Digital Game Plan LIVE: Let’s Get Strategic & Put the Plan in Place
Digital Game Plan LIVE: Let’s Get Strategic & Put the Plan in Place explores how the Digital Game Plan for Manufacturers helps B2B companies turn strategy into focused action. Curt Anderson and Damon Pistulka walk through how manufacturers can identify core strengths, embrace strategic subtraction, define Soulmate Customers, and better understand the buyer journey. Using Falconer Electronics as a real-world example, they show how focusing on the right manufacturing strengths and customers can uncover new growth opportunities. They also explore how a frictionless digital buying experience can make life easier for busy engineers and purchasing professionals. The goal is simple: get laser-focused on what you do best, identify the customers you help best, and put a Digital Game Plan in place that helps those customers succeed.
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Transcription
Curt Anderson 00:00
Hey Damon, what is up, dude? How are you, man?
Damon Pistulka 00:03
Oh, Curt, I’m ready to go and excited to talk about the digital game plan today.
Curt Anderson 00:09
Absolutely. So we have super exciting. We have a great case study. We have an example that we’re going to show. So we talk a lot about the digital game plan. This process we’ve been building it with manufacturers for manufacturers for years, we actually we’ve built this wonderful, incredible software tool, and and we put our money where where our mouth is. Is it you know? This is not vibe coded. This is not like something that you know. Though you’re doing phenomenal, though we didn’t knock this down over the weekend. We’ve put a lot of it’s been a labor of love getting this new software tool off the ground. I’m going to pull it up for a second, just for folks that are catching us for the first time. What is the digital game plan?
Damon Pistulka 00:50
Well, it’s it’s really a eight plus step process where you you align your digital strategy with your strengths, and you really align what you’re talking about with your best customers, best potential customers.
Curt Anderson 01:06
Exactly right. So let’s, you know what? Let’s give, let’s go into. Hey, how about a little demo? Let’s go into demo mode, and we’re going to show an example of a client that we work with. And so, yeah. All right. So you can see, you can see the digital gap, right? Yeah. And you know what? And I still have. Oh, we still got the Penn State. Let’s go. Let’s go here. So I can. I’m gonna jump out of these guys. And my bad. I thought I had it pulled up. And all right. So here’s the company. I’m gonna show you this right here, Damon. So this is the company right here, Faulconer Electronics. This is an amazing, incredible manufacturer. Founded in 1985. Same owner still owns it today, isn’t that like 41 years, isn’t it? That’s cool, yeah. And guy’s name’s Roger Hall is a dear, close friend of mine, and he has, gosh, if here’s here’s a great example, Damon. If you walk into any Walmart in all of North America and you go to their television department, those televisions are plugged into like this heavy-duty metal fabricated made in USA power strip made right here at our friends at Falk Electronics. If you go to Lowe’s during holiday season and they’re artificial Christmas tree displays, you’ll see like this big heavy-duty made in America, you know, power strip, and it’s made right at Falkland Electronics. So they years ago, you know, they were contract manufacturer and just kind of like, hey, whatever came our way, which is very common, right? If you’re a CNC shop or whatever it is, they’re like, hey, whatever comes our way, man, like we got to keep the machines running. Yeah, we’ve got capacity. Let’s keep it rolling. Well, they were kind of, you know, no website presence. Digital wasn’t their thing, but as business started like ebb and flowing, they’re like, “Man, we need a digital footprint. Like, we really need to get online. So we took them through the digital game plan process, and so let’s let’s jump in now.
Damon Pistulka 02:51
Let’s let’s talk about this. This was how many years ago you were working them through the digital game plan process.
Curt Anderson 02:57
Oh gosh,
Damon Pistulka 02:59
how many
Curt Anderson 03:00
10 years ago, yeah. Okay,
Damon Pistulka 03:01
so this is not something that happened overnight. This has evolved at over a decade, and these are proven processes over hundreds of manufacturers that are sitting there today. With I don’t look the way I really need to look. I don’t sound the way I need to sound, and I need to understand what I should look like a bit more, and how I want to sound a bit more to get the clients. That’s what you’re telling me, right?
Curt Anderson 03:26
Yeah, that’s exactly right. So here’s here’s the fascinating thing. So they were doing all sorts of different electronics electronic assemblies. Okay, a little bit, you know, again, like whatever came their way, and so they were manufacturing this one particular item. But let’s take a look at the digital game plan, and I’m going to show show you the example. So what we did is we started right here. So like you know, for our friends out there that are familiar with that SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. When you hang out with us, Stamen, as we like to say, hey, you have no threats, you have no weaknesses. It’s all happy place, right? We’re going to talk about our strengths and opportunities. So what this tool does, it goes out and it really helps laser focus. Like, what are you best at, right? Yeah, you know, drawing base harness quoting. You know, ground straps are a focus category authority. We’re going to talk about that U.S. assembled production signal. You know, small order assembly. So, and then what the tool does, you can add. You can right here. You can download more if you’ve already gone through a spot analysis, but all sorts of things that you can add here to really laser focus. And that question that we love to ask is, how do you make the world a better place?
Damon Pistulka 04:33
Yeah, that’s a great point because you can edit this list if it gets something wrong. Because this is this is taking your website, any other digital information they can find in building these lists, but then you can curate them.
Curt Anderson 04:44
Yep, exactly. So, like, I was working with a trade association, manufacturer trade association, and they they had recently just gone through their own SWOT analysis. So we pulled, we had this what you’re looking at, right, for that organization, but then we took their SWOT and. We dropped it in here, and to like really fine tune. Now you and I, we have a mutual friend who is going through a significant pivot on their business. Now, when we ran a digital game plan for them, man, this thing was like spot on. But what the digital game plan didn’t know, it was like, hey, and behind the scenes, we’re making a pivot. So now this tool, we can go in and we can we can make adjustments to fit you where you want to be, right? Yeah. So that’s a great thing. So here, what was fascinating? It was like, what are you guys best at? How do you make the world a better place? And we dug deep into like their core strengths, their legacy, maybe um, and even on that. So what? Talk a little bit about that. So what? How we want to take a step back? How do you describe that?
Damon Pistulka 05:42
Well, I think it’s it’s really what the people don’t care about that much.
Curt Anderson 05:47
Right, right. That’s that strategic subtraction. Right. Yeah. There were things like you know again they’ve been around since 1985. Well, guess what? There were products that they were making in the 90s. You know they were doing a lot of like through-hole circuit board assembly. Well, that’s kind of gotten. That’s become outdated. It was a massive investment to try to get into like surface mount and like you know it’s it’s very capital intensive. wasn’t necessarily a great fit for them, so they decided, hey, we want to. We’re really good at wire harness assemblies. Phenomenal at you know just simple wire harnesses, very complicated wire harnesses. One thing they had a customer that was in auto industry, and they were manufacturing this product 1000s and 1000s per month, and it’s called a ground strap. And if you’re wondering, like, hey, what am I talking about? There’s a nice picture of it right there, right? Ground straps are a multi gazillion billion dollar market, man. It’s everywhere, right? Everything that draws a current needs to be grounded, so they were making 1000s of these for one customer. Nothing proprietary, no patent, no. It’s a commodity, right? And all of a sudden, they’re like, “Hey, is there anybody else on the planet that needs a ground strap? They’re like, like everybody. You know, they got a wonderful Boeing knocks on their door. Lockheed Martin now knocks on their door. If I’m going to jump over here real quick, Damon, if for our friends out there in electronic electronic space for marketplaces, they do a phenomenal job on Digiky. They sell on Amazon. So by taking their proprietary process, focusing on their core strengths, going through the digital game plan process and really understanding that soulmate customer, and we’re going to talk about that right now. Okay,
Damon Pistulka 07:27
and that allowed them to focus their marketing strategy into one area where they can really excel.
Curt Anderson 07:36
Exactly. So the thing that what the tool does here is it, and man, I tell you, I love you and I are big. How about those Mariners, right? Hey, I I digress. We’ll we’ll get back to the digital gameplay. But what this tool does is it buckets customers by singles, doubles, triples, home runs.
Damon Pistulka 07:52
We’re seeing Digiky right now.
Curt Anderson 07:54
My bad. Here you go.
Damon Pistulka 07:55
There we go.
Curt Anderson 07:56
Thank you, Damon. And so here, I’ll come back to you. All right, there’s your handsome face. So what the tool does, it it starts bucketing customers by base paths, all right, and then what it does is it actually creates a buyer persona. Okay, so let’s say for example, like, hey, you know what? We want to go after some doubles. Well, what this tool has done, it’s created that buyer persona, so they can really intimately get a clear, concise understanding, and we’re going to have a great example on Monday of another client that took advantage of this and how they separated their singles, doubles, triples, and home runs. And so, what’s what Faulkner Electronics started doing is like, okay, let’s put out a a proprietary product line on our website, so now people could start buying one and two and went on Amazon, went on Digiky, and went on all the marketplaces. Well, people started saying, “Hey, it’s awesome you have this one here and this length and this, but I need a different width. I need a different configuration. So, what did they do? They curated a configurator because of the digital game plan process. Let’s take a look at it real quick, and then we’ll start winding down. All right, I’m back here. So now here, think of that soulmate customer, that buying journey. Okay, I’m an engineer or somebody purchasing at Boeing, and I need to buy a ground. I’ve got 25 things that I need to purchase today, man. I am slammed, and I don’t have a lot of time. I land on this website for ground straps, and they’re doing a phenomenal job on search, on AI search, SEO, and this their buyer, there’s so many can come in here and they can actually create their own ground strap. This thing doesn’t exist anywhere on the planet, and so just step by step, they go in here and they’re creating it. They’re like, “Hey, I want this configuration. I want this. I want this. I hit next. Do I want a heat shrink? I’ll say no. And then how many do I need? Give me 100. And I come in here and I hit next. Damon, guess what? I’m done.
Damon Pistulka 09:49
Yeah.
Curt Anderson 09:50
I come over here. I have the menu is right smack in front of me of every item of every you know every every piece in the recipe, if you will. Right, and so now there can’t be a mistake. the The buyer and now this is total digital self serve. I pop in here. I just put in my information. I hit submit, and I’m done. It’s just so easy, and it’s making that buy. You know, what do you is use that word frictionless? How can we make that frictionless experience? You know, the great thing about it, when the person’s done, little checkout button, they can pull out their credit card, make that purchase, and they are done moving on to the other 24 things that they need for that.
Damon Pistulka 10:30
Yeah, and the the digital game plan showed them this, what allowed them to focus. And when we go back to the website and we think about the website words, the things we’re talking about, that came from the digital game plan process of understanding the buyer journey, your buyer and the journey.
Curt Anderson 10:48
You’re hitting it right on the head because what they did is they understood the awareness stage. They understood their buyer persona that so many customer how they were doing search, right? Maybe it’s on Digiky, maybe it’s on SEO, maybe it’s in paid ads, whatever it was. So they got into the awareness stage. Then what the configurator did is it helped with the exploration stage. So now, as that buyer from Lockheed, Boeing, whatever that company is, right, that Soulmate, they’re doing searches. Well, like, oh, submit your RFQ, or give us a call, or send us an email. Like Faulkner said, “Hey, we don’t want to do that. Let’s get them the price like right now. Let’s get this party over with. And so, understanding the buyer journey and going through the digital game plan process through the so we what we call that soulmate success path. And the thing is, what we and we’ll wind down on this is nobody loves to buy. I don’t know. Maybe my my wife does, but I don’t. Right? Nobody likes to buy. But man, our customers love to be successful. And so, a takeaway for today is like whatever you do, help your customer be successful, and that’s going to help drive your success. Damon, take us home. Words of wisdom, thoughts.
Damon Pistulka 11:57
Well, I tell you, if you want to see this, the the link is in the the post right now, but also just the URL is appp dot b2b tail.com, and you can give this a try for yourself.
Curt Anderson 12:12
Absolutely, totally free, Damon. Totally, totally free. So, yeah, guys, thank you, thank you, thank you for your time today. We never take that lightly. Connect with Damon on LinkedIn. He’s doing. He’s on there once in a while. He’s all over the place. I’d love to curt.
Damon Pistulka 12:24
Do
Curt Anderson 12:26
I’d love to connect with you on LinkedIn. And hey, we wish you an amazing, incredible day. We’re going to be back here tomorrow, and we’ll we’ll see you soon.