VMworld starts next week and it promises to be an exciting time for all involved (14,000 attendees and 200+ sponsors). For me, however, there is an even greater level of anticipation. This is the first show that I have had my hands on from start to finish at PERFMAN. Of course, the show was booked prior to my arrival, but everything else, from messaging and booth design through the PR and finally, the give away was all led by me.
This is not bragging as there are many things that could have been done better, faster, differently. But, it is momentous in the fact that this is the first effort from start to finish that was shepherded by the new team. And, we are very excited about the new messaging, the PR, the product, the team, etc.
It should be a very exciting time for us. After all, this is not only a major trade show for PERFMAN, but in many ways this is a "coming out" party. Strange to say that for a 20 year-old company, but there has been "virtually" (pun intended) no marketing here for many years.
Just the process of putting a foundation together took much longer than I expected. Of course, I did not expect to have to start completely from scratch!
And when I say scratch, I mean it. Yes, there are a few white papers and the customer list is long and impressive no matter the size of the company, but the basics were not in place.
Some of the things accomplished in preparation for this launch include:
- New messaging and supporting documents
- New PR team hired (Prequent Rocks!)
- New lead flow processes defined and implemented
- New lead tracking software implemented
- New web site deployed with tracking capabilities
- New corporate identity and supporting style guide
- New collateral to support the sales process
- New lead generation activities started
- New customer newsletter implemented
- New sales team hired and trained
- New sales engineering team hired and trained
- New advertising campaign in place
- Introduction and briefing with a dozen analysts
- New corporate apparel
And, yet there is so much more to do...
If I don't get a chance to blog again before the show, I will see you there. Come up and say hi!
PERFMAN will be in Booth 853!
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