Most days, the typical vSA client does not wake up thinking about marketing. vSA provides business-to-business (B2B) launch marketing, and our client is very often the VP of engineering or sales, a divisional manager, a product development guru, or perhaps the company president or CEO. The marketing role is a "bonus." And, in virtually every case (including when we deal with a full-time marketing executive) the vSA client is very, very busy.
Please note, we are not talking about the kind of "busy" where someone dashes about, creating a flurry of activity. No, we're referring to the productive person who travels weekly to work with multiple, distant customers; or who develops or reviews important engineering specs or new product prototypes; or answers daily to a board or parent company; or must assure a sales team meets its revenue numbers. (Sometimes this is "and" rather than "or.")
So, vSA deals with the exceptionally busy client, which means we play a role we truly relish. Often, vSA provides all the outside marketing for the company. Our client relies on us – trusts us – to meet important business goals, on time, on budget, and in a manner that makes the client company (and our client contact) shine.
Specifically, vSA must...
-Provide smart strategy and program implementation... as independently as warranted
-Assure very proactive forward movement on marketing, even when our client is devoting the lions' share of her time to other matters
-Do our homework, so that the questions we ask and the information we need isn't something we could have learned online or in the public record
-Ping the client efficiently for real needs – specific information, approvals at key junctures, etc.
-Keep the client in the loop when successes happen or milestones are achieved
-Alert the client for any challenges that require his attention, preferably also providing recommended solutions
-Supply the client with new opportunities and optimized ways to achieve business goals
-Meet and exceed the client's needs
B2B marketing – from launch marketing to social, media relations to inbound, and especially complex integrated programs – is a tremendous boon for the exceptionally busy client, assuming that client has a marketing partner who cares and knows how to make the right things happen. We do that.
Illustration © 2002 van Schouwen Associates, LLC, by Steve van Schouwen.
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