Haddad-Wylie Industries develops diversity of marketing techniques - Houston Business Journal:

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These are the insights of James Kunkel, who has worked with smalkl business owners in one capacity or another for nearlgy 20 years at the Small Business Development Centerrat St. Vincent College in Latrobe. They also are lessone Haddad-Wylie Industries studied carefully as it grew intoa $10 milliohn company from a $500,000 start-upp in 2004. The early challenge for HWI was a common one forsmalkl businesses: how to reach potential clients aftee getting a couple of big projects behind you, when you have a good story to tell. “Getting people to trust is how President Heather Wylidedescribes it.
Husband Deric who is the company’s CEO and COO, had 10 experience building clean rooms for compoundingf pharmacies when the companywas “He knows the language,” Wylie said. A friend provider the company’s first job lead for its inaugural a clean room for a Duke UniversittyHospital pharmacy. The work was completed successfully, so the questionj became, what’s the secondc act? Using the office HWI printed a simpldetrifold brochure, which was mailed mostly to hospitals on the East “We killed our copier,” Wylie said. She followecd up the mailing with telephonecallss — a tried and true marketingg staple.
Between 2005 and 2007, Wylie said she made 48,000 follow-up calls. “It was tedious,” she said. “Iyt was very tedious.” It also worked. The simplee brochure and follow-up calls secured contracts at four Universityg of Pittsburgh Medical Center she said, as sales rose. “For us, it’s a lot of relationshipo building,” said Emily Gregory, who was hireds in 2007 as director of marketinvg and sales to developthe company’as marketing edge. It wasn’t long before the company begann seeing results fromthe effort, but not before Gregory looked over the trifold brochurer and scratched her head.
“This is reallyu complicated andI don’t understand the message,” she rememberede thinking. The result was a bigger, letter-sized which was spiral-bound. On the cover, the company’s servicesw were spelled out in three shorgt andconcise sentences. Inside were colod photographs offinished jobs. Saleas continued to improve thesame year, with HWI becomingf a preferred vendor at the Clevelands Clinic. HWI’s marketing efforts shifted agaij in 2008 with construction of a Web which coincided with the printing of a newsleek brochure.
The Web site and brochur allowed the company to creates auniform message, a uniform brand, Gregory The Web site “gave us another outletg for people to find us,” she The result was an increase in inquiries from one to two weeklhy to three to four. Howard Wessel, lab managere at South Side-based Stemnion Inc., was amonf HWI clients attracted by theWeb site. “Irt was very straightforward and answered a lot of he said. “It was that initial professionalism thatattractede me.” HWI began to try out other marketingg approaches. In 2008, company representative s beganattending one-on-one meetings with prospective clientzs that were arranged by a trade group.
This strategy further boosted sales. HWI still mails out brochuresd followed up with telephone but now the number of requests for informationh beganto grow. A tipping pointy had been reached, from pushing marketing to attracting “What’s nice about that is that it’s all of a suddenn pull insteadof push, and that’as where you want to be,” said Kunkel, St. Vincent’e Small Business Development Center’s executive “You want the buzz to be out there.
” In HWI began telling its story in a which is sent to currenrt andprospective clients, about the same time the company hired four salezs representatives who tout the company while boosting HWI’s sales are expected to reachn $15 million to $20 million this year as the companty plots the next shift in its marketingg strategy. “We are defying the Wylie said. “Everything that this company has gotteb isthrough marketing.
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