blog

Long sales cycles are frustrating not only because it delays revenue but because they also introduce the risk that you won’t. The longer it takes to bring a prospect from the mouth of the funnel to a closed deal, the greater the likelihood is that you either won’t finalize the relationship or that it will come in at a much lower amount than you expected.

Read the rest of this entry »

You need to connect with the CIO or IT director, of course, when you are selling a solution. Also, you’ll need to show the CFO the value to what you are proposing. Getting a new system’s ticket punched by these two executives is standard practice in IT sales. But, there may be another angle. If your client has a risk manager and you don’t know him — find a way to get on his calendar.

We’re still pretty early in the millennium, but if the first decade is any indication, the next thousand years will be the domain of the risk manager. Financial busts have become commonplace, and natural and manmade disasters (including those resulting from terrorism) have caused profound loss. With these threats looming, businesses need to conceive of a broader set of business continuity/disaster recovery solutions than they did in the past — while also gauging the systems and applications needed to help them identify, monitor and remedy financial risk.

Read the rest of this entry »

An aggressive approach to marketing may not be right for your company. After all, some businesses are uncomfortable with risk, while others thrive on it. What’s important, however, is that you know what type of company yours is in regards to marketing risk and return.

Read the rest of this entry »

In IT marketing departments and businesses around the world, the fear of failure is endemic. Nobody wants to have to explain why something didn’t work … let alone carry the stigma of an unsuccessful attempt. This phobia, unfortunately, is costing companies ROI. As we mentioned yesterday, if you’re doing everything right, you’re really doing everything wrong. You should be stretching for bigger results. Take the risk, and you may trade a few unsuccessful for campaigns for a much higher overall marketing ROI.

The best parallel out there can be found in the venture capital industry. VCs plan for a certain degree of failure in their portfolios. The goal is for the winners to be so big that hey compensate for the losers and still deliver outsized returns overall. The risks are high – but measured. In fact, steps are taken to balance the risk in a VC portfolio to ensure (to the extent possible) a positive outcome.

The point is that VCs don’t believe that every investment has to be successful: they look at the net outcome. IT marketing departments could benefit from a similar, though less extreme, approach. Plan for a certain number of marketing programs to fall flat, and measure success by the net outcome of all your programs. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Plan thoroughly and execute well, and you’ll be surprised by the impact to your top line.

Previous articles in this series:

Swing for the fences: Introduction >>

Click here to receive enter:marketing blog updates by e-mail >>

If every marketing effort you pursue is successful, then it’s screamingly clear that you need help. A sky-high success rate means you aren’t being aggressive enough – and you’re probably leaving ROI on the table. This week, we’ll dig into the opportunities that come from unsuccessful marketing efforts – and not the “learn from experience” kind. The concept of learning from your mistakes is old and established: we all know the drill. Instead, I’m talking about the salient and immediate efforts of a swing and a miss.

Starting Monday, we’ll look at the benefits of an imperfect success rate from several angles. Everybody wants to deliver an overwhelming success every time, but life rarely works out that way. So, enter:marketing will show you how to extract the most value from your marketing budget, balancing risk and stability to optimize your investment.

Click here for a page to bookmark for the “Swing for the Fences″ series >>

Click here to receive enter:marketing blog updates by e-mail >>

According to Forrester Research, you should expect some major changes in how Chief Information Security Officers – and other IT risk and security professionals – will support their business users next year. Even with the economy showing some signs that it has stabilized, memories of the financial crisis have yet to fade.

IT departments around the world are developing and implementing capabilities to address new internal policies and are readying themselves for regulatory changes currently in the pipeline. Since regs lag the business environment, we have yet to experience this second act in the financial crisis saga.

Below are four ways IT risk and security are expected to change next year. Watch these trends, and contact enter:marketing to plan and execute client outreach programs on these themes.

Read the rest of this entry »