Large commercial contracts? - Old school marketers - True experts

Hmm I thought there would be more traffic to this. Anyone?

this is all "contacts, who you know, previous work, networking, word of mouth etc.."

They are not searching Google for someone they have never heard of.

Shock horror....hey. Like say many times 95%+ i.m is B2C.

you seriously think his ideal customer jumps on g/ f.b to find him?

The only thing that is effective here is to email companies introducing the company... no B*S* spam or trying to trick etc (typical i.m.)

You have to mix in that industry,

you don't get any reply here..because I.M is all about B2C - here

They are your client, so learn this from them , ask them simply, where /how did they get the business they have already, what did they have to do /actions taken etc

Of course they will tell you else they're expecting miracles from you.

What sort of business are they seeking via you? Corvette ? Dodge? I don't know many US car companies that are still going :confused: , clearly they can service other industries, so which would be their ideal ones, profit wise, servicing wise, product wise?

Here's my 2 cents.

I work for a B2B operation (outsourced services) that is heavily leaning on IM to boost its lead production for its salespeople.

This is a Fortune 200 company I work for.

A smaller, national competitor of ours is about a year ahead on the IM/SEO thing for sourcing leads; they used their rankings to pick up some good bread and butter business ($10,000/year contracts) -- and just like in B2C, they rarely shop the competition.

If I were you, I would be asking about their current sales and marketing processes, how they got their current and best clients, why their clients do business with them, etc. I'd also take a look at the scope of what kinds of customers they have (are they all Ford-level clients?), do they have the capability to target smaller accounts? Basically I'd ask a ton of info on how they normally get accounts.

Then I'd focus on developing a website with the sole purpose of developing leads. That's it. Free white papers in exchange for contact information -- THIS IS HUGE -- so his sales people can call on them and get in front of them.

I'm sure they have a niche they can exploit -- I'd just get that compiled into a data report and make it available -- lots of managers from prospective accounts would find stuff like that interesting.

Why limit your thinking to the auto industry? Surely there must be other industries which also need a similar type of product/process?

As others said, ask them how did they get the Ford deal?

How do they get in the deal flow for other contracts?

What industries do they want to serve? Airlines, snowmobiles, ATVs,
golf carts, craft beer producers, manufacturing still done here...

What is their ideal product?

What is their most profitable type of product?

White papers, videos to show their solutions.

Who is their competition and what does their competition do
in terms of marketing and web presence?

Do they respond to Requests For Proposals (RFPs),
which are sometimes advertised on the net, specialized RFP
websites, newspapers, government websites?

Who are the decision makers? Purchasing agents? Engineering mgrs.?
other small to medium size company managers/owners?

Find business or consumer problems (maybe auto aftermarket?)
they can solve. (This component keeps failing...)

Government contracting is a specialized marketing field itself.
You could do or find them an expert if they need.

Dan

You're welcome, Abbot.

Did not even hit upon stressing their unique quality levels, and
their unique abilities and capabilities.

I once had a Ford Exploder transmission rebuilt and the rebuilder
used a part that was much better than what Ford used. It was one piece
steel, not several pieces welded together. Had to do with the overdrive.
The rebuilt transmission worked much, much better than the original.

Dan

PS - Jasper is a company that rebuilds engines and transmissions
and a whole lot more now. They are known for making improvements
over the originals. They may be a target for your client. They are
not a small company either. UPS and nationwide supplier to independent
repair facilities.

I work for the company like that - you need to make website look good and impressive, content wise, white paper authority etc, plus LinkedIn - good, regularly updated profiles of key people in management. The contracts like that are made on golf course, at the charity event, football match box etc - you need to make sure that when they get the chance to talk to the big guys, when they check the website it looks good enough.
I was thanked for my site by one of the directors, they told me that even they haven't won the ccontract, they were shortlisted and considered, because website was so professional, updated with relevant company news, all the charity events the directors attended etc.
Make them look like serious business, PR wise, shareable content. You won't win this one with SEO.

There has been some great advice on here so I will not repeat it. You already acknowledged that you need to get much more intelligence from them and you are absolutely correct.

There is also generally a ton of money still in the list. I have found just by going back and redefining to existing clients what my client does they get new business. It is common that if you build widget A for a client they know you only as the people who can build widget A. Nothing sucks more than when you already have a relationship, did a great job, could of done the new/other job that they go to someone else due to ignorance.

Who are their potential clients? Every client they have has a competitor. Each competitor is a potential client so discovery why/how they were chosen by existing clients will be valuable.

Also here are two big lessons I have learned.
1. B2B does NOT mean seo (being found) is not important. That is absurd. A business is just a consumer in disguise. It is still a real human just like you and me sitting behind a desk seeking a service and making a human decision. What does change is the fear factor. If you buy yourself a gadget and it sucks maybe your wife will chuckle at you. If you recommend company X to do business with your company and they suck maybe you ruin your career. Be found but make darn sure that everything is in place to make them warm and fuzzy recommending you. To suggest that businesses do not search for businesses is crazy. Even worse often times they may search for your clients company name and their competitor has a ppc ad up and steals them away. Imagine loosing a million dollar contract over a $1 click? :-(

2. In almost every case that I have had clients that had issues finding more customers, they were generally always wrong about why their existing clients had chosen them. I have always had to really dig deep on this to uncover the gold. You will get generic answers like "we have been in business for 20 years" "everybody knows us" "we are know for quality" "we have machine x, nobody has one like this" blah blah blah. There are generally much more tangible reasons that they were chosen and that you can use to market them.

Lastly, I love clients like this because often you can brainstorm with them to head in directions even they had never dreamed of. I hope you have locked yourself in for a piece of the pie. If you point them to millions in sales a new house seems like a fair reward ;-)

1. Find out how they're getting their clients now.

What is the process they go through? Who is making the decision
to buy?

What information did they need before they made that decision.

Also who are their best prospects.


2. As has already been mentioned having a site filled with
information that helps give the information decision makers
need to make a purchase.

And think offline as well.

If you have white papers, reports, videos etc they can all
be converted into pieces that can be used offline (printed
reports, printed articles, DVDs or video on a USB stick).

Basically you're giving the sales people in the company
a resource of tools they can use to make their job a whole
lot easier and more effective.


3. Once you know who their best prospects are you can
target them.

Direct mail is great for this.

You can find a list of 50-100 of their best prospects and
start mailing them useful information, sales letters etc etc
and keep doing that until they buy.

This kind of very low cost contact (maybe $100 a month)
can be really effective over the long term at positioning a
business in the industry with their best prospects.


4. If it's an industry what do their best prospects need?

Can you create an industry site, a forum, some kind of
online resource that's valuable to the best prospects of
the business.

If you can get your best prospects going to one place
online you can market to them in subtle and not so subtle
ways.


The irony is that many marketers have real problems when
they have to market to a tiny number of people.

It's actually EASIER the smaller the group becomes as long
as you take the time to work out who they are and what's
important to them.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Depend on the industry. Believe me crude oil users do not go search seo/ppc or "crude oil suppliers" - it's pure networking, contacts, word of mouth. many big business contracts are the same. They are not blindly searching and hoping.

There ae many business out there that barely even bother with a company website. I mean billion $$$ turnover as well. You run up them trying to sell you recent wso, B*S* product they'll laugh at you.

I've said this before...mostly the internet and lnternet "marketing" is B.2.C. products/services....majority of it.

Everyone goes on and on about how important social is.....B.2.B. it's a waste of time.
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To suggest that businesses do not search for businesses is crazy. Even worse often times they may search for your clients company name and their competitor has a ppc ad up and steals them away. Imagine loosing a million dollar contract over a $1 click? :-(