Linda Hartman

Linda joined Circa 65 in 2007 following a successful 19-year career in the computer products and electronic components industries. Linda’s expertise is providing executive management of all marketing functions.  In this capacity, she works with Circa 65 clients to create their marketing plans and budgets, as well as, to lead the execution and implementation of the plans. She is also instrumental in conducting MarketStormsm the proprietary Circa 65 process leading to the creation of a marketing strategy, tactical marketing plan and investment and measurement strategies.
 
Previously, she worked for Arrow Electronics, Inc.—one of the world’s largest electronics and computer distributors. Her fourteen years at Arrow included senior roles in product management, inside and field sales and corporate marketing. During her last several years with the company, Linda’s principle responsibility was as a senior business leader responsible for the company’s industrial computing activities including management of supplier relationships, product marketing and strategic segment marketing. Her corporate marketing experience includes designing and executing marketing strategies for leading technology vendors such as Microsoft, Intel, Motorola and Altera.
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Solutions

Creators of the industry-leading marketing plan development process known as MarketStormSM and the revolutionary outsourced, subscription-based, marketing management service known as DMESM (Dedicated Marketing Expert), Circa 65 provides strategic and tactical marketing planning guidance and outsourced marketing management to technology companies in need of both strategic and executable tactical plans to sustain growth and profitability.
 
We work with the entire spectrum of channel partners including: solution providers, resellers, VARs, system builders and integrators and MSPs.
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Top 6 things to think about when creating your strategic marketing plan

Wednesday, June 9, 2010 by Linda Hartman
1.    Establish long term and short term goals
You need the ability to measure anything you plan to implement. Your marketing plan should bring you closer to the goals for your company. Each tactic executed should bring you closer to tangible goals, whether they are revenue, margin, new customers, etc... 

2.    New customers vs. existing clients
Within your plan you need to develop a strategy to build your existing client base as well as expand further into current clients. The tactics for each will likely be very different.

3.    Time
Make sure you have a firm grasp on your sales cycles. If you have a plan to find 10 new customers within the next year and your sales cycle is 18 months, then failure is inevitable. Build a realistic time line to plan your events that will drive sales in a timely fashion to meet your goals.

4.    Budget
Have a budget. This will make planning tactics much easier for the entire year. An established budget will allow you to map out an annual calendar of tactics and not worry about funding for each campaign.

5.    Messaging
Make sure you have a strong messaging platform. Everyone from the receptionist to the technical engineers should understand and have the ability to communicate what you do and the value you provide.

6.    Communication
Create a plan that includes external and internal communication.  Touching a customer (in some way)  52 times a year is currently the best in class expectation. That communication can come in a variety of formats, phone calls, webinar/seminar invites, a newsletter, lunch with the sales rep, etc… A VAR marketing plan should also involve vendor communication. You want to make sure your vendors are aware of your proactive marketing and your successes. Ideally, this sets you apart from other channel partners, thus allowing for an unfair share of leads, marketing development funds and creating a go-to-partner relationship with that vendor partner. Internal communication is important to let your employees know what is happening in the company, whether it be events, promotions, successes, change to the strategy, etc…

Bottom line, you need a plan, if you need to remember why, re-visit our previous post, http://blog.circa65.com/blog/circa65/0/0/planning
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What You Need to Know About Outsourcing Social Media

Friday, April 30, 2010 by Linda Hartman
When a recent article on the subject of outsourcing social media came across my desk this week, http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-outsourcing-social-media/, I thought it would be a good idea to get our resident expert to give our VAR audience a few tips to help you with your channel marketing plan, specifically your social media segment.

Leanne Holitza is an integral part of the Circa 65 team and offered the following insights:
Tackling that “where do I start?” issue with social media for any channel partner can be a daunting task. Outsourced marketing, particularly social media, to a knowledgeable expert can be helpful. However, there are some things to consider when outsourcing.

a)    Make sure they know your industry
Just because they are social media experts, doesn’t mean they know how to talk to your audience. The key to social media is to engage in relevant, interesting and useful conversations. If your social media expert doesn’t understand your audience, they won’t know what your audiences wants to hear.

b)    Planning is key
You aren’t going to be able to do everything all at once, nor are you going to want to set up one page that you update only three times a year. Make sure your social media expert is asking you the right questions and planning a strategy you can commit to for at least a year.

c)    Get your company on board
No matter how much expertise your social media expert has, this strategy isn’t going to work without your involvement. You will want to work with your social media expert to get recommendations on how to get your company involved at the right level to ensure optimum success before launching the plan.

d)    Monitor
While it is true social media is more challenging to track all the way through a sales cycle, than traditional methods of channel lead generation, there are ways to measure success. Be sure your social media expert has a plan to measure your progress. It is possible.

Bottom line is, if you want to get into social media and you have no idea where to start, outsourcing the effort is an excellent idea. Being paired up with the right partner is crucial to ensuring your effort will yield success.

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Planning

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by Linda Hartman
Often times when working with a VAR business I will pose the question, ‘What does marketing mean to you?’ Needless to say, the responses are all over the board. One of the most common responses is “events”. When most VARs or channel partners think of marketing strategy they think of events. This is certainly one of the most widely accepted tactics. So, if this tactic is the bread and butter to most reseller marketing, then why do we spend so little time planning such important events? 30 days seems to be the general time frame for planning, but I’m here to tell you 30 days is setting yourself up for failure. 60 days at the least, should be spent on putting together an event. 90 days is optimal.

When planning for a current customer event, isn’t the goal to WOW your clients and get them to partner with you for more business? If the goal of the event is to drive demand generation, why wouldn’t you spend at least 2-3 weeks profiling who you want at the event and creating a fine-tuned list of VIP customers? The money being spent might be marketing development funds from a vendor partner, and if you prove the value with a high ROI, you are more likely to get funding for similar events plus other tactics in the future.

The time spent in the planning and execution shows and will be recognized by those that attend the event. Details are paramount in events and take time to organize. Give yourself enough time to make sure all the planning is thorough – including how you will follow up with attendees and how you will measure the effectiveness of the event.

Take 60-90 days to plan and on the day of the event, you can relax and enjoy the networking opportunity you have put together - and close some business!
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Strategy or Tactic? War or battle?

Friday, April 23, 2010 by Linda Hartman
Which do you have, a marketing strategy or a calendar of tactics; are you planning to win the war or simply a few of the battles? I recently read Katherine Neville’s novel, ‘The 8.’ If you are a Dan Brown fan you’ll enjoy this book. The theme of the book revolves around a human chess match. Throughout the book there are quotes regarding strategy and the game of chess. Two really left an impression:

Tactics are knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do. ~ Savielly Tartakover (Polish chess Grandmaster)

Tactics are short-term moves to position yourself. But strategy is how you win the game.
~ Catherine Neville

This rings true about reseller marketing. Often times, many VARs will plan a calendar of events, that are merely a slew of one-off events. Those are tactics VARs are typically engaging in to satisfy a vendor partner. The outcome of those events aren’t measured and most vendors are happy when a reseller channel partner appears to be ‘driving’ new opportunities. However, how often is a VAR marketing strategy built to satisfy the goals of the organization? A marketing strategy sets the tone of the game and helps to build your willingness to invest in winning the war, not merely the battles.

VAR businesses that know what to do, when no one is knocking at the door asking them to do an event or campaigns, are few and far in-between.  As the vendor’s critical connection to the end user, set yourself apart, create a strategy or let us help you create one, that helps you win the war, then in turn, the vendor partners will win in the long run as well.


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What is your 'PopTart'?

Monday, March 22, 2010 by Linda Hartman
On a previous post we discussed knowing your customer and the importance of a profile. Once we hook a new client, then typically we move on to the next conquest. But what if we analyzed our existing customers and learned something?

Crazy talk, right?!  Yes, I know.....learn something from the mounds of data we have stored in the same data storage we actually sell......BRILLIANT!

Data intelligence was the focus of a recent article in the Economist magazine.  Back in 2004, Wal-Mart analyzed what products sold prior to a hurricane. As you can imagine, they sold batteries, flashlights and.....Pop Tarts! It makes sense, right?  But what buyer might have thought to stock up on Pop Tarts before the analysis was done?

I realize VAR marketing and B-to-C marketing is very different, however the marketing strategy is not that different. Any marketing strategy, whether its technology marketing or pre-packaged sugary goodness marketing, requires understanding your successes and repeating them where possible. From a sales perspective, wouldn't it just be easier to take what has worked in the past and repeat it, instead of recreating the wheel every time?

Having done my fair share of technology marketing research, I can attest to the fact that VARs often have so much information within their own customer data that outside lists can't support the opportunities your current customers can offer.

So, what is your 'Pop Tart'?


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Supplier Partner Marketing Funds – Are you getting your fair share?

Monday, February 15, 2010 by Linda Hartman
At the end of every year vendors such as Sun, IBM, HP, etc… put millions, yes millions, of unused dollars for channel market development funds to the bottom line. The vendors would rather see their VAR channel using the funds to grow their business.

I can hear the groans from the audience as I type...
"Getting these funds are too difficult."  "There are too many rules about eligible expenses" (i.e. they won’t approve golf tournaments).  These are common, and in some cases, valid complaints.  But a well-formulated, long range reseller marketing plan and great communication can help a VAR business of any size get more than their unfair share of marketing dollars.
These are some required steps:
•Clearly state your goals 
•Example: Expand deep into my current customer base
•Try to encompass your supplier partner’s needs 
•Example: Expand deeper into current customer through a  storage solution offering
•Create an integrated campaign that involves your vendor partner at some point
•Example: A multi-touch email campaign with an offer for response,  leading to a live in-person event, that will be followed up by a sales call
•Create a sales follow up plan with expected number of leads, the time it will take to cultivate those leads and the expected revenue from those that are closed.  Then follow through on the plan.
 
With this kind of pre-planning, most of the detail that suppliers will ask for on their submission forms is done! Vendor partners are looking for revenue and those that can create well-thought-out, executable sales and marketing strategies will be the ones who get the largest piece of the pie! 
 
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Strategy - Don't sell the marketing department short.

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Linda Hartman
On a phone call today with a client, one of the marketing managers made a comment regarding how marketing doesn’t drive the strategy in the company. While I agree that marketing doesn’t necessarily drive the goals of the organization, it does drive the strategy to meet the goal at hand. In a VAR business, it is the marketing department’s job to create the plan that will lead the business to the goals the leadership has set out. This is highlighted in a recent article in BtoB On-Line Magazine,

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100118/VERTICAL/301189966/1354/FREE#seenit. The article discusses how the Toshiba marketing team took the time to understand the behavior of various influencers at their customer. Once they understood how their customers learned about technology, the marketing team sprang into action with a strategy. The marketing strategy enabled an 11% average annual growth in the medical imaging marketing over the past five years. Recession? What recession? The company has been unaffected by the recent downturn because they knew where to focus. As I noted to my client, don’t sell the marketing department short on its ability to make a difference in any organization.    

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Winning football teams and winning sales and marketing teams have a lot in common!

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Linda Hartman

 

There is an ages old debate between sales and marketing people which attempts to understand the purpose of marketing – namely, does marketing exist to provide sales with the materials and support they need (e.g. collateral materials, lead and demand generation programs, etc.) or does marketing in fact, direct and enable the efforts and success of a professional sales organization?  In my view the answer is surely the latter.  I like to think of the workings of sales and marketing as akin to a professional football team.  The coaching staff (marketing equivalent) creates a playbook, scouts out future opponents, prepares a game plan, teaches correct technique to the players and during the game (unless you are Peyton Manning) calls the plays.  The players (the sales team) run, passes, catches, blocks, tackles and kicks.  If the team wins, there is plenty of credit to go around and if the team endures a losing season (or several), the starting QB may get traded before or after the coaching staff is relieved of its duties – but everyone is going down.  Success in sales or on the football team depends on:
• the establishment of common goals
• the development of a playbook (or strategic marketing plan)
• the good communication (from coaches to players or marketing team to sales team) of the game plan (or tactical marketing plan)
• the measurement system which will be used to measure results
• agreement on expectations of each party’s role and responsibility for execution and performance
Winning the Super Bowl requires great talent, a great plan and great execution by coaches and players – your company’s sales and marketing success happens the same way.

 

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Marketing to the Pain

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Linda Hartman

In reviewing various channel partner websites, my eyes glaze over from repeatedly learning how ”Company X offers unique scalable, technology solutions that fit your business… and how our comprehensive offering includes storage, servers, application software, etc. ” BLAH, BLAH, BLAH….. So often, VARs get caught up in the technology and forget to look at why the ‘solution’ was created in the first place. The Field of Dreams mantra  of “If we build it, they will come” has died when you weren’t looking. Resellers need to start looking at their solutions from a customer perspective.  Companies have a multitude of sales people vying for attention weekly, and often, daily basis. VARs can set themselves apart by speaking to the pains the client may be experiencing and the business impact of the solution - not technical geek-speak, but in real life business terms.  Customers want to feel like someone is listening and addressing their problems. If you have a plumbing problem that is on the verge of flooding your house, does the manufacturer of the pipes and parts that the plumber will use make a difference to you? Probably not. You want to know the plumber has a thorough understanding of your problem, a good idea how to fix it and above all is someone you can trust to get the job done right. The same holds true for technology.   Learn more.

 
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Marketing for Growth

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Linda Hartman

Marketing in the channel often conjures up notions of seminars, webinars, telemarketing campaigns and the like….. However, what if, for one second you stopped and considered marketing as the growth engine to your business? Imagine the possibilities of every tactical implementation leading to a tangible organizational goal, such as, better sales penetration of current customers. Wouldn’t that be a great thing?! In a previous post, we discussed the importance of commitment from senior management. Part of that commitment is sharing the future vision of the organization with the entire company. The point of this is to get everyone on the same page. The value of an organization having everyone on the same page means every marketing campaign can have a goal that ties back to the overarching company strategy.  The sales team that understands the end game strives to participate in whatever way necessary in order to help the team meet the company’s objective. This is much more than merely gathering the troops in a circle to sing “Kumbaya”.  Embracing the belief that good marketing drives real growth, and good marketing comes, in large part, from the power of everyone working in unison toward a common goal. BRILLIANT!   

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Commitment

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Linda Hartman

Commitment, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines it as:  an agreement or pledge to do something in the future. So often when we are discussing marketing with a channel partner, of any size, we do so with a variety of stakeholders within the VAR’s organization. These could be the president, the VP of Sales and/or Marketing, Business Development Manager, etc. The successful implementation of a marketing plan rests first, and foremost, on the commitment of the entire organization, starting with, and most importantly, the president, owner or lead visionary of the company. If the one or two people who lead the business are not believers in the value and the potential financial return of marketing, then they will ultimately be the down fall of the plan or at the very least, limit the return. Commitment is not just financial; it is also the company’s commitment to spending time on necessary steps such as, setting goals that align with the organization’s objectives, time with the sales team to gain buy-in and the agreement on follow up, providing sufficient planning time (a whole blog topic unto itself), measuring the successes and understanding where improvements or changes need to be made.  

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