Chris Peer Interview

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

marketing, book, industrial, pillars, value proposition, years, talk, great, chris, templates, team, process, value prop, website, sales, companies, KPI, conversation, work, manufacturing

SPEAKERS

Scott MacKenzie

00:00

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01:16

Welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots. And let's go

01:33

05:44

I'm doing great, Scott. Thanks for having me on.

05:47

God, I'm so happy that you did find time in your schedule. Listeners we connected last year, I had to say it is an ongoing joke, haha. And he has a book. And it's all around marketing. So I'm all geeky about it. And and I said, Chris, you need to share it with you guys. So there, that's the story. That's what I'm sticking to. All right, before we get into the book, and all great, great information. Give us a little background, Chris, on who you are. Sure.

06:18

So my name is Chris Peer. I am a an entrepreneur, I own two different businesses. I'm an author, father, an avid bass fisherman. What What I'm really passionate about is helping manufacturing companies to grow. And that's really what I've based my career off of. See,

06:38

it's an interesting conundrum, right? I'm a manufacturer, I got into manufacturing, because I like manufacturing these things. And I'm really hot into these things. And I, I suspect that because I make the best thing, that everybody's just going to be knocking down the door. And that's just not the case. It can be the best thing and don't get me wrong. But if you don't deploy some strategies around how to get people knocking on the door, then well, just nobody comes to it. It's like it's in and low. Yeah, we're gonna have a link to his book out there. Because he was so kind and wonderful. He sent me a copy sis out on Amazon. It is on Amazon. Okay, so I'm going to have the link to his book out on Amazon. So fear not get it. I've got my dog years already to go. I rifled through it. Excellent job. This picture doesn't look like his picture, or his video picture right here. It's no different picture. Anyway, all good. And what I truly enjoyed about the book was the fact that it is nuts and bolts, it's, it's the way I like to think it's not something ethereal. It's like, no, don't do these things do this. And these are the reasons why. And this is why you track it. And this is, this is good stuff, you know. And so with that said, give us a little just, you know, background on why you said this book needs to be written.

08:09

09:32

forbid, in actual provable data and information with marketing, heaven forbid, continue.

09:39

Yeah, so we spent about 18 to 24 months diving into every single client and looking at whether they were successful or not and what they had in place. And at the end of the process, we actually were very shocked. We thought it was going to come down to marketing tactics, or like Social media or email marketing or whether they were done properly or not. And what we were shocked to find is that we landed on eight different core categories, we call them the great eight pillars. And they all really have to do with your marketing, operational infrastructure. So once those things are in place, and those companies that had those operational components in place, they were much more successful with marketing. And we decided to write a book about it.

10:27

All right, take us through it, because the the book is called The Great eight pillars. Not Nine, eight, not seven, eight. And which I liked the the the sub tagline is ROI driven marketing and manufacturing companies, that is a target. And whether we like it or not, you want a return on investment? Period? That's no other way of getting around to tickets through that. So how do we start working through these pillars?

11:00

Yeah, so the the book outlines how to go about it. But in essence, it really comes down to your people, your processes, your software and your systems.

11:12

See this? When I read about that, I just said, da, da, continue. Sorry.

11:20

No, it. I think the one thing that most the most comments I get about the book are that kind of comment. It's like, okay, this is pretty self explanatory. Why haven't I been doing this? All right. It's classic, classic. Yeah. And sometimes it's those things that just hit you in the face and go, this isn't, this doesn't need to be more complicated than than it needs to be. So I'll give you an example. In the last 21 years, 22 years that I've been in business with my my agency, not a single prospect of customer has come to us and said, here's our existing marketing strategy, can you help us implement this. And we're talking about companies that are 5 million revenues to a billion in revenues. Not a single one has done that. And because most marketers and most agencies, they don't know where to start, they want to jump in and start feeling good. So they start doing tactical work. I call it Whack a Mole style of marketing. Yeah. And so as you read the book, you'll find that it's a pretty self explanatory process of, let's get the right goals in place. Let's make sure your value proposition and your messaging and your branding can support those goals. Get a formal marketing strategy developed, right, or make sure that you have the marketing team in place to pull it off. Make sure your website supports it, make sure you got analytics and reporting to support it, your tech stack, and then templates and guides to support you. But it's

13:00

not sexy, as that's not sexy stuff. So I guess like, you got to do it. And that's what was so interesting, because I know well, as I, you know, I'll be the first to jump into something that's flashy and dazzling. And forget about all the, the process, you know. So with that said, we've got, you've laid them out. And right off the bat, you got your KPIs. And that's just, you got to do that right then and to make sure that it's not fluff, and real, real KPIs that you can measure how to take us through that.

13:45

So if you're gonna have ROI driven marketing, you need to know what your return on investment needs to be. So you need to know what you're starting with. So and by the way, before I go any further, our website is gap.co. And everything we're about to talk about, you can download free tools and templates from the website. There's no cost, there's no obligation. And these are the tools that we've built over the last 20 years and modifying for two decades. So they're really solid tools.

14:16

Yeah, I've already taken advantage of it. Yeah,

14:22

they work. They do it. It's

14:24

like, I'm glad somebody did this, because it's starting from scratch is just like, oh, that's rough.

14:32

So the first thing we do, Scott, you asked, like, what's what's How do we create these goals is we talked about a 10x ROI goal. So you know, you should always shoot for the moon, right? So if you were to invest $100,000, and you could get a million out of it, that would be beautiful, right? Well, many of our clients have gotten a 3x or 5x 10x or even a 27x return on an investment. So from their marketing investment. So you got to start by understanding what is your marketing investment so you can set a baseline

14:59

So you want you want to be is the worst marketing, just you have no marketing, and then all of a sudden, you're just gonna get multi X ROI just because you're doing something right. That's the goal. It's good continue.

15:20

So you follow the templates. But but basically we start off by saying what's your current marketing spend an investment, multiply that by 10, there's your 10x goal. Okay, now, what are the KPIs or the key performance indicators that you need to track along the way. So we have recommended key performance indicators that you track and each chapter dives into them further and further. And then you there's a marketing strategy template you can download to help you build out this marketing strategy. book outlines how your marketing team should be structured, and so on and so forth. And you know, I think if you follow the book, it is pretty nuts and bolts, and it's pretty much as

16:01

I thoroughly enjoyed it. And because it was that, and in it, it's, it's stating the obvious, and I'll be as guilty as anybody else. I've run companies, I've had companies. And I have to say, it was only until recently, within the five years or something, recognizing that marketing is so vital and doing it right. And then there's just so so many. I guess, distractions that can exist, yeah, we want to market and then you get distracted. And it just doesn't really pull it and then all of a sudden, you're looked at as an expense as opposed to a something that's, you know, impacting the bottom line in a positive way, you're an expense. You know, why, anyway, continue with the eight pillars that I'm telling you, I ate it up.

16:57

Yeah, no. And I think what you're talking about Scott is, it is simple. A lot of people asked me who the book was written for. And it's really written for the marketing and sales leader. This isn't a tactical marketing book, this isn't how to do marketing tactics like social media, or SEO, or email marketing, or any of those other things. This is about how you build your marketing operation. And I've had several CEOs read the book. And I surprising to me, I thought it was a very great compliment. They said, Chris, by reading your book, I now know how to manage my marketing team. Yes, I know what to expect from marketing. I know what questions I should be asking. And I know what my agency should and shouldn't be doing. And so just having that peace of mind, I think is gets gives me a lot of satisfaction.

17:55

I have to say that I in the company setup run. Never I've never had any conversations wrapped around marketing. I just assumed that marketing was getting done. Here, go be marketer, whatever that looks like. And that's just not the case. Just not the case. That's good. Yeah, yeah.

18:19

And even in like, pillar number six, we talked about analytics and reporting. When we talk about the marketing leaders and the marketers themselves, we want marketing to be elevated, we want leadership teams, to look at marketing as a value added growth tool, you know, in their toolbox. And so the reporting that we map out, and you can download a reporting template on our website, as well. Those reports are meant for senior leadership to review and you review with them, so that they can see what you're doing and how things are working and what you're trending towards. Which then leads to more involvement in marketing, more investment in marketing. And so it's a great snowball effect.

19:07

It's not a little black box. And especially in the world where you can have insights and data that is given you the, the information you need to be successful. I always look at it nowadays Not, not in the past the past. I wasn't good. Today, maybe I'm a little bit better. But it's it's something that you have it in place. It will always be able to be that machine that allows you to continue to bring in value. If you look at if you have you bring up some couple good points in the book is you have to budget for it. A lot of people don't properly put money around the effort. Again, it's a myth perception of what marketing is. But you're saying, hey, properly capitalize it, and what these things into place and follow the process, follow the steps.

20:13

So, you know, you know, I think specially in the manufacturing space and in the industrial space. Marketing has always been smoke and mirrors. And in those industrial businesses, most business dealings were done face to face, through relationships, and sales people owned that relationship process. And what's happened over the last 15 years is that salespeople don't own the sales process anymore, the buyer owns the buying process. And buyers don't care as much about those relationships as they used to. These younger folks are coming in to the workforce. And they they're on a mission, they're busy that they have high expectations of themselves, and their employers have high expectations of them. They don't have time for this. So they want to make decisions quickly. So what do they do, they're going to the internet, they're doing all their research there. And if you're not seen online as a thought leader, and you're not using these tools, you're a dying breed. That's why you're seeing so much change, especially in the manufacturing space, like with manufacturers reps, they can be great, but doesn't relationship people. And as these new folks come in to the purchasing environment, they just don't put as much value on it. Yeah.

21:39

It. I think that that's a real important component. I mean, in you've been in the business for 20 plus years, you've recognized that there's been some pretty significant change taking place in industry as a whole. Especially manufacturing. Yeah, that's a good point where, and I'll be, I'll be the poster child for that I don't I don't have a problem with going out. If I'm looking for a I have a problem, that problem needs to be solved. So I'm going to go my first step is not trying to call somebody, my first step is the internet. Then I'm trying to find the four or five solutions. And then maybe I'll call maybe. So you better have that. I don't really believe have a compelling, you talk about it, your value proposition that better? It better tackle my eyes better just grab it, pull it out of my head and tackle. Yeah, take us through. I mean, that's is a value proposition static, or dynamic.

22:56

Its dynamic, but to a degree, it shouldn't constantly be changing week to week, but year to year, it may change. Let me let me let me explain why. So value proposition messaging and branding is pillar number two, it's pillar number two for a reason. You got to have an ROI goal. That's number one. But once you start to think about your marketing, if you don't have a strong value proposition, you won't convert sales, you won't convert marketing leads into sales, qualified leads. And the sales qualified leads aren't going to be going to proposal and quote, because they, if buyers don't know how you can help them survive or thrive or fix their problem. They're not going to talk to you and waste time. So Scott, to answer your question, specifically, when companies sit down to build out a value prop. It's a very complex process. And again, we have a template for it online, you can download. And we recommend it's done as a team with the leadership team. But the biggest fear is that you're going to go through this process and then realize you don't have a value proposition. Or you've got one, it's just really weak. So two of the key tenants that we have about value propositions are that they're differentiated in the market. And they're clearly articulated. Some other another tenant is that they're very simple. So I'll give I'll tell you a quick story. 15 years ago, when I sat down to build our value proposition for our agency, it was like a kick in the stomach. We didn't have one. We realized we were just like every other marketing agency. We serviced anybody who would pay us a paycheck. We did any service, we could pay the bills. And what we realized is we were just the everything for everybody. So it took us five years to really focus on being unique and building out specific tenants of our value proposition. And today we're very unique. We're very niched. We're very focused on what we do. And that's what led to where we are today.

25:16

Yeah, but that's again, being an old, salty dog that I am I've been in, I've been in countless meetings where they start talking about, well, we need we need a mission and a vision and a and the value proposition and, and then then the, then it wanes, it just it doesn't the energy starts to really and then being a part of organizations that have multiple efforts or to try to figure that out. This is this is where I, I find that it's up to the executives that that C level to drive it to just drive it. And if it doesn't, if that's not being a part of that whole equation, then it's suboptimal at best. Do you agree with that?

26:06

Absolutely. In fact, I don't believe that the marketing team is responsible for value proposition. I think the marketing team and the sales teams, team leaders should demand that there is a well articulated and differentiated value prop, because they'll become more successful, but it's up to the leadership team, the executive team to make sure that you have won and that it's lived in your organization. And to answer your question from earlier a little bit clearer, your value proposition will change over time. But you need to be very cognizant of it.

26:50

Yeah, go ahead. Tell you a story.

26:51

tell a quick story. This is in the book as well, I tell a lot of lessons learned in the book, we were working with a group purchasing organization. I won't mention any specific names, but they were pretty big organization in the manufacturing space. It like 800 members. And they hired us to help them with lead generation for new membership. And I told the owner, I said, I'll be able to tell you within six to nine months, whether you have a marketing issue or a sales issue or a value prop issue, because the data doesn't lie. Nine months later, we were on the way to their corporate headquarters, I had three members of my team, their company had I think, 11 or 10. Members, it was a pretty good sized meeting. And before the meeting, even starts, the owner comes in, and she slams her book down on the table. Do you say Chris, were all my new members, you said I'd have new members by now. And I told her I said, I didn't promise you I'd have new members, I told you I'd tell you whether you had a value prop message or sales or marketing issue. And they said I can tell you with high confidence you don't you no longer have a marketing issue. I've got all the data in this file that I'm going to present to you today that shows all your trending KPIs, all the positive things that are happening. I can also tell you that I've been in your CRM and I've seen the follow up your sales team is doing and they are spot on, they're doing a great job. I know you have a value proposition issue. It's too difficult to do business with your organization. And I explained the reasons I found out later that she was pretty upset with me after that meeting, because I essentially called her baby ugly. But she listened and we fixed it. Three or four months later, they had the most new members join that they've ever had over that period of time. And then she sold the organization and cashed out about a year and a half later. So these things do matter. I mean, and they they are really really important.

28:57

Yeah. Kudos to, to the the lady who I mean, it's hard to it's hard to take that that criticism or that insight, especially when you're so married to it. I would imagine she's all a part of the whole older value proposition creation all in her head, that type of thing. What what made what made that value proposition? What did you do to change it? What What was the real problem?

29:29

In their particular case, they had some barriers to entry in order to do business with them and become a member. And a lot of their messaging was around them. And this is very common Scott, with most companies, they they say what they do and they position themselves as you know, the company that's going to come in and then solve all your problems versus illustrating what you do for your customers. Because your customers are the ones that really want to succeed. So we just flipped everything around, remove those barriers. And it changed. Everything is so

30:17

funny. Don't Don't make me work harder than I have to. Don't make me expand. You know that intellectual calories. Just, you've got to make it so easy for me. Or I was just like, it's, it's, it's amazing.

30:34

There's a book to read building a story brand by Donald Miller. Yep, I have it. Yep. So he explains this great in his book where he talks about burning brain calories. Yeah. And he talks about the hero's complex. And that's kind of what I'm talking about.

30:50

That's where I got the brain calories.

30:53

Yeah, he's it's a it's a really good book.

30:54

It is. It really is. It's kind of, there's so much information out there. I'll tell you, I mean, it's just it's it's something. So as we go through the pillars, we got to wrap it up, because we're already way. It's amazing. So what we have as KPIs, I could see that a lot of effort there, a lot of focus must have must be good. Value Proposition, messaging, and branding. All there. We've got marketing strategy, the team structure, we've got the website. The website is huge. It's huge. And then we've got the analytics technology stack. I'll tell you right now, I've gone down the technology stack. And there are some technologies that I should never have bought. But But I did. And I don't do it now. It's it was one of those live and learns. And then finally, you've got all of the templates and guides out on your website. Yep. Everything. There's no excuse for you listener. There's not I mean, vi could do it, you can do it. How do people get a hold of you.

32:02

So you can check out gap that CEO, that's, that's my website. It's a consulting firm, for manufacturing companies. I also own a marketing agency called syncshow.com, it's syncshow.com. And soon to be launched is going to be Chris Peer.com. So you can hire me for speaking or workshops and consulting,

32:25

look at to a dunk on entrepreneur at heart. Look at that. I love it. Very good. All right, we're gonna have all the contact information for Chris out on Industrial Talk. So if you're not reach out to him, we're going to also have all the content, the links to his book and anything else we can shamelessly backlink to on our website out on Industrial Talk. Thank you very much for joining. We will be right back.

32:52

You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

33:01

How about that for a nuts and bolt conversation? Get the book. It great, the great eight pillars, you need to succeed at marketing. And this is just nuts and bolts. It's just what we do. I created for paid toward that shiny object guy now you do too sometimes. But that's what this is all about. Let's get the process solid. On our focus. You're right there, man. Get the book. It's all out on Industrial Talk most definitely Amazon has it and reach out to Chris make sure that he's a part of your network. All right, we're building that platform, that Industrial Talk platform, you need to be a part of the ecosystem. You need to be contributing to this ecosystem. Your voice needs to be heard. We've got we've got education opportunities, we've got webcasts we've got, of course podcasts. As you know, we have the videos, we have sprints. There's so much information that you can glean from Industrial Talk and delivered by the incredible individuals that are in industry. So the music just ran out. what can technology Alright, be bold, be brave, dare greatly hang out with Chris hang out with his team and you will change the world. We're gonna have another great conversation shortly.