The two-way communication between sales and production

When sales and production communicate, a metal fabrication shop can evolve to meet the needs of a rapidly changing market. Getty Images

Anthony Calarusso has had a busy 2020. As president of Littleton, Colo.-based SALT Marketing, he works with various custom metal fabricators on lead generation and prospecting, two critical functions that help fill a fabricator’s sales pipeline. For those involved in filling that pipeline, it’s been a crazy year. Their goal: to be on the growth leg of the K.

By now you’ve probably heard the term K-shaped recovery. Some industries continue to struggle, while others are bouncing back as if it were a traditional V-shaped recovery. Fabricators serving IT infrastructure and e-commerce are experiencing a much different 2020 than those serving transportation or other sectors that were expected to soften even before the pandemic took hold.

Of course, just because a fabricator serves a market doesn’t mean it’s married to it, hence the potential of prospecting. Sure, landing a large contract in certain supply chains hasn’t been easy this year, with travel restrictions making it difficult for customers and suppliers to perform the usual due diligence. Thankfully, custom fabricators serve numerous supply chains, many of which might change significantly in the coming years. For many shops, those supply chain shifts are leading to new opportunities.

What will separate those fabricators that experience the K recovery’s “growth leg” from those that don’t? Luck has something to do with it. A fabricator serving the right markets, like e-commerce or IT infrastructure, are probably riding the K recovery just fine. But what about shops that need to find new customers?

“The best environment is when production says, ‘If you can sell it, we’ll figure out how to make it,’ and when sales says, ‘If you can make it, we’ll figure out how to sell it.’” So said SALT Marketing’s Calarusso, who conceded that he stole this insight from one of his clients. He explained that this attitude can help build a shop culture that’s ready to adapt to a changing market.

This year especially, the flow of information between sales and production should be a two-way street. There are limits, of course. A sheet metal job shop isn’t about to just “figure out” how to roll 4-in.-thick plate. Regardless, collaboration between sales and production helps the operation evolve over time.

Growth at a typical fabricator goes something like this: Production knows which jobs flow through the shop easily, quick enough to edge out competitors on most bids. This leads to more work, which in turn makes the floor even better at processing those “sweet spot” jobs, and the cycle continues.

You might call this a virtuous cycle that drives a fabricator’s growth, but what if the market shifts? What if increased competition makes those once-profitable jobs a lot less profitable? At many shops, this might happen because information flow between sales and production is a one-way street. If you can make it, we’ll figure out how to sell it.

Put another way, sales listens to production, but production doesn’t listen to sales. To be fair, salespeople might not have much to say, especially if they haven’t had time to devote to prospecting. But if prospecting were built into the process—say, through personnel dedicated to market research and cold-calling—sales could give a fabricator some valuable insight. Then, production will finally say, “If you can sell it, we’ll figure out how to make it.”