How Global Manufacturers Scale Offline Sales Tactics Using Digital Marketing

Danny got to nerd out quite a bit this week! As a newly-licensed pilot, he was more than ready to talk shop with Eric Rojek: Vice President of Thrush Aircraft, Inc.

1. A UNIQUE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

“Thrush Aircraft is one of the worldwide leaders of manufacturing agricultural aircraft,” Eric explained to us. “So one of the cool things that we do here is, not only do we build aircraft, but we’re part of a bigger purpose.

“Our aircraft help feed the world.”

“The big thing really unique about Thrush is we have full manufacturing capabilities in-house. We literally take raw material in one door, weld it, fabricate it, form it, and produce the Thrush line out the back.”

From machining to fiberglass to electrical wiring to painting to riveting, Thrush really does do it all. Every airplane they create is – indeed, it must be – hand-made, and high in quality.

To Eric, having control over every stage of production is vital. The two most important things that Thrush strives to get right are their people, and their product. Skilled manufacturers making something high-in-quality are vital to the sales process down the road.

2. SELLING THROUGH SUPPORT & TRAINING

Thrush may use plenty of digital marketing tactics, but for them providing a hands-on experience is often what finalizes a buyer’s decision.

“We do a lot of training classes free of charge. Training’s one of the best sales tools you can have!”

Free education can often be an invaluable marketing tactic. Why? Well, it’s a simple matter of mathematics. If you offer a certain number of classes to a certain number of parties, how many classes do you have to give before you make a sale?

In Thrush’s case, the revenue from a single sale is definitely worth the expense of a few training sessions.

And one of their other major ‘marketing’ tactics…doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with marketing.

For Thrush, providing proper support to existing buyers is equally as important as creating new campaigns to promote whatever they’ve created. A happy customer is a loyal customer…and frankly, snazzy marketing isn’t usually what’s going to bring someone back for more.

“The sales guy sells the first airplane. The support guy sells the next three.”

3.ESTABLISHING LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN FOREIGN MARKETS

Thrush uses a hybrid approach of direct-to-user marketing and distributors to sell their product. It’s an especially important adaptation for their company, given that 70% of their current business is international.

Selling to foreign markets involves dozens of hurdles. Thrush has to be aware of customs, civil authorities, and differing federal or regional regulations.

And if your company’s best sales tactic requires an in-person demonstration, then it’s wise to have local representatives when expanding into a foreign country.

That’s why one of Thrush’s first priorities when expanding into a new area is to establish a presence on the ground wherever they’re selling.

“Really, to have the local presence is one of the things that we really nail that has really spurred a lot of our growth and success.”

By using digital marketing techniques and tools to identify their buyer personas in each market, Thrush can identify where they should offer training sessions next. Over time, this means they can scale offline sales tactics more successfully.

4. VARIED LANGUAGE IN MESSAGING

Of course, even with local teams on the ground, creating multicultural marketing messages is a major challenge.

“When you come up with campaigns, you have to think, ‘How does that translate into multiple different languages and multiple different cultures?’ And each market’s different. Each customer’s different.”

As Danny discussed with Joanne Sanders of the Georgia World Trade Center on an earlier episode, accidental oversights in international marketing can have devastating consequences on corporate brands.

In fact, sometimes messages can get ‘lost in translation’ without changing languages at all!

Thrush has to make sure that their campaigns use different dialects just based on whether someone is a new prospect or a previous buyer. Familiar clients may understand plenty of Thrush terminology and company jargon that just confuses newcomers.

“[If I use] the lingo we use with a mature customer, these emerging market individuals will say, ‘Eric, what are you talking about? Slow down for me a little bit!’ ”

In the end, Thrush Aircraft’s marketing success comes down to knowing their buyers well.

Check out the full podcast and article at http://bit.ly/2vYXDEd

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