239: How to Build a "Customer Advisory Board" and Create a Frictionless Customer Experience with Mandy Dwight (Dwight & Co.) and Anthony Leo (IPR Robotics)

Without customer buy-in, even the most innovative robotics automation products can fall flat. But the approach most manufacturers take with new products is to build them first, then get feedback. In this episode, you’ll hear how one company flipped the script and did robotics product development the other way around.   

Joining this episode is Anthony Leo, President of IPR Robotics, a robotics automation company, to explain how a customer advisory board became invaluable for uncovering exactly what customers need – before they even built the product. You’ll also hear Mandy Dwight, Founder of Dwight & Company, a marketing and sales company that works with automation companies to tell and sell their story to customers. 

While they come from different areas of the sales cycle, both Mandy and Anthony share great insights into how products are transformed from ideas to implemented solutions. We hear about how to avoid customer prevention and friction in the sales cycle, how larger companies can act like startups, and the secrets to selling based on value, not just technical specs.  

In this episode, find out: 

• We talk about all the important food places and bars in the Boston and Detroit areas our guests come from   
• How Anthony and Mandy first met and decided to start working together 
• Why companies need to fully support those in R&D to drive product innovation  
• How IPR’s Sawyer robot brought something new to the market at the time as a two-armed humanoid robot  
• The different strengths that Mandy and Anthony bring to the manufacturing and product innovation space   
• The top lessons they’ve learned from their previous experiences in the industry that they still use in their roles today  
• Why the most important lesson Mandy learned as a marketing business founder is to listen to customers  
• The importance of telling a company’s value story and selling beyond the tech spec sheets  
• Why all stakeholders in the sales cycle need to understand the value story and how that can look different for each one  
• Why Anthony built an advisory board of customers to get feedback and insights before starting development 
• How large companies can use startup style tactics to fast-track product innovation 
• What a “customer prevention team” does to remove friction from the buying process  
• Why you sometimes need to build an ecosystem of partners to reduce friction  
• The secrets to a great product innovation team and why silos in a company should be avoided 
• Mandy explains more about what IPR Robotics does from her perspective as a marketer 

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Tweetable Quotes: 

• "Instead of burning a bunch of cash trying to go through development, let's go find three to five customers that we think fit in the wheelhouse of the problem we think we found and ask them if they wouldn't mind being involved in the development of the product." – Anthony 
• "A lot of founders tell the technical story... But a customer wants to hear value. How is this automation going to show up in my facility and really be a game changer." – Mandy 
• "People buy from people at the end of the day. Some people are willing to spend more money with people they trust and solve problems... compared to saving 10, 20% and dealing with headaches the whole way through." – Anthony

Links & mentions: 

• IPR Robotics, robotics solutions provider of peripheries, robot grippers, RTUs and more 
• Dwight & Company, sales and marketing company for automation innovators and industry 
• Detroit “Coney Wars,” decide whether you prefer Lafayette Coney Island or American Coney Island, and don’t miss Mudgie’s Deli while you’re in The D. 
• Beantown Pub, classic American pub based on the famous Freedom Trail in downtown Boston 

Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.