How to reach marketing people at big companies

[Yoav]

Hey,
I work at a company that delivers high-quality video production in affordable prices all over the world. we need to grow our client base but the problem is I can't even "get in the door" of a big company to pitch my product.
I believe that I can save them a lot of money, but how do you reach the marketing manager? E-mail's won't work... calling them either.. LinkedIn in useless if you don't know anybody related..
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Yoav

[Freelancier]

You're not understanding your customer. What you're offering is not a "must have". So when they need you, they need to be able to quickly find you. Before that moment when they decide they need someone like you, you're going to be invisible to them. So stop trying to force your way in the door and instead make sure that the moment they want a company that offers what you're providing, that you're the obvious first choice to call and then wait for their calls.

In "real world" terms, that means: press releases about successes or case studies, video samples that go viral, partnerships with marketing companies that provide lots of other services that complement your services. It does not mean spam or cold calls that will be deleted or forgotten the minute you are no longer in their face.

[Harold Mansfield]

I totally agree.

How is your marketing in general? How is your website? Your You Tube or Vimeo Channel? Facebook page? Linked in Page? What kind of reviews do you have? Have you won any awards?
Even if you get into the door, these are the places that they will check you out or may have already checked you out to even determine if you're worth a call to.

If you're making a big enough splash online, around social media and with other clients...other people will be clamoring to do business with you. Especially in your particular field.

When you have all of these other things clicking, you don't have to do the hard sell or beg to get into the door. All it takes is a mention of your company and any exec who is looking will spend the 2 minutes to see what you're all about online. If they find nothing worthwhile, you can beg till you're blue in the face and it won't matter.

You want to work with big companies? What are the little companies saying about you? The medium sized companies?

My advice is, if your online presentation isn't in order, get it in order before you approach one more company or else all you're doing is burning leads.

[billbenson]

You're not understanding your customer. What you're offering is not a "must have". So when they need you, they need to be able to quickly find you. Before that moment when they decide they need someone like you, you're going to be invisible to them. So stop trying to force your way in the door and instead make sure that the moment they want a company that offers what you're providing, that you're the obvious first choice to call and then wait for their calls.

In "real world" terms, that means: press releases about successes or case studies, video samples that go viral, partnerships with marketing companies that provide lots of other services that complement your services. It does not mean spam or cold calls that will be deleted or forgotten the minute you are no longer in their face.

I agree as well. Additionally I'll add sell something else that targets the same people. Could even be a loss leader. This would be a mechanism to be a known entity to your prospect customer though.

A decent website that ranks high as well as Adwords is pretty much mandatory as well.

[Freelancier]

A decent website that ranks high as wellI was trying to make that point without using the dreaded "SEO" phrase that brings all the spammers out to play. :)

[billbenson]

I was trying to make that point without using the dreaded "SEO" phrase that brings all the spammers out to play. :)

The unfortunate thing is that there are a lot of people out there that don't realize what a website can really do for you. Actually, in my case, its a fortunate thing. For years I had a website that sucked that I built. It was still better than the competition and the manufacturers site. Made me a livelihood.

[Freelancier]

a lot of people out there that don't realize what a website can really do for youI now look at it that it's not the web site that's the end goal, but just one piece of a large puzzle about how to get people to want to look at your web site. In the OP's case, that'll be press releases, case studies, cool videos... anything that will be bait for someone to find and click the link to get to the web site to find out more info. Being first in search is nice, but having people find you because they're already interested in what you've done is even better.

[David Hunter]

Sounds like you need to send out some "Bank Bags" as 3D Mail. This WILL GET OPENED.

Tell your prospect they'll need the bank bag to take all their money to the bank once they use your high-quality video production services.

[Paul]

I’m not sure what you mean by “big” company. The large companies already have their vendors in place. Video is probably handled by their advertising agency or department. Nobody in corporate would have much to do with selecting video companies. They aren’t concerned with saving money on video.

I think you may want to adjust your target market away from the “big” companies. It is the smaller companies that would be more responsive to a video service and saving money.

[billbenson]

I’m not sure what you mean by “big” company. The large companies already have their vendors in place. Video is probably handled by their advertising agency or department. Nobody in corporate would have much to do with selecting video companies. They aren’t concerned with saving money on video.

I think you may want to adjust your target market away from the “big” companies. It is the smaller companies that would be more responsive to a video service and saving money.

I agree and disagree with you here Paul. Large companies already have their vendors in place and it may be a long process to add others so purchasing agents don't always want to do it.. I find ways to make them do it! It could be a loss leader or a completely new product that the competition doesn't even know they have. Get in their vendor database!!

One of my competitors is Grainger. They sell everything from fart pillows to mining equipment. The sales guys are primarily order takers. I steal their customers or get into big company databases all day long with product knowledge and salesmanship. Someone calls and says they use Granger or a similar company, I view it as an opportunity.

[billbenson]

double post

[KurtH]

I agree with David. I use 3D Mail and it creates great results. The people I reach out to tell me their kids enjoy playing with the lumpy mail items I send. I have used a bank bag

[Paul]

I agree and disagree with you here Paul. Large companies already have their vendors in place and it may be a long process to add others so purchasing agents don't always want to do it.. I find ways to make them do it! It could be a loss leader or a completely new product that the competition doesn't even know they have. Get in their vendor database!!

One of my competitors is Grainger. They sell everything from fart pillows to mining equipment. The sales guys are primarily order takers. I steal their customers or get into big company databases all day long with product knowledge and salesmanship. Someone calls and says they use Granger or a similar company, I view it as an opportunity.

I agree with you for the most part on most commodity type products. For large companies video production may not be anything they work with. The video production may be supplied by the ad agency, if they use one. I also have found that cost savings is usually not a priority for large companies on the marketing/advertising/creative side. They are more concerned with quality and reliability than saving a few dollars.

I think the Op may want to concentrate on the smaller companies that do their own video/creative work and that do care about costs.

Of course I don't really know what he means by "big" companies.

[billbenson]

I agree with you for the most part on most commodity type products. For large companies video production may not be anything they work with. The video production may be supplied by the ad agency, if they use one. I also have found that cost savings is usually not a priority for large companies on the marketing/advertising/creative side. They are more concerned with quality and reliability than saving a few dollars.

I think the Op may want to concentrate on the smaller companies that do their own video/creative work and that do care about costs.

Of course I don't really know what he means by "big" companies.

I'm mostly into the B2B world and was making a general response to the thread as opposed to a direct response to the OP. I don't have any specific knowledge of video products, but a product is a product.

My job as a salesman is to sell you a product (in an honest and ethical manner). I'm not doing my job if I give up just because you (large, medium,small company or consumer) has a preferred vendor. Find a way to make them want or need to buy from you!

Yes, I go the easy route as well. Given an easy sell and a difficult sell making the same amount of money, I'll spend my time on the easy sell. Having said that, I want to be in Proctor & Gambles vendor database and that's the real point. I suspect that is applicable to most products including video. Make it easy for the purchasing department to buy from you. They are overworked and lazy for the most part.

One of the real problems is getting you product associated with your company. Take an extreme example - Bob's building supplies selling HP computers. What purchasing agent is going to associate that?

You solve that by doing a multi tiered sell. You sell and quote the engineer. He passes the info to purchasing. Easier to buy it from you to do an hour of research to see who they use for video purchases. Sometimes you win, sometimes you loose, but its a good strategy.

And it's 5:30 am on Thanksgiving and I can't sleep. That sucks.

[amandab]

Have you though about setting up a vendor booth at a trade show? I know that costs a little bit more but if you have a booth that draws people in there are always people who can make decisions at those events. I have gone to a lot of trade shows with leaders who end up purchasing services from the vendors based on their presentations/websites/information provided.

[will.i.earn]

Agreed that big companies have all their advertising/marketing all setup, which is the department you're trying to get in. The executives you're probably trying to reach don't even consider "video" as problem, hence, it's never a part of their todo.


Have you though about setting up a vendor booth at a trade show?

This is a good idea.

Also, you should submerge yourself in the Start-up community. These are small companies whom are always strapped for cash. If your main selling point is budget then it's easier to get past the gate keepers of start-ups. Hang around in crowd funding sites like kickstarter and indiegogo.

And where did you get the idea that email doesn't work? Have you ever heard of the suitcase technique in cold emailing?

[Mickie Kennedy]

That's really clever!

[ryantc]

A resource you might want to consider / invest in is getting your hands on a business mailing list - here is a site that offers such lists - Business Mailing Lists by Reach Marketing (http://www.reachmarketing.com/business-mailing-lists/). Or you can perform you own lead research online via company websites and their contact pages.

[aureliechazal]

3D mail is a cool idea. It will sure help you to stand out.
As some said, you could try aiming for smaller companies. I know SaaS startups are big on video (product presentation, tutorials, video marketing). And they might be more accessible than big corporations.