For 70 years, the C.H. Bull Company has maintained a sharp focus on satisfying current and prospective customer needs. Now, it is embracing electronic commerce as the next frontier to conquer.

Small companies must move quickly, definitively and creatively to gain and maintain a competitive edge and capitalize on market changes. For 70 years, starting with the Great Depression and continuing into the Web explosion, C.H. Bull Company has applied this credo to adapt and survive.

Charles Henry Bull launched his company in 1930 as a San Francisco area distributor of gasoline and diesel engines, jacks and assorted equipment for the thriving railroad industry. As markets evolved and new opportunities presented themselves, C.H. Bull added emerging, innovative and high-demand products and services. The company also developed a knack for solving customers problems and applying best business practices.

In the 1930s, it branched from railroads to the new frontier of trucking, and started servicing everything it sold. In the 1960s, it augmented radiators and cooling systems with high-tonnage hydraulic jacking systems. In the 1980s, the company supplemented work in the construction trades by adding maintenance, repair and operations supplies. Early in the new millennium, C.H. Bull made the leap from marketing products with three-ring binders to also doing business through electronic commerce and online ordering.

Andy Bull is C.H. Bulls current president and general manager and the founders grandson. He took the companys reigns in the 1970s.

The common themes underlying the way we do business, and the changes and additions to the products and services we offer are simple, he says. We actively listen to our customers to find out where they want to go, then help them get there. When they want a new product, we deliver it. When they need a new service, we provide it. When they seek to do business a new way, we adapt to it. When they have a problem, we do our best to help them solve it.

Tapping into the Internet
Andy Bull knew his company had a gnawing problem when a few years ago large industrial accounts were less than enthused with the companys 25-pound three-ring binder catalog.

They wanted the catalog on a CD-ROM so they could save space and look up products by computer, he says. That is what the competition was giving them and they expected the same from us.

Competition, in this instance, wasnt a mom and pop industrial supply house down the road. It was the multi-billion dollar W. W. Grainger Inc. This behemoth could better afford to produce, distribute and update its catalogs on CD-ROM than C. H. Bull, a niche company with 30 employees and $9 million in annual sales.

As the Internet augmented and in some instances began replacing CD-ROM technology, companies became more comfortable using the Web to gather information, conduct research and communicate with customers and suppliers.

In northern California and Silicon Valley, where most of our customers are located, people are very comfortable doing business by computer, Bull says. In many respects, computers drive this area of the country. Many of our larger customers asked, When are you going to enter the 21st century and get your catalog onto the Internet?

For a small company, leaving the familiar world of heavy-duty tools, equipment and machinery for the ethereal sphere of electronic information networks, and not knowing the return on investment, was a scary prospect.

We were hearing all kinds of numbers concerning the cost to develop an Internet sales and marketing capability, Bull says. And we didnt know what we would get back for our efforts.

A solution to this dilemma started to take shape in the fall of 1999. Bull received a call from Thomas Regional Directory Co., a 25-year-old provider of information to the industrial marketplace, and provider of business-to-business information to industrial communities in North America. Representatives from Thomas Regional met with Bull to learn more about his company and its needs.

Going online
By mid-2000, C. H. Bull was listed in print and online under numerous categories in Thomas Regionals buying guide for Northern California. The program currently includes online descriptions and prices of 1,008 products in 177 categories available through C.H. Bull. This information is directed toward and easily accessed by C.H. Bulls primary target market, industrial businesses in Northern California.

The program was developed and launched at an investment much lower than Bull anticipated. Plus, C.H. Bull drastically reduced expenses on less productive marketing and advertising initiatives formerly in place.

We were spending about $26,000 a year to advertise in 13 Northern California Yellow Pages telephone directories, Bull says. In each directory, the company was listed under 13 different product categories. We could not track the effectiveness of these ads. We did not know who called because they saw us in the Yellow Pages.

Also, many calls were unproductive. Inside salespeople spent too much time explaining the features of industrial-grade products to homeowners who did not need or want high-end equipment. Bull could spend 30 minutes on the phone describing the benefits of a $90 stepladder to a homeowner who would ultimately buy a lower-grade product from a local hardware store.

For about half the price of what we were paying for numerous hit-and-miss Yellow Pages listings, we now reach the targeted group of industrial customers in our region we desire most, he says.

His target is to offer 2,000 products online by the beginning of 2001, and to add, delete or modify any product descriptions or respond to seasonal or special product offerings.

In addition, we can track the impact of our 800 telephone number appearing in our ThomasRegional.com online and catalog ads, he says. We know how many calls come in on that telephone line, as well as the origin and duration of each call. Occasionally, I do reverse marketing by selectively contacting people who called. I want to know if they were satisfied with the information they received from us and if their call resulted in business for C.H. Bull.

Adding a Web site and online ordering
In tandem with going online, C.H. Bull developed its own Web site where visitors get information about the company and the services it offers. ThomasRegional.com powers the search and Order Online serves as its e-commerce engine.

When using Order Online, visitors tap seamlessly into C.H. Bulls product and price information available through either ThomasRegional.com or C.H. Bulls Web site.

This is important because larger companies want the capability to order products online, Bull says. I am sure more and more of the smaller companies we work with will want to do the same.

Despite having less than a year of Internet and electronic business experience under its belt, the company is seeing promising results. The overall Internet initiative generates approximately 10 requests for proposals per week. Inquiries through the Web site and calls to the 800 number from potential industrial customers interested in products and services are replacing unproductive calls from the general public. Online orders through the Web site are slowly picking up.

Customers who prefer to place orders online are pleased with the new capability.

One customer told me he was glad the company finally entered the 21st century, Bull says.

He admits the companys foray into the electronic arena is a work in progress. He realizes it is necessary to educate most current and potential customers to use ThomasRegional.com as a search engine to find industrial products, rather than relying upon a general search engine like Yahoo!.

An industrial purchasing agent using Yahoo! to find a sling to hoist heavy machinery must sort through hits for items such as slingshots, sling-blade knives, slings for broken arms and the recipe for a Singapore Sling before finding the industrial sling he really wants.

The ThomasRegional.com search engine would go to the industrial sling listing directly. And the purchasing agent would learn he could buy such a sling from C.H. Bull, he says.

Spreading the word
Bull increases awareness of his companys Internet presence by
distributing mouse pads bearing the companys logo and Web address and by capitalizing on every occasion to spread the word himself.

When I see customers searching the Web to locate or purchase
products, I explain how they could narrow their search quicker and more effectively by using the ThomasRegional.com search engine, he says.

He admits the companys Web site is underused and unfamiliar to some C.H. Bull employees. They are not entirely aware of the amount of useful information available through the Web site, and how to use it to communicate with customers.

Hed like to see significant growth in the number of customers placing orders online.

Our salespeople get credit for everything sold in their territories, including online orders, he explains. In the long run, if more of our current customers placed their orders online, it would free up our salespeople to develop additional customers.

Bull realizes online orders, requests for information and other requests placed through the Web site require prompt attention.

If someone takes the time to send us a question, it is obvious they are in a hurry for an answer. If we do not respond quickly, they will go to a competitor for an answer, he says.

Today, Andy Bull is the primary person at C.H. Bull responding to the majority of online requests and questions. He envisions a time when a full-time employee will manage the Web site and stay on top of Internet-related communications including order processing, responding to inquiries, updating product information and keeping the Web site current.

By integrating electronic commerce into day-to-day business practices and applying the strength and versatility of the Internet as a marketing and customer service tool, C.H. Bull has taken bold steps to sharpen its competitive edge. They are the latest steps in the companys 70-year history of moving quickly, definitively and creatively to solve customers problems and realize the benefits of change.

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2001 issue of Progressive Distributor magazine. Copyright 2001.

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