Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Steven Stroum. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Steven, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

One evening, I was watching television with my five-year-old son Marc when an Atari Computer commercial came on. It showed an unkempt young man getting off a railroad train looking totally dejected. He had flunked out of college because he didn’t own a personal computer. The ad’s implication, of course, was that an Atari computer would have made the difference between the young man’s success and failure. I thought the advertisement was based on an unfounded fear and was totally unethical. Some computer companies, particularly the struggling ones, would have had you believe that you were an inferior parent or neglecting your children if you didn’t own a home computer. Those assertions were pure nonsense.

The ad made me angry, so I wanted to fight back. I also wanted the recognition associated with having a large computer company take a shot at me. It would be fun and validate and expand my reputation by putting me on par with Steve Jobs. If Apple Computer, Inc. sued me, for example, I would immediately be viewed by the media as someone worth paying attention to. I wanted to be sued by Apple! In order to protect The Venmark Corporation, and my own assets, I created a new and separate business entity called Crabapple, Inc. which would be an anti-computer club. It was a parody which gave me some legal cover. The logo, promotion, and the news release that we carefully crafted conveyed that message too. And the Crabapple Anti-Computer Club struck a nerve with clients and the media because we received a lot of publicity.

As a result of the publicity and notoriety of the Club, I was invited to become a member of “The Norbert Weiner Forum at Tufts University to study the impact of technology on society. Weiner was a 1909 Tufts graduate whose pioneering vision of the responsibilities of intellectuals for the proper use of technology was the guiding precept of their project. The Forum was comprised of a small group of academics at Tufts who came together under a grant from CSK, a Japanese software company to study the impact of computers and computer-based technology on society, and to formulate policy recommendations for the wise and humane development of new applications of this technology to help solve society’s problems. A parallel investigation was also being conducted by a sister group in Japan at Tokai University. The entire Crabapple experience honed my interview skills and opened several doors.

Steven, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I “packaged” creative services: product publicity, newsletters, and press kits, Unlike conventional public relations and advertising agencies who work with a handful of clients on retainer, to assure their cash flow, we worked with large numbers of smaller companies on a project basis and got paid in advance. The large volume and payment policies mitigated any cash flow issues. This distinctive business model was adapted from the insurance industry where I had created the national sales training program for a major company. In the insurance industry, salespeople sell policies but don’t have to know how to be an actuary or an underwriter. In other words, you don’t have to know how to build a product to sell it. In my company, Venmark International (www.venmarkinternational.com) we employed the same logic. I created sales presentations and materials for our salespeople and they sold our publicity orders and other products, we had writers who developed the product publicity news releases and I functioned as an art director to assure that we had product photography that was consistent with our sales message. Being paid in advance assured us that we had the control needed to create an exceptional editorial product. I also created product publicity releases based upon what was important to media outlets to help them meet their own requirements.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

I had an interesting international publicity sales appointment at a major medical company in Medfield, MA. The high-level international marketing participants were asking relevant questions about our approach and the specific services that we provided. Clearly interested and impressed, a key member then asked, “How much does this all cost?” That, of course, was the ideal scenario: the quality of our work persuaded them to ask me and I didn’t have to ask them for the order.

When I told them my fee, the room went silent. You could have heard a pin drop. My answer changed the tone of the meeting. Because of their previous experience with international marketing, they couldn’t believe that I could achieve the results I showed them for our $2,695 fee. Frankly, I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but the issue was my credibility. They couldn’t imagine how I could achieve similar results for them for the low fee that I quoted, regardless of the evidence presented with respect to our highly efficient business model. They were suspicious of my Porsche performance at Ford prices. The meeting was over and I left empty-handed.

It took a few months for me to realize that my problem was one of “positioning.” In other words, my presentation was high-end and my low fees didn’t match. The medical company taught me a lesson that would make me a lot of money for many years to come. In June of 1990 I changed our company name from Sales Development Associates to Venmark International, developed a rich new logo based upon the IBM typeface and color, and proceeded to generate more business than we could handle during the next several weeks that summer. Over $10,000 per week! The new “brand” more accurately reflected our “position” as a high-value service provider.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I describe how I learned how to succeed and earn straight A’s my last four years in college and how I started my own business with only $300 at twenty-eight years old and turned it into a million-dollar company. The key to both events is the term “process.” A process, if followed consistently is a roadmap that helps assure your success for many reasons.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.smstroum.com
• Instagram: @stevestroum
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stevenmstroum/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevestroum/
• Twitter: @stevestroum

Image Credits

Stanchion collar photo credit- Matthew McKee photography.