Unconventional B2B Marketing Creates Success for Small Company

by Michael J. Webb

Most businesses have difficulty finding, winning, and keeping enough customers at one time or another. This can be especially true for companies in technical industries. Synergetic Microsystems had this problem, and this article explains how they solved it.

First, some background: Rockwell Automation had introduced DeviceNet, a new technology that facilitated plant floor communications. At the request of major automotive customers like General Motors, Rockwell made DeviceNet an open specification and turned it over to the Open DeviceNet Vendor Association. Soon dozens of companies were offering products and services in attempts to cash in on the new technology.

However, after several years on the market this new technology still had not taken off. Salespeople prospected like crazy. Distributors and systems integrators held “lunch-n-learns,” where engineer customers got a free lunch and a free hour or two of training in the technology. These seminars came in various flavors, keyed to specific manufacturing machines and applications.

Engineers would attend these sessions, but few sales resulted. In fact, although DeviceNet held great promise, there were formidable sales barriers. Customers had to purchase new hardware and software. Then they needed training in its protocols. There was little pay off until most of the machines in a plant had been converted to the new communication system. As a result, there were few success stories. Engineers typically didn’t have time and money for experimental projects that didn’t deliver a measurable short-term payback.

Synergetic Microsystems was one of the companies searching for pay dirt in the "tornado" everyone expected from DeviceNet. Like everyone else, they were frustrated by customers slow adoption rate. In 1998, sales of their product reached only $200,000. They needed a product manager who could make it a success, but the company had little money to invest in marketing activities such as advertisements and trade shows.

As they interviewed candidates for the job, they posed their toughest question: “If you had no money to travel to customers or purchase advertising or any other promotional activities, how would you sell the product?”

One interviewee, Perry Sink Marshall, had an answer: “Well,” he said, “I guess I would figure out how to sell it without those things. Maybe we could get the customers to come to us instead.”

Perry was an engineer who had moved into a sales role to make more money for his family. He hadn’t hit much success yet, but he was a great student of selling and motivational training. One course that hed attended several months earlier had made a big impression on him, a seminar conducted by Dan Kennedy called “Magnetic Marketing.”

This seminar said that the traditional laborious approach to selling (burning up shoe leather and telephone lines trying to find potential prospects) was largely ineffective. It was far better to proactively provide services and information that attracted people to you.

Perry thought the job at Synergetic might give him a chance to try out the things he learned in that seminar. His answer to their toughest question landed him the job of National Sales Manager at Synergetic Microsystems.

The following months were tough. The conservative culture of business-to-business selling could be cold to new approaches. In addition, the Dan Kennedy seminar was oriented more to consumer sales than to the technical world of controls engineering. Perry had to translate the concepts to apply them to the industrial controls industry.

You’ve Got to Give . . .

Perry had learned that to attract people, you must do something valuable for them. The biggest challenge in business isn’t getting people to buy, its getting their attention. Potential customers are jaded by most marketing and selling efforts. They see them for what they are: thinly veiled attempts to suck money out of their pockets.

Perry took a different approach. He leveraged the one asset his little company did have: Synergetic product engineers had a relationship with a systems integrator (DBI) who had real-world experience using DeviceNet. They understood the problems and could smooth the rough spots that slowed down or scuttled projects. They knew tips and tricks that would make life easier for first-time users of DeviceNet. This could address a major problem in the marketthe long learning curve that often delayed pilot projects or caused them to underperform. The market need was there, but Synergetic had to find the people with that need.

Perry helped his engineers develop a white paper that addressed some of the problems. The paper didnt try to sell anything. Rather, it packaged the engineers’ experience and provided knowledge and insights that other product development engineers could use. The paper was low key, but professional. Above all, it was designed to boost the credibility of the tiny organization while helping people who were trying to solve these kinds of problems.

Perry issued a press release announcing the free white paper. He did an e-mail blast. And, since his company had a website, he put up a web page that advertised the value of this white paper. In every case it was offered for free, in exchange for contact information. People could type “DeviceNet” or “DeviceNet engineering” into a search engine, and the page Perry put up would appear. Synergetic’s list of people requesting the paper grew quickly by word of mouth.

Having the contact information of people who were interested in the problem put Synergetic in a powerful position. Many salespeople like Perry would immediately begin calling these companies, prospecting for business. Instead, he did something quite savvy.

Remember the fruitless hours of lunch-n-learns? Perry helped his engineers assemble a two-day training class out of those materials. Instead of offering it for free, he marketed it to this select group of people. He experimented with jazzy copy writing techniques about the value of the material and the qualifications of the engineers teaching the DeviceNet Bootcamp. By measuring the responses, Perry learned what worked and began selling out his classes. Week after week across the country (and especially in the upper midwest) Synergetic would advertise its classes and fill them with paying customers. He even prepared a special slide chart to help engineers make the calculations to configure their network. This item became quite popular.

. . . To Get Results

This approach put Synergetic in direct contact with people who could use their products and services. Many of these people would ask about using Synergetic products in their pilot projects. The small company was soon flooded with qualified opportunities. In time, the Open DeviceNet Vendor Association decided it needed a standard training class for the industry. They selected Synergetic Microsystems as the supplier, because of their track record, references, and testimonials. In four years, annual sales of Synergetic’s DeviceNet products grew from $200,000 to over $4,000,000. The company was sold to Lantronics in the fall of 2001.

How did all of these wonderful things happen?

First, Synergetic offered useful information instead of a sales pitch. As a result, they upset nearly ZERO people out of many thousands.

Second, the reasonable fees charged for the classes more than covered their costs and funded further marketing efforts. So much for an ROI!

Third, this example clearly demonstrates the process of direct response-accountable marketing:

a) identify a clear need in the market

b) reach out to people by offering genuine value, and get them to take small incremental measurable actions

c) change the approach and the message, constantly measuring the responses

Fourth, it illustrates a multistage selling technique for building relationships with prospects and finding qualified opportunities, which virtually all business-to-business organizations desperately need.

And whatever happened to Perry? I have met him and talked extensively with him. He left his “Dilbert cube” when Synergetic was sold and launched a business around publicity and lead generation for technical companies. He has expanded and perfected his approach by working with dozens of large and small companies. You can learn more about Perry and his “Definitive Guide to Writing and Promoting Your White Paper” on his website.

About The Author

Michael J. Webb is President of Sales Performance Consultants, Inc., a leader in helping companies improve sales performance through scientific principles of quality management. He has worked with clients such as American Express, 3M, Marriott, Microsoft Great Plains, Rockwell Automation and many smaller companies to improve their sales processes and results. He also works with sales training firms, such as IMPAX Corporation, to help integrate the best selling practices into client companies sales operations. His website, www.salesperformance.com, contains a wealth of hard-to-find articles and resources on process improvement for marketing and sales organizations. Mr. Webb can be reached at (708) 383-9309 or at mwebb@salesperformance.com.

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