Online Briefing

Account-Based Marketing: Making an Impact

30 April 2004
12:00-13:00 London Time; 13:00-14:00 CET
(free for ITSMA Europe members)

Registration Closed

Briefing slides available; free for ITSMA Europe members (password-protected)

Marketers today are faced with two imperatives for growth: maximise share of wallet from existing clients and identify opportunities with new clients. Achieving both requires focus on a number of issues:

• Clearly defining the most desirable clients
• Gathering intelligence about the business issues, drivers, and perceptions of key decision makers at existing and potential clients
• Understanding which elements of your portfolio are most attractive to which client
• Creating targeted campaigns and value propositions
• Working effectively with sales teams, delivery staff, and partners to build strong relationships and move each client towards purchase and repurchase

Many of these activities have traditionally fallen within the scope of ‘account planning’ and, as such, have been owned by sales teams or consultants. Recently, though, ITSMA has seen more marketing emphasis on these activities and the boundaries between sales and marketing beginning to blur.

Join ITSMA Europe’s associate director, Sara Sheppard, to find out what is driving the adoption of account-based marketing by leading companies and how it is working. Sara will discuss how marketing and sales are prioritising clients to receive this approach; which marketing techniques are most effective; how marketing is integrating more with sales, delivery staff, and partners; and how to evaluate account-based marketing. Sara will further share successful examples of account-based marketing initiatives and provide recommendations to help you develop your own competence in this area.

Presenter

Sara Sheppard
Associate Director, Learning and Advisory Services, ITSMA Europe

Sara Sheppard brings a significant level of relevant expertise and experience to ITSMA Europe, with over 20 years Services marketing experience, including a decade in the IT industry working for Digital, and more recently as a senior marketing manager for Microsoft.

Her expertise has touched most areas of marketing, but her particular passion is service development and launching new service offers to a market. At Digital and Microsoft, she was involved in a number of exciting new service offer ventures, often taking the companies into new investment areas requiring significant business justification.

Sara’s role with ITSMA Europe is to deliver results for members in both learning and advisory projects. Sara’s experience in coaching enables her to act as a mentor for ITSMA’s Services Marketing Professional Programme in Europe.

Sara has an MBA from Cranfield, is a chartered marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She has been an examiner for the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Diploma course, and was actively involved on the Institute’s Advisory Board for a recent Canon of Services Marketing.

General Information

ITSMA's Online Briefings offer recent research findings or survey results from thought leaders on a variety of services marketing topics. The Online Briefings can be viewed individually, or in groups composed of people within the same company. The briefings are available anywhere in the world that has telephone service and access to the Internet. A typical program runs 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers. The person making the online presentation speaks into a telephone and advances the visual portion of the presentation via their computer connected to the Internet. At the end of the presentation. and at the presenter's discretion, the listeners are invited to ask questions. Each listener with a question identifies him or herself and is listed in a queue and taken one at a time by the presentation monitor. The monitor also manages the question and answer session by giving each questioner access to the phone line to communicate with the presenter.

Technical Requirements

This briefing will be administered by Connex International. All participants are required to test their browsers on Connex International's Website 24-48 hours prior to ensure they are ‘Java-enabled’. This test can be done at www.connexpresents.com, by clicking on the "Equipment Check" icon.
You will receive a pass code and dial in number 24-48 hours prior to the briefing.

The technical requirements for this ITSMA online briefing are:

• Direct or dial-up Internet connection of 28.8 kb/s or higher.
• Netscape Navigator 3.04 or higher, Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.02 or higher, or any JAVA-enabled browser.
• A separate telephone line to access the audio teleconference.
• If participating from your company, ask about your company’s Internet Firewall 48 hours prior to the event. This will enable your technician or a Connex technician to reconfigure connections to ensure access to the Internet portion of the briefing.
• No plug-ins or software downloads are required.
• Compatible with a wide variety of browsers including Netscape 3.0+, IE 3.02+, or any Java-enabled browser. (Compatible with NT, Win95, Unix, Win3.1, Mac.)
• Works through 99% of all firewalls and proxy servers.

Fees and Registration

Aside from the telephone call, the fee for the presentation is complimentary for active ITSMA Europe members, and $95 per location for North American members or non-members of ITSMA.

Note: Registration is on a first-come/first-served basis. You must register by 17:00. London Time, Thursday, 29 April 2004.

About ITSMA
ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions. As a membership organization, we work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services firms to generate new business, strengthen customer loyalty, and increase brand differentiation. Through research, consulting, training, and community we provide the insight companies need to improve marketing impact, sales performance, and business results. ITSMA is based in Lexington, Massachusetts, and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Learn more at www.itsma.com.