title: Why Industrial Marketing is Broken (And How to Fix It)
author: Machine Shop Tech Talk
contenttype: podcast
publication: Machine Shop Tech Talk
published: 2025-04-25T08:00:00-04:00
sourceurl: https://anchor.fm/s/fc35c9cc/podcast/play/101753520/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-3-25%2F399053810-44100-2-4d31ac551247.mp3
word_count: 3862
Why is the industrial marketing just so out of touch? It honestly reminds me a lot of why our government is being audited. We've always done it this way and it's wrong. Make data-driven decisions even in marketing, even with how we distribute content. Welcome to Machine Shop Tech Talk or welcome back to Machine Shop Tech Talk in the world of manufacturing. It's not if, but when something goes wrong and we dig into the things that could go wrong for you or might be costing you business or money or dollars. I'm here today with my buddy Eddie E. Dizzle, the man that is the king of empathy in the world of marketing and industrial marketing. So Eddie, I want to dig into just the marketing side. You've kind of been doing your own thing with speak friend for a while. Why is the industrial marketing just so out of touch when it's compared to regular consumer marketing? It honestly reminds me a lot of why our government is being audited right now in the United States because outdated systems and processes have been unaudited for the longest time. And when you don't optimize, you don't improve same thing like with your machines. It applies to so many things. The principle itself exists. The rate of every other industry and how they're marketing and how they're promoting themselves and the data behind it. It's all there, but then manufacturing has been held because we've always done it this way. And there's been no desire or optimization till within the past probably maybe five or six years for the industrial space to really start paying attention and having some voices rise up. So it's really because it's, we've always done it this way and it's wrong. And I'm continuing to make it my mission to turn that volume up to 11. Yeah. Well, and I love that you're turning the volume up. It's why we're talking about it, chopping it up right now, man. So what's you've been at it for a while. Obviously, you launched speak friend now. Are we at two years now since you launched speak friend? We got to be coming up to two years by now. October of 2023 is when we started. So I think we're sitting around like a year and a half mark, which is just an absolute, absolute blessing within itself, man. Yeah. So what I want to kind of dig into the, the problem's a little bit more, but for the people that are watching right now, maybe if you have some of the top results that you've generated for some of your clients, because I would imagine they, they came to you because they understood what was going on. Is that the case? Yeah. I mean, there's been some really cool examples. We've worked some really large clients within the industry. And so it's been very, very thankful. But when it comes down to it, we use data and everything that we're doing. And I'm honestly bringing the data component into industrial marketing because it's surprisingly not as large of a component is what it needs to be. And, and if you're anything like, like myself, like I'm all about making decisions, but sometimes I've been a classic over thinker. And so as I continue to grow as a man and to lessen that specifically, it's also led me to have, you know, what I consider be a superpower in being very analytical in a lot of the decisions that I make. And people don't really understand nearly as much that we can use just as much data and, and 2025 and beyond to make data-driven decisions even in marketing, even with how we distribute content. And so me being able to build the whole process and all the thought and like really be able to scale that idea out, it's been really, really helpful because there's clearly a gap. And it's okay. It's because there's, there's a lack of understanding and ambition. But it, what it, what is working in every other stinking industry on the planet is now being brought here. And I personally take pride on being the person who turns up the volume and, you know, kind of raises the alarm a little bit because it's kind of needed. Yeah. So what are some of the, if you can share? I mean, it might be secret sauce and you might tell me you don't want to share. But what are some of the, the main, when you're talking data? What are some of the main points that you're looking at to know, hey, I should keep making this content or man, no, we got to, we got to pivot, we got to switch gears. Yeah. So a lot of like main key performance indicators that we're looking at was we're going well beyond just impressions because we understand that's good. But it also depends on where certain audience member is in the funnel. But with, with some of the, with a lot of the ad distribution that, that we have available to us nowadays, looking not only at this, what the general click through rate is, that's a big one because people forget, you know, when we put things out there, we don't just want, you're just a general look, a reaction and a press on. And there's so many misconceptions that happen there specifically why people previously thought impressions were really good and frequency and reach were all good, which I'm not saying they're bad things, but you don't build an entire campaign based off of that. You can use those specific performance data metrics to determine what you distribute. So if one item is getting more impressions than another ad set, of course, we can make decisions because that's the algorithm telling you, people want this more, we want this more. But what we, we need to also look into is what that general click through rate is, whether if you're looking for if it's a lead gen campaign, what the lead production of that is. But I also challenge individuals to look beyond when they've just clicked on you when they've raised their hand because your content, your narrative and everything else should make them want to do that in the first place. But remember, once they've made the decision to interact also looking at the fact you now have to get them to make a decision to, to agree to transact with you. And that's a whole different process. We're talking pipeline velocity. And then if we track that part of the funnel as well, it allows us to tie a lot of metrics back to the return on ad spend and things along those lines. So I always say there's two conversations and two pipelines that we need to to interact with. And it doesn't stop when they make the marketing decision. We also have to track what they make in the sales decision to reverse engineer with data and intention, how we can get more hand razors. I love that. Clearly you're taking like a way wider scope than I know of. I'm still very new into it. And I like making videos. I, some of that was like over my head. So if you're watching and it's over your head too, it's okay. We're not going to get any deeper than that. But that was a beautiful answer. Way more detailed than I thought you had under that cap. So it doesn't just hold your empathy. It holds a lot of insights too. But you touched on, you touched on something there. I'm curious what you've seen because I look at marketing and sales as like synergistic, like they need to work together. If one side's singing a different song than the other, nobody's going to come to that show, right? You don't get customers. So when you're working with your clients and you guys are working on the marketing side, are you helping them integrate their sales? Are they already knowing that they got to integrate their sales department? Like what did it? What can we do to help get those people aligned? Because most companies I talk to, they're completely different verticals and they're in silos and they don't talk. You use the word that I was seriously getting ready to say within the first five words of my response and was silo, right? Yeah. Even within my presentations, I have one specific image with a really tall silo and a really small silo. And you can imagine which one is sales and which one is marketing. But what's, I mentioned a lot what's working in every other friggin industry. I'm challenging in disturbing the complacency to have them as separate and not combining them into one because they are separate functions if you will. But they're all part of what I put as a larger umbrella of revenue operations. And you're even seeing lots of companies move to a rev-ops type of model where sales and marketing, yes, are separate functions, but they're all viewed essentially as a general revenue ops department or segment, whatever it may be, since they're all kind of putting to that same goal. But it goes back to my original point of that you are getting human beings to make two separate decisions, but they're still leveraging data across every separate time. So you're returning pipeline velocity into now like awareness velocity as well, getting them from I now know who you are and carrying it all the way through to decision has been made. And then you've got the post sale funneling. We won't even get into that. But there's a lots of cool things that are working everywhere else. And we're trying to bring those here. And that's just like one specific example of that. The answer might be no, but with the revenue ops, is there anyone else under that umbrella now? I've seen the term like I've seen a couple like chief, chief resident chief revenue officers. Wow, that was a tongue twister. And it shouldn't be. But is there anything else that's under that umbrella? Or is it just sales and marketing under the same umbrella right now? I mean, like right now to my understanding, I'm not expecting anyone to completely shift what you're doing. But in that rev ops model, that's really what it comes down to. And that's those two components are the most major functions of that. Because then if you get into like shipping and procurement and fulfillment and delivery and those go clearly separate buckets. So it's a lot easier when you talk about the human beings making those two decisions to then have everything else separated outside of that. So there's going to be lots of segmented options that happen throughout manufacturing. And it's one of the most guilty in the industry of having that. You know, almost as guilty as our government. But that's a whole different question. But all that said, all that said, having sales and marketing work together, I think is massive. Because with me, people forget, I have over a decade of sales experience where I was selling and consulting, marketing and advertising products, platforms and services. So I've been able to be a dual threat for the last like 13 years of my life. And so I understand the importance and have a lot of the marketing that I create not only for myself and my clients, but be reverse engineered and rooted in sales enablement. Can you say reverse engineered and sales enablement? What do you meet? Can you unpack that a little bit? At the end of the day, we get people to make decisions. And I keep going back to the two decisions, a marketing decision and a sales decision. And I can't get you to raise your hand until I know the perspective of the sales rep who has gotten a person who has raised their hand to then go through that entire final and say yes. So if we're really boiling down the marketing functions, is I get them to say yes in one way, sales gets them to say yes in another way. Those are two completely different decisions to raise your hand and then to sign on the line. And now being the person who for over a decade and you'll 40, 50 plus books later has understood and has Luda Street PhD for lack of a better term on how human beings are making decisions. If I know that if I'm in marketing and I'm trying to get them one to make one decision, but then to make that second decision as easy as possible, why would I not one, go to the individuals who have said yes before so I can understand what problems that we solved and then turn up the volume of that narrative up to 11 to get more people to raise their hand because we know other individuals have that said problem. The only disconnect is they're not familiar with who we are and how we solve it or the fact that we solve it in the first place. So if I'm rooting everything I create in reverse engineering knowing if I want to build this level of understanding. What's it going to take for me to make those two major decisions as easy as possible on this human being that fits in my ideal audience. So if we have that level of understanding, I know that if I create this marketing asset or create this campaign, it answers all the questions that they're going to have when I finally get them to answer or the raise their hand. So when sales talks to them and is trying to get them to make that separate decision aka the transaction aka the only thing we're really trying for in the first place. Let me at least give them some sharp objects and that's a great way to kind of lay it out and something that I was thinking of you know it's not unlike because there could be people watching and manufacturing that are more familiar with reaching out to their customers on the continuous improvement side when they're looking at operations right. Manufacturing is stronger on operations at least from my experience than a lot of their other departments but you can take that same mindset everyone watching right now. You can take that same mindset that you've used to improve your operations for decades and put it over to what Eddie just talked about. Don't let that pass by and you will just put your sales and your marketing into the stratosphere and create ridiculous amount of lead gen is the word for it. You just generate so many different leads. If you take that same mindset that you've honed your operations with and bring it over to the marketing and sales side of things. Would you agree with that Eddie? There's something I say to a lot of individuals in leadership and when I talk in these talks is like you'll optimize your finance department. You'll optimize your operations. You'll optimize your fulfillment. You'll optimize your procurement. You'll optimize the just everything across your business, your leadership. You'll optimize it all but why are an industrial are we not optimizing our marketing? Why are we not doing that? Well I mean some individuals are I'm showing them how to do it. Nothing nobody does it but there are way more people and as I continue to learn even more every single day there are way more individuals not ready for that and not in that position who don't have that posture than do and so that that that was alarming for me and I quite literally built an entire business to kind of make sure that I'm helping solve that huge gap that's there and avoid some of these major mistakes to disturb the complacency that currently exists and that's just one example of many that we've covered just in this conversation. Yeah well and I love that you've got your your company there to support people right to disrupt their their way of thinking and for the ones that are like okay you know what Eddie Eddie makes a good point they don't have the in-house horse power for it but they're willing to hire and to work with you to make it happen right and that's that's important because now you exist and you can fill that need for them. One thing after everything you were just talking about Eddie is I wonder what do you say to the companies right now that are coming to you being like yeah we're gonna cut our marketing budgets we're gonna slash our marketing buckets you know we're gonna put our our money into a different department is there anything that worries you about companies doing that or anything that you've had to say to companies like that to help them see the light. Sure it's easy for a marketer to go in there and say oh no don't do that don't do that I always go in there and the first thing I always ask is what are we tracking and why not why what are we tracking what are we tracking okay and why are we tracking it because I I don't go in there to say that that's the wrong decision that very well maybe the right decision but if it is the wrong decision to make it will be revealed by how you are determining and calculating the success of that department because in all reality you're marketing I'm not saying this is the case for everybody it just could be just as much as any other department your marketing could be one of your most profitable departments of your company it could be one of the best things one of the most ROI producing yielding segments and entities of your specific business I'm not saying that that is across the board want to make sure that I'm very clear but you will never know until you are properly tracking and or optimizing like we just talked about and so too many people leave it up to guess and I understand as the marketer who has had six figures at multiple times removed from a budget that I've had before without any notice or any explanation whatsoever and I get that that's just the way that it is it doesn't make it right and it always brings my first question because if you're not properly tracking what it is you're doing and tracking the success of it then what are you actually doing and why did you make that higher and why did you build out that department in the first place if you were not going to be responsible for the results ties back to again so many different departments in manufacturing they understand they need to be optimized and then marketing is the one that's it's the redhead to step trial that they leave off to the side like it's a good place I think to kind of tie up the conversation we've hit a lot of the different things but before we go Eddie as like one of the last ones I keep seeing the ease for empathy and I know you personally and how much you bring empathy into it why why do you think empathy is such a super power in the marketing game because too many times we market for the way we think and we do what I call i marketing which isn't like your physical eye but it's the letter i will I say this I search like this I talk like this I act like that and that is the exact opposite of of empathy the exact literal probably by definition opposite and and it's also people mix up sympathy with empathy because sympathy to my understanding and the greatest the way I've ever had explained to me is I understand the feeling like I see like you are sad but expressing empathy versus sympathy is I insert myself into that individuals feelings and if we're one to be better marketers to get them to want to raise their hands and to make both of those transactual decisions in a time efficient manner I need to be able to put myself in their situation I need to be able to put their hat on figuratively understanding how they do what they do why they do what they do why they avoid doing certain things and why they lean in to others that's why I've made myself absolutely fascinated and almost obsessed with why human beings make decisions so if I understand why people are feeling the way that they're feeling maybe I can better help express what it is that I need to to show them hey I solved this problem receive the message wow that I really like that that's it's a great way for the people out there to understand the difference between sympathy and empathy but also why it's so important to bring empathy into their own marketing and their sales departments to better support their clients right and I know we're talking about getting people to raise their hands and we're talking about getting them to transactions and everything else but anyone watching if you started a company you didn't start it just to line your pockets you know how hard it was to start that company you had a mission you had a group of people you wanted to support and Eddie Eddie's just here trying to help you do that so you can make a difference for the people you started that company for well Eddie thank you so much for coming on today dude it's it's kind of like a full circle moment anyone watching may not know but I was on flexing friends way back when he was doing that that's how Eddie and I first met and now I got to have him on machine shop tech talk so we could talk marketing it's just that full circle moment it's beautiful thank you so much dude for being here so life's about my friend and to everyone that's made it this far in the conversation if you want to get in touch with Eddie I'll put whatever links he tells me's okay down below so you know you're not a creep he's gonna give me the ones he wants you to use and if you've made it this far you're also probably should drop a subscribe button drop a like throw down a comment what had you stay this far in the episode I would love to know so we can get more of that in machine shop tech talk for all of you and to my machining friends out there keep your spendals turning and earning