Date: May 23, 2012
Time:  1:00 pm
Registration: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/147050262
By: Steve Hurley and Matt Leary, Solutions Insights

The move to a customer-centric, solutions business model continues to grow in scope and importance. What started out as a key strategy for the high technology sector has spread across a number of B2B sectors, including manufacturing automation.  But what do we mean when we talk about solutions marketing? And what makes a successful solutions marketer?

ISA and Solutions Insights, Inc., a leading consulting and research company that specializes in solutions marketing,  recently conducted an online survey of  solutions marketers representing over 125 companies to understand a range of issues relevant to solutions marketers, including their top challenges, roles and responsibilities, and future trends of solutions marketing,  The survey turned up some very surprising and useful findings.

In this ISA briefing, Solutions Insights Partners Matt Leary and Steve Hurley will highlight the findings from the recent survey, The Anatomy of a Solutions Marketer.

Please join us for this presentation and discussion of the first-of-its-kind research into Solutions Marketers.

About the Presenters

About Steve Hurley
A leading expert on solutions and solutions marketing, Steve has worked over the past decade developing and implementing innovative methodologies and tools that have enabled companies to transform their business models to be more solutions-focused.

In 2009, Steve established Solutions Insights, Inc. (SI), a consulting and training company that works with companies in a diverse set of industries on solutions sales and marketing issues. Most of SI’s work in helping large technology-based companies with the key account strategies.

Prior to establishing Solutions Insights, Steve was Vice President at ITSMA, the premier association for technology-based companies focused on marketing and selling services and solutions. Steve was a major contributor to ITSMA’s solutions publications and tools, including its Solutions Roadmap, and its Account-Based Marketing methodology.

Prior to joining ITSMA, Steve spent more than 15 years with Arthur D. Little, Inc. (ADL), formerly one of the world’s leading management consulting companies. At ADL, he worked as a senior consultant in the International Economics and Development practice.

About Matt Leary
An expert in solutions development, management, and sales, Matt has spent the last 15 years helping leading technology companies improve performance in market strategy and planning, services and solutions development, sales enablement and impact.

Prior to Solutions Insight, Matt was Vice President of Business Development for commercial partnership activities at a Boston-area technology start-up. Previously, he was Director of Member Engagement at ITSMA, where he managed several of ITSMA’s industry segments and developed custom research, consulting, and training programs for a wide variety of leading technology firms.

Before joining ITSMA in 2000, Matt helped create and manage the custom marketing programs group for Horizon House Publications, publisher of Telecommunications Magazine. He began his technology marketing and sales management career directing the activities of a niche outbound call center. Matt holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. He is currently a Senior Associate at ITSMA.

Content has SEO value. Good content helps create high-ranking search results. Good content is how your website, your products, and your services get found on the web. Show and tell your customers how your products and services can help them with their problems and they will find you. They will also respond. They will ask for more information. They will fill out a form on a landing page! Amazing – content marketing just created a lead.

Good content is a force multiplier for your marketing and sales efforts.

Blogs are no different than magazine ads or sales calls though. If you aren’t talking to the right people you are just wasting time and money. Keep your target audience in mind. Brainstorm what topics your customers want to discuss and hear about. Generate content that answers the questions your customers ask the most.

It’s a “chicken or egg first conundrum”. You have to talk about what your target audience wants to hear about before your target audience will find you. So educate them. Tell them the tricks to using your products and entertain them with news and topics specific to their interests. Tell them both about the beneficial features of your products as well as the shortcomings and the things you are working to improve.

Give specific examples of how your customers enjoy or prosper because they use your services. Better yet. Let your customers help tell stories demonstrating how excited they are to work with you.

Calls to Action

The overlooked secret to blogging success is quite possibly what you ask readers to do after they’ve read your post though. Maybe you are making the mistake of not even asking them to do anything. Including a call-to-action after every post is a requirement if lead generation is what you are seeking.

Content is a powerful tool to help your marketing and sales efforts. Good content can provide qualified leads to your sales force or can educate suspect contacts and help your marketers move them to the next stage of the buying cycle.

Register for the 7^th Annual ISA Marketing and Sales Summit to learn how you can use content marketing as a component of your marketing plan.

Doug Brock is a business development manager with Kendall Electric in Chattanooga. Doug blogs about Factory Automation, Marketing, and Sales topics at http://www.dougbrock.com.

One prospective customer, one point of contact, one sales person, one negative impression – and that would-be customer could be lost to you forever… along with countless numbers of others.

A co-worker joked to me the other week that they were tired of hearing people complain that they were ‘too busy’. Here’s the thing…

We all are.

We are, our customers are, and the people we’d love to be our customers are. There are not enough hours in the day, days in the week, or weeks in the year to accomplish everything we set out to do. The stress of multi-tasking and trying to meet deadlines makes us irritable and stressed. A vacation proves to be just the ticket – except the next thing you know, you’re back in the office with double the workload and umpteen emails to plough through. I hear you; it’s not easy.

Yet just knowing we’re all in the same boat should encourage us to lose the attitude; to breathe. Because that one person we take things out on might just be one person to us, but that same person will walk away with an armful of negativity they’ll be dying to vent to someone else.

We all like to be treated as someone with legitimate questions or concerns. It’s embarrassing and humiliating to be spoken to as though you should know better, or as if you’re of no importance, simply because your inquiry has been heard ten times over by the same pair of ears already today.

In their book Rules to Break and Laws to Follow, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D. note that “customers have memories. They will remember you, whether you remember them or not.”

There’s power in these memories. In today’s social media age, it’s the easiest thing in the world to draw the attention of those companies who have forgotten the Power of One. After one telephone call with a dismissive sales employee, you can simply hop online and log your experience via Twitter, a blog post, or a community forum. (Top tip: read Mashable’s HOW TO: Avoid a Social Media Disaster.)

Listen out for these mentions: they are a fantastic opportunity to make things right. Plug your company and brand names into Google Alerts and Social Mention alerts. These services will e-mail you regular updates on where you are being talked about online. Use transparency (never hide your relationship with the company) and diplomacy to ask for or suggest a solution when needed.

All complaints – however they are received – are a chance to show you understand and to do everything you need to in order to make amends. Use them to inform your customer service strategy going forward so that you don’t make the same mistakes.

Sadly, the majority of dissatisfied customer will walk away from us and never tell us why they no longer wish to do business with us or what we could have done better.

That’s why it’s imperative we show empathy in our customer relationships. This is the only way to build strong relationships that will stand the test of time.

Never forget the Power of One.

Register: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/189419430

Welcome to the 7th Annual Marketing & Sales Summit’s Webinar Series!

We are kicking off our annual webinar series to share good information and preview what’s going to be happening at the upcoming Summit in August.  Early bird registration ends on May

What’s Hot in Search Engine Marketing
By Shari Worthington, President, Telesian Technology

Date:  Thursday, May 3, 2012
Time: 1:00 pm EST
Register:  

Today’s search engines drive the vast majority of search efforts for automation products and services. A recent survey by Chemical Engineering showed that 94.9% of engineers find search engines very useful/useful. You know that means they’re starting their product and service searches online.

As follow-on to Shari’s ISA Marketing & Sales Summit search presentations, this webinar will look inside several advanced search marketing topics:

• Implications of Google’s latest search algorithm update
• Useful pay per click tools
• Integrating search and social media

With over 25 years experience in online marketing, Shari’s seen the best and the worst; in addition to pearls of wisdom, she’ll show you the top search marketing mistakes and how to avoid them. The focus is on practical information that you can implement right away.

Register today!

We are happy to announce that Jane Lansing, VP of Marketing at Emerson Process Management will be our keynote speaker for the 7th Annual Marketing & Sales Summit.

Jane has been leading Emerson Process Management’s Marketing efforts for several years, and we are happy to have her back as a keynote for the Summit. Jane keynoted our very first ISA Marketing & Sales Summit back in 2005. She was so personable and had some great insights about the industry and common challenges around marketing technical products.  We look forward to having her back.

About Jane Lansing

30 years in the process automation business: 9 years as a software engineer and project manager, designing and executing process automation projects; 21 years with Emerson in various technical and commercial marketing positions.  Prior to current position spent 4 years overseas as Systems Marketing Director, Europe.  Currently responsible for Emerson Process Management marketing, including brand management, cross-divisional marketing coordination, and PlantWeb Marketing of products and solutions across all Emerson divisions globally. BSCE, University of Minnesota, 1976.

Other interests:  Cross-cultural business consultant, Window on the World/FCI; Produced #1 selling musical comedy in 2003 Minnesota Theatre Festival; Mentor, Mentium 100; Volunteer ESL tutor (English as a second language); Languages: Spanish and Dutch.

We are seeking sponsors to support the continued success of the event.  I’m sure that you receive a number of requests to sponsor various events and activities.  So, what is it about this event that makes it different?  Following are some reasons to consider sponsoring…

1. The majority of attendees at the event have budget responsibility for marketing and sales related purchases for their companies.
2. The event schedule includes dedicated time for the attendees to mix and mingle with the sponsors.  All sponsors will receive a table in the networking area at which they can promote their companies products and/or services.
3. Sponsors will be vigorously promoted by ISA.  This promotion will include pre-event recognition on websites and social media as well as in-event recognition including signage, along with an opportunity to address attendees.  Sponsors are invited to contribute on a very active event blog that generates good traffic and referral links.
4. Sponsors will receive a complimentary registration for the event, among other benefits.
5. Sponsors will receive a list of all attendees (including email addresses) for post-event follow-up.

Some additional details about this year’s Summit…

The theme of the event is “The New Rules of Customer Engagement: Riding the Winds of Change.”  The event will include two conference tracks centered around Marketing and Sales.  Additionally, pre-Summit workshops will be offered on Inbound Marketing, Creating a Content Engine, and Solution Selling Strategies.

Please consider becoming a sponsor for the 2012 ISA Marketing and Sales Summit.  For more information, you can contact me via e-mail (kpp@prosys.com) or phone (225-291-9591).  Thanks for your consideration!

Download the Call for Papers

CALL FOR PAPERS
Abstracts due 16 April 2012

August 15-17th, 2012
at the Historic Driskill Hotel in Downtown Austin, Texas

You are invited to submit an abstract for ISA’s 7th Annual Marketing and Sales Summit, sponsored by the ISA Management Division.

How do you reach your customer today?

Regardless of how the world’s economies shift and sway, connecting with the customer is what it’s all about. But customer engagement has changed.  How is your company adjusting to these changes? We want to hear from you.

Share your expertise, solutions, and with other marketing and sales professionals in Historic Downtown Austin!  Join us at the 7th Annual ISA Marketing and Sales Summit to discuss these core issues and how it’s affecting companies like yours in the automation market.

How to submit an abstract

Abstracts should be submitted based on the summit theme and topics below. Abstracts should be 500 words or less and describe what the presentation will cover. If your abstract is accepted and you agree to submit a presentation for the conference proceedings, you are also agreeing to register and present at the 7th Annual ISA Marketing & Sales Summit.

Two Conference Tracks:  Marketing & Sales

• Strategy and Business Development
• Integrated Strategies for Marketing and Sales
• Digital Marketing and Social Media
• Complex Sales Best Practices
• Strategies in Vertical Markets

Sample topic areas include best practices in social media, guerilla marketing, brand marketing, winning complex accounts, market-driven product development, business development and engineering, product marketing management vs. product management, sales vs. marketing, branding in the web 2.0 era, redefining advertising in the digital age, and more.

Submit Today!

Please submit your abstract no later than 16 April 2012 to Shari Worthington, program chair at sharilee@telesian.com.

Conference Location

ISA’s 7th Annual Marketing & Sales Summit

15-17 August, 2012 – at the Historic Driskill Hotel in Downtown Austin, Texas

$170/night

http://www.driskillhotel.com/

Download the presentation PPT

Many technology and process automation firms adhere to a rigorous product development process, but few have mastered the art of adapting that process to build customer-centric, high value solutions.  In this webinar, Matt Leary and Nikki Fisher, Senior Principals with  Solutions Insights, Inc.,  will introduce elements unique to successful solutions development from deep research on customer business imperatives, to building mass customizable solutions.   Matt and Nikki will present examples from industry leaders, and provide you with tips and recommendations on how you can adapt your development process to deliver more effective, high value solutions to your customers.

Solutions Insights, Inc. (SI), is a consulting and training company that works with B2B firms interested in providing real solutions to their customers’ problems through better integration of products and enabling services.  SI has worked with leading technology firms in IT, telecom, industrial automation, manufacturing and professional services.

Attendees will learn:

• Understanding the Solutions Development Continuum
• Building systems that ensure that your customers and channel partners are part of the process
• How to adapt the product development process for solutions
• Filling the competency gap between product managers and solutions creators

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

Space is limited.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/516498182

About the Presenters

Matt Leary, Principal, Solutions Insights
An expert in solutions development, management, and sales, Matt has spent the last 15 years helping leading technology companies improve performance in market strategy and planning, services and solutions development, sales enablement and impact.

Prior to Solutions Insight, Matt was Vice President of Business Development for commercial partnership activities at a Boston-area technology start-up. Previously, he was Director of Member Engagement at ITSMA, where he managed several of ITSMA’s industry segments and developed custom research, consulting, and training programs for a wide variety of leading technology firms. While at ITSMA, Matt led projects in such areas as value proposition for services, customer loyalty, strategic account planning and training, solutions sales training, solutions marketing, and solutions business transformation. Matt also produced a number of thought leadership events, published and spoke on services and solutions issues, and contributed substantially to ITSMA’s ongoing research on marketing and sales for services and solutions.

Nikki Fisher, Principal, Solutions Insights

As a marketing and sales executive at pioneering companies in telecommunications, mobile technology and Internet consulting, Nikki Fisher gained deep, hands-on experience in developing, marketing and delivering successful market-based solutions.

Before joining Solutions Insights in 2011, Fisher was President of The Fisher Group where she specialized in helping B2B companies improve the effectiveness, customer focus and integration of their sales, marketing and service functions. Strategic projects include helping a multinational company develop a detailed strategy and roadmap to transform itself from a product reseller to a services/solutions business; designing and delivering solutions training for all customer-facing employees at an IT services firm; and creating a new solutions-development process for a Fortune 50 telecommunications company.

As a Senior Associate at ITSMA, Nikki has provided solutions consulting to a number of clients including Dimension Data, Avaya, Nortel and Verizon. Nikki was also the principal ITSMA consultant to Xerox Global Services as that company built it’s award-winning ABM program.

Webinar hosted by ISA’s Management Division

Here are the presentations available:

Keynotes:

Dr. Peter Martin, Invensys

Julie Fraser, Cambashi

Dick Morley

Pre-Summit Workshops:

Search Marketing: 2011 SEO & PPC Update, Shari Worthington, Telesian Technology

Advanced Content Strategies for Inbound Marketing: Jon DiPietro, Principal, Domesticating IT

Part One: Introduction

Part Two: Characteristics of Effective Content

Part Three: Planning

Part Four: Crafting

Part Five:  Promoting

Sessions:

The Essentials of Webinars, George Buckbee, Expertune

Increasing Our Value to the iPod Generation, Rick Dolezal, ABB Inc

Marketing & PR Food for Thought, Valerie Harding, Ripple Effect Communications

Web 2.0 Strategies to Reach Vertical Markets, Jeff Cawley, Northwest Analytical

Winning Complex Accounts, Katherine Persac, ProSys

Collaborating with Key Accounts: The New Imperative for Marketing & Sales, Steve Hurley and Rob Leavitt, Solutions Insights

Transforming Local Best Practices to a Global Competence, Marcus Tennant, Kyoko Fukuda, Yokogawa

“The Day We Failed” Success Story, Rick Caldwell, SCADAware

How Prepared Are We for Customer 2.0? Juliann Grant, Telesian Technology

Applying Baldridge to the Marketing Function, Doug Brock, Kendall Electric

Paradox is the new normal for B2B marketing and sales: Customers 2.0 don’t want to spend money but they absolutely want to invest in solutions with real business impact.  They are skeptical of every pitch and want to do their own research, but they’re anxious for new insight and practical advice.  They’re impossible to reach but they want stronger relationships with a few trusted partners.

Amid the paradox, key account relationships are more important than ever.  It’s not just that key accounts typically drive a disproportionate share to the top and bottom lines.  It’s also that working with your key accounts is the best way to gain deeper insight into the market, test new products and solutions, and learn more about what really works in serving customer needs.

Succeeding with key accounts 2.0, however, means going far beyond the basics of strong account leadership and focused sales plans.  Join Steve and Matt for a fast-paced, interactive session that digs into the specific ways marketing and sales can work together with key accounts to build and sustain strategic relationships, deepen understanding of critical challenges and opportunities, co-create new solutions, and generate greater mutual value.  The session will include a model for key account collaboration, examples of where it’s working, and a practical roadmap to guide the move toward key account success.