bring it up,
Speaker:especially since allison, although we didn't say that in the intro.
Speaker:She's also a manufacturing master.
Speaker:So if you participate and subscribe there,
Speaker:you can hear everything that Alison has to say there as well.
Speaker:Love that. Very cool.
Speaker:All right, well, I'll finish the sentence that I just learned that I thought this
Speaker:was really fascinating when you look at mentors versus sponsors.
Speaker:So mentors are people that are giving you some guidance and to some extent
Speaker:influencing the path that you're taking, where sponsors are more like cheerleaders
Speaker:and advocates and making introductions for you to help you with your career.
Speaker:Well, women typically have three times more mentors than men do, but men
Speaker:typically have three to four times more sponsors than women do.
Speaker:And I thought that was fascinating.
Speaker:And that's some research done by Harvard Business Review as to one of the reasons
Speaker:why men tend to advance quicker in the professional world
Speaker:than women do is because they've got these mentors are just kind of giving some
Speaker:direction and influence where sponsors are making the actual introductions.
Speaker:So the progress is moving faster.
Speaker:Oh, that's very interesting.
Speaker:I didn't know that.
Speaker:And it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:And I will personally try to put that to
Speaker:practice being more of a sponsor for everybody.
Speaker:So great.
Speaker:Alison, what have you just learned?
Speaker:I follow Brendan Berchard's Growth Day app.
Speaker:I do it every morning, and every morning he has a daily fire.
Speaker:And this morning was profound.
Speaker:He talks about this a lot, but it was a
Speaker:really good reminder of how much time we waste every single day.
Speaker:Multiply that times, days of the week,
Speaker:between social media just scrolling right there's.
Speaker:Very valuable social media, obviously, and
Speaker:things you can learn, but just the aimless scrolling, filling your time and watching
Speaker:TV or movies, which I'm guilty of at night.
Speaker:It's, I think, a time I feel like I can
Speaker:actually turn my brain off and just not think for a little bit.
Speaker:But he said the average American spends 4 hours a day watching TV, and
Speaker:I think he said two to 3 hours a day on social media.
Speaker:He said multiply that.
Speaker:That's a work day a week.
Speaker:A full work day.
Speaker:Actually, no, it's more than that.
Speaker:It was 40 hours.
Speaker:40 hours a week.
Speaker:So you work your job, you have other activities,
Speaker:maybe you work out, you have kids, you volunteer, whatever.
Speaker:But all that in between time is being wasted.
Speaker:And he said there's nothing wrong with entertainment, obviously.
Speaker:There's nothing wrong with
Speaker:letting your brain shut down once in a while and just and vegging.
Speaker:But he said when clients come to him and
Speaker:he works with high performers all over the world and they say, I don't have time to
Speaker:do X, he's like, let's take a look at that.
Speaker:And he said, I help them find 2 hours in each day that was otherwise simply wasted.
Speaker:I hear that in my brain all the time.
Speaker:If I ever think the thought, oh, I don't have time to get that finished.
Speaker:Yes, you really do.
Speaker:So I'll leave you with that.
Speaker:But I thought it was very inspirational
Speaker:for me and motivational to what if you just took one evening a week and didn't
Speaker:watch any TV or you spent an hour doing something towards reading or learning?
Speaker:You could watch a Manufacturing Masters video in five minutes and learn one thing
Speaker:that's going to impact your business and then go watch TV.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:And there's thousands of hours of video on there, so yeah.
Speaker:That was interesting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Feeling guilty for a binge watching Wednesday?
Speaker:I'm definitely guilty of that.
Speaker:And I think it goes back to your first question, Laurie.
Speaker:Is there anything intentional you want to learn?
Speaker:So now we just found the time.
Speaker:Right now, we just got to pick the thing we want to learn, and we have time for it.
Speaker:Thank you. Absolutely.
Speaker:Allison, this has been great.
Speaker:If anyone was interested in getting in
Speaker:contact with you, what is the best way that they can reach you?
Speaker:They can find me on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Just search for Allison to ford.
Speaker:I'm very active on the platform, or you can feel free to email me,
Speaker:Allison@feldmarketing.com. Love to strike up a conversation.
Speaker:All right, well, this wraps up our show.
Speaker:We'll include all of Alison's details in
Speaker:the show notes, and we look forward to seeing you on our next show.
Speaker:Thank you, Allison. Thanks for having me.
Speaker:I really appreciate what you guys are doing.
Speaker:This wraps up today's broadcast.
Speaker:If you're looking to shake up the status quo at your organization or just want to
Speaker:connect with these broads, visit Mfgbroadcast.com. Contact Laurie Heidi for
Speaker:your strategic digital marketing initiatives.
Speaker:Contact Chris Harrington for OEM and aftermarket Digital Solutions.
Speaker:And contact Aaron Courtney for web based solutions.
Speaker:For your complex business problems, we've
Speaker:got a great offer specifically for our listeners.
Speaker:You can find more information about the offers and your hosts@mfgbroadcast.com.
