The other day I stopped into the office of a domestic manufacturer only to find him chained to his desk yet again, poring over the same problems with his CFO.

Once again it seemed that the business was eating up a bunch of cash.

Once again it seemed like the competition was catching up with him.

And once again it seemed like despite his best efforts and all of his hard work, their company still was not hitting the escape velocity that it should.

He was tired. He was frustrated. He felt left behind…as if all his hard work had benefited everyone else, but not him.

This once proud company was now permeated with fear and teetering on a second bankruptcy.

What was the cause of this?

Why had all of his hard work helped make everyone else prosperous while he was still chained to his desk?

It’s a multifaceted answer.

For domestic companies who are in the supply chain, logistics, and industrial space, it can often feel like the sands are shifting rapidly beneath your feet.

In many ways they are.

First, the pace of change and disruption are happening faster than our organizations can keep up with.

All because of technology.

Next, because of this change, every company is being disrupted.

Not only by technology, but also because of demographics and changing buying habits. Today’s industrial buyer is different than 10 years ago. His buying habits have changed and how he looks for information and makes a buying decision is much different than the “good old days” when everything was relationship based.

There’s a lot more to the picture these days.

Therefore, innovation is more important than ever before.

Think of the process by which you’ve grown your company up until now.

You first prototype, then move into production, then you reach a new platform from your growth.

However, now there are more problems from this higher plateau.

Whether it’s needing more space to expand, more employees, more capital, or more talent – each growth phase comes with its own challenges.

Very often, what we see is that companies who reach a healthy plateau, do so by putting themselves in danger, and often without realizing it.

Recently I spoke with Dave Jeffrey, president of JPM Prototype & Manufacturing and former chair of the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Association, and we caught up on the trends we were seeing in the market place.

We each shared stories of companies who had grown comfortable and complacent by relying too much on “whale” clients while building and supplying parts to much larger firms – everything from national cable companies, large aircraft manufacturers, and more.

In times of prosperity, this seemed like a great move. However, when the challenges of 2020 started to arrive, their greatest strength rapidly turned into their greatest weakness. While the large, national companies were bailed out, the smaller regional suppliers were left hanging with a pile of canceled orders and no pipeline to fall back on.

The common trend of the last years was, in Dave Jeffrey’s words, “Those who did die, did not diversify.”

Those who relied too much on a single, large client, painted themselves into a corner unnecessarily.

And many of these firms died, because they did not diversify.

The takeaway here for your company is to diversify your customer base.

Just as you invest in your tooling, your capacity, and your technology in your manufacturing facility, you must also invest in your customer portfolio. This means investing in scaling your sales team, investing in their success to set them up to bring in additional work to diversify your customer portfolio.

Diversification of your customer portfolio is key to long term survival.

There are two primary ways to get there. When I speak with owners of supply chain, logistics, and industrial companies I find there are two types of business owners.

First, is the one who will go out and get his hands dirty. He will make the phone calls to drum up business, will network his way into the deal flows, and will go out and hustle and grind until the business thrives.

This person is rare and unusual.

The other person is much more typical. He (or she) might be a little introverted. Much preferring to stay away from the crowds and instead to stay in the lab. To maximize the manufacturing operations is where this person would much prefer to be.

When I recently spoke with John Rinaldi, who runs a firm called Real Time Automation, he shared with me that he is only successful because he’s a poor engineer.

Therefore, he was forced to learn how to be a business person, a marketer, a sales person. And in doing so, his firm has grown well beyond what other typical firms like his would have done.

In his experience, the company that would grow the fastest would look like this:

“Where there is one partner who is the technical, and there is the other one who is the rainmaker.”

The key takeaway: To diversify your customer base, and continue to grow past your growth plateaus safely, you must find a rainmaker who can prudently leverage your resources into sustainable growth.

Now that we have established where businesses get stuck, and why, it is important to know what investing in success and innovation looks like.

Know that out of the gate, you’ll be less profitable. But over the next 12-18 months, 3-5 years…you can be in a completely different universe.

One word of warning as you invest in Innovation. It is not an overnight solution. It requires commitment.

Jim Berretta, a marketing consultant at CustomerAttraction.com, says that a common problem in industry is, “You create a strategy document and then you walk away from it.”

The solution, he says, is to get the strategist involved. “When the strategist is involved, to keep the execution going, you get better outcomes.”

In other words, don’t fall prey to the lone wolf syndrome. Find a good rainmaker who brings better strategies and execution to the table, and then keep the execution going.

Innovation can only happen one way – by connecting with the right people who “get it” and are also growing into the future, right now. These people are living on the edge of innovation and the creation of the future.

Connecting with these people and their strategies prevents your company from continuing to stay stuck on the plateau, and helps you avoid the “whale client” trap.

It is only through gaining access to the exponential creativity of the right people and the right processes that you have a chance to benefit from today’s disruptive environment. Here’s what that success can look like:

If you have a supply chain, logistics, or industrial company doing at least $5-10M and have a hungry sales team, we can create 33% annual growth and guarantee to add at least $1M of new growth using existing resources, so it won’t cost you a penny.

What you need for this to work:

You’re in the Supply Chain, Logistics, Materials Handling, or Similar Industry

A Hungry Sales Team (We create a significant lead surge for your team)

Capacity – You need to be ready to take on new business

Growth Mindset – Desire to scale and grow and win

The last one, the Growth Mindset is the most important.

To discover how we help these companies achieve such stunning results, reach out to schedule a short call. If you’re on the phone for more than 10 minutes…it’s because you want to be.

⇒ Schedule your call at http://www.masterkeyprofits.com/meet