I work as the office manager for a manufacturing facility that produces various things, and I met with the family that owns the plant. They were worried about sales of our products and wanted to boost them.
We have a handful of corporate clients that use our items for production work and other uses, primarily industrial. The number of contracts remains steady, but the volumes they order have been declining steadily for about a decade. The owners also noticed that individual buyers of our finished works aren’t getting any younger.
They wanted me to hire someone new for the sales staff, someone young, preferably a millennial. They figured maybe someone could be a bridge between our old-school workings and find a way to market our products to the new generation of adults.
It did not take long to find someone who understood the job opening and brought confidence to the table. He looked me in the eye and said he could show me new uses and advantages of magnesia carbon bricks, which is one thing we produce a lot of.
I was impressed with his swagger, but could he deliver? He came around my desk and sat with me at my computer and showed me things I’d never thought of before, from art projects and home building to even a music video that used them in set construction.
Whether or not any of these avenues will be a real money maker, I don’t know yet, but this young man is opening up new marketing angles where we can explore new advantages to our magnesia carbon bricks. He’s actually not sure how to expand our other product lines into his generation, but at least we’ve got a start on something.
