Inbound Organization

Chapter 23Tube Form Solutions—Aligning the Sales Team with Buyers

Manufacturing industrial tube fabrication equipment may not feel like the best place to apply inbound principles. However, Mike Thomas and the team at Tube Form Solutions (TFS) in Elkhart, Indiana, had other ideas.

Founded in 1989, two companies merged in 2010 to create Tube Form Solutions (TFS) to compete in a crowded marketplace. TFS designs, manufactures, and distributes tube fabrication equipment. Customers include manufacturers of automotive exhausts, heavy truck fuel systems, hydraulic lines for ships and planes, and seat frames for furniture manufacturers. They also design and manufacture tooling for tube bender and tube end forming machines. They support customers through the entire tube fabrication lifecycle from installation to refurbishments.

Unfortunately, in 2014 sales were flat. The marketing and sales playbooks that had been so successful for so long weren't working as they did before.

The main problem for Tube Form Solutions was a lack of sales qualified leads. Industry trade shows generated some leads, but not enough to grow the business. TFS was relying on their outside sales team to generate and develop their leads for new business. This resulted in missed market opportunities and missed sales targets because the sales team spent a lot of time on prospecting. The company website was not generating any leads at all.

Sales results were inconsistent among their 10 sales reps. Some were successful ...