Insights
Opinions on what actually wins enquiries.
Plain-language reads for manufacturers — getting found by technical buyers on Google and in AI answers, winning enquiries, and the trade-portal and ERP work most web people can't do. One substantial post a month.
12 posts
13 August 2026 · Opinion
What technical buyers actually ask AI before they shortlist a supplier
Buyers now run a first-pass supplier filter through ChatGPT before a human ever sees your site. Here's what the AI checks — and why most manufacturers get quietly cut.
12 August 2026 · Teardown
Teardown: the precision machine shop homepage a buyer bounces from
An anonymised walk through a typical precision-machining homepage, the way a procurement buyer would see it — and the five things quietly sending them to a competitor.
9 August 2026 · How-to
What "fast" actually means for a B2B product site — and why Lighthouse 95+ isn't vanity
Site speed sounds like a developer's obsession. For a B2B manufacturer it's a commercial signal — one of the few technical things a buyer notices without realising.
6 August 2026 · Opinion
Why your manufacturing website gets no enquiries — and it usually isn't the design
Most manufacturers who aren't getting enquiries assume the site looks dated. Nearly always the real problem is somewhere else entirely. Here's where to actually look.
5 August 2026 · Teardown
Teardown: the components supplier whose website sends every buyer to the phone
An anonymised teardown of a typical industrial-components site — a catalogue that looks fine until a buyer tries to use it, and funnels every enquiry into a phone call.
30 July 2026 · Comparison
Trade portal vs a catalogue with a contact form: what actually pays for itself
When does a manufacturer need a real trade portal instead of a catalogue and an enquiry form? An honest look at what each costs and what actually pays for itself.
27 July 2026 · How-to
Getting specified: how a building-products manufacturer wins the drawing before the tender
For construction products, the sale is decided months before anyone buys — when a specifier writes you onto a drawing. Most sites are built for the wrong moment.
23 July 2026 · How-to
What a precision machine shop's website needs that a generalist will miss
A general web designer will make a machine shop's site look tidy — and miss the handful of things that decide whether a procurement buyer actually enquires.
20 July 2026 · Opinion
Why your distributors still phone their orders in — and what actually changes that
If your best trade customers still order by phone, it isn't loyalty — it's habit, and habits move to whoever removes the friction first. Here's what shifts it.
16 July 2026 · Opinion
The B2B manufacturer's site that doesn't look like a B2B manufacturer's site
Most industrial B2B websites look interchangeable — and quietly cost their owners credibility with the buyers they most want to win. Standing out isn't about flash.
9 July 2026 · How-to
Your technical datasheets are your best salesperson — so why are they hidden in a PDF?
For technical products, the datasheet is what a buyer uses to choose. Locking it in an unfindable PDF hands the enquiry to a competitor who published theirs.
2 July 2026 · How-to
Concept to production: what a plastics manufacturer's site owes a first-time buyer
A buyer who's never tooled a part arrives nervous about cost and process. Most moulding sites answer neither. Here's what a site should actually do.
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One useful read a month.
Written for manufacturers, no sales pitch. The next long-form piece when it lands, plus one short note on what's actually shifting in how technical buyers — and the AI assistants they now ask — find and shortlist suppliers.