February 8, 2010
– By Steve Robins
SAP Sacks CEO For Failing to Deliver Customer Value
Sometimes the best solution marketing is about value.
It’s been one of the most interesting solution value stories of the last 18 months: ERP vendors’ exhorbitant support prices (at Oracle’s 90% margins) and SAP’s botched attempt to raise prices even further. It’s pretty obvious that ERP vendor greed has further weakened customer relationships while opening the door to a new cadre of support vendors.
ERP vendors charge high maintenance and support prices that are essentially insurance policies that enable their clients to receive upgrades and support. Problem is, many companies don’t need – and can’t afford – the broad and expensive maintenance and support provided by ERP vendors, so they’ve moved to competitive support firms like Rimini Street.
Yesterday’s sacking of SAP’s CEO is only the latest chapter in this tale. Keep reading →
January 26, 2010
– By Steve Robins
The Solution Marketer’s Guide to WordCamp Boston
A great resource for anyone interested in WordPress, blogging or social publishing
This past weekend, I attended the inaugural WordCamp Boston at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA. WordCamp was a great opportunity to dig deeper into the WordPress platform that powers The Solution Marketing Blog. The conference offered a special bonus as well: ten years after the Cluetrain Manifesto was first published, two of the authors, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, participated in a discussion with the Boston Globe’s Scott Kirsner. The conference had an interesting mix of attendees – both technical consultants/developers and business bloggers. As is the case for most xCamps (ProductCamp, CloudCamp, etc), the atmosphere and program was informal, collegial and educational.
Keep reading →
Filed under Resources (additional), Social Media, Solution Marketing
Tags: #wcbos, blog, Blogging, Cluetrain, Social publishing, Solution Marketing, Solutions, WordCamp, WordCamp Boston, WordPress
December 30, 2009
– By Steve Robins
It’s pretty safe to say that until earlier this year, few if any people defined Solution Marketing. Sure, Solution Selling has been around for so long that it’s almost passé now. And it seemed that just about every tech company offered solutions of some kind – be they functional or industry solutions. But few if any folks had ever defined the process of solution marketing for technology. That changed in February 2009 with the publication of this blog and the presentation, Introduction to Solution Marketing, which was first presented at the inaugural ProductCamp Boston.
Now I’ve updated the presentation. Check it out at:
Also, be sure to check out the Solution Marketing Best Practices presentation:
Comments welcome!
December 30, 2009
Power up your solution marketing with your new customer language skills.
Follow up post to Learn a New Language
– By Steve Robins
Yesterday, we talked about how to develop your customer/buyer/user language skills through a six part process in which you reviewed the target market, culture/jargon, market drivers, the business opportunity, and industry influencers. Today we’ll talk more about the final phase, Translation. Keep reading →
December 29, 2009
Win New Customers: Speak Their Language
– By Steve Robins
Six years running industry and solutions marketing at EMC Documentum underscored an important lesson for all solution marketers:
To engage on any level with business-oriented prospects, you need to speak their language and understand their business and culture.
From conducting research to developing new solutions to leading marketing and sales training – you must speak the same language as your customer in order to engage in meaningful dialog, to know what solutions they need, to market to them and to teach others to market and sell to them effectively. And this post will help you to get there, in 6 steps.
Keep reading →
Filed under Information, Message, SIVA - Elements of Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing
Tags: Customer language, Jargon, Language, Market segmentation, Message, Messaging, Segmentation, Solution Marketing, Solutions
