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5 Replies Last post: Dec 24, 2008 1:25 PM by dcmarik

How do we reach CFO's?

Dec 20, 2008 4:32 PM

dcmarik 21 posts since
Dec 3, 2008

Our company has developed an internet search process that is presently reducing corporate travel costs by 20% to 45% off what business travelers have been paying. We have almost 200 active clients (with a 100% retention rate, the success of the procedure speaks for itself) but are having difficulty getting our message through to the CFO's of small to medium size corporations because of the (obvious and understandable) barriers present to protect them from nuisance calls.

Any CFO who doesn't want to reduce business travel costs in this down market is missing out on some serious bottom line savings, but if we can't get the offer through to them, they never know what they are missing.

Any suggestions on how to jump the barricades and reach them?

Don Marikovics
myinhousetravel.com

Tags: cfo, ceo, sales, management, travel Report as inappropriate

DomainDiva 1,732 posts since
Oct 10, 2007

1. Re: How do we reach CFO's? Dec 20, 2008 4:37 PM

What you need is some advertising and marketing advice. Contact IWrite, another member of this forum. He handles all of our advertising.

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LUCKIEST 7,938 posts since
Aug 6, 2007

2. Re: How do we reach CFO's? Dec 20, 2008 5:34 PM

How do we reach CFO's, Welcome Don

It sounds to me like you need a Marketing Plan.

Do you know about SCORE?? SCORE is FREE both in person and on line and can help you with marketing and MORE. In fact SCORE has a FREE Virtual learning Center with 26 online courses.

Good luck, LUCKIEST

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dcmarik 21 posts since
Dec 3, 2008

3. Re: How do we reach CFO's? Dec 20, 2008 9:10 PM

in response to: LUCKIEST

Actually, we have a marketing plan. We have sent out press releases, e-mail blasts, telemarketing and printed brochures.

The problem is that while our service is unique, our structure appears to be that of a normal travel agency and prospective clients immediately consider us as such. Frankly, if a "travel agent" claimed to be able to lower my business travel expenses by 20% to 40% I would probably file that message under Spam as well.

In fact, all of our new clients have resulted from personal referrals from our existing clientele. We have a 100% retention rate.

Your recommendation to contact SCORE was a good one. I am scheduling a meeting with a local counselor to discuss our situation.

Thank you,
Don Marikovics
myinhousetravel.com

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BrassJmes 35 posts since
Dec 8, 2008

4. Re: How do we reach CFO's? Dec 21, 2008 2:59 AM

in response to: dcmarik

Hi dcmarik

A number of things come to mind
Have you tried hiring a sales manager whose sole purpose will be finding a way to contact large companies and reach someone who might be interested?
Have you tried placing advertisements in business magazines?
Have you tried wording your ads differently? just like you said, when people see a special sale or something that is too good to be true they too often don't read into it. you could try to label your ad along the lines of "A new way to reduce company travel expenses" (or something a bit less cheesy, I spend more than 5 seconds thinking of that 1, you could do a whole lot better)

Wish you luck, and please come back and tell us how things are progressing

Jmes

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dcmarik 21 posts since
Dec 3, 2008

5. Re: How do we reach CFO's? Dec 24, 2008 1:25 PM

in response to: BrassJmes

Thanks for the feedback Brass.

We have a full time sales VP who closes 90% of the qualified leads that he sees. QWualified means that in one way or another the prospective client has taken the time to actually listen to an explanation of how our system functions and understands that there is a potential for a serious cost savings. (Most contacts made whether via e mail or telemarketing do not listen to what is being said to them and they assume to know what we do and therefore presume that we are like other business travel services, then they lose interest)

In any case, the problem is not closing a qualified lead, it is getting a qualified lead. Our Sales VP faces the same frustrating scenario that the rest of us do when it comes to actually getting 5 minutes time to explain how much we can save a traveler on a business trip to the decision maker for corporate travel. That is our quest here: to try and find the best way to get over the firewalls that surround the decision makers inorder to explain to them what we do.

Advertisements are iffy at best for the same reason. As soon as a reader sees "Corporate Travel Service" he already 'knows all about us and what we do'. Of course they don't but the effectiveness of the ad is decimated immedately by their preconceptions.

New wording is something that we will try. I think we ahve been to tame in our approach. Too factual, perhaps. I am going to draft some new copy and post it here later. Maybe you could give some feedback on it then.

Thanks again

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How do we reach CFO's?

Dec 20, 2008 4:32 PM

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