• 49:06
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Industrial Marketing Summit, Eric Seiberling, AI in marketing, MXD Process, lead conversion, sales strategy, Procter and Gamble, Amazon, marketing funnel, business processes, AI implementation, industrial sales, marketing innovation, customer engagement, business growth.
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Eric Seiberling, Curt Anderson, Speaker 1
Damon Pistulka 00:02
All right, everyone you know what time it is. It is Friday, and we are here with stop being the best kept secret. I am one of your co hosts, Damon Pistulka, and that pretty gentleman right over there is Kurt Anderson. Today we’re going to be talking about the industrial marketing Summit. We’re going to be talking with Eric sieberling again or not again, but we’re talking about his awesome presentation about the industrial marketing Summit. And wow, my excited
Curt Anderson 00:30
Well, Damon, thank you. What a great introduction, man. Happy Friday. Are you? You ready for a little football this weekend?
Damon Pistulka 00:37
That’s probably why I’m so excited. Part of the reason why I’m excited day, Eric, I’m excited to talk to you today too, but we don’t make it to the playoffs that often. Yeah?
Curt Anderson 00:46
So Damon is out in Seattle, so hey, we’ve got So Eric, happy Friday, dude. How are you welcome to the show?
Eric Seiberling 00:53
Yeah, I’m doing great, and thanks for having me on. It’s a pleasure. I’ve watched some of your shows, and they’re always entertaining and usually informative.
Curt Anderson 01:01
Very well. You, you might have caught one or two
Damon Pistulka 01:04
the ones that were the usually informative. Maybe, yeah, yeah.
Curt Anderson 01:08
Well, the guests, the guests, are very informative. So hey, in all seriousness, welcome to the show, everybody. We kicking off the new year, and we are just honored. What a privilege. Have Eric with us today. Eric, you are doing amazing work at MXD process, and you are speaker at the industrial marketing Summit. But before we go there, I have a question for you, my friend. Are you? Are you sitting down? Are you ready for this? Well, I’m standing up at my desk, but I’m still, oh, he’s standing up. Damon, I love it, man, we don’t get many people standing so he’s standing up. Eric, when you were a little guy growing up, where did you grow up?
Eric Seiberling 01:42
I grew up in rural Central Pennsylvania. So about her spurs, Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where the two branches, the river, the Susquehanna River, come together, and where all the rail and coal come from. So, yeah, I’m from true Appalachia, Pennsylvania.
Curt Anderson 01:59
Oh, that’s awesome, man, that’s a beautiful part of the state. You’re right, you’re Are you a Penn State guy? Are you near? You’re near State College, Aren’t you too?
Eric Seiberling 02:06
Yeah, about an hour and a half from State College, that Penn State was my backup school, and so yeah, I’m still a big Penn State fan and healers fan, so I’m just sad this whole postseason, whether it’s college or pro.
Curt Anderson 02:19
Okay, so we won’t Hey there. You know what? They canceled off football this weekend. Eric, so there is no football, so you’ve got nothing. You’re not missing a thing, nothing to worry about. So now my understanding, all right, so you know what? Before we dive into your background. So when you’re a little guy growing up in Pennsylvania, being a big Penn State, a big Pittsburgh Steeler fan, when you’re a little guy growing up, who was your hero, who did you look up to, who just showered you with unconditional love? Who was your hero when you were growing up?
Eric Seiberling 02:46
Well, I think my hero is different from the person who showered with the unconditional love, but so I’ll say that my hero when I was four years old, I watched Han Solo on Star Wars boom, and you know what? And I’m just going to say this, I mean, I ended up I mean that that meant so much to me, of growing up in rural Pennsylvania, it’s like, from that moment, I wanted to fly, and so that’s why, like, seventh grade, I’m going to the Air Force Academy, and, you know, work like mad. And got there, and then, unfortunately, I had some problems with my ears. And it’s like, okay, no worries. But, you know, I would say it’s like, yeah, fictional character is your hero. But Han Solo, like, to me, was, like, the epitome of what all that was awesome. I think probably more like when I was in high school, there was a the Bowers family. So Anne Bowers was a friend of the I was a friend of their sons, and they really adopted me as kind of an adopted son. And so, you know, it was a, it was a safe and nurturing place for me to go. I ate dinner most of the time at her house. And you know, I just owe her a lot that is okay.
Curt Anderson 03:51
Two great answers so our dear friend, Harrison Ford, aka Han Solo, what a wonderful for any of our Star Wars fans out there. Great answer and a big shout out, lots of love to Anne Bowers man in middle Central Pennsylvania. So two great heroes that raised this incredible young man. Now, big shout out, kudos to you for serving our country proudly in the Air Force. Thank you for your service, my friend. What So Hans Solo inspired you to go into the service. Tell us a little about what you did in
Eric Seiberling 04:19
the Air Force. Well, yeah, I was an intelligence officer, so graduated, and I did five years I was in Hawaii, and then also I was at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. I also did a little bit of time at the Pentagon. So I tell people, this is, this is the career, and I can’t talk much more beyond that. As I was an arms dealer, a spy and a computer geek, I got out and went to work in marketing.
Curt Anderson 04:41
So, very cool, he tells but he’d have to take us out. Damon, yeah, I
Damon Pistulka 04:47
don’t need to know.
Eric Seiberling 04:49
So, yeah, I can’t talk about anything I did for 72 years after the day I got out. So I’ll tell you all about it.
Curt Anderson 04:59
So. What year is it? What year Can we talk
Eric Seiberling 05:03
let me see, I’ll be 72 you’re asking me to do higher math.
Curt Anderson 05:08
So we’ll circle back to you. We’ll figure out after the show, but we’ll circle back. We’ll talk about it. We’ll get you back on the show. We’ll be in the nursing home, but we’ll we’ll have you on the show freely.
Eric Seiberling 05:19
It’s a date for November, 2020, 2044
Curt Anderson 05:25
it’s a date. Man, Damon, mark that on your calendar. Dude, 2044 we got 18 years. No excuses, right? I don’t hear like you’re playing, you know, bingo or something at the nursing home, like we need to talk to Eric, right? We’ll be ready. Okay, awesome, Eric, thank you for sharing that story. So you go into the US Air Force Academy, and so when you come out, talk a little bit. So he said, What’d you say? You had a little ear issue. Is that what
Eric Seiberling 05:47
you said? Yeah. So it’s, yeah, my ears won’t clear. So I ended up discovering that it was never medically brought up, but I’m just like, it probably wouldn’t work well on pilot training.
Curt Anderson 05:55
So yeah. So alright. So what tugged your your heart, your passion, your experience, into marketing. Let’s take us there.
Eric Seiberling 06:03
So, I mean, it was, you know, as an intelligence officer, the whole goal of life is to figure out why people do what they do, right, and being able to anticipate what happens. So, you know, if you talk about my background was in Islamic radicalism of all things. Oh, was it really? Yeah, wow. And in 1994 and so it is understanding why people are willing to blow themselves up for a cause. Let me just tell you something, it is much easier to get them to buy laundry detergent. So it, you know, motivating someone to buy laundry detergent a lot easier than doing something violent, and it’s the same. But the interesting thing for me was I had half of an MBA done through the University of Colorado. I did it online. It was like one of the first AACSB accredited programs in 1998 that’s cutting edge. And I loved marketing, and it was just like one of those things. And so here, just to tell the story, I was working with a corporate recruiter named Cameron Brooks. They do Junior military officer recruit. And so Roger Cameron goes to me. I said, Who should I do my marketing project on to help me prep? He goes, Do it on Procter and Gamble. He goes, you’ll learn a lot. I’m like, okay, so I did it all those things. I go to the career conference Proctor and Gamble was there. And so I ended up interviewing specifically for fabric and home care, which is what my project focused on. And it was just, it was a total in my belief, just at a my belief, it was a total God thing. And yeah, 1999 during the whole.com boom, brand managers were leaving left and right. And so it opened up a window that I got only half of an MBA done, and I got a top tier MBA job coming right out of the service. And so I was just insanely blessed and very lucky.
Curt Anderson 07:48
Great story. So Damon, so first off, guys, you know, connect with Eric on LinkedIn, and when you connect with them, you’re going to see on his experience, you’re going to see proctor. And yeah, because you’re telling the story. I’m like, Oh my gosh, it led right to a job at Procter and Gamble, you know, one of the, you know, like that, is the gold standard of of brand, right, of branding.
Eric Seiberling 08:10
And it was an amazing place to learn how to be a marketer. Oh, my God. And I very much value my time. I mean, it literally was, you know, it was five years of really learning the best around how to be you know, how to build compelling marketing and really how to how to run a business. And so I very much value that.
Curt Anderson 08:31
Yeah, okay, man, what a great Cameron Brooks, that is awesome. What a great story. Now, I don’t know if we want to jump ahead or if you want to just share a little bit of your journey following Procter and Gamble, and it looks like you have Amazon in your background as well.
Eric Seiberling 08:44
Yeah, so I’ll give you the very, very quick story podcast, which is left PNG. I did consulting for global CIOs and Chief Strategy officers for five years for CPG and retail companies so PepsiCo, Proctor and Gamble Whirlpool, all those folks. From there, the financial crisis hit. And so I was looking for a job and DaSy systems, which is the kind of the premier engineering software. I did work for Procter and Gamble, and did work around product lifecycle management and CAD and all those things. And so I got recruited by Deso systems, and I worked there for 12 years, and went all the way up to be the head of North America marketing. And really just it was an amazing time. And I love the company. Amazon came to me because they needed a head of CPG and Retail Industry Marketing, and so I always wanted to Amazon was like one of the five companies I always said I’d interview with and it was just a great opportunity. So I decided to go there. And so again, learned a ton had a ball, did all sorts of interesting things with AWS, and just walk out and Amazon one. And then my wife offered her dream job in Louisville. And so it was just really good time. She she’s the director. New Church development for the all of the state of Kentucky, for the Methodist Church. And so she’s planning 14 churches across the state, and it’s what she felt called to do. And so it was just a really great time for me. And then that’s how I ended up at MXD process. And so small company, very different from all the large companies that I was at. And it’s been, I will say this, it’s been a ball. And the reason I say that is, if you look at my resume, it’s always been big companies, yeah. And so here I’m in charge of all the commercial functions. So I control sales, control marketing, I have support. I do our new product development. And so basically, in that Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Revenue Officer role, and I’ve just really, really enjoyed it, and also been given the groundwork to really experiment, which includes AI, and so that’s part of what my talk at IMS is going to be about. Yeah, gosh, what
Curt Anderson 10:51
fascinating story. Man, God bless you, and congratulations to your wife, and I don’t say sacrifice, but man, lots of admiration to you to, you know, really embrace your wife’s dream and let her, you know, that was that an easy pill to swallow. Like, hey, I’m leaving Amazon. I don’t, you know, I don’t
Eric Seiberling 11:09
know, you know, I would just say, I think at that point I was ready for something a little different. You’re ready for change. Yeah, I wanted to go to a small company because I really wanted to be, you know, where, where can I have it’s kind of like the flexibility and agility to be able to move very quickly, to be able to experiment and try things. And Mark Franco, who’s our owner here, is, I mean, he’s very forward thinking. And so I brought, we are running MXD processes, commercial functions, the same way you would run at tech firms go to market emotions, and that is, you know, we’ve talked to HubSpot, we’ve talked to some other folks, and they’re just like, we don’t, you know, it’s like, how did you decide to do it this way? We’re like, I don’t know any different. I came from the tech world, so it’s been, you know, you know, I came from CPG and B to C, and learn the best about branding and equity and messaging and just good commercial functions. And then I went to the tech world and really learned B to B, I think, in a great way, buyers journeys and just how do you really understand those complex, big sales, right? And then it’s now, I had the opportunity to come here and I get to put it all in practice, and I basically have it what I’ll call an innovation incubator for how do you go to market, commercially in an industry that is relatively some are but some are really old school in their thinking, yeah. And so to me, it’s like this is the perfect opportunity to be able to think differently, to do differently, and get results very quickly. Phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal.
Curt Anderson 12:48
And Eric, what I’m going to do is I’m going to pull up your website before I do that, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to our friend. Wes temple, so Damon, you and I had Wes on the show. He’s he’s going to be speaking at the industrial marketing Summit. And I asked him the question that we asked every guest who was your hero when you were a little guy growing up. And he says, Eric, that was the first time we’ve ever had somebody on the show announce somebody who was coming on the show. So yeah, Eric, kudos to you. And man, I just tell you that warmed my heart and like that must have gave you just a wonderful little kick in your step to hear that from about Wes, I’m going to pull up your website. I want to take us off track. I am a little bit I want to get back to MXD, but just share a little bit about this, this West temple guy, why would he, why would he declare you a hero?
Eric Seiberling 13:34
Well, he shouldn’t, but now I knew Wes when he was in high school, and so my wife was his pastor at in Wapakoneta, Ohio. And so my wife was appointed there, and I helped do stuff with the youth. And so Wes, and I met each other there, and we stayed in contact throughout his entire you know, we moved away probably before, like, right before he graduated, and then, like, I mentored him through college and various jobs, and we still meet monthly where we just talk about what’s going on in the job and those things, and it’s been interesting because now he’s teaching me things as well, which is just really heartening, of back and forth. So it’s just been a relationship we’ve had for years, and it’s been a joy to work with him.
Curt Anderson 14:19
Well, leaders, create leaders, my friend. So that was absolutely awesome. So alright, let’s get on track here. Let’s go to I’m going to pull up your website. So for folks out there that are MXD is new, please share. How do you and your team make the world a better place? What’s going on here at MXD? Yeah.
Eric Seiberling 14:38
So you know, our whole goal is to help, you know, a lot of industrial chemical companies, food and beverage companies, basically anything with liquid production, liquid processing, to make their processes better. So it really is first. We start by understanding your process. What are you trying to make? That’s the first question I teach all my sales folks, you know, and how much? And then what is. Is the big production or manufacturing challenge that you’re facing. And then our whole goal isn’t to sell equipment. Our whole goal is to really understand the process and say, how do we make it better? So we are, you know, we do a little bit of the, you know, engineering consulting kind of piece, but not like a full engineering service firm, but, you know, engineering piece, we end up really being able to optimize, you know, your mixing process, your production line, or ultimately, even a full plan in order so you can get the value that you need. So, you know, how does it make a life a better place? I’m going to be honest, what it ends up doing is where a company can produce things cheaper, they can offer better prices to their customer when they can make new products that really are impactful in people’s lives, and just at the end of the day, it helps people. You know, our whole view is that the best way to serve humanity is by helping people do their job. And that’s the relationship we believe in, partnerships, not transactions.
Damon Pistulka 16:00
Very good.
Curt Anderson 16:02
Absolutely love it. So, so just share a little bit like, since you’ve gotten there, and again, like you’ve worked for who’s who you know, Amazon, Proctor and Gamble, you’re sharing, you know, what a delight it’s been, you know. And it just so inspiring to hear working at a smaller company. Just share, like, some of the client projects, or some of the exciting success stories that you’ve encountered since you’ve gotten there.
Eric Seiberling 16:25
I mean, I think since I’ve gotten here, we’ve gone up the value chain. And so we hear a lot of times it was, okay, I’m selling a stainless steel tank, or I’m selling a mixer or maybe control. We have new more and more. We’ve landed more clients around full production lines. And we’ve actually are building production plants now, whether it’s in partnership with some other vendors or we’re leading it. And so one example is we’re actually in the process of building a new potato chip company in Maine, and so we worked with an engineering consultant, consultant that was there, and so we’re providing all the stainless steel tanks for the oil management system and all the mixing and all the valves. And so, you know, that’s one example we’re doing. You know, it’s just there’s probably four or five plant builds that we have in our pipeline, and about three or four plant builds that are closed, you know, whether they’re smaller lines or plants. And so that’s been the exciting part. Is with us, we this messaging is that was what. I changed the equity and I changed the messaging when we got here. And because of that, allows people to really understand that our whole goal is to help, literally, from beginning to end, to improve your process. And so we are much more consultative selling than transactional selling that may have occurred in the past.
Curt Anderson 17:44
Well, I absolutely love this. And so Eric, you know, name of the show is stop being the best kept secret. And it sounds like like you came in sleeves rolled up and just they really embraced you. Share a little bit for our manufacturing friend out there who maybe they feel like they’re the best kept secret and they’re where maybe MXD was previously, or they’re like, geez, we’re just starting our marketing journey. What? What some pieces of advice that you would share for that, that manufacturer out there?
Eric Seiberling 18:11
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s, I think it’s a couple different things, you know, and it’s, it’s always start with first. And I think you asked the question, how do you make life a better place? Right? It’s find your why, right? So get really clear on your why. And why does it matter what you do that works for both your employees, it also works for your customers. From there, it’s getting, I think, a couple different things. I think, number one, who do you want to serve? You know, really get clear on your I mean, and this is Procter and Gamble marketing. 101, yep. It’s like, Who are you, who do you want to serve like and then what do you offer that’s unique and different, right? And so what is your points of differentiation relative to competition versus where are your points of parity? You know? What are the entry points you have to meet? And then even understanding, and this, it requires humility. Where are you? What’s your point of weaknesses? And so by understanding those things, you know, then you can end up getting to say, what’s our what’s our equity, right? What is our positioning, what is our messaging. And to really get brutally clear on that, and then you can get to the how. And the how, really being, what products do I offer? What does my What channels do I go through? What, for example, what does my website look like? And getting to all the tactical things, as well as your demand generation techniques and all of that. And so those are kind of the three things. And then the last step is the most important that most people don’t do, which is, let me go through, let me map my business processes, and let me find every single torch point. And then from there, how do I attack them aggressively in order to be able to kind of like, oh, sales people are having a problem generating terms, right? That it’s always this one off thing. How do you think about that systemically? D in order to be able to solve it. And so we used AI, and we hired a, you know, from and also we pulled credit reports via credit safe, and we now can create terms in 10 minutes. And so it’s each of those, every torch point you find, to say, Okay, what is the brutally, what is the savagely practical way in order to solve it and then just try it, and if it works, keep doing it, and if it doesn’t iterate. So, I mean, that kind of talks about our whole AI process as well.
Curt Anderson 20:31
Man, okay, dude, we’re getting, like, a full we’re getting a Proctor and Gamble masterclass, right? Yeah, like, I’m writing furiously, so I’m going to stop sharing for a second. So I’m going to come back to this. So what when you got to Proctor and Gamble? Like, was it was like, share that experience? Was it like, mind blowing? Was it like, Okay, well, I kind of went through this with, with the military under, you know, with intelligence and my master’s, my master’s degree in Colorado. Or were you just constantly mind blowing at Procter and Gamble? What was that experience like?
Eric Seiberling 21:03
I mean, I think one of the things, and this not only goes for PNG, it goes for everywhere you go, is you have to come in with a piece of humility, yeah, is, and this, I have sound because I’ve worked across industries. I’ve worked across, you know, companies, is that you first have to come in, you have to say, you know, what can I learn here and be really open to that? Regardless, it was interesting at Procter and Gamble because, yeah, I did the NBA and I did the military and corporate is different, of course, but the other part that was interesting for them is I had to learn the traditional CPG world. Right? On the other hand, I had to, I was hired to launch one of their first internal dot coms over you really? Oh, yeah, I worked a joint venture with Whirlpool on a new appliance that it didn’t wasn’t going to be large enough in order to get distribution. So this was in the heyday of the whole.com boom. So it’s 1999 I had to build a website that could do e commerce, you know, I had to do, you know CRM with ATG way back when I had to stand up a fulfillment house, stand up a call center, and I had to figure out, how do I ship two bottles of liquid to someone’s home when png was used to shipping full truckloads? Yeah? Omar and so there was this thing of learning, here’s what’s here. But then I also had to say, how can I get this done in a company that does things in method A but won’t work for what I’m trying to achieve? And so it was, it was a wild time, but I learned so much, and really grateful for that opportunity that I had.
Damon Pistulka 22:35
I can believe it that that’d be crazy trying to make that radical, build that radical of a business model in another huge business model that does exactly like you said, we’re used to shipping truckload to our big customers, and now you’re going, Well, with this business, we’re going to have 1000s of little customers. That alone is a huge thing. But then, like you said, the logistical challenges of I’m going to, you know, pick and ship maybe hundreds of orders a day that are in a box, rather than somebody running, you know, Pallet Trucks, yeah.
Eric Seiberling 23:11
And the thing I’ll end up saying is, there were lots of people involved. And, yeah, that was one piece of that. But leading that initiative, I think, taught me a lot about, okay, let’s focus on what really matters, right? And let’s get to the core of what we’re trying to achieve. And then, working backwards from that, it’s easy to get lost in all the details. And I think whether you’re in a big company or a small company, you couldn’t really, you really, always have to say, how do I take a step back and let me get to the like, what is the core of what I’m trying to do? And then try to simplify the equation as much as possible, and then focus on that. And then you’re like, Okay, I’m 80 for 20. And this is the whole thing. This is something I’ve said my entire career. Perfect is the enemy of great. Okay? Because you will try to do that last 20% you will kill yourself trying to do that last 20 if you get 80% and I said, go do the next problem, the ticket to 80% and if you do that enough places now, you get to the point of like, okay, great. Now let me map out my business process. Here’s the torch point. Let me just go now. Let me go. It’s basically like doing bug fixing for businesses, right? And that is the way that, for whatever reason, that’s the way I’ve been lucky enough to go through my entire career. And it’s it’s been wild,
Damon Pistulka 24:29
and it’s funny when you do that, though, when you go get that 80% solution, how some of the problems you had before that you didn’t even realize would drop away. So it’s really good not to try to get the 100% solution, to take care of everything. You just took care of the main things, because you would have wasted time on those other things. Rather, you’re moving ahead to the next thing that you need
Eric Seiberling 24:50
to Yeah. I mean, the biggest challenge, I think, for people, whether it’s early career even late career, is majoring in minor things, right? And so it is. And it’s hard though, because those minor things can feel so huge, right? Or your CEO is, is really, this really irks him or her or anything else, and it’s you just have to take a step back and say, Okay, what’s the real impact? And say, relative to these other choices that I have, and so, like, I drive people nuts. I’ve got a whiteboard that’s right over here. And they will see these to do lists that are like, there’s 50 things on there. And it’s just like, and then I’m like, A, B, C, yeah. And it’s like, I pick three a priorities, and that’s what I will spend 90% of my time on. And I will drive it to ground very quickly, yeah. And then be like, Okay, that’s good enough. And I net next thing. And so it’s, it’s me just kind of, you know, always, constantly prioritizing and raising it up and saying, all right, how do we get this done? How do we get some how do we get major movement in two weeks? Yeah. And so, yeah, some people are like, Eric, you’re exhausting to work with. But that’s more just like, okay, because it will sit on my whiteboard just as an example, and I’ll say, alright, what’s the problem we’re talking about today? And we have an hour scheduled, and I will whiteboard, and we will have basically the solution sketched out, yeah, okay. We’re going to meet together in a week, and we’re going to try to do as much as this as we can. And it just now, you can’t, you’ve got to pick and choose, and you can’t exhaust your employees. Have to be metered that. But literally, it’s, I never take the Oh, it’s too hard, or, wow, that’s really complicated. No, simplify the equation. Let’s attack it. And I think it’s, you know, Ken Blanchard, many years ago, said, zapped the gaps, right? And that is, like, some of the best advice you have is, like, understand what is that? Understand what the big goal is, and then just go after the biggest things that you can make very quick progress on.
Speaker 1 26:55
Yeah, all right, Eric,
Curt Anderson 26:58
dude, so we have so on our show, on a few we have these things called Drop the mic moments. And then when it goes to the next level, we call them moments of silence. So we’re just going to take a moment of silence right now. This was just like a pure, unapologetic, like, master class right here, Damon, like we got, we got military Proctor and Gamble Amazon, like, 20 years of, like, corporate warrior ninja, like, all in 111, little boost, man, oh my god, I’m gonna stop quick recap. Like, know your who, your unique differentiator, your points of weakness. Then dive into the how. And then just, like, just relentlessly, ruthlessly figure out your priorities and just like attack them with just a vengeance. Is that? Did I summarize that?
Damon Pistulka 27:50
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. We got some comments. Here we got John Graham just dropped this stop by. Yeah, John, thanks for being here today. Said, honestly, a whiteboard still better than any CAD system for working through real, real world problems. That is 100% because if you sit there and you try to draw it on on CAD, you just wasted the time drawing out. Not necessarily wasted, but you just spent the time drawing it out on CAD when, if you can handle it between a few people on a whiteboard, it can be done in the same time. Yeah, and that’s a huge thing. And then Karina. Karina said, such a valuable session. Thanks Karina for stopping by today. Aisha says, Thanks. And she also said good insights before that. So thanks everyone for those comments.
Curt Anderson 28:32
Yeah, thanks. Keep them coming. John, yeah. Aisha, thank you guys. Everybody out there that hasn’t commented. Happy Friday. Welcome to the show. I know we’re over. We’re at top of the hour. We’re with our dear friend Eric. Eric is a speaker at the industrial marketing Summit. Damon, I think that’s coming up like March 3 through March 5. I’m just kind of throwing that out there in Austin, Texas, if I’m not mistaken. And Damon, now if anybody signs up, we have a little coupon code for them,
Damon Pistulka 28:56
don’t we? Yes, sir, we do. Just type in B to be tail, and you will get a little discount.
Curt Anderson 29:03
That’s right. So, I mean, like now, Eric, every person, like all the cool kids, are going to be in Austin, are they not for March 3 through March 5?
Eric Seiberling 29:10
Oh, I think if you’re not there, you know, you got to turn in your cool kid card, card.
Curt Anderson 29:14
So we’re going to dive into your session. We’re going to pull up the industrial marketing summit before, before I go there. Damon, you got something?
Damon Pistulka 29:23
Well, I really want to say too, yes, it’s great to be there in person, but I think they also have a virtual option too, if you can make it there, and it’s not as good, yeah, but you can get, you can get the information at least, and see the speakers, because the speakers like Eric. I mean, we’re, you just got a taste of what they’re going to be talking about. The speakers
Curt Anderson 29:44
are phenomenal. I got three letters for you. Damon, BBQ. Man, BBQ. You got to go to Texas for for the BBQ, right? So that’s alright, let’s Eric. Is there anything else as far as MXD that just, I mean, I just can’t express, you know, before we go the industrial marketing Summit. When you came on board, like, what was happening at the company, where they’re like, hey, we need a guy. We don’t know who it is, like, how did this, how did this magic happen? Of Eric found all the sky into MXD.
Eric Seiberling 30:12
I mean, they were looking for a sales manager for a while. They were looking for someone to run the commercial functions. And it’s, you know, they wanted to get ready, to get poised to grow. And then they also, you know, we’re in the process of acquiring one company, and since I’ve been here, they’ve acquired a second and we’re going through a series of acquisitions. So they wanted somebody who could handle the chaos of an acquisition, if you’ve ever done those before, as well as, how do we go from what I would say, Okay, we’re doing inbound marketing, you know, I’ve got the contact, and it’s, it is just every, you know, I just follow up and I sell transactionally. And how do we change the game? And so that’s what I was offered to do. So when I first got there, they had 6000 unrouted leads because they didn’t have someone in the sales role. Yes, you’re allowed to look that way. That was my thought, too. It took 7.8 days until the first contact, which is, you know, in the B to B space, that’s death it took, you know, and our conversion rate was, it was 17.4% like, okay, from a quote to a sale. And you’re like, you know, how do we do things differently? And how do we So, that was part of what I’ve been really working with the team. It’s not an Eric thing. It’s a it’s a whole team thing. We’ve all worked together in order to be able to take this crawl, walk, run approach to really transform how we go to market.
Curt Anderson 31:35
Yeah, absolutely love it. Hey, we got a great question from John here.
Damon Pistulka 31:38
Yeah, John. He’s the put it up here, John. He said, I want to ask Eric on the show how moving to each company impacted him and how he handled the culture shock with each transition. That’s a big one. Awesome question. Thanks, John.
Eric Seiberling 31:53
Thanks, John, that is a fabulous question. And I think you know, going from Procter and Gamble to a small consulting company. It’s just okay, I’m used to having all these people around, and now it’s like I built a strategy transformation practice, literally, on my own and and then to go from there to a French company, right? It’s the, you know, I think there’s a great book out there that I love. It’s called the first 90 days. Yeah, it has been a godsend in my career, because it always is, you know, you take the 30 days just to listen and, you know, and then you start to come up with ideas, and you shop them around, and then, okay, let’s deliver quick. So, so that’s just from a standpoint, but the I think the most important, I’m going to say this, the most important thing if you’re looking to change companies is really understand yourself and what cultures do you thrive in, and interview the companies and everybody you talk to that that reflects the culture that you want to have. You can’t change, whether it’s a Proctor and Gamble or the culture of MXD process. It’s very hard to change the culture overnight and so, or the underlying processes and so inner, you know, a lot of times when we’re interviewing if we need a job or like, Oh, my God, I need a job. Fit is so important. And so make sure that you that it’s consistent with your values and your beliefs and your working styles before you go there. But then the other part is, understand, you know, do the first 90 days, but you’re going to hit the wall. We just call it Amazon. We called it the wall. At the four to six month point, you’re going to hit the wall, both in work and like, Oh my God, why did I come here? So therapy helps, let’s be honest, therapy helps. But also it’s just realized that’s going to come and that it’s, how do you build relationships with people? How do you get connected to the overall mission of the company and that will sustain you, to get you through that hump and to be able to move forward and be successful wherever you go.
Curt Anderson 33:52
How was the culture for you at Amazon?
Eric Seiberling 33:55
So, I mean, Amazon is, Amazon’s got the most you know, I’ve worked a lot of people with wicked smart folk, right? Amazon, you know, AWS, it’s just got some great people in there, and they’re all experienced. And so the most important thing there is understanding, just being humble and saying, I’ve got a lot to folks. And it was just really exciting. And I think it’s, it’s a great company to work I also say it’s a hard company to work at. They demand a lot, and so you just have to, you have to know that going in, yeah, to do that and to be successful.
Damon Pistulka 34:31
And I think what you said about knowing yourself is so important, because a lot of people like you said, I want a different job. And they’ll look at a company, and they might look at the name, right? Because you could look at Amazon, you could look at Procter and gamma, it doesn’t matter. And you go, wow, that that that name, that name, that name could be caterpillar. Doesn’t matter. And if you don’t understand the culture and where you really thrive, the name could draw you in and in six months, like you said, you’re just miserable. Yeah.
Eric Seiberling 34:59
And. Thyself is a very important Yeah, yeah,
Curt Anderson 35:05
okay, gosh, Eric, okay, I know, like we’re coming into time here. So Eric, our dear friend Eric, is, hey, look at that handsome devil, right there. Damon, you know this guy. So a great session here. Still in strategy, using AI to drive full funnel growth in industrial sales, and you just, and you just mentioned the crawl Walk Run. I say that right, crawl Walk Run, and you’re gonna, you’re that’s going to be incorporated in your session. Eric, please give everybody a little sneak peek of why they absolutely have to cannot miss your session in Austin. Give us a little sneak preview.
Eric Seiberling 35:38
Yeah. I mean, I think this has been my discovery. And remember, I came from Amazon and then came here, right? And so everybody and their brother is trying to sell you these AI tools. Hey, your life will just be perfect if you use Fill in the blank, right? And we all see that. And you know, one of the first things I discovered here was very simple, all the tools suck, and here’s why, and here’s why. It’s not that the tools are naturally bad, it’s the fact that they do not understand the context of deeply technical industrial equipment and industrial marketing. And so like when we first started with chat GPT three and started doing them, like I’m asking a seventh grader for answers about chemical engineering. It just doesn’t work, right? And so it is. There’s this whole process you need it. So first of all, you know, it’s like, I went to AI for last year. I spoke at AI for and which is in Las Vegas, it’s the biggest AI conference in North America, and I’m speaking there next this year too. Yeah. And you know, the biggest thing is, I sat all these sessions of like, this is great for big companies that have huge it staffs, but what about us? Right? Yeah. And so what’s the process you need to use in order to be able to, like, savagely, pragmatically, use AI to solve your business problems and get real results. And so that’s, that’s what I’m going to talk about in my session. Now, I told you earlier, we had 6000 leads that we didn’t go through, you know, that were left on unfiltered, all these different kinds of things. And so let me give you kind of what the results were on the other end, which was we pushed from lead to sale conversion up 10 points 10% we increased deal sizes 20% and then we also had faster response times that we got our lead response from seven days down to under 24 hours. Nice, yeah. Okay, and here’s the real one, the lead conversion. When I talk about lead to sale, you know, we’re at 17.4 we went to 27.5% and it’s climbing still. Yeah, but it was taking this, you know, what are the gaps? What are the problems? How do I hacking it and doing it in a way that can provide really good context for our industry? And so I’ll finish with this. AI is the smartest, dumbest intern you ever had. Okay, it is really smart, but it’s really stupid, and what it lacks is context. And so you are the context engine for AI, and that’s why AI will never replace a human being, because both the context of the situation and your judgment is where now SME subject matter experts, whether they’re a marketer or a salesperson, not developers, are going to drive the most value out of AI. And so it’s never, and this is the whole thing. It’s never the technology, it’s always the knowledge and the expertise which makes it valuable, and so that’s why you ought to attend my session, because I’m going
Damon Pistulka 38:44
to show you how we did it. Yeah, yeah. It’s something we see every day working with B to B companies. Is that those subject matter experts, they have so much locked in their brain that just you just, if you can release that and educate your your end customers with that, it’s such a powerful thing,
Eric Seiberling 39:01
yeah, and it’s just, and it’s this trial and error. So there’s this concentration. If you think you can one shot AI development for in chemical engineering, you’re out of your frickin mind. And that there needs to be this commitment and so and then once you get it to a point that you’re happy with it, not perfect, remember, but happy with it, then what you do is you’ve got to hardwire it into the organization. So frankly, you don’t have to teach every single salesperson how to prompt an AI. I’ve done that, but where it’s automatic and it’s just how we do business, and then you and just like you’d never let an intern run your business, you don’t let AI run your business that you need to monitor it. And you need to understand, hey, is this on track, off track, and pay enough attention that you’re not letting them go off for three months and, you know, wrecking the car, so to speak, that you’re like, oh, course correction, or, for example, and then I’ll stop on there when, when we were from chat. GPT, 5.1, The 5.2 it, it basically ruined one of our core custom gpts. It just doesn’t react the same way. So I’ve got to rewrite it, but that’s because I know that, because I’m paying attention. Yes, so AI is not allow you to take the hands off the wheel. Ai allows you to be more, be the captain of the ship versus the guy in the engine room shoveling coal.
Curt Anderson 40:24
Absolutely love it, man. And hey, that John summed it up perfectly, right? Amen, brother. Amen. So I think before, before we let Eric back on with his day, let’s give another shout out here. So we’ve got the industrial marketing Summit. Let me scroll down. Pop here, guys. So if you’re not familiar with this, march 3 through the fifth, 2026, in Austin, Texas. Here’s just a little sneak preview of the incredible speakers we’ve had. I think we’ve had almost every speaker has been on the show. We haven’t had Rand Fishkin on Damon. We gotta get Rand on the show. Yeah. But all of our dear friends, and there’s handsome West temple right there, give a big shout out to Eric when he came on. Dale’s been on multiple times. Jake and all of our dear friends who are just the who’s who, wonderful, dynamic speakers are going to be at the industrial marketing Summit. And again, just kind of summarize, Eric’s going to be diving in, taking you through a step by step, crawl, walk, run, process on how using AI to take your business to the next level. Hey, and Eric, you mentioned, I’m going to share this tab real quick. You, you mentioned that you’re also speaking at AI for just tell everybody real quick. What is AI for?
Eric Seiberling 41:32
So AI for is, it’s a massive conference. It’s growing to about, I think, between eight and 10,000 people this year. And so they cover, it’s got both a technical track, it does have a business track. But the other thing is, this year, I gave them feedback, and they’re, they’re running on day three, and SMB track specifically for how can SMBs implement AI, so it covers all the different topics and and really, really, it’s whether you’re on a technical track or a business track. It is. It’s worth the trip, especially if you need to understand the big picture of AI and how to be able to move forward.
Curt Anderson 42:12
Nice, awesome. And again, guys, do yourself a favor. Connect with Eric on LinkedIn. He puts out amazing, incredible content. He’s absolutely crushing it again. Served our country proudly for many years in the US Air Force, and just had a dynamic, incredible career. So do yourself a favor. Connect with Eric. Eric, as we wind down, any parting shots, words of wisdom that you want to share
Eric Seiberling 42:35
with everybody you know, I think it’s really, this is keep trying, right? And it’s, it’s, it’s one of those things right now, I’m going to tell you whether it’s tariffs and whether it’s everything else life can feel a little overwhelming. Yeah, so, and this is just my view, and also, anybody feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, is, we all get through all of this together, and we all learn and grow together. And so matter, you know, it’s, it’s take the time meet in person, you know, meet at conferences, and just understand that. Yet, work is fun, but always learn, always grow and always push the status quo.
Curt Anderson 43:13
Another, another moment of silence. Damon, we’re just going to, we’re savoring it, you know, just like the barbecue in Austin that everybody’s going to the industrial marketing summit in March 3 through March 5, just to see our dear friend Eric and all the amazing other speakers. Damon, take away thoughts. What do you what do
Damon Pistulka 43:30
you got for us? Nah, Thank you, Eric, for sharing it today. That’s all I’m saying.
Curt Anderson 43:36
Two words. It’s a huge, deep gratitude, man, just gratitude. I do have one more I have one last question before you got one more minute? I know I’m keeping let’s let’s go. Okay, Damon, you ready? We’re ready. Okay, now it is, it is we’re whenever you’re catching this, it is kind of, it’s still kind of football season. But you know what, for our baseball fans, baseball is like, right around the corner. Man, pitchers and catchers show up in about like, three, four weeks, right? Yes, right. Sprint training. Eric, you baseball fan by any chance
Eric Seiberling 44:09
I watch, you know, on an okay Bay. I’m not a deep fan, but go ahead, pirates, Phillies, who you got Red Sox I’ve been a Red Sox guy. I have been a Red Sox fan, 86 and so it’s one of those things that, yes, I suffered through bodicer. I suffered through all the different years. I watched the 2004 if we have time for the story, I’ll tell you it is my wife, and I didn’t know this until after we were married. Is a Yankees fan? Oh, yeah. I know you guys stayed together. Yeah. We knew each other in high school, but I was too much of a jerk to date, so we got married after college, so, but years later, end up going, she she went to, she went to Yankee Stadium in 2000 came back wearing the Yankees gear and all that. And I’m like, what is that? Alright? So it’s 2004 it’s game for the Division Series. The Red Sox are down. Down, it’s the eighth inning. And Kim’s like, I know where this is going. I’m going to bed tonight. So then everything turned around that night, and so they went through in the Red Sox one, and I come to bed at like, one o’clock in the morning, and she’s like, oh yeah. Yankees went. I’m like, nope. Then the rest of the season was magical. And so I remember that Oh, four season. So well, watching on television, and I still tear up when I watch fever pitch right at the end. Yeah, I’m a, I’m a Red Sox fan, you know, if the season’s too long for me, but on the other hand, I always take a look and see what’s going on with the Red Sox, and that really is still my team to this day, in
Curt Anderson 45:40
your wife’s name, please, Kim. And Kim stayed with you, yeah?
Eric Seiberling 45:44
What? Kim stayed with me? Yeah? Because, you know, the only time was ever obnoxious about being a Red Sox fan is we’re on vacation in Mexico in in 2007 Red Sox were in the World Series, and I made her stand to watch game five.
Curt Anderson 46:02
That that’s that dude. That is an awesome, awesome story. And hey, John,
Damon Pistulka 46:09
keep building the network and keep taking the grenades in the trenches. Yeah, we have to do that every day to keep things moving.
Curt Anderson 46:14
That’s court. Tim took a few grenades from from Eric, then, then she had the Yankees. I actually love it. Nothing better than a little little rivalry. Eric, here’s my question we’re going to close out on this. You ready? Still standing up? Damon, he’s still, no said he hasn’t sat down once standing up. Eric, so the Red Sox are playing the dreaded Yankees. It’s a bottom of the ninth. They’re in Fenway. There’s a guy on second base, tied score, okay? It’s a game seven of the of the championship series to get to the World Series. You with me? Yep, I’m tracking. The manager. Turns down the bench and says, Hey, Eric, grab your helmet, grab your bat, get up there and hit in the winning run. We got to beat these dreaded Yankees. We got to get to the World Series. You walk up, you grab your bat, you grab your helmet as you’re walking up to the plate to hit in that winning run to beat the dreaded Yankees. What’s your walk up song?
Eric Seiberling 47:13
It’s jump by House of Pain. Jump by
Curt Anderson 47:16
House of Pain for our Wisconsin friends. So Eric, awesome. Great answer, my friend, thank you. Thank you, Eric. We appreciate you. We applaud you. To you and to Kim. What an incredible journey that you you are so blessed, my friend, and thank you for blessing us today. This was just a pure master class. Damon, what do you always like to say if you miss any of this, what do they need
Damon Pistulka 47:39
to do? They need if you got into this late, you need your back to the beginning and listen to Eric from the beginning to end. Because, man, there are so much gold in here, learning his experience, learning the things that they’ve done in marketing, things they’ve done with MX process, MXD process, and just just the cool stuff we learned today.
Curt Anderson 47:57
Yeah. And you know what? As good as this was, he’s 10 times better in person. So you guys got to be in Austin, Texas on March 3 through March 5, and catch him at the industrial marketing Summit. So guys, we’re going to close out. We appreciate you. We thank you. Hey, you know what? Damon, let’s tell everybody. Go out there, do us a favor, be an inspiration, just like our dear friend Eric and you too will make the world a better place. I’ve got a big round of applause for Eric for absolutely crushing it today. So guys give everybody out there give Eric a big round of applause. Connect with Eric on LinkedIn. Catch him in Austin, Texas, Eric, hang out with us for one second. We’ll be back here. Hey and John says,
Damon Pistulka 48:36
Have a great weekend, Eric and you guys too. Thanks John
Curt Anderson 48:39
for that. Thank you brother, appreciate you, dude. So guys, we’ll catch it. We got another great guest coming back next Friday. I know it’s good as Eric, but it’s good. We’ll we’ll do our best, man, he set the bar pretty high. We’ll do our best. So guys, have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week.
Damon Pistulka 48:52
All right, everyone, like we said, like we always say, have a great weekend, as Kurt said. But if you got in late, I’m not kidding. You need to go back and listen, Eric from the beginning, we’ll be back again next week. Have fun, everyone. Peace.
