The New Solutions Marketing Skills Set — How to Develop Tomorrow's Experts Today

The New Solutions Marketing
Skill Set
How to Develop Tomorrow's Experts Today
The ISA Sales and Marketing Summit
September 2013
Presented By:
Matt Leary, Principal
Solutions Insights, Inc.

© 2013 Solutions Insights. All Rights Reserved. 2
Topics for Today
● Solutions Overview
● What’s in a Name: Solutions Marketing
● Study Results: Solutions Marketing
Competency
● Ideas to Address the (In)Competency
● Closing Thoughts

Our Clients
The Commercial: We are solutions
strategy, development, marketing and
sales experts
We help B2B companies
develop, market, and sell
integrated solutions that
deliver increased business
value. Our main areas of
focus are:
● Strategic Integration
Aligning the organization
around a solutions strategy
● Offering Distinction
Developing and launching new
and distinct solutions offerings
● Customer Connection
Deepening connections with
customers and prospects
● Sales Acceleration
Accelerating the selling process
for solutions
Our Partners

Solutions Today

Some solutions definitions…
Solutions Marketing The process of understanding,
creating, communicating, and delivering value
through the development and support of offerings
that dynamically combine core capabilities of the
company and its partners to address customers’
key business problems.
Solutions Marketer A marketing professional who
understands how to create and market solutions,
and how to support the solution selling process.
Solutions A combination of products, services, and intellectual property focused on
a specific business problem that drives measurable business value. The solutions
components can be from either the vendor and one or more partners, and the
solutions implementer can be the vendor, the partner, the customer itself, or a
combination of the three.

How important is your solutions business to the future of your company?
% of Respondents (N=121)
Solutions continues to grow in importance
Note: Mean rating based on a 5-point scale where 1=not at all important and 5=extremely important.
Source: ITSMA/SI Online Survey: Anatomy of a Solutions Marketer, February 2012
0
2
14
45
40
Not at all
important
Somewhat
important
Important
Very important
Extremely
Important
Mean
Rating =
4.2

Marketing expertise on this topic is in
demand
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Technical Marketing
Advertising
Marketing IT
Public Relations
Analyst Relations
Market Intelligence
Partner Marketing
Sales Enablement
Event Marketing
Marketing Operations
Marketing Communications
Product Marketing
Industry Marketing
Direct Marketing
Field Marketing Support
Campaign Management
Web Site Content and Development
Social Media
Solution Marketing
% of Respondents Increasing Staff
Source: IDC’s 2012 Tech Marketing Barometer Study, n=61
Q: Please indicate if investment in the following staffing categories will increase, stay the same, or decrease in 2012 as
compared to 2011.

Who is a Solutions
Marketer

Mean=2004
Solutions marketing is relatively new
to most companies
In which year did your company first introduce
the role of solutions marketer?
0.90.9
1.8
0.9
1.8
5.4
1.8
0.9
7.2
2.72.7
1.8
5.4
11.7
7.27.2
9.9
6.3
15.3
5.4
2.7
1
9
0
0
1
9
7
0
1
9
8
0
1
9
9
0
1
9
9
2
1
9
9
5
1
9
9
8
1
9
9
9
2
0
0
0
2
0
0
1
2
0
0
2
2
0
0
3
2
0
0
4
2
0
0
5
2
0
0
6
2
0
0
7
2
0
0
8
2
0
0
9
2
0
1
0
2
0
1
1
2
0
1
2

Product and services
marketer before
solutions marketing
61%
Services marketer
before solutions
marketing
23%
Product marketer
before solutions
marketing
11%
Neither product nor
services marketer
before solutions
marketing
6%
Almost two-thirds of solutions marketers
were both product and services marketers
prior to their stints in solutions.
Were you a product and/or
services marketer before a
solutions marketer?
% of Respondents
(N=119)
Source: SI/ITSMA Online Survey: Anatomy of a Solutions Marketer, February 2012
“From VP Marketing to CMO,
then President and General
Manager then CSO. The
solutions focus was a natural
outcome of trying to find ways to
bring more value to clients.”
“Moved from traditional product
marketing into services marketing
and realized the importance of
integrating the two...into solutions
marketing.”
“Started in a pure product
management role. I moved to
software applications from
automation systems where the
software applications often need to fit
particular needs. So, product
management evolved into solutions
management naturally.”

In addition, many solutions marketers are
asked to do solutions marketing in addition to
product and/or services marketing.
Marketing Responsibilities
Solutions, products, a
nd services
Primarily solutions
Solutions and products
Solutions and services

Discussion
At your tables…
1. Discuss why solutions marketers are
in such high demand in industrial
automation today
2. What is/will be different about the
role of solutions marketing vs.
product marketing in automation
– Impact of a marketer’s “heritage”
– New challenges, needs, requirements
– Etc., etc.

Assessing the
Competency of Solutions
Marketers

Our partner’s assessment…
● Firm: Imprint Learning
Solutions
● Assessment: Marketing
Readiness Diagnostic
● Over 1000 marketers
responded
● Verticals include:
– IT Solutions
– Industrial
– Life Sciences
● Approximately 250 identified as solutions
marketing – this is the data represented

Assessment focus – knowledge and
skills
● Marketing Knowledge –Do
we have the knowledge we
need
● Marketing Practices – Do we
know what to do?
Category
Rating
Below
Average
Average Target Top Tier
Knowledge
Measurement
Poor
performers
The average
score
attained in
this role
Expected
level of
knowledge
for this role
The scores
attained by
the top
performers in
this role
Development
Need
Extensive
Need
Moderate
Need
Low Need Little or No
Need

Key finding: There is a knowledge gap
30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Market Sensing
CVM & Pricing
Life Cycle
Solution
Profitability
Value Proposition
Average Target Top Tier
Score
Knowledge&SkillTopics
Competency Rating
Source: Imprint Learning Solutions LLC.

Lets talk about these scores…
Scoring
Knowledge/Skill
Topic
What’s the
Activity?
Why score
Good/Bad?
Good Value Props
Good
Solutions
Profitability
Bad
Life Cycle/Offer
Dev. & Mgmt
Bad
Customer Value
Mgmt. and Pricing
Bad Market Sensing

Key Finding: Self professed development
need is a different story!
0
1
2
3
4
Value Prop. &
Positioning
Market Sensing Life Cycle CVM & Pricing Solution Profitability
Self
Manager
Ave. Score
Below
Average
54% or less
Extensive
Need
Average
55%-62%
Moderate
Need
At
Benchmark
63%-70%
Low Need
Top Tier
>71%
Little or No
Need
Knowledge/Skill Topic
Self and Manager Assessment
of Knowledge and Skills Needs vs. Competency

Key Finding: There is misalignment between
managers/solutions marketers assessments—
and they all feel needs in the wrong areas!
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
Scores
%Alignment
Range of Scores
Solutions Marketers -- Range of Alignment Scores
70% were out of alignment

Inadvertently – we have created the
―unconsciously incompetent‖
WHY?
Two driving forces:
• Source: In general,
where do today’s
solutions marketers
come from?
• Support: And when get
to a solutions marketing
role…how are they
managed, supported?

Addressing
Unconscious
Incompetence

5 proposed antidotes to address this
condition
Support the
Role
Communicate
and Align
Find the Right
Talent
Address
Managers
Build the
Right Skills

1. Support Solutions Marketers
…not just marketers of solutions and other things
● Plug them into your:
– Market research organizations
– Offer development teams
– Customer value/success group
– Etc.
● Provide them the resources
they need:
– May have value prop templates, but do they have
customer value calculators?
– Might know how to price the piece parts, but do they have
the guidance on how to price the solution?
– Should already be experts in launching an offer, but do
they have access to the metrics to measure long term
impact?
Going Beyond

2. Manage Internal Communication/Alignment
Better
…don’t isolate solutions marketers
● Communicate the importance
of your solutions marketers
in the organization
● Articulate their role better to
marketing and sales
management
● Champion their outputs and
successes to the sales
organization
● Connect them with
customers more often
Image: www.serve-others.com

3. Groom Solutions Marketing Leaders
…don’t forget their importance
● Promote well rounded
managers, not just
―homeless‖ managers that
have been around
● Identify leaders that
understand the metrics of
solutions marketing and
sales success
● Invest in managers the
same way you invest in
new solutions marketers Image: Dilbert

4. Find Tomorrow’s Solutions Marketing Talent
…don’t just give HR the same marketing job description
with “solutions” added
● Write real job descriptions
that outline the scope of
solutions marketing
● Think differently about the
source of new solutions
marketing talent:
– Offer development/lifecylce
management
– SME’s
– Sales
– Where else?
Only general job
description
available, individual
not clear relative to
how best to meet job
demands.
62%
Individual has a
detailed job
description and/or
clearly defined tasks.
15%
Individual
has a clear job
description and is
provided with an
opportunity to
advance based on
performance. 16%
Individual has a detailed job
description, opportunity to
advance, and clear career path
opportunities.
7%
Source:©2011MarketingSherpa PersonnelBenchmarkSurvey
Methodology: Fielded November2011,N=1,646

5. Address the Knowledge and Skill Gap Today
…by developing the profession!

● Customer and
market assessment
● Solution development
and pricing
● Thought leadership development and
implementation
● Sales process and system evaluation and
redesign
● Customer value measurement and
referral/reference management
5. Address the Knowledge and Skill Gap Today
Key Solutions Marketing Competency Areas (continued)

We need your help to expand the
assessment…
● We are working with our partner Imprint
Learning Solutions to expanding the MRD
tool to be more specific, probing, hopefully
to produce even more interesting results
● We need top marketers to take the
assessment
● You will have input, get detailed results and
actionable recommendations
Please join us!

Closing thoughts…
● There’s no fighting it – solutions are becoming crucial
to our success
● Solutions marketers are newer to their roles, and come
from diverse, often non-solutions backgrounds
● Because of their history—and because the organization
might not be ready—they are less prepared and poorly
supported
● What might help:
– Provide tools and support they actually need
– Be proactive and help them communicate/collaborate
– Don’t forget managers
– When looking for new talent, broaden your horizon
– Invest in the skills and knowledge that matter
● And lastly…help us explore the topic more!

Questions?

Thank You!
Matt Leary – mleary@solutionsinsights.com

The New Solutions Marketing Skills Set — How to Develop Tomorrow's Experts Today

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