Process – Build
Series:
This is the third article in a four-part series on how Wiebe Industrial Services effectively generates business-to-business (B2B) sales leads for industrial companies through the build process.
Building your marketing assets is the third critical step in our proven four-point process for generating B2B sales leads for industrial companies. The four points are as follows:
- Assess = get the facts
- Plan = use the facts
- Build = leverage the facts
- Run = profit from the facts
Once you’ve gotten the facts through an initial assessment and we’ve helped you craft a kick-butt marketing plan based on research, it’s time to build.
This phase is all about bringing your company into alignment: putting the right people in the right roles using the right tools.
This is when you start to see the fruit of the effort you’ve put into the foundation of assessment (getting the facts) and planning (using the facts). It’s time to leverage the facts by building your key marketing assets effectively and wisely.
Meet Sam
To explain the value of building the right way, I want to introduce you to Sam. He’s a fine young man who owns a mid-size industrial company. He’s got a great product but lousy marketing. He wants to take his business to the next level, so Sam hires a marketing agency to help.
The problem, however, is that Sam doesn’t understand what marketing is, and neither does the agency he just hired. So, after a lengthy (and expensive) interview with Sam, the agency comes to him with a proposal. They tell him, “Sam, what you need is a big shiny sports car. This car looks beautiful and it’s going to do all these really cool things for you. And it’ll only cost you $100,000, which is a really good deal for a big shiny sports car.”
Sam buys the car, and it looks fabulous. The agency is right, in terms of how it makes him feel. It looks amazing parked outside of his office. People are really impressed. Until they start asking questions like, “How fast does it go?”
“I don’t know,” Sam says. “It didn’t come with an engine.”
What? That’s right, Sam got duped into spending $100,000 on his ego, instead of buying something that would actually help him do the hard work of growing his business and making money.
In reality, Sam probably needed a pickup truck with four-wheel drive and 450 horsepower to do some heavy towing. It would have cost him a quarter of what the sports car cost and been ten times more useful. The sports car massaged his self-image for a season, but the pickup would have been a workhorse that served his business for years to come. What’s the better investment for Sam?
That’s the difference between marketing that creates fluff and marketing that actually creates business. At Wiebe, we think marketing should be a profit center. We help companies build in a way that makes sense of making money. We pride ourselves in being not just a marketing agency but a revenue-generation agency.
Invest in People
We know you sell some amazing heavy-duty products and services, but your people are still your greatest asset.
If you want to invest in sales and marketing, then invest in the people on your sales and marketing team. Their experience as employees is as connected as anything to the success of your company. Do they love their jobs? Are they well qualified to deliver on what your company promises to deliver on?
Every person that works in sales and marketing is an extension of the value of the company. Each one has to be an extension of the culture of the company. Each one has to be an extension of the word of the owner of that company. That level of trust and integrity only comes through investing in your people. That’s the essence of building.
Remember, people buy from people, even if they’re buying a machine. That means that your machines are nothing without the people on your sales team.
When Wiebe works with a company, we require access to your people, because we see them as the experts. We may be experts on the methods of marketing and sales, but your people are the experts on your company’s products and services. They’re the experts on how to communicate with your clients. They’re the experts on the language that works with your customers.
A company’s products and services are never more valuable than the people who build and sell them.
A large engineering company recently approached us and told us that they were having difficultly attracting the right kind of engineers to work for them. Without a solution that company could be in some serious trouble. We did our assessment and then told them that they would need to make some pretty big changes internally or they wouldn’t survive, let alone prosper. We told them if they weren’t ready to start creating a program that clearly valued people, they wouldn’t be around for long. We discovered and reported on some hard truths, and brought a meaningful set of solutions. The result was that we were awarded a major contract to help that company grow and prosper.
Invest in Training
One of the most effective ways to invest in your people is by providing training. Nothing communicates value to employees more than tailored training. If you want to keep your best people, invest in training them.
Wiebe is a huge advocate of training. As a marketing agency, one of our most unique features is our focus on training. We come alongside your team in a way that makes their personal development a top priority.
When companies don’t offer training for their sales and marketing teams, they’re taking two big risks: keeping their employees and maximizing their profits. Employee turnover destabilizes your business. Training retains your people because it adds value to their work. It creates engaged employees. But there’s more—when your people are engaged, they perform better and they sell more. Training is ridiculously profitable. The return on investment is huge.
Nothing strengthens your sales and marketing like good training.
Now, that assumes that you have the right people in the right roles. Training the wrong person is just like flushing money down the toilet. There are ways to figure out who fits best where on a sales and marketing team. You need to make that commitment to your people, to ensure that each one of your team members is working in the role that best suits their skills and personality.
Nothing strengthens your sales and marketing like good training. Wiebe is passionate about coming alongside your sales team and helping them become better at reading leads and generating sales.
People leave companies all of the time for just a few reasons, and one of those reasons is that they didn’t have an opportunity for training. Don’t be that company that’s easy to leave. Invest in training.
Invest in Tools
Your toolbox is important. What do you have in there? Do you know how to use your tools?
I heard a story recently from Volkswagen that illustrates the importance of a well-equipped and well-ordered toolbox.
At VW, they do peer hiring. The HR people find the applicants, and then they put them into a work group in the factory, and that group has final say over who gets hired. So each applicant works for a week or so, and then the group makes their decision on whether to hire him or not.
So HR brings a young man into the factory and assigns him to a group. He’s very qualified, looks very professional, and seems like a good fit. But they don’t hire him. Why not? He was fully certified. He showed up on time. He worked all day. He did everything he was asked. What’s the problem?
Well, he didn’t put his tools away professionally, the group said. The outside of his toolbox was clean, but the inside was a mess. If that’s how he treats his tools, what does that say? If he doesn’t take care of his own things, why should we let him take care of the company’s assets?
Is your toolbox ready to go when you need it?
Your marketing toolbox matters. You’ve got to take care of what’s in there. You can’t be sloppy with your tools. You’ve got to be careful and diligent with what you are using on a daily or even hourly basis. Is your toolbox ready to go when you need it?
With Wiebe, our toolbox becomes your toolbox. We have a small team of experts that maintain an extensive marketing toolbox. We know the tools and we know how to use them. We want your sales team to be as confident with their toolbox as your shop workers are with theirs.
So, what are the tools? They’re really not that complicated or fancy. Just like in the shop, basic hammers and pliers go a long way, so do writers and graphic designers in marketing and sales.
Wiebe has a team of specialists who can deliver you quality content so that your sales team is ready to do what they do best. We have social media experts, skilled writers, gifted graphic designers, and others who are able to deliver on a variety of specialized technical tasks.
You can be assured that we keep our tools sharp and up-to-date, and we keep our toolbox well equipped and well ordered.
Less Talk, More Listening
As competent as we are with tools, we don’t want to make the fatal error when it comes to over-emphasizing the tools themselves. We realize that there’s a lot of talk out there in the marketing world about the tools—flashy, shiny tools that are all the rage, whether it’s social media, video, or the next new thing.
At Wiebe, we value the tools and what they do for us, but we also know that there will be ten more tools tomorrow that promise ten more outcomes. In reality, we don’t focus on the tools, because we’re actually thinking beyond the tools.
When we’re helping you build your marketing assets, we focus first on your needs, and then we take up the tools that will best serve your needs. You can be confident in our skillful use of the tools, but the skill we really aim to excel at is understanding your needs.
A lot of marketing today is hype. We don’t hype what we do; we focus more on why we do it. We want to build something with you, something that will work for you. That’s why we don’t start with the shiny tools; we start with listening to you, understanding your real and long-term needs. Then we find a way to deliver exactly what you need, repeatedly and over a long period of time.
Even though we have the very best tools at our disposal, we see ourselves primarily as tool users. We respect the tools, but not more than we respect you. We know which tools work well in certain environments, but we’re not emotionally attached to one tool above another. Those tools are meant to serve you, so we want to make sure that they fit your specific needs.
Shiny and flashy will come and go, but competence and good listening will remain.
We’ll do what’s required, and then some. We’ll get the job done, not according to our needs, but according to yours.
Time to Build?
Wiebe wants to help you build a sales and marketing machine that delivers the results your company deserves. We want your marketing to be like a sniper bullet that hits the target with accuracy and impact, not like buckshot being recklessly unloaded into the dark.
Are you ready to bring your company into alignment, so that the right people are in the right roles and using the right tools?
If you’re ready to take the next step in our proven four-point process for generating B2B sales leads, then give us a call today at 604-556-6032.
Marketing that builds for success.
