For corporate consulting, commercial real estate, business technology and financial services firms especially, looking and sounding the part are essential.
Organizations ahead of the curve know that product knowledge, while fundamental, does not cut it. Salespersons and marketing departments communicate better by stay abreast of industry happenings and challenges of their prospects.
Deborah Elias plans and facilitates promotional events and conferences at the highest level for Fortune 1000 organizations on three continents.
“My corporate clients like Delta Airlines and American Express invest large sums in events and promotions to introduce new products and strategies.
Clarity and brevity are essential in successful marketing programming. Explaining what, why, how,” comments the Houston-based corporate event planner Elias, “then a closing re-cap paraphrasing everything holds their attention and drives the advertiser’s main brand message home.”
Short case study: communicating complex info to highly-trained professionals
Boron LePore was a NASDAQ-traded leader in continuing medical education marketing before its acquisition by Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) in 2002. Talk about straightforward, sophisticated and scientific marketing programming at its finest.
The demand generation funneling and promotional campaigns were straightforward: participants (internists, endocrinologists, cardiologists, their staff, nurses, et cetera) interested in securing credible information while having the opportunity to interface with credentialed colleagues from around the country. They are hosted by a Boron LePore moderator together with a subject-matter expert; usually an attending physician at a prestigious medical center like Johns Hopkins.
Ronnie Lengle, Founder and Principal of Alpha Omega Professional Coaching, was Assistant Vice President of Moderator Operations at Boron LePore representing among the biggest biotechnology advertisers in the world such as Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.
“We were exceptional at delivering a timely program and providing participants the opportunity to review and discuss relevant clinical data. Given the myriad of treatment regimens, participants valued the content and format of our programs over the infomercials provided by visiting pharmaceutical representatives,” says Ms. Lengle, who delivers leadership training programs and meeting facilitation for government agencies like the U.S. Department of Transportation and Office of the Inspector General in Washington.
“Moderators were skilled at facilitating a discussion highlighting the benefits and fleshing out perceived misunderstandings. And perhaps the most valuable element of the format was questions and answers,” she reflects. I really believe experienced physicians respected that aspect of our marketing programming.”
Relying on web sites and poorly-trained sales reps to “wing-it” leaves an operation vulnerable.
And this is why certain industries such as recruitment / staffing, financial services and real estate brokerage are notorious for 70-plus percent turnover rate within six months for new hires.
Perhaps the following template presents an efficient marketing and advertising platform – courtesy of how best-in-class specialty marketing and promotional companies do so for huge pharmaceutical advertisers and their eight-figure budgets.
Thank you for talking with us. We are talking about XYZ product. It can deliver ABC benefits to your sick patient. Its efficacy has been tested in labs and approved by the FDA. It costs roughly X dollars. Who has specific technical questions our credentialed guest may answer? If you’d like to order XYZ, call 555-whatever. Thank you and good night.
Subject matter intelligence, brevity, clarity, legitimate reasoning, silence - in that order – beat making noise and throwing money at projects.