Horizons - Mezzanine Consulting

Why you need marketing in your sales-oriented company

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

When I talk to CEOs of small B2B companies, I often hear, “We don’t need marketing, we’re very sales-oriented.” I’ve heard it dozens of times. Here’s why I think it’s wrong, but why I understand where those CEOs are coming from. When Mezzanine was in its early days, we were very sales driven too, and a lot of our success came from that orientation. But something happens when a company grows - or tries to grow - beyond the size of what the CEO him or herself alone can sell. It becomes very difficult to attract and retain business development people who can also do what the CEO does, because they rarely have the same expertise or industry knowledge. And that’s when marketing is absolutely critical. If the company doesn’t invest in marketing to build the reputation of the company, increase awareness and generate leads, the new sales people that the company attracts are going to have a very hard time being successful. I’ve seen it cause hundreds of thousands of wasted dollars in recruiting, training and compensating business development people who end up failing in their role and leaving the company within a year.

And that’s why you need marketing in your sales-oriented company!

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Tags: B2B, Marketing, marketing for small business, Sales, sales force effectiveness, SMB
Posted in Business: General, Management, Marketing Strategy | No Comments »

E-waste. What a Pain in the Asset!

Friday, November 28th, 2008

As society increasingly views environmental sustainability as a mainstream concern, going green is no longer just a trend but a core business issue for many companies. A firm’s sustainability performance is beginning to dictate its business development with ninety two percent of Canadians believing that the more socially responsible a company is, the more likely consumers are to purchase their products or services. Beyond that, with the looming war for talent, corporate social responsibility (CSR) becomes an even more prominent issue as workers look for companies whose values are similar to their own.

From a marketing viewpoint, the adage that ‘sustainability sells’ holds more truth now than ever before. However, this adage also means that ‘greenwashing’ - deceiving consumers with false or misleading claims of environmental responsibility - is becoming more rampant in today’s marketplace. In fact, TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company, recently conducted a study which revealed that out of 1,018 “green” consumer products from big-box stores in the United States, all but one were marketed with false or misleading environmental claims. The goods news however, is that with ever increasing access to information and collaborative solutions such as the Greenwashing index, consumers are much more likely to spot ‘greenwashing’ when they see it, especially as the consequences of these actions become more severe.

To truly be a ‘green’ corporation, companies need to internalize the sustainability ethic into every aspect of their corporate culture. One often overlooked area for many organizations is the disposal of end of life electronics also known as “e-waste”. Recently, there have been a number of cases where branded end of life electronics have been shipped to developing countries to be dismantled under unsafe conditions. These cases have taken the issue of e-waste out of the trash yard and into the governance spotlight.

Most organizations do not have a formal plan to deal with this important element of environmental sustainability and may well be wasting money as well as potentially putting the company at risk. Improperly sanitized hard drives full of company data can easily be recovered to expose confidential information. Even worse, some companies dispose of their old computers with employee and customer data still intact. Such violation of privacy laws and regulations can involve hefty fines of up to $250,000.

In order to authenticate ‘green’ claims, companies must look internally to ensure that corporate practices are in line with environmental initiatives. A recent study conducted by Mezzanine identified the top 5 ways companies (big and small alike) can begin ensuring their e-waste disposal process minimizes security and environmental risks while allowing the company to maintain a green image. They include:

Vendor Take Back Program – Choose vendors with a take back provision that offers trade in value. Take back programs create an incentive to design for recycling and increase the use of recycled content.
3^rd Party Recycling Vendors – Choose recyclers that meet Department of Defence standards with their data degaussing, disk wiping and destruction procedures and should be able to remarket refurbished products to capture the highest resale value (if possible). Recyclers used should be audited to ensure they are not exporting e-waste to developing countries to be dismantled under dangerous working conditions. Visit the resources listed below to find a responsible recycling vendor.
Extending the Life of Older Equipment - Analyze the trade-off between purchasing newer more energy efficient products or extending the life of older assets.
Design for Environment - Has a ‘Life Cycle Approach’ been applied in the design of the product being purchased? Can the item be easily upgradeable in the future? Purchase products that are expandable, upgradeable and recyclable.
Eco-Labels - Look for Eco-labels that incorporate multiple environmental considerations and are certified by a qualified and independent third party such as EcoLogo, EnergyStar and GreenSeal.

In today’s environment of heightened ecological consciousness, maintaining a ‘green’ image plays a crucial role in a company’s long term competitive strategy. Electronic waste disposal has become an increasingly notorious issue and its importance in the realm of social responsibility should not be hastily overlooked. SMBs should ensure that an electronic disposal strategy is in place in order to identify potential revenue streams as well reduce the company’s exposure to risk.

Eco friendly purchasing resources:

Electronic Product Environment Assessment Tool

Purchasing Guidelines for Environmentally Preferable Computers

Finding the right recycling vendor:

E-waste: A recycling Resource

Basel Action Network (BAN)

Meeting IT Life-Cycle Challenges to Maximize Value and Minimize Risk

Ways to spot ‘greenwashing’:

The Six Sins of Greenwashing, Terra Choice

Shades of Greenwashing, Toronto Star

More information on e-waste:

Electronic Take Back Coalition

Basel Action Network

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Tags: CSR, e-waste, electronicwaste, recycling, sustainability
Posted in Business: General, Management, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Trends, Uncategorized | No Comments »

SMB Hiring Strategies

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Although recruiting and retaining talent can be the determining factor of a company’s long term success, surprisingly - it is still not at the top of the priority list for most companies. According to a study conducted by The McKinsey Quarterly, 75% of executives surveyed said that their companies either don’t have enough talent or are chronically short of talent. However, when asked “Does your company make improving its talent pool one of its top three priorities?”, only 10% or 20% of corporate officers said yes.

For SMBs, the issue can become more daunting as talent recruitment is often treated as an ad hoc process rather than prioritized as an essential component of an overall corporate strategy. Besides, there just never seems to be enough time. In fact, a recent report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) revealed that vacancy rates for SMBs continue to grow. In 2007, 4.4 per cent of jobs in SMBs were vacant for four months or more and one third of employers were experiencing difficulties finding employees (although this may change in coming months…)

Regardless of the economic situation, SMBs sometimes feel they just can’t compete with corporate brands. However, we say, rather than looking at what you can’t offer, look at what you can! There are actually several ways SMBs can gain an edge on their large corporate rivals. Employees at SMBs have an opportunity to make a larger impact on the organization as a whole with their accomplishments being recognized much faster. SMB employees also gain more exposure to people at the top and experience faster career advancement opportunities. SMBs should focus on these benefits as well as the ability to provide a flexible work environment when recruiting new talent.

The challenge for most SMB’s is how to streamline the recruiting process, balancing time and resources while ensuring that top talent is being attained. One way to balance all of these variables is to explore innovative approaches to the recruitment process. A new recruitment method recently conducted at Mezzanine involved using group interviews to narrow down and select the most promising co-op student to be the next Mezzanine intern. Working at Mezzanine means working both independently and in closely knit groups on client projects – so it made sense for us to test candidates in both settings.

Group interviews are excellent for highlighting the interpersonal subtleties that simply don’t emerge during individual interviews. It is often these subtleties that underlie group dynamics and play a large role in determining the success or failure of projects. Consider things like:

How persuasive is the candidate at influencing others?
How effectively do they contribute in a team setting?
How do they handle feedback?

Group interviews highlight teamwork, communication, persuasion and leadership skills that are critical in determining the candidate’s contribution to the organization.

In recruiting for our intern we received overwhelming interest, and like most SMBs, time is precious for us. We needed to find the best candidates in the most efficient way. Our first step was to complete 10 minute phone interviews where we asked 1 question related to marketing and evaluated candidates against 5 criteria. We added up candidates’ scores agains those 5 criteria and selected our top 5 within each category (BCom and MBA). About a week later, we broke up our candidates among two interviewers and interviewed each candidate individually for another 10 to 15 minutes before bringing them together in a group interview. During the group interview, we completed a case study, dividing the candidates into small groups to answer our prepared questions, coming together to discuss, present and debate the answers. Our experience was that some of our top picks from the individual interviews didn’t shine in a group session and vice versa.

If group interviewing doesn’t work for you, another way to determine employee potential is to have the candidate complete an assignment in order to get a better idea of their thought processes and intellectual ability as Mark Goodman, CEO of Twist Image describes here.

Goodman also recommends the following in hiring top talent:

Have people become their own ‘Centres of Excellence’ – an area they can be the go-to person on and help educate others in the company.
Make hiring a 50/50 process – look for candidates who interview you as much as you’re interviewing them. In the end employees who really want to work for you will perform that much better.
Don’t allow the function of hiring to get passed down or handed off when things get busy – you’ll get stuck in a situation with a diluted talent pool that is hard to reverse.

When competing with large corporations to hire the best people, SMBs need to think strategically. Through the appeal of a more congenial and intimate corporate culture along with the use of innovative recruitment methods, SMBs can gain an upper hand as potential employees begin to flood the market.

For more insight on talent recruitment:

Secrets to recruiting A-level talent, Canadian Business

The ultimate guide to hiring today’s best employees: The new rules of recruiting, Canadian Business

Making Talent a Strategic Priority, The McKinsey Quarterly

The Art of the Hire, Fortune Small Business