Kicking Off Events – Day One – High Tech Business Growth

We’re kicking off day one of the Event Marketing workshop today…I’ve completed my new book:

Event Marketing, 7 Steps to Profitability Using Lunch & Learns and Sales Events,

and last night I was finishing up some slideware to be used in today’s opening session. If you have not signed up – there is still time…here’s the link:

http://7secretsmktg.eventbrite.com/

The Importance of this Workshop

If you don’t have someone from your company attending, you should. This information is vital…looking over the past decade of channels, technology sales, and reseller/vendor partnerships, I see a steady decline in the support given to the channel. I am not saying there is a lack of effort. There’s a disconnect between marketing, both within the reseller itself, and the channel marketing groups working with resellers. A misunderstanding of how the reseller business works. No wonder JMF is so hard to come by. Well at least for some – it hasn’t really produced any ROI.

Some Companies Get All the Funding

On the flip side, I was up north working with a reseller a little over a week ago. They told me they constantly get asked to put on events and attend trade shows by their vendor partners. The problem is, they don’t see any results! So they are getting more money, but no return. After looking at the programs their partners are telling them to put on, we discovered why. The approach is all wrong.

Some Get Nothing

Working with another reseller earlier in the year, they struggled to get funding. They have the right idea, but their partners don’t understand it.

If we can get this message out, things can change. At the end of the day, we’re all looking for a return on investment. The reseller doesn’t have time to waste on making calls, setting up events, attending trades shows, etc. unless there is a measurable ROI. The vendor doesn’t have money to throw away – their business depends on stronger channel sales. We can fix this if we get everyone on board with the right approach, calling on the right people with the right message. My hope today is that we’ll make some big progress in that direction with the select group attending this workshop. Success in 2013 depends on it.