Today’s Summit proceedings included a full day of presentations on B2B sales, marketing and product strategies and best practices, including the following sessions:
The day’s first speaker was Joe Levin, head of sales enablement and site experience for technology solution provider CDW, which won a Return on Integration Honor in recognition of Levin’s efforts to optimize sales enablement strategies and capabilities throughout his organization. The benefits of the CDW initiative included a reduction in content inventory of more than 93 percent, the elimination of redundant sales portals, a reduction in the time required to find content from days to minutes, and 10 percent higher order volume.
Next up were SiriusDecisions’ Jim Ninivaggi and Mark Levinson, who introduced a new model, the SiriusDecisions Sales Activity Framework, which analyzes sales activities in terms of their productivity, and enables organizations to apply a systematic approach to improving sales efficiency and effectiveness.
The next session also introduced a major new model, the SiriusDecisions Content Model. Fully 60 to 70 percent of content churned out by B2B marketing departments today sits unused. This stark statistic underscores the urgent need for a content revolution in B2B organizations. The new content model, introduced today by SiriusDecisions Marisa Kopec and Erin Estep, is designed to help companies launch such a revolution.
Next on the main stage was ROI Honor winner Siemens PLM Software, a provider of product lifecycle management software. Siemens was represented by David Taylor, Vice President of Global Marketing; Chris Kelley, Senior Director of Online Marketing and Customer Advocacy; and Jeff Nercesian, Senior Director of Campaign and Content Strategy. Each member of the team described his role aligning their campaign framework with their business unit revenue goals.
After a break for lunch, Summit attendees had their choice of six afternoon breakout tracks of four sessions apiece, covering key topics in the areas of B2B communications, the demand waterfall, sales productivity, the future state of sales and marketing, bringing product functions into the sales/marketing alignment fold, and maximizing value from the B2B channel.
To cap off a busy day of learning, the Summit crowd will visit the USS Midway for a tour of the historic aircraft carrier, dinner and entertainment.
