Dear friends and colleagues,

This month's issue features success stories from three ITSMA members, NCR, Compaq, and EDS. ITSMA E-ZINE readers have often asked for more coverage of company best practices, and of course we aim to please. Our latest membership research deliverable, Best Practices in Field Marketing, also highlights a series of mini-cases, so there is yet more grist for the strategy mill. Please let me know if we should provide more of these types of stories and if you've got a story of your own we might publish. And don't forget to sign up for upcoming events!

–Rob Leavitt, director of member advocacy, editor of ITSMA E-ZINE

What's Hot: Improving Sales Productivity and Results

What's hot in ITSMA-land these days? In a word, sales. Sales productivity and results remain top-of-mind for just about everyone we talk to as the global economic downturn continues.

Necessity often inspires creativity, and we're seeing a lot of innovative work on the sales and sales support fronts. Member companies are redefining value propositions and services portfolios; launching new projects to get closer to existing customers and leverage long-term relationships; and focusing on other quick payoff initiatives. A number of firms are also undertaking more substantial initiatives to shift their sales forces toward a solutions selling model rather than one-off services or products.

A great deal of ITSMA's own research, training, and advisory work in recent months has focused on these sorts of issues, including solutions selling, voice of the customer research, and positioning new services.

The last three ITSMA E-ZINE's have provided numerous articles, examples, and research excerpts on improving sales results, and this issue continues in that vein. Quick reviews of initiatives at Compaq, NCR Teradata, and EDS below all speak to sales concerns, as does the Member Voices dialogue on chief revenue officers.

One last note: if sales is a hot topic for you these days, you probably don't want to miss ITSMA's Annual Services Sales Forum on August 22-23. The forum provides a great chance to sit down with industry leaders for some very focused discussion on immediate steps to improve up sales results. ITSMA's vice president of learning, Steve Hurley, will also present a daylong workshop on our popular Client-Centric Selling model on the second day of the forum. Details are provided below and on our Web site. Suffice it to say here that if you can get to San Francisco later this month you'll depart with a wealth of new ideas, contacts, and practical recommendations. We hope to see you there!

–Rob Leavitt

Interested in past E-ZINE articles on issues such as sales automation tools, leveraging the sales force, getting closer to the customer, and training product sales forces to sell services? Visit our ITSMA E-ZINE archive: http://www.itsma.com/press/press_ezine.htm.

Research Desk: Best Practices in Field Marketing (New Report)

As services marketing continues to mature, firms are investing more heavily in field marketing programs and personnel. Successfully marketing technology services relies heavily on building personal relationships with buyers; putting more resources into the field is one of the most important ways to build those relationships. Best Practices in Field Marketing, a new ITSMA Update, highlights field marketing initiatives from six firms: Cisco Systems, Sprint, Compaq, First Consulting Group, Infosys, and EDS. The examples address such critical tactical issues as sales support tools, thought leadership seminars, internal field marketing, Web marketing, executive road shows, and regional communications strategies.

Best Practices in Field Marketing was recently distributed to all member delegates. The Update is also available for sale at ITSMA member and nonmember rates. For more information or to order your copy, talk to your ITSMA delegate about online access to ITSMA's Member Research Library, visit http://www.itsma.com/Research/abstracts/u0034.htm, or contact Rich Staples at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 17, or info@itsma.com.

Compaq Looks to More Ambitious Internal Services Marketing

In March 2000, ITSMA published Building Brand Loyalty: Lessons from Industry Leaders, a detailed review of the theory and practice of branding for IT services firms. Among six case studies included in the report was the story of On the Move, an innovative internal marketing program at Compaq designed to educate services employees about the value of services to the company, the range of services offerings, and support tools and career opportunities for services employees. The program revolves around a global series of small trade shows for employees, and ITSMA praised both the substantial investment in internal marketing and the high-touch approach.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2001. Compaq recently announced a major initiative to increase services revenue and transform itself into a services-led company. It's a familiar story, to be sure. But expanded investment in high-touch programs like On the Move greatly increases the chances of success. The 2000 program concluded with events in 84 cities in 29 countries that touched more than 27,000 employees, including the vast majority of all Compaq Services employees. On the Move organizers are now planning an even larger initiative for 2002, with expanded content and a bigger target audience. Most noteworthy, the next phase of the program is targeted at the entire corporation, not just services employees, giving credence to executive claims of truly shifting the corporate culture toward services. Effective internal marketing is far from the only determinant of services success, but it's difficult to succeed without it. Kudos to Compaq for continuing and expanding its internal services marketing investment.

For more information on Building Brand Loyalty or to purchase a copy, visit http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/F005.htm.

Rationalizing Sales Support: NCR's Teradata Initiative Highlights Key Success Factors

Everywhere ITSMA turns these days, marketers are knee-deep in projects to build and upgrade online sales support systems. Some firms are well advanced, others just beginning, but most are committed to using Web-based systems to rationalize and improve sales support.

The benefits of "Webifying" sales support seem obvious. Sales reps can download collateral, value proposition templates, and presentations 24 x 7. They can tap databases for references and competitive intelligence at a moment's notice. Externally, prospects can educate themselves on offers and solutions, provide information that helps the seller qualify the opportunity, and even buy services directly via Web-based forms and tools.

Sales reps themselves clearly want such systems. ITSMA data show that the company intranet is widely considered the most useful source of sales information. But building a truly useful and well-used system is no easy task. The field is littered with unwieldy and underused online systems, CDs, binders, and sales kits.

Teradata, a division of NCR that provides database and analytic applications, provided ITSMA with a recent success story with several valuable lessons for other marketers wrestling with complex sales support systems.

Early in 2000, Teradata marketers found themselves in an all too familiar position. The company had dozens of separate intranets, many with ineffective search engines or none at all. Field communications were out of control, with little segmenting of audiences and plenty of e-mail overload. Sales reps had trouble finding the information they needed, verifying that the information was the most current, and sorting through thousands of irrelevant messages. Revenue and profits were down, marketing's credibility suffered, and the sales force was no longer listening.

The marketing team's response was to build a new online information delivery system focused tightly on the needs of the sales force. Perhaps most important, the CMO brought in a successful field sales person to head up the project and let extensive discussions with sales people worldwide drive the solution—thereby ensuring that the practical needs and wants of the sales force were front and center in the design process.

The new, database-driven delivery system is completely centralized—a single solution for internal audiences and partner sales organizations. The system is fully searchable, personalized (it serves content by functional role, area, and/or country), and structured to capture user clickstream data. Marketing refreshes the system continuously, adding new material and removing old.

Along with building the new online system, marketing also centralized control over the flow of communications to the sales force. This change facilitated more effective targeting of messages to appropriate sales offices and representatives and less irrelevant noise to everyone else.

Eighteen months later, the Teradata initiative has paid substantial dividends. Sales force use of the system has grown dramatically and consistently since launch. Marketers can now identify what information is being used by successful sales and marketing personnel and at what point in the sales cycle, and they can promote that behavior to others in the organization. Sales productivity is up dramatically, and twice as many sales people are making their quotas. Bottom line: Teradata has now experienced six successive quarters of growth in an extremely volatile market.

From ITSMA's perspective, the Teradata initiative responds directly to four critical success factors regarding online sales support:

• Including the sales force in the system development process
• Integrating with every stage of the sales process and creating demonstrable value for the sales force throughout that process
  
• Building in materials and tools that the sales force can use easily to provide clear value to clients and prospects
  
• Incorporating metrics and measurement processes into the heart of the system to support ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement

The potential of online sales support systems is indeed enormous. Without careful attention to all four success factors, however, marketers run a great risk of creating technically sophisticated but practically ineffective systems. In times like these, a white elephant investment is the last thing anyone needs.

Are you implementing or upgrading online sales support? Care to share your story? Let us know how your efforts are progressing.

–Rob Leavitt

Upcoming Events:

14 August 2001, 12:00–1:00 p.m. EDT: Solutions Marketing: Is It Really Different? (Online Briefing; free for ITSMA members)

Is solutions simply a useless buzzword, or is marketing solutions really something different, requiring a different approach from marketing products or services? Many ITSMA members are grappling with just this question and experimenting with different ways to market and sell complex packages of products and services that address specific business needs. Among other things, firms are improving capabilities to support cross-selling, team selling, and collaborative marketing and selling with partners. Join Julie Schwartz, ITSMA's vice president of research, and Steve Hurley, ITSMA's vice president of learning and performance excellence, for a discussion of ITSMA's latest research on industry trends, and the best practices, skills, and behaviors required to succeed in marketing solutions.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/e07170101.htm.

22–23 August 2001: ITSMA's Annual Services Sales Forum: Achieving Breakthrough Sales Growth in Today's Economy (San Francisco)

Sales productivity tops the hit parade for most technology and consulting firms these days. With revenue targets under tremendous pressure, all eyes are on the sales force. Sales, marketing, and business development managers can ill afford to ignore any new ideas that might help bolster services sales performance. For the third year in a row, ITSMA will bring together executives and managers responsible for generating and supporting services sales from a wide range of technology and professional services firms. ITSMA's two-day program combines discussions with industry leaders and a special workshop on client-centric selling. Join industry experts from Cisco, IBM Global Services, NCR, BMC Software, and other firms to discuss such critical concerns as managing large accounts, developing effective interactive sales tools, managing sales automation and CRM systems, and leveraging the Internet to increase sales efficiency.

For more information or to register online, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/event_desc/e08220101.htm.

Event Sponsorship Opportunities

As the premier industry association for IT services marketing, ITSMA offers companies event sponsorship opportunities throughout the year. Event sponsors benefit from direct access to services marketing executives and managers from the world's leading IT services firms as well as the broader association with ITSMA.

For more information on event sponsorship opportunities, benefits, and costs, visit http://www.itsma.com/events/other_desc/01_sponsorprg.htm or contact Rich Staples at +1-781-862-8500, ext. 17, or info@itsma.com.

Events Calendar for 2001: http://www.itsma.com/aspfiles/Events/calendar.asp

Toolbox: Managing References

Each month ITSMA highlights a new idea, application, or other type of tool that services marketers can use immediately to strengthen their programs and organizations.

Managing references is one of the most important jobs of a successful IT services marketing organization. References are one of the most critical ways that buyers learn about potential services providers, and positive references are often necessary to validate claims about capabilities and performance. By the same token, poor references can kill deals fast.

ITSMA's Reference Management Guide provides a handy review of the three key elements of an effective reference management system: reference identification, reference format, and reference implementation.

New Ideas: EDS Cookbook for Business Success

The technology downturn has understandably led many companies to cut back or suspend community outreach activities. From a business development perspective, however, community activities often have great potential for creating solid business results, as demonstrated recently by EDS in the state of Ohio.

Following the launch of a substantial statewide reading program by then newly elected Ohio Governor Bob Taft in 1999, EDS approached the governor's office with the idea of selling a Recipes for Reading cookbook and donating the profits to the governor's OhioReads program. The EDS initiative was highly credible from a community perspective. The firm had long promoted educational outreach as a pillar of its sizable community affairs program, and EDS Ohio had donated thousands of volunteer hours in Ohio schools during previous years.

At the same time, though, EDS Ohio marketers had a clear business objective in mind. EDS had little contact with state or local governments in Ohio and few contacts to support potential government business in the state—a potentially lucrative market for the IT services giant. In addition, the company was not included in the list of preferred suppliers to Ohio state agencies, further limiting its prospects. In that context, it was imperative for EDS to build brand awareness in the state and increase its network of contacts in and around state government.

Two years later, the Recipes for Reading project has yielded great success for both objectives. Cookbook sales have generated several thousand dollars in donated profits to support the governor's top-priority literacy campaign; EDS employees have increased their school volunteer efforts; and the firm has received public awards and accolades from Governor Taft and the media.

On the business side, the project has led to critical business connections with top state officials; approval to join the state's preferred provider list; and a series of specific major projects with the state now under consideration. Further, participation in several boards and commissions that followed the reading project has led to important relationship-building opportunities with other large Ohio companies that are potential clients.

Is your firm leveraging community activities for business results? Have any other new marketing ideas to share? Let us know.

–Rob Leavitt

Member Voices: Chief Revenue Officers: Dot-Com Hype or Sensible Solution?

A July 2001 ITSMA Commentary addressed the emergence of chief revenue officers, especially among dot-com firms, and the potential value of the new position. As Julie Schwartz wrote: "The best way to get something done is usually to assign a process owner. Shared responsibility for results often diminishes the likelihood of achieving those results. In theory, then, giving someone the revenue hat and making him or her fully accountable is the best way to maximize revenue. It is all about optimizing the whole, rather than the parts."

Not surprisingly, Julie's article sparked a great deal of member response pro and con.

Visit the Member Voices area to read a selection of these member comments, and throw in your own two cents about whether the new title is just more dot-com hype or a truly sensible solution to bridging the debilitating gap between sales and marketing operations. Thanks to everyone who responded.

Read the original ITSMA Commentary

ITSMA in the News: ITSMA Teams with COMDEX for Services Push

ITSMA and Key3Media Group, Inc., the world's leading producer of business-to-business expositions and conferences for the IT industry, have entered a strategic relationship to develop programs and strategies that will grow the IT services segment at COMDEX Fall 2001 and COMDEX Chicago2002.

ITSMA research has long documented frustration and declining investment in trade shows by technology services organizations. When EDS broke new ground for IT services firms with a massive initiative at COMDEX Fall 2000, however, many services marketers began taking another look at the possibilities. Event organizers have also been hearing requests for a greater emphasis on IT services and services firms from both attendees and exhibitors, and they have begun to respond to the growing demand with a series of program changes. COMDEX Fall 2001, for example, will feature an IT Services Zone as one of eight major technology exhibitions.

COMDEX organizers are working to better serve the IT services community and to raise visibility on services with the buyers and sellers who make up the COMDEX marketplace. This is where ITSMA comes into play. ITSMA and other thought leaders in the industry, including Harvard Business School Publishing, McKinsey & Company, and EDS, are working with COMDEX planners to develop an appropriate mix of education, executive meetings, and other activities to facilitiate buying and selling IT services.

The new initiative is focused on such questions as the following:

• How can services firms best connect with potential clients in a trade show environment?
• What conferences, presentations, and tutorials can most help services buyers evaluate and negotiate with vendors?
• How can the world's largest technology trade shows create a more productive marketplace for services buyers and sellers?

If you've got ideas on how to strengthen the services component of COMDEX or have an interest in participating, let us know at advocate@itsma.com.

For more information on COMDEX Fall 2001, visit http://www.key3media.com/comdex/fall2001/.

(c) Copyright 2001, ITSMA

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About ITSMA
ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. As a membership organization, we provide research, consulting, and training to the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.