Marketing Game Plan—
One-day Session
Objective
Most new client engagements begin with a one-day Marketing Game Plan session.
Held at your offices, the objective of these sessions is to rapidly identify the most effective marketing strategies and tactics your direct and indirect sales team need to move deals through your sales process faster.
Meeting with your leadership team and acting as an objective third-party, we will seek to stimulate new business activity by pinpointing areas/steps where Marketing will help Sales jump identified hurdles in the customer acquisition and customer retention processes.
Depending on your particular situation, we may devote more time to go-to-market strategies for top-of-funnel/greenfield opportunities, thought-leadership, customer retention or sales enablement.
Outcome
At the conclusion of your session, we will have…
1) Identified critical sales process hurdles.
2) Identified likely high-impact marketing actions items.
3) Prioritized activities, strategies, tactics, timelines and budget.
4) Assigned responsibilities to appropriate internal and external resources.
Participants
We prefer a balanced group of sales and marketing, with two to six attendees total and of this, no more than two marketing representatives. Sales personnel should have deep customer insight and be able to communicate your current sales process and approach.
Getting Started
The first step is yours. We’re easy to do business with (we don’t bite) and are delighted to confidentially speak with you by phone (or Skype) to answer any questions and determine if a Game Plan session is appropriate for your company. Just contact us when you’re ready to get started.
Venture Marketing
Think like a Startup. Win Faster!
FAQ
1. Why can’t I use my own internal resources?
Leaders seek savvy, unbiased, objective counsel and fresh ideas for growing their top-line. They want new insight and the knowledge of likely outcomes. Leveraging Venture Marketing’s experience saves time, demonstrates your seriousness to your staff and evokes brutal honesty.
Further, this is our area of expertise and have a defined methodology, which is fully described in our book, The Marketing Playbook.
2. How much input will I have in determining the questions you ask?
While all of our Game Plan sessions utilize a predetermined set of questions, we do take into account the information you provide as well as any hot-button issues you raised in pre-session conversations.
3. What industries have you worked in?
The majority of our work has been for technology-related firms or “tech-savvy” companies hoping to leverage technology as a critical differentiator. Industry segments include:
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Business Intelligence & Analytics Disaster Recovery Display Solutions Financial Services & Insurance Industrial & Professional Products Industrial Controls & Automation |
Non-Profit People Performance Management Professional Services, Consulting Software, Applications Software, Embedded Voice, Datacom, Telco, Video |
4. Within these industries, what is the sweet spot for you?
We do our best work when one or more of the following are true:
- New, “greenfield” opportunities represent significant strategic upside, but you’re unable to “get there” with your current approach
- Your current marketing efforts are broadly one-and-done projects (also referred to as “Lumpy Marketing”) due to the lack of a repeatable marketing system or process
- Search engines direct your best prospects to competitor websites
- Your success hinges on the ability of a human sales person selling to another human
- The buying process is classified as a “considered sale” or “complex sale” and normally involves selling through committees
- You want to create your own marketing system to support your direct and indirect reps
- There are multiple channels or layers of distribution between you and the end-user
- Sales reps need an edge to win more business and it’s been a while since your last brainstorm or company time out
5. What’s Venture Marketing’s overarching mission?
We help businesses stop wasting so much time, money and people on their Marketing. Fixing these problems is Job #1, especially when it comes to budget sinkholes, misalignment between what Sales needs and Marketing produces, and management blind spots. We assist businesses to build their own marketing system that enables reps to see more, sell more and keep more customers.
With this as our mission, we bring a unique combination of attitude, target market and background to every assignment and customer:
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Unique attitude |
For companies that rely upon personal selling, Marketing is a Sales Support function |
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Unique niche |
B2B marketing IS different. Different needs, options, margin of error, budget, end-goals |
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Unique background |
Practitioners who know how to grow businesses to maximize valuation. It’s not just knowing “what” to do—that’s pretty easy—it’s our knowledge of “how” to do it and at “what cost”, “why” to do it, “who” can get it done and “when” that sets Venture Marketing apart. |
