The Heart and Soul of Metal Fabrication Was in Chicago

FABTECH 2019 represented the industry at its finest.

Whether you were a large organization with a booth that has enough square footage to land an aircraft, or a smaller machine shop with examples of your work spread out on the table, there was something for everyone in Chicago.

And when you stop to think about it, these machines, these parts, and these people are each a significant part of the way our world functions – much of it behind the scenes.

The heart and soul of metal fabrication were visible at FABTECH.

Walking those floors, seeing the diverse range of offerings, overhearing stories of business challenges, presentations conducted, the pounding of machines, the shaking of hands, robotic arms at work, smiling faces, the enormously long Starbucks line of pre-caffeinated people – this was the place where business was happening in the metal fabrication industry and the vastness of McCormick Place (or the fluke snowstorm on Monday) didn’t stop anyone.

COACT has attended FABTECH for several years.

Our founder and president, Mark Frasco, continues to be a thought leader for the association. This year, his session was called “Business Builders: Make Business Development a Competitive Advantage,” and his reviews (as usual) were over-the-top positive.

He has this unique ability to visualize the intangible and is notorious for his quadrant style of thinking.

But the image I want to share with you is Mark’s way of displaying your business’s competitive advantage, and how to map your offering, next to what your client’s actual needs are, and finally up against your competition’s offerings: all in a lovely Venn Diagram. Genius.

For your viewing pleasure, see below. Go ahead – draw some circles and think strategically about your business.

This year, we decided to become exhibitors.

Our team worked tirelessly to create the best show experience for our company from the booth design, promotional materials, hype video, hosting a hospitality event, even down to creating our own research piece, The State of the Metal Fabrication Industry 2020.

And, not to brag, but we killed it! Each of our team members in attendance came away with follow-up action items, proposals, introduction calls, and some new friends.

You might ask, “What is COACT doing at a show like this?” Good question.

We supply a process solution to strategic growth.

It just so happens that a good 25% of our client base is in the metal fabrication industry.

And it goes without saying that we understand the industry. We are familiar with the challenges that the industry is facing, and our teams are on the front lines of business development, talking with other buyers and connecting businesses to businesses.

We are experts at creating positive impressions in the market. At our core, we believe that…

Selling success is due to far more than technique – it’s the design and implementation of a process that proactively and rhythmically communicates your value propositions to strategic targets while building trusting relationships that enable you to learn about buying systems and a prospect’s motivation to buy.

And we have fun doing it!

Check out this fun video recap of our experience at FABTECH 2019!

(Quick disclaimer: I am not a videographer by any means! Our trusty videographer, Christian Pokrywka, was back in the office, churning out beautiful video projects for our clients.)

Did you miss us at the show? Not to fret; feel free to reach out to any of us to talk about your strategic business objectives!