Question

Topic: Strategy

How Can I Appear Bigger Than I Am?

Posted by Anonymous on 4/25/2009 at 3:31 PM ET 250 Points
I am 50% of a micro business selling communication products and services; specifically video conferencing,web conferencing,and bridging services.
I use mostly google clicks and web site to Market.

We have a uniqe opportunity to partner with a medium sized US based company (100 employees) reselling their services in the uk.

They don't realize we are only two people (Im sales and marketing my partner is technical) who use 100 partners and contractors to deliver our services.

I want to make a success of the new opportunity and need help putting together a marketing strategy that will reach our target Market.

The new product is a virtual room that connects PC or MAC to any video conferencing codec (polycom,tandberg,Sony etc ).

So how do we go about marketing this new product.
Is there step by step guide covering best practice for exicuting strategies?
I am so out of my depth; I can't afford to hire marketing so I'm literaly trawling the Internet for advice. I'm considering starting a blog following my progress and with permission give mention to people that help.

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/26/2009 at 8:43 AM Accepted
    If your US partner is already successful, why not uncover their marketing strategy and duplicate it in the UK (as appropriate)? Who are they targeting? What's their marketing USP? Where are they targeting prospective clients? What mentions from other 3rd parties exist?
  • Posted by Bill Schick on 4/27/2009 at 10:45 PM Accepted
    Actually, being a smaller business with a specialty is a great place for you to be. Your strength here is to communicate why you're better than a larger company. One benefit that immediately comes to mind is little to no overhead. Another benefit is that you act as a "project manager", assembling products and services (of over 100 vendors) to create a seamless solution. This is HUGE to companies with limited resources. Be yourself. Represent who you are truthfully, playing to your strengths. And leverage this project as a case study to prove that your model works, and you'll get more projects like this one.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 5/4/2009 at 12:24 PM Accepted
    One way to appear larger than you are is to make use of virtual assistant staff to outsource things. Tim Ferriss talks about this in great detail in his book "The Four hour Work Week".

    Two names spring to mind:

    www.YourManinIndia.com
    www.e-lance.com

    Ferriss talks about a CPA in Manhattan that subcontracts work to their man in India. They brief him, tell him what's needed in exact detail, he does the work for a set fee per hour, he gets the report back to them, the company passes said report on their client, charges a huge mark up, and everyone is happy.

    In the Art of War, one of the pieces of advice "When you are weak, appear strong. When you are few in number, appear to be many."
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