|
       |
| About Us | Our Team | Our Members | Job Opportunities | Directions | News | Site Search |
 |
Location: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dear Readers, I don't know about all of you, but summer has sure flown here in the Boston area! To SUBSCRIBE a friend or to UNSUBSCRIBE, simply send me an e-mail at kzina@itsma.com. We would appreciate hearing any comments or suggestions that you have, so simply press Reply and let us know what you think. Thanks, and have a great month! -Kristin Zina, Manager, Public Relations and Member Communications, Editor of ITSMA's E-ZINE What's Hot: Major Barriers to Selling Services Upcoming Services Marketing Events: Sign up online and receive a 5% reduced fee! August 15 and 16, 2000: ITSMA's Annual Services Sales Forum: Selling Services in the Internet Age September 10-13, 2000: ITSMA's Accelerated Development Course at Babson College October 2-4, 2000: ITSMA's MarketingServices/2000 Annual Conference-Sign up by August 8 and SAVE 10%! November 13-15, 2000: ITSMA's TelecomServices/2000 Annual Conference: Preview-Sign up by September 1 and SAVE 10%! Next
Online Briefing: How Important is Collateral as a Sales Leave Behind? Testimonials: ITSMA's Services Marketing Professional Program (SMPP) A View from the President's Office What's Hot: Major Barriers to Selling Services Last month we discussed the importance of providing services sales reps with clear and compelling value propositions to help them become more effective at selling services. Too often reps are responsible for developing their own value propositions and we know what can happen when they start getting creative! In our recent survey of 1,700 services sales reps (as part of ITSMA's 2000 Services Sales Effectiveness Research), we identified three additional barriers to selling services:
When sales reps mention price as a barrier, they either haven't communicated a strong enough value proposition to the client to justify the price or they don't know how to do so. In most cases the price is justifiable, reps simply haven't received the right information. In the area of sales tools, most sales forces are crying out for more tools and resources that can help them sell. The Web is their preferred vehicle for tools that can range from proposal templates and return on investment (ROI) tools, to needs assessment worksheets and reference databases. ITSMA's upcoming Services Sales Forum in Boston, on August 15 and 16, will feature a number of companies that will discuss what they are doing to help their sales forces in all three of these areas. Visit us online for more details or to register. For more information on ITSMA's Services Sales Survey, "Closing the Sales and Marketing Gap," or the Services Sales Effectiveness Program, contact Julie Schwartz at +1-781- 862-8500, ext. 12, or jschwartz@itsma.com. Given the importance of sales effectiveness, Upcoming Services Marketing Events Sign up online at www.itsma.com and receive a 5% reduced fee! [TOP OF PAGE] August 15 and 16, 2000: ITSMA's Annual Services Sales Forum: Selling Services in the Internet Age This popular ITSMA forum will explore a range of critical topics that impact the success of your services sales engine. The first day will feature case study presentations from industry leaders Cambridge Technology Partners, Compaq, IBM, Lucent, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sun Microsystems and Synet Services Corporation on their sales models and best practices. The second day will feature a workshop, led by ITSMA's Steve Hurley, on the topic of Client Centric Selling. The session will focus on the five-stage client relationship model and how marketing and sales can move clients through the stages more effectively. For more details or to register for the forum, visit ITSMA's Annual Services Sales Forum. September 10-13, 2000: The Accelerated Development Course: Building the Foundation for Services Marketing Success This MBA-level course highlights the difference between traditional product marketing and services marketing in the information technology sector and provides the tools and techniques to be successful in maximizing the impact of an integrated services marketing program. The strategies and tactics that are successful in IT services marketing are different from those used in product marketing. This course will take place at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Seating is limited. For more details and to apply, visit The Accelerated Development Course. October 2-4, 2000: ITSMA's MarketingServices/2000 Annual Conference: Marketing in the E-Millennium Featuring keynote speaker Geoffrey Moore, managing director of the Chasm Group and author of Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and just released June 1, Living on the Fault Line. This conference will also feature speakers from Oracle, Scient, Hewlett-Packard, Evolve, AppNet, Siebel Systems and more. It will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey, California. For more details or to register, visit ITSMA's MarketingServices/2000 Annual Conference. IF YOU REGISTER ONLINE BY AUGUST 8, YOU SAVE 10%! October 21-23, 2000: ITSMA London-Style Professional Development in Europe: Creating Results-Driven Services Marketing Programs ITSMA heads to London this fall to conduct its professional development course for IT services marketers in Europe. Under the auspices of its Services Marketing Institute, ITSMA will host a customized version of its highly regarded "Accelerated Development Course" for middle and senior level marketing managers charged with expanding their IT services business in Europe. From October 21-23, 2000, top European and American services marketing experts will lead an intensive mini-course on critical services marketing challenges in the new European economy. The course will take place at Highgate House, an executive conference center on the outskirts of London. The course, entitled "Creating Results-Driven Services Marketing Programs," includes sessions on such issues as new services development, market selection, pricing, building customer loyalty, and e-marketing techniques. Program highlights include ITSMA's best practice research on global IT leaders, new research on the European market, structured peer learning, and an action-planning session to help participants apply the new material to immediate real-world demands. Marketing leaders from companies like Compaq, Cisco, ICL, Microsoft, and Nortel have already signed up, but spaces for European services marketers are still available. November 13-15, 2000: ITSMA's TelecomServices/2000 Annual Conference: The Services Agenda for a Networked Economy New services, new markets, new customers, new entrantskeep pace with rapidly changing services in the communications marketplace at ITSMA's third annual TelecomServices Conference. Join peers and partners for an executive-level program that includes keynotes and presentations from Global Crossing, Nortel, Cap Gemini, Cisco, Lucent, Colo.com, and more. TelecomServices will be held at the Wyndham Palace in Orlando, Florida, and is sponsored by Nortel Networks, Ericsson, ThruPoint, Inc., Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard. CC News will be a media sponsor for the event. For more information on TelecomServices, please contact Matt Leary at +1-401- 683-7589 or mleary@itsma.com, or visit ITSMA's TelecomServices/2000 Annual Conference. IF YOU REGISTER ONLINE BY SEPTEMBER 1, YOU SAVE 10%! Register for any ITSMA event by calling Jeff LaVoie at +1-888-ITSMA92, ext. 38, or +1-781-862-8500, ext. 38; or register online for a reduced rate. Next Online Briefing [TOP OF PAGE] September 19,
2000, 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST: Getting the Metrics: Building
Accountability for Services Marketing Having difficulty explaining the value that services marketing is contributing to your organization? Steve Hurley, ITSMA's Vice President of Learning and Development, will provide some best practices of and insights into how some services marketing groups measure and communicate their value internally. Register online Getting the Metrics: Building Accountability for Services Marketing for the briefing now. Please visit us online to view the technical requirements needed to participate in ITSMA's online briefings. For visitors who register for the briefing, confirmation and downloading directions will be forwarded to you within 24 to 48 hours prior to the briefing. Member Voices: How Important is Collateral as a Sales Leave-Behind ? [TOP OF PAGE] Each month we ask members to sound off on a critical services marketing issue, and we publish a selection of their responses. THIS MONTH'S QUESTION: "Does leaving a piece of collateral behind really make a service more tangible for the prospective client?" Veronica Shelley, Services Marketing Manager, Lotus Development Corporation: "Yes, especially if the collateral piece is documenting a customer success story. Reading about another company's positive experience with your services, and the resulting benefits, can help clarify the service's value proposition in the eyes of a prospect. The prospect can then infer how those same services can help them address their own technical or business issues." For more information on Lotus, visit http://www.lotus.com. Jerri Smith, Marketing Consultant, EDS: "Yes. The general consensus we hear from our salespeople is, "Collateral doesn't make the sale, but it is necessary-in most cases-when making the purchase decision." You can't touch or feel a service the way you can a product. In addition to the standard features, benefits and advantages of our services, the content of our offering and solution overview collateral includes a brief scenario or case study. The intent is to help prospective clients visualize their company achieving similar results. A prospect may also be talking to our competitors. Once the salesperson has walked out the door, the collateral left behind is a tangible representation of our services and helps ensure top of mind. We don't rely on collateral alone to tell our story. It's just one facet of an integrated marketing communication plan." For more information on EDS, visit http://www.eds.com. Testimonials: ITSMA's Services Marketing Professional Program (SMPP) C.J. Hill, Manager, Enterprise Services Marketing, Cisco Systems: In response to a question to identify two to three activities that you handled differently in your job as a result of what you learned in the SMPP program C.J. writes: "I learned to: * Simplify the portfolio, simplify identification of customer characteristics, simplify alignment, and simplify the tools; * Look at customer requirements and applicable service offerings from a more strategic perspective; * Apply mass-customization principles to service offering development; * Validate service program decisions by including marketplace trends, industry focus, etc. Using this knowledge and approach changed my approach to developing new service programs and analyzing or modifying existing ones as well as mentoring my team differently in their development. I believe the SMPP experience has increased my ability to add value to Cisco's direction and service portfolio." For more information on Cisco, visit http://www.cisco.com. Paula Wiley-Pierce, Manager, Services Program, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.: "My involvement with the SMPP program has provided a wealth of resources that I may not have stumbled upon on my own. From the initial "Accelerated Development Course," frequent on-line shows, seminars and monthly magazine, I have been able to develop a stronger skill set that matches a "services marketer." The bandwidth of information helped mold my thinking from strategic product positioning to strategic services positioning. Prior to the participation in this program I was unsure that the migration I made from "product and promotional" marketing to "services" marketing was a change that was well suited for my personality, background and ambitions. As a result of participating in the on-going educational tools offered through ITSMA, I learned that I was simply looking at different puzzles.and that I liked the challenge of untangling and solving those riddles. I realized that my strong creative and communication skills need not be lost in this new role. In fact, after the department began its restructuring, I recognized that those skills would be capitalized through training sessions, that my "IT" background was being utilized not only in our department, but would fundamentally affect the entire company. Finally, I realized that learning this new side of marketing provided an opportunity for me to expand my knowledge base, developing a pliant, well-rounded marketing background." For more information on Toshiba Medical, visit http://www.toshiba.com. Do you have a career development path for your services marketing professionals? Are you looking to increase your own services marketing proficiency or that of your organization? Consider enrolling in ITSMA's Services Marketing Professional Program (SMPP). We are currently accepting applications through August 31 for the next group of enrolled participants. ANSWER NEXT MONTH'S MEMBER VOICES QUESTION: "What is your greatest services marketing success story?" Answer this question by simply sending an e-mail to Kristin Zina, editor of the ITSMA E-ZINE and manager of member communications at ITSMA, at cearnst@itsma.com, or visit Member Voices, where you can also view past months' questions and answers. Let us know what you think of this feature. Thanks! A View from the President's Office "I continue to be struck
by the dysfunctional relationship most sales and marketing organizations
have. It's not quite the Hatfield's and the McCoy's, but it's close. At
the same time, I am encouraged by the progress a number of companies are
making in this area, especially in developing online resources, sales tools
and knowledge for their reps. The next battle will involve getting reps
to use them!" ***Reproduction or disclosure in whole or in part to other parties shall be made according to the ITSMA Citation Policy. Reproduction prohibited.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
About ITSMA |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
