Big company, complex IT structure, stressed IT manager – what happens when he or she wants a day out of the office just to have fun, and learn something new in the same time?

If you, as an IT services provider are there to offer them the kind of professional stimulation  and relaxed atmosphere they need, all combined in an original event, the awareness you generate for your own solutions might bring sales leads, and even contracts. Best way to get to know IT people who are decision makers in their companies is to challenge them to interactive seminars where they can prove their skills and acquire additional ones.

What you need most of all to organize such an event :

• a well-known trainer in the industry of Service Management for example (most major companies have contact centers or client service departments)
• a good catchy story-line. An airport simulation is always a good idea, as it simulates a complex environment with multiple isses to tackle
• a good set of professional benefits to offer to participants, such as the possibility to develop their IT-business relationship understanding skills
• professional logistics (meeting hall, technical equipment, printed materials)

Benefits for your company, as an organizer:

• you increase your own awareness as a provider of IT services
• you get interesting network opportunities
• you have the possibility to acquire qualified leads
• ultimately, the leads you acquired have a very strong chance to turn into contracts

Can your company perform all the research, analysis, strategy, planning and management, advertising, public relations, direct marketing, internal communications, Web marketing, media buying and printing activities required by the marketing strategy in house, with reasonable costs and visible results? Does your company even have a marketing strategy developed by a professional?

I know that the marketing jargon can be a little bit confusing for professionals outside the marketing field, that is why we have put together a white paper explaining in detail why outsourcing the marketing department is a much better option than keeping operations in house: http://www.nnc-services.com/white-papers.html . I would really appreciate your professional opinion on this topic!

If you want to win the marketing game, here’s a tip: focus on closing the sale not getting the lead. One of the challenges with Internet marketing today is that sometimes it gets so many leads, most companies don’t have the resources to follow-up. So if you do have leads, you want to make the most of them, and follow them through. A B2B survey is a tool that can help you do that.

Using surveys in your lead generation process can get you quite a few benefits:

• Qualified leads
• Personalized future contact with that lead
• Correct identification of your target market’s decision makers

Also, you have the opportunity to collect important information about your product’s market and the people you’re trying to sell to. To be more precise, by using a B2B survey you can:

1. Identify the needs of your target audience

Find out what their problems are in regarding to your field of activity and propose a list of general solutions your company has, that might resolve their issues. Ask them to select the one they find more appropriate to help them overcome their challenge.

2. Effectively size your solution

After identifying what is the solution your prospect needs you have to determine the size he needs it in. You should try to find out the timeframe he or she wants the solutions to be implemented in, or the number of users his company would provide. This helps you with qualifying and prioritizing leads.

3. Collect contact information

This includes direct contact information, as well as indirect contact. You are interested in getting more personal contact information, but he’s not the only one you’re interested in. You also want to know what he reads, where he searches for information and how they research for products or services.

A useful piece of advice would be to conduct your survey online. You are guaranteed to get a higher response rate, as it takes a lot less effort to complete an online survey.

If the survey is conducted efficiently, a very important benefit is that you can use the information given to you to establish further communication with your perspective clients. Personal contact is easier, after the initial was made. You can use this opportunity to better introduce your services or products and finally close the deal. And if you don’t succeed at this, you’ve gathered important information regarding your target market, so you win either way.

According to Gartner, the IT consulting company, the competition between IT outsourcing companies will continue to raise until 2010, making it that more difficult for them to aquire new clients. In these times of recesion, when the demand for IT outsourcing services is also increasing, the Romanian companies in the field have the chance to conquer some interesting markets. in order to do so, they have to separate themselves from other suppliers, with cheaper solutions but lower quality services.

Read further Gerard Szatvanyi’s – CEO at OSF Global Services – statement regarding this issue and some practical solutions for reaching potential clients: http://www.newad.ro/companii-romanesti-outsourcing.html

According to an eMarketeer forecast, advertising through social media sites will drop by aproximately 3%.  Advertising on MySpace and Facebook will drop even more.

Well, I suppose this is to be expected. Even though social media budgets aren’t that big, they are still included in this economical recession. We can only guess the budget for social media advertising wasn’t the only cut back these companies made.

Here is a more detailed article on this: http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090713/FREE/907139971/1404/dailynewsarchive