Marketing your B2B company via the right channels
Marketing your B2B company via the right channels
For business-to-business (B2B) companies, effective marketing begins with credible and attention-grabbing messaging. But you’ve also got to choose the right channels. Believe it or not, some “old school” approaches remain viable. And of course, your B2B digital marketing game must be strong.
Press releases
It doesn’t get much more old school than this. Launching a new product? Introducing a new service? Opening a new location? When your company has big news, getting the word out with a press release can still pay off.
Be sure to follow best practices when writing them. Include the topic’s who, what, where, when and why. Add a quote of at least two sentences from you (the business owner) or another leadership team member. If appropriate and feasible, also incorporate customer or industry expert testimonials.
In addition, maintain an updated contact list of press release recipients. Customarily, these include media outlets, business news aggregators, key customers, prospects, investors and other stakeholders.
Authoritative articles
Do you know of one or more industry publications that would be a good fit for sharing your knowledge and experience? If so, and you’re comfortable with the written word, submit an idea for an article.
Getting published in the right places can position you (or a suitable staff member) as a technical expert in your field. For example, write an article explaining why the types of products or services that your company provides are more important than ever in your industry. Or write one on the technologies that are most affecting your industry and what you expect the future to look like.
But be careful: Publications generally won’t accept content that comes off as advertising. Write articles as objectively as possible with only subtle mentions of your company’s offerings.
There are other options, too. You could pen an opinion piece on how a legislative proposal will likely affect your industry. Or you might write a tips-oriented article that lends itself to an online publication looking for short, easy-to-read content. For any type of article, insist on attribution for you and your business.
Digital marketing
Over the last couple of decades, digital marketing has taken the business world by storm. This holds true for B2B companies as well. Virtual channels are many, with possibilities including your website, blogs, various social media platforms and podcasts.
In fact, there are so many digital avenues you could travel down, you may find the concept overwhelming. There’s also a high risk of burnout. Many businesses add blogs to their websites or open social media accounts, post a few things, and then disappear into the ether. That’s not a good look for companies trying to establish themselves as industry experts.
To be successful at digital marketing, or even just to keep your website up to date, create an editorial calendar and stick to it. Devise a strategy to push out quality content regularly on your optimal channels. It can be authored by you, one or more qualified staff members, or a content marketing provider.
Critical role
Companies that provide B2B products or services must establish credibility and demonstrate expertise in whatever industry they operate. Marketing plays a critical role in this effort, so choose your channels carefully. We can help you identify, quantify and analyze all your marketing costs.
How businesses can better retain their salespeople
How businesses can better retain their salespeople
The U.S. job market has largely stabilized since the historic disruption of the pandemic and the unusual fluctuations that followed. But the fact remains that employee retention is mission-critical for businesses. Retaining employees is still generally less expensive than finding and hiring new ones. And strong retention is one of the hallmarks of a healthy employer brand.
One role that’s been historically challenging to retain is salesperson. In many industries, sales departments have higher turnover rates than other departments. If this has been the case at your company, don’t give up hope. There are ways to address the challenge.
Lay out the welcome mat
For starters, don’t focus retention efforts only on current salespeople. Begin during hiring and ramp up with onboarding. A rushed, confusing or cold approach to hiring can get things off on the wrong foot. In such cases, new hires tend to enter the workplace cautiously or skeptically, with their eyes on the exit sign rather than the “upper floors” of a company.
Onboarding is also immensely important. Many salespeople tell horror stories of being shown to a cubicle with nothing but a telephone on the desk and told to “Get to it.” With so many people still working remotely, a new sales hire might not even get that much attention. Welcome new employees warmly, provide ample training, and perhaps give them a mentor to help them get comfortable with your business and its culture.
Incentivize your team
Even when hiring and onboarding go well, most employees will still consider a competitor’s job offer if the pay is right. So, to improve your chances of retaining top sales producers and their customers, consider financial incentives.
Offering retention bonuses and rewards for maintaining or increasing sales — in addition to existing compensation plans — can help. Make such incentives easy to understand and clearly achievable. Although interim bonus programs might be expensive in the near term, they can stabilize sales and prevent sharp declines.
When successful, a bonus program will help you generate more long-term revenue to offset the immediate costs. That said, financial incentives need to be carefully designed so they don’t adversely affect cash flow or leave your business vulnerable to fraud.
Give them a voice
Salespeople interact with customers and prospects in ways many other employees don’t. As a result, they may have some great ideas for capitalizing on your company’s strengths and shoring up its weaknesses.
Look into forming a sales leadership team to help evaluate the potential benefits and risks of goals proposed during strategic planning. The team should include two to four top sellers who are given some relief from their regular responsibilities so they can offer feedback and contribute ideas from their distinctive perspectives. The sales leadership team can also:
- Serve as a clearinghouse for customer concerns and competitor strategies,
- Collaborate with the marketing department to improve messaging about current or upcoming product or service offerings, and
- Participate in developing new products or services based on customer feedback and demand.
Above all, giving your salespeople a voice in the strategic direction of the company can help them feel more invested in the success of the business and motivated to stay put.
Assume nothing
Business owners and their leadership teams should never assume they can’t solve the dilemma of high turnover in the sales department. The answer often lies in proactively investigating the problem and then taking appropriate steps to help salespeople feel more welcomed and appreciated. We can help your company calculate turnover rate, identify and track its hiring and employment costs, and assess the feasibility of financial incentives.
Which leadership skills are essential to strategic planning?
Which leadership skills are essential to strategic planning?
To help ensure continued stability and profitability, businesses need to engage in some form of strategic planning. A recent survey by insurance giant Travelers drives home this point.
In its 2024 CFO Study: A Travelers Special Report, the insurer surveyed 610 chief financial officers (CFOs) from companies with 500 or more employees in various industries. One of the questions posed was: What are the most valuable skills needed by today’s CFOs?
One might assume their answers would relate to being able to crunch numbers or understand complex regulations. But the top skill, coming from 62% of respondents, was “Strategic planning for future company success and resiliency.”
5 critical skills
Along with being somewhat surprising, the survey result begs the question: Which leadership skills, specifically, are essential to strategic planning? Among the five most important are the ability to:
1. View the company realistically and aspirationally. Strategic planning starts with a grounded view of where the company currently stands and a shared vision for where it should go. You and your leadership team need accurate information — including properly prepared financial statements, tax returns and sales reports — to establish a common perception of the state of the business. And from there, you need to be able to reach a mutually agreed-upon vision for the future.
2. Analyze the industry and market — and foresee impending changes. Everyone should be up to speed on the state of your industry and market from the pertinent perspective. Your CFO, for example, needs to be able to report on key performance indicators that place your company’s financial status in the context of industry averages and explain how those metrics compare to competitors in your market.
What’s more, everyone needs to develop the ability to make reasonable, fact-based predictions on where the industry and market are headed. Not every prediction will come true, but you’ve got to be able to forecast effectively as a team.
3. Understand customers and anticipate their needs. Again, from every member’s distinctive perspective, your leadership team needs to know who your customers truly are. This is where your marketing executive can come into play, laying out all the key features and demographics of those who buy your products or services.
Then you’ve got to put in the teamwork to determine what your customers want now and, even more important, what they will want in the future. That latter point is perhaps the biggest challenge of strategic planning.
4. Recognize the capabilities and resources of the business. Your company can operate only within realistic limits. These include the size of its workforce, the skill level of employees, and the availability of resources such as liquidity, physical assets and up-to-date technology.
Every member of your leadership team needs to be on the same page about what your business can realistically do before you decide where you can realistically go. Having a balanced collective of voices — financial, operational and technological — is critical.
5. Communicate effectively. Many companies struggle with strategic planning, not because of a shortage of ideas, but because of a failure to communicate. Leaders who tend to “silo” themselves and the knowledge of their respective departments can be particularly inhibitive. There are also those whose behavior or communication style is simply counterproductive. Continually work on improving how you and your leadership team communicate.
Confident growth
So, does your leadership team have all the requisite skills to succeed at strategic planning? If not, there are certainly ways to upskill your key players through training and performance management. We can help your business gather the financial information it needs to plan for the future confidently and decisively.
Business owners sometimes need to switch successors.
Business owners sometimes need to switch successors
For many business owners, choosing a successor is the most difficult task related to succession planning. Owners of family-owned businesses, who may have multiple children or other relatives to consider, particularly tend to struggle with this tough choice.
What’s worse, many business owners’ initial picks for successor don’t work out. Over time, the chosen person can prove to be unqualified, incapable, or unwilling to fulfill a leadership role. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t panic. There are some measured steps you can take to resolve the matter.
Ask around
Before you dismiss your chosen successor, discuss the situation with several objective parties. These might include professional advisors, such as your CPA and attorney, as well as trusted family members, friends or colleagues with business experience.
Your goal is to determine whether your perception is off the mark. You may think, for instance, that your successor lacks the necessary skills to run your company. But the person might simply have a different leadership style than you do. Talking with others may help you put things in perspective.
Look for ways to help
If you come to believe that, with some work, your successor may still be capable of running the business after all, meet with the person. State your concerns and outline what must change.
And don’t forget to listen. Ask why your successor is having the difficulties you’ve pointed out. Perhaps it’s a lack of formal training in one aspect of the job. In such cases, there may be a class that can help provide the needed education, or maybe more mentoring from you might solve the problem.
It’s also possible your successor is facing personal issues that are getting in the way of work. For example, the person may be having financial problems, battling an addiction, or struggling in a marriage or other personal relationship. By listening, you can find out what the specific issues are and how you may be able to help.
Avoid past mistakes
After talking with others, and perhaps your successor, you may still feel the person needs to be replaced. If you decide to move on to someone else, tell your successor as soon as possible and explain why. Being honest and forthright, though difficult, will help settle the matter efficiently. As part of the conversation, ask whether there’s anything you could’ve done differently to avoid the impasse that developed.
Following that discussion, reconstruct the succession planning process to determine what led you to choose your initial successor. Review personal notes, memos and emails. Speak again with your professional advisors as well as trusted employees, family members, friends, and colleagues about picking someone new. Ultimately, you want to develop objective criteria for your new successor and eliminate the impediments that kept your initial choice from working out.
Finally, if your second choice also doesn’t work out, stay open to the possibility that the problem may not lie with your prospective successors. It’s possible that the demands you’re placing on a successor may be somewhat unreasonable, or that you’re inadequately communicating your wishes and expectations.
Prepare for contingencies
Many business owners choose successors, work diligently to mentor them, and transition smoothly into retirement with their companies in safe hands. But, as you well know, rarely does everything go exactly as planned in the business world. Preparing for contingencies is key in succession planning. As part of that effort, we can help you integrate savvy tax and financial strategies into your plan.
Investing in the future with a 529 education plan
If you have a child or grandchild who’s going to attend college in the future, you’ve probably heard about qualified tuition programs, also known as 529 plans. These plans, named for the Internal Revenue Code section that provides for them, allow prepayment of higher education costs on a tax-favored basis.
There are two types of programs:
- Prepaid plans, which allow you to buy tuition credits or certificates at present tuition rates, even though the beneficiary (child) won’t be starting college for some time; and
- Savings plans, which depend on the investment performance of the fund(s) you place your contributions in.
You don’t get a federal income tax deduction for a contribution, but the earnings on the account aren’t taxed while the funds are in the program. (Contributors are eligible for state tax deductions in some states.) You can change the beneficiary or roll over the funds in the program to another plan for the same or a different beneficiary without income tax consequences.
Distributions from the program are tax-free up to the amount of the student’s “qualified higher education expenses.” These include tuition (including up to $10,000 in tuition for an elementary or secondary public, private or religious school), fees, books, supplies and required equipment. Reasonable room and board is also a qualified expense if the student is enrolled at least half time.
Distributions from a 529 plan can also be used to make tax-free payments of principal or interest on a loan to pay qualified higher education expenses of the beneficiary or a sibling of the beneficiary.
What about distributions in excess of qualified expenses? They’re taxed to the beneficiary to the extent that they represent earnings on the account. A 10% penalty tax is also imposed.
Eligible schools include colleges, universities, vocational schools or other postsecondary schools eligible to participate in a student aid program of the U.S. Department of Education. This includes nearly all accredited public, nonprofit and for-profit postsecondary institutions.
However, “qualified higher education expenses” also include expenses for tuition in connection with enrollment or attendance at an elementary or secondary public, private or religious school.
A school should be able to tell you whether it qualifies.
The contributions you make to the qualified tuition program are treated as gifts to the student, but the contributions qualify for the gift tax exclusion amount ($16,000 for 2022, adjusted for inflation). If your contributions in a year exceed the exclusion amount, you can elect to take the contributions into account ratably over a five-year period starting with the year of the contributions. Thus, assuming you make no other gifts to that beneficiary, you could contribute up to $80,000 per beneficiary in 2022 without gift tax. (In that case, any additional contributions during the next four years would be subject to gift tax, except to the extent that the exclusion amount increases.) You and your spouse together could contribute $160,000 for 2022 per beneficiary, subject to any contribution limits imposed by the plan.
A distribution from a qualified tuition program isn’t subject to gift tax, but a change in beneficiary or rollover to the account of a new beneficiary may be. Contact us with questions about tax-saving ways to save and pay for college.
Succession planning: Expanding beyond ownership
Business owners are regularly urged to create and update their succession plans. And rightfully so — in the event of an ownership change, solid succession planning can help prevent conflicts and preserve the legacy you’ve spent years or decades building.
But if you want to take your succession plan to the next level, consider expanding its scope beyond ownership. Many companies have key employees, perhaps a CFO or an account executive, who play a critical role in the success of the business.
Your succession plan could include any employee who’s considered indispensable and difficult to replace because of experience, industry or technical knowledge, or other characteristics.
Look to the future
The first step is to identify those you consider essential employees. Whose departure would have the most significant consequence for your business and its strategic plan? Then, when you have a list of names, who might succeed them?
Pinpointing successors calls for more than simply reviewing or updating job descriptions. The right candidates must have the capability to carry out your company’s short- and long-term strategic plans and goals, which their job descriptions might not reflect.
Succession planning should take a forward-looking perspective. The current jobholder’s skills, experience and qualifications are only a starting point. What worked for the last 10 or 20 years might not cut it for the next 10 or 20.
Identify your HiPos
When the time comes, many businesses publicize open positions and invite external candidates to apply. However, it’s easier (and often advantageous) to groom internal candidates before the need arises. To do so, you’ll want to identify your “high potential” (HiPo) employees — those with the ambition, motivation and ability to move up substantially in your organization.
Assess your staff using performance evaluations, discussions about career plans and other tools to determine who can assume greater responsibility now, in a year or in several years. And look beyond the executive or management level; you may discover HiPos in lower-ranking positions.
Develop individual action plans
Once you’ve identified potential internal candidates, develop individual plans for each to follow. Consider your business’s needs, as well as each candidate’s personality and learning style.
An action plan should include multiple components. One example is job shadowing. It will give the candidate a good sense of what is involved in the position under consideration. Other components could include leadership roles on special projects, training, and mentoring and coaching.
Share your vision for the person’s future to ensure common goals. You can update action plans as your company’s and employees’ needs evolve.
Account for the job market
Succession planning beyond ownership is more important than ever in a tight job market. Vacancies for key employees are often difficult to fill — especially for demanding, highly skilled and top-tier positions. We’d be happy to help you review your succession plan and identify which positions may have the greatest financial impact on the continued profitability of your business.
The long and short of succession planning
For many business owners, putting together a succession plan may seem like an overwhelming task. It might even seem unnecessary for those who are relatively young and have no intention of giving up ownership anytime soon.
But if the past year or so have taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen. Owners who’ve built up considerable “sweat equity” in their companies shouldn’t risk liquidation or seeing the business end up in someone else’s hands only because there’s no succession plan in place.
Variations on a theme
To help you get your arms around the concept of succession planning, you can look at it from three different perspectives:
1. The long view. If you have many years to work with, use this gift of time to identify one or more talented individuals who share your values and have the aptitude to successfully run the company. This is especially important for keeping a family-owned business in the family.
As soon as you’ve identified a successor, and he or she is ready, you can begin mentoring the incoming leader to competently run the company and preserve your legacy. Meanwhile, you can carefully identify how to best fund your retirement and structure your estate plan.
2. An imminent horizon. Many business owners wake up one day and realize that they’re almost ready to retire, or move on to another professional endeavor, but they’ve spent little or no time putting together a succession plan. In such a case, you may still be able to choose and train a successor. However, you’ll likely also want to explore alternatives such as selling the company to a competitor or other buyer. Sometimes even liquidation is the optimal move financially.
In any case, the objective here is less about maintaining the strategic direction of the company and more about ensuring you receive an equitable payout for your ownership share. If you’re a co-owner, a buy-sell agreement is highly advisable. It’s also critical to set a firm departure date and work with a qualified team of advisors.
3. A sudden emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed attention to emergency succession planning. True to its name, this approach emphasizes enabling the business to maintain operations immediately after an unforeseen event causes the owner’s death or disability.
If your company doesn’t yet have an emergency succession plan, you should probably create one before you move on to a longer-term plan. Name someone who can take on a credible leadership role if you become seriously ill or injured. Formulate a plan for communicating and delegating duties during a crisis. Make sure everyone knows about the emergency succession plan and how it will affect day-to-day operations, if executed.
Create the future
As with any important task, the more time you give yourself to create a succession plan, the fewer mistakes or oversights you’re likely to make. Our firm can help you create or refine a plan that suits your financial needs, personal wishes and vision for the future of your company.
© 2021
7 ways to prepare your business for sale
For some business owners, succession planning is a complex and delicate matter involving family members and a long, gradual transition out of the company. Others simply sell the business and move on. There are many variations in between, of course, but if you’re leaning toward a business sale, here are seven ways to prepare:
1. Develop or renew your business plan. Identify the challenges and opportunities of your company and explain how and why it’s ready for a sale. Address what distinguishes your business from the competition, and include a viable strategy that speaks to sustainable growth.
2. Ensure you have a solid management team. You should have a management team in place that’s, essentially, a redundancy of you. Your leaders should have the vision and know-how to keep the company moving forward without disruption during and after a sale.
3. Upgrade your technology. Buyers will look much more favorably on a business with up-to-date, reliable and cost-effective IT systems. This may mean investing in upgrades that make your company a “plug and play” proposition for a new owner.
4. Estimate the true value of your business. Obtaining a realistic, carefully calculated business appraisal will lessen the likelihood that you’ll leave money on the table. A professional valuator can calculate a defensible, marketable value estimate.
5. Optimize balance sheet structure. Value can be added by removing nonoperating assets that aren’t part of normal operations, minimizing inventory levels, and evaluating the condition of capital equipment and debt-financing levels.
6. Minimize tax liability. Seek tax advice early in the sale process — before you make any major changes or investments. Recent tax law changes may significantly affect a business owner’s tax position.
7. Assemble all applicable paperwork. Gather and update all account statements and agreements such as contracts, leases, insurance policies, customer/supplier lists and tax filings. Prospective buyers will request these documents as part of their due diligence.
Succession planning should play a role in every business owner’s long-term goals. Selling the business may be the simplest option, though there are many other ways to transition ownership. Please contact our firm for further ideas and information.
© 2018