We migrated Mitra Creative’s hosting and mail to a new platform over the 2007 Thanksgiving weekend. This temporarily disabled the Mitra Creative Blog. It is now operational again.

We look forward to continuing to provide informative entries in weeks, months and years to come. Stay tuned!

I attended the recent Outsource World New York 2007 trade show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Outsource World was co-located with a larger tech industry show called Interop.

In addition to our U.S.-based clients, my company, Mitra Creative, works with a number of overseas business enterprises, principally in the technology field. To date, our international clients have hailed primarily from Asia, including India, Taiwan, Mainland China and Bangladesh. I attended this year’s Outsource World show to see if we might find potential new clients and partners.

I started my Javits Center visit at Interop, where the principal representation was from very large IT companies. As stated on the Interop website, these included “APC, Cisco, Citrix, Foundry Networks, IBM, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Nokia, ShoreTel and Siemens.” I saw leading telcos, additional manufacturers, but few VARs/integrators. Almost all were big name brands that did not have to work very hard to present their identity. From a “buzz” perspective, the show achieved its usual success.

When I migrated to Outsource World, virtually all of the providers, from Asia, Europe and Eastern Europe, South America, etc., were, as I expected, software, application and web developers. Though a highly professional and well-organized show overall, I confess it was not very well-attended. As my eyes swept around the room, I realized why.

Trade shows, in the current day, are “consolidating”. That’s a polite way of saying that they are still vital parts of the marketing and sales canvas, but the most successful shows present brands which are very clearly defined. Branding of that level of effectiveness usually comes from household names with big budgets. Smaller, earnest, independent brands struggle to compete with such powerful identity.

The exception to the rule is the provider that, even if on a start-uppy, grass-roots level, can articulate their NICHE FOCUS. At a different, recent NYC trade show, I saw a still enterprising, still young-ish company called OOMA, that has been quite successful in articulating why their technology — a broadband telecommunications device — is special. They have a succinct elevator pitch, and are very clear in demonstrating how their machine stands above the VoIP pack. “NO CHARGE for calls in the US! Instant Second Line™ Broadband Answering Machine™”, etc. Powerful stuff, including their own, branded, value-added offerings–a simple pitch that has broad appeal. One of our clients, Annet Technologies, a custom software and application development/customization firm based in India and the U.S., has — through their own hard work and our help — done something similar. They have found a unique voice. Though their offerings are far broader than OOMA’s, and certainly similar to those of many competitors, their uniqueness comes from having obtained deep industry experience in the Real Estate vertical. They have invested in niche focus while still delivering powerful cost-controls for their clients; therefore, making themselves special.

This, I confess, was what was missing at Outsource World. All of the offerings seemed similar. I had a lot of difficulty finding in their marketing materials that “magical” niche focus — vertical industry expertise, a very specialized development focus, etc. — that would grab my attention. Often, the same situation exists for VARs and integrators in the U.S. They have had years of entrenchment with long-term clients, and can show past success through direct sales relationships, but they are missing any kind of messaging and differentiation that can pull them away from exclusive reliance on the “books of business” of existing and new sales teams. These companies may have done remarkable, unique things for their financial services, medical and legal industry, media and entertainment, public sector, retail, education and other clients, or they may have very special partnerships with IT manufacturers with numerous levels of differentiation, but articulation of this is nil.

Custom software development firms in the U.S. and throughout the world, VARs, integrators, etc.–FIND YOUR VOICE! For U.S. IT service companies with access to MDF monies from leading manufacturer partners, don’t leave these funds on the table, use them to bring out your organization’s individualistic qualities. For enterprises without benefit of such partner relationships, spend your marketing budget wisely–come to trade shows, etc. with a strong story to tell about the unique things that you do. For all of the companies described here, these practices will, without a doubt, make B2B clients take notice and, subsequently, will create profitable new business opportunities for you.

We just learned that our company, Mitra Creative, received a Gold Award in this year’s MarCom Creative Awards for:

• “DERIVE TECHNOLOGIES ONLINE: A MAKEOVER”

• http://www.derivetech.com

• Category: Web Site Overall

• Award: Gold

This is the first competition that we’ve been a part of and our first award. We are very excited about this achievement and the potential to deliver more winning solutions for current and future clients!

I once asked a colleague — a talented designer who owns his own firm — who he felt his competition was. He came up with some typical answers but concluded that his biggest competition “is the assistant in (his client’s) office with a copy of Photoshop.”

Providers of marketing, communications and design solutions to small and medium-sized companies often face this challenge. How do you differentiate the services that you provide from the materials developed by internal staff. Small business owners keep things close to the vest and are often unaware of the value to their brand that is gained by utilizing the talent of professionals with many years of experience.

While my company, Mitra Creative, successfully serves the needs of enterprises of different sizes, we frequently confront similar obstacles with our SMB clients. How have we gotten past these objections? A few examples:

• Trust: Smaller business owners and stakeholders often choose trust over cost as long as your prices are reasonable. Keep costs under control and, without intrusiveness, report the achievement of important milestones to key stakeholders–especially ones that can be tied to increases in your clients’ revenue.
• Put Marketing to Work: Something I’ve said to many of my clients is that “A website shouldn’t just provide information about your company, it should be one of your employees.” It is critical that all of your clients, especially your smaller business clients, perceive that you are projecting the end results of their marketing activities in the planning stages and throughout the entire delivery process. If you are just “fulfilling”, you are not a part of their company and, ultimately, you become just a commodity.
• DON’T BE FLAKY!!!: If you say you will deliver on something for a smaller business, DO IT! Most SMBs do not have the time or budget to restart a project that they have entrusted to you. This does not mean that you are indispensable; it means that you impact the bottom line of a smaller business for a brief but crucial period if you don’t achieve your goals. Make sure that you clearly define your delivery process up-front and immediately report to the right parties any obstacles that you hit so that you can remediate issues as they occur. While you don’t want to overreport — thus, adding burden to key personnel — you also don’t want to take on problems alone that can’t be solved alone and will impact the success of your project. It is better to let your clients know what you are facing than not to give them what they expect when they expect it.