023: How IT Solution Providers Use Marketing Content to Speed Up Sales Cycles

Outcome Studio Podcast - Marketing & B2B Technology Talk

Why should IT solution providers and manufacturers invest in content specific for buyers or verticals, even if it's a core piece of content once a quarter? In the world of IT, solution providers have access to partner portals with great content.

However, when the content is blanket and generic, is the content actually valuable to the customer? Do buyers "glaze over" it? In this episode, Greg Hammer, Director of Agency Services at IMS360 walks us through why a Field Marketer or a Solution provider would want to customize content. We also discuss positioning solutions and integrations with other tech (versus selling single technologies) and how to get sales team adoption.

Show highlights:

• 02:30 - Greg Hammer, Director of Agency Services at IMS360. He has a background in coding/ marketing undergrad/ MBA, and now gets to be both technical and do content for the IT Channel. Greg even worked a job in Yellowpages sales early in his career and has seen the marketing industry transform.
• 06:00 - Definitions for the IT Channel. OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), Resellers, and Distributors.
• 08:00 - Resellers do solution selling and sometimes partner portal content is too blanket. Manufacturers therefore are starting to enable resellers to start "customizing" content.
• 15:00 - How are we defining content? (e.g. a PowerPoint, versus video, versus email) Content for loyalty/ existing customers, versus new customers.
• 19:00 - Content formats vary, but it always needs to support sales cycle and buyers journey. Best practices working with an agency.
• 22:00 - Content can be a bad investment if it's not distributed. Marketing is both art and science.
• 25:00 - Ways to think about distribution.
• 29:00 - Account-Based Marketing and Persona Development for content.
• 33:00 - Example of how video content helped a reseller tell an in-depth story of a complex solution with one effective piece of content. They built awareness and used it for follow-up with the buyers after sales meetings.
• 37:00 - Parting words.