Let’s Make It Easier for People to Give Us Money

If you’re trying to sell expensive boxes, then the current market and global uncertainty will make this difficult for you. But, additionally, you are making it difficult for yourself as well. You’re making it hard for people to give you money. You’re a business; you want to make it easy for people to give you money. The risk shouldn’t be on your client. Your customer’s decision-makers should not have to worry about losing their jobs if they adopt incorrectly. And companies should not have to invest millions and wait years to see a return on their 3D printing investments.

Additive is Hard, but Stop Making it Harder Than It Has To Be

Additive is indeed hard, but you must stop making it harder than it has to be. We know that we have a compelling technology, but achieving profitability, success, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is very difficult. Companies need to have specialized knowledge, employ highly skilled individuals with extensive additive manufacturing (AM) experience, and be prepared to adapt over a few years to master AM. Some companies that are mastering AM have invested tens of millions of dollars over a decade, while others have invested hundreds of millions for longer periods.

Yes, the market is tough, and the exporting of American uncertainty and inflation is making things tougher still. But, if your strategy is to run again and again into a wall, then the fault is not the stars, the rain, or geopolitics, is it? The best businesses in additive are completely obvious ones, yet people consistently seem to avoid them. So, why does no one want to be successful in AM?

Perhaps You Have Enough Money Already?

Perhaps you have enough money already. Perhaps you want to embrace minimalism, but feel that it’s more powerful to do so while pressed firmly against the cold, coal face of capitalism. Perhaps you feel energized contemplating a looming bankruptcy? Perhaps being wealthier would make you lazy. Perhaps you dread, at this point in life, the back pain that you may get from a low-to-the-ground sports car? Maybe you hate the feel of sand in between your toes and think that beaches are best avoided? Perhaps rising inflation, job insecurity, and uncertainty have made you relish the fact that life has finally switched to Hard Mode, and now that it is sufficiently challenging, you can start enjoying the game. Perhaps you thought that just keeping your head down and doing what you had to do was enough. Perhaps 3D printing is similar to the wine market, where you can make a small fortune as long as you start with a large one.

Facilitate Others’ Success Simply

For the rest of us, let’s focus on making other people successful. Rather than sell someone a box, offer them a month’s lease for free on an end-to-end solution that incorporates material, software, and all the training that they would need (not only to operate the machine and work the software, but to design). The person or company pays a monthly fee for all needed services, but can buy materials as needed and opt for additional materials and software. Risk-free, the contract can be cancelled on a monthly basis, but yearly contracts provide better pricing.

For those who want to own their equipment, offer them an all-inclusive price that includes service, training, and any additional requirements to get up and running. Transition from a box to a solution that meets your customer’s needs. That will force you to improve. If they need application development, specific training, materials development, parameter development, or access to settings, give it to them. You don’t have to offer everything; instead, you can rely on partners to make your solution easy to adopt and embed within a company.

If you have a software solution, it should be clear what the pricing is, include all training to be excellent with it for free, and be easy to sign up. Evaluation should be self-service and easy, with clear information on the software’s capabilities and limitations. Application programming interfaces (APIs) and the ability to work with other tools should enable implementation in any environment. It should be easy to port data to the app and keep this data secure. And, it should be easy to cancel and leave your app with customer data intact.

Rather than just being a service where people throw perfect files at, offer people staggered service levels for whatever their needs are. Collaborate with clients to help them design, optimize, and make their files printable. Work with them to provide the specific training they need to excel and master AM. With a sketch in hand, you can turn that client idea into a part. Then you should partner with them to turn it into a product. Then you can do serial production for them. But, you should also be there to help them industrialize production themselves. At every step of the product, you will be a true partner.

We focus too much on what we are and what we’ve been doing so far. Instead, we should focus on de-risking the customer. How can we make it easier to work with us? How can they get their parts faster, simpler, and with less risk? How can we make their investment pay off quicker? How can we make it easier for them at every stage of their additive journey? Many businesses in 3D printing are ignoring the customer perspective. Instead, we continue on a path because we’ve been on this path. By focusing on making it easier for customers to work with you and giving you money, you can ensure your success together.