"I still hear the operations manager saying: 'For years, we’ve been producing at high quality and have been extremely busy. So everything is going great!'" Wilco tells me. "And a week later, I hear that production has halted for half a day because there are no orders."

"Then the operations manager asks me if there are any orders sitting on the shelf," says Wilco, with a look of disbelief. "This is exactly what the operations managers are missing: thinking ahead and acting to make sure there’s no sand in the gears."

Wilco, the director of the holding company Vanta (a fictitious name) with 11 subsidiaries in the manufacturing industry, sees clearly that competitors are offering cheaper prices, making his companies vulnerable. "We need to shift more towards the business side," he says, as we sit down to explore how we can make the company more stable and achieve responsible growth without harming the company culture.

Vanta has been producing high-quality plastic and metal semi-finished products for more than 20 years, with a strong focus on quality by leveraging new technologies. However, the operations managers tend to keep selling individual 'parts' to their customers. They rely too much on existing customer relationships at the production level and fail to recognize that their unique value proposition is too low.

An additional risk that has emerged in recent years is the tight labor market. Finding skilled personnel to meet production and delivery times is a constant challenge. And what if Wilco can’t deliver the parts due to staff shortages? The customer will go to a competitor who can, often at a lower price – even if the quality is just slightly lower.

The COVID-19 crisis taught entrepreneurs that once a customer leaves, they often don’t come back...

During our discussion about growth opportunities, we explored how Vanta can evolve from a parts supplier to a business partner for their customers. What if Vanta not only supplies parts but also dives into the customer’s business case and ambitions? This would put Vanta ahead of competitors who only supply parts and would attract larger, more complex projects, making the work more engaging for specialist employees and boosting their involvement and retention.

Wilco saw the potential and recognized the trend in the market: competing on quality alone is no longer enough. A new market approach, where Vanta becomes a strategic partner for its clients, fits perfectly with his growth plans to expand to around 130 FTEs, enabling the company to secure larger projects and attract top talent.

This way, Vanta no longer has to wait for a customer to request a part but can proactively think along with them on how to achieve their business cases and even offer ideas that contribute to their ambitions. In doing so, the 11 subsidiaries can continue creating beautiful products while charging more for their services, making it easier to offer competitive salaries to attract new top talent.

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I help serial entrepreneurs in the financial services, technology, and manufacturing industries increase market share, revenue, and profitability from both existing and new clients.

By applying the Convincing Power Principles®, we turn current clients into the highest-paying ones. This also increases the Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) by 10%, making your company more attractive to investors, partners, and employees.