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In 2008 and 2009 the global credit crunch hit mid-market companies hard making it hard even for healthy mid-market companies, especially in the US and Canada, to keep or secure financing for their businesses during this period of significant change. During this credit crunch we have found that mid-market organizations are struggling more than smaller companies or larger companies.

‘Mid-market companies must master complexity.” This is the finding from a study on mid-market organizations by IBM in February 2009. The complexity arises because these mid-market companies have thin management teams who have to cover issues on a wide front plus cope with more uncertainty than companies that are smaller or larger. As a result everything is important to the management of the mid-sized company and change can come from any direction.

We find the biggest challenge to rapid change is bringing together the information you need in one place at one time with the key people so you can decide what are the most important issues to focus on. A study by Deloitte Consulting in 2006 of 350 private companies in Canada found that most leaders thought the top three strategies that would increase the value of their companies were: increasing the volume of business; improving the quality of their management team; and product innovation. In times of significant change, especially adverse change it is often very difficult for mid-market organizations to make progress in these three areas. In contrast we have found that in tough times the strategies that are often more effective include: reformatting the pricing/product and service offerings; improving asset utilization; and decreasing overhead costs to ensuring the survival of the business. However these strategies require more planning and detailed costing information than is readily available in many mid-market organizations.

Gridlock is a common situation in Mid-market companies. It is often easier for the managers to do nothing than deal with conflict amongst shareholders or leaders on key issues. In the good times, doing nothing can work well. The delay means more time to gather information and in some cases the challenges go away on their own, or someone else solves the problem for the leadership. However gridlock is fatal for a mid-market company in the tough times. They have to change to survive. So the leadership of a mid-market business has to constantly address what will change and the associated timing and consequences.

In tough times only the leadership can make the tough choices and these choices have major consequences. The leaders of mid-market companies find they are making decisions that can mean survival or death for the business. The toughest issue to understand is that not making a choice leads to failure of the business and yet making a choice is not a guarantee of survival but just another leap of faith. While the leader would like to take cover from the storm, the challenge is to help the leader to see the benefits of making changes to ‘dance in the rain’ rather than ducking for cover.

Significant changes can be triggered by the general state of the economy or a melt down in an industry sector but often the worst situation is when a key customer suddenly stops buying from the mid-market company. In these circumstances the business often runs out of time to get things back on track plus the business often runs out of money just as things seem to be getting better.

The reason stakeholders support a leader of a business is because they believe the leader has a vision of where to take the business and that vision is going to be profitable for all concerned. However as soon as a leader is lost and does not know where to take the business, the risk is the leader starts to lose interest in the business. The other extreme is the leader is so focused on the short term they don’t know if it is time for the business to change direction. For either of these situations the leader should get help to set a new direction or step aside so someone else with vision can lead the business. However many leaders of mid-market organizations do not have strong governance models to remove them and their ego is such they do not want to step aside.

The failure rate amongst mid-market companies is very high during the tough times unless the leader is willing to recognize they are in unfamiliar territory and seek help to cope with a work load that often more than doubles during these times.

Stuart Morley MBA is a recognised expert in advising mid-sizedcompanies during their rebuilding phase. Go to his website Rebuilding Middle Market Companies for more information including video clips, articles specifically for mid-sizedmarket organizations and order his recently co-authored book (with Gord Griffiths and Morris Slemko) called “Weather the Storm” Survival Guide for Mid Market Organizations.

Your company can make more sales consistently by using a marketing approach known as lead scoring. This method focuses on priority leads first.

Lead scoring is a marketing concept in which each of the potential clients a company is hoping to work with is given a score. The score represents how likely that client is to make a purchase. This score is given to the sales department so that they can give their primary attention to the leads with the highest scores. This strategy is a relatively new one in the realm of demand marketing, but it is effective.

B2B companies that primarily work online need to collect both explicit and implicit information on the companies they are hoping to work with. This will help their lead scoring be more effective. Your B2B business should find out the size of a company that is a potential client, where it is located, what industry it is in, and the name of your lead there. Other necessary details include whether or not they are receiving your email newsletter, if they subscribe to your company’s blog, and how often they visit your website.

What you do with your lead scoring is also important. Analysis of your lead scoring process and results is a crucial step in marketing your business. Careful notes must be kept on the process of following up with each potential client. Salespeople should keep track of how long it takes to close a deal after reception of the lead, how accurate the scoring was and if the deal falls through, why? This data should be tracked back to the lead scoring process to make sure it is being done correctly. It may be that some individuals are scoring leads properly while others are not. It may be that the system is flawed at some point and needs to be revamped.

Using lead scoring to prioritize your B2B company’s online marketing and sales is a smart decision. This makes your sales team more efficient and helps them increase revenue with new clients. Instead of wasting time with potential clients that are simply browsing your products and services, lead scoring lets your sales team focus on clients who are ready to buy now.

Ray Perry is an Internet marketing executive with more than 25 years of experience. He is the Chief Marketing Officer at Market Blazer, a small business marketing company and authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach. You can get more information about lead scoring at www.MarketBlazer.com.

There are many ways to increase the results a company is achieving from their marketing, but there is one approach that any company can take that is particularly effective. This strategy is known as corporate communications using publicity marketing and promotion. This advertising technique generally consists of the use of free gifts and other promotions to attract new and existing customers towards a company’s products.

If you want to use this type of marketing for your business, you should be aware that there is truly no right or wrong way to use this type of marketing. When you are creating your marketing strategy, it is always a good idea to analyze what is working, as well as what is not working, for the other companies operating in the global economy.

Almost everyone loves a free gift. Free gifts are tremendously attractive to consumers who are always looking for a good deal. Also, you can use this type of promotion to promote the products your company produces. If you give away a product that is very popular at your company, you can be sure you will attract a great deal of attention through your promotions.

If you do not want to spend a great deal of time and money on your promotional offerings, you should be aware of the other marketing strategies that you can implement in order to increase the amount of awareness your company receives. Also, if you want to attract many customers, while still building a strong relationship with all of your customers, you may want to take advantage of the strategies that use a variety of small gifts, rather than one large gift, in the giveaway your company offers.

Corporate communications using publicity marketing and promotion should always be focused on building a strong relationship with customers. If you can build a relationship with your customers, you are in a great position create a loyal relationship with your customers. Within this relationship, you are in a wonderful position to promote ideas and concepts that your company is strongly associated with.

You should also remember, if you want to utilize this type of marketing, that a free giveaway does not have to be the sole basis of your advertising. You can also communicate information or ideas through this type of advertising to greatly increase and enhance the desirability of the products your company produces.

You should also remember, and value, the relationship building aspect of this kind of marketing. When you are giving away free gifts, or you are offering promotional ideas, you are providing information that your customers will think about during their daily lives. This means that when you create one of these promotions, you are creating a relationship with all of the customers who will see your promotion. This relationship building aspect of promotional marketing can often generate a large amount of profits for any business.

Get more information on corporate communications using publicity at Annie Jennings PR. Experience the terrific benefits of using publicity along with your business and corporate communications strategy. You’ll be happy with the outcome.