Marketing

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

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

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

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

CIO Tells Us How to Sell to CIOs

by Sridhar Ramanathan

I had a great conversation with my dear friend and neighbor, Walt Thinfen. He’s the Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Visioneer, a high tech company here in Pleasanton, California. I took the opportunity to get his thoughts on how our clients and other technology vendors could do a better job of selling to the CIO. Listen in on this conversation for some great gold nuggets some of which might really surprise you.

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Posted October 4, 2009 | Permalink

Leading Globally Distributed Teams

by Sridhar Ramanathan

If you’re like most executives you manage a global team. But what’s the secret of running a team that cuts across time zones, cultures, and languages? How do you create a strong culture that balances centralized control with distributed authority? What metrics drive the right behaviors and business outcomes when you can’t see your team on a daily basis?

I had a great lunch with my friend, Suresh Balasubramanian, who is a director in charge of a sales/field marketing team in a very large software company. He built a good sized team that spans 13 time zones. Listen in on our lunch conversation and I think you’ll find it both entertaining (see his funny story at the end) and highly informative.

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Posted September 23, 2009 | Permalink

Telltale Signs of Product Messaging Problems

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Yesterday a high tech VP told me, “I am painfully aware that sales are down this year versus last but I’d really like to pinpoint exactly where the problem lies. Something tells me my product-level messaging is off but I’m not sure if that’s one of the key inhibitors or not.” I told her that we can look for telltale symptoms of a product-level messaging problem. By that I mean, not corporate level branding but rather messaging that is specific to a particular product. See my blog post, The Power of Excellent Messaging, for more on corporate level messaging. Here are some symptoms that point to product-level messaging issues. I use ”product” to mean any offering – product, solution, or service.

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Posted May 15, 2009 | Permalink

Making Executive Meetings Count

by Sridhar Ramanathan

“Believe it or not, there are some bright spots out there…” said an executive vice president of sales for one of our technology clients, a Fortune 500 company. He went on to say “….but the hard part is getting an audience with our customers’ executives for a top-down view of these bright spots.” Sound familiar? The key to successful sales has always been to get a peek into your customers’ executive level mandates and business challenges. The VP went on to say how surprised he was with how often companies don’t get the most out of the executive level meetings that sales reps work hard to land.

We’ve been blessed in Aventi Group by having the ear of many executives here in Silicon Valley. We’ve found that a few open ended questions with business executives can reveal much about their goals and needs while also creating an opportunity to add value to them. Here are some “high insight” questions that we found helpful:

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Posted March 21, 2009 | Permalink

Handling Conflicts...the Abe Lincoln Way

by Sridhar Ramanathan

We hung up the phone thinking “whew” that call sure got hot. An irate customer? A demanding boss? A frustrated sales rep? Nope. It was an internal planning meeting between sales and marketing for fiscal year 2010. Not all such meetings, of course, are this animated but this one sure was. And that’s not always a bad thing but in this case people left with some hurt feelings and damaged relationships. I’m sure you’ve seen your share of heated conflict in the workplace. Here are some typical hot spots: executive and line management, engineering and QA, tech support and development, manufacturing and operations, and finance and just about everyone. Conflict is healthy but how you handle conflict can be the difference between success and failure in achieving your business objects. Here are just three tips that have worked for Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President. I recently read a biography of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns and cite examples of each point below drawn from Lincoln’s life.

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Posted March 13, 2009 | Permalink

The Aventi Group Network -- Check It Out!

by Sridhar Ramanathan

Here's an invitation to all of you independent consultants who might consider joining the tight network of executive consultants in the Aventi Group extended team. Please join me and fellow founders, Bill Reed and Jeff Thompson, on a webinar for a discussion on how we leverage our flexible network of experts/executives to add unique value to our clients...and see how you can benefit from this for your own practice. Click here to register for the webinar on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM PST.

Posted December 31, 2008 | Permalink

Finding a home for Product Management: Part 2

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I want to get back to reasons for why product management belongs in marketing - and not in engineering. The first factor was of course around defining marketing properly (it's much more than marketing communications). Another key reason is that product management needs to reflect the voice of the customer and market realities in the product requirements. If product management is part of engineering then this imperative risks being lost.

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Posted September 28, 2008 | Permalink

Finding a home for Product Management

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Product Management is a key function in any company involved in innovation; and that includes all the tech companies I have the opportunity to advise. And often I ask myself this question: where in the organizaion should this function reside? More often than not the choice posed is: Should product management report into Marketing or Engineering?

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Posted September 28, 2008 | Permalink

Consumer Product Management & Other Follies

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I've worked in consumer product management in a few different industries — tech and non-tech — and want to talk about that I've observed about successful product management. Even that terminology "tech vs. non-tech" in itself is telling. I started my career nearly 18 years ago in the new product development function at Procter & Gamble (P&G). We defined requirements and developed the detergent formulas that would go into products like Tide, Cheer, etc. And while that was not a "hi tech" job, it was very driven by technology — AND consumer need. As a chemical engineer working in designing detergents I spent a lot of time with chemists and polymer scientists understanding new molecules and how they could clean grease, grass stains and perform various other miracles. However what I really learned at P&G that has been most instructive over the years was: how to make sure we're developing products that consumers need, want and will buy. A little later, when I transferred to Brand Management within P&G I was told by a very wise mentor that "P&G is a technology company that also knows how to market technology really well...." It took me a few years to truly understand that comment but I realized the importance of that insight once I moved back into hi-tech.

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Posted June 23, 2008 | Permalink

Marketing to Small & Medium Business

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I went to a NorCal-BMA breakfast on March 20th where Drew Meyer (Senior Product Marketing Manager at Network Appliance’s StoreVault division) spoke about selling to SMB – a hot topic among many enterprise companies looking to expand their footprint into this space. Drew spoke about his experiences in selling to this segment and his findings made a lot of sense. There was good discussion about this segment (if we can call it that). I’ve worked now with a couple of clients who sell to SMBs and I want to share some thoughts with you based on this talk and my own experience. Tell me if this resonates.

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Posted June 23, 2008 | Permalink

Managed Services Provider (MSP) Benchmark Study

by Sridhar Ramanathan

We are conducting research in conjunction with Untangle, an open source network gateway company and partner to MSPs nationwide, and welcome you to join in on the survey we're fielding. We're conducting this independent market research study to help new and existing MSPs learn from their peers.

Subject: Learn how Managed Services Providers (MSPs) stack up on services and pricing

Purpose: Helping new and existing MSPs learn from their peers

Topics:

• Comparison of MSP service offerings


• Benchmark on how these services are priced


• Insight into the next big offering in managed services

To find out more or to begin the survey, click here to get started:

Respondents who complete the entire survey by May 23, 2008, will receive a detailed report of the study results – valuable and strategic data to help guide and keep your MSP business on track!

About Us:
Pacifica Group, founded in 2001, is an independent consulting firm that provides a range of business strategy and marketing services including market research, market assessments, product planning and launch, channel development, and interim executive/management roles.

Posted April 24, 2008 | Permalink

Successfully Implementing Positioning in Organizations

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I’ve now worked on several strategic positioning projects for clients and have come to the realization that the harder part is not developing strong positioning for companies or their products. The greater challenge actually lies in implementing it successfully. Don’t get me wrong. Developing strong, distinctive and meaningful positioning is crucial. And – contrary to popular belief – it actually takes effort and skill to create it. Sridhar Ramanathan my partner here at Pacifica Group (a Conifer alliance) actually wrote a blog entry describing the characteristics of good positioning. He’s right on.

But I am sure you’ve heard the countless stories where a lot of time was spent and a fancy positioning was created only to gather dust. While positioning can be targeted at any stakeholder, for the purpose of this article, I am going to focus on positioning targeted at customers. I want to talk about how and what determines that a positioning will be successfully implemented. Some of it has to do with the development process, some with characteristics of the output and some with your internal company workflows. Here are some of the factors I have found to be crucial:

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Posted April 3, 2008 | Permalink

Corporate Integrity and the Role of Marketing

by Sridhar Ramanathan

One of the bright spots in IT spending today is enterprise software and services that support the alphabet soup of compliance regulations (SEC, SOX, PCI, HIPAA, FISMA, OSHA, etc.). One of our clients, SAP, is doing a great job capturing share as the market for governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software is expanding rapidly. Perhaps one of the key motivators for this growth is fear: fear of facing stiff financial penalties and/or even prison sentences for non-compliance. Examples in the business software industry alone include: Computer Associates’s execs being jailed for SEC violations and McAfee facing a $50M penalty for accounting trickery. But compliance is actually further down the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Corporate integrity would be a higher rung which calls corporate managers to “do the right thing” and elevate the organizations’ contribution beyond its immediate stakeholders.

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Posted March 19, 2008 | Permalink

The Patron Saint of Martyred Copywriters

by Rich Binell

This is a true story.

Steve Cosmopulos is an old art director in Boston.
(Hill Holiday Connors & Cosmopulos was his for awhile.
It got too big and he left, but he left his name on the door.)
He's a tough little fireplug of a high-school-educated Greek guy.
Always wears a tailored suit and tie.
Always.

He walks into a presentation.
Late.
Big conference table at client offices.
Everyone sitting expectantly.
Silence.
He has a duffel bag.
Sets the bag on his chair.
He doesn't sit.
From out of the bag he pulls a board.
With a bed of 100 nails sticking up out of this board.
Sets it carefully on table.
Pulls out an aluminum frying pan.
One of those nonstick Silverstone jobs.
Silence.
Holds up frying pan.
Silence.
Slams it down as hard as he can on bed of nails.
Repeatedly.
Holds up frying pan.
Shows dings in bottom.
Silence.
Puts board back in bag.
Pulls out another identical board.
But this one with just one nail.
Puts it on table.
Silence.
Slams down the frying pan on the single nail.
Pries frying pan off nail.
Holds up frying pan.
Hole in bottom.
Shows it slowly to everyone.
Asks:
"Now how many copy points do you want to put in this ad?"

Proof that an art director named Stavros Cosmopulos is
THE PATRON SAINT OF MARTYRED COPYWRITERS.
This is not only a Boston legend, it's a true story.
I asked him.

Posted December 12, 2007 | Permalink