Relationship-Building and Business Retention: The Community Call Blitz Program

by Terry Dickey, Director, Economic Development, Cincinnati USA Partnership

Local business growth may not make headlines, but it drives the local economy. As companies grow, their needs evolve, giving communities and economic development organizations the opportunity to play an active role in retaining investment and jobs in their regions.

Among the many initiatives an economic development organization can undertake to help retain and grow local businesses, none is more valuable than building a relationship with a company’s top decision-makers. Such relationships with corporate leadership enable a community to position itself as a valuable source for information and assistance, further enhancing the community’s chances of securing job growth and retention.

The Cincinnati USA Partnership, a regional economic development initiative representing a three-state, 15-county region known as Cincinnati USA, has developed a program to engage both local business leaders and community investors. The Community Call Blitz is a business visitation program that concentrates efforts on a single community for a short, defined time period, enabling the community to collect invaluable business data and build long-term relationships with business leaders.

Given the number of cities and townships within the Cincinnati USA Partnership’s region, the program is a critical way of providing focused attention and value to its stakeholders. The Partnership’s Regional Business Retention Committee (RBRC) manages three to four Community Call Blitzes a year, in addition to industry cluster blitzes and regular meetings with 200 business leaders throughout the region.

Building a Community Call Blitz program

Sunny Delight is one of the many companies that participated in the City of Blue Ash’s Community Call Blitz.

The City of Blue Ash is an investor in the Cincinnati USA Partnership and its economic development director, Judy Clark, is an active volunteer on the RBRC. In March 2006, Clark and the committee collaborated to conduct a blitz of Blue Ash businesses.

As a first step, the Cincinnati USA Partnership and the City of Blue Ash agreed on a date for the blitz. The Partnership then worked with the community to identify a list of companies to meet with, because the objective of the program is not to cast a wide net but to work with targeted companies. Criteria for determining which companies land on the list may include those the community does not have a relationship with; companies that are rumored to be planning to add new jobs; or companies facing challenges with zoning and planning. The Partnership recommended that the City of Blue Ash start by targeting 150 companies, as our methodology typically has a 30-40 percent positive response rate from the corporate community. Blue Ash’s Community Call Blitz yielded 42 face-to-face meetings with its companies.

The methodology begins with letters on community letterhead mailed to the targeted business leaders on behalf of the community. The letters are co-signed by the Cincinnati USA Partnership facilitator and the local community conducting the blitz. Each letter begins and ends with an expression of gratitude to the business for operating in the community. The letters include an overview of the community organization and its affiliation with the Cincinnati USA Partnership, as well as information on the purpose and process of the blitz. The letter requests a short time commitment for a conversation about the needs and concerns of the company and highlights that the blitz call is not a sales call. To add further credibility, each letter clearly states that the company was selected from among hundreds, if not thousands of area companies.

» Page 2 of 3