Herman School of Business
Does Marketing Work?
We were on the East Coast, the company we were selling was in Texas. It was a huge operation covering twenty-nine acres. They were a leader in their industry for more than 75 years. 650,000 square feet of manufacturing. The minute I signed up this deal I could smell the money.
Sometimes the client has their own thinking when it comes to marketing their company. This guy believed in a beautiful color photo spread to show off the equipment, the finished products, and the gorgeous photo from an airplane showing off this complex. He had a list of thousands of prospects and along with our research we ended up printing 15,000 four page color brochures.
I decided to make a few telephone calls to some obvious potential buyers. At the first inspection day two companies I spoke to sent someone to see the place. The owner who hired us wasn’t concerned…everyone knew about this company and word was all over the street that they were being sold.
The next scheduled inspection day two more prospects arrived…both guys I had called. Not to worry said the owner…the brochures were so comprehensive people didn’t need to “see” the place to know what they were getting. I knew however that people don’t pay millions to buy something without looking at it first. I made more telephone calls.
The day bids were due five people were there to make offers, the first four visitors and one new guy I had reached by phone earlier that week. These folks bid each other through the roof, far surpassing the expected selling price.
The selling owner said I was a genius. The commission was hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was shocked…only five people ever looked and all five people bid like crazy.
When we got back to the office in Baltimore one of the women working on our team said she had a confession to make…now that we were popping champagne from our huge victory.
She took me down to the basement of our building…under the stairs…and there sat dozens of boxes with 15,000 color brochures which had never been mailed out!
My telephone calls saved the day…or did we leave money on the table by not doing the marketing?
- Posted: 30 December 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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