Machine Shop Growth
The Machine Shop Growth Podcast gives a fresh perspective to help you grow your shop by focusing on 3 key factors - Sales, Marketing and Efficiency. For decades the machine shop industry was build on a “good-ol-boys” mentality and was full of great machinists and engineers that made great parts. What has been discovered is many of those amazing shops have plateaued or are starting to decline - because they didn’t put enough emphasis on getting more work and making more money with the work they had.
On this podcast you will hear first hand advice from machine owners and mangers how they are getting more work and how they are making more money. Now let’s Grow Your Shop!
Machine Shop Growth
Episode #21: One of The Most Important Decisions for Your Machine Shop
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You don’t need more leads.
You need the right customers.
In this episode, Mike Fritz breaks down one of the most important strategic decisions you’ll ever make for your machine shop: defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Most shops call themselves “job shops” and try to serve everyone. The result?
Price pressure.
Clogged capacity.
Inconsistent margins.
Your ICP changes that.
We cover how to:
- Identify your most profitable work using your last 50–100 jobs
- Stop saying “we make stuff” and start positioning your shop strategically
- Use ICP to filter RFQs and protect your capacity
- Align your marketing, hiring, quoting, and equipment decisions around the right customers
And one of the biggest takeaways:
Your biggest customer is not always your ideal customer.
If you want clearer messaging, stronger margins, and a shop that grows intentionally instead of reactively — this episode is for you.
Subscribe to our weekly format:
Sales & Marketing (1st & 3rd Tuesdays)
Operations & Engineering (2nd & 4th Tuesdays)
Bonus joint episodes on 5th Tuesdays
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