Mayfield Consulting has provided long-term sales and marketing support for many clients over the years. Multiple Mayfield clients have even landed on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing List. What is their secret? Well, there is no secret sauce. Each company is different, but perhaps the details of their very different management and growth strategies will help you determine your own.
CLIENT 1
Carefully select the industry. Client 1 researched and chose the Security industry, finding it would be a space that is fairly recession proof. Much like funeral homes and the IRS, people don’t stop dying or having to pay taxes, criminals will not stop committing crimes. In fact, property crime in the U.S. is much more common than violent crime, with theft being the most common form of property crime in recent years according to the PEW Research Center.
Scope out the competitive landscape — Client 1 also based his decision to invest on the fact that the product had little to no competition. Usually this is hard to believe, but this company had technology and extensive on-site customer tech service as barriers to entry, so there was little competition from other companies with similar offerings.
Assess avenues for revenue — Bonus points since this product had reoccurring revenue associated with it.
Expand business and look for opportunities — With a few local clients that fell under a bigger nationwide umbrella, Client 1 decided to pursue more national accounts. The local clients helped by sharing testimonials on product effectiveness with their national headquarters. By providing what the competitors could not – exceptional and timely on-site tech service nationwide – Client 1 began to sign large national orders and exceptional revenue growth followed.
CLIENT 2
Become an expert in your industry — Client 2 spent years building their reputation as the go-to expert in the Technology industry. Through social media, client testimonials, frequently posting helpful content and blogs, and especially attending and speaking at events and training sessions, Client 2 became a known and sought-after expert in their field.
Use your expertise to partner with the right companies — As our client earned the label of industry expert, partnering with a large company hastened their industry expert reputation. Our client is an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for Microsoft. The name recognition as an expert, along with top-level certification, brought in leads and opportunities.
Add to your offerings — Use your partnership and reputation as an expert to stay on top of emerging products or technologies – and add these offerings. It worked.
CLIENT 3
Even an old-line business, in a commodity industry plagued with declining revenues, can manage to achieve unprecedented growth. This client was able to achieve growth in a highly competitive industry, taking its revenue from flat to 24%+ annual growth.
Put in place fundamental sales and marketing — Mayfield’s in-depth interviewing was able to discover what they needed to do to squeeze out and beat the competition. It wasn’t price (which was a surprise in this commodity market), but flexible delivery. Many of their products were used on a construction site - making forecasting when delivery was needed difficult. Client 3 also developed a Preferred Customer Program for those customers that could forecast annual product need and delivery times. This meant our client could more efficiently plan manufacturing, without increasing inventory to meet spikes in customer demand. An interesting sidenote discovered in the customer feedback was that product quality was often judged by something simple and visual like a paint job.
Put in place fundamental operations — Client 3 added a personal touch by calling customers at various points of the buying process. Customers appreciated this special service, allowing them to adjust delivery if needed resulting in a more satisfied client base. In fact, a 2021 Customer Survey showed 100% client satisfaction!
Invest when sales begin to grow — When a company begins full growth mode, it’s time to evaluate capacity. This often will require new technology to be implemented to keep things running smoothly and avoid bottlenecks. Our client upgraded their ERP, CRM, website, online store, and customer portal. These investments bolstered manufacturing and sales efficiency and ultimately led to even greater bottom-line success.
Three different clients in very different industries, listened to their customers and reacted with very different strategies to put into play ways to succeed and grow. Let us know if we can help! 
