Question

Topic: Strategy

How Can I Find This Person / These People?

Posted by Anonymous on 8/9/2008 at 7:10 PM ET 250 Points
After 15 years of running a fairly successful business with unsuccessful sales and marketing (long story there), I am starting a new business in a new direction. Problem is, I have no idea how to find the right person or persons to take on the marketing and sales responsibilities. What makes this really difficult is the product we are selling - design development. Not as in industrial design, or in engineering services, but as in creative solutions to extremely challenging projects with significant social impact...some examples being vehicle design, inflatable structures, medical implants, construction, aircraft manufacturing process development, transportation security systems - a common process applied to a large variety of industries and products. Is there a person or persons who could handle this? How could I find them? I tried for 15 years in my last business and never had any success (it was a similar business, but with a much narrower product line!).
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/9/2008 at 7:23 PM Accepted
    I'd suggest https://bioneers.ning.com/ or https://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/114 to find people who are already tuned into creativity/design/social impact (and may be sales/marketing folks, or know someone who is). Join these communities and network (online).
  • Posted by ilan on 8/9/2008 at 7:27 PM Accepted
    Talk to IDEO.
    Maybe they can help you in finding this elusive person.
    By the way, I didn't understand your definition of "running a fairly successful business with unsuccessful sales"...how does that work?
  • Posted on 8/9/2008 at 7:43 PM Author
    Well, I could go to IDEO but I'd have to introduce my company as "the guys who are competing with you down near L.A."... they might not be TOO helpful!

    "How does that work?" Well, our biz was successful in that I made good money, had good employees, a good facility, and we all enjoyed our work, but it never achieved growth. At least 90% of sales in our 15th year were to our same customers from the first couple of years. Most of the very few new sales were from referrals by those customers, and only a small amount of new sales were a result of sales and marketing efforts. Other firms with similar offerings grew substantially during the same period. In other words, while we sold hundreds, I am sure we could have sold thousands...does that make sense?
  • Posted on 8/9/2008 at 7:46 PM Author
    Jay, I'll take a shot at those, thanks!
  • Posted on 8/9/2008 at 8:34 PM Author
    mbarber,

    As it stands, we (our group) is spread out across the world with members in California (we just got back from Canada on an oilfield development project, and are headed of to Houston in a couple of days), Washington state (he's in New Zealand for a couple of weeks setting up a packaging operation), Georgia (he/she - husband/wife - just got back, he teaches at the University there and has to get his course schedule squared up), Barcelona (busy on a car project), Rhode Island (working here in Calif right now on a hybrid car development), Mojave, Calif (flying back from a trip to set a world air record), England, Dubai, etc. so I expect we are open to anyone/anywhere, as the jobs will be everywhere! It was suggested to me by someone with considerable marketing experience that the marketing organization should be located in the direct vicinity of the principal operations, but we don't know where that is yet, and I'm not sure that co-locating is that necessary as communications (email, Skype-type services, voicemail, etc.) are constantly improving.
  • Posted on 8/10/2008 at 12:08 AM Author
    WMMA,

    Ah, you caught the name!

    Contact me off the forum - I believe there is a method to do that - and let's discuss. I'll be in Houston on Wednesday and back out Thursday morning, currently.

    CZ
  • Posted on 8/18/2008 at 8:08 PM Author
    Thanks for all the ideas!
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