You’re losing jobs to people you’re better than
Your work isn’t the problem. Your words are.
I’ve been studying this. 1,102 manufacturer websites, 29 industries, every word measured. I know why the less qualified bid keeps winning. And I know how to fix it.
Everyone says the same thing
I looked at all 1,102 of those sites word by word: the actual language companies use to describe themselves, what they lead with, what they claim sets them apart, what they think makes them different.
Nobody wakes up excited to rewrite their homepage. There’s a business to run. So the homepage ends up with well-worn phrases that don’t really say anything — which means they can’t say anything wrong, which is exactly why they feel safe. “Quality products.” “Innovative solutions.” “Your trusted partner.” You’ve seen them on your competitors’ sites. Your competitors have seen them on yours.
The dead phrases
Any one of these numbers is just a number. Together, they describe an industry where a buyer comparing three companies literally cannot tell them apart.
And this is only what companies say. What they don’t say is worse: 83% of manufacturer websites have zero positioning signals, nothing a buyer could use to choose one company over another. No named customers, no lead times, no specific capabilities. Just the phrases, floating on the page.
Two-thirds of the sites I looked at use the word “quality” as a selling point (two-thirds). In metal stamping it’s worse: “quality” and “precision” together show up on more than half the sites in the industry, word for word, interchangeable.
When a buyer is comparing three companies that all say the same thing, there’s only one variable left: price. The cheapest bid wins, not because they’re better, but because nothing on the other two gave the buyer a reason to pay more.
The sites themselves load fast, work on phones, have contact forms. Nobody’s losing work because their site is slow. They’re losing it because their site says nothing that a competitor’s site doesn’t say.
That’s the gap. Not a technology problem, a language problem. And unlike most business problems, this one doesn’t require new equipment, new buildings, or new hires. Just different words, said clearly, about things that are already true. See the full research →
“I can count the truly extraordinary designers I’ve worked with on less than one hand. Lee makes the cut.”
What I do about it
I do messaging, positioning, and web design for companies that make and build real things. Manufacturing. Trades. Distribution. I work alone, and for good reason.
No account manager who takes notes and then explains your business wrong to the person actually doing the work. I do the work. I’ve been doing it for nearly three decades, and I’m still the one in the conversation, still the one making the decisions about your messaging and your site.
I figure out what’s actually true about your company, the thing you take for granted, and put it into words a buyer can use to choose you.
I built an agency, grew it to a 5.0 rating on Clutch across 20 client reviews, then sold it to get back to doing the work myself.