LEWISTON – For Bob Bernier of Advantage Gases & Tools, it was a new sales strategy. For Bruce Tisdale of Mountain Machine Works, a planning tool and a marketing tip.

Both local businessmen were among the dozens of manufacturers who walked out of the first Manufacturers Association of Maine summit Tuesday with an idea to improve their competitive edge, based on ideas from presenter Michael P. Collins.

“His (sales strategy) is a lot more formal than what I’ve been doing,” said Bernier, who is account manager at the welding and industrial supply company. “I think one of the things we’ll be focusing on is adding value to the products.”

The summit, held at the Ramada Inn, was the first in a series planned by MAMe to focus attention on issues confronting manufacturers. In Maine, manufacturing contributes 13 percent of the state gross domestic product – $5.2 billion in 2006 – the second biggest sector behind real estate that year.

“We have to have a greater voice to be heard,” said Cheryl Bolduc, board chairwoman of the association, during the summit’s opening address. “Manufacturing is alive and well and kicking … it is still strong, vital and needed.”

Perhaps now more than ever, noted Collins, an expert in finding solutions for problems faced by small to mid-size manufacturers. His experience in doubling the volume and sales of a large struggling machine parts manufacturer from $10 million to $20 million provided the basis for his book “Saving American Manufacturing.”

His four keys for manufacturers to succeed in this era:

• go beyond internal operations and cost reductions to grow

• find new markets, new customers, new products and services

• find opportunities created by globalization

• learn from successful small and midsize U.S. manufacturers

“There are opportunities,” he said of the increasing challenges of a global economy. “Don’t lay down your swords.”

Collins underscored the importance of manufacturing by showing U.S. Department of Labor statistics that reflect the dependence of service industries on manufacturing and agriculture.

“These are the wealth creators,” said Collins of the two sectors. “Everything else is involved in the transfer of wealth, not its creation.”

He noted that on a national level, manufacturing has dropped from contributing 30 percent of the gross domestic product to about 12 percent. And there’s been a corresponding rise in the U.S. trade deficit, caused by massive imports and financed by selling securities to overseas investors. The upshot?

“When China buys all our T-bills and then does something unfair in trade, there is nothing we can do,” he said.

Adding to the discouragement are Department of Labor figures that project the greatest job growth through 2016 in service sector jobs that pay between $21,000 and $30,000. By contrast, manufacturing jobs pay among the highest salaries.

“This is a very bad trend,” he said. “We need more manufacturing jobs.”

Finding skilled workers has been a stubborn problem for Maine manufacturers, even though its community colleges and high schools embrace some of the toughest certification standards for machine trades in the country, said Lisa Martin, executive director of MAMe.

Collins suggested recruiting from recently discharged military personnel, a technique he’s used well in other parts of the country. He also said there needs to be a concerted effort by policymakers, parents and educators to raise the perception of manufacturing from the days of wrench-dragging millwrights.

It struck a chord with Tisdale, who challenges the bias against manufacturing whenever he runs across it.

“If people could see (that our plants) are clean, computerized and high-tech, and then what the pay is, they’d consider working here,” he said.

Tisdale said he was eager to adopt Collins’ four-part growth plan, a simple one-page exercise that compels business owners to assess where they are, where they want to be and how to get there. Likewise, he was glad to hear of a set of codes the government makes available that identifies every plant or manufacturer of a particular product across the country – potential new markets for the Auburn machine parts maker.

“That would be easy to do with our computer system,” said Tisdale to his associate, Becky Curtis.

Mountain Machine Works recently went through a transition when its biggest customer was bought by a larger company and began to make its own machine tools. Mountain Machine Works adapted by diversifying its market and improving customer service. It expects to increase sales and profitability this year over 2007 numbers.

That’s the right kind of response, said Collins, who warned that people have to step back from the everyday and look at what they’re doing and why. He said many of his clients have one major customer who is squeezing them to the point where their margins don’t justify the business.

“Volume at 1 percent is a fast track to Chapter 11,” he said.

That’s an opportunity to shake things up and move the company forward. Collins offered several strategies, leaving it up to the individual manufacturers to consider what works best in their shop.

“My objective is for you to have the tools to go back and start up your own growth plan,” said Collins. “Remember, growth planning is about money.”