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RefractROI – Helping Manufacturing Firms Align Marketing, Sales, Operation and Finance to Improve Profitability
Dan Smink
President
RefractROI
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFO Magazine
Published – May 4, 2026
CEOCFO: Mr. Smink, what is the overall vision behind RefractROI, and what is your focus today?
Mr. Smink: We focus on manufacturing firms between 10-
CEOCFO: Was manufacturing your original concept or did that become a focus over time?
Mr. Smink: It evolved over time. I spent about 12 years in manufacturing across roles like product management, market development, and strategy in the medical device space, so I knew the industry well. But when you start a business, you take on a wide range of clients to get going. We worked across B2B, B2C, services, technology, and more.
Over time, we focused more on manufacturing for a few key reasons. First, it aligns with my background, and I understand how these organizations operate across functions. Second, that part of our business has been growing steadily and is becoming a larger share of what we do.
The biggest reason, though, is the opportunity. Manufacturing is still relatively unsophisticated when it comes to marketing. One way you can see that is in digital advertising. In more mature industries, companies understand their customer acquisition costs, so they are willing to pay a premium for high-
In manufacturing, both types of terms are often priced about the same. That tells you the industry hasn’t fully figured out the math behind acquiring customers, even though a single deal can generate hundreds of thousands in profit. There is a real opportunity to help these companies grow by improving how they approach marketing.
The other reason is impact. I view manufacturing and IT as foundational industries. When a manufacturing company grows, it creates a ripple effect in the local economy, supporting many other jobs. So by helping these companies succeed, we are also helping strengthen communities.
CEOCFO: Would you give me a couple examples of how you engage with a client?
Mr. Smink: Most relationships start with an immediate need to generate leads. We begin with what we call bottom-
The challenge is that on their own, these tactics usually lead to lower close rates. If a company is not already top of mind when a buyer starts looking, they are much less likely to win that business.
That is why our work expands beyond just lead generation. We build out a more complete strategy that focuses on awareness, education, and influencing the decision. This includes targeted media to reach the right audience, content that helps buyers understand their options, and ongoing engagement once someone shows interest.
From there, we capture those prospects and stay connected through remarketing and email so that when they are ready to buy, our client is the one they choose. That is how we move from a simple lead generation effort to a much more integrated approach that drives stronger, more consistent results.
CEOCFO: When clients are coming to you, do they understand the depth of your approach?
Mr. Smink: No, not at all.
CEOCFO: Do they understand that when they sign the contract or are they surprised over time?
Mr. Smink: It depends on how they come to us. If they are referred by consultants or fractional executives, they usually have a better understanding upfront. Those partners often explain that we take a very structured, ROI-
For many others, there is a learning curve. A big part of our role is educating them on how to think about marketing investment. Most companies are not sure what they should be spending or how to allocate it effectively. As a general guideline, companies might spend a few percent of revenue on marketing to start, and more if they are trying to grow faster. Within that, a portion should go toward lead generation, but a larger share should focus on building awareness and influencing future buyers.
What we often find is that companies are already spending more on marketing than they realize. They just are not tracking it that way. Especially in B2B, sales teams end up doing a lot of what is essentially marketing, things like prospecting, outreach, and follow-
Our job is to help them rethink that approach, redirect those efforts, and build a more effective marketing system that delivers better results.
CEOCFO: What has changed in your approach over time, and how do you know when to switch from one approach to another to achieve the best results?
Mr. Smink: I have had the business for fifteen years. I started it in 2011. First iPhone came out in 2008; the internet came out in about 1990. Netscape browser was around 1990 to 1991, so internet marketing has been around in the 90s and the early 2000s, and it was really more for larger companies. When I started doing it, at the time only 50% of small businesses had websites. Small businesses were learning how to do digital marketing. At the time, Google Ads and organic search worked great, that is all you really needed to do. Sometimes you have some content, but it wasn’t a tremendous amount of work. Smart companies did a lot of content but most companies didn’t. Over time, as things became more sophisticated and new platforms developed so that you could market effectively to everybody in a way that was much more targeted, we started to look at new things that we could do to add to the mix of things that we were doing for our clients, and that is how we started doing army channel marketing. Along the way, you see an opportunity and try to utilize it, and if it works then you keep doing it. We worked hard to find what the potential ROI is before we get into anything.
We also work with partners to do some research and development to understand the most effective way to optimize a webpage, set up an organic campaign or do a local campaign because the algorithm is always changing. Now there are so many algorithms. There are social algorithms, AI algorithms, search algorithms, and you start to think about the things that are going to make the algorithms respond positively to what we are trying to do to promote our clients. Some of that is trial and error, some of that is working with partners to do research and development, and then figuring out what works to make money.
CEOCFO: What does the next year or so look like for RefractROI?
Mr. Smink: It’s shaping up to be very strong. Over the past few years, we’ve shifted our focus toward larger clients and a more comprehensive approach. Some of our legacy clients are still focused on narrower efforts like lead generation and limited social media, but our newer engagements are much broader and more strategic.
Today, we’re not just doing marketing. We’re also evaluating sales processes and revenue operations to make sure leads are handled effectively. We look at operations as well, to ensure the company can actually deliver on what’s being promised. It’s one thing to close a deal, but if the business can’t meet expectations, you lose that customer.
Our role is really about alignment. We bring together marketing, sales, and operations, and support that with financial analysis so companies can not only generate revenue, but keep it and improve profitability.
As a result, we’re working with larger clients who are investing more and seeing stronger outcomes. Our current clients are expanding their engagement with us, and we’re continuing to add new ones at that level. We’ve already seen a lot of success from this shift, and we expect that momentum to continue over the next couple of years.
CEOCFO: What else should people understand about RefractROI?
Mr. Smink: We have talked a lot about the clients and I am a big believer that businesses have two value propositions. One is to the customer and the other is to the employee. We endeavor to be transformational to both our customers and our employees. We have worked hard to develop some valuable and differentiated unique product offerings for our clients, which will transform their businesses. In the same vein, we have developed employee development programs. We have always prided ourselves on developing good employees, but I think we have gotten even better over the last few years. We have actually developed a training curriculum that helps people grow and makes them into very formidable marketers.
I am excited for what we are doing for our clients and excited about what we are doing for our employees, to make them the best possible employees they can be. I tell someone who comes to work for me that I know they aren’t going to work for me forever. I can tell them they are most likely going to work for me for three to five years, and gain great experience. In the future they will run marketing for a company or organization and they are going to be confident to do so because of what we have done for them. To me, that is the best marketing you can have, our employees going out and hiring us back. I am excited about how we are going to transform companies, and how we are going to transform employees.
RefractROI | Dan Smink | RefractROI – Helping Manufacturing Firms Align Marketing, Sales, Operation and Finance to Improve Profitability | CEO Interviews 2026 | Business Services Company | Manufacturing Companies