Dear Customer,

I had the opportunity to attend two high profile industry events this month as both an attendee and a guest speaker and I thought I would share industry insights from both events that could make a difference in your organizations success in 2007. The first event was at Frost and Sullivan’s third annual Sales and Marketing MindXchange followed by the annual Red Herring’s CMO Conference.  I spoke on a panel at the CMO Conference on the topic of Measuring Marketing Performance.  The following summary highlights what I heard to be the top three initiatives for marketing executives- across all industries.

Revenue Growth.
Growing revenue is at the top of everyone’s list and a move to direct response programs is a priority for all marketers.  There is also a noticeable shift in spending philosophy, with companies moving from “cost containment management” to opportunity investment.  CFO’s are asking marketers the question, “What can you produce with 10% more?”
Questions such as this tell me the effort marketing has put forth over the past few years to quantify performance is translating to a positive response in requesting larger budgets.  Look for the trend in ROI justifications to evolve into more business case demonstrations.

Bridging the Sales and Marketing Gap.
Smart marketers are taking the lead on creating meaningful partnerships with their sales organizations.  Many presentations on this subject address the challenges to gain the respect of sales counterparts. Recommendations included creating customizable marketing materials as an option to achieve common goals.  For example, Nortel CMO, Lauren Flaherty, in her presentation claims, “Sales is my marketing engine.”  Lauren does all she can to deliver effective tools to both internal and external channel sales.  In development are web tools to improve sales performance; including presentation generators, direction on matching product to customer, selling tips, and references to appropriate case histories.  As part of our product roadmap, TFC is actively developing new features for our client website offering that enhance the ability for sales users to leverage dynamic content for effective selling tools-  increasing productivity and revenue potential in their territory.   

CORe User Interface Enhancements

• View Order Page now includes quantity detail for items selected. Qty ordered, Qty backordered, Ship Qty. This detail will also be included in any reports regarding order quantities.
• New Stock Replenish Report for Admin/Super Users. Report shows items where available quantity is less than or equal to the replenish point. Great for Traffic Managers scheduling print runs or identifying items for POD.

Service Updates:

• TFC expands our already stringent Security Protocol to include additional video cameras, motion sensing alarms, new loading bay doors and process to protect client interests and continue to pass the most detailed security requirements.
• New 15,000 Square foot Digital Printing and Pre- Press Room will be completed next month to support advanced Variable and Color Print Services- doubling our current print capacity.

Contact your CRM to design
your next 1:1 marketing program.