Articles by Mark V Wiley

  1. Why Relying Heavily On Sales Reps Is A Big Mistake 11/17/2022

    If you are a treatment equipment vendor grappling for stronger growth numbers, it is important to diversify how you approach the market, how you reach prospects, and how you build awareness of your products. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, one of the best ways to do this is by providing content directly to the water and wastewater market that educates them generally about their needs, rather than promotes the specifics of your latest pump.

  2. Take Advantage Of BABA’s Transformational Opportunity 11/17/2022

    In 2021 the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IJJA - aka, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law - BIL), was passed which provides an unprecedented level of federal investment in American water infrastructure. BIL provides broad eligibilities for drinking water and clean water projects through Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF).

    In its Decision Memorandum, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it is honored to play a leadership role in implementing these provisions and is proud of its nearly decade of successful implementation of American Iron and Steel provisions in its SRF programs. Through these efforts, EPA will support efforts to catalyze domestic manufacturing, resilient supply chains, and good jobs – while successfully delivering a wide range of infrastructure projects.

    Alongside BIL and CWSRF is the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) act, which establishes strong and permanent domestic sourcing requirements across all federal financial assistance programs. The basic requirement being that 55% of all iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials must be domestically produced for a project to receive and used federal funding.

  3. Grow Your Brand By Leveraging Successes 11/16/2022

    A key component to growing a business or standing out in a crowded space is delivering on promises about your products and services. If you are able to deliver on promises, then expanding your brand to reach more customers is not as difficult as it could otherwise be. And a great way to do this is by showcasing your wins.

  4. Embrace IT/OT Convergence And Become A Stand-Out Engineering Consultancy 9/13/2022

    We are in the midst of the 4th industrial revolution and its combining digital information technology (IT) with industrial manufacturing operations (OT). The water and wastewater industry is beginning to see the benefits of the IT/OT convergence and engineering consultancies are rapidly moving beyond environmental design work into the burgeoning space of IT/OT design and implementation.

  5. Ride The Coming Wave Of Industry Growth 9/8/2022

    Many treatment equipment vendors put great effort into developing quality products, designing informative spec sheets, showcasing new products at trade shows, and incentivizing independent sales reps to introduce their products to utilities. And yet, growth seems to flatline. Win a few bids, lose a few customers, status quo. Well, according to two independent market reports, all that is about to change – for better or for worse – with the projected 4% to 6% expansion of the market.

  6. Digital Solutions Support Cross-Functional Teams and Company ROI 9/5/2022

    Digital transformation in water and wastewater is one of the most important industry innovations of the 21st century. Where the focus used to be on pipes, screens, filters, disinfectants, and things more directly related to treatment, today the focus is on centralization of processes and data. It's changing the way municipalities operate their systems and has become the change catalyst of our time.

  7. Be Part Of The Digital Transformation Revolution 8/22/2022

    With digital momentum finally picking up, it’s critical for your solution to be adopted as foundational that future solutions will build around. But how do you get a foot in the door and begin educating utilities on why your solution should be the first to evaluate, pilot and adopt?

  8. 5 Ways To Meet Your Sales Rep’s Needs 7/27/2022

    Many manufacturers in the water and wastewater industry contract independent sales reps to bring their products to market. Rep firms provide the local connections, project awareness and ability to build proposals across multiple vendors that equipment suppliers can’t create alone. Because sales consultants work with multiple principals, it’s imperative to maintain a productive and healthy relationship with your sales network or risk losing their focus on repping your product line over other product lines they can prioritize. Here are your Sales reps' 5 requirements of a Grade-A principal.

  9. Getting Your Engineering Foot Firmly In The Door 7/27/2022

    Winning engineering design work from utilities is difficult, especially for consulting firms with less tenure or brand recognition in a geographic market. The legacy connections that exist between municipalities and established engineering firms may have been in place for decades. How do you gain traction and overcome?

     

  10. Overcoming Barriers To Digital Transformation 7/27/2022

    When approaching the water utility market with digital solutions, it's good to understand the four barriers that your potential customers face in evaluating your solution. Let’s look at four barriers to digital transformation in the water and wastewater industry.