xactlyit blog

Marketing Best Practices for ITSPs

noreply@blogger.com (Xactlyit) — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 17:16:00 +0000

If you are an IT Service Provider, Integrator, Value Added Reseller, or other SMB Technology organization, there are some fundamental best practices that should constitute the core of your marketing effort. Download the Xactlyit ITSP best practices white paper for full details.

Tips For Channel Building - Multi-pronged Approach

noreply@blogger.com (Xactlyit) — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 22:47:00 +0000

I liken the effort to build a sales channel via partners as akin to learning a new language. It would be extremely difficult to learn a new language by focusing exclusively on reading and attending educational classes. This is of course why most language curricula feature cultural immersion classes where you travel to a foreign country and spend time there developing your abilities. And while it is possible to learn a language via immersion techniques only, you would end up missing some formal elements that can make you a respected expert, such as how to write the language, or how to appreciate the history of a culture and what shaped it in to what it is today.

So it is with building a channel. You need the two-pronged approach of training partners on your solution and your partner program, and you need the ability to get your partners engaged in business opportunities so that they can practice what they have learned. This on-going process of training, and then the application of training is critical to building a solid franchise of business partners that will ultimately get you the sales leverage you are looking for.

What's more, your partners will probably need the promise of new business opportunity as an incentive for their time investment in training - either based on the possibility to work with your direct sales team, or by participating in a lead generation program. Without these implicit incentives in place, it will seem to the partner that your solution is more like latin, as opposed to english, spanish, or french. That is...not especially practical.

Why Marketers Fail in Working the Relationship with Sales

noreply@blogger.com (Xactlyit) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:32:00 +0000

First let me set the context here. I am speaking of marketing management working the sales management relationship in a B2B environment where sales typically has most of the political power. I am also speaking from the perspective of a marketing organization that has a strong sales-support mission, as opposed to a corporate marketing organization responsible for branding, web, PR, social media, etc.

Many articles and blog posts written on this subject tend to miss the key aspect of what marketing must do to work effectively with sales. You'll see lots of material written on how marketing and sales must have agreed-to and shared goals, that the marketing organization should have a strong metrics or "measurement" orientation similar to sales, and that there must be agreement on what constitutes a lead, etc. I don't want to diminish the importance of any of these, as they are all part of operating a professional marketing organization, but keep in mind a few things:

The company doesn't care if the marketing department succeeds, if sales does not
Sales perception generally trumps marketing metrics
Marketing quality continues to contain huge amounts of subjectivity. That is, the pursuit of marketing measurement can only address about 30% of marketing's total value to the organization
The company evaluates marketing by asking sales how it is doing

I can't tell you how many times I have been in situations where I had all the data to support my argument of "success" and the sales leader discarded it by saying..."well, that's not what I am hearing from my people."

So I propose to you that the principal ingredient of whether marketing will be perceived as being a success in the eyes of the corporation is how well the marketing leader and the sales leader get along. Do they have chemistry? Is their mutual respect? Do they work together smoothly and without discord? Does the sales leader invite the marketing leader into relevant sales planning meetings, etc? So much about how the marketing department is evaluated is influenced by the tenor of the relationship between the sales and marketing leaders.

The lesson for marketing management here is don't underestimate the power of having a strong relationship with your sales management counterparts; and don't overestimate the impact of your marketing metrics if this relationship is weak. It will be the lens through which your department's performance is viewed.

Your comments welcome.

Recipe For A Great Event

noreply@blogger.com (Xactlyit) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:32:00 +0000

Events can be effective ways for organizations to build pipeline. A well designed event featuring a topic that has educational interest with your target audience can draw important prospects into a dialog with you and ultimately into your pipeline. We've run over 50 of them in the past year and can offer this "recipe" for a successful event.

Think of the event as "adult education". The more you can position your presentation topic in the context of helping your target audience learn something important, interesting and new, the more attractive your event will be. Avoid "sales" oriented themes as most people won't get in their car to attend one, when they know they can just call up a sales rep, or scan the web, to get a sales pitch.

Think about how you are compensating your attendees for giving up their time? A strong topic will help here, but if you are unsure, consider the venue and what you are offering . Are you offering a gourmet meal, wine or microbrew tasting; or perhaps an opportunity to catch a sporting event in a luxury suite? Alternatively, will you be bringing people to a hotel conference room and serving some stale croissants? Your venue and what you are providing your guest-attendees will have a huge impact on attendance. Keep in mind that in this day and age of the internet, many people won't leave the comfy confines of their office for just a 2-hour dose of information unless there is something offered they can't get online.

Think about speaker credibility. People want to learn from luminaries and experts. Make sure you select a featured speaker that has some industry credibility or at least will come across well as a subject matter expert. A well-known speaker should be promoted in your event invitation.

Don't get too technical. Unless your event is specifically oriented around product training, resist the temptation to get too deep into your product, solution or service. Your high-end executive event, especially if you picked a luxury suite at a premium sports event, gives you a shot at attracting more senior level executives with some buying influence. So think about their station and the kind of information they are interested in when you construct your event presentation.

Reach out to your audience multiple ways. A great invitation that promotes the salient features of your event (including the venue offerings) should be emailed to your prospect list. Telemarketing will be critical to augment the email marketing and to ensure you are pursuing senior level target executives. Ask your sales organization to canvas their prospects and promote the event on your web-site and blog. The use of multiple communication vehicles will make a difference in ensuring success.

Email Marketing Metrics

noreply@blogger.com (Xactlyit) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 23:56:00 +0000

Here are some guidelines for email marketing metrics with respect to prospect-development types of emails targeting IT professionals. If your campaign falls into this range, you are meeting industry standards.

Unique open rate: 10 to 20% after 3 blasts
Click-thru rate: 2 to 5% (based on the unique open rate)

It's important to keep these metrics in mind. Conversions on click-thrus can vary. Maybe you are running an event or webinar, in which case 33% to 50% conversion on click-thrus can be expected. So plan your starting list accordingly. A list of 10,000 contacts (assuming it is very clean) with a strong performing email will generate 2000 opens, and 100 click-thrus. So anywhere from 30 to 50 registrants from email alone can be expected from the campaign. This is a best case scenario assumption on opens and clicks.