But do consumers care enough about this issue to change their buying patterns and support American products?  According to a recent Boston Consulting Group survey, the answer is yes. According to the survey released November 15, 2012, two-thirds of American consumers would pay a premium for American-made consumer products in at least 10 product categories.  Further, the premium they are willing to pay for American-made products ranges from 10%-60%, while 60% had actually purchased an American-made product over a less-expensive Chinese product at least once over the past month.

A recent article in USA Today mentions that even Wal-Mart is getting in the act, pledging to source $50 billion worthy of American-made products over the next 10 years.

From my experience, while customers might want to buy Made-In-America products, most people in practice do not with the vast majority of their dollars when offered a cheaper alternative.   Let me explain.

In the craft market, Hero Arts is the leading provider of American manufactured stamps and stamping materials.  We are a 40-year old family business that makes the vast majority of our products by hand in California.  Further, we are a green-certified business and have won many awards for our sustainability efforts, including the top environmental award in the state of California.  We have marketed Made-in-America on our products for years, and green as well, with modest interest. 

The key is price, and to a certain degree performance.  If the price is similar to our overseas competitors, sure it makes a difference.  Who doesn't want Made-In-America, and/or a product that is good for the environment, if it performs the same and costs about the same as alternatives.  In fact, our green and Made-in-America marketing is often associated with better performance, and thus when the price is similar we win most of the time.

The issue comes when the price is different.  When our stamps, which are handmade with sustainable rubber and honey white hardwood maple blocks, are up against a Chinese-made product on synthetic rubber and a soft "hoe" wood block that is 20-30% cheaper, we lose almost everytime.

If anything, the situation has grown worse for American-made products, as the recession reversed any positive trends in this area.  Over the last four years, people for good reason became even more thrifty.  This hurt the trend towards buying American-made or environmentally friendly products, as even small price differences become even more important.  In fact, in some cases, our Made-In-America and Green marketing might have hurt us:  our products carry an American flag and a green leaf to indicate our production practices, and by one survey we found that people who didn't read the label closely assumed that meant the price would be higher.

Don't get me wrong.  The Made-In-America trend is something that I can see on the horizon as a positive thing, and if a company like mine can indeed offer good or better performance at a competitive price, I feel we should and will beat out inferior or cheaper-made products.  But is this trend likely to make a big difference in my business or the businesses of most companies across the US in the foreseeable future?  Not likely.

After all, this gridlock is bad on all accounts for business.  Such political ineptitude introduces risk and uncertainty, the twin evils of long-term competitiveness and growth.  With risk and uncertainty of this nature, businesses, particularly small businesses, will be more cautious to invest, less likely to hire, and less able to get business loans.   This, combined with the potential for a further dampening of consumer spending and confidence, means the short-term prospects for American business has just been downgraded.

The reality of the U.S. problems, while significant, are not insurmountable or unsolvable.  If you consider our healthcare spending, which is high by any standard, and our overall tax burden as a nation, which is low by international standards, and simply agree we need to move towards lowering health care spending and finding ways to increase revenue, then there are relatively clear and painless paths to eliminating the yearly budget deficits and driving down the national debt. 

The problem is this requires a political process that is level-headed and looking towards the future of the nation, the economy, and businesses.  At the moment, there is little agreement in the House or the Senate on much of anything.  We need long-term solutions, not short-term quick-fixes, and it seems the mood is simply not conducisve for this type of nation building.

Let's be serious about what is good for the people, for businesses and for the economy.  If that means adjustments to healthcare spending, let's make that happen.  If it means a restructuring of the tax codes beyond the revenue agreements already passed, we need to look at that too.  What we can not stand for are politics or politicians that get in the way of serious solutions.  Political paralysis is our nation's biggest source of risk and uncertainty.

In a recent Forbes articles entitled "To Increase Revenue Stop Selling," it talks all about how you have to be customer focused and your central strategy has to be how you can help your customer, not how you can help yourself by selling to them.  Sales have evolved to a supreme focus on making a connection and a shared partnership, as opposed to a "transaction-focus" or the hard-sales approaches of the past.

I kept reading the suggestions of this article and thinking "well of course."  And yet, when you get to the comments section, people were touting these ideas as a break-through. The reality is, family business maybe more then other companies, look at all stakeholders as close members of an extended family whose happiness and satisfaction are mutually shared. 

Family businesses, which make up 90% of all business enterprises in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, generally treat their employees, their suppliers and their customers like close friends akin to members of their own family.  The reason is they are use to having cousins and siblings, parents, and sons and daughters working in the business.   Family businesses are more likely to utilize cooperation, team work, co-management, and inclusiveness in their management approaches.

This extends to sales approaches as well.  At Hero Arts, our customer service agents talk with our customers as much about their upcoming daughter's wedding, their friends knee surgery, or the most recent movie then a current order.  We routinely send flowers to customers and suppliers when someone retires, they have a new grandson, or for a recent wedding anniversary.  A family-business mentality means you treat people with family closeness, and that shows in every aspect of your relationship.

In many ways, the world of social media is a good fit for family businesses.  They already work in an intimate way and have authenticity in the way they present their products and handle sales.  This inclusive nature of family business translates into clear business advantages, and often shows up in social media success.

In these ways, it is not a bad thing for all companies to emulate the family business approach of inclusiveness.  Drop the hard sell and think of your next customer interaction in the same way you might with your daughter, mother, brother or spouse.