What Recession? Even during these tumultuous times, smart organizations are able to grow their businesses and expand their markets. They are slashing customer acquisition costs while increasing their customer base. How are they doing it? By employing smart marketing strategies, collaborative sales processes and transformative technologies! This presentation walks through successful strategies that small and mid-market businesses are employing to beat this recession and best their competitors.

3. What is the effect of recession? Why Traditional Marketing and Sales Strategies are not Working An analysis of why traditional methods of marketing and selling do not work in the Recession What is the strategy to win in a recession? Smart and Innovative Strategies that Work! A walkthrough of the different smart and innovative strategies for winning in the recession What is the right technology for implementing innovative strategies? The Technology for Transformation of Customer Acquisition Overview and supporting features of SharePoint and new generation tools and concepts So, how do we move forward? The Roadmap and Approach for Moving Forward An overview of the roadmap, approach and ROI

4. Why are Traditional Marketing and Sales Strategies working? Traditional Marketing = Brand Building and Mass Marketing techniques Inappropriate for small to mid-size businesses Generating quality and quantity leads using traditional marketing is people and process intensive SMBs get caught in managing people and processes rather than focusing on smart ways of generating the required volume and quality of leads Inefficient mechanism for SMBs to go with only traditional marketing especially during recession Cost Intensive Use of print and electronic media is really expensive Does not allow for efficient tracking of leads Longer sales cycles required to generate revenue Lacks focus and targeting Traditional marketing lacks focus, leading to a wide swathe of customers, reducing the amount of quality leads generated Low conversion rates Not as effective and persuasive enough to convert leads into opportunities

5. Why are Traditional Marketing and Sales Strategies working? Traditional Sales Strategy = Cold Calling and… Playing Golf! Higher cost of customer acquisition Traditional sales strategies rely heavily on people intensive processes for follow up using cold calling, travel to customer places and spending time with the customer for building relationships Does not focus on strategies to get the customer to pay in a short span of time – increasing the cost of customer acquisition as the day passes Smaller Pipelines Traditional sales strategies are focused more on closing the sale “IN PERSON”, making it difficult for a sales person to efficiently grow and manage a large pipeline of opportunities Larger Sales Cycles The nature of traditional way of selling inherently increases the sales cycles

6. What is wrong with the process and technology supporting marketing and sales today? Current Process Issues with Marketing “Made for traditional marketing” Current products and services are designed to be marketed and sold using traditional marketing and sales techniques Lack of Online Selling Approaches Traditional marketing lacks the focus on utilizing the internet as a marketing and sales platform Lack of electronic catalogs and online selling approaches increase the cost, effort and people required to sell a product or a service Lack of Variable Selling Approaches Most often than not, products and services are sold at fixed price There is lack of process and thought built within the system to allow for variable pricing and promotions of the products targeted towards different types and sizes of audiences Marketing and Sales do not go hand in hand There is no direct link between marketing and sales – marketing sets up the expectations around a product or service to the customer and sales team pitches the same product in a manner – leading to a very confused customer, and customer loyalty towards your organization

7. What is wrong with the process and technology supporting marketing and sales today? Current Process Issues with Marketing Messaging is more “Generalized” In most cases, marketing messages are not focused and is generalized to meet the curiosity and interests of a large base of potential buyers Even if the messages are focused, there is a lack of ability and mediums to deliver the messages effectively to targeted audiences without increasing the costs Current marketing processes cannot assess the interests of the end users so that they can tailor marketing messages specifically based on their interests in your organizations products or service offerings A Closed Approach Traditional marketing does not allow itself to adapt to the latest and extremely effective internet media, search engine and community based marketing

8. Current issues with Technology Effective Technology is Cost Prohibitive for SMBs Only large organizations have invested in comprehensive portal technologies that enable targeted marketing Smaller and medium size organizations have to rely on the Excel Spreadsheets or CRM systems to manage their marketing and sales processes – leading to lack of systems to truly “Enable” these teams for Smart Marketing and Sales Lack of Technology / Solution infrastructure SMBs generally lack the infrastructure and solutions that are comprehensive and allow them to change and manage product pricing, and promotions through a single technology platform Lack of integrated marketing platforms for email, social, and web marketing Traditional marketing employs traditional systems – which are nothing but data storage and reporting systems, but are not extensible so that they can be integrated with email, social and web marketing information

9. What is Working? – Smart and Innovative Strategies that Work! Marketing using the Internet is Definitely Working! Internet is the place where today’s Customers are going The capability of the internet to lend itself to allow end users to research and compare products and solutions before they can close in on the buying decision has made it a popular destination for today’s customers This has made the internet literally a Gold Mine for smart organizations – not only because they can find customers easily, but also because they can close opportunities at minimal costs Moreover the internet provides the ability to deliver variable messaging to targeted customers using micro-sites, track the results, and fine tune the messaging in a quick and efficient fashion. The emerging technologies and tools on the internet has made it possible for organizations to further reduce the costs of customer acquisition by using tools like online conferencing and virtual meetings – delivering the right kind of products and solutions to customers at their desk without getting out of the office Internet

11. 77% of 841 million global Internet users now outside of U.S.

12. 99% of online population search in a month, conducting 80 searches per person

13. 73% of online population stream a video, viewing an average of 83 videos per viewer per month. Up 50% vs YA

14. 67% of online population visit a social networking site, spending 4 hours per month per visitor

16. Out of this 90% of Internet Users, 80% ranked researching a product or service online as their first reason for using a search engine followed by weather and newsMarketing using the Internet is Definitely Working! Internet is the place where today’s Customers are going The capability of the internet to lend itself to allow end users to research and compare products and solutions before they can close in on the buying decision has made it a popular destination for today’s customers This has made the internet literally a Gold Mine for smart organizations – not only because they can find customers easily, but also because they can close opportunities at minimal costs Moreover the internet provides the ability to deliver variable messaging to targeted customers using micro-sites, track the results, and fine tune the messaging in a quick and efficient fashion. The emerging technologies and tools on the internet has made it possible for organizations to further reduce the costs of customer acquisition by using tools like online conferencing and virtual meetings – delivering the right kind of products and solutions to customers at their desk without getting out of the office Internet

17. What is Working? – Smart and Innovative Strategies that Work! One Stop Shop is Out – Niche is In! defining your Blue Ocean Organizations have to move towards delivering niche products and services using an optimal combination of value based as well as cost based selling Targeted and focused marketing efforts based on search keywords, My friends, My Interests [social media], and Online communities [email marketing through communities] Expanding beyond immediate geographies Using the power of the internet to capture larger market shares and larger customer base with low investments Thought leadership Engaging customers through whitepapers, online seminars among other cheaper and effective engagement models It pays to have a relationship with a profitable customer - Get them paying first and then build a relationship! Which ever the customer, whatever the product – it is very important for sales teams to get the customer to pay first, and then spend time on building relationships

19. Currently, marketing just provides a bunch of leads to the sales teams who then follow the long and tedious process of qualifying, following up and converting the lead into a sale

20. Marketing should contribute immensely to the lead qualification and conversion processes – upfront filtering and qualifying the leads, so that Sales spend time only on following up and converting the HOTTEST leads

21. This makes the sales teams more effective, productive and efficient, and also reduces the sales closure cycles

22. Making sales and marketing teams smart, efficient and focused

23. Marketing knows exactly who are the target audiences for specific products and offerings, and how to target them to generate a lead.

24. Moreover, marketing has greater research intelligence and market knowledge than the sales teams who are just focused on closing the deals / increasing the pipelines

25. The sales teams would be greatly benefited by the marketing and research information and allows them to be smart when targeting a customer for the sale of a product or a offering.

27. A Brief Overview of SharePoint as the Desired Technology Platform Reporting and Dashboards Content Management Extensible Search Multi Lingual Websites Metadata Management Workflows and Forms Rich Media Integration Document Mgmt Marketing Teams Microsoft SharePoint End Users / Consumers Marketing Portal Content Rich Multi Lingual Web Sites Sales Teams Collaborative Sales Portal

28. Proof in the Pudding - Case studies eMarketing and Sales enablement Solution implementations using Microsoft SharePoint

30. Delivering information about their products and courses online, and also self service based selling approach using a online shopping cart – transforming their website from not only being a marketing tool, but also a robust sales tool

31. Implementation of community based features like blogs and RSS that allowed them to build a good user base without spending a hefty amount on marketing

32. Web 2.0 features including metadata and taxonomy management, allowing for a personalized user engagement model based on the user’s context

34. Online Shopping Cart of Courses and Products

35. Online Delivery of interactive rich media like video and audio files

36. Self Service Based Content Authoring and Publishing

37. Community based marketing using Blogs, RSS and Live Chat functionalities.Online Lead Capture Various tools and approaches for capturing of leads online. The leads that are captured are stored and managed using SharePoint lists on the Website Engaging the Users The Website included various user engagement models including the use of interactive audio and video files, again integrated with lead capture mechanisms

38. The Online Product Catalog The Product catalog was managed and maintained completely on the SharePoint infrastructure using SharePoint lists and libraries, including the end user shopping carts, statuses and transaction information The Online shopping cart was integrated with online payment gateway for allowing users to buy products directly from the website by providing their credit card information, paving way for closing the sale right on the website.

39. Community and Social Marketing The website included various methods of community and social marketing approaches including community blogs, information syndication, bookmarking among others. This allowed FSI to build and maintain a good user base leading to word to mouth marketing, further reducing the costs while increasing the user base. Web 2.0 Features Some of the web 2.0 features like tagging and metadata management, contextual information aggregation and delivery tools like top downloads, popular products, favorite demos among others were implemented – allowing the content of the website to be tracked and rated by end users. Moreover, these features allowed FSI to target specific content to specific target customers increasing the quality of leads.

40. Looks Complex and Prohibitive? The Solutions were built and deployed in a time frame of 8-12 weeks The costs of building the solutions were < $ 50,000 - including planning, architecting, implementing, testing and deploying… We provide All in ONE Total Marketing Solutions for Small Businesses - Designer, Developer, Artist, Writer, Marketing Guru, SEO specialist, eMarketing Specialist and More – all in a cost effective and affordable manner.

41. Overall Roadmap for Implementing New Generation Marketing and Sales Processes

42. Our Services and Offerings for Marketing and Sales Enablement Strategy, Market Research and Tactical Plan Search Engine Optimization 2.0 Google AdWords / Yahoo SEM and Analytics Email Campaign Networking Marketing Webinar Promotion Whitepaper Syndication Press Releases Brochures, Logos, Booth Designs Web 2.0 Website Design Sales Enablement Portal, Design Development and Implementation with SharePoint

43. Our Packages

44. The Next Steps Sign up with us for an Analysis and Recommendations session of your current Marketing and Sales Processes and Technologies