Sometimes, I get distracted by Web 2.0 marketing strategies. I’m always telling managed service providers how they can leverage blogs, Web video, etc., to improve their search engine optimization (SEO) and attract new customers.
I got a healthy reality check on August 13 during the Ingram Micro Seismic partner conference in Chicago. That’s where Gary Beechum, president and CEO of Intelligent Enterprise/MSP University, described some basic but effective approaches to marketing and generating sales leads.
Gary presented a simple spreadsheet approach to help you build and design a year-long lead generation campaign that includes email, direct mail, newsletters and other deliverables. He also provided a few simple formulas to help you measure the effectiveness — the ROI — of each campaign. You should reach out to him for more info.
The biggest takeaway for me was rather simple. Gary mentioned that you should market to your audience forever. Every potential customer in your database should hear from you at least on a quarterly basis, Gary asserted. Those quarterly “touches” are prime opportunities to use direct mail promoting your latest product or service.
Some potential customers may not respond for months — or years. Regardless, market to them forever — but measure everything (response rates to specific promotions, qualified leads, meetings booked, sales closed) to generate your ROI measurements.
Tags: Gary Beechum | Ingram Micro Seismic partner summit | Intelligent Enterprise | managed service provider marketing | managed service provider sales leads | managed services marketing | managed services sales leads | MSP marketing | MSP sales leads | MSP University
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Hi Joe;
Thanks for blogging on Gary’s presentation. This technique, among many others, is documented in the 2nd book in our Managed Services series: “The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing BOOK EVER!”, available at http://www.mspu.us.
Erick Simpson
MSP University
http://www.mspu.us
No need to thank me, Erick. Gary was swamped with attendee questions, so I knew his key points would be of interest to our readers.
I had the pleasure of listening to Gary at a Zenith meeting in Atlanta a couple of years ago. I could immediately tell two things:
1. He’s retired military
2. He knows what he’s talking about
Thanks for sharing, Joe. I agree that ‘forever marketing’ needs to be central to any company’s (not just MSP’s) marketing plan.
Sometimes, we’re faced with ridiculous sales cycles, and continued marketing touchpoints are generally the sometimes well-worn path to a new relationship…
Jim Van
http://www.logicomm-inc.com
I haven’t read the book or heard the presentation, but I can say with certainty that the #1 factor in our sales success is “consistency”. That sounds like exactly what Gary is saying. I do however thing it is very important to add a “quality” factor to the formula. So many service providers that are doing marketing or regular cold calling are not doing it at a level of quality that is going to leave a good impression or stand out from others in a positive way.
Mike Cooch
http://www.everonit.com
http://www.smbitpros.com