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Writing Sample - CorpTech
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Note Of Interest to PR / Ad / Direct Response & Web Agencies:
JMB Communications is frequently called upon by some of the country's
highest-profile PR, direct response, Web marketing, and advertising agencies to
do projects for some of the best known companies in the world. Some agencies use
us as a resource their clients are unaware of... others use us as a direct
member of their team... and still others tell their clients that they're using
us as consultants. For confidentiality reasons we can't discuss most of those
relationships or post writing samples, but we think this White Paper - which we
wrote for GHW Associates (a small but highly successful direct marketing firm in
the Northeast) and for CorpTech, their client - says a lot about what we can do
for you.
Contact us to learn more.
Communicating Effectively with High Technology Companies in
The New Millennium:
How To Get Results In The High Technology Marketplace
Executive Summary
Regardless of the nature of your relationship to high technology companies,
knowing more about them can make that relationship more productive. This White
Paper delivers a perspective on what high technology companies do and on how
they do it. It explores the "hot buttons" of high tech people - the attitudes
and orientations they look for that build trust and confidence and that help
ensure long-term cooperation. It also offers a look ahead, to where technology
is taking us - and shows you what types of companies will be in the forefront.
Perhaps most important, it shows you how to obtain the detailed information you
need in order to select and approach specific companies and how to communicate
with them productively.
The "Mystique" Of Emerging Technologies is Simply The Aura of the
Technologies Themselves - The People are Still People.
The "high technology marketplace" to many people epitomizes excitement. For
most of us, that excitement began when the first PCs appeared in our offices
almost 20 years ago.
Since then, technology has never looked back. Today changes occur at
ever-increasing speeds. Current (June, 1999) high-end 550 MHz PCs will seem
Neanderthalically slow a year from now, when their 1000 MHz+ brothers (with over
256 MB of yet another kind of memory and 40 GB hard drives) will be commonplace.
The effects of technology are everywhere. Instead of being tied to desks,
people today are tied to ideas and to actions. With their laptops, their
palmtops, their world-ready wireless combination phone/pagers/Internet devices,
and their rapidly converging desktop technologies, they can (or soon will be
able to) consult on medical emergencies while salmon fishing in the Alaskan
wilderness, design an automobile from the comfort of their camper, swap ordering
email with customers while flying at 40,000 feet, or simply talk to their kids
via an Internet videophone from their hotel room, using a thumbnail-size video
camera integrated into their 1.5-pound laptop computer.
High technology companies are the great enablers of this revolution, which
finds millions of Americans "logging in" to work instead of driving in. The
Internet makes it practical (not merely possible) for almost any office-based
employee to work from anywhere.
Understandably, high technology companies are the focus of sales people,
researchers, scientists, visionaries, and countless others who sense the genre's
drama, who watch its stunning growth, and who see billions invested in "dot com"
businesses which aren't projected to turn a profit for years.
All of these businesses have one thing in common: an orientation toward
solving customer problems urgently, and a mindset to work with vendors,
suppliers, and employees whose customer orientation and sense of urgency is
exactly like theirs.
Working with high technology companies requires you to both understand and
leverage this strong customer-first orientation. In today's demanding,
sophisticated marketplace, high-tech companies want perfection throughout the
entire process of product analysis, vendor comparison, buying, setting-up,
using, and supporting new products. If you can somehow help them do that, your
attempts to become involved with this marketplace will be met warmly.
To properly understand the market, you must first understand what high tech
companies are doing.
New ways of doing the same thing - better: What technology companies offer is
more productive ways of doing things which are of unquestioned value. For
example:
Email - enables users to transmit information (messages, documents, data
files, and more) instantly, worldwide. Email speeds delivery, ensures no "missed
calls," cuts costs, and gets attention.
Online Direct Marketing -- enables OEMs to deliver information about their
products and services, such as drawings, specs, price, delivery, service
programs, accessories, etc., directly and instantly to end-users, saving time,
cutting costs, and improving customer satisfaction.
Online Auctions - offer an easier way to shop, since users can get exactly
what they want, often at lower cost than otherwise possible.
E-zines - enable selective reading in a versatile, contemporaneous format.
Small mobile technologies -- PDAs, GPS, and Digital PCS wireless phones are a
more efficient way to know where we are, where we're going, and what we're doing
- and to tell others, or be accessible to them, anywhere, anytime, instantly.
People Working in High Tech Are Responsive to Requests for Research,
Technology Exchange, and Investments. . .
They Look for Quality, Price, Reliable Service, and
- above all else --
Brevity.
People who work in every area of high technology share one similarity: they
regard every second as precious. Competition is so fierce, and so ubiquitous and
pervasive, that their lives seems consumed by the urgency of their company's
business. You'll often see castles constructed of Diet Coke® cans in their
offices, near the empty pizza boxes, both of which provide frequently needed
midnight power boosts...
The effect of all this on you is significant. High tech "people" who share
this characteristic sense of urgency expect - or perhaps demand -- the same of
you. Regardless of your objectives, they will require fast, dependable
responsiveness from you. They have little time to think; they must get the facts
quickly and act - and to deal with them effectively, you must do the same. Avoid
wasting their time.
If you are involved in either technology-sharing or in gathering information
for research or product development, remember that "sharing" is a two-way
process. Make sure there is some benefit for them in that process, not just for
you, even if it is only your obvious gratefulness. Your genuine, unmistakable
orientation toward the needs, wants, and expectations of the person you're
approaching is absolutely critical to developing any successful relationship.
Remember that high tech companies are demanding simply because their people
are working to survive fierce competition. In the early years, profitability
typically is not all that important. But being on time with competitive,
high-quality products is a matter of survival, which means positioning and
market share are critical. There is little time for people in such an
environment to listen to or to help you. If you're focused on their needs as
well as your own, your chance of success is infinitely greater.
Where "High Technology" Stands Today
- And Where It's Going in the 21st
Century
As noted earlier, ever since the first PCs were introduced, the pace of
technological change has never stopped accelerating. Bill Gates is reputed to
have said that today's PCs are roughly equivalent in their development to
automobiles that were delivered in the 1920s, which gives you a very faint idea
of just how much developmental headroom that technology has ahead of it.
(Integrated circuit "chips" when they were first developed had thousands of
individual components and were thought to be amazing technological marvels. But
some of the latest, most sophisticated chips contain more than 35 million
components - rather stunning testimony to the progress of an industry still in
its infancy.)
What does all this mean to all of us, personally and professionally?
In a rapidly shrinking global economy with billions of increasingly affluent,
demanding consumers, it means technology has a world of growth ahead of it which
ordinary people simply are unable to imagine. Almost anything you can imagine
becomes possible. Let's look at some of the very real possibilities:
- Homes that are totally energy self-sufficient, utilizing solar, wind,
and geothermal energy sources.
- Automobiles that run on fuel cells or as yet undeveloped energy sources,
and which can be "programmed" to take the most expeditious, safe route from
point A to point B - while the "driver" ignores the road to work with her
99.9999% accurate voice-activated, wireless Internet-connected computer.
- "Jobs" and project work for the self-employed that can be executed
anywhere, anytime. "Virtual reality" staff meetings could have you sitting
in front of your computer in your underwear making a presentation to a
multinational committee of elite investors and venture capitalists - all of
whom visualize you in the latest virtual Armani suit. (With ultrafast 10,000
MHz chips not many years away, computers will be able to do far more than
any of us dare imagine.)
- Gene mapping and biomedical research into the causes of both infectious
and hereditary diseases will help prevent some of today's worst health
problems, and to slow the process of aging. Biotechnology is just getting
started...
And what does this mean to you, today, and in the next few years? CorpTech
tracks all these developments to give you advantages in your efforts to work
with (and within) technology companies.
For example, CorpTech tracks today's hottest markets, and enables you to see
tomorrow's hot markets early on. You get market size figures and growth
projections for every key market including both the Internet and telecom
markets.
Convergence will clearly play an explosive role in the future of what
President Clinton years ago characterized as the "Information Superhighway."
Convergence explains why so many companies in the Internet and
telecommunications and broadcast businesses are merging. Remember these clear
points:
- You can already use the Internet for "telephony"
- telephone calls to
Japan, for example, that last for hours but for which you pay only your
local phone charge.
- You can use your computer to read newspapers from around the world. "Web
TV" and "cable modems" enable high-bandwidth transmissions of distant radio
and TV stations to appear live, right on your desktop. Stock traders getting
ready for work in the morning can or soon will be able to see a broadcast
from Tokyo about how the Japanese stock exchange fared at the close of
business that day.
- On the other hand, high-quality DVD players and TV tuners in computers
mean workers could watch the World Series or the Superbowl on their PCs via
the Internet, or full-length movies....
- "Convergence" allows you to send email from your living room TV or phone
calls from your computer or watch TV from your PC or receive email on your
cell phone or make a World Wide Web airline reservation from your pager -
which is also your worldwide, one-number cell phone and email reception
station. (All of this is reality, right now.)
Where is technology going in the 21st century? Anywhere our imaginations
can take it.
The opportunities presented to all of us by these changes are, of course,
tremendous. A great source of information on the markets and technologies which
are in the vanguard of these changes is Technology Industry Growth Forecaster, a
CorpTech publication. You will find it immensely valuable in researching what
kinds of companies you want to approach.
Today's hot markets - and tomorrow's: Clearly, among technology companies
both telecommunications and Internet companies continue to both benefit from and
to drive the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. Some statistics, from the
CorpTech EXPLORE database:
- The companies are new; nearly 60% were formed between 1994 and 1998.
Most were capitalized by private investment and 46% have fewer than 25
employees. A full 28% are forecasting growth between 25% and 99%. . .
- Half of the companies are in the Southeast, the Southwest, and
California
- In Northern California, the cradle of many companies which have risen
meteorically in recent years, jobs in emerging companies are seeing
explosive growth. In San Jose alone, there are about 40,000 jobs in emerging
firms with under 1000 employees. Smaller, neighboring Sunnyvale California
has just under 30,000 jobs in similar firms, and Santa Clara isn't far
behind with over 25,000.
- The projected growth for technology companies based in California is
higher than for any other region of the country. Of 284 emerging technology
firms surveyed by CorpTech, those in Northern California projected 11.6%
average growth. Some 352 similar companies in Southern California projected
8.8% growth. Both New England and the Mid-Atlantic area were close behind,
with projected growth of 8.1% and 8.0% respectively.
- The Employment Trends section of the CorpTech Web site reports that high
growth levels are expected around the country within emerging technology
companies with under 1000 employees. CorpTech obtained employment
projections earlier this year from 4079 of America's 34,137 technology
manufacturers with under 1000 employees. Over 46% plan to expand their work
force during the next year by an average of 17.2%, creating 28,309 new jobs
and generating sales opportunities for thousands of suppliers. More than one
company in six projects growth of over 25%. Note that the areas of
technology achieving the most rapid growth levels are telecommunications and
the Internet:
Employment Trends
| Growing at |
# of Comp. |
Employ Now |
Proj Chng |
Chg % |
| over 25% |
698 |
32,943 |
+15,680 |
47.6% |
| under 25% |
1,183 |
131,319 |
+12,629 |
9.6% |
| Telecom. & Internet |
409 |
31,805 |
+5,351 |
16.8% |
- The "Telecommunications and the Internet" industry category consists of
Internet service companies (data aggregation, infrastructure, security,
multimedia, and search); manufacturers of audio/visual, broadcasting /
receiving, electronic mail, telephone / voice, and network equipment
products; plus providers of related services.
- Because of "Convergence" and the rapid development and deployment of new
tools and products involving the Internet and telecommunications products,
Internet and Telecommunications companies continue to project strong growth
and are expected to keep on doing so. To learn more about the growth of the
Telecommunications / Internet sector, visit www.corptech.com, and peruse
copies of CorpTech's monthly newsletter, Technology Industry Growth
Forecaster.
Leveraging the Power of CorpTech Information to Approach/
Communicate With High Technology Companies
CorpTech Directories provide all the information you need to find and
communicate effectively with high technology companies. More than 50,000
companies and more than 150,000 executive contacts are listed - in fact, 3000
were added in 1998 alone.
- Gathering information. Regardless of whether you choose to pursue
Telecommunications / Internet or another high tech business category,
CorpTech maximizes your prospecting productivity. For example, most emerging
companies are privately held or are operating units of larger organizations,
which makes them difficult to find and even more difficult to explore.
CorpTech constantly gathers and updates information on these companies, and
makes it available to you in PC databases, printed directories, mailing
lists, and custom reports. You can use these custom reports to populate
lists of target companies according to prioritization criteria which you
select. In other words, the CorpTech EXPLORE Database helps you select both
the industry and the companies you want to approach.
- Great Detail and Accuracy. Using the CorpTech EXPLORE Database Gold CD,
you can select precisely those organizations you want from 18 high tech
industries; 3000 product-specific codes; 181,000 key executives; over 50,000
companies; plus 3500 internet developers and service providers. The CorpTech
EXPLORE database lets you leverage more than 30 selection criteria and the
3000 product codes to pinpoint precisely the information you need and want,
quickly. The best-known competitive databases miss up to 75% of what
CorpTech delivers.
- Most current information. You won't waste time pursuing dead-end
information with CorpTech because we verify all our comprehensive,
high-quality data on a frequent, regular basis. Furthermore, new companies
and operating units are being added constantly to ensure that the CorpTech
EXPLORE database stays accurate, detailed, and as totally current and
complete as technology allows.
- Easy, intuitive, and more productive. Some databases are unwieldy and
almost impossible to fathom. When CorpTech's EXPLORE database was developed,
the project had one key ground-rule: keep EXPLORE clear and easy to use. The
EXPLORE database is highly intuitive, which means you spend very little time
going through the process of accessing information - and more much time
capitalizing on information.
- Frequent CD upgrades and private Web database access. Rapid growth of
the businesses we cover means rapid changes in data, so part of the CorpTech
EXPLORE Gold package is quarterly CD upgrades. They'll help ensure that your
data stays current. Plus, you get exclusive members-only access to our Web
site, where information is updated every day. Nobody covers the rapidly
changing world of technology like we do. Of course, when you order the
CorpTech CD-ROM, you also receive our four-volume CorpTech Directory, a $795
value if you were to buy it separately.
- CorpTech Codes Provide Greater Selectivity. We've developed a set of
streamlined CorpTech business codes which expand "SIC" to three thousand
product codes, which helps guarantee that your searches give you exactly
what you're after and that nothing falls through the cracks.
- EXPLORE Gold delivers unexpected high-end features. EXPLORE Gold lets
you create and directly export personally addressed direct mail lists.
Robust sorting capability enables you to make files, print reports, and
conduct complete direct marketing campaigns.
- Expanded Web information access. CorpTech gives you links to company Web
sites, news release archives, competitive information databases, and more -
all of which extends the power and scope of your data search well beyond
anything you thought possible. You can find detailed information from both
EXPLORE and the Web links not just on companies, but also regarding their
products and initiatives.
- Familiar Windows-based environment. The EXPLORE GOLD database leverages
familiar Windows functionality; you can customize the database for maximum
advantage.
- Free Support. In the event you need technical support, you have
unlimited access to it - at no charge.
The Elements of Effective Communications
As you've seen, the growth of many High Technology companies is accelerating.
Once you've used the CorpTech EXPLORE database and the other Web information
sources we've mentioned here to select companies, your success with them hinges
on your ability to communicate clearly and effectively. The following are
important elements to consider whenever you approach new businesses, but are
particularly important when you approach high tech companies:
- Know exactly where you're going. The old cliché is true: if you don't
know where you're going, you're bound to wind up somewhere else. What are
your objectives? Be crystal-clear to yourself and to the person you're
approaching. Again, brevity is critical when dealing with technology
companies. You must let them know who, what, when, where, why, how, and how
much time...
- Orient your approach to the needs of your audience. Eliminate "I need"
or "I want" or "We are getting information" and instead use "Your opinion of
. . . is extremely important" or "We'd be grateful is you could share your
great knowledge of" or simply "We know you're really busy but your
experience is a rare commodity. . . we're wondering if you could take five
minutes some time in the next day or two or even now to..."
- Orient your presentation to the needs of your audience. Identify with
your target by using his/her industry's idioms and jargon and know what your
talking about. Help your target; somehow try to make his life easier. Go to
great lengths to accommodate him or her, and you'll find that favor
returned.
- What's in it for the target? If you can define customer benefits, do so.
If you're involved in research, people are interested in the results;
perhaps you can promise (and deliver) a results summary.
- Be brief!
- If you're selling, what makes your product ideal for this prospect? What
differentiates it from competition that is of significance to this prospect?
Again, orient your approach to the needs and wants of your target.
Conclusion / Summary
- Successful or emerging technology companies consist of people creating
and fulfilling needs in highly creative ways
- Tremendous progress in technologies demands incredibly fast response by
supplier companies, as a matter of survival
- Successfully communicating with high technology companies requires
strict orientation to their needs, wants, and time demands - and precision /
brevity!
- Expect change and be prepared to adapt / respond quickly
- in terms of
the companies themselves, what they are doing/producing, takeovers/mergers/
acquisitions: be prepared to turn on a dime or stand on your head because
that's what they WILL ask you to do.
- Leverage the power of the CorpTech EXPLORE database to help you pick the
right people in the right businesses; use CorpTech to create direct response
communications; and use CorpTech's free updates to keep all your business
information as current as is humanly possible.
* * *
How To Contact Us
To learn more about CorpTech products and services, please call CorpTech
Sales at 1-800-333-8036 or email us at
sales@corptech.com.
Copyright, CorpTech, 1999. Reprinted with permission.
Written by JMB Communications for GHW Associates, Summer, 1999.
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