The Real Reason You Are Losing Customers

In this week's episode, Lisa Apolinski from PhatKat Consulting breaks down how suppliers can build trust and stand out by creating value-driven, story-based content that reduces risk, cost, and time. We also cover how AI is reshaping buyer decisions and why authentic expertise matters more than ever.

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Transcript

Sean Riley: You are listening to Unpacked with PMMI, where we share the latest packaging and processing industry insights, research, and innovations to help you advance your business.

Hi, and welcome to Unpacked with PMMI. I'm your host, Sean Riley. In this week's episode, Lisa Apolinski from PhatKat Consulting breaks down how suppliers can build trust and stand out by creating value-driven, story-based content that reduces risk, cost, and time.

Sean Riley: We also cover how AI is reshaping buyer decisions and why authentic expertise matters now more than ever before. Let's have a listen.

So, with all the fancy introductions out of the way, welcome to the podcast, Lisa.

Lisa Apolinski: Thank you, Sean. I'm so excited to be here.

Sean Riley: Oh, the pleasure is all ours. So OEMs operate in these really long sales cycles and with these relationships that they have to build up trust. So what does authority really look like in this environment, and why is it becoming more important now than it was, say, five, maybe 10 years ago?

Lisa Apolinski: So authority has always been something that's been important, but as you said, it has—and I don't want to say it's gained popularity because that's a misnomer—it has gained a necessity. With the long sales cycles, with the high price tags of equipment—coding and marking, packaging equipment, packaging products—there has to be trust built. I don't care what customer it is, whether it's a small mom and pop, all the way to Frito and Pepsi, and the big guys. Everyone is looking for three things. They want to reduce risk, they want to reduce cost, and they want to reduce time.

When we invest in our content as an authority, we are helping to bridge that gap of trust so that the customer feels like, "Okay, you know what you're talking about. My risk is down. You'll do what you say you're going to do because I feel like I know you."

"Now my cost is down because I don't have to redo things, and you'll do it the way it needs to be done. So now my time has been reduced as well." One of the things that's happening with AI—and I got to bring it into the conversation—

Sean Riley: Absolutely. Can't believe it took this long.

Lisa Apolinski: I know, right? I try not to go right into it, but one of the things that's happening with AI—and think about the last couple of searches you did on Google or your platform of choice. An AI answer popped up first. Did you click on anything? Did you research what AI said, or did it feed you the answer or the summary, and you went, "Awesome," and you just kept going? AI is now interpreting your brand, your company values, and your authority.

Sean Riley: Interesting.

Lisa Apolinski: And when someone wants to switch suppliers, which happens, right? They feel like, "Okay, I'm not getting as good of service, or I feel like there might be something better out there," and they go in, and they put in their search. They're not just saying, "Give me a coding and marketing company."

Sean Riley: Right.

Lisa Apolinski: They're saying, "I work with," and then fill in the blank. Who would be a better choice for service? Who has a better record for after-sales support? Who has more consistent equipment? They're asking detailed questions, not just who the competitors are. And AI is going out and looking at everything. 

So they're looking at complaints, they're looking at where the employees get to complain about the company. It's searching everything to pull that information back. It can also search for your content as an authority if you give it a chance to have something to read.

LinkedIn and Reddit are the top two sources right now for large language machine learning, which means they are just gobbling up that content like Tic Tacs.

Sean Riley: I get it with LinkedIn. I was surprised by Reddit.

Lisa Apolinski: Oh, think about it. It's all sorts of opinions and all sorts of comments, and the content just generates and generates, right?

Sean Riley: Interesting.

Lisa Apolinski: If you go onto Reddit, you go down a rabbit hole when you're reading stuff. Imagine what AI is doing. But because AI is researching who you are, who you serve, what problem you solve, and what you stand for, by the time a customer gets to you, they've already decided a short list. They've already decided what they believe you will be able to do.

What's the 3:00 AM problem that your customer wakes up and says, "Oh my God, if I don't solve this, I'm going to lose my job. If I don't solve this, my company's going to go under?" What is an issue that you see within the operations on the floor that you're like, "If everyone could just do this one thing, it would—fill in the blank—if they stopped buying third-party ink, their machine wouldn't break down."

And there's a reason why third-party ink is cheaper, but the costs associated in the backend are way worse. There are so many things that you could be providing to help guide your customers to make the best choice. If you're helping them to reduce risk, cost, and time, and you've never set foot in their plant yet, you've already shown that you are a source of information to be trusted.

Sean Riley: Interesting. So I'm an OEM, and I'm not in the content business. What kind of content am I putting out there that is going to inspire that kind of confidence and that kind of decision-making that's going to support them buying from me, rather than get distracted by all the noise that's out there?

Lisa Apolinski: So when we think about content—and especially, again, got to bring AI back into the conversation—a lot of these organizations are using AI to create their content, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. What I will say is AI does not have your personal experience and what you see every single day on your customer's site. 

You can bring storytelling into the conversation. People are hardwired for stories, and your story matters. I'll give an example. I can talk about the features and benefits of this new packaging equipment that I'm selling you. Great. That's never going to stick in someone's brain. But what if you reframed it and you had a story that talked about how another client who had the same problem as that prospect used this equipment, and what was the result of using that equipment? 

So yes, you're in the equipment business, you're in the OEM business, you're in the supplier business, but at the end of the day, you're in the problem-solving business for your client. Frame your story around this, was the issue. This was the problem that they were facing. This was us coming in as a guide, as a mentor. And as a result, this is what they were able to do. Give a clear finish line. Make it about the client. Because when you make it about the client, your prospect—because again, they're hardwired for stories—will see themselves in the story and can now envision working with you. That's an emotional connection that you cannot get if you just list a bunch of features of your equipment. And no offense to anyone out there, but that's a me-too strategy. 

Our equipment does that too. Me-too strategies don't work. We have to have that human element. And if you're going for the me-too strategy—and again, I live in the world of multiple right answers—if you're going for the me-too strategy, it will inevitably go to price. And that is where margins go to die. We want to get the equipment in and make sure that it's successful, and then move on to the relationship with the aftermarket sales. And we can't do that if they look at it as a transactional relationship. 

If they look at it as a partnership—and again, stories matter in that situation—you're able to then continue the relationship and be able to upsell because, again, you are there to stand for their success. You might be a $5,000 coating piece of equipment at the end of the line, but if you go down, the entire line goes down, and that's millions of dollars that they could be losing. If you are able to teach them, troubleshoot, be available, help them to keep the equipment clean and functioning, making sure that they're doing maintenance, all of those things are you making sure that they will have a production line that runs every single time. And that is very different than a price point. That's a very different conversation to have.

Sean Riley: As someone who is an editor and stuff like that, I'm hearing case studies. You want a real-world case example of things that you've done because people will look at that and say, "Ooh, I've had this challenge, this problem as well, and this company, ABC, XYZ, has provided a solution."

How about getting that started, though? If you're not comfortable putting yourself out there as a thought leader or a subject matter expert—again, I'm an OEM, I'm an engineer, I'm creating equipment—my concern isn't selling myself or showcasing myself. How do I do it in a way so that it's not just a commercial for my company?

Lisa Apolinski: When we look at different people within an organization, you can have multiple people who are providing content, who are providing a vantage point. Your service people, your engineers, your salespeople, your operations—all of those people can add a viewpoint to the conversation and make the relationship robust.

And by doing that, you're not only making sure that you're having that peer-to-peer conversation, right? So engineer to engineer, because that's important. You're also then, when you come together like at PACK EXPO, for example, you can have a group of people, and every aspect of the problem gets recognized, spoken about, and solved.

I know it can be very hard for an engineer to say, "I'm going to put out content." But what if the engineer, instead of doing—and he could do a white paper, that's totally fine—but again, go back to storytelling. People are hardwired for stories, and even you are hardwired for stories.

If you talk about a situation and why a certain aspect of the equipment solves that, why there's a trend happening, and you want to make sure that gets nipped in the bud, you can share those stories, and you can have those conversations.

When you think about the content that you're going to put out—and I love this litmus test—if you stopped posting your content, would your audience go, "Where'd you go? Are you coming back?" Or are they like, "Meh," and they're moving on to something else?

A lot of people ask me, "How often should I post?" I always say, "You should post content that has value, and that matters to your audience." It's their journey that you're trying to help. Is your content helping them solve an issue? Is your content helping them handle maintenance on their own? Is your content helping them choose the right supplier?

Even if it's not you, if you're showing up and you're providing value because you want them to succeed, that's a very different conversation than a lot of the posts that I see where they fall back on transactional interactions rather than problem-solving.

And again, the engineer doesn't have to—you don't have to post every week. The post police are not going to show up at your office and say, "Oh my gosh, you haven't posted." Post stuff that has value.

If you're out on the floor and you see something and you're like, "Oh my gosh, that could have been prevented," post about it. Talk about it. You can do creative licensing, right? You don't have to say, "I was at this plant with this person."

The idea is you give a little bit of detail so that someone else, either who has that equipment or who has that problem, can recognize it. You're showing that you get it, you get what they're going through, you're using language that they recognize and know.

And again, you're sharing information that helps them move the needle to their success point. I think that's the key. That's absolutely the key.

Sean Riley: That's a perfect button to put on our conversation. I feel like we could talk all day about this. This was great. I thank you, Lisa, for taking time out of your day to come on here and inform our listeners on some of the things that they can be doing to improve their business. So thanks again.

Lisa Apolinski: Absolutely. It was wonderful to be on.

Sean Riley: Thanks for listening to this episode of Unpacked with PMMI. If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. That way, you won't miss any of the industry insights coming your way.

While you're there, we'd really appreciate a rating or review. Want more? Visit pmmi.org/podcasts for all of our past episodes and additional resources. Thanks again for tuning in. I'll see you next time.