One of the biggest challenges growing firms face is finding a way to market their products/services without draining their scarce working capital on marketing, advertising, and promotion.
We asked our partners to reflect on the best practices they see companies following to get their products and services to market without costing big bucks.
Mitch is an executive with 27 years of strategic, operational, and financial experience guiding development of middle-market domestic and international software companies. He has established 16 international operations in Latin America and Europe that achieved accelerated revenue growth based on proven key performance measurements.
“Marketing is about building target traffic, utilizing affiliated marketing, industry blogs, and social media to build traffic consisting of potential customers who are looking for your type of products and services.”
Helen’s career has focused on developing and executing strategies for business development and growth for leading retail and consumer companies. She has worked with private equity for more than 25 years-- as CEO of seven PE-owned consumer and retail companies and as an operating partner to eight PE firms.
“Growing firms with limited resources both capital and human, can grow their market and demand for their products and services by effectively utilizing the internet and social media. The internet brings their products and/or services to a very broad and global market while a well-developed social media plan creates buzz and exposure.“
Ferey is a senior strategic investment professional with 25 years of experience spanning management consulting in 12 countries, investment banking and principal investing, as well as serving as CEO/President of high-technology ventures.
“Key strategies include: networking, direct targeting of strategic partners and key clients, social networking, and leveraging dominant sales channels, including direct channel options.”
Fred has been successful both as an executive and an entrepreneur. Much of his career has been spent in different sectors of the healthcare industry.
“I recommend that companies work on joint ventures with other companies that can co-sell their product or provide them with access to a channel such as a value added reseller (VAR) or group purchasing organization (GPO) that leverages their sales efforts at relatively low cost.”
Lynn Lednicky is an experienced leader with a track record of success in the energy industry. As President and Founder of Lednicky Enterprises, he has provided expert advice to the energy, utility, and infrastructure sectors. His engagements have included M&A support, operational and financial restructuring, renewable energy, project development and financing and advising on production and use of natural gas as a domestic transportation fuel.
“For mid-sized companies, personal and word-of- mouth selling seems to dominate. The mid-market branding and marketing companies I know struggle to find smaller clients, largely because these clients don't know how to find or use service firms. There is definitely an opportunity here for both product firms and marketing firms, but getting the two to match up is a challenge.”
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Billie is a Newport partner in the Pacific Northwest who has been Executive VP and CIO of TrueBlue Inc. (NYSE: TBI) the largest industrial staffing firm in the U.S.
“Successful firms seek out independent, unfettered feedback about go to market assumptions. They also strategically use their "road show" pitch to uncover feedback and assistance along the way – so they can devote resources to getting immediate feedback on marketing channels, target consumers, and price points.”
Kevin Poole is a seasoned leader with diverse experience as both a senior advisor to CXOs of middle-market firms, and as an operating executive at a Fortune 500 company.
“Given the relatively limited funds middle-market companies are able to invest in their go-to- market initiatives, they must create "sales leverage" by establishing strong channel partner and alliance relationships to extend the impact of their expenditures. Effective partner relationships generally focus on a specific sub-set of the company's product offering or targeted customer base -- as opposed to attempting to cover too broad a market spectrum. When developing a partner strategy, each channel partner you select must bring something truly unique to the table and be willing to dedicate resources to making the partnership a success -- otherwise it is not worth doing.”
Mark is a co-founder of Newport Board Group and its Chief Knowledge Officer.
“Networking, which is usually associated with job seeking or business development, can be a way to build channels i.e. to get your contacts to recommend or promote your products/services that are not competitive with theirs.”
John has delivered top- and bottom-line results running a wide range of companies and dealing with challenges like acquisitions, lean manufacturing, supply chain optimization/low cost sourcing, new product development and brand and channel management.
“Very broad question here as the breath of products can be quite varied. In addition to exploiting their traditional channel via trade shows and direct calls, effective companies find the time to develop an online presence that clearly identifies their offering.”
Eran has diverse experience in executive management, venture capital, private equity and M&A, including turnaround, restructuring and special situations transactions.
“Current best practices include online marketing campaigns, affiliate marketing, and business development activity to create joint offering and bundled services.”
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