Aventi Group

Lessons Learned on Customer List Development

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Bill Reed, Sam Young, and I have been running several appointment setting campaigns for numerous tech clients with surprisingly outstanding results. We use a very unique, proprietary approach called Vector, which is resulting in 65% to 75% of our completed appointments rated as “good” to “excellent”, meaning they are moving to next steps in our client’s pipeline by meeting rigorous criteria. As part of our approach, we acquire target customer prospect lists through a variety of means – name brand list vendors, custom list developers--some from offshore companies, client-provided lists from support contracts, JigSaw, Hoovers, etc. Here are some lessons learned the hard way on the offshore list folks who sell you the list (versus renting one to you).

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Posted August 19, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (3)
Posted to Channel Management , Marketing Management , Sales Effectiveness

Why Social Media?

by Anne Merkert

A global enterprise software organization recently reached out to us for assistance in developing a social media strategy. It’s been over six years since the launch of Facebook, and yet this client expressed the same common questions and concerns that we often hear when clients are considering getting started in social media.

1. Our marketing department is doing so much already, why add social media to the list?
Are your customers, prospects, partners, or competitors on social media sites? If so you should join the conversation. Can your prospects find what they are looking for amidst all those other marketing activities you are doing? Social media can offer them a single portal or entry point to answer their unique questions and learn more about your product or service.

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Posted August 5, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Leadership , Marketing , Marketing Management , Sales Effectiveness

What's the most effective demand gen approach?

by Bill Reed

I recently posted some discussions on LinkedIn that asked the question: what’s the most effective telemarketing and lead generation approach for technology companies? This triggered some excellent responses and lively discussions, as well as a few questions. To follow is a brief overview of the discussions, and a few answers to the questions posed.

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Posted February 10, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Leadership , Marketing , Sales Effectiveness

Time for that Annual Partner Satisfaction Survey?

by Anne Merkert

Thinking about surveying your partners to assess your channel program and prioritize objectives for the coming year? We recently conducted such a survey for a global software organization, and despite current challenges in the economy, we heard channel partners asking for some fairly common resources.

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Posted February 3, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to

Making your Channel “Product-Friendly”

by Al Morgan

A few months back Sridhar discussed the importance of tailoring your product or solution to the channel. It’s a vital step to ensuring that you will maximize the revenue opportunity through channels. An integrated program will ensure initial mindshare AND pave the way for initial success. Your channel partners have lots of products, and shifting attention to your solution will take focused effort. At Aventi, we have been assisting a major IT vendor roll out a major worldwide program to channel partners over the last few quarters and I’d like to share a few lessons learned.

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Posted January 25, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Channel Management , Marketing , Sales Effectiveness

Launching Products in a Social World

by Reena Kapoor

Many of our clients ask us this: What do all the new social media tools and vehicles mean for launching new products? A number of our projects involve developing go-to-market strategies and plans for our clients. Increasingly the strategies and plans we develop take account AND advantage of these new vehicles to engage in a two-way conversation with prospects and users. Why do we do this?

Because:

It's essential - if you don't, someone else surely will and guess what? users are out there talking, discussing, creating already; so whatever you do, don't ignore the conversation

It's ubiquitous - you may think your users are not engaged in this way, think again...

It takes resources - despite what everyone may tell you, it is not FREE.

All of this does not mean that you need to start spending on social media willy-nilly tomorrow, nor does it mean that all the old rules of marketing are defunct. My partners Anne and Jeff from the Aventi Group and I jointly conducted a workshop on precisely this topic at the recent Social Media World Forum on November 9th.

Our presentation covered the following: "Launching New Offerings in a Social World: What to consider when incorporating Social Media in your Go-To-Market Planning!". Topics included:

How to create a good go-to-market plan?

What sound principles of marketing still apply?

When is it appropriate to consider social tools?

How should one incorporate social media vehicles in such plans?

You can view this presentation here.Social Media Work Shop Deck Nov 09 2009

Want to know more? My partners Anne and Jeff from the Aventi Group and I jointly conducted a workshop on precisely this topic at the recent Social Media World Forum on November 9th.

Posted November 24, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Marketing

It's that Target Market again...

by Reena Kapoor

Lately I've been advising a couple of different companies who are either introducing a new product or contemplating a new market. Invariably the question comes up how should we think about which markets to enter. Simple answer: wherever you can maximize your opportunity! Well not so simple really, when you start thinking about it.

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Posted October 7, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Posted to Marketing