Tag Archives: Steve Robins

Solution Marketing @ The Boston Startup School

Solution Marketing for Startups

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to teach a one-day solution marketing class at the Boston Startup School, located in the Harvard Innovation Lab.

Learn to Do

If you have the opportunity to teach, learn, network or otherwise participate with Boston Startup School, jump on it! Run by startup incubator TechStars, the new program helps “young professionals to learn the skills needed to have an immediate and positive impact on the startup they join.” Wondering what’s on their minds? Check out the new blog by the sales and marketing classes, www.GrowthNinja.com, which states that…

You don’t have to start a company to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a mindset. It’s a healthy discontent with the status quo that brings together teams dedicated to making the world a better place. Entrepreneurs include all members of a startup team, from the CEO to the summer intern.

…and I couldn’t agree more. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Amazon, Assaad, Bentzi, Boston Startup School, ChuckE.Cheese's, Dan MacLeod, Erik Grueter, Gordon Alemao, HP TouchPad, Kelly McDonald, Kerrie McCarthy, Kindle Fire, LinkedIn, Luis Duco, Matt DiStefano, Max Ade, Microsoft Surface, Nicki Haylon, Rhan, SAP, Sara Sigel, Solution Marketing, Steve Robins, TechStars

Keynote at ProductCamp Boston: The Invisible Customer

By Steve Robins

Join me On June 9 at Microsoft Cambridge for ProductCamp Boston 2012!

I’ve always been passionate about ProductCamp – I’ve been speaking at ProductCamp Boston since it began in 2009 and have been leading the marketing team since 2011. So I’m very honored to be delivering the keynote presentation this year.

The theme for ProductCamp Boston 2012 is Customers First! And it’s a fitting theme since customers are so central to the success of our products and solutions, companies, and even our careers.

Continue reading →

Beyond Products: Solution Marketing

By Steve Robins

February 16 Presentation to the BPMA

Thanks to everyone who attended Thursday’s presentation at the Boston Product Management Association, Beyond Products: Solution Marketing. You helped to make it one of the best discussions I’ve ever led on solution marketing.

You can find the Beyond Products: Solution Marketing presentation slides as well as the Solution Marketing Framework, along with other solution marketing content on Slideshare.

I hope you’ll continue the discussion in a variety of ways:

Before you do anything else, make sure to join the Solution Marketing Pros group on LinkedIn where you can share your successes and get help with your challenges from other solution marketers. The group includes folks from leading companies around the world including…

Acronis, Adobe, ADP, Akamai, Amazon, Ariba, Aspen Technology, Autonomy (HP), Box, Cisco, CSC, Dell, Eloqua, EMC, Endeca, Epicor, FirstBest, Gartner, HCL, Hitachi, Honeywell, H-P, IBM, Informatica, Iron Mountain, KANA Software, Kronos, Level 3 Communications, Lionbridge, McAfee, Microsoft, Misys, Motorola, NetApp, Nortel, Nuance, Oracle, Orange, Pegasystems, Pitney Bowes, Progress Software, Red Hat, Salesforce.com, SAP, Sapient, Seagate Technology, Siemens, SONY, SunGard, Symantec, Tata, TELUS, TIBCO, Time Warner Cable, Tripwire, Verizon, Vertex, Wipro
Follow my Twitter stream for the latest solution marketing news.
Check out additional articles on The Solution Marketing Blog – and be sure to comment!
Come back for next month’s solution pricing presentation by Jim Geisman
Contact me if you have additional questions, s.robins [at] SolutionMKT [dot] com

Special thanks to the great folks at BPMA for organizing this event.

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Filed under Case Studies, Presentations, SEVA - Elements of Solution Marketing, Solution Framework, Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing Framework, Solution Marketing Strategy, The Solution Marketing Blog

Tagged as Beyond Products: Solution Marketing, BPMA, LinkedIn, Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing Framework, Solution Marketing Pros, Solution Marketing Pros LinkedIn Group, Solutions, Steve Robins

The Value of Value

By Steve Robins

Value is Key to Solution Marketing

You might think that the most important aspect of marketing a solution would be what goes into it. What goes into a solution are just a bunch of pieces, products, or components. But value is about the benefit and cost of those components to the user or buyer.

More specifically, value is equal to the difference between (1) the benefit as perceived by the user and (2) the total cost of the solution. By perception I mean that the user or buyer must appreciate and want the resulting benefit. In fact, if they don’t perceive it as a benefit to them, it’s not a benefit but is instead just a useless feature.

Value is interesting in many ways, some of which are counterintuitive and not so obvious. Following are a few important examples – both obvious and not so obvious. Continue reading →

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Filed under Case Studies, Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing Strategy, The Solution Marketing Blog, Value, Value

Tagged as I Tweet Live blog, Newspapers, SEVA, SIVA, Solution Marketing, Solution Marketing Blog, Solution Marketing Lessons, Solutions, Steve Robins, Value

Netflix: It’s About the Customer Strategy, Stupid – Part II

By Steve Robins

Six Solution Marketing Lessons from Netflix

As I mentioned at the end of the last post, Netflix: It’s the Customer, Stupid, Netflix’s recent misadventure is a cautionary tale for solution marketers. Following are a six key lessons:

#1: As a vendor or service provider, technology upgrades are good.

So, if you rent DVDs and know the market will eventually transition to video on demand, you need to offer video on demand as well – just as Netflx does today. Streaming is proven and consumers will demand it. It’s not a matter of if, but when. However…