A Mechanical Engineers Dilemma

John is a Mechanical Engineer and entrepreneur. His Wife and Kids are the most important people in his life.

John wants to pay for each of his kids’ college education. He also wants to be able to retire comfortably with his wife.

A few years ago, John became an entrepreneur. He built his own machine shop & started producing widgets for the wind turbine industry.

Wind Turbine WidgetProduct Idea #1

Product Idea #2

Product Idea #3 Product Idea #4 Other (less developed) Product Ideas

The Wind Mill Widget business is drying up. The machine shop needs to continue to run so John can make a living. He has several product ideas that he would like to produce and take to market…

For John’s Machine Shop to stay in business, there are some major puzzle pieces to consider: Accounts - Companies who John already does business withContacts – humans associated with those accountsLeads - humans who have raised their had saying “I’m interested in what you do”Opportunities - any sales deals that need to be tracked and closed

Another big puzzle piece to consider is the Marketing and Sales funnel. If Marketing is the creation and nurturing of Leads, then sales is the closing of those leads. Marketing can be either Outbound or Inbound. John plans to close Opportunities or Sales using the ebay and Amazon.com platforms.

Here is how many Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities and Leads John has today.

The left columns show Quantities associated with Wind Mill Widgets. The right columns show Quantities associated with John’s Product Ideas.

John said he would like to pay for college and retirement. This is what John thinks the Annual Cost for retirement and in-state higher education will be.

John says that if he could just sell 1,000 units per year of each of his product ideas he would be happy. Remember, Wind Mill Widgets have dried up and his other half-baked product ideas are just that, half-baked.

Inbound Leads are cheaper and tend to have higher close rates than Outbound leads. The question is, how much exactly?

Inbound Marketing attracts strangers to visit your website or other online content.

Inbound Marketing converts strangers into Leads by capturing their info…and then nurtures those leads until they are ready to buy.

Once a Lead is ready to buy the Lead can do so using the ebay.com and Amazon.com platforms.

Once the Lead buys the lead is converted into and Account, Contact and a “Closed / Won” Opportunity.

This is a timeline showing when John will have to pay for College and when retirement hits. Today John is frustrated and uncertain. In 2030, when John is 67 years old, he hopes to be overjoyed and accomplished.

This is a Flow Chart depicting “how” John currently plans to take his product ideas to market.

John is essentially trying to convert a Stranger directly into a Customer.

My consulting company, Butler Services Group, is proposing that he alter his plan to include Inbound Marketing.

Trying to convert Strangers directly into Customers is bad because:1. Low Probability for

Success2. Doesn’t capture info

unless they buy3. Cannot be remarketed

to if a Stranger doesn’t buy

With Inbound Marketing, John will be able to captures a Strangers information. The Stranger then becomes a lead that can be nurtured until ready to buy.

This last picture should be a Multi-Variable Plot showing “Why?”.

Can you help me with drawing this picture?