The Big Idea
MHA Sales and Marketing, 8 Raglan Drive, Nottingham NG4 2RF
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The Big Idea
Coming down to Cases
There are important differences between "consumer" and "industrial" marketing. The most obvious and most fundamental is that the consumer marketer has to build their "brand" at arms length, through advertising. You don't get a baked bean salesman coming to your home to talk to you about the benefits of the product. In the consumer world, it is the image and the presentation that makes the difference and you only have to look at some of the products on the supermarket shelves to realise that the product itself is sometimes largely irrelevant.
Industrial marketing is different because it is based on SALES. You make your case face to face. For a consumer company, brands are considered to be their most valuable assets. Industrially, we should take the same view, and seek to create a brand that has values outside the prospect's office and the sales conversation. A positive brand image will directly generate sales leads, but perhaps more importantly will help face to face sales by getting over that first "who are you, what do you make, why do you want to see me?" objection.
In order to build an industrial brand, there is one overriding quality that we need to establish, that of Competence. Once your prospect has a) heard of you and b) trusts you to be able to do whatever it is that you say you can do, then life becomes much easier. The first and prime point of any sales conversation is to establish credibility for your company, and your communications programme must start from the same point.
The shape of the communications programme will vary from client to client, but will always be designed to support the sales effort. One of the most powerful tools at our disposal is the case study, where we take a successful installation, application or whatever, and write it up for use by the salesman, or use it as editorial (press release or feature article). The case study provides both a third party reference and an insight for the prospect so that he can understand directly how your product has helped someone else. The case study is also impartial, and is readable independently of the delivery style of your sales representative.
The case study does not have to be presented in the form of a separate sheet, but can be a reprint from a journal, a newsletter or used within sales literature.
The case study is one among many aspects of marketing communications. Trust MHA to develop the right programme for you and to make sure that the communications you use support your sales efforts.