Ezine add in section – May 2009
Ask ITSMA: How Do You Determine Whether a Prospect is Brand Sensitive or Price Sensitive?
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.
Are there any signs that vendors can look for to determine whether a prospect is brand sensitive or price sensitive?
Although past behavior is not the best indicator of future behavior, to determine if a customer is brand or price sensitive, I would start by looking at who they have done business with most recently. If it is the market leaders and an occasional boutique firm, then they are probably brand sensitive. If they have more relationships with local, regional, and boutique firms than the big players, they are probably more price sensitive.
You also want to get a sense for their tolerance for risk and how they manage risk. The price-sensitive customers feel more empowered to manage risk themselves, whereas the brand-sensitive customers see picking the right vendor as a major part of the risk management equation.
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Upcoming ITSMA Events
To view all events, please go here.
Charting Your Path to Web 2.0 ROI
Breakfast and lunch briefings
(Free for ITSMA members)
May 12, 2009
12:00–2:00 pm ET
The Roosevelt Hotel, New York, NY
Register here
May 14, 2009
7:30–9:30 am ET
Marriott Newton, Newton, MA
Register here
May 19, 2009
12:00–2:00 pm PT
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA
Register here
In this series of breakfast and lunch briefings, we will show you how to develop a clear, simple strategy for engaging customers through Web 2.0 channels, using step-by-step models developed by ITSMA and the Digital Influence Group. Participants will be able to benchmark their progress and determine the next steps you need to take to achieve sustainable Web 2.0 ROI.
Increasing Growth in Target Accounts: A Practical Approach to Account-Based Marketing
ITSMA Workshop
June 18, 2009
San Francisco Marriott
ITSMA’s Account-Based Marketing (ABM) methodology helps companies create a laser focus on a single account that helps accelerate revenue growth and improve customer retention, even in a down economy. In this one-day workshop, you will learn how to design an effective Account-Based Marketing program for your organization using our proven tools and methodology. (This workshop is for those who are relatively new to ABM or have less than one year of experience.)
Register here
Optimizing Your Account-Based Marketing Program: A Practitioners Workshop
ITSMA Workshop
June 19, 2009
San Francisco Marriott
In this one-day ABM Practitioners Workshop, ITSMA will conduct a model ABM session using a real company case study and will share with you new tools and techniques to conduct more effective ABM workshops. We will introduce new thinking about how to successfully integrate your ABM program into your strategic account planning process, thereby enabling tighter integration with sales. Participants will also learn how to use the learnings and experiences from one-to-one ABM programs with one-to-few and one-to-many ABM programs. (This is a workshop for ABM practitioners with one year or more of ABM experience.)
Register here
Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership
CSC: How to Integrate Marketing into the Portfolio Management Process
It seems a simple truth but one that many businesses still haven’t learned: Portfolio management and strategic marketing groups can provide great business value—but only when they are intimately linked to the selection of the products and services that receive investment dollars. As CSC has discovered, the portfolio management function needs to establish the senior executive relationships necessary to gain entry into the process, get funding for finding and investing in new ideas, and become change management experts to get skeptical businesspeople to support it.
Read it now
Why (and How) You Should Spend More on Marketing in a Downturn
To marketers, cutting marketing when sales are declining is counterintuitive, but to some in senior management, marketing is a logical target. In this Update, ITSMA lays out its views on how companies can achieve greater marketing and sales effectiveness despite the downturn.
Read it now
Generating Revenue in Tough Times: Better Thinking, Better Tactics
Lead generation and nurturing have emerged as the most important priority for business-to-business marketers. But in some cases, nearly 40–50% of leads passed to sales from marketing aren’t accepted as actionable for the next stage of the sales engagement. To hear strategies and tactics for converting leads to revenue, join Jeff Sands and Kathy Macchi for this Web Briefing.
Listen now
