Global Direct Investment Solutions

Corporate Development for a Networked World

OnTheShortList.com     SurgeUSA.org

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Summary : GDI Solutions 2004 Marketing Plan

Bruce Donnelly   bruce@gdi-solutions.com    (Biography)

Highlights of our plan will be reported here soon, and updated throughout 2004.

First quarter 2004 : The project referral process started with many leads already identified during preparatory marketing work in 2003.  We expect to research and discuss investment plans directly with senior executives at over 500 major companies per quarter.  This will be complemented by our Executive Survey and some limited advertising to "reach" more executives who we might not yet have called or met personally.  During the first quarter we introduced more professional service providers and area participants to our services, and welcomed Invest Korea as a new participant in our independent relationship work (SICR).

Second quarter 2004 : This begins with the CoreNet Global Summit in Chicago and the announcement of our new capabilities in Europe related to both investment projects and technology alliances, plus other News as we ramp up our work, including our Event plans for the year.  We sponsored the 2004 CoreNet award for economic development again and will raise our visibility at both CoreNet and IEDC events during the year as efficient channels for maintaining contacts among many service providers and area representatives

Our main work this quarter will be direct contact with executives about their business plans.  In this regard, we are launching our 2004 Executive Survey to update our knowledge of the interests of many executives in this niche so that we can continue to refine our services to them, and focus our research work according to their interests.  We have added a new section about the EU enlargement countries because of apparent interest in these areas.

This is in parallel with our GUIDE Network Survey among area representatives, which organizes useful basic information about areas which do not yet participate actively in our work, although we also offer to publish Network Survey responses by areas for quick reference by executives and advisors.  We are also now highlighting our GUIDE Profiles of participating Areas and Services, and expect to add many new entries to these lists as we proceed to ramp up the business as planned.

See our general objectives, goals, and performance metrics below.

We will report periodic performance metrics and news here to inform current and potential participants of the progress of our 2004 marketing campaign.

Service providers : Talk to us directly about our independent referral process.  We do not push the services of one company exclusively, as an in-house salesperson would do, but like a retailer who can present many valuable products well so that buyers can find what they are seeking more efficiently, we can help you to reach more clients who will value your capabilities.  To do this, we need to work together sufficiently to have good knowledge of your capabilities, and in particular how to recognize situations in which you can potentially deliver high value to executives who may be unaware of your services.  We openly share some of this knowledge through the GUIDE Service Profiles process.

Area representatives :

Do you doubt we can deliver better value for you?  We'll take that bet now, if you wish.  But we think our standard service offerings, as summarized in our Order Form, are a better value because they reflect our commitment to try to drive down the cost of reaching the executives who would value your capabilities, as for the service providers.

We know that we can create a more efficient market in this niche, because we are already doing it even though it will take time before some of the results become apparent.  There is often a long lead time between when companies work on their plans, and when they actually announce an investment, and it will take time to grow our company to the intended scale necessary to consistently support a high share of all major projects in the world, year after year, as we intend.

If you are interested, but remain skeptical or face budget constraints this year, talk to us.  We would like to work closely with you so that we can grow to scale faster, and deliver better results for all participants in our work.  If you don't believe us now, wait and see, but please recognize that early participants will receive more consideration since we want to quickly prove our capability to deliver high value for them.

Area representatives and professional service providers :

Refer to the 2 page article and graphics about what we do (Adobe PDF)

Please contact us if participation may be of interest, or to take advantage from the start of the many unique and economical services we already offer for area representatives and professional service providers.  These range in price from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars or more, as summarized in the current Order Form (Adobe PDF file).

We obviously can't openly publish details about most corporate direct investment project enquiries and the specific referrals we make in response, but we can publish some statistical analysis of the progress of our marketing work, and can highlight specific achievements with permission once the projects we support are announced.  We want to invest our time and resources to find more projects, not report statistics.

We expect all participants in our services to respect project confidentiality.

There are three main services for area representatives or professionals who want to support our marketing work in 2004 to complement their own marketing activities.

- GUIDE Area Profile or Service Profile : to maintain a working relationship and share more timely knowledge of the capabilities and interests of participants.  This also includes a variety of smaller GUIDE service to highlight specific details which might arouse interest and differentiate an area for executives and their advisors.

- SICR : our direct contact work as a shared, independent service to proactively go to market, develop good working relationships among top executives, identify major project opportunities, and refer the executives to participants with appropriate capabilities to meet their needs according to their preferences at the time.  SICR includes the GUIDE Profile work because we need to maintain timely knowledge of the participating areas or services if we are to proactively seek referral opportunities.

- Cooperative marketing work (advertising, PR, and events) with those participants who want to coordinate our marketing activities for mutual benefit, such as to expand their own market reach more efficiently with limited resources.  As an independent service, we can work with competing areas, as we do with service providers.

Our focus is not "market reach" as a publisher would measure it to justify advertising sales, nor advertising "recall" rates about the existence or perception of our services. 

Those are legitimate metrics for such things as the effectiveness of whatever advertising, PR, or event work we may perform as part of our total marketing mix to support the promotion and development of this business.  Our own performance for participants, however, is measured by the flow of successful projects we support.

We also do not focus on "activity" metrics to track the volume of marketing work, such as the volume of promotional materials we may send out, volume of advertising or event work, volume of media placements from PR work, or the volume of calls, follow-up correspondence, or "hits" on our website.  The volume of unqualified leads we receive (ad responses, website enquiries) is of little interest.  What matters are the well-qualified relationships and project leads we develop and refer to participants.

We plan and track our work through the use of CRM software to continually improve our lead generation and follow-up performance as an internal management issue to develop more corporate relationships and project referrals.

There are various small GUIDE services to highlight specific aspects of an area, some of which we include with the larger services above.  We offer them separately to work with areas which choose not to participate at this time in the proactive corporate relationship development (SICR) and cooperative marketing work we will perform.  Such areas may want to be responsive to any investors or advisors who respond to our marketing work or use the content and links available through this website.

We plan to adopt a very simple and open reporting process which will not take needless administrative time away from our main work, which is to reach executives, develop relationships, share market knowledge, and apply our ability to introduce good solutions to quickly meet their needs according to their preferences at the time.

Based on more than a decade of experience (see Bio - Bruce Donnelly) and our very substantial investment already in preparatory work during 2003, we have established the following initial performance goals at this time for our marketing plan in 2004. 

We expect to roughly double these initial goals in 2005 and again in 2006 as greater participation in our work increases our available resources and market impact, and as the level of investment activity expands with the expected economic recovery:

•  Demonstrably drive down the "cost of sales" already for well-qualified project referrals to sustainable levels which are well below the traditionally exclusive "lead generation" services or in-house marketing strategies in this niche.

•  Grow the professional team to 5 or more highly experienced relationship leaders in 2004 as trusted resources for top-level corporate executives at leading corporations.  The goal will be to recruit professionals comparable in experience to consulting partners or managers, or directors of very successful economic development organizations, as resources permit.  Prepare to double the 2004 professional team in 2005, and again in 2006.

•  Develop relationships with the executives responsible for the planning of more than 200 major projects (defined simply as over 50 jobs within 3 years), so that the impact of our referrals affects thousands of potential jobs per year.  Prepare to be able to find and support 400 or more major projects in 2005.

•  Develop more than 50 "key account" relationships among the top executives of large and fast-growing companies which are likely to develop major projects repeatedly in the future in various locations.  Prepare to maintain more than 100 such close working relationships in 2005, and over 250 in 2006.

•  Directly contact and qualify the likely investment activity or specific project plans at more than 2000 companies selected according to experience, market research, news, and screening criteria from more than 10,000 companies which fit the general selection parameters of our marketing strategy.  Prepare to have the capacity in 2005 to qualify more than 5000 companies per year.

•  Earn more than $500,000 in fees from leading professional service providers through the successful referral of many new clients for their specialized services in this niche, and prepare to earn more than twice that level in 2005, and earn similar fees from the work with economic development participants.

•  Develop a cooperative advertising, event, and PR program with participants to complement our direct contact (SICR) work among executives and boost the flow of direct enquiries to the participants, including many smaller projects than we target for our proactive relationship development and contact work.  By 2006 this should exceed most promotional campaigns in this market at a very justifiable cost to all the participants relative to the results achieved.  The 2004 campaign will launch such work in cooperation with those who already choose to participate, and prove the value of it in preparation for 2005.  It will also enhance the value of our GUIDE services for response to enquiries as well as expand the market reach of our relationship development work (SICR), whether through any ad responses or by reinforcing our direct contact work.

We will have a very simple focus on measuring results in terms of the actual outcome of our work on behalf of all participants who fund or use our services.

•  the number of new, qualified project "leads" we are finding each quarter
•  the total number of projects we are supporting
•  the likely timing and potential scale of their investment plans
•  growth in the base of key corporate relationships we are maintaining
•  referral outcomes : what happened - successful?  faster, better, cheaper?
•  corporate investor impact : identifiable value added through our support
•  community impact : economic value added through successful referrals
•  service provider impact : sales and valuable client relationships developed

For example, as we know from prior management experience at two "Big Four" firms, consultants focus on the volume of actual sales we can help them to develop through new client relationships which we introduce through our work.  They want to spend more of their time working on the professional services for which clients pay them, and spend less time and money finding new clients.  This boosts their profitability as well as the scope of their professional capabilities by serving more clients.

How we find the well-qualified leads to make such referrals, and how much work it takes or how much it costs us to do it, is our responsibility.  They just want to get actual sales at a very justifiable cost of sales relative to the fees they can earn through the performance of their services.  They don't generally focus on how we find good opportunities for them, beyond the obvious expectation that our work will be done very professionally and economically.

We take the same pragmatic, results-oriented approach in our work with area representatives.  We will focus on what we actually achieve for all the areas which choose to participate in our independent marketing work, and what we achieve for each participant relative to their investment in our services. 

We will periodically report our progress in the development of ongoing "key account" working relationships, and the total flow of project referrals by region and industry.

There will inevitably be variances in the benefits which areas and service providers achieve in any short interval of time.  There is a long "lead time" for most major investment projects, and the mix of projects and location preferences which we will identify during 2004 at a time when the economy and flow of investment activity is still not very strong yet. 

Over time, all participants should achieve good results relative to their investment in this work, and our pricing in 2005 will adapt to deal with unexpected variances, such as areas which are getting much more or less out of the process than others.  The general principle is that the "cost of sales" for SICR work should be shared equitably across all participants by linking the pricing to the results they achieve over time.

The gist of the plan is to steadily ramp up our base of longer-term relationships in parallel with our support of specific project enquiries which we will identify through our direct contact work and general marketing activities (networking, research, events, PR, advertising, referrals from our contacts and service participants, etc.).

In 2004, the strategy is to rapidly develop our capacity to find and refer a growing flow of major project leads year after year, including any "hot" opportunities we may already identify, but this is a long-term process rather than a temporary, one-time initiative to skim the current market in search of a few "hot" prospects to chase.

To use a simple analogy, we won't just be "hunting to eat", shooting at anything that moves.  We will be planting the seeds for future performance at the same time as we do what is necessary to already deliver good results for the earliest participants.

In this context, there should be steady progress quarter after quarter, but by the nature of this business, we can't offer assurances of many valuable referrals from the very start.  We will grow the flow of well-qualified project referrals as fast as we can within the available resources at a justifiable cost for what participants are receiving.

We are not in the business of creating "target" lists of executives for participants to call, or setting up exclusive appointments except as desired by the executives involved in response to our services.  We also don't operate like reader service processes which distribute "leads" to as many advertisers as possible in order to persuade them of the value of doing more advertising for lead generation purposes.

This is a shared service to benefit all participants at a justifiable cost relative to the results which they can expect to achieve over time.  It is not an exclusive service to focus on short-term "targeting" work at the separate direction of each participant.  We are quite capable of doing such exclusive work, as we did for a decade, but it would be very expensive and less likely to deliver high value than the approach we have chosen to develop.  That has repeatedly been demonstrated by many exclusive "lead generation" services which cost areas a lot of money and delivered poor results.

We believe participants in our work can readily track and measure the results they achieve relative to their investment in our work, so our focus will be on growing the total flow of very well-qualified referrals by building up our base of trusted working relationships and supporting the plans of many top executives.  We don't plan to spend a lot of time trying to convince participants of the value of our work, such as through statistics or e-mail broadcasts reporting every little project lead we identify.

For those who doubt our ability to deliver better value than any alternative approaches to the "lead generation" challenge in this market, you could just wait and see what we achieve in 2004, but please recognize that the cost to join later, after we prove our performance with other participants, is going to be much higher than for those who choose to participate from the very start.  We plan to achieve results which will not only assure their decision to participate again in 2005, but will also prompt others to participate in 2005 at higher prices than the current introductory offers, and yet still offer a demonstrably good value relative to their promotional alternatives.

You can also bet against us, if you wish, although that is not our focus.  We can negotiate custom SICR pricing for your area which fairly reflects the actual "lead generation" costs and results from your existing promotional efforts, like a bonus or success fee deal which can already be set below your comparable costs.

In short, we'll take honest bets because we are quite confident we can outperform all the traditionally exclusive approaches to this market, and are now ready to prove that capability in 2004.  Pay for the limited GUIDE work that we do initially to highlight your area to all potential investors who use our services, and we will negotiate a suitable success fee arrangement for our SICR contact and referral work so that you will only be paying for whatever you get out of that marketing work.

On closer analysis, we think you will agree that our standard SICR pricing is a much better deal as an approach designed to deliver high value at a fair price for all potential participants in our services, but like betting against the house in a casino, we'll take your bet at the right odds if you think some other approach can deliver better results.

Rather than bet against each other, however, our preference is to work together with you and other participants to develop the best service in this market for well-qualified referrals so that everybody wins.

Together, we can transform the very inefficient process by which investors waste time and resources trying to find good business locations and services, and vice versa.

Our results are not measured by website statistics.

We generally will not invest time in the analysis of website statistics such as "hit rates" for particular pages.  Our focus is on the flow of major projects which benefit from our ability to introduce good solutions for their specific needs, whether through our personal contact and referral work or through the knowledge and contacts shared in this website.  Our results are more successful projects, not more website visits.

Similarly, our advertising, PR, or event work is not measured by the potential to "reach" tens of thousands of executives, but rather by how well is supports our work to make more well-qualified project referrals for the benefit of the executives, area representatives, and professional service providers who participate in our work.

We help executives to find the locations and support services they need for their projects.  We are not in business to maximize website hits or sell advertising space on a page like a publisher or directory service.  We track our relationship work in support of major projects, and the outcome of all the project referrals we make to participants.  The announcement of a project location decision or service sale does not end our role.  We expect to keep working with companies to support their interests - not simply disappear after making a successful referral - because they may have other needs beyond that one location or service referral.

Our focus is to maximize the total flow of very well-qualified and successful project referrals so that more major investment projects are developed faster and better in good locations where the companies and communities will prosper together.

We want investors to be glad they found us, or that we found them, and to use our services whenever they need to find business locations or services in this niche.

We want the participants who fund our services to repeatedly renew and expand their commitment to work together by delivering better value than any other approach to the "needle in a haystack" challenge of reaching the executives who need their capabilities.  Our 2004 plan is just the next step in our multi-year strategy.