Best. Year. Ever.
How a small company leveraged its experience to help others survive 2008-2009.

We all remember the gut-wrenching spiral of events that led to the current economic situation. On a personal level, many of us saw our retirement dates become moving targets as 401(k) dollars disappeared. Business owners felt increasing stress as they looked at employees who depended on their decisions for their livelihood.

Peter Long, CEO of MCH, Inc. made a difficult decision to reduce staff when the economy slumped in 2002. Following October 2008, the worst month in the company's revenue history, Peter faced a wary staff at the quarterly meeting. During the meeting, Peter said, "I will do everything in my power to avoid staff reductions, furloughs, and benefit cuts." In the weeks following that meeting, the MCH executive team spent time assessing the company's position, products, and services. They made difficult decisions regarding cost reductions and they continued to communicate openly with employees. The results of their efforts surprised everyone.

MCH is having its best year-to-date profits in recent memory and the company has avoided layoffs. While there are many reasons for the success, Peter Long is most proud of the fact that MCH was in a position to help other companies survive a terrible economic crisis.

Long had spent the previous decade positioning the 80-year-old firm to support new markets in new ways. MCH's core business is providing data to clients who market to institutions including schools, hospitals, and local government offices. Institutions represent 33% of the economy and are more stable than businesses. Institutions are not immune to recessions but they are more resistant than businesses. Kirk Chritton, Director of Marketing, said, "While businesses lose customers, institutions must continue to serve full populations: schools must be open for students; hospitals and nursing homes must serve their patients; and government agencies must serve their patrons—in even greater quantities when times are tough."

The company's business-to-institution (B2i) focus had been in place for years but it took the economic crisis to ignite the strategy.

Shortly after the November election, Washington began to discuss how the government could help get the country back on track and "stimulus spending" became a household term. MCH hosted a December webinar entitled, "Recession Resistant Marketing" to help its clients identify "safe havens" in the economy and revenue opportunities in the institutional market. In addition, Long and his team spent a great deal of time researching proposed stimulus legislation and launched the StimulusMarketing.com website to provide B2B marketers with the most up-to-date information. MCH presented its "Stimulus Marketing" webinar the day after President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). During the webinar, MCH executives helped marketers understand where stimulus funding would be spent and how that spending could positively impact their bottom lines.

ARRA is designed to push hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy through the very institutions that are MCH's specialty. The company's strategy was perfectly aligned with the needs in the marketplace. Repositioning the company as a business-to-institution data provider years earlier began paying off in a big way. John Hood, MCH President said, "Many of our competitors suffered because they didn't change their market position. We developed white papers, webinars, and other resources to help educate the market and that strategy has worked. While other companies cut back on their staff and level of service, we've maintained our focus and thrived."

Over the past months, MCH has been asked to help clients create targeted strategies to reach institutions. By leveraging its knowledge and commitment to the institutional market, MCH has contributed to clients' revenue growth and success.

The good news for MCH will continue because there is still stimulus money to be spent and MCH knows how to reach decision makers who have funds to spend. In addition, MCH responded to evolving trends by creating interactive marketing products and partnering with edWeb.net, a key social networking provider in the education space. The corporate world has begun to recognize the value of B2i that has resulted in MCH closing contracts with several large companies including a few on the Fortune 100 list.

And, swimming against the tide, Peter was able to honor his commitment to employees— MCH has had no layoffs, experienced extremely low turnover, and is beginning to create new positions. In summary MCH has had the Best.Year.Ever.

MCH is America’s leading compiler of business-to-institution (B2i) databases and mailing lists. The database features information on 1.1 million institutions and 8.2 million decision makers. The largest institutional markets include governments, hospitals, medical practices, schools, school districts, and churches. MCH also provides custom telephone research and data processing services. MCH has offices in Sweet Springs and Kansas City, MO.