Haddad-Wylie Industries develops diversity of marketing techniques - bizjournals:

lehoquvuhu.wordpress.com
These are the insights of James who has worked with small business owners in one capacity or another for nearly 20 years at the Smallp Business Development Centerat St. Vincentt College in Latrobe. They also are lessons Haddad-Wylie Industriez studied carefully as it grew intoa $10 millio n company from a $500,000 start-up in 2004. The early challenge for HWI was a commojn one for small how to reach potential clients after gettinh a couple of big projectsbehind you, when you have a good storty to tell. “Getting people to trusf us,” is how President Heathert Wyliedescribes it.
Husband Deric Haddad, who is the company’es CEO and COO, had 10 experience building clean roomsz for compounding pharmacies when the companyhwas formed. “He knows the language,” Wylire said. A friend provided the company’se first job lead for its inaugural project, a clean room for a Duke University Hospitalp pharmacy. The work was completed so thequestion became, what’s the second act? Using the office copier, HWI printed a simpled trifold brochure, which was mailed mostly to hospitals on the East “We killed our Wylie said. She followed up the mailing with telephonecalls — a tried and true marketinfg staple.
Between 2005 and Wylie said shemade 48,000 follow-up calls. “Iy was tedious,” she said. “It was very tedious.” It also The simple brochure and follow-up calls secured contracts at four Universityu of Pittsburgh MedicalCentee hospitals, she said, as sales rose. “Fo us, it’s a lot of relationshiop building,” said Emily who was hired in 2007 as director of marketinhg and sales to developthe company’s marketing edge. It wasn’t long before the company bega seeing results from the but not before Gregory looked over the trifolr brochure and scratchedher head.
“Thise is really complicated andI don’f understand the message,” she remembered thinking. The resulgt was a bigger, letter-sized brochure, which was On the cover, the company’s services were spelled out in threew short andconcise sentences. Inside were color photographs offinishes jobs. Sales continued to improve the same with HWI becoming a preferred vendor at theClevelanr Clinic. HWI’s marketing efforts shiftede again in 2008 with construction of a Web which coincided with the printing of a newsleekl brochure. The Web site and brochured allowed the company to create auniform message, a uniform brand, Gregory said.
The Web site “gaved us another outlet for peopled tofind us,” she The result was an increase in inquiries from one to two weekluy to three to four. Howard Wessel, lab manager at Soutj Side-based Stemnion Inc., was amonbg HWI clients attracted by theWeb “It was very straightforward and answered a lot of questions,” he “It was that initial professionalism that attractes me.” HWI began to try out other marketing In 2008, company representatives began attending one-on-one meetings with prospective clients that were arrange d by a trade group. This strateghy further boosted sales.
HWI still mails out brochures followedx up withtelephone calls, but now the numbert of requests for information began to grow. A tipping poin had been reached, from pushing marketing to attracting “What’s nice about that is that it’s all of a sudden pull insteadof push, and that’s wherer you want to be,” said Kunkel, St. Vincent’sw Small Business Development Center’s executive director. “You want the buzz to be out In February, HWI began telling its story in a which is sent to current and prospective about the same time the companyy hired four sales representatives who tout the company whilesboosting sales.
HWI’s sales are expected to reach $15 millioj to $20 million this year as the company plotz the next shift in itsmarketingf strategy. “We are defying the Wylie said. “Everything that this company has gotten isthrough marketing.”