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What's
New
IT Budgets and The Current Economy/Wine and Tell Event:
Our recent event in the Seattle area was well attended and many of
you who attended commented on the applicability of the findings to sales
strategies in the current market climate. We are repeating the event in the
Silicon Valley on Wednesday March 25 at the Capital Club in San Jose.
The event is by invitation, and if you are a current client or SVRG
insights newsletter subscriber and would like to attend, please contact
Meadow Braly (meadowb@siliconvalleyrg.com)
As before, wine tasting will be a serious accompaniment to the data
presentation.
New Topics for Next CIO Discussion Round:
We are planning the following topics for the next SVRG Insights™
round to take place this month:
- Further insights on IT spending and
current economy based on a new
round of discussions with CIOs
- Value proposition of cloud computing and
on-demand service delivery for IT infrastructure
- Impact of netbooks adoption on overall
hardware and software deployments
Any other topics you would like to see covered?
Please let us know as we have not started our discussion round yet.
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Al's Corner
Segmentation as a Revenue Accelerator
In tough times, tried and true techniques can create revenue
acceleration opportunities. An often overlooked marketing tool is
segmentation models. Typically these projects are more “academic” in
nature, and likely to be associated with overall product positioning
activities. I am reminded however, of the power of using these tools to
pinpoint the most profitable segments and craft aggressive strategies to
cultivate them. So, dust off your old segmentation models and let’s go for
a ride!
First of all, who are your best prospects? These are
identified typically by segment size and attractiveness. But in a tight
market, add the following dimensions:
- Ability to target and reach cost
effectively, given tight marketing budgets
- For consumers, target less economically
impacted geographies; for businesses, less
impacted verticals
- Where possible, a calculation of
expected sales velocity needs to be taken into account, customer
segments with high velocity supersede others even though they may have
placed as less attractive in the overall segmentation map (in better
times!)
Second, consider special purpose segment –base sales training
and sales aids to intensify your efforts on the highest revenue potential
segments. Sales and channel partner efforts should focus on segments that
most quickly impact revenue and those management dashboard and scorecard
numbers. Sales aids and battle cards should , at a minimum, focus on:
- Foot in the door strategies
- Conversation openers
- Dialogue strategies for effective
competitive positioning
For information on SVRG standards and methods for constructing these,
please contact Al Nazarelli (aln@siliconvalleyrg.com)
Lastly, while focusing on quick-to-revenue segments, keep
other attractive segments engaged as well, so as not to lose them to your
competition. Your web assets can be effectively matched to your sales cycle
to provide high involvement touch points where possible (contact us if you
would like to learn how we have done this with our clients). However, keep
in mind these efforts must combine an optimal mix of BOTH online and
offline components. Our recent work on media habits, particularly with
decision makers, reveals the high propensity of best laid online efforts
can be lost in the clutter. In fact, many decision makers report having
been impacted recently by offline offers and messages. Snail mail is
effective again!
In conclusion, many companies have already made significant
investments in segmentation studies and now is a great time to leverage
those investments. We can help you “dimensionalize” these around revenue
acceleration and sales traction and look forward to ongoing dialogue with
you on this topic.
Al Nazarelli is President & CEO of Silicon Valley Research
Group Inc. He divides his time between our San Jose and Seattle offices and
can be reached at aln@siliconvalleyrg.com
or 408-920-0361 ex 701.
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