Articles

Managed Services Provider (MSP) Study Now Available, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Our Managed Service Provider (MSP) Benchmark Study is now available. You’ll recall that we conducted MSP research in conjunction with Untangle, an open source network gateway company and partner to MSPs nationwide. Topics were: Comparison of MSP service offerings Benchmark...

Consumer Product Management & Other Follies, by Reena Kapoor
I've worked in consumer product management in a few different industries — tech and non-tech — and want to talk about that I've observed about successful product management. Even that terminology "tech vs. non-tech" in itself is telling. I started...

Marketing to Small & Medium Business, by Reena Kapoor
I went to a NorCal-BMA breakfast on March 20th where Drew Meyer (Senior Product Marketing Manager at Network Appliance’s StoreVault division) spoke about selling to SMB – a hot topic among many enterprise companies looking to expand their footprint into...

A Good Resource on Services Pricing, by Sridhar Ramanathan
I want to pass along to you a nice report from RainToday entitled “Fees and Pricing Benchmark Report: Consulting Industry 2008.” While it’s mainly aimed at consulting firms (marketing, IT, management, etc.) I think it has very useful insights for...

A New Paradigm for Telesales – Introducing Myndnet, by Sridhar Ramanathan
I’ve written a lot about lead generation harping on the issue of poor lead quality and disappointing lead handoffs between marketing and sales. One of the solutions to this “alignment” problem is hiring a good telesales or inside sales...

Welcome Bill Reed, New Pacifica Partner, by Sridhar Ramanathan
I am very pleased to announce that Bill Reed has joined the Pacifica Group virtual team as a partner. Bill has over twenty years experience as a business development, sales and marketing executive with successful technology firms. Bill was...

Managed Services Provider (MSP) Benchmark Study, by Sridhar Ramanathan
We are conducting research in conjunction with Untangle, an open source network gateway company and partner to MSPs nationwide, and welcome you to join in on the survey we're fielding. We're conducting this independent market research study to help new...

Part II: How to Select and Optimize Outsourced Teleprospecting, by Sridhar Ramanathan
My last blog entry featured a podcast with Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, on the topic of selecting and optimizing your outsourced telesales relationship. But if you’d rather just read my talking points than listen to the podcast, then continue...

Podcast: How to Select and Optimize Outsourced Teleprospecting, by Sridhar Ramanathan
This week I had the great honor and pleasure of being interviewed by Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale and CEO of InTouch, a top notch lead generation firm. The topic was how to select and...

Successfully Implementing Positioning in Organizations, by Reena Kapoor
I’ve now worked on several strategic positioning projects for clients and have come to the realization that the harder part is not developing strong positioning for companies or their products. The greater challenge actually lies in implementing it successfully. Don’t...

Turning Anxiety Into Advantage, by Sridhar Ramanathan
My fellow consulting firm owners and corporate exec buddies often ask me, “Aren’t you nervous about being self-employed and supporting a family of six on an unpredictable salary?” The answer is “yes.” In the early days of my practice, I...

Corporate Integrity and the Role of Marketing, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of the bright spots in IT spending today is enterprise software and services that support the alphabet soup of compliance regulations (SEC, SOX, PCI, HIPAA, FISMA, OSHA, etc.). One of our clients, SAP, is doing a great job capturing...

BusinessLaunch Partnership Deepens, by Sridhar Ramanathan
I'm pleased to announce that Pacifica Group is deepening its relationship with BusinessLaunch by offering an even more seamless solution to our high tech client base. We've already partnered to deliver greater client value at SAP, Symantec, Postini, and many...

Campaigns that Count, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Ask a CEO about “marketing campaigns” and they usually think of high profile public relations, creative advertising, email marketing biltzes, sales promotions, etc in order to cause a spike in sales. Okay that’s not bad. It wouldn’t be far from...

Podcasting – Lower Priority on the Marketing Totem Pole, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Like blogs just a few years ago, podcasting now seems to be the talk among marketers. But do the initial results justify the hype? I say no. On the optimists side we have eMarketer projecting over 50M listeners and $300M...

The Patron Saint of Martyred Copywriters, by Rich Binell
This is a true story. Steve Cosmopulos is an old art director in Boston. (Hill Holiday Connors & Cosmopulos was his for awhile. It got too big and he left, but he left his name on the door.) He's...

Competing against Mr. Do Nothing, by Sridhar Ramanathan
So often my clients find their #1 competitor is actually the customer doing nothing. That’s right. It’s not the direct competitor or a substitute option or even a homegrown solution that cinches the deal but rather inertia or doing nothing...

The Power of Excellent Messaging, by Sridhar Ramanathan
We are not a branding firm per se at Pacifica Group. But as former executives, we’ve hired and managed firms that are the best in this craft. So we’ve gained an abiding appreciation for good messaging work and what it...

On Selling to a Small Business Owner, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Recently I wrote about Warrillow’s book “Drilling for Gold” because I found it a terrific resource for marketing to the small medium sized business. He categorizes owners into mountain climbers, craftspeople, and freedom fighters. I’d like to share with you...

What I’ve Learned from Blogging, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Hard to believe that it’s been three years since Elise Bauer and I launched the Pacifica Group blog. Elise is, of course, light years ahead of me with her wildly successful recipe blog (Simply Recipes) which she started over four...

Book Recommendation – Made to Stick, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Here’s a book you’ll finish in one sitting because it’s so good---entertaining yet insightful. Have you ever wondered why some “stories” or “urban legends” seem to pop up again and again? Chip and Dan Heath kickoff the book with the...

It’s All About User Participation, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Last week I attended a breakfast seminar at the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) Northern California chapter in San Francisco. My partner, Jeff Thompson, is a board member so how could I refuse? Plus the topic was intriguing enough– “Expert...

The Do's and Don'ts of Marketing to Bloggers, by Elise Bauer
Article cross-posted on elise.com. Why is marketing to bloggers a good idea? Inbound links from blogs improves Google rank, which increases traffic from search engines. Exposure from bloggers can land a company's website on a social bookmarking site like Digg...

On Giving Tough Feedback, by Sridhar Ramanathan
If you’re an executive you’ve probably done share your share of “coaching” (best case) or “cussing” (worst case) when an employee or peer has done something that you strongly disapprove. As consultants, we have the luxury to speak out if...

SDForum Talk, by Sridhar Ramanathan
The SDForum is non-profit organization for the technology community here in Silicon Valley. I had the honor of being the guest speaker last night's SDForum Special Interest Group (SIG) for Marketing. See abstract below. If you'd like the slide deck...

Pacifica Group Welcomes Two New Partners!, by Sridhar Ramanathan
We are very pleased to announce that Reena Kapoor and Jeff Thompson have joined the Pacifica Group virtual team as partners. Reena has extensive experience in consumer brand building and general management from her tenures at Procter & Gamble and...

Selling to the CFO – A Dinner Conversation, by Sridhar Ramanathan
“Make it a double” barked Chris to the bartender to be heard above the restaurant din. “Guess your boss came down on you pretty hard, huh?” said Jo. “Well, I’m angry with myself more than anyone else for not being...

Demand Generation: Are You Making Your Prospects Lie?, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of the dirty little secrets of online marketing is that the leads you generate are only as good as the data that the customer prospect chooses to share about themselves. And very often they lie. Ok, I’ll admit it....

The Power of No, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of the most powerful statements you can make to someone is “no.” It can immediately trigger some strong reactions ranging from quiet resentment to outright rage. In my little kids, it can trigger a tantrum. We let our kids...

Where's the Thirteenth Donut?, by Elise Bauer
"Where's the thirteenth donut?" my friend and branding impresario Rich Binell likes to shout, especially when confronted with a company whose customers are satisfied, but not spectacularly so. "Who wants to be just good? We want to be great!" He...

Marketing to the SMB, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Over the holiday I read four business books but only one stood out as a “must read.” The book is “Drilling for Gold” by John Warrillow, and it’s full of very practical and insightful approaches to winning in the small/medium...

When to Fire your PR Firm, by Sridhar Ramanathan
“I waited too long fire my PR firm” is right up there with other top regrets like staying too long in a job and waiting too long to fire an employee. And if the average tenure of a Chief Marketing...

Farewell to Frank Ma, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Yesterday I attended the funeral of my dear friend and HP colleague, Frank Ma. He lost his battle with liver cancer leaving his friends and family still stunned that his deep courage and quiet strength weren’t enough to reverse this...

The Monk and the Riddle, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Recommended reading. Here’s a business book that reads more like an engaging novel than a dry tome. It’s written by Randy Komisar, known here in Silicon Valley as the Virtual CEO of companies like WebTV and TiVo. He was CEO...

Everybody Loves Raymond – Lessons from an Entrepreneur, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Flying back from San Diego, I sat next to a very engaging entrepreneur, Raymond Mendoza. Thirteen years ago he founded Short Circuit Car Audio Repair, a small business that fixes car stereos on behalf of car dealership service departments....

Gold Nuggets from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Summit 2006, by Sridhar Ramanathan
This week I attended the annual Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council Summit meeting in San Francisco. Surprisingly, it was disappointing compared to last year’s summit. The talks and panels were more descriptive (reporting facts, opinions, and views) rather than prescriptive...

Is Your Product "Channel-Friendly?" -- Part II, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Last night I had the privilege of addressing about 75 product managers at the Silicon Valley Product Management Association. My talk was entitled Is Your Product "Channel-Friendly?” Click here to Download slide deck SVPMA board members told me that the...

The Joys of Mentorship and SVPMA, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Just over five years ago we were turning out the lights in a startup called Firetalk Communications. Like so many startups we, the exec team, couldn't bring cash in faster than it was leaving the door. I only worked there...

Trust – The Key to Sales, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Two ebooks showed up in my intray this week that I would consider must-reads. Coincidentally, the central message in both books was that trust is essential to sales. Seth Godin, author of bestselling marketing books, writes in the RainToday’s The...

Focus on the Stars, by Sridhar Ramanathan
What a hornet’s nest I stepped into this week. Recall that I was the featured speaker at a high tech company’s monthly management seminar series on leadership. One of the leadership practices I recommended is to focus on your star...

Leading on Purpose, by Sridhar Ramanathan
When was the last time you took a few hours with your team to discuss its purpose? Executives and managers of successful companies are so busy working on the “what” (projects, deliverables, deadlines, issues, etc.) that they have very little...

Successful Board Meetings, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Getting skewered and scorched in a board meeting seems almost a badge of honor for entrepreneurs/executives especially here in Silicon Valley. I’ve certainly learned the hard way myself on what works and what doesn’t. Perhaps some lessons are best learned...

Your Lead Generation Machine—Well Oiled or Ready for Overhaul?, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Virtually every organization has a process for moving prospective customers from the very first contact (e.g. advertising) to contract phase (e.g. purchase order). This contact-to-contract process usually requires excellent teamwork between the marketing, inside-sales, and sales teams. The sub-process that...

The Power of Word of Mouth, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Today I was struck by how powerful my wife’s mom’s club is in terms of word of mouth. Gina, mother or our four kids, is a board member of the Livermore Mothers club. She was drawn to this community of...

Channel Sales – Where the Simplicity of a Toaster Rules, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of my clients sent me a nice article as an example of my mantra on simplicity when it comes to channel sales. Checkout this article “Barracuda Keeps Programs to a Minimum—and Keeps Partners Active.” And for your information, Barracuda...

Leading High Performance Teams, by Sridhar Ramanathan
This week I was invited to address 80-100 engineering managers later this month on the topic of leading high performance teams. This “by the bay” high tech firm, asked me to share good management practices from my years as a...

Customer Loyalty Deserves the Royal Treatment, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Why is it that businesses so often take for granted their most loyal, repeat customers? I had a real taste of it this week when I switched my cellular service from Sprint to T-Mobile. I was a loyal Sprint wireless...

Assessing the VP Job Offer --Due Diligence Questions, by Sridhar Ramanathan
“Now that I’ve got the job offer for VP Marketing, what due diligence questions should I be asking?” asked my dear friend, Doug, this week. Over the last five years, we’ve seen our share of executives transition in and out...

The Marketing Database -- A Precious Asset, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of the issues that we hear Marketing VP’s bemoan is the state of their customer list or marketing database. This seems to be the case whether it’s a startup or a Fortune 50 tech company with millions of customer...

The Power of Customer Seminars, by Sridhar Ramanathan
As a member of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, I get asked from time to time to participant in their “Dinner Dialogues.” These are intimate settings in which Donovan Neale-May (Executive Director of the CMO Council) does a masterful...

Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Brian Carroll’s new book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, is a must read if you are looking for ways to drive more and better quality leads for your sales team year round. I liked Brian's holistic approach which encompasses...

ROI Calculators – A Credible Sales Tool, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Return on Investment (ROI) calculators seem to pop up everywhere. You probably used one yourself when re-financing your home or deciding on whether to buy or lease a car. So it’s no surprise that high tech companies rely heavily on...

Paranoia – A Virtue among Top Sales Reps, by Sridhar Ramanathan
I heard the word “paranoid” used three times this last week by three different clients of ours – 2 sales VP and a #1 enterprise software rep. Each told us independently and without prompting that their top sales reps were...

Alliance Development – Speeding Time-to-Contract, by Sridhar Ramanathan
A client Chief Operating Officer asked me how long it would take to have signed reseller agreements with target companies. My short answer to her was that we saw a range from 3-6 months for companies in the $10M-$100 bracket...

When to Bring an Executive Along on a Sales Call, by Sridhar Ramanathan
This week one of my client’s Sales VP’s said to me “don’t sales reps know how best to use me in a sales situation?” Well, I’m sorry to say that there’s very little guidance most reps get when it comes...

Practice Makes Perfect…and Quota, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Babe Ruth is legendary for having an extraordinary number of both home runs and strike outs. He took more risks, more often, in order to get more results. Similarly, sales reps need more “at bats” or “practice” hitting home runs...

Is Your Product "Channel Friendly"?, by Sridhar Ramanathan
A lot has to happen right to drive real revenue with your channel partners. We’ve had the fortune of working with storage companies such as Seagate, Bell Micro ($2B+ storage distributor) and security products companies (Symantec, Cisco, Reactivity, InfoExpress, and...

The Importance of a Corporate Story, by Sridhar Ramanathan
If you're a Marketing executive you probably already appreciate greating messaging skills. We've had the wonderful opportunity to work with some of the finest messaging strategists--Rich Binell and Greg Galle of C2 LLC. In the spirit of sharing best practices,...

Military lessons for Marketers, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Wayne Pollard has an excellent article published in CMO Magazine entitled Hannibal, CMO. It is both an entertaining and insightful paper. Military history has much to offer marketers by way of examples of competitive strategy and leadership. His paper reminded...

Leadership Focus -- Results versus Activities, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of my favorite bloggers is Guy Kawasaki, ex Apple executive and CEO of Garage Technology ventures. He is both entertaining and insightful as he delivers daily advice for entrepreneurs. His recent posting, “How to Prevent a Bozo Explosion” is...

Marketing Investment Allocation -- What’s Your Risk Profile?, by Sridhar Ramanathan
My wife and I recently hired a certified financial planner to help us with our personal finances. Like many MBAs, I tend to focus more on making money than on managing it smartly. We learned that proper allocation of...

Customer References – The Golden Sales Tool, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of the most valuable sales tools is customer references. Sometimes these are easy to come by. For example, if you're the auditing firm or PR firm of record. Sometimes it's nearly impossible. Security software vendors face the hardest time....

Best Practices in Demand Generation, by Sridhar Ramanathan
In this article, I want to share with you best practices in demand generation. We’ve worked with many clients in this area, and I’ve been particularly impressed with Charlie Shafton, Director of Marketing Programs at Aspect Software. She has a...

Call for Topics, by Sridhar Ramanathan
We want to be sure this blog offers insightful content for you. Please let us know what topics are of greatest interest to you. Generally, we cover: Marketing Management (product marketing, business strategy, customer research, competition) Web Marketing (blogging, search...

Product Demos that Wow!, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Product demonstrations (demos) are one of the key deliverables of product marketing, especially for software companies. Yet somehow they get far less attention than, say, a PR campaign or lead generation when it comes to funding and executive attention. With...

A Marketing Lesson on “American Inventor”, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Have you seen the latest show on ABC called “American Inventor”? It’s a fun show featuring inventors who pitch products. Most ideas are crazy but some are very cool. I really enjoyed the 14 year old kid who invented a...

Land and Expand, by Sridhar Ramanathan
With software sales cycles taking 9-12 months, it’s no wonder companies are looking at new ways to shorten sales cycles and reduce selling costs. One strategy that’s working well for our clients is the “land and expand’ approach. Just...

Seth Godin at Google, by Elise Bauer
Author and Internet marketer Seth Godin gives a talk at Google on marketing. The talk is 48 minutes long and includes questions and answers from Google employees. Bottom line? If you can't make something remarkable, don't even bother to...

Bonding with your Channel Partners’ Sales Reps, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Over lunch today one of our clients mused how challenging it has been to been for his sales force to bond with their channel partner sales reps on a one-on-one level. Turns out this is a very common challenge that...

Selling to the Committee, by Sridhar Ramanathan
If you think sales cycles just seem to be getting longer not shorter these days, you’re not alone. Marketing News has a nice article entitled “It Takes a Committee to Buy Into B-to-B”. The article cites a SiriusDecisions statistic that...

Power Up Your Weekly Sales Concall, by Sridhar Ramanathan
What do sales reps dislike almost as much as cold calling? The dreaded weekly sales conference call. Sales reps would much rather be visiting with prospects then reporting their weekly results on these calls. Plus over 90% of the call...

Turning Evaluations into Sales Advantages, by Sridhar Ramanathan
One of the big chunks of time and risks in any software sales cycle is a proof-of-concept or evaluation phase on the customer’s site. Virtually all of our clients have this as part of their sales cycle and most dread...

Why Software-as-a-Service is Growing, by Sridhar Ramanathan
If you're hearing more and more about the emerging Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model, check out Axel Schultze's blog where he does a nice job articulating the benefits of Software-as-a-Service over traditional enterprise software. Axel Schultze is CEO of Tanooma, a...

Ownership – A Key Trait for Business Leadership, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Ever notice how often the term “ownership” is used in job descriptions and resumes? Usually the sentence is phrased as “must demonstrate ownership”. But how often do you really see exemplary ownership behavior in your organization? The dictionary defines ownership...

Marketing’s Contribution to Closing Deals, by Sridhar Ramanathan
When people think “Marketing” they often think “advertising”, “PR”, or “promotions.” But Marketing can also play a valuable role in helping sales reps close deals. How? We offer three areas where Marketers can focus their efforts, where the rubber meets...

Welcome Sophia, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Please excuse the hiatus in my blogging entries. The good news is that my wife, Gina, and I just returned from India where we brought home our second adopted child. She's a one year old baby girl whom we’ve named...

Two Questions for the New Year, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Tom Peters, well known author of In Search of Excellence, has a content-rich blog. This year he kicks it off with a couple questions that he poses to his readers. See his blog entry. I slightly modify his questions for...

Guy’s Truth -- Partner for Spreadsheet Reasons, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Over a decade at HP deeply instilled within me the importance of metrics. In fact it so drove the culture that people used to say “tell me how you’re measured, and I’ll tell you how you behave.” I took this...

Attention Sales VPs--Make Account Plans Count, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Sales managers ride the delicate balance of empowerment and control. That means giving sales reps plenty of latitude to make their quota numbers yet demanding reps deliver important administrative items such as pipeline reporting, forecasts, keeping the sales force automation...

Open Source: Unleveling the Playing Field, by Sridhar Ramanathan
In Thomas Friedman’s hot seller, “The World is Flat,” he writes about open-source software calling it a movement that “involves thousands of people around the world coming together online to collaborate in writing everything from their own software to their...

Blogging for Business, by Elise Bauer
Ten years ago every business leader had to have an Internet strategy. These days the question making the rounds is "Should we get a blog?" To help you answer that question for your business let's review what a blog is,...

Forecasts Are Never Right, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Most sales executives and CEOs I know rely heavily on sales forecasts as an indicator of business health. What surprises me is how often they’re surprised that sales forecasts are wrong. Forecasts are never right. The process of forecasting should...

Channel Results Come From Relationship, by Sridhar Ramanathan
We’ve all heard the rule of thumb that it costs a company typically four times as much to win a customer as it does to retain one. Very true. And the same applies to channel partnerships. I have a simple...

Unsung Heroes of Business Growth – The Field Engineer, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Every company has heroes. They are employees who go to great lengths to ensure their customer’s satisfaction and success. And in most technology companies the Field Engineer, sometimes called Systems Engineer (SE), is often the one who saves the day...

Momentum is Everything, by Sridhar Ramanathan
We’re leading the charge for the channel strategy and tactics for one of our technology clients. They intend to sell 100% of their security appliance products via the channel within 18 months, up from only 10% today sold indirect. The...

Gold Nuggets from the CMO Council Summit, by Sridhar Ramanathan
As a member of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, I was especially pleased with this year’s CMO Council Summit event in Monterey last week. I found it both useful and unique because it’s where Marketing executives share best practices...

Do You Know the “Voice” of Your Customer?, by Mike Gospe
How well do you know the business issues driving your customer’s decision process? Without this bit of strategic insight, your company’s vision may fail to take root or a well-intended product may turn out to be irrelevant or difficult to...

Is “Bell Curve” Thinking Flattening Your Channel Performance?, by Al Morgan
We’ve all grown up with the “bell curve” as the standard for measuring performance. During my 14 years at HP, performance evaluations were always “curved”, even though the vast majority of my peers were high performance, talented, and trained individuals....

Location, Location, Location - Findability on the Web, by Elise Bauer
In a retail environment, we are taught that location is everything. Foot traffic, accessibility from major roads, proximity to anchor stores all greatly contribute to in-store sales. What does a good location imply? 1) Convenience for customers to physically get...

Ensuring Liftoff for a New Business Partnership, by Al Morgan
Business alliances are critical to reaching new markets and expanding geographic reach. Every day the business news tells of major alliances forming – and yet we all know that many alliances never reach their full potential. There are some basic...

Insights for Marketers - What I learned as a Sales Rep, by Sridhar Ramanathan
I have been a high tech marketer for eighteen years, many of which were at Hewlett-Packard, and all this time I never walked in the shoes of a quota carrying sales rep. Recently I had the opportunity to do real,...

Being Smart about Competitive Intelligence, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Andy Grove said “only the paranoid survive” referring to the hyper vigilance that all businesses should have when it comes to competition. Your product marketing managers are usually the ones charged with being the keepers of competitive information. But they...

Sales and Marketing - A Sibling Rivalry or Business Partnership?, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Sometimes sibling rivalry is a good thing. It can actually push kids to carve out their identities more distinctly and to perform better. The same is true in the business world. CEOs often encourage some healthy tension to push the...

Guide to Hiring an Enterprise Software Sales Rep, by Sridhar Ramanathan
What should you look for in an outside, direct sales rep selling enterprise software/services for a complex product? Here is a cheat sheet with interview questions for screening candidates: Metrics: Tell me about your quota performance over the last five...

Guide to Hiring an Inside Sales Rep, by Sridhar Ramanathan
A good inside rep is literally worth their weight in gold. Why? They fuel the whole lead generation process which results in sales downstream. That means a 10% improvement in productivity means 10% more pipeline and 10% more revenue. Simple...

Bringing Edge to your Marketing Team, by Sridhar Ramanathan
Ask a Sales VP "did you make your quota last quarter?" and you get a "yes/no" answer. Ask a Marketing VP, "did you make your numbers last quarter?" and you get a blank look. Why is that? Most CEOs don't...

Taking Hoops Out of the Buying Process, by Sridhar Ramanathan
How hard do you make it for your customers to buy from you? One CEO participating in a customer focus group we ran told us “I don’t want to work so hard to give you my business.” She was a...

The Bottom Line in Growing Top Line, by Sridhar Ramanathan
My enterprise software clients often complain about how brutal this economy is for closing deals, or why the sales process is torturously more difficult these days. The list of selling challenges grows longer ever day—decision-makers who really aren't, risk aversion...

The Outsourcing Business - Is It Right For You?, by Sridhar Ramanathan
If you run a channel business, you're probably asking yourself, "should we get into the outsourcing business?" Gartner Group estimates that midsize business spending on IT management services will exceed $15 billion by 2006. Some of the hottest segments include:...

A Look Inside Inside Sales, by Sridhar Ramanathan
If you’re targeting the SMB, you already know that Inside Sales is one of the most efficient ways to reach your customers. But when was the last time you checked to see what’s happening in Inside Sales? All that most...

Be a Thought Leader!, by Elise Bauer
Small companies have to work hard to get visibility, especially when the market is crowded with competitors all vying for the same business. In high tech they face the added dilemma that IT departments don’t want to buy from a...

Search Engine Optimization, by Elise Bauer
Article cross-posted at Elise.com 10 Steps to Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The single most cost effective web marketing practice is to optimize your web site for search engines. What does "optimize your web site for search engines" mean? When...

Writing a Creative Brief, by Elise Bauer
Many creative marketing projects get underway without a clear sense of expectations between the marketing folks requesting the project and the creative folks delivering upon it, resulting frequently in lost time and expensive rework. A marketing brief is the best...

Proof of Concept - a Golden Opportunity, by Sridhar Ramanathan
For every adversity there's a seed of opportunity. At least that's how I see the current challenges in the high technology sector. Keith Newman's article "Get your MoFo Rising" struck a chord with me having just finished advising my client,...