Question

Topic: Strategy

Getting Immediate Results With A Specific Market

Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 12/15/2005 at 6:46 PM ET 2500 Points
Ok, I am drawing a blank. Usually I am pretty good at figuring out how to do this stuff, but not coming up with much for this case.

A potential client is a specialty head hunter (executive recruiter). They specialize in placing people in Japan for western tech companies. They are trying to reach companies from particular segments of the tech industry that are between $20-100 million a year in sales and are looking for an employee in Japan/setting up an office in Japan.

Now, the challenge is these guys are all sales guys (and good ones at that), and they haven't bought in on how marketing can fill a sales funnel for them. So they want quick, measurable impact, or they won't go for this at all.

Normally I would suggest direct mail, and I think I could come up with a good message, but I am not sure how to get a list of this target market (seems a little too specific to find - maybe I am wrong?).

Maybe they are right. If you have such a specific market, maybe sales would be better at reaching this than marketing?

So, any suggestions on tactics I could suggest to them to reach the potential market listed above and get quick results?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by michael on 12/15/2005 at 7:39 PM Member
    Peter,
    You know how slowly the Japanese make these sort of decisions. I'm assuming your client does also? Maybe I'm not understanding something.

    The sales guys...are they the potential client? Sales people fill their funnels by doing marketing's job; making scores of cold calls. In the absence of a good marketing plan, I, as a sales guy, have to do all the work. Do they want to do that?

    I could find more that 100 high tech companies that fit this bill...given the time. Hoovers is good for this but it doesn't tell you if a company is looking to expand into the Pacific Rim.

    One of the first things I'd be doing is looking for companies that have someone in EMEA but not Asia. Japan is still the largest economy there. Game Trust is in NY and they have a Denmark office but not in Asia. They're sort of techy so they need Japan presence.

    There's a lot of companies in that situation...unless I'M missing something.

    Michael
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 12/15/2005 at 7:56 PM Author
    What I meant is that executive recruiters (head hunters) are sales guys by nature. They do their job by talking to people, and generally believe that is the best way for everything. This office has at least a dozen head hunters on staff, so plenty of people who pick up the phone and make calls to get things done.

    They don't have anyone doing a marketing function. The challenge is that they are so used to getting what they need by making cold calls, etc. that they don't really believe in marketing. I see signs that thy think marketing takes too long and that the money spent won't help their bottom line.

    But, they must not be totally happy with the number of sales they are getting using their method, or they wouldn't be considering me. But they will only be convinced to try me if they can hear of some tactics that could help them right away get new clients. Short of this, they won't go for hiring me.

    This company is American and they are focused on the western companies (mostly American companies) who are going to Japan - so Japanese business practices don't come to play here.

    Almost sounds like you are suggesting they need some sort of researcher to dig up leads for them.

    Thanks for the reply. Sorry about not being more specific in my initial question.
  • Posted by michael on 12/15/2005 at 8:17 PM Accepted
    Got it now.

    It's difficult to convince someone who likes making cold calls...like me!...that they can do it better another way. You get used to the numbers game and it becomes second nature.

    It seems to me that they could use your "foreign devil" experience to provide something their competitors can't. Maybe the plan is to put a program together to get companies to sign up for one of your classes (White papers are a little overdone now) about expanding into Japan. In that sense, they would have a captive market...your students...and the length of time to realization is lower. Might even be before the end of the term/class.

    Headhunting is still a highly competitive business and they are most certainly not the only people working that market. So what separates them from their competition. They work harder? I agree with the idea, and if you make enough bad phone calls, you'll still get business. But to the company opening the office, it means nothing.

    The point is there are hundreds of companies that will open offices there and your marketing program brings them out of the woodwork in a way that it practical. The class is the call-to-action.

    Or, yep you hunt down leads for them.



  • Posted by mgoodman on 12/16/2005 at 4:34 PM Accepted
    It seems to me that they need:

    1. A research methodology to identify qualified prospects;

    2. A highly-targeted pitch to use in the cold call to these target companies; and

    3. Some collateral material (a brochure?) that hits the key points/benefits and tells the client's story in a memorable and persuasive way. (Think of it as a leave-behind or a mailed follow-up to the initial call.) And there should probably be a web version of the story as well, so they can refer people to it if they're really hot/interested.


    Not sure I can be much more help than that. Good luck.
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