Episode #24: Purpose-Driven Growth in Aerospace Manufacturing with Tony Kelbert and Dan Echternkamp
In this episode of U.S. Manufacturing Today, host Matt Horine is joined by Tony Kelbert and Dan Echternkamp, founders of Aerospace Growth Strategies, to discuss sustainable growth for machine shops. They delve into common issues in the industry, such as balancing spindle hours and morale, and why traditional growth strategies often fail. Tony and Dan share their insights on developing purpose-driven strategies that align with shop capabilities, leveraging inbound sales, and navigating the evolving aerospace and defense supply chain. They also discuss the importance of focusing on core competencies and building strong customer relationships. The conversation includes practical advice on improving business development and marketing strategies for machine shop owners.
Links
Timestamps
- 00:00 Introduction to U.S. Manufacturing Today
- 00:23 Meet the Founders of Aerospace Growth Strategies
- 00:55 Challenges and Solutions in Machine Shops
- 03:10 The Importance of Purpose-Driven Strategies
- 04:36 Identifying and Avoiding the Wrong Work
- 06:38 Boosting Morale with the Right Work
- 09:57 Building an Inbound Sales Pipeline
- 13:17 Marketing Strategies for Machine Shops
- 17:47 Future Trends in Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing
- 21:05 Positioning for Success in a Rebalanced Supply Chain
- 26:29 Getting Started with Aerospace Growth Strategies
- 28:03 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Episode Transcript
Matt Horine: [00:00:00] Welcome back to US Manufacturing today. The podcast powered by Veryable where we talk with the leaders, innovators, and change makers, shaping the future of American industry, along with providing regular updates on the state of the industry, the changing landscape policies, and more.
Today we're diving into one of the most important conversations happening in the supply chain, how machine shops can grow with purpose without burning out their people or chasing the wrong work. I'm joined by Tony Kelbert and Dan Echternkamp, the founders of Aerospace Growth Strategies. A firm that helps machine shop owners take a methodical, sustainable approach to growth.
Rather than chasing random RQs or forcing sales scripts, Tony and Dan helps shops get clear on the right kind of work, the kind that fits their capabilities, boost the team morale, and strengthens the bottom line. We'll talk about what growth really looks like in aerospace manufacturing today and more, and why purpose-driven strategies are outperforming the old school hustle.
Tony and Dan, welcome to the show.
Tony & Dan: Yeah. Thanks for having us.
Matt: First things first, I would love to hear about your origin story and your background in the [00:01:00] manufacturing space.
Tony: Yeah, I'll go first. I started out kind of conventional corporate engineer route. 15 years I spent in designing, started out in military vehicles and then moved into private jet interiors at Gulfstream Aerospace.
That wasn't a great fit for me. There's a lot of red tape involved on the engineering side of the aerospace industry. So I started getting really opportunistic and started looking around for where my specific skills might be. And came across Form Logic, turned that initial interview into a consultancy, and then became one of the early members of that team as they started feeling out where everything fit in the aerospace industry, where machining fit, and you know, who their target customer was, their ideal customer.
And that's where I ran into Dan, I'll pass it to you. Thanks, Tony.
Dan: Yeah, I've been in the machining industry for a little better part of 15 years, primarily sales roles. But as Tony mentioned at Form Logic, my most recent role, I was heavily involved with sales and operations. So I, I got to get a full picture of the manufacturing process.
[00:02:00] Not just from the machine floor, but from RFQ, from a customer all the way through to shipping and invoicing and actually collecting on those invoices as well. Not just, here's an invoice, there's, that's also a, another issue and to be told and discussed maybe on a later date. So yeah, my experience, it's been across roughly 500 to a thousand machine shops throughout the us, some in Europe.
So I've definitely traveled quite a bit and visited a lot of different shops and really our mission is at Aero Growth is to really give a full network approach for all of the manufacturers that we're working with. Allow them to communicate. A lot of times shop owners that are just a little bit stuck and don't know what to do.
And if Tony and I don't have the answer or a possible answer, we love to be able to connect our shop owners or leaders to discuss kind of those problems and work through 'em together. We also give like a outside the four walls, what, I'll mention it probably multiple times throughout this podcast. What you don't know, you don't know.
And a lot of times shop owners, they know what's in there, how to run their operations, but they don't know how to get to that next level or they don't know how to solve this one problem. [00:03:00] And it's a recurring problem. So what Tony and I can provide or do provide very often is that outside perspective.
Something that, that we've seen work in the past. Enable them to grow through that.
Tony: Yeah. Piggybacking off of that a little bit, I think working with these shop owners, there are, estimates vary, but between 17,000 and 30,000 machine shops in the United States, and a lot of these are two to 15 person machine shops where the owner is doing a little bit of everything.
So one day they're out running the machines, they're working on processes, they're hiring, they're managing workflow, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, and then we gotta fill the pipeline. It's time to go do some sales. And so that's where Dan and I can come in and support. Look, you don't have to beat everybody in the industry.
You just need that little bit of edge to get your visibility out there with the right people. And so through the network approach, just a good old boys network on steroids is what Dan and I bring to the machine shop industry. And then with that additional coaching support of, okay, great, you've met this person.
How do we maximize that relationship?
Matt: Now you hit on something really important there because the profile stands out [00:04:00] to me. We do a lot of manufacturing. I've done a lot of manufacturing work. Veryable works almost exclusively with manufacturers and distributors, and you see the profile of that machine shop type owner really good at what they do, probably better than anywhere else in the world, and it's this distributed network of thousands of them.
But when it comes time to commercial and really advocating for themselves and going after the right kind of work, it's something that. It's super helpful to them on that side of it because they get out of the operations world and into that network, which identifies and leads into my next question. What was the biggest gap that you saw in the market that wasn't really being addressed for those machine shop owners and how that kind of helped form your company?
Dan: The biggest problem that I've ran into is that most shops are worried about spindle hours. If they see a machine sitting, they think that they're losing money. And what I've come to find out through both experiences and actual hands-on experiences is that that's actually not true. Oftentimes, spindles running is just burning your team out.
It's stressing everyone out. It's stretching everybody thin. It's not leaving the capacity [00:05:00] for those opportunities that do come in that have a much larger potential.
Matt: That makes a lot of sense. Just because you think of equipment downtime and it's all about on the operations side, it's is it lost revenue or is it just productivity?
And those are the types of questions that we see from ops folks. But for business planners and people who are going after revenue, that's the first inclination. But it's the right kind of work, I think is probably the theme here. Many shops Chase rf Qs as a default growth strategy. That's one of the things that we've spoken about before.
Why is that a little bit of a trap in your point of view?
Dan: Honestly, quoting parts is busy work. If you're not seeing the right parts or you're not quoting the right parts, or you're even quoting parts that don't have long-term value for what you're trying to provide, it's just busy work. You might get something in, but it's stretching you thin.
And as we know, as Tony mentioned earlier, shop owners are thin. There's just not a lot of time in the day. You talk to just about every one of 'em and they're working. 1218 hour days, six to seven days a week. That wasted time quoting just to keep a machine running versus quoting strategically and the right type of stuff [00:06:00] that's gonna help you grow and relieve some of that time.
That's where you should be spending the time. So it's a lot better just to have a quick, no quick little default. What Tony and I do, we have a part scorecard, so it's about 15 different attributes. You literally select one through five. Based on whatever that attribute is, and it gives you a score. Is it a good fit or is it a bad fit?
It takes about 15 seconds to fill out and now you know, okay, nope, not gonna do this one because it's not a good fit. And you can easily tell your customer, no, that's not a good fit.
Matt: So many manufacturers step into that and you think about quotes coming in back in the day over the fax machine. Is it like a real quote?
Is it something that we actually want to do? And people just do it and it's wasted time on, on a lot of people's parts. Shifting a little bit. Don't know if I saw this on LinkedIn in a post or something that we discussed before, but it has a big impact on the people, the culture of the morale of a shop, right?
In terms of what type of work they're changing, and you emphasize that the right type of work boosts morale for a team. What are some of the early signs that a shop is taking on the wrong type of work to either one of.
Dan: So early signs, you got people leaving, you got [00:07:00] unhappy people, people leaving early.
Well, believe it or not, they're just in a hurry to get out of the shop. That's a big sign right there. But during our onboarding process, we asked to speak to five to 10, depending on the company size, of course, but let's just say five to 10 for the simplicity of their key team members. We do it just like a friendly little conversation as if it's two guys going out to have a beer together and just socializing.
We really pick their brain on what it is that they feel their skill sets are, where they're best. Could be super complex, five access geometries. It could be Milton, it could be Swiss. Doesn't really matter. Just what is your core compet? What is your personal core competency, and where do you think that your skills are best in place?
And maybe it's not programming, maybe it's machining or deburring or inspection or whatever the case may be. But talking to different members of the team. To really identify their skill sets. From there, we'd lead into more about what they like to do. Do you like working on space parts? Do you like working on medical devices?
Do you like working in the semiconductor industry? What metals do you like? Do you like repeat setups or do you like to just [00:08:00] constantly be going, changing over and banging your head against the wall, trying to get these parts set up and out as quickly as possible? Some people like that fanatic lifestyle, so we really just try to understand what the people like to do and what they believe they're good at, and from there we can really identify a core part profile.
But I think more importantly is a customer profile. We look often at their current customer base. They might have 25 customers in their current customer base, and 20 of them could just be upsetting their employees. How do you replace those customers? How do you fire those customers? There's definitely strategies around accomplishing that while not affecting your overall revenue and your margin goals.
Tony: I think what Dan touched on is really important too, because not every machine shop is the same, like each one has its own culture. Each one has its own group of people that like specific things. So you might have a prototype shop where everybody in there is jack of all trades and they love doing multiple setups and that's what they thoroughly enjoy.
And then you might have another shop where somebody is just, look, I want to come in. I wanna know what I'm getting into and I want to have a backlog that's two weeks deep where I know what I'm [00:09:00] gonna be doing every day when I get to work. That really determines where you steer your sales efforts as well.
You don't want to give the wrong work to the wrong shop because that doesn't serve anybody involved in the transaction.
Matt: Absolutely. There's one key thing I picked up in there about firing the wrong customer, and there's a lot of times in manufacturing where you know that steady work, how do you backfill that?
Or it's just gotten contentious for any number of reasons and you could come up with a million reasons why, but it really speaks to what you all are doing. And helping customers define that. What does the right customer look like? How do we manage our day? That's something that's baseline on a lot of people.
And then in the operation space, just because they've always done it that way, or this is a customer we've had for a long time, things do change and we're in a very rapidly changing environment with supply chain and tariff impact and where people are looking to source from. It's one of the biggest things that stood out in the reshoring movement is saying, I need somebody on the American side to pick up the phone.
But that's a big part of it. So baseline, what it has to do with is the morale, the shop. Shifting a little bit, and I know this is something that [00:10:00] you both are very passionate about, but wanted to talk about building the inbound sales pipeline somewhat of a mythical thing for a lot of folks. They're constantly on the outbound side, they're hunters, they're working that.
But how do you get people to come to you? And I'm sure it has a lot to do with reputation and just the right network, but how do most machine shops. Market themselves today? Is it posting lists and saying, send us your
Tony: parts and we'll quote, does that approach actually work? What I've found is that machine shops are really good at marketing to other machine shops.
They know what's important to other machine shops because they're there on the floor. They're living that. That's the world that they're inside of. Dan says, well, we can bring is an outside of your four walls perspective and what that does. We help machine shop owners understand what's important to their customers, and then I can help them develop the messaging that appeals to that specific group of customers.
I've got a lot of experience on this. I started out with about 300 followers on LinkedIn three years ago, and it, it's just been growing steadily at one to 2% a week, and I'm at 10,000 plus now, and [00:11:00] it continues to ramp. Because after a while you feel out, okay, what sort of messaging are people gonna respond to?
And so if you have that combination of keen insight into what customers care about and the ability to distribute in a very organic way that sounds like you as a person, what you end up with is not these transactional one-off, Hey, come do business with us because we have these capabilities. You end up with inbound, that's, Hey, I saw you posted about that.
That was really interesting. Tell me more about that. I think we might have an application for you and what you build is partnerships over the longer term, and that's why Dan and I partnered originally is because he takes those partnerships then to the next level and turns 'em into long-term agreements that are gonna feed everybody in your shop for the next many months.
Matt: One of the things that stood out with your group, just because. It could be loosely defined as something like a, here's what we do to, here's why you should care. And I, I think I saw that in your material. A lot of people don't do that. It's, it's people [00:12:00] do care, but at the end of the day, they don't care.
They're making a buying decision and they're doing that based on a lot of different factors, which I think you made the point of relationship or a long-term relationship and knowing that something is good, the quality is coming. They're not worried about that. They could be worried about other things like lead times or things that are outside of the control, but that's really what it ultimately boils down to.
How can shops start generating inbound leads instead of chasing every RFQ? How do you shift that mindset when somebody's run their business a certain way for so long and it seems to work and they're busy and that's a big thing. We're all busy. We all have a ton of emails, we all have a ton of text messages and whatever else, LinkedIn.
How do you shift that to say, Hey, maybe calm the noise down and go after the stuff
Tony: that you're good at. Your vibe attracts your tribe. So if you put out who you are in public, you'll attract people that resonate with that, and that's true in a business sense as well. So here are my values, here are our capabilities.
Here's what I see happening in the industry that. That level of insight attracts [00:13:00] people to you, and then you can talk to them, not as prospects, not as future customers, but just as humans. On a human level, here's another person that I can really have a relationship with, and then that just inherently turns into good business over time.
Matt: Yes. I think that's a big component of it. And one of the other things that was lingering and thinking in the background because of my work with some machine shops and just manufacturers in general, because this is marketing in a certain sense, that's a big word for a lot of manufacturing and operations folks.
They don't maybe know what it means, full spectrum. They don't want to spend a lot of money on it. But how much of their time and effort and budget should go to the marketing side of this if they're not doing it now or if they are, how does it get reformatted? Seems like a big,
Tony: I would assume big ask from some of your partners.
So there's like price of admission. You have to have some sort of marketing collateral. You know it's good to pay a photographer to come out and take pictures of your shop. All of that stuff, that's the baseline. But then realistically after that, the [00:14:00] distribution can be free. It can be really cheap. All of these social media platforms are essentially free once you understand what it takes to build a network.
Once you understand what it takes to put together messaging. Our typical strategy is I'll sit down, like Dan said, two guys having a beer. We'll just chat about stuff, and from that I'll be able to generate usually six to eight weeks worth of weekly LinkedIn posts that'll get your name out there, get people to engage, and we can start mapping out your network and understand, okay, who's, who in your network is engaged, and then where can we steer?
A network has a surface area, right? There's a certain bubble that you operate within. Okay? If we shift our messaging, how can we expand that bubble and what group of people can we reach next? And so it's very organic. It's, it grows, I say organic, but it like literally looks like an amoeba if you visualize it, right?
Like it just keeps expanding. And if you steer it correctly, it leads you to really profitable. Increase the value of your network significantly.
Matt: Yeah, that's a really good analogy because it is something that is just shifting and it's a hundred percent. Shifting from [00:15:00] that, maybe process driven about your current structure into a more methodical strategy is how I would see that.
For shops that don't have a dedicated commercial or sales function, how do they start doing that? Because I think we talked about it at the top of the show. Maybe this is somebody who likes doing what they're doing and that's stepping outside the comfort zone a little bit. How do they make that a repeatable and high quality business development organization?
Dan: Yeah, that's, that's ultimately what we're here for, right? We are here to bounce ideas off of, have suggestions on how to approach that with the least friction possible. A lot of the shop owners are machinists and they're used to being in front of their machines and doing their work that way, and it's a little bit uncomfortable for them to go out and do a sales type process.
That's what Tony and I do. That's what we come in and we help coach through that process. I like to say that we're a mix between consulting manufacturers rep. We're not either, truthfully, we're coaches and what we do is work hand in hand with you to develop those skills to to work on those processes to become more comfortable.
But at the end of the day, not everybody's made out to be [00:16:00] sales and we can be there to help guide. Get you there and if, if it's not successful, then you know that we can help train somebody else on your team that is looking to do something like that and expand. And we kind of work in that regard as well.
So it's really about teaching the processes and the experiences that we've gone through in the past and how to apply those across the board. That's part of the reason why I started aero growth was because I feel like I've built a pretty strong skillset and there's just not enough at one shop, not enough cap capacity at one shop to fill all of the demand that's out there.
If we can share our experiences, share our knowledge with others across the industry. Like Tony mentioned, 17 to 30,000 machine shops across the us. If we can share that knowledge and help them grow the way that we've learned to grow, it can be a very successful reshoring of manufacturing and all of that stuff, because it's really about getting your message out there so people know who you are.
And what you do and focusing in on those key fe features or factors.
Matt: Yeah. You hit on something very important there because I think there is a common misconception or just concept, it [00:17:00] maybe a reality that the doing sales air, quoting that people, it's a natural thing, but they put it on this, if I like doing what I'm doing.
How do I become the sales guy? You're do, you're already doing it. You're the the master at your craft and you're somebody who knows the process end to end, which takes it away so much from somebody. I really like what you put the blend between consultant and a manufacturer's rep. We've all dealt with consultants, we've all dealt with manufacturer's reps.
There's the line card, there's something that's a little bit more operational. But if you could get the best of both worlds, it really makes a difference for a lot of manufacturing space. And you touched on something talking broader picture. Looking at the future of the aerospace supply chain, because that, I think a lot of both of your background and something that is really thematic with machine shops because there's thousands of them that service some of the bigger names that we maybe know or for more familiar with.
What are the big trends you're seeing in aerospace and defense manufacturing right now?
Tony: The sheer volume is just staggering. This is something that's actually relatively new to me, so I came from the engineering side. I was like, okay, I design it and then I [00:18:00] punt it to our procurement team, and then we get parts in.
Great. And so as I came on board here and just getting in my head above water and like tying into the OEM network, you just realize the sheer volume of things that are being sourced in the United States. There are defense sensitive things that you're just not gonna offshore. Those, like you have to get 'em made domestically.
And there are quality critical things where like you're not gonna take a risk with a supplier that you can't go to their shop and check in and do an audit. And so that's what has been surprising to me about this industry is just the sheer volume of demand that there is for things to be built in the United States, and then the very fragmented nature of the supply base.
That provides those things to the people who need them. I think it's important also to
Dan: just tack on the birth of the new companies, right? You've got so many new technology companies that are up and coming in the space, and we've heard the names, Andel Shield, ai, ci, Castilian, these guys. That are new to the space, that are just completely changing the way processes are made.
I was talking to [00:19:00] a contact of mine at a legacy defense company, and we're competing against these smaller companies that don't have the regulations that we have. They don't have all of the requirements and the standards that we have, and. The growth rate that they're able to provide to do because of that is, is just staggering.
So I think that the legacy companies are having to now almost play catch up to the new technology companies in a way that they have to redefine the way that they approach things. So they're, that's a really cool insight that we've seen a lot from the legacy guys, but also the new guys are so scatterbrained, they're just trying to move so fast.
They have no idea what their supply chain looks like. They're just throwing everything. The phrase that Tony and I use all the time, the spray and pray method, that's what these guys are doing with their suppliers. They're just spraying out all of these RQs and praying that somebody's going to take it and be successful.
Right. So there's a very little strategy from the new technology and there's adaptive strategy from the legacy tech companies.
Tony: That's a good point. And that supply chain evolution is interesting too because a lot of the legacy suppliers are [00:20:00] used to owning the supplier OEM relationship. Look, you're gonna read these 15,000 volumes of our documents and.
You're getting married to this supplier and now Dan said with some of these more nimble suppliers', look, shoot, make us some parts. We'll come out audit, make sure things are going good, but let's go. And that's a really cool energy to see in this space.
Matt: Definitely a big change in mentality, at least what we've seen over the past six to 12 months of people being able to get in the space.
And it makes a little bit more of the headlines. Companies like Andel are obviously out there and great follows on any socials just because they're aspirational. It's. It's an exciting time to be in defense and in American manufacturing. We've said on this show a number of times that reindustrialization starts on the shop floor.
It's not something that's really specific to the big defense companies or the defense sector because there's so many tens of thousands of machine shops that supply at those companies and can cross load with other applications. So. Maybe more [00:21:00] industrial, maybe you guys building factories. It's for what?
Not sure yet, but we're trying to get that footprint back. I think the big question, and you guys see this every day, is how should smaller machine shops position themselves as the supply chain rebalances and reshoring accelerates because there were parts that maybe weren't made domestically that could go into.
Some of the larger, not necessarily defense sector. If you think of Boeing or if you think of some of the bigger name brands, how do they get in front of this and really thrive over the next couple of years?
Dan: Yeah, I think that there's several ways. One, and it's what Tony and I preach all the time, it's really narrowing in on what you're good at.
It's literally that simple. If you're great at something, stick to it. Keep fighting that fight. The work will come. You will find what you need, where, where you need to go, because at the end of the day, if you're great at something, your costs are lower, your margins are higher, you know how to do that through in and out.
It's not a big deal. It's not trying to teach new people new tricks. It's literally just focusing in on what you're truly good at. And it could be one or two things. It could be two, two different materials, something of that nature. But I [00:22:00] also think that, uh, not everybody's suited for automation. A lot of people think automation is machine tending.
That's automation in the machining world, right? Oh, I've got a robot that loads a machine and then takes it back out, and then I can just do this 24 7. That's great because now you can run unattended, but that's not the only automation that's out there. There's so many other ways to automate your processes, so looking at into different ideas.
I don't like the word smart technology personally. I think it's just too vague. There's just too much to it. So just looking at all the technologies and being open-minded to what's possible to simplify your processes. It could be simple as coaching like Tony and I provide it. It still helps you automate your process because what you're doing is, eh, it's not really automated.
It's simplifying your process, right? It's more, Hey, we're having this issue. Instead of you having to think for 30 minutes, how to type an email about a late order, come to us. We've already, we're already talking to these guys. We know how to communicate issues and things of that nature and show full transparency without.
Giving up too much and really I think that's the best way.
Tony: There's an interesting thing to tack [00:23:00] onto that, and it's a specific reason that aerospace growth strategies is an effective partner for our manufacturers. It's because we have an year into the OEM side of things too. Like Dan said, okay, what's the best way to scale?
It's to be really good at what you're good at. Okay. How do I find people who care? You have an intermediate partner that's dealing with a bunch of. Folks that are doing the spray and pray method and would absolutely love to find somebody that's really good at Inconel, three inch diameter, high precision manifold, and then all of a sudden they come, it comes to us.
We understand that need, and we're like, oh yeah, absolutely. You should work with X, Y, Z supplier. That's their bread and butter. So those are the types of relationships that we hope to facilitate, not by standing in the middle, but by lifting up the people that we're working with to the point where we can make those connections comfortably and both sides benefit mutually.
Matt: Such a big important part to play because I think in the past it has been that, right? It's almost like some type of middleman structure and not to. Ding any line of work or anything [00:24:00] along with those things, but you get line cards, you get rf Qs, you get these things and it's are they serious? Is this a real quote?
Are they gonna proceed with it? That's intent is a lot of it, but it resolves a lot of uncertainty out there in the market for people who are just trying to grow their business, is what I can imagine,
Tony: to be honest with you, Matt. When Dan and I started talking about this, he's, yep, I want this to be a coaching offering.
I don't want this to be a commission play. And I thought he was bananas because I was looking at some of these volumes and I'm like, are you kidding me? Why are we doing it this way? But it makes sense, right? Because you build trust on both sides of the coin. You're providing value to the people that are working with you.
They're not just looking to you to be like, oh, okay, I got an empty machine. Let's go. Let's fill this up. No, that's not what we're here for. We're here to build a small shop's ability to attract high quality work from high quality OEMs and facilitating those introductions when it's appropriate.
Dan: Yeah, I think it's important to piggyback off that the, after the introduction, it's not that we just disappear.
I think the important factor is we're also not involved heavily. We're involved as you want us to be involved. It's an [00:25:00] introduction. Two people meet. Kick me out of that email chain please. I don't wanna be a part of the direct messaging. What I do wanna be a part of is when something good happens, when something bad happens.
Those two areas, if I get those two things, that type of feedback. We can then roll that into good communication. How do we solve this? How do we tell them, oh, this is great. I had a client of ours reach out the other day. He says, Hey man, I just lost the RFQ to this big production. I said, how do you feel?
And he said, I'm a little bit bummed. But we learned a lot through the process. 'cause they're a newer shop. I said, here's the best way to go about this, and it's something that I've used my entire career, and I'll share it here on this. Even though it's nobody's paying for this, right? So what I like to do is go out whatever my quoted lead time was for the first delivery.
Say it was six weeks. Send an email to that buyer in six weeks from when you found out that you didn't get that and say, Hey, just check it on this part. I wanted to see how delivery was going. 'cause today would've been the day that we would've delivered Simple. Clean, easy. That buyer is either gonna answer you two ways.
He's either gonna say, oh, it's going great. We've already gotten first shipments, or, oh, the supplier's falling on his head. Can you please help me? Those are the two, two solutions or two answers that [00:26:00] you're gonna get. If you get the second one, guess what? You're gonna get that RFQ and you're gonna say, yes, I can help you.
And now you're in the role for future work. Just very simple tactics such as that.
Matt: No, that's a really great tactic because I think it sticks to the maximum that the deal is never quite dead, right? It's something that so many people get dejected from losing an RFQ and thinking that they've lost out on work, but the network effect of that is.
Pretty incredible if I'm a machine shop owner and something you've said today really caught my attention. What's the best way to get in touch with you and how does it look like when people just get started with you? I just want to give them that process as well.
Dan: Best way is to either reach out to Tony or I.
Our emails are very easy, Dan or Tony, so dan@aerogrowthllc.com. You can also reach us on LinkedIn, search our names. I'm sure this, that will be available here. Yeah, that's, those are the two easiest ways. Our website is under construction still. We actually haven't even started it, and we've been too busy helping our customers develop, so we haven't developed our own.
But basically what that looks is we schedule an intro [00:27:00] call, usually 30 to 60 minutes. We get to know you and your facility and where you're looking to go, and we obviously share our process and what we do. Then from there we submit or not submit. We email out a questionnaire. We ask that you fill that out.
And what that does is provide a personalized scope of work based off of what we believe we can do for your company. And then it's decision time, right? We set up into a, we do a scope review call, and we agree on what we think that scope should look like, what level engagement. You'd like to pursue and we start, we do have a bit of a backlog right now.
We're not taking on every single client that we talk to or that wants to join. We are steadily taking them on so that we can make sure that we're onboarding properly. I know as I told Tony, we had a ton of inbound recently, but the number one goal is not to just keep scaling and scaling. The number one goal is to never have a customer say a bad word about us.
And if we have a client that comes out and says, one bad thing that ruins our entire reputation and exactly what we don't want. We hope that we continue to get podcasts that say our name out there of like how [00:28:00] great we are and what we do, but that's our mission and how to get ahold of us.
Matt: Tony and Dan, thank you so much for coming on the show today and thanks for joining us and your approach really reframes what growth means for aerospace manufacturers and the machine shop.
Tony & Dan: Great to be here, Matt. Yeah, definitely. Thank you.
Matt Horine: To stay ahead of the curve and to help plan your strategy, please check out our [00:26:00] website at www.veryableops.com and under the resources section titled Trump 2.0, where you can see the framework around upcoming policies and how it will impact you and your business. If you're on socials, give us a follow on LinkedIn, X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram. And if you're enjoying the podcast, please feel free to follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and leave us a rating and don't forget to subscribe. Thank you again for joining us and learning more about how you can make your way.