ITSMA Newsletter Add-ins 2009-08-07
Ask ITSMA: How Much Should Marketing Be Spending on People vs. Programs?
Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions along with excerpts from our replies.
Do you have any insight on the balance of staff vs. program spending for services marketing budgets?
Our last budget survey found that marketers are spending 55% of the budget on non-staff (programs) and 45% on staff. The program portion of the budget has been increasing since 2005, when spending on people and programs was roughly even. However, pure services companies tend to have a higher ratio of programs to people than mixed product-service companies. Look for the percentage of program spending to continue to increase as marketers outsource more and shift more budget to digital marketing.
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Upcoming ITSMA Events
To view all events, please go here.
Understanding Changing Buyer Behavior: Marketing Programs and Tactics That Work Today
Online Briefing
September 17, 2009
8:00 a.m. Pacific – 11:00 a.m. Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)
(Free for ITSMA members)
In this troubled economy, heightened scrutiny and lengthy decision cycles are changing the effectiveness of different marketing and sales tactics. The key to success lies in understanding changing buyer behavior at each stage of the sales cycle and using that knowledge to create the right marketing programs and vehicles to deliver better results. Join ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and Olivier Nguyen Van Tan, managing director of Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) as they explore the different stages of the customer’s buying process and how buyers use information sources throughout the process. Specifically, the briefing will offer insight into:
- Impact of the current economic situation on the way customers make buying decisions
- Best ways to introduce new ideas and new approaches to customers
- Sources of information customers use when creating a shortlist of providers
- Most important criteria used to select solution providers
- Relationship programs that provide buyers with the most value
Get more information and register
Getting Closer to Customers: Winning Strategies for Engaging Senior Executives
Online Briefing
October 13, 2009
8:00 a.m. Pacific – 11:00 a.m. Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)
(Free for ITSMA members)
Relationship-building programs for senior executives at key accounts can no longer be one-off or hospitality activities but must be part of a portfolio of client engagement designed to progressively develop and nurture long-term relationships. Join ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and Katie Gustin as they get at the heart of how to improve relationships with senior executives at your most important accounts by:
- Picking the programs and activities most effective in deepening relationships with senior executives
- Improving coordination across the range of relationship-oriented programs to ensure maximum overall effectiveness
- Capturing the attention of busy senior executives with the right incentives
- Working with sales to maximize relationship growth
Get more information and register
ITSMA Research
New ITSMA/CSg Benchmarking Study on Customer Engagement Programs
Customer engagement programs help firms protect and grow market share. This study will enable marketing and sales organizations to quantify customer engagement spending and ROI, identify best practices, and benchmark themselves against peers and “best-in-class” companies. To find out how you can participate, please contact Julie Schwartz at jschwartz@itsma.com or +1-781-862-8500 ext. 112.
Web 2.0 Gets Strategic
ITSMA’s Web 2.0 survey revealed that it is critical that marketers develop a Web 2.0 participation strategy if they are to keep up with their competitors. Included in the survey report are best practices for Web 2.0 gleaned from the results and from ITSMA research as well as ITSMA’s Web 2.0 Participation Strategy Model, which can help you plot a course for Web 2.0 and to benchmark yourself against your peers.
The Impact of the Economic Downturn on Developing and Selling Solutions
In a downturn, providers of high-value solutions have to work twice as hard to develop the right offers, create the right messages, connect with the right prospects, and sell the right value. This survey report captures the latest thinking and priorities among leading solutions providers to help participants benchmark themselves against their peers and better understand recent changes in the solutions marketplace.
Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership
Marketing to the CIO’s Hot Buttons
Marketers who try to speak to all CIOs with a single voice are getting it (almost) all wrong. CIOs may be individuals, but they represent a composite of different roles, depending on their personal and professional backgrounds, the size and context of their companies, and the strategic importance of IT. Marketers need to segment their CIO audience and speak to each in the voice he or she needs to hear. In this Online Briefing, ITSMA’s Chris Koch and a panel of outspoken CIOs discuss how to:
- Segment your CIO audience by role
- Engage CIOs by connecting them to one another
- Discover their buying needs
Use Analytics to Predict the Future
Can analytics really make a difference to the bottom line? In this Viewpoint, Tom Davenport, consultant, Babson College professor, and author, describes how marketers can succeed with analytics, how organizations make progress on the journey to analytical competition, and how organizations employing marketing analytics achieve high performance.
Four Steps to Improving Your Ability to Penetrate New Accounts
Selling to new customers hasn’t gotten any easier. How then can marketing warm up new accounts in these tough times? In this ITSMA Update, we offer four steps that can help penetrate new accounts.
Accelerate the Buying Process with Collaborative Account Planning
Under constant pressure to sell, salespeople often can’t afford to devote the time necessary to plan an account strategy based on researching the larger business issues that customers face. In this ITSMA Update, we introduce ITSMA’s Collaborative Account Planning Model, a tool to help marketers and salespeople accelerate opportunities within existing customers and with important new prospects.
