#02 Enter into contract with Applied Marketing Sciences for Lead Generation Program
Economic Development Department Memorandum
February 27, 2012
TO: City Council
FROM: Vic Grassman, Economic Development Director
SUBJECT: Authorization for the City Manager to Enter into a Contract with
Applied Marketing Sciences for a “Lead Generation” Program for
Economic Development Business Attraction.
Executive Summary
Applied Marketing Sciences, located in Carmel, Indiana is a company that
focuses on the identification and qualification of prospects for their economic
development clients (www.appliedmktg.com). Since 2001, the company has
used a variety of proprietary evaluation/profiling techniques to develop qualified
business leads for a variety of state, regional and local economic development
organizations. The definition of “qualified” is that the potential prospect has or
will have an expansion/relocation project and a genuine interest in considering a
client’s geographic area for a future expansion. This “lead” should also belong to
one of the client’s targeted industries.
The Janesville proposal consists of two initiatives to begin a proactive economic
development “lead generation” program. The focus will be on generating leads in
the following industries: advanced manufacturing, related healthcare products,
logistics, plastics and food processing.
The two initiatives are:
Site Selectors: Setting up meetings with pre-qualified site consultants in
Chicago, Dallas or Atlanta who have specific interests in learning about
Janesville. This is an opportunity to educate these professionals on
Janesville’s locational attributes including its commitment to “Speed to
Market” in the business development process, location and logistics
benefits. In addition, this would provide an opportunity to showcase
Janesville’s “value proposition” from a business cost perspective.
Examples would include land costs, incentives, training resources
employee productivity and proximity to major markets. Commitment 8-10
meetings - cost $2,500.00
International Tradeshow Development: Identify a specific international
tradeshow that focuses on one of our targeted industries and set up
appointments with qualified prospects that have an interest in potentially
expanding into our area. Since most economic development groups go to
Europe, the recommendation is to consider a show in South America that
focuses on one of our targeted industries such as medical equipment.
Commitment 10-15 meetings – cost $19,800
Total contract cost $22,300
The funding source will be TIF marketing funds however grants will be sought
from Rock County 5.0 and the Janesville Foundation. Since the Council has
already approved budgets for these TIFs in previous sessions, this is a request to
use a portion of these TIF marketing budgets dollars for this purpose.
City Manager’s Recommendation:
The City Council is looking to diversify the economy and has set objectives for
the City to become more aggressive in our marketing of Janesville. This is one
element of a more proactive marketing program. The cost will be the $22,300 for
the contract plus other marketing expenses that will be well within the
appropriation set for the 2012 budget.
The City Manager recommends approval.
Economic Development Director’s Recommendation:
I recommend the implementation of this business development program for the
following reasons:
Now that we have a data-intensive web site in place it is time to move
forward in pro-active business development. (See below).
This is an efficient way at a reasonable cost to generate qualified leads
that have projects, will have projects, and/or assist in developing long term
relationships.
Lead generation companies are common; however it is hard to find
companies that can generate qualified leads for economic development
organizations. Based on reference checks and the company’s history of
success, this is a good way to begin Janesville’s business development
strategy.
Joy Hughs, Janesville’s potential project manager (Applied Marketing) has
extensive experience in this area with past clients who include: North
Eastern Alliance for South Carolina, Minot, ND, Rochester, MN, Greater
Louisville, Belfast Northern Ireland and others.
This will allow Janesville to begin to develop an international database of
companies that are considering expansion. Although only actual
appointments of 10-15 meeting are arranged for a specific tradeshow
these meeting are based on a selection of 200 companies that show the
highest potential as possible prospects. Janesville has access to all of the
data for these 200 recommended by Applied Marketing.
A summary of the results from reference checking is that the economic
clients contacted have a very positive opinion of this company and are
very satisfied with the business development results.
These initiatives will provide feedback as to what combination of
Janesville location parameters; programs and initiatives provide the most
effective value proposition for future business expansion and attraction
initiatives. It will also show areas where we need to change and/or
improve.
Background
Janesville’s comprehensive economic development program has/will have pro-
active initiatives in three functional areas: entrepreneurship/small business
development, business retention and business attraction. Current initiatives
include:
Entrepreneurship: The development of the Janesville Innovation Center,
loan programs for small business (TIF “gap” lending program and the
Downtown Redevelopment loan program) as well as creating a repository
of resources which are on the web site.
Business Retention and Expansion: Visits with area companies, strong
relationships with Forward Janesville and the continuous development of a
referral network through relationships with local business professionals.
Business Attraction: Currently a reactive situation, (see below) needs to
be more pro-active.
The foundation for today’s business attraction programs is a well developed/data
intensive web site. It is estimated that almost 90% of the research that a
company or a site selector does is based on websites and electronically
accessible data sets. Only then does the company/individual contact the
municipality/economic development agency to ask questions, respond to
additional data needs etc. It is only at this point that the economic development
professional is even aware that a prospect is looking at his/her community. It is
expected that reliance on this type of reactive process will continue; however,
staff recommends that it is now time for Janesville to be much more proactive in
its business development efforts.
A proactive economic development business development program seeks to
lengthen the “awareness” timeline on projects that potentially could be in the
known prospect pipeline. Obviously, the more time there is an awareness of a
prospect, the more opportunity there is to create a business relationship, provide
excellent customer service etc. This process is identical to the sales process in
the private sector which starts with prospect development with the end goal of
closing the sale. This involves:
Educating decision makers on the benefits that companies in our target
markets would receive by locating in Janesville and dispelling any past
non-beneficial stereotypes.
Developing long term relationships with decision makers/influencers i.e.
site consultations, industrial and commercial brokers and related
consultants.
Create/enhance external expectations for Janesville’s commitment to
“Speed to Market” in the development process.
As noted a necessary element of a strong economic development program is a
pro-active business development strategy. Janesville needs to begin the
implementation of this element to take us to the next level of competitiveness.
Recognize that to do this requires a long term commitment. Many of our Midwest
competitors have been actively engaged in this area for many years. This
proposal and subsequent recommendation will help us get started.
cc: Eric Levitt
Jacob Winzenz