Customer perspective offers direction to more valuable coating solutions

Seize a ship of fools and commandeer a slight shift in your sales process. The maneuver could help you attract more business and build longer-lasting relationships. Adopt a more analytical approach with your customers. Aim for proposing solutions that better connect to your customer’s real needs and thus their very present reality. To do this, examine what you’re doing: do you spend more time with...
Read More

Call to industry: Engage in the revolution

Bastard series finale: “Plan social media strategies like any other major initiative” The Bastard has written thousands of words on the subject of social media in the past few months. I packaged them in a neat “seven-step argument for taking care in adopting a social media program.” With so much buzz around the topic, I believed that the most valuable intelligence carefully explored only the most ...
Read More

Get more “go” out of your coatings business

Believe it or not, coatings contracts has been won and lost based on whether or not the customer “had a good feeling” about your business and its employees—particularly in the beginning during the kick-the-tires stage. When everything else is equal, and geographic location is of little consequence, the gut feeling your company generates will motivate customers to choose, rather quickly, whether to...
Read More

Measuring social media may test your mettle

Stand by for the real results Industrial business owners ask me, what can I expect in return for my investment of time and company resources in social media? Are the results measurable? Will it add to my bottom line? I realize that for some of you, having an answer to those basic questions has to be the place to start. You gotta know if this stuff makes sense for a small industrial business. Besi...
Read More

When to apply sugar coating

We all make mistakes. Sometimes they’re not our fault but we still have to take the wrap. They can cost the company lots of money, involve loss of time, productivity, incur injury or cause embarrassment. But perhaps the most potentially expensive missteps are those that negatively impact your customer, or at least their perception. Clearly, the most difficult are those cool-gray-toned ones where t...
Read More

Etch your social media strategy policy in steel

Devise objectives that fit culture to ensure success Social media is good news for the industry; we just don’t know it yet. Consider this trifecta of change 1) traditional marketing costs are out the window—social marketing media is virtually free 2) social media allows complete control of our messages—publishing our own content, when and where we want, and 3) social media helps us to cultivate re...
Read More

Change your view of the market to achieve success

You’ve probably developed a low tolerance for reading much more on the topic of Branding. You’ve been there; done that. I know, it seems like enough’s enough. Besides, you’ve got a business to run and there’s little time to mess around. On the other hand, I happen to believe branding is extremely important to your business. In fact, more important to business and industry than it is to consumer ma...
Read More

Six tips: how to spend less money at trade shows

Say less and stand out more from the crowd Planning to attend a trade show or two in the coming seasons? Shows and conferences can be good for business and employee morale. Keep in mind attendance is expensive only when you don’t accomplish your mission. And if part of your agenda includes meeting new prospects and looking for new business, here are six tips to help you bring it home safely. It do...
Read More

What’s missing in news of recent change in formaldehyde emissions standards?

Here’s a message for all coatings businesses: Get out of your box and rise above any type of legislation that forces you to do things differently. Instead, feel the gravity—see only opportunity. Ask yourselves, what can we do with this one? We’re all so busy with the minutia of keeping our businesses going. Then, when industry news breaks, it always focuses on “what you gotta do now.” So we...
Read More
Older Entries
Newer Entries