How To Find Work for Your Shop | Machine Shop Talk Ep. 10

The latest episode of our Machine Shop Talk covers a fundamental topic in the life of any machine shop owner: how to find jobs. Tune in to hear Ian's recommendations!
How do machine shops find clients and jobs to keep their business active and profitable? There's no ultimate answer to this million-dollar question as many factors are likely to affect the strategy that any machine shop should adopt to market their business and services.
As the person in charge of running the shop, Ian Sandusky (‪@LetsMachine‬ ) has figured out a few ways to find new clients and keep his machines up and running over the course of the years and he decided to share his recommendations with us.
The first place to visit when trying to find work is your existing customers. This might sound like a silly recommendation but existing customers are likely to be constantly in need of parts to be done and the chances that your shop is taking care of 100% of their parts are pretty minimal (if not zero). Reaching out and letting them know that your shop has the capabilities to take up more work for them is a good place to start.
The second venue to explore when looking for new jobs, according to Ian, is old customers that your shop worked with or quoted before. Following up, even a year later, and keeping the relationships open with prospects that didn't convert before is always a good way to potentially find more work.
The last option is cold calling. Cold calling is not the easiest way to get new customers but it's one of the most common ways to introduce your business to prospects and take on new projects,
How does your machine shop find new customers and projects? Share your experience with us in the comments.
Stay tuned for more machine shop talks!
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