Spotlight on

This page will feature articles and interviews with people who are designing and marketing their careers and whom I feel deserve greater visibility in the Pittsburgh area. They are people I admire greatly and feel they have much to share with the larger community. My first Spotlight is with Steve Eckert, a close friend and local marketing guru, who has helped many small business owners grow their businesses.

Neal: What have you been working on lately?

Steve: Besides marketing coaching work with clients that focuses on helping organizations develop a more effective marketing and sales process, I have just finished writing “Marketing in a Downturn.” It contains ideas, strategies and tactics to help business owners and management teams develop ways for dealing with the current economic slowdown.

Neal: What was your background prior to your getting involved with marketing? Give our readers some idea of your life and professional experiences.

Steve: In a way, I think I’ve always been involved in marketing. My father was in sales, then sales and marketing management. I think I learned a lot vicariously. I studied philosophy and economics in college, although I took classes in marketing and sales.

My first job was a management-training program and I enjoyed the “rotation” in the marketing department in which we researched and made calls to prospects and developed some marketing communication pieces. I decided I liked marketing and joined a small ad agency doing account work, copywriting and production management.

Neal: What were the factors that led you to develop your marketing consultancy?

Steve: I started my business after considering buying the ad agency. At first, my business mirrored the work I did at the agency, but as I talked with business owners I realized that there was a real need to help companies develop the processes, profiles and messages to build an effective marketing and sales effort.

I developed my Marketing Coach curriculum directly out of real conversations with business owners about their marketing problems. By going through the Marketing Coach program, business owners not only develop a plan they can implement with their current resources, but they are empowered; they understand the key marketing and sales processes so they can confidently maintain and adjust the most effective marketing and sales effort.

Neal: What is your target market? Your ideal client?

Steve: I work with owners and management teams of small to medium size companies. Typically I work in business-to-business, professional services, and commercial sectors.

My clients have some sense of what needs to be done marketing wise, but have a specific problem with which they need help, or they just need help pulling together the ideas, processes and tactics to successfully market. I bring the sounding board, advice, accountability and plain old “extra hands” to make sure things get done.

Neal: While your clients’ needs may differ, what is the process you use in working with them?

Steve: Yes, most owners have a specific marketing issue that is unique. Typically we focus on that issue, but also work through a general track that includes: a quick review or “audit” — capturing what has been done, what works and doesn’t and who is on the team; profile customers and consider segmentation and/or new market development; unpack the marketing and sales process to uncover “gaps” or “dams” that make the process less effective; consider branding and message development, unique selling proposition and variables; develop a simple plan — usually three strategies we can start implementing immediately; idea generation/creative…as needed; and action planning — tying tactics to the resources including budget, time, people, energy, etc. We come out the other side with strategies and tactics tied to the reality of the situation…so it can be implemented!

Neal: What separates you from the herd of marketing consultants in the Pittsburgh region?

Steve: Probably my focus on process…getting the steps organized from “first contact” through closing the sale. Unpacking and understanding the steps, quantifying the suspects, prospects and customers, and then building out the marketing elements from there. By the way, thanks to web meeting technology, coaching doesn’t need to be face-to-face, so I am working beyond the Pittsburgh region.

Neal: What services don’t you provide?

Steve: I have a background in copywriting and creative, so I work on that with clients, but use their designers, web programmers, printers or bring in (if needed) my strategic partners to do that work.

Neal: What personal and professional qualities contribute to your success?

Steve: People say that I’m discerning, I’m able to “see through” situations to understand the “question behind the question.” I use the term “Marketing Coach” because I believe I bring a mix of instruction, accountability and encouragement. Probably one of my best attributes is that I can keep a meeting running — start on time, end on time, and stay on topic. Simple, but people always appreciate it!

Neal: How can potential clients reach you?

Steve: If they want to contact me directly, they can email me through my website at genius@geniusmarketing.com or call me at 412-390-0403. If they’d like to learn more about me, and my philosphy of business and marketing, or take a look at the “Marketing in a Downturn” materials, visit www.geniusmarketing.com or my blog at http://findgeniusmarketing.blogspot.com