Circa65

VARs, system integrators and other technology resellers often complain that agencies, telemarketing houses or other service providers can’t get the job done because they just don’t understand the technology business well enough. In large part, these complaints are valid – providers of various tactical marketing services really do not understand the world of technology – particularly in a B-to-B environment. That said, I would argue the real problem is a VAR's lack of understanding true marketing and the intricacies of dealing with an agency. A VAR doesn’t understand the agency or service provider business even to the extent they understand your business. This results in technology resellers being bad customers who demand low prices, do not understand the creative or execution side of the business and get excited by the wrong things – such as wording of a tag line - as opposed to the effectiveness of a particular tactic. The part of marketing everyone thinks they get is the creative, out-of-the-box thinking side of the business. Everyone thinks they are creative and brainstorming tag lines is fun. But the truth is, few have the skill to be good at it and the personal time required to make even the best creative effective is more than what most are willing to personally invest.

Our own business model owes part of its origin to the fact that technology businesses could get more from their marketing investment if they themselves were better customers. We have created an outsourced marketing role where among other responsibilities, Circa 65 represents and manages the needs and aspirations of a reseller while working with external resources. We manage these resources to achieve superior results for the VAR – not maximum profitability of the agency or service provider. Click here http://www.circa65.com/lp/roi.html to learn how we can do the same for you or here http://www.circa65.com/contact.html to discuss your own situation.

I can name that tune in… 60 days!

Remember the old game show where contestants would play a game of “chicken” – daring each other to correctly identify a tune in the fewest number of notes? Well, a version of that same game is played out in businesses everyday as lack of timely commitment by management causes marketing people to agree to insanely short (and ultimately unproductive) time frames to create,  and launch (and generate ROI for) VAR marketing programs and events. See if the following scenario sounds familiar.

In early January, Company X proposes to launch a campaign consisting of live events to drive demand generation with new prospects sometime in March. The marketing person responsible estimates it will take 45 to 60 days to secure locations, dates, plan the events, request marketing development funds and execute.   The owner of Company X isn't’t sure about the investment and wants a budget for the program which is dutifully prepared by talking to event venues, caterers, thinking about program content (and the associated cost of things, such as speaker fees) and the like. As this part of the process is complete, the owner puts his foot on the brake by insisting on meetings with each stakeholder to make sure everyone is bought into this program, particularly the VAR sales team. Now one might wonder why this did not take place prior to deciding this program was a good idea in the first place – but this is a necessary step nevertheless. Anyway, by the time the data is gathered and the meetings take place, we are now in late February – clearly too late for a Q1 event. But then in the first week of March, Company X’s top vendor tells the VP of Sales they have an additional $10k in market development funds they can provide – so long as the money is spent prior to the end of the current quarter. The owner summons the marketing person and announces the good news. Funding is “approved” but the event has to take place later that same month! The poor marketing person works tirelessly to pull it off and then in the aftermath is pelted with criticism for the poorly attended event.

 Why do we let this game of chicken take place? Even with "someone else’s money", the event needs to be done the right way. If doing it right takes 60 days, it takes 60 days - and all of your procrastinating won’t change that!  

• We start by helping you define your business market, and identify your potential customers.
• We will then work with you to develop your desired brand and create a branding strategy. Then it is time to sell.
• We will generate leads by identifying where and how to attract your targeted customer, whether it is online, direct mail, advertising, seminars, or other media, and then provide your salespeople with the tools necessary to sell your products and services.
• Tools are not enough, so we also train your salesforce to effectively sell to your customers by facilitating open communication between your salesforce and clients.

• It allows customers to give real-time feedback about the products and services that they purchase
• It levels the playing field, allowing people to make their opinions known without having to have a well-established audience
• It makes it easier for technology resellers to keep track of which IT sales and marketing techniques are working for them - and which ones aren't
• It gives technology resellers one additional - and very powerful - way to engage in IT lead generation, especially when used in combination with traditional methods

Met with a client yesterday who voiced concerns regarding the preparedness of their company to make some of the strategic changes to the existing sales and marketing approach and strategy we recommended.  In view of the good shape the company is in and the operationally sound state of the organization, their reluctance to make fundamental changes to the way they go to market is understandable.  

Experience has taught me that it is imperative for the management team of the reseller to feel there is a compelling reason to chart a change of course to have the support required to make any large change in direction or strategy.  That said, I also feel there is significant risk in failing to observe shifts on the distant business horizons as any developments or evolutions that occur will cause a technology reseller to be reactive.  

I understand that many businesses are uncomfortable on any path which takes them too close to the bleeding edge of the market.  However, even if the company is not prepared for more radical changes in sales and marketing strategies, I do feel there is a need for someone to assume the role of “canary in the coal mine” for these VAR businesses in order to help them see and react to significant seismic shifts in the business climate and/or political landscape prior to it dramatically impacting business.

Someone should be assigned strategic planning responsibility to function as the long range set of eyes and ears to help in early response to market changes.  This individual must be a trusted advisor and be experienced in strategy development while frankly, free of the pressures that come with day-to-day tactical responsibilities carried by everyone else in the company.

A recent meeting with a client provided a vivid reminder of this fact. As we are often called upon to do by VAR businesses, the purpose of this meeting was to examine the viability of creating a sales and marketing plan to address a specific vertical market – in this case - healthcare. In addition to the usual collection of technology sales experts and people from the marketing department we were fortunate enough to have the presence of the company’s VP of Operations. Despite not being a sales or marketing person, this person was definitely the MVP of the meeting. 

Typically, our challenge in developing Reseller marketing plans is finding any expertise or experience unique to the company’s offering in a specific market. During the opening “round the table” introductions, we learned of this person’s prior work history which included not only extensive years of experience in the healthcare industry but in fact an invaluable rich list of current industry contacts. Perhaps your company possesses a similar asset in the form of market expertise – but you may have to look for it outside the technology sales and marketing groups.

Douglas Adams – author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series – wrote that the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” is 42!  Now I wouldn’t think of opining on quite so cosmic a topic, but in the technology reseller marketing world of customer communications, I believe the answer to the ultimate question is 52.

What “ultimate” question are we answering and why does the number 52 represent the right answer?

The number 52 represents the total number of contacts per year the best performing VAR businesses are making with customers and prospects. This is not meant to infer you should “bombard” your customer contacts every week with some email sales pitch. Rather it is recommendation that your company should communicate with – in some fashion – each customer and prospect company on average, once per week throughout the year. Note I did not say have your sales rep contact their IT director or purchasing manager once per week. I said your company should communicate with their company once per week. The “how” is up to you as is the “who”. It can be a sales call, an invite to an event, an e-newsletter, a tweet, a link to a blog and it can be from anyone in your organization to anyone in the customer’s. The goal is building a consistent dialogue between two companies in an effort to create institutional relationships.

You think the number 52 is too high? What’s your “answer to the ultimate question”?