Question

Topic: Strategy

Shotgun Vs. Rifle

Posted by Anonymous on 8/1/2005 at 4:34 PM ET 125 Points
What we do: scan paper documents, convert them into images and create a searchable archive to retrieve them.
Customers: any industry where paper assets abound.
Our market: highly competitive, long sales cycles, steep learning curve for buyers.
How effective is it for a small scanning and imaging company to execute industry or job function specific campaigns, i.e. accounts payable, check 21, conversions for small doctors' offices, engineering drawings, etc? Having been tasked with creating effective campaigns for this company while tapping into $3K to $4K available marketing dollars a month I am uncertain, maybe unconvinced is the right word, that blowing our wad on one specific type of campaign is wasteful and potentially hazardous to my career, especially given the number of marketing managers this shop has had. I have been lobbying for a generalist approach - we scan paper, we make images, we enable retrieval on demand. what could be simpler? How can I amplify a generalist strategy? What options do I have available to me?
Thank you for the help. If you had just $4K a months to spend what would you do to promote awareness and generate leads?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by ReadCopy on 8/1/2005 at 4:56 PM Member
    Fred, Andrei gives a great sales pitch and its probably a good idea. I was thinking about a simple DM campaign, but a good telesales outfit shouldn't cost the earth and should be able to provide you with warm or hot leads.
    I would tend to tie any agency into a "no win/no fee" contract (sorry Andrei), simply to ensure that they do pass on great leads.

    Also, remember get good online presence and great PR.

    Do you have any clients already? Can you create a case study that shows how much could be saved?
  • Posted by michael on 8/1/2005 at 5:22 PM Member
    Sounds like you need to educate your prospects on the need for your service?....or are they already aware that companies do this?

    I'm with Andrew on the "risk/reward" side. If you hire someone make sure they perform before you send the money.

    In this case, tho I'm come down on the side of putting more money into your sales people's wallets to generate more business. That might mean buying small scanners that they can walk into a prospect with and when they leave, they leave behind a CD of the documents they've scanned.

    Another option is to pay a finders fee to the local printer. She knows who is cranking out gobs of paper.

    Michael
  • Posted by Chris Blackman on 8/1/2005 at 8:42 PM Accepted
    Fred

    I think cold calling sounds like exactly what your organisation DOES need. You need to get to people who have a problem with paper, completed forms, filing etc and show them how you can make that problem go away.

    So, what do you mean by a cold call? One you make to someone who you know nothing about? (That's not just cold, that's freezing, it's "ambush" sales, and it's guesswork!)

    Or one you make to someone who's never heard of you or your service? Because that's the call you do need to make!

    Question is, how to make those calls efficiently, which means not making them to people you know nothing about, but to people you have a fair idea NEED your solution. That's not a cold call any more - it's a targeted initial sales call!

    So try this:

  • Segment your customer base into groups by business type.

  • Look for the more profitable customers.

  • Focus on finding more like them. (Use Yellow Pages, for example, and look at who else competes with them).

  • If they are larger businesses, start by finding out what ELSE you can do for them (your most profitable new customers are the customers you already have, that's always the case)!

    These are all activities you can outsource (apart from the approach to existing customers) and that may make economic sense as well as rational use of your resources.

    Hope this helps.

    Chris
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