Communicating Solutions: A Four-Step Model

The shift from promoting discrete products and services to more integrated solutions is bringing all sorts of concern to marketing communicators. If potential buyers are already skeptical about the promise of most IT investments, the promotion of “solutions” brings perhaps the toughest reactions of all. As one CIO recently told ITSMA, “My gut reaction when someone offers a solution is: Thats great, but do you know what the problem is?”

Buyers do want integrated solutions. It’s just that marketers and sellers have trouble demonstrating that they understand their customers’ problems and that they have credible offers that will deliver measurable business results.

Internal divisions exacerbate the challenge. Indeed, during a briefing on this topic last month, participants identified the most difficult problem in communicating solutions: Communicating solutions by business unit/division and not collaborating across “enemy lines.” It’s hard to bring compelling messages to prospective customers if you can’t even get your own organization in line.

Building an effective communications program for solutions requires emphasis on four critical steps:

1. Internal alignment. The first step is getting everyone on the same page, both across organizational lines and from top to bottom. You can’t have the hardware division calling their new box a solution while the consulting group ignores hardware altogether. Customization for different markets is certainly important but there must be common definitions of solutions, ways to present them to customers, and templates and platforms to utilize for communication campaigns.

More than likely, creating alignment internally will require a combination of top-down initiative (e.g., an executive-level solutions council that cuts across business units) and bottom-up collaboration and support (e.g., peer sharing of successful models, templates, and campaign plans).

2. Thought leadership. The reality of a buyers’ market means that customers find you these days more often than you find them. Traditional push marketing is decreasingly effective. Customers have their own agenda. They ignore the majority of marketing communications and do their own research to find appropriate solutions and potential providers. Winning in this context requires building awareness and interest from executive-level buyers through in-depth research and innovative approaches to critical business challenges.

Successful thought leadership marketing requires, first, honest-to-goodness innovative thought. Technical white papers and run-of-the-mill commentary do not generate much interest or credibility. Assuming you have developed legitimate expertise in solving important business problems, you need to showcase it on the Web, with media and industry analysts, at user groups and other events, and in other arenas capable of pulling prospective customers in your direction. Use thought leadership to sustain pull marketing programs that bring in the right kind of leads.

3. Micromarketing. Once you have generated initial interest in your solutions offers, you need to focus communications on very specific markets, segments, and individual prospects to keep the conversation alive. Relevance is everything. Customers want to know very quickly if you understand their industry, business, and individual needs.

Micromarketing requires deep research, sophisticated segmentation, and careful customization of communications activities to speak directly to the smallest possible groups of prospects. For example, don’t just target “retail.” Look at the various sub-segments within retail, then consider whether drugstore chains with more than 100 stores are a useful target. Explore ways to get your message into narrowly focused trade media, seminars, and user groups. Go regional and local as much as national and global. Demonstrate knowledge of micro issues and problems and their solutions.

4. Reference management. Finally, give your top prospects the confidence they need to sign on the dotted line. Buyers have obviously gotten much tougher in scrutinizing offers and negotiating deals; strong references often bridge the gap between serious interest and closing the deal. In the words of one CIO, “We need to know where they’ve done work, what they’ve done, and who we can talk to for references.”

Effective reference management programs, though, are deceivingly complex. Good programs go far beyond simply asking clients for references after the fact and then having a list on hand when prospects ask. At the high end, ITSMA has identified almost 100 key issues that companies need to resolve and up to 30 communications vehicles they need to develop. (See, for example, “Client References: Thinking Through All the Issues” in last month’s ITSMA E-ZINE.) Even more modest programs require dedicated staff; well-defined criteria and processes for collecting, maintaining, and using reference data; targeted use of references internally and externally; and constant updating of existing and new reference accounts.

Communicating solutions will never be easy. Successful programs require deep understanding of customers’ business needs, deft balancing between globally consistent messages and carefully adapted initiatives for individual prospects and segments, and powerful demonstrations of credibility through expertise and past performance. But these four steps provide an essential framework for building effective campaigns. Focusing resources on these areas will go a long way toward meeting the challenge.

How effectively are you communicating solutions? What are the keys to your success?

ITSMA’s briefing, Communicating Solutions: Why Is It So Difficult?, provides examples from Accenture, Wipro, EDS, Hewlett-Packard, Unisys, and other firms to illustrate successful approaches for each of the four steps. The briefing, originally delivered March 16, 2004 is available at no charge to members and for sale to all others.

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ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.