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Building Success Through Values: A Conversation with MotionSource International CEO Chip Hautala
Transcript
Welcome to Growth Challenges for Manufacturers and How to Overcome Them. I’m your host, Katherine Seymour. This episode is brought to you by MacRAE’S, a trusted North American businesses for over 100 years. As a leader in B2B digital marketing, we help industrial and manufacturing companies struggling with stagnant growth and regeneration. By leveraging advanced AI integration, automation, and in our SEO,
and lead generation programs, we help you appear more prominently in search and AI results, such as chat GPT. This drives significantly more qualified leads to your website, resulting in stronger lead flow and increased revenue, crucial in today’s highly competitive digital landscape. Learn more at MacRAE’S today. Today I’m joined by Chip Hatula, CEO and owner of MotionSource based in Ohio. MotionSource is a trusted distributor of systems integrated fluid
powered pneumatic solutions. The company supports a wide range of industries from manufacturing and packaging to automotive and food processing, offering high quality components, custom assemblies and hands-on engineering support. But what truly sets MotionSource apart is their commitment to response and technical excellence and building long-term client partnerships. Chip, we’re so thrilled to have you with us today. Welcome.
Thank you, I’m happy to be here, I’m excited to be here.
Thank you so much. Chip, let’s get started with the motion source story. What inspired you to start the company and how did your background shape your vision?
I had been working at a similar company as a CFO and CIO at that company and I just thought there was a better way to do things and what shaped things is I’ve worked for a lot of bad bosses over the years and I took note every time I thought, you know what, that’s not the way I’m going to do it. That’s not the way I’m going to do it and that’s what kind of has shaped our philosophy here and the way we do business.
Amazing, amazing. Your messaging and leadership style really emphasizes values like responsiveness, trust, and service. How have these values shaped your day-to-day operations and your team culture?
Well, if you walk into our office, we have on the wall right when you walk in, it’s a framed picture that says, nobody wins unless everybody wins. And that’s our company motto here. And that means you as the customer have to win, we have to win, our salespeople have to win, and also our suppliers have to win. that’s just as we have a commitment to our customers to get back to them within 20 minutes.
Amazing.
companies I’ve worked for in the past, it’s been a week, two weeks to get back to somebody. And we get back to you within 20 minutes, that’s our commitment to you, but we also hold our vendors to that standard too of, you need to get back to us within 15 minutes when we ask.
Yeah.
amazing. For those who may not be familiar, can you walk us through what MotionSource does? What kinds of products and services do you provide and who’s your typical client or the industries you serve?
That’s a good question. So what we do is we build engineered lubrication systems, hydraulic systems, and also sell the pieces parts. We also sell PPE equipment too, which is an interesting story how we got into that. our customers are typically, we do a lot in the rubber industry, we do a lot in paper and packaging, food processing, energy.
Yeah.
and auto industry that’s our main focus.
Amazing. What kinds of challenges do your clients usually come to you with? Are there common pain points across industries that you serve, or is it mostly specific to whichever industry has them at the moment?
It’s very specific to each industry. What happens on a lot of these things is there wasn’t any planned obsolescence.
Right.
So for example recently we had a customer that came to us, they had a pump that was built in 1938 and it just broke down for them. I said, do you have some spare parts for that? He’s like, no, no, there’s no spare parts for that. And so we had to figure out what they were doing with it and design a system for them that would do basically a better job than what it did in 1938 but the same type of…
Wow.
No.
And it goes across different industries. mean, if it’s the auto industry, generally they just want pieces parts and they have their guys doing it. Rubber industry, there’s specific things we do with them. Paper and packaging, there’s designs we do with them. So it really depends. And it’s funny because each of our salespeople kind of finds their own niche on where they want to be. So it works out nice.
right.
Well, that makes sense. So it’s really just understanding the industry, understanding their needs, and working around it. Am I cool? With labor shortages, increased automation, and supply chain pressures reshaping manufacturing, how have your clients’ needs evolved over the past few years?
Correct.
Well.
lot of what’s happened in this industry is there’s been silos of knowledge and people have retired and it’s a very aging industry. So I always tell when we bring somebody in that’s on the younger side, I say, you you could really do this until you’re 65. I mean, you could really do this until you retire because there’s not a lot of people that are doing this or understand it. And the same thing happens with our customers in that
Hmm.
they have somebody that retires that’s been doing it for the past 30 or 40 years and unfortunately some 22 year old takes their position and has zero knowledge of what to do so it’s our responsibility to help them understand and walk them through it so it’s not a matter of just a sale we try to educate our customers as well.
Yeah.
That’s amazing. So it’s more of a partnership that you’re working together on a constant basis.
Exactly, and that’s why we rarely have a customer leave us because it is a partnership. Like I said, it goes to our model. Nobody wins unless everybody
Motion source is known for its ability to turn things around quickly while maintaining quality. How do you strike the balance between speed and precision?
A lot of it is education of our people and there’s a saying in sports, I used to play baseball, there’s a saying that speed erases all mistakes. And in business, knowledge erases all mistakes. And so all of our sales people, customer service people, and service people are all certified in everything that we sell. So they’re able to get you an answer and get you an answer quickly on what needs to be done.
amazing.
And most of our customers are not certified. In fact, I’d probably say less than 5 % are certified on anything. So they rely on us to be their knowledge base too.
and their trusted source for sure. Let’s talk business development. How does Motion Source typically generate new business? Is it mostly referrals, repeat clients, or do you focus on outbound efforts?
Mm-hmm.
Well, for new customers, a lot of it is outbound efforts. have a web store at motionsourceone.com that a lot of people go to and we work with customers out of that. We do some outbound marketing and trade shows and things like that. So that’s primarily where we get our new customers in those areas. And a lot of that is online marketing and the web store and things of that sort.
So that’s pretty much, and some of it is referrals and some of it is, you know, we do have a lot of feet on the ground as far as sales people go and they’re constantly out. Some sales people are strictly outside and some are hybrids where they’re inside and outside. So we get a lot of customers that way.
Make sense. Many manufacturers and engineers aren’t always focused on digital visibility. What’s been your experience with digital marketing, your website, or online lead generation so far?
it’s been great. When the pandemic hit a few years back, I thought, and we all, we didn’t have to lay anybody off. Everybody worked remotely for 15 months.
set up already for us to work remotely and except for the service guys, the guys who were coming in and working in the back and they kept their distance but we decided I decided to create a web star at that point in time and it’s helped immeasurably we get a lot more customers as a result of that and a lot of good customers that stick with us you know some people are one
Yeah.
one-off buys and some people are really looking for some help and those are the customers that stick with us.
Awesome. If you can improve one part of your sales or marketing pipeline overnight, what would it be? Would it be more awareness, better qualified leads, improved nurturing?
I would like to be able to deliver things quicker. mean our supply chain is still suffering. people being confused about these tariffs, which is a horrible idea. that would be, I guess, education of people on those things. And people don’t understand still that some items might take six to eight weeks to get in from the…
Yeah.
from our supplier and because they’re built as ordered, we don’t stock them on our shelf. So it’s all a custom built. that’s difficult. So I suppose something like that, more awareness, I guess I would say, as far as what we do and what to expect from us. I guess that would probably be the best thing.
Bray
Hmm.
Make sense, make sense. Your team seems to play a huge role in your company’s success. How do you maintain strong, motivated culture in a technical and fast-moving field like industrial distribution?
Well, when we bring somebody on board, we have a, our hiring process takes a long time because we want to make sure somebody fits our culture well. Our culture is very relaxed here. Okay. We have flexible hours. you know, a lot of our, people have children that are school-aged children. So, you know, they’re working different hours now in the summertime than they would be, in the wintertime. we trust our employees and,
Right.
I trust them to do what they’re hired to do. I always believe Stephen Jobs had an excellent quote where he said, we don’t hire people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people and have them tell us what to do. So I always tell everybody, you don’t work for me, I work for you. You tell me how I can make your job easier. And that’s my role as kind of as like a coach and a manager here and managing the team.
Yeah.
But flexible hours, we have a lot of benefits here that we offer people and just realizing that nothing that happens inside here is as important as what happens outside. You have a family, have to take care of your family. So I think that that’s why we retain a lot of employees.
That’s amazing. So it’s really empowering your employees and your team to do the best that they can do.
Yeah, I tell them, you know, this is not just how I feed my family, this is how you feed your family too, so treat this like it’s your business. And people do.
That’s cool. That’s cool. Can you share one project or client success story that your team really went above and beyond or something that really represents what Motion Source is all about?
The most recent one, I would say, is we started an internship program here recently. And it’s not a customer success story, but it’s a success story nonetheless. And all the credit for that goes to our sales manager, Heather Ackley. She started it and really put the time and effort into it. And we’ve had…
engineering students already interned with us and both of them got a better understanding of what the industry is and whether they wanted to go in it or not and both of them came away and told us what a great experience it was for them and how much they learned so I you can’t put a you know a value on that it’s great yeah
Yeah.
A price? No. And
it goes back to what you were mentioning that people in this field can really be there till they’re 65. So you’re starting that knowledge transfer early. And it really is amazing. And starting those experts off early. Very cool. What’s next for MotionSource? Are there new technologies, markets, or innovations that you’re excited to explore?
Exactly. Yeah.
Thanks.
yeah, AI is like opening up so much and we’re experimenting with on our website right now an AI program where it’s got a virtual person that’s there and you can ask it any question and say, know, do you have any three liter pumps, you know, or do you have any three liter reservoirs? And they’ll direct you to the page and the greatest thing is
Yeah.
it speaks 88 different languages. So somebody can call us from anywhere in the world or I’m sorry, somebody could get to our website from anywhere in the world and ask a question in their native language and it’ll translate that for them. And it’s come such a long way from when we originally were doing things when we started the website, we had websites that were in different languages for customers that we had. had a
Yeah.
regular website then we had one in French, one in German, one in Polish, one in Mandarin and so on and so on. Now we don’t have to have that with AI, we have somebody right there you know that can help you and answer your questions for you. So that’s where I think the next big leap is going to come is in AI and I don’t think that you know people are worried about it replacing people. I don’t see that happening as much as I see it as allowing
Yeah, yeah.
you to reallocate your workforce and to do more things.
Yeah, so you have those experts on more complex projects and the AI being your assistant, for sure. For sure. So Chip, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights, experience, and vision. Your commitment to values-driven leadership, responsiveness, and solving real-world problems for manufacturers is both refreshing and inspiring.
Exactly. Right.
I know our listeners will leave with a deeper understanding of how to grow and adapt in today’s industrial space. Thanks again for being here and for everyone listening. We’ll see you on the next episode of Growth Challenges for Manufacturers.
Thank you.
Thank you, Katherine. Thank you for having me. Take care.
Growth Challenges for Manufacturers and How to Overcome Them is hosted by Katherine Seymour and brought to you by MacRAE’S. As a leader in B2B digital marketing, MacRAE’S helps industrial and manufacturing companies overcome stagnant growth through advanced AI integration, automation, and SEO programs that drive qualified leads and increased revenue.
In this episode, Katherine sits down with Chip Hautala, CEO and owner of MotionSource. MotionSource is a trusted distributor of fluid-powered pneumatic solutions, supporting industries from manufacturing and packaging to automotive and food processing. The company offers high-quality components, custom assemblies, and hands-on engineering support, but what truly sets them apart is their commitment to responsiveness, technical excellence, and building long-term client partnerships.
In today’s competitive manufacturing landscape, finding partners who truly understand your needs and deliver on their promises can make all the difference. Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with Chip Hautala, CEO and owner of MotionSource, a trusted distributor of fluid-powered pneumatic solutions based in Ohio. His insights into building a values-driven company and adapting to modern manufacturing challenges offer valuable lessons for any business leader.
