Quaestor Equity Partners LLC
The Niche Industry Brief: Highlights for $5 to 50
million makers and marketers of
industrial products.
First Quarter 2005
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Articles:
Search Engine Optimization
International: To Go or Not to Go
OGSM: Getting Things Done from the Bottom Up
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Search Engine Optimization
By Jim Stone, jestone@sbcglobal.net
Generating
industrial sales leads has always been a bit of a black art. Start with print
advertising,
provide a solid, informative webpage, add in some trade shows and product
seminars,
and mix in the occasional mass mailing - hopefully you've produced a meaningful
response.
As
recently as ten years ago, the print media - trade magazines, journals, and
product
bulletins
- generated the lion's share of leads from both casual and motivated
information
seekers.
At the very least, these inquiries built a base of industry contacts that a
sales and
marketing
force could use for mailings, newsletters, and personal visits.
However,
the widespread use of search engines such as Google and Yahoo has proven that
many
buyers want the power of immediate information at their disposal. Consequently,
you
need
to make your company and products available as simply as possible to the buyer
at any
time.
The object is to drive them to your website, and the means to do this is search
engine
optimization.
You
want your website to appear high on the list of search results each time a
prospective
buyer
or specifier performs a search on your product. Originally, search engines
returned
"natural"
search results - the web pages that were best matched by the search term
appeared
first.
Search
engine optimization for your company can be accomplished by selecting the
proper
"keywords"
or descriptive terms for your products and company. It can be as simple as the
product
name or function, or a term associated with the product. For example, if you
make
shelving
systems, your applicable terms would range from "shelving systems" to
"storage
products"
to "material handling", or some variations of each.
Natural
search results are generally enhanced by your web page's embedding of the
search
terms
- either within the code or the "metatags" of the page. You can also
achieve higher
search
result placement by increasing the number of other pages that link to
yours. This can
be
accomplished by having relevant sites - those of business partners, OEMs,
distributors,
rep
firms, associations and chambers - list a link to you on their site. Another
way is to
publish
authoritative and industry-specific information on your site, which could then
lead to
others
sites using yours as a reference.
Most
search engines have evolved into a form of silent auction, however. Search
terms are
available
for purchase on a "pay-per-click" basis - meaning that each time the
search is
performed,
and your website is clicked upon, you are charged a fee. The cost ranges
anywhere
from pennies per click to hundreds of dollars, depending upon the popularity of
the
search term and the level of competition bidding. And if you engage in the
bidding for
these
terms, you must monitor current levels constantly, since bids can be submitted
24
hours
a day.
The
attraction of pay-per-click to the company's bottom line is obvious - isn't it
better to
only
be charged for advertising by the number of viewings of that ad? And what better
way
to
find out if your "ad" is attracting worthwhile buyers?
The
pay-per-click model does allow for precise accountability for marketing
campaigns.
Since
the object is website visits, you can track the success of particular keywords
in
increasing
traffic. Some of the companies that provide pay-per-click, such as Overture and
Google,
provide sophisticated online tools to perform this tracking. And coupled with
your
own
website or domain log information, you can find out where your visitors are
coming
from
and which pages on your site attract them most.
In
the industrial marketplace, buyers and specifiers are now used to searching for
what they
want,
whenever they want. It's now in your hands to be certain that your company is
always
in
clear view.
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Jim
Stone has over 15 years experience in the management of industrial sales and
marketing
teams,
spending most of that time with small manufacturers. His expertise includes
sales
team
building, sales force automation, capital equipment marketing, and industrial
search
engine
optimization. You can reach him at jestone@sbcglobal.net.
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International:
To Go or Not to Go
By Zoe Quan, IEG_Chicago@yahoo.com
As companies seek to
grow, they should look beyond their own shores. Although the
the biggest single
market, total markets outside the
rates of many countries
will exceed that of the
A company could go abroad
for different reasons. Lowering costs is one; many industries are
moving their
manufacturing to countries with lower labor costs. Following one's customers
is another; as they set
up facilities off shore, a supplier may follow to improve
responsiveness with
shorter delivery, lower distribution costs, and closer customer support.
Another reason is new
markets; the convergence of consumer tastes and the rise of a middle
class in developing
countries create demands for products and services that improve health,
leisure, status, or
quality of life.
Are there circumstances
under which a company should not go international? Consider the
following:
A telecom equipment manufacturer developed a new antenna
that significantly
improves coverage in mobile networks. They think this
would be in great demand in
Europe and
A precision injection-molding company is asked by a
customer to set up a plant in
equipment, uses very little labor, and is protected by
trade secret. The volume needed
for cost-effectiveness would require exporting beyond the
customer's purchases.
An IT consulting company believes they can move much of
their development work
offshore because of significantly lower labor rates for
highly skilled developers. Their
offering is extremely customized, requiring extensive
interaction with the customer
to accurately specify, design, and install.
Don't underestimate the
homework required to understand business in other countries;
business, government, and
customer buying behavior are quite different.Understanding their
habits, expectations, and
preferences is a crucial step. While
businesses have learned from
the mistakes of others
about the need for market research, there is much more throughout a
business's operations
that can be affected.
The antenna manufacturer must adapt its product for
Europe and
use CDMA. They must meet environmental and other
regulations; obtain
certifications, inspections, and approvals; and develop
distribution channels.
The injection-molder must examine their overall costs in
labor; there are new expenses for transnational shipping,
distribution, and duties.
They must safeguard their trade secrets in an environment
with poor intellectual
property enforcement.
The IT company must evaluate the degree to which they
could accurately convey
customer specifications to their offshore operation and
the time lags involved.
Should a company go
international? The answer is seldom a definitive "no." There is
opportunity to
dramatically grow one's business; the caveat is that the spadework must be
done to mitigate risk. A
company needs to understand its operations and how they can be
stressed by distance;
understand foreign regulations and restrictions; factor in the time and
expense of transnational
shipping, distribution, duties, and certifications; find the right
foreign partners;
determine the appropriate legal structure; understand foreign business
culture differences; and
be aware of matters like the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Chances of success are
greatly enhanced by obtaining qualified export expertise, and making
a strong commitment to
overcoming the initial difficulties.
Look for future articles
that will detail steps in developing and implementing an export
strategy.
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Zoe Quan is a member of
the International Executives Group of
(www.iegchicago.org), a roundtable of the
most senior, internationally oriented executives in
the
translating vision into
executable strategy and establishing the processes and disciplines
required for implementation.
For information about a specific market or entry strategy,
contact her at IEG_Chicago@yahoo.com.
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OGSM: Getting Things Done from
the Bottom Up
By John Florance, florance@earthlink.net, and Dean
Mallet,
With all the change in
the business world in both markets and internal structure, identifying
and getting the right
things done becomes increasingly difficult. Take for example the
following scenario:
I'm starting a new
position at an organization I've never worked for. I was refreshed to
receive during my first
week a set of 1 week and 60 day objectives. I say refreshed because
most of my experiences
have been more around mastering the responsibilities on the job
description and getting
job training through "firefights".
It’s great to have expectations right
out of the box but it
also begs other questions:
How do my objectives relate to
the top level of the organization (vertical
alignment)?
Where do my goals fit relative
to the goals of my peers and other functional areas
in the business (horizontal
alignment)?
How do I track my progress
over time to both 1 and 2 above?
How do I understand what I
need to pay most attention to since the organization
is new to me?
OGSM
OGSM is a structured way
of defining the objectives of the organization and using a specific
framework to cascade the
objectives deep into the organization along with the appropriate
strategies to achieve
them. This tool, originally from
companies as a way to
align the activities of all levels of management around the short term
and long term objectives
of the company. Here's what OGSM looks like:
Objective What
do we want to do? Example: Become the market leader.
Goal What
will the end state look like in quantitative terms? Example: Realize 55%
market
share across the top 3 market segments by the end of 2005.
Strategies What
do we need to do to achieve this Goal? Example: Increase brand visibility
among
consumers.
Metric What
will the end state look like in measurable terms? Example: When asked
about
a specific category of products, 65% of consumers name our brand first.
Objectives are what you
want to accomplish and Strategies are how you will accomplish
them. Goals and Metrics
become the measurements upon which progress will be measured.
These are critical
because the best Strategies in the word are doomed if you measure the
wrong things. Also,
Objectives and Strategies that are not "actionable" have little
chance to
succeed and can set up
even the highest performing groups for failure.
The strength of the
OGSM method lies in the
cascading technique which ensures alignment and line of sight -
allowing an employee
seven levels deep to understand how their objective feed up to the
objectives of top
management.
In an unconventional way
of illustrating OGSM in action, we're going to apply it to a middle
manager's real world
objectives. The catch: the organization is not currently using OGSM
and has no immediate
plans to implement it. Can OGSM function as an effective
departmental tool for
achieving organizational objectives? Tune in next issue.
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John
Florance is a director at a publishing firm that services professionals by
publishing
continuing
education and certification materials. He believes that he can better meet his
organizational
objectives using OGSM versus just delegation and project management. We
should
know if it works by the third article.
Dean
Mallett is an operations executive with over twenty years of experience with a
Fortune
500
company. He believes the OGSM process
releases constructive energy in an
organization
allowing employees to link their actions plans with the highest level
objectives
of
the company.
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Edited by Mark Gibb, Quaestor Equity Partners LLC, mark@quaestorequity.com
Mr. Gibb is a Partner of
Quaestor and President of SINCO, Inc., a $20 million provider of
safety netting solutions.
Prior to Quaestor, he was President of Safety Storage, a $20 million
manufacturer of pre-fabricated
HazMat buildings. Before that he was a Strategy Consultant
for Accenture, and he held
senior sales and operations roles with Stewart Warner and
Federal Signal. Mr. Gibb
has a BA from the
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Copyright 2004 Quaestor
Equity Partners LLC,
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