Business services are no different. Whether it’s rapid growth or market uncertainty that’s fuelling concern about resource and headcount, having reliable, knowledgeable staff you can flex according to demand is increasingly becoming an attractive and viable choice.
In the IT & Security market, it’s is a no-brainer. Many of channel businesses offer out their managed services to their enterprise customers, understand the principle and know it works.
Now, with remote working the norm, teams aren’t all in one place anyway so the usual concerns – no matter how real - about “managing outsourced staff” no longer applies.
No matter what size the organisation, hiring is by no means the ‘ideal’ scenario for all businesses and getting the right person at the wrong time can be costly and counter-productive.
Here are some of our thoughts and insights on how Market Activation™ works for supporting teams and delivering growth
Plugging skills gaps and/or working alongside existing resource
If you’re a small, growing business then the likelihood is one of the management team is nominally responsible for marketing. However, the reality is – especially if that person is customer-facing –attention to detail can take a back seat and you’re not going to see the full value of marketing delivering a proper return on investment.
Supporting Teams
If you do have a team – how stretched are they and where are they located? You may not need someone else full time, but need an extra pair of hands at times of peak loads or to represent you in the region to act as part of your extended team.
Specialist Skills
Perhaps you need specialist help from time to time that doesn’t warrant extra headcount – such as systems support (automation platforms), content writing, campaign development, lead nurture programmes, strategic thinking/planning, brand development, PR, the list is endless.
Savvy budgeting – pay only for what you need
What you get are skills, expertise and experience for a fixed monthly fee. This can be as little as a day a week, or full-time hours. You get the benefit of combining what you’d pay in annual salary with any marketing budget you allocate to growing sales to get a bigger bang for your bucks with a plan geared to deliver results.
What you won’t be paying for are
- Recruitment fees
- Overheads: Office space, IT equipment, HR services
- Salary + Benefits packages
- Sick leave/annual leave/maternity or paternity leave/bank holidays
- Slow times such as Christmas and Summer breaks – just scale it back if needed
Market Activation™ at work
We don’t consider ourselves to be detached from your business. We take responsibility for our role and think, act, behave as you’d expect any other member of the team.
Yes, there are plenty of body shops out there who specialise in individual aspects of the marketing mix – PR, Digital Marketing, Brand, Web Design, Copywriting, Events Management, Product Launches, Consultancy and so on, but we know from experience they rarely properly integrate with the business and offer a project-based “hands-off” approach.
Our dedicated Virtual Marketing Managers (VMM) offer a single point of contact taking ownership for project advice, planning, execution and deliverables, whilst calling on the resources of a “back office” team for support when needed, all for a fixed monthly fee based on what’s needed.
Great results are attained because the VMM fully integrates with the client’s team so they think/behave as if they’re employed headcount. There are no skillset gaps because there’s a whole team of support that can be turned up and down on demand.
IT Channel Expertise
Engage an agency or individual freelancers who need an extensive brief or hand-holding and you open yourself up to a world of pain, not to mention lacklustre results. We know the IT Channel inside out having worked with multiple vendor technologies, in the distribution space, and reseller environments.
- We understand your tech. We understand your challenges. We’ll also discover quickly what is and isn’t working with your current marketing set up and put in place a plan that will use marketing to grow sales.
- We’ll do what we say we’ll do. Just like your sales team, we know that we’re only as good as our last job. The relationships we form become our new clients in the future. If we don’t perform or leave our client with a sense of disappointment, then word gets around pretty fast and we damage our chances of future work.
- We work from home and/or your office. We’re entirely flexible about where we work and regularly do both for clients. If you’re a small business and don’t have space, we can work from home and meet you regularly. Or, if you do, then we are happy to work from the office and get to know your team better. We also regularly work with offshore head office teams with limited regional resource and become an extension of their team.
- We don’t moan or do office politics. This may seem like a minor point but is a huge relief to a lot of our clients. Work is tough enough as it is without water-cooler politics. Our clients appreciate a positive attitude and can-do spirit which helps them achieve their goals.
- We’ll help you test and experiment. If you think that ultimately you want an internal resource, we can help you find the level at which to recruit. Do you need a strategist or a hands-on individual? Do you need someone detailed and methodical, or someone who can juggle many balls at the same time? By working with us, even for a short period, it can help you see the wood from the trees and make the right choice.
- If we don’t think we can do it, we’ll say. If we don’t feel we have the experience you need, then we won’t take the assignment. If we think we have a contact better suited to the role, then we’d rather give you them as a contact than do a bad job for you. However, we have very talented individuals that can turn their hands to pretty much any marketing task and deliver you results.
