By Paul Dumouchelle, VP for SIGs

At 31 years old and Chairman of a company he founded that now employs 80 people, Ray Bohac knows something about growing a business with limited resources in today’s economy. Financing the old-fashioned way based on revenue from an expanding customer base, Ray had to employ business development strategies that made every penny count!

Speaking at Columbus Chapter of the American Marketing Association’s monthly luncheon on 6/14/11, Ray’s key strategies for efficient B2B marketing include:
•First & Foremost – Outstanding customer service. Never forget that “product” is one of the four P’s in classical marketing. In a B2B environment this becomes even more critical as word gets out in an industry about your performance – both good AND bad.
•#2 in importance is public relations. In terms of bang for the buck the in-market presence you can create through a good, steady, coherent PR program can’t be beat. Investing in developing a presence with market analysts is especially key – and this can be done just by talking with the analyst and taking them seriously without investing a lot of money.
•Make yourself look big & trustworthy – startups may be fast and nimble but the lack of a track record can make you look like a risky partner for prospective customers. Deflect due diligence questions about size with well-designed websites, best practice whitepapers that build credibility, create a phone system with multiple options that exceed the number of people in the company, host networking events and staff them with every single member of the company. Drop “trust bombs” on prospects – huge binders with a thin veneer of customized materials in the front pages then huge chunks of boilerplate (valuable info like press releases, white papers, etc., but boilerplate all the same).
•Leverage the overlap between sales and marketing. In B2B the sales effort and the marketing effort are closely integrated – and for startups they are almost one and the same. Make sure you’re mining the sales effort for information to be used in messaging, product development and competitive strategy.
•Out-compete your competitors. Show prospects you want their business more than the competition. Spy on competitors websites and customer interactions (ask prospects about the competitive pitch) and identify weak spots. Ask customers what competitors say about you. Mine the searches that hit your website for who is looking and what they’re looking for. Look at forums and LinkedIn for what is going on with competitors. Work the watering holes at trade shows, eavesdrop on lubricated conversations among competitors’ employees, talk to prospects & customers & competitors after buying them a beer.

These strategies and tactics (and more) let Ray build a business without breaking the bank.

One of Ray’s key strategies is “learn from mistakes.” Things that didn’t work for him in his market include:
•Trade shows did not pay out in terms of lead generation. It was important to be there for brand presence but it worked better to have a minimal presence and work the watering holes for networking and intelligence-gathering purposes.
•Cold calling – with a small staff and long sales process they never had the time and focus to work cold leads into warm ones. They needed new business to survive and they would focus on any hot lead that came along to the exclusion of all else.
•Email campaigns – they could never find a list for their market that generated good results.

Ray emphasized the importance of marketing and not letting belief in the strength of your offering get in the way of being flexible to meet the needs of the market. He said you can have an “A” grade for product performance and kill a business with “C” grade marketing – while “A” sales and marketing can take a “D” product to huge success.