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Associate Program

Success in marketing today requires that you keep your finger on the pulse of the industry, your customers, and all the latest marketing strategies, tactics, and techniques. This isn’t an easy task when you work in a marketing department that doesn’t have IBM’s budget. But ITSMA can make it easier.

Associate Program Overview	[TOP OF PAGE]

As a marketer charged with growing the business with limited resources at your disposal, you are faced with a number of challenging realities:

• The industry is becoming more and more competitive, forcing you to differentiate your firm from competitors large and small
• Traditional marketing and sales approaches are less effective, forcing you to continuously search for new ways to connect with customers
• Customers are less loyal and more skeptical of provider claims, demanding greater proof of business value before making any IT-related investments

To help you meet your marketing goals in today’s hyper-competitive climate, ITSMA’s Associate Program is specifically designed for smaller and emerging firms.

Associate Program Benefits	[TOP OF PAGE]

For a fraction of the cost of a full Corporate Program, Associate Clients gain access to strategic marketing insights culled from ongoing study of industry leaders such as Avaya, Cisco, Cognizant, Dell, EMC, GE Healthcare, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, SAP, Siemens, Sun Microsystems, and Xerox, among others.

In addition, Associate Clients gain access to:

• Insight—Stay on top of the latest marketing and sales practices, as well as buyer preferences and priorities, through ITSMA’s ongoing research
• Community—Meet, network, and compare experiences with other services and solutions marketers at ITSMA events

By focusing specifically on the unique requirements for marketing services and solutions, ITSMA membership goes far beyond the more generic approaches of most marketing advisors and associations.

Insight	[TOP OF PAGE]

The Associate Program includes access to ITSMA’s research and insight on marketing and sales practices. Specific benefits include:

• Unlimited organizational access to ITSMA’s online research library of more than 250 reports, briefings, and tools on a wide range of marketing and sales issues
• Ongoing insight into buyer perspectives and behavior for services and solutions through research such as ITSMA’s annual How Customers Choose study
• Ongoing coverage of marketing and sales best practices and trends
• Annual give-to-get benchmark research on marketing budgets and priorities, as well as sales performance

Community	[TOP OF PAGE]

Associate Clients can participate in ITSMA’s community of seasoned services and solutions marketers. Specific benefits include:

• Unlimited access to ITSMA Client Briefings
• Membership rates for ITSMA workshops and conferences*
• Member rates for multiclient research studies*

Add-On Services	[TOP OF PAGE]

In addition to client activities, Associate Program clients take advantage of a variety of add-on services, including:

• Unlimited subscriptions to the monthly ITSMA newsletter, Marketing Strategist
• Access to custom research, consulting, and training
• Speaking opportunities
• Event sponsorships
• Access to ITSMA’s Services Marketing Professional Program

Who Benefits?	[TOP OF PAGE]

The Associate Program benefits the entire organization via unlimited access to ITSMA briefings, marketing tools, research library, and client rates for add-on services.

Primary beneficiaries typically include senior marketing executives, marketing directors and managers, and individual practitioners.

The program also benefits related functions, such as sales, service delivery, and training.

Program Priorities	[TOP OF PAGE]

Program activities are focused on the challenges identified by clients each year as most essential to services and solutions success. The 2009 program is focused on the following issues:

• Marketing Strategy: Making the Right Choices in Uncertain Times
• Making Marketing More Efficient: Optimizing Spend and Structure
• Aligning Marketing and Sales to Accelerate Demand
• Making the Case for Marketing Investment by Increasing Sales Efficiency
• Sharpening Marketing’s Edge: New Tools and New Approaches

Eligibility	[TOP OF PAGE]

Technology companies with revenues of less than $100 million are eligible to become Associate Program Clients.

More Information
Contact Dirk Mullenger, Director, Client Engagement at +1-661-298-0015 or dmullenger@itsma.com.

*Additional fees required.

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 Avaya, BT, Cisco, Deloitte, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, 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.