Customer brochure/mail out
Discussion
Any advice welcomed in this area.
I work in a very small niche market with less than 100 buyers nationally. They all either outsource the work to me (25%), or do it in-house (75%). There were a few other minor suppliers who supplment the in-house services but my share is probably 90% of the outsourced market. The other supliers are almost exclusively man bands earning a bit of pin money on top of other work/pensions.
Because of a change in the way our customer base carries out one particular process they are being mandated to change to a new system. I see this as an opportunity at change over to get the 75% who don't use us to think about doing so, as they will have retraining costs for the new system, and I think it was only been familiarity and inertia (and perhaps cost) which has held them to their in-house product.
The good news is that the people issuing the mandate for change have indicated that they will strongly urge the 75% to look for an external supplier because they are concerned about how well the job gets done internally. They can't overtly recommend my business but this is the next best thing.
I am putting together a PDF brochure (based on a professional template)about our services to follow up on telephone and email contact I have planned.
What should go in it?
I have covered our experience in the market, our USPs over internal sources and the one man bands in terms of quality and consistency, I have described our processes and the benefits to them in terms of quality, planning and gurantees, outlined our track record of delivering bulk orders on time( 100% over 8 years).
I have given them firm prices (which I know is more than the one man bands, but I think we have made our case based on ouer USPs) and included some benchmark costs from other sectors in this area. I have outlined a short case study of a project we ran and the outcomes, told them about the 'extra' services we can provide over and above the basic services (which the competitors can't) aand outlined some of our new cutting edge products to further distinguish us from the competition. I have noted that over the past 8 years that 60% of them have used us, and that al but a few % have bought some sort of product from us.
I know that sounds a lot of information but I see thee people not only as potential customers but as the gateway to other customers within their organisation, thus the sections about our other services and products.
Hi there
A quick read of that and it seems you've already pretty much covered everything. Any decision makers in the 75% of the companies you're hoping will come over to you will have all that information to hand to talk with the bean counter and MD of each of those companies. They'll then mull over it, talk about it, ring you and ask stupid questions and good questions etc etc to find out as much as they can and to confirm what they've read in your PDF brochure.
The only thing I can think of to add, is to put somewhere that you're willing, within reason etc, to pop over and visit them to talk more. That's also usual anyway, once a sort of decision is or has been made, but no harm in mentioning in your brochure.
Businesses nowadays need to be as transparent as possible in order to gain trust like this. People are skeptical at the best of times, during a recession and the 'battening down of hatches' that naturally occurs makes them more wary of 'something new'
Sounds as though you've had your dreams answered though! they're being urged and pushed to find a external supplier and you have 90% of that external market already! so with the vast 75% of potential companies coming to you, will you actually be able to handle them all if they all said 'yes, sign us up nowwww'?!!
Cheers, Dennis! West London & Slough UK!
A quick read of that and it seems you've already pretty much covered everything. Any decision makers in the 75% of the companies you're hoping will come over to you will have all that information to hand to talk with the bean counter and MD of each of those companies. They'll then mull over it, talk about it, ring you and ask stupid questions and good questions etc etc to find out as much as they can and to confirm what they've read in your PDF brochure.
The only thing I can think of to add, is to put somewhere that you're willing, within reason etc, to pop over and visit them to talk more. That's also usual anyway, once a sort of decision is or has been made, but no harm in mentioning in your brochure.
Businesses nowadays need to be as transparent as possible in order to gain trust like this. People are skeptical at the best of times, during a recession and the 'battening down of hatches' that naturally occurs makes them more wary of 'something new'
Sounds as though you've had your dreams answered though! they're being urged and pushed to find a external supplier and you have 90% of that external market already! so with the vast 75% of potential companies coming to you, will you actually be able to handle them all if they all said 'yes, sign us up nowwww'?!!
Cheers, Dennis! West London & Slough UK!
DennisCooper said:
Sounds as though you've had your dreams answered though! they're being urged and pushed to find a external supplier and you have 90% of that external market already! so with the vast 75% of potential companies coming to you, will you actually be able to handle them all if they all said 'yes, sign us up nowwww'?!!
Cheers, Dennis! West London & Slough UK!
We probably could not cope if they all said Yes, but the very big ones will stick with their internal staff anyway I think as they can afford to adopt the changes and do the QA. It tends to be the sma to mid sized who need our expertise and who should be the key targets.
I have tended not to offer the visit because the client group are public sector and have a 'meetings culture' and will have you on the motorway for 8 hours for a half hour chat out of interest without any intention of outsourcing other than to tell the boss they have looked at it and it is cheaper in-house. Most of the target clients would require a full day to get there and back so I have to sense they are at least luke warm to make it worth the investment of time and diesel to travel to Exeter, Durham or Ipswich.
Four, I have a strong background in producing PDF brochures, newsletters, mail outs etc. If you'd like to make changes to your brochure which the template can't accomodate, I'd be happy to help you. Email me if you need any help (saying that, you might already have someone who's supplying you with the templates...!).
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