Making a Difference the JM2 Way

This past weekend we met with two great clients on Saturday about how together we will work collaboratively together with their website, branding, and marketing of their organizations. The first lasted several hours about our services and digging deep into the realm of what our social media offered. The next inquired why we would want to work with their specific industry as they said they were slow pay and were by design hard to work with. In this article, we're going to look back at these two meetings and see how two different approaches align well with our Valparaiso Indiana company and why it shows why our three-year building process has put us in a place for rapid growth.

First Meeting

A company with no marketing, no business name, no logo, and no social media experience. All they have is some expertise, knowledge, and a desire to help businesses grow. As we talked we white boarded ideas, went over color combinations, researched others in their industry, and came up with the core areas for us to start working on unique quality content to create for them. What was beneficial is they had already done the research and were ready to begin.

Start of the solution

Our solution will be multifaceted and will utilize every department JM2 offers today and what is coming. The solution will be providing:

• Refinement of colors
• Creation of business name concepts
• Created of logo concepts
• Creation of a custom-built website with quality content and images
• Create solution media pages that are where their targeted customers are
• Work on paid advertising on social media as well as the search engines
• Customized videos that are unique and target the audience that the customer is looking to engage with

Second Meeting

Our second meeting was shorter than the first but equally informative. The client brought multiple pages of notes, questions, and suggestions for improvement. During the meeting, we asked more questions than we normally do as with the industry this client is in our normal process of the client talking and answering questions without having to ask them we knew wouldn't be happening. We dove into areas of current processes, processes we found that were completely missing, as well as areas they were doing good but could improve upon.

Start of the solution

With this solution, we are taking a different approach than the first as the client's needs are different. We will be using all the departments at our Northwest Indiana office provides while continuing to not outsource any item and will most likely be adding to our team to further provide a superior customer experience.

• Look at current business processes and improve them. We have already outlined several where we can cut the workload by two-thirds while also removing redundancy.
• Create thirty-minute to two-hour videos for the client which will be used to educate and inform their targeted customers and showcase what makes them a unique organization.
• Creation of customized content and graphics that are delivered each week.
• Bringing back a consistent branding colors that have been changed over the past fifty years.

Both Solutions

As with all our clients we talked with both of our clients about not only what will be our parameters for success but also what would be parameters for failure. By knowing what success and failure look like we clearly know the key areas the client is looking at. We then went over additional items that weren't brought up that we know based on our experience should be added to both the success and failure areas that we will be looking at.

But how can we do this and be priced fair for the client?

The question that everyone asks is how can a company that is just a few years old make such a difference. The company itself may be just a few years old but the working to build the company is over twenty years of experience, some solid military discipline, and a true desire and love to see small and mid-size businesses grow. This is the true secret (or magic sauce if you will) to our success. We have learned from every previous engagement during this time and created solutions to speed our processes.

We have very humble beginnings and will not change from that. In fact, every Sunday we reflect over the past week, and month, and make certain we are not changing course from the core values of the company. We purchased an entire building to increase our space by 17-fold. We did this as the cost in doing so was nearly the exact same price we were paying before which allowed for a further expansion of our services and using our already on-staff experts to use more of their unique skills.

With the owner of the company having a solid Information Technology background and a solid love for technology we have invested wisely in areas that improve processes by reducing steps that might otherwise be taken. We also take a step away from technology and do many old-school techniques like whiteboarding processes, talking, and spending the necessary time getting to know our clients.

Pricing Differences

We are very upfront with our clients that our pricing is 5% over our cost. This is not typical with any business model. Many will not talk their markup as it is considerably higher or used to provide discounts during contract negotiations. As we come up with a plan for a client we sit and figure out how many hours it will take over the course of a year. We then divide that by twelve. We know initially the costs will be higher and that as we go forward and establish our relationship more with the client that the time will shorten.

Conclusion

By being different, unique, up-front, and fair with our clients we can not only establish an old-school business relationship but one that is built on honesty and mutual respect. By communicating well and working together we can help our clients grow. It is only when lines of communication breakdown that failure happens. If you want to work for a client that is willing to push themselves and sacrifice nothing to see your dreams come true we would love to talk with you and see if together we would be a great fit. You can reach us at @BUSINESSPHONETOLLFREE@, email at @BUSINESSEMAILADDRESS@, or through our online contact form here.