Manufacturing Insights: Be a Solution to Customer Problems | Connor Ouwinga – Porous Pave
May 10, 2026
Most manufacturers think they’re selling a product. They’re not. They’re selling a result. In this episode of Manufacturing Insiders, Connor Ouwinga of Porous Pave offers key manufacturing insights into what it really means to understand your value proposition, and why the companies that win are the ones who can clearly articulate and understand where their product fits into solving customer problems. Because in most cases… it’s not about cost. It’s about whether you’re actually the solution. This conversation goes beyond surface-level marketing and gets into the real work.
We discuss manufacturing insights that stretch across industries like identifying the problems your customers actually care about, positioning your product as a clear solution, making smarter investments in automation and AI, navigating uncertainty from global conflict to economic shifts, building a business grounded in purpose, and long-term vision that is required for growth. This is a masterclass in turning what you do into a story that actually sticks.
Nate Wheeler is the owner of weCreate, a nationally recognized marketing agency that helps manufacturers grow, save money, and become more efficient.
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Interview Chapters:
- 0:00 Introduction to Connor and Porous Pave
- 10:10 Understanding your Value Proposition
- 14:10 Understand the Problem you are solving
- 20:00 How to be a Solution
- 25:00 Automation and Other Investments
- 30:30 Inseer AI Agent for Ergonomics
- 31:45 Faith and Family
- 35:45 Iran War Repercussions
- 39:30 2026 Growth Strategies
Manufacturing Insights
1. Manufacturing leaders need to understand the problem their product actually solves
One of the biggest manufacturing insights from the episode is that customers don’t necessarily care about the product itself. They care about the problem that product solves. Connor describes Porous Pave as a “problem solving product.” If a customer’s problem costs $1 million and Porous Pave costs $700,000, the relevant comparison isn’t $700,000 versus a competitor at $500,000. It’s $700,000 versus the $1 million problem so long as he has the best solution.
2. Manufacturers can’t understand their value if they don’t know where their products are used
Nate points out a common problem in manufacturing: a machine shop may be proud of a highly complex, precise component but have no idea what the component actually goes into. Without understanding the application, manufacturers have no window in the value they’re creating. That understanding is important because if you know and understand the value you are creating, and what your customers are doing with your product, it becomes so much easier to identifying additional value you could provide.
3. Customer conversations should start with problems, not products
Connor’s approach at trade shows is particularly useful if you are looking for manufacturing insights. When someone asks why they should use Porous Pave, he turns the question around and asks what problems they’re experiencing. That can uncover completely different opportunities depending on the customer. Instead of fishing for approval by just listing applications that might have nothing to do with that prospecting customer, turning the question onto them gives them the opportunity to stop and think about the problem they are trying to solve, giving you instant insight into exactly how your product could be their solution.
4. Site visits can reveal opportunities that never appear on a purchase order
Connor regularly walks customer sites and looks for problems Porous Pave might solve. That has led to opportunities customers weren’t necessarily asking for directly. For a manufacturer with a major or long-term customer, getting out of the office and seeing the customer’s operation can reveal problems they are facing that you never knew about, that never show up in an RFQ, that they never saw as something you could solve, that you could be uniquely positioned to help them with.
5. Ask customers why they changed suppliers
A simple but powerful question for manufacturers is: “What problem did you have with your previous supplier?” Connor and Nate discuss asking customers what they’re struggling with, where they’re losing money, and what they wish their supplier could do better. Those conversations can uncover opportunities beyond simply making the requested part.
6. The best opportunities may come after the sale
Manufacturers shouldn’t assume the relationship ends when the product ships. Connor describes regularly asking existing customers whether there’s anything the company could do better, whether they have other problems, and whether there are additional opportunities. His point is that customers rarely have only one problem that a supplier could potentially help solve.
7. A manufacturer can create additional value without fundamentally changing its product
The opportunity isn’t always inventing something completely new. Nate gives the example of a precision component manufacturer that discovers its customer’s demand fluctuates. The manufacturer might create additional value through a stocking program, improved delivery, or another service around the existing product. This is an important point from the episode: value-added manufacturing isn’t necessarily about making a more complicated part.
8. Manufacturing leaders can sell outcomes instead of products
The Rolls-Royce “Power by the Hour” example illustrates this particularly well. Rather than simply selling an engine, Rolls-Royce built a business model around the outcome airlines actually wanted: uptime and flight hours. The broader lesson is to ask: What does the customer actually want to accomplish with the thing we’re selling?
9. Understanding your product means understanding both its strengths and its limitations
Connor emphasizes that manufacturers need to understand what their product is good at and what it isn’t good at. Porous Pave, for example, works well for certain parking-lot applications but isn’t appropriate as the actual surface of a whole parking lot because turning heavy vehicles can damage it. Knowing that limitation helps the company avoid promising a solution that won’t work. Its not always good to say “yes” top every job. Filling your portfolio with random jobs that don’t really fit your niche can have costs of its own like disproportionate customer service to the value of the job, recalls, and management headaches, all for a job will never grow into a larger relationship.
10. Manufacturing growth requires putting marketing dollars where the buying decision actually happens
Porous Pave nearly doubled its business over roughly three years, and Connor attributes part of that growth to understanding who the actual end user and decision-maker is. The company discovered that spending money to reach concrete installers wasn’t as valuable as reaching the architects who specify the product. Once the product is specified, the installer has to use it. This is another advantage that comes from understanding the value your customers get from your project. It allows you to understand who needs to hear about, and who you need to get in front of.
11. Trade shows aren’t automatically valuable just because they’re industry events
The episode provides a useful lesson about evaluating trade show ROI. Porous Pave attended World of Concrete and determined that the audience wasn’t necessarily the right buyer. Instead, the company shifted some of that investment toward the American Society of Landscape Architects because architects were more directly involved in specifying its products, and were the people they wanted to get in front of as a solution.
12. Product-market fit requires listening before selling
Connor makes this point explicitly near the end of the episode: businesses can waste time explaining features that customers don’t actually care about. Instead of immediately trying to answer a customer’s question with a sales pitch, manufacturers should listen first and understand the customer’s problem.