The Value of Social Media Networking: From not an Expert

September 22, 2009

This article was written by Rose Owens, New Business Account Manager at eCoast.
Lately, the social media buzz has given us all a chance to re-evaluate our marketing strategies. Do I need to implement a social networking strategy? How do I justify spending the time and resources on social media? What is the value to me? [...]

Read the full article →

Twittering 101 Marketing Guide for the Channel

September 3, 2009

How Many Channel Partners Are Twittering Yet?
eCoast recently conducted a small Channel Social Media study and discovered about 30% of channel partners said they are using Twitter. Although not statistically significant by any means, 30% was higher than I would have guessed.
With all the media hype, you probably feel like you already missed the boat [...]

Read the full article →

Outbound Marketing Webinar: Optimizing Your Campaign

August 6, 2009

What I’m not going to talk about:
Web 2.0, Twitter, Viral Video, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Blogging, Google, Google Adwords, Pluke (made that one up), etc.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think all these social media trendy things are really, really, cool; however, everyone has webinars on them. I mean everyone. NOT ME. (not [...]

Read the full article →

Are Managed Services the New Channel SMB Superman?

June 10, 2009
Thumbnail image for Are Managed Services the New Channel SMB Superman?

Will managed services save the SMB VAR Community from the evil economic environment?
Can VARS use managed services as the silver bullet to overcome a customer’s lack of capital investment in IT?
I was speaking with a managed services SMB partner last week and he didn’t even care if the economy improved. He actually thought it might [...]

Read the full article →

Why You’re Wrong About Channel Marketing ROI

May 6, 2009

The quest for the holy grail of marketing begins and ends with Return On Investment (ROI).
Tech Manufacturers and Channel Marketing Managers are obsessed with ROI. In today’s world, who could blame them? However, (in my humble opinion) the current way of thinking about ROI is outdated. It’s leftover from the 80’s sales mentality. You are [...]

Read the full article →

Top 10 Reasons VARS Need a Blog

April 15, 2009

You look like every other cow out there. Seth Godin spoke a few months ago at a Cisco Partner conference and gave the analogy of a cow, we’ve all seen them. Drive by one and it’s just another cow but what if the cow is purple? You will stop, take a picture, send it to [...]

Read the full article →

Appointment Setting in a “No Budget” Economy

March 19, 2009

“No Budget” is the new “Not Interested” in the world of sales. It’s believable, it’s accepted and it might even be true.
However, as my old sales manager Pat Nee used to say, “All buyers are liars.” You cannot take what people say at face value until you have built some type of relationship. Many times [...]

Read the full article →

Deal Registration’s new best friend?

March 10, 2009

Could deal registration’s best friend be the outsourced lead generation??
Many times in lead generation/appointment setting you receive opportunities that are like a green banana. Not really ready for prime time. However, what’s typically overlooked is opportunity still exists, you are just going to have to wait. Everyone hates to wait and be patient especially in [...]

Read the full article →

Is an appointment alone enough?

February 26, 2009

Getting a meeting with a director level in a mid-market company used to be the ticket. You met with them, they had projects and you provided a quote. Simple. Using a vendor to get the “appointment only” was a viable route to more deals within Mid-Market and Enterprise. Everyone was generally happy with the results.
Today’s [...]

Read the full article →

No more 1 million dollar office redecorating?

January 28, 2009

Did you happen to catch the interview with the CEO for Merrill Lynch? How before the crash he spent 1 million dollars to redecorate his office? I almost fell off the treadmill at the gym when I was watching this interview. He was even trying to justify it saying it was before all the bad [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →