Over the past few months, I’ve talked with many industry partners bracing to respond to tariffs and navigate the unpredictable political and economic landscape.
This instability occurs while many manufacturers are still working to fortify the fragile supply chains that were exposed when the pandemic threw a wrench in the delicate system that impacted what customers could buy and when. I remember being stunned when people finally realized that a “supply chain” was behind all the products they use every day.
We learned many painful lessons during that time, especially in the U.S. For example, we learned that our supply chain was overly reliant on certain countries, like China, which created risk. We also learned that our industry was beholden to “just-in-time” delivery. But that approach only works well when manufacturers have reliable access to the components and raw materials, enabling them to produce goods on demand while maintaining clear and accurate forecasting.
These trade winds are continuing to shift, unfortunately. To stay operational and protect their bottom lines, manufacturers must develop strategies that allow them to keep adapting no matter which way these winds blow.
The Challenging Impacts of Volatile Trade
The current administration is pushing to bulk up domestic businesses through executive orders, tariffs and policy changes, creating a whipsaw effect. Increased port fees for Chinese vessels and possible revisions to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) are on the table, and savvy manufacturers are already preparing for how these decisions could reverberate through the industry.
Fears about these potentially changing trade relationships are warranted. Because our neighbors are so consequential to the flow of goods in and out of the U.S. — the whole industry could face repercussions.
The most frequently discussed trade policy targets are China, Mexico and Canada. To get an idea of the scale of these U.S. trading partners, China was the fourth-largest export market and the third-largest importer in 2024. Meanwhile, 70% of U.S. trade involves Canada and Mexico.
For manufacturers who source parts from any of these countries, smoothing out peaks and valleys in sales forecasts is increasingly difficult without knowing how much components might cost tomorrow. Lacking visibility around fluctuations in the market can also make crafting sales proposals feel risky when you don’t know how much profit you might actually make. Or worse, if you have multiple suppliers changing prices all the time, there’s a likelihood that your daily system updates and electronic data transfers might cause a mismatch, resulting in order rejections or delays.
Additionally, concerns about global supply chain issues and manufacturing costs may also mean delaying capital expenses and other large investments. This can set businesses back if they find themselves without the necessary equipment to grow.
Adapting to Supply Chain Instabilities
While international trade deals are out of our control, manufacturers do have the power to adapt. Here are some practical ways manufacturers can maintain their footing during these tumultuous times.
- Focus on policy, not politics: While whatever happens in the headlines can impact our work, it’s not worth your time and energy to worry over news cycles. Avoid paying attention to politics until they become policy. Keep up to date with the National Association of Wholesalers and check out their lobbying efforts. Engaging with industry advocates is a more productive way to gather relevant and actionable insights about what’s going on in trade.
- Keep your sales teams close to customers to right-size your inventory: Getting information from your customers is not just a nice-to-have anymore. It helps you anticipate demand for your products and adjust your stock accordingly. Consider only stocking what you know you’ll need based on buying patterns or blanket orders. Days of stocking everything to fill an order on a whim are gone.
- Leverage technology or get left behind: Our industry is slow to adopt new technology. Not paying attention to tech or refusing to adapt to it by thinking, “We’ve always done it this way,” won’t work anymore. Invest in a state-of-the-art CRM that makes it easy to track inventory and sales, monitor existing opportunities to keep the salespeople on track, and measure weekly performance. For more accurate forecasting, consider using AI-enhanced tools configured for your specific manufacturing and sales businesses to help uncover oversights and share with your sales teams and customers. Willingness to change is key.
- Decrease reliance on any single country or supplier: Now is the time to go to market with a "Good, Better, Best" mentality to have domestic or imported supplier options that cater to what the customer wants. Manufacturers can also confront the fragility of supply chains by diversifying their suppliers — particularly if they rely heavily on suppliers in China. Manufacturers are shifting away from the country altogether or diversifying into North America and Southeast Asia, including India, Indonesia and Micronesia, for production. Finding alternate suppliers can also help you manage costs to compete in this unstable global market.
Why a Flexible Sales Strategy Matters
The flexibility required in times like this is part of the reason why building strong partnerships is crucial across all business areas, including sales, purchasing and production.
Independent manufacturer representatives (IMRs), who work with multiple manufacturers, can share best practices and help companies adopt agile sales and distribution strategies to stabilize and strengthen their manufacturing business.
Leverage data to pivot quickly: Sales representatives can help manufacturers sell products, but we also provide market intelligence to our manufacturers and advise on relationships they should nurture to get ahead. We get out in the field every day to gather real insights using relationships we’ve maintained over decades.
We also leverage industry trends, like “ship to” data from manufacturers and track lost sales to know who’s buying and who’s not. Durrie Sales combines sales history data with industry forecasts from ITR Economics to help our manufacturers pivot when supply chain disruptions occur because when times are unstable, you need to really dial in what you’re making and how you’re making it. We help manufacturers by providing actionable insights for our manufacturers looking to adjust product lines or discover new markets.
However, shifting your sales strategy to meet the challenges of the moment isn’t easy to implement without a flexible sales team.
Durrie Sales is pushing the envelope by adapting to industry changes through technology. We use AI to help generate leads and monitor stock resources for distributors and end users, all in the service of selling more products for our customers. When we invest in these things to help you sell more, it’s better for all of us.
Create relationships to adapt quickly: We understand that manufacturers need to constantly “work the supply chain” to ensure their interdependent relationships stay strong to maintain supply and demand. This is why some principals rely on Durrie Sales to maintain customer relationships; with our industry knowledge and 90 years of experience — letting manufacturers shift their focus to listening to their end-users’ needs and bringing out new products that people really want.
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Patrick McKeever is the president of Durrie Sales, an industrial manufacturers' representative agency specializing in cutting tools and industrial products representing U.S. manufacturers in the Southeast, Midwest & West Coast.
