In an article about the business of accounting software in the current economy, IncorTech President and founder Steve Birdwell provides insight into how he turned sales around through marketing execution.

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

“We [decided] we’re going to have to make it easy for our prospects to find us on the Web. If clients aren’t buying and suppliers like Sage and Intuit don’t give us leads, we have to generate our own.”

Aggressive growth requires companies invest roughly 15 percent of their gross revenue on marketing, Birdwell estimates, but Incortech was only spending 1 or 2 percent.

“Marketing was an event, not a process,” he says. “It was a matter of go grab a few leads and then stop to sell.”

The process had worked for the VAR up to that point, with Incortech earning top sales recognition for Sage’s MAS 500 product for several quarters. But now Birdwell needed to adapt to the fact that manufacturers in Southern California just weren’t shopping – at least not at his store.

Steve’s photo appears on the cover of the December 2008 issue.