A blow - by - blow account of when “the penny dropped” for a traditional ad guy. When he understood what they meant by Web 2.0 and the impact it would have on the marketing of every business.

A recent meeting with a new client allowed us to conduct a s t a r t l i n g c o m p a r i s o n . A c o m p a r i s o n t h a t p i t t e d traditional marketing methods against internet emarketing. The result shows just how important it is combine tried and true techniques with the latest marketing strategies the internet has to offer. For years we have heard the predictions that the Internet would change how we conduct business. Aside from enabling the most u n r e l i a b l e f o r m o f

communication (email) and a l l o w i n g u s t o p u t o u r ‘brochureware’ online we have not yet witnessed the massive impact on everyday business. The entry of a European company into the Canadian business - to - business market helps us clarify and illustrate where internet marketing stands today and how it can directly effect the bottom line.

A $ 1 0 0 M i l l i o n d o l l a r European Company in the building automation space decided it was time to develop business in North America. They decided the Canadian culture, economic environment and infrastructure offered them the best foothold for their industry, on this side of the pond. If they could set up s u c c e s s f u l o p e r a t i o n s i n Canada, it would give them the t i m e t o r e s e a r c h a n d strategically plan their entry into the US. They appointed R o b e r t T e s s a s G e n e r a l Manager for Canada.

Mr Tess had many challenges ahead but his experience taught him that small steps were all he needed to move forward and gain some momentum. He s p e n t t h e f i r s t 6 w e e k s assembling his plan and setting up offices. It was clear the objectives in year one included secur ing 10 so l id dea ler relationships, as the market dictated that their products and services be offered through the existing channels. Sales & marketing was high on the list

of priorities. We specialize in outsourced new business development so we were engaged to he lp bui ld a structure and a team that would set a strong, efficient foundation. That led us to compare traditional marketing techniques with the latest emarketing technology to determine the most cost conscious, effective solution for our client.

Knowing the objective was to secure 10 of the best dealers in this category, the obvious question was “what’s the sales & marketing budget?” The obvious answer: “what will it take?”. So we looked. We made a list of all the one time and ongoing investments required to build a strong foundation and achieve the goal. The traditional approach would look something like this:First, we would hire 2 sales people ($175,000), do some marketing planning($25,000) and because we were starting from scratch, we believed that Trade Advertising ($200,000) in 3 trade journals would help establish awareness to a select audience, quickly. We would invest in Media R e l a t i o n s ( $ 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 ) t o generate a buzz in the industry and there were 2 trade show/c o n f e r e n c e s t h a t w e r e mandatory ($150,000), sales literature ($50,000) and some direct marketing required to make specific requests and seek direct response ($50,000). Roughly speaking it would cost

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Hunt AND Be Hunted A New Marketing Mindset

$800,000 for year one. This would put us on the map in Canada and should allow us to secure 10 new dealers from the industry A list. This is a pretty typical business - to - business approach in our collective experience. Then it was time for the comparison. We are outsourced emarketing specialists. If we cannot achieve more results for less investment, why would our clients outsource, other than to reduce payroll and employee liability? During the past few years we have been working with the pieces of the puzzle that make up eMarketing. We have made some huge strides with several of our more open minded clients. The past 12 months have seen an increase in Social Media applications online. Combined with what we have come to know as Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click Advertising, the mix produces some very interesting opportunities, especially for b u s i n e s s - t o - b u s i n e s s marketers.

In this case, for our European client, the new budget that allowed for eMarketing called for $90,000 for New Media Management and $60,000 for Pay Per Click Advertising. We w o u l d h i r e o n e S e n i o r Salesperson - a closer rather t h a n a g o o d c o l d c a l l e r ($100,000). We allocated $50,000 to a trade media relations program, $25,000 to printing a minimal amount of brochures and left the trade show/conference budget as is a t $ 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 . T h e t o t a l r e c o m m e n d e d b u d g e t i s $425,000. A savings of $375,000 in the first year.

Saving that kind of money sounds great but not unless the results are significantly better than the original plan. Why

a n d h o w d o e s t h i s n e w approach work? It all comes down to a new and very i m p o r t a n t d i s t i n c t i o n i n Marketing.

HUNT or BE HUNTED

Here’s just one case study that illustrates the importance of that distinction. We took a company with 2 full time professional sales people exhausting themselves day after day making cold calls. If they were lucky, their closing rate was 2 - 2.5% of those r e a c h e d . T h e y c o n t a c t e d p r o s p e c t s b a s e d o n o u r timetable/schedule, hoping to catch a few when they were about to buy, or at least impress them enough that when the time came they remembered us and contacted us. Hope and chance played too big a role in this picture. Every victory was hard earned and required a lot of man hours and perseverance. Some would say “that’s business”. That’s what it takes. This is how we build business. These sales people were HUNTING for customers. These buyers were being sold something - not necessarily at a time when they were even looking for it.

All of our past strategies and tactics are developed inside a mass marketing context based on HUNTING for customers and selling them something they were not really looking for. That is all we could see from where we were looking and with the tools we had. So we invest in advertising, direct marketing and cold calling, knowing full well that much of it is wasted, yet it produces enough results to keep the wolf from the door.

All business success is based on becoming a better HUNTER. Improve results and increase efficiencies. Do more with less. Yet sometimes it feels like all we are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. We are busy, but are we thinking our way through it in a way that changes the outcome, or are we just accepting our fate?Knowing our approach was based on years of experience in traditional sales and marketing techniques we hired some the best and brightest young eMarketing specialists to help develop our strategy. These are creative and technical experts who have grown up with the internet. Social networking is not what they do but who they are. These Millenials have a completely different mindset that, using the internet, turns t r a d i t i o n a l m a r k e t i n g techniques on their ear. They suggested we implement some proven Search Engine Optimizat ion techniques, purchase some strategic Pay Per Click advertising and begin participating in the Social Media scene to drive qualified sales leads to our website. We started allowing ourselves to BE HUNTED by people who were looking for information and the expertise that we had. The results were impressive. The more little things we did, small actions that when put

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together with other small actions in a strategic way, produced better and better leads. We call those actions Digital Termites. Everything looks normal until the building falls down.

We started to rise in the organic Google rankings for our key words and phrases, bought paid links for words that were important but the move to the top 5 organic ranking was taking too long, and started developing great content that was of value to people. We noticed that targeting was different online. You don’t target a particular audience. Y o u j u s t “ o w n ” c e r t a i n keywords and phrases and those who are interested find you. Over a 4 - 6 month period we eliminated the need to cold call. We were producing so many qualified leads, the salespeople could not keep up.

So we did 2 things. We hired more sales people. We looked at each and every online action we were taking to be sure that it was focussed on the quality of the lead not the quantity. Remember, our objective was to create new business. If we focussed on the quantity of leads at the expense of quality, we would be wasting our salespeople’s valuable time. Nine months into the program we have nine full time sales people, moving to twelve as soon as we can recruit and hire three more. The important thing to notice is NONE of them are cold calling. Close rates have shot to well over 30% and business is booming - all during one of the worst economic downturns we have ever witnessed.

We have developed check lists of actions that need to be taken daily, weekly, monthly and annually. Once the sales funnel

is full it requires creative, diligent actions to maintain the flow of leads. But it is well worth the effort. And it is much more efficient than the known, proven alternatives.

Now the true test - can we repeat it? I am thrilled to say yes we can and have, in several cases. Each situation is unique. There is no stock answer, but the fundamental idea can be replicated. If we look at why this works so well, we think it may boil down to one key element: people want to buy rather than be sold. That is worth repeating: people want to buy rather than be sold.

An article in Businessweek stated that a recent poll of CEOs found that they sourced (HUNTED) for 73% of what they purchased Corporately last year. They actively searched for what they wanted rather than being approached and SOLD by traditional methods. They went into the marketplace and found their solutions.

H U N T I N G f o r c l i e n t s interrupts people when they are not ‘in the market’ for your p r o d u c t a n d s e l l s t h e m something they were not necessarily looking for at that moment. Using the traditional approach our task is to sell to an individual who does not care about your product or service (unless your timing was lucky) and who would much rather feel like they are buying, rather than being sold. No wonder it felt like a lot of work all those years!

BEING HUNTED empowers them to find you, educate themselves and do business with you on their terms - based on their timing. Your primary task is to react and provide exceptional service. Executed properly, they never feel like

they are being sold. They always feel like they are buying.

Back to our comparison with t h e E u r o p e a n c o m p a n y entering the Canadian market. T h e c o s t f o r t r a d i t i o n a l marketing was $800,000 in the first year. That was reduced to $425,000 with significantly better results. That’s the power of BEING HUNTED. Greater s u c c e s s w i t h h a l f t h e investment.

This is no panacea, but it is a brave new world. A world that is as yet uncharted so there are no stock answers like there are in traditional advertising and promotion. Yet creativity, innovation, leadership and transparency can significantly impact the way we do business in the next decade. We invite you to rethink your marketing strategies. We invite you to learn to HUNT AND BE HUNTED, selecting the best of both worlds to drive your business results today.

Derek A. Lackey is the President & CEO of e10 egency, Inc. an emarketing firm based in Toronto, Ontario. You c a n c o n t a c t h i m a t derek@e10egency.com

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