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If you've just launched your business in the last 6
months, congratulations from us. You've probably
chosen the best time to do it, as counter-intuitive as
that might sound. If you're new with small overheads,
you'll have the advantages your competitors will only
dream about.
We help dozens of new businesses every year grow and
exceed their expectations. We still have customers from
1999 who came to us as new businesses, and as we've
grown, they've grown. But what exactly can we offer the new enterprise?
In this occasional series, we'll be taking a look at a new business
to find out
exactly how we helped them exceed their initial sales
expectations. Please feel free to call our customer if
you want to know more. |
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How
Can We Help Your New Company? |
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| Meridian Delta is still a small business -
there's only twelve of us. So we still have that
new company feeling a lot of the time. We've had
some trials and tribulations over our last 11 years of business, so we're not that different
to you. We want to help. So, what can we do for
young companies? |
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| Read the case study below, and below that are
practical examples of how we can help. |
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Principal:
Paul
Howarth
Company: Northern Merchandise Limited
Address: 12 First Avenue, Astley Green,
Manchester, M29 7JH
Line of Business:
Promotional Workwear and
Goods
Telephone: 01942 877715
Website:
http://www.northernmerchandise.co.uk
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Paul: "I'd been working for a promotional goods and
workwear company for years and years. I loved what I do, still do,
but decided it was time to do something for myself. The way I
figured it was that I regularly did up to £1m sales for the
company I was working for. There was nothing to stop me doing that
for myself." |
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Mark Fairlie, Director:
Northern
Merchanise are a versatile and flexible young company,
offering everything from embroidered workwear (polo
shirts, fleece jackets, etc) to personalised
calculators. Fantastic promotional goods designed to
enhance a company's brand and perception. |
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Paul: "I was used to the old-fashioned ways of
marketing. First, you'd cold-call them on the phone. If they were
interested, I'd make an appointment to see them, and leave a
catalogue. I'd then try to get them on the phone in the following
weeks to see if they'd buy. It was a multi-, multi-, multi-step
sales process!" |
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Mark: Promotional
workwear and gifts account for the second-largest
proportion of our business. We have
literally tens of millions of faxes' experience (and
email coming a close second) behind
us when it comes to selling these products. After a long
consultation period with Paul, we told him exactly what
we could do for a business like his, and advised him to
slightly re-sculpt his ideas about what he needed to do
and the effort he needed to put in. |
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Paul: "I had never heard about my competitors doing
business this way before. Not even when I was working for the old
company. I had called the company 'Northern Merchandise' because
I'd thought that I would only be working within a 30 mile radius
of the office. You showed me it was possible and more
profitable to be a nationwide company straight away, with just me
and my little office." |
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Mark: When we talked to
Paul, we tried to show him that there was no reason his
business couldn't be 'mail-order', as such. Even though
he ran a Mancunian company, there was no reason at all
why he couldn't sell just as successfully to firms
across the UK, whether in Manchester, London or Belfast.
Because we've done this sort of fax and email for years, we simply
told Paul everything we knew. We gave him all the
information we could, and it was up to him to make the
decision. He decided to go our way - and he's making far
more than he thought he would at this stage, the fourth
month of his business." |
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Paul: "I'm not just saying this because I know this
text will be appearing on your site, but the response
these guys get is brilliant. I spend a fixed amount with them
every month. It's all about the extra help customers get, though.
One month, my
responses dipped by around 25% - you temporarily upped
my allocation by 25% free of charge to help me. Mark feels like part of my team - he's on my side and he looks
after me and my business. I feel genuinely chuffed I found
these guys." |
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Mark: We're genuinely
very happy that Paul feels so well looked-after by us.
On a professional level, I love getting a customer
coming back to us every month. Hundreds do. I know I'm
doing my job well. But on a personal level, I love to
hear the voice of a happy customer on the other end of
the line. Paul is a talented, moral and fun man, and I
am convinced he'll become a big player, and like so many
small and new companies, I hope he sticks with us to
make it happen for him. |
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• How can we help your new company?
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• The chances are that we have a company on
our books already doing what you do. We can help
you by guiding you in the direction of a
successful competitor. In business, there's
nothing better than learning from a company
which has learned from its successes and
failures in the past.
• We often arrange split payments with new
companies to help their cashflow.
• Our team have over 30 years' experience in
advertising and marketing other companies'
products and services. We bring all that
experience to bear in your campaign.
• We offer free professional typesetting and
copy advice to give your campaign the very best
chance of success.
• As happens with so many new businesses, our
experience and length of time in advertising for
a huge range of companies can offer you new
perspectives on how to get new customers from
market sectors you might not have expected.
• On most new jobs, we offer free testing and
experiment runs to make sure you get the message
right.
• We take your project personally. We
currently make profit for 85% of customers on
their first job, a very high rate for any form
of advertising.
• Finally, put us to the test.
Dozens of brand new companies do every year, and
the fact we have over 200 companies with us
buying from us every month even after all this
time proves we're a different proposition to
other advertising agencies. |
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