Indianapolis — Already well-known in the appliance market, Revere Plastics Systems LLC made a major push to diversify its customer base.
The process has been slow, but steady, said Glen Fish, president of the molder based in Clyde, Ohio. Fish talked about how it diversified into new markets during the Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference organized by the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors in Indianapolis.
He said when the company began a push into full diversification, it didn't have a sales force outside of the account managers for its major existing customers. So it hired a director of business development and other sales people. It did SWOT analyses of various markets.
"We looked at adjacent customers to the ones we had," he said. "You need the right product in the right market with the right message. It takes a lot of soul searching and benchmarking."
The new sales people started cold calling potential customers. They did email blitzes, new marketing campaigns. And the goal wasn't get gain new business at first.
"The goal was simply to get appointments," Fish said. "That was our metric."
Once the appointments started happening, of course the goal moved to closing sales. In the end, they've now booked over $20 million in business, Fish said.
"It's like a snowball effect," he said. "You don't think you are getting anything, but it grows over time."
Today the company boasts $200 million in sales and has customers in the appliance, automotive, medical, and lawn and garden markets.
"We've had pretty good success. And we're on a good path to continue," Fish said.