Fat Atom, a rapidly growing marketing company, has outgrown its space in the Carmel Arts & Design District. Todd Muffley, founder and CEO, is in the process of owning its own building along Range Line Road so the business can expand.
But filling its former space on Main Street near Mudbugs Cajun Café and Darren’s Ballroom Dance Studios is a familiar face. Muffley’s 22-year-old son, Kevin, will be following in his father’s footsteps as he leads a spin-off company, called The Farm, in the old space.
The Farm is a company that specializes in helping businesses attract customers and retain them. What makes The Farm different is the way they use creative gifts and reminders to help leave a lasting impression on potential clients.
They will send a bag of gourmet popcorn to remind companies that there’s more than corn in Indiana. They’ve sent a “brainstorming kit” filled with goodies such as dry erase markers and play dough, saying, “Let us brainstorm with you.” And in a unique way to nurture clients, the company sent out a copy of Steve Job’s biography. When you opened the book, however, there was a bottle of Woodford Reserve, an upscale bourbon, cut into the pages. It’s a way to make clients have a chuckle and remember the company.
“It wasn’t really planned out this way, but it became its own company,” Kevin Muffley said.
The Farm started out as a sales program implemented by Fat Atom, which was originally looking for a new way to sign new clients. Fat Atom tried hiring in-house salespeople, outsourced cold-call companies and using third-party appointment setting companies. The team at Fat Atom created a lead generating program – called System the Game – that involved connecting with interested leads through sending creative e-mails. Software tracks every step of the process, but human intelligence is used to analyze the results and come up with creative ways to strengthen the bond between the company and the client through nurture campaigns.
“We’re an extension of their sales team,” Kevin Muffley said. “People get cold e-mails all the time and we still do that, but we try to be cool and unique and different.”
The program was originally created to bring clients to Fat Atom, but now Fat Atom’s clients wanted to use this service to generate leads for their own companies. The Farm’s clients include Sherpa Insight, banc-serv Partners, ExactTarget and more.
