IAOP Chapter: Sales & Marketing

Meeting held May 13, 2010

The Sales and Marketing Chapter, chaired by Pretium Partners, held a virtual meeting on May 13 from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm eastern time. The topic was “The Business Value of Informational Webinars - Insights - Best Practices – Metrics”.

In the B2B world, webinars are becoming an important tool in the go-to-market arsenal for organizations of all sizes, from bootstrapped to name brands. Not only is their true business value to webinars, but experience validates that a properly conceived and executed webinar campaign breathes life and creates excitement around a compelling value proposition will help you raise brand awareness, boost your thought leadership and most importantly drive fresh new sales leads for optimizing revenue generation.

This meeting was not about webinar theory. It's a "how-to" opportunity to learn first-hand about what you need to know about all the logistics, core competencies, and key milestones required for recruiting the right audience to attend a polished and delivered informational webinar.

The program was moderated by Kyle Andrews of Pretium Partners and include a presentation from IAOP Professional Member Mike Agron along with Bret Smith of WebAttract, followed by 15-20 minutes of audience Q&A .

Some topics that were covered:

•  The business value of informational webinars including case studies and metrics
•  Webinars are really "mini events" that need a well thought out work plan
•  Audience recruitment options
•  Testing that your messaging and content development is compelling and relevant
•  The role of the case stud and 3rd party thought leaders
•  Using E-Broadcasting to promote your webinar
•  The use of analytics for gaining valuable registration, attendance and performance insights
•  Practice, Practice, Practice
•  What you need to know about the technology for hosting webinars
•  In house or outsource
•  Post webinar sales follow up

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Meeting held September 29, 2009

The Sales and Marketing Chapter chaired by Pretium Partners, with support from the Contracting Process Chapter chaired by Mayer Brown LLP, conducted a virtual meeting on September 29 from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm eastern time. Their discussion was framed around "The Top Ten Friction Points in Outsourcing Deals."

The program included a presentation from Paul J. Roy and Brad Peterson of Mayer Brown LLP followed by a 15-20 minute panel discussion. Panelists Julia Santos of Johnson & Johnson Group of Consumer Companies and Steve Reynolds of WNS Global Services shared the buyer and seller perspectives based on experience and expertise gained through their involvement in significant outsourcing deals. The goal was to help sellers be more effective by understanding these friction points and gaining insights for dealing with them during the sales process.

Meeting held April 14, 2009

This virtual meeting of the Sales and Marketing Chapter, chaired by Pretium Partners, was held on April 14, 2009.

In the current economy and the hypercompetitive outsourcing marketplace, aggressive pricing and quality outsourcing capabilities are prerequisites only — they are no longer enough to differentiate one provider from the next. Today, the best sales and marketing organizations are those that get invited to the most deals and grow the most profitable businesses. Participants who joined us found out how to be one of them!

Kyle Andrews of Pretium Partners moderated a panel discussion entitled “Sales Readiness for Outsourcers.” Industry veterans dedicated to sharing how to establish a high performance sales model addressed every aspect of the sales cycle including: choosing customer segments carefully; differentiating your business with a unique value proposition; making a memorable brand impression; determining the most effective sales approach; building qualified pipelines to operate at peak velocity; learning the five key performance indicators of sales success; building the business case that gets the deal; and closing more deals, reducing sales cost and accelerating revenue.

The panel of experts included: Dan Hudson, president, and Matt Smith, executive vice president, 3forward; Brenna Garratt, CEO, The Delve Group; Atul Sood, CEO, Karvy Global and Bill Hall, president, Pretium Partners.

Meeting held October 14, 2008

This virtual meeting of the Sales and Marketing Chapter was held on October 14, 2008 from 12 Noon to 1 p.m. EDT.

Chapter co-chair Kyle Andrews of Pretium Partners, Inc. moderated a panel discussion entitled “Planning for 2009 – Making the Most of Your Budget”.  The panel consisted of marketing executives who are experts in their fields, specifically it included: Tom Manter of Unisys, Deborah Kops of WNS Global, Shari Wenker of Accenture and Ted Ardelean of Oce Business Services.

The discussion centered on these issues: ‘with 2009 fast approaching, marketing and sales executives are once again preparing their budgets and plans for a successful year. Challenges arise when marketing budgets are tightening as expectations and needs are growing. By successfully renegotiating contracts, continually pushing the creative elements to sales and/or marketing plans and simply “doing more with less,” entering into a new year can be a challenge for any team.’

Panelists discussed lessons learned from 2008, what is impacting 2009 planning, key methods in developing those plans and creating win-win situations for buyers and suppliers.

Meeting held Thursday, June 12, 2008

This virtual meeting of the Sales and Marketing Chapter was held on Thursday, June 12 from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm (EDT).

Chapter Chair, Kyle Andrews of Pretium Partners led an expert panel in a dynamic discussion entitled “How to Successfully Incorporate the Services Delivery Team Into the Sales Process.”  The panel was composed of buyers and sellers who are experts in their fields.  Included were: Steve Welch of ATS, Ramesh Anand of HTMT, Elliot Bruns of Infosys, Stacey Zeisel of Rolls-Royce and John Hammitt of Quickstart Global.

As if the outsourcing sales process wasn’t complicated enough, add to it the complexities of bringing in the services delivery team — at the right time and in the right way. How is this accomplished in a way that manages risk, optimizes cost of sales, aids in competitive differentiation and sets correct expectations with the customer? And what about the business case, which is the foundation of the agreement? The sales team develops and sells it — and operations has the responsibility to deliver on it. How do these get connected to ensure the success of the agreement?

This action packed hour provided key insights to move your sales processes forward. It was a great opportunity to ask the questions that had been on the minds of the participants while gaining unique perspectives from this diverse panel of sellers and buyers.

Chairman Summary September 6, 2007

This recent meeting of IAOP’s Sales & Marketing chapter took place via webinar on Thursday, September 6, 2007 beginning at 11:00 am Eastern time.

Guest speakers Danny Ertel, Founding Partner of Vantage Partners, and Sara Enlow, Senior Consultant with Vantage Partners, guided us through the role that governance plays in the buying process, and what sellers must do in order to prove their capability to govern and manage relationships. Considering that 66% of buyers surveyed said that relationship management is formally evaluated as part of the vendor selection process, this capability is not only essential, but can be a key differentiator in an extremely competitive marketplace.


 

The meeting was packed with actionable information and explored answers to many questions on the minds of sellers today, including:

 

1. How much should we focus on governance and relationship management during the sales process - does it really matter to buyers?

2. What do buyers really want to know about our capability when it comes to governance and what information about us goes into their formal evaluation?

3. How do we articulate our process for successful governance to prospective customers?

4. Distinguishing ourselves from the competition - isn't it all just about cultural fit?

 

Those in attendance took away valuable takeaways that will help them start down the path of effectively demonstrating governance and relationship management capabilities during the selection process.

Those who couldn't attend, and are looking for assistance in this important arena, would receive great benefit by viewing the recording of the meeting.

 

Chairman's Summary May 8, 2007

What Makes a Successful Outsourcing Sales Professional
 - According to the Buyers and Advisors

The fourth meeting of IAOP’s Sales & Marketing Chapter, moderated by Kyle Andrews, was held via webinar on Tuesday, May 8 starting at 11:00 am EST.

This webinar explored what it takes to be a successful outsourcing sales professional. The objective was to broaden the understanding of skills and attributes necessary for sales success and share them with interested parties in IAOP. The format of this meeting was a panel discussion featuring advisors and buyers, moderated by Pretium Partners.

By getting the perspectives of those on the "other side of the table," attendees gained real advice that their companies can use to drive the direction of their sales development efforts.

The Panelists were:

Lori Blackman - President, DNL Global

Bill Metz, COP - Global Business Services External Business Development Manager, Procter and Gamble
Cindy Kearney - President and CEO of CJ Kearney, Inc., and formerly Vice President R&D Procurement, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals

Panel Moderator Kyle Andrews of Pretium Partners asked questions that were supplied primarily by the meeting participants.

Many questions were explored, including:

• What are the best methods for getting an introductory meeting with a buyer executive, and what determines the success of that meeting?
• What is the best way to ID the key people for IT outsourcing opportunities within an organization?
• What knowledge would you expect a salesperson to have? Do you think it would be helpful if they were a COP?
• Is it an advantage when a salesperson comes in with a single focus?
• What are the panelists’ "pet peeves" or definite DONT's in the sales process that should be avoided?
• If you are going to build a world class elite outsourcing sales team, what is the makeup of the right person for that team? Is it someone with a huge rolodex? Is it someone with a 100 million dollar pipeline?
• How would the panelists feel about salespeople, in an honorable way, reaching out to them via LinkedIn or some other networking connection?
• What are the most common reasons that sales professionals are ineffective?

The program was recorded and is available to IAOP Members via the Knowledge Center.