THE WOW FACTOR: JOB SHOP MARKETING

Kevin Greschuk founded the company in 1987 as KD Fasteners and Marine Supplies. At that time, the business provided rust-proof and exotic non-ferrous items for marine uses, such as securing blades to boat propellers. Those products are ideal for use in any harsh, wet condition. Recognizing that this application has a natural extension to industries like oil drilling, chemical plants, defense and automotive, Greschuk wanted to expand his customer base beyond marine.

In order to reach prospects and customers in new industries, Greschuk knew that he would have to change his sales approach. The sales process had relied heavily on advertising and cold calling, which failed to deliver the level of results the company wanted. Moreover, this approach had become expensive. “Our sales team would make cold calls and leave voicemails that often never got returned,” Greschuk recalled. “Even when we did get appointments, we spent a lot of time demonstrating our capabilities. But timing is everything and unfortunately, our presentations were rarely delivered when the prospect was ready to make a purchase.”

Greschuk believed that the Internet held the key to unlocking doors to both new customers and more profitable orders. He listed the company at www.ThomasNet.com, an online destination for buyers and sellers of industrial products and services. This listing was immediately successful in driving new leads and more traffic to KD Fastener’s website. Yet the company still struggled to convert that potentially lucrative stream of website visitors into customers.

“The issue was getting people to stay on our website and contact us for a quote. We were losing them,” lamented Greschuk. “Prospects were having a difficult time finding what they were looking for on our site and would just leave.” He returned to ThomasNet for guidance in developing a better website experience that would a) attract qualified prospects on its own, then, b) entice them to stay and do business.

ThomasNet recommended that the distributor deploy a new Internet strategy that is powered by its proprietary technology, the Navigator Platform. This platform allows KD Fasteners to display its breadth of over 100,000 different products, attract qualified customers from a broad swath of industries, and ultimately lead them to request a quote.

Working hand-in-hand with ThomasNet engineers and industry experts, the team built an online catalog, complete with technical descriptions, photos and other specific product details. The technology that ThomasNet deployed for the online catalog anticipates how design engineers and purchasing agents like to search for component parts and request quotes. The strategy uses precise product descriptions that reflect the language that prospects use in their research, like “inconel eyebolts” or “brass bolts.”

This sort of product specificity is the key to optimizing search rankings and propelling KD Fasteners to the top of an engineer’s typical online search. Now standard search engine traffic complements the site visits that the company already receives from its presence on ThomasNet.com.

Once visitors arrive at the KD Fasteners website, the content, functionality and design encourage them to stay and see – at a glance – that this distributor can source just about any fastener. The site’s organization is designed so that visitors are not overwhelmed by having to sort through a large product catalog. Instead, prospective customers can easily browse among 20 product categories, from anchors and toggles, to rivets, to wood screws.

Clicking on a category link such as “Machine Screws” lets the visitor browse available sizes, types, materials and finishing services to make their selection. For those who know exactly what they want, they can search by keyword or part number. Because so many KD Fasteners customers are engineers seeking custom parts for their projects, visitors can either request more information, or create and submit a detailed request for quote (RFQ) at any point in the process.

The results attributed to the new online strategy surpassed even Greschuk’s forecasts, pulling in new prospects from a variety of new industries that place high volume orders. Among them are:

(1) A $175,000 project for a defense contractor that required a custom-sized bolt for vehicles used in Iraq;

(2) An agricultural machine manufacturer that ordered a large volume of specialized corrosion-resistant bolts for an intricate grain conveyer system;

(3) An oil drilling company that needed a hard-to-find custom insert lock nut. This particular customer had already invested two weeks looking for a supplier when he found KD Fasteners online. The distributor was able to source the item in just two hours.

The new online strategy also generated a surge in qualified quote requests, without the distributor’s team making a single outbound sales call. “It’s amazing, the things we sell now that we never sold before,” said Greschuk. “That’s what we love about this industry. Buyers come to us now. The cold calls were incredibly inefficient and costly. Now our staff is freed up to help service more inbound requests.”

That’s not all. With each inquiry, this distributor also grows its database, efficiently capturing information to cultivate long-term relationships. “This web strategy makes us look like a giant in the industry,” added Greschuk. “They’ve created an online presence that makes us look very professional, credible and comprehensive – and gives customers confidence that we can handle any order.”

ThomasNet is part of the Thomas Industrial Network, Inc., Five Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10001, 800-879-6757, www.ThomasNet.com.