Your Sales and Marketing Processes Require the Same Precision as Your Parts

The challenges facing CNC machine shops and other metal manufacturers remain persistent and, in the case of skilled labor shortages, continue to grow. In this automation-driven industry, operational efficiency, exacting precision standards, and global competitiveness have put the need for full pipelines and new customers front and center. While these pressures remain front of mind for organizational leaders, the need for a dedicated CNC machine shop marketing program may not be a focus.

It should be. As manufacturing reshoring efforts continue to gather momentum deep into 2024, many metal fabrication and CNC machining companies are embracing the opportunity with automation advancements and pursuit of consistent quality, shoring up supply chain channels, and looking to attract new customers by placing themselves where their potential customers are looking. To keep pace, a comprehensive CNC machine shop marketing plan is needed.

Are You Poised to Capitalize with Sales and Marketing Strategy?

In the manufacturing sector, the traditional approaches to sales and marketing are being carefully evaluated to see if they can answer the challenges of the current day. For any CNC machine shop marketing program, a balanced and combined set of practices covering both outbound and inbound marketing are needed to provide the tools to move forward with confidence.

Outbound marketing efforts actively seek and pursue new customer opportunities. Inbound marketing for manufacturers strategically positions them where prospects are already looking, and educates these potential customers to build trust and develop relationships.

But this twofold approach to CNC machine shop marketing can be difficult to initiate, especially for organizations that haven’t used both ends of the marketing spectrum before — and that’s not counting the difficulty in tying them together in a strategic manner to increase lead generations. Bringing the needed marketing expertise in-house to engineer such an approach can be difficult — and costly.

On the sales side, many CNC machining companies have been getting by by taking on new customers with little appreciation for ideal fits or prospects that align more closely with their own capabilities and supply. Identifying ideal customers is essential to enabling more accurate marketing efforts that lead to better results.

Additionally, time for the members of your sales team will need to be prioritized with the increased demand for new customers. While outreach and prospect lists are always important, it’s important to also grow revenue from existing customers and devote time to the most sales-ready opportunities. Prospecting, list building, and nurturing efforts should be laid at the feet of the front-end sales team so the core sales team can dial in on closing deals from the most qualified opportunities.

If it sounds like a lot, it is. Developing a comprehensive CNC machine shop marketing plan requires expert help.

How to Implement This Approach for CNC Machine Shop Marketing

As outlined above, acquiring and retaining the marketing and sales talent needed for this approach is a heavy lift, both in terms of expense and personnel administration. The price for experienced professionals capable of executing a CNC machine shop marketing program can be steep, so the initial investment (and risk) is a clear hurdle.

There are other issues as well in developing an in-house team. Just finding the right talent to fill these roles can be exhaustive from a time perspective. And even if you do, there will be an onboarding process of weeks (or perhaps months) where they will need to get up to speed on your organization, who your ideal customers are, and how your processes and systems work. All of this robs you of delivering speed to impact for a critical business function.

The better path forward is to work with an external partner that can develop a program for CNC machine shop marketing and sales. Some of the many reasons to do so include:

  • Maximize Your Investment — Your external partner will bring a full complement of team members with skills covering a variety of disciplines to the table. You’ll have access to a complete, expert-level team — all for a much lower upfront investment than hiring and trying to replicate on your own in-house.
  • Get Up to Speed Quickly— When you partner with a firm that understands how to build a CNC machine shop marketing program you streamline the process. The learning curve and time to impact are both reduced as this partner will already have the tools, knowledge, and processes required to put your program to work.
  • Proven, Structured Approach— Comprehensive support means developing increased lead generation by combining inbound and outbound marketing and a front-end sales process that identifies and qualifies prospects before they reach your sales team for closing. A division of labor concept delivers efficiency from every angle.
  • Full Array of Tools and Tactics— CNC machine shops have a wealth of technical expertise, but likely have a difficult time knowing where to begin when it comes to a proven sales methodology or insight into the many tools and skill sets needed for a marketing plan. Fortunately, your partner will have a honed strategy and resources at the ready to implement your sales and marketing program at the very start — saving you substantial time.
  • Measurable Results— Maybe you have a CRM or another system that is used to measure marketing and sales effort, but struggle to find the staff or expertise to properly measure progress. The right partner will have the technology to measure each lead that comes in, take note of the activities used to nurture them along, and provide a clear picture of the current ROI of the program.

Our programs work, and we can prove it. Explore our metal manufacturing case studies here.

Elevate Your CNC Machine Shop Marketing with Athena

At Athena, we utilize a proven approach to develop a comprehensive front-end sales and marketing program for manufacturers in CNC machining, sheet metal, fabrication, and more. We invest the time upfront to understand the complexity of your market and your circumstances and our experience informs our program about what it takes to successfully win new business. We grow the new business development abilities of our clients, while compressing your sales cycles, improving sales rep accountability and productivity, and increasing awareness of your brand.

Ready to improve your CNC machine shop marketing support and results? Connect with our team today to learn more about what we do and how we can help.