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1. TMC LABS AWARD'The Crown Jewel Of Tech Awards In CRM And Contact Centers
2. Some Teleservices Companies Report 'Sold Out' Situations
3. The ICCM Show: A Business Perspective
This fifth-annual TMC Labs
Innovation Awards program gives me the unique honor of congratulating all of
the winners mentioned in this issue, as well as those that will be published
in the October issue. (See details on pages 58.)
The TMC Labs Innovation Awards were created to honor products that help
carve a new market niche or start a new trend. The awards also recognize
products that stand apart from their competitors due to one or more unique
and innovative features. This is the fifth-annual installment of the TMC
Labs Innovation Awards for Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine.
The power of the TMC Labs Innovation Awards actually goes far beyond the
contact center, CRM and teleservices industries. The winners are certainly
the cream of the crop in their fields of endeavor and provide new directions
for all of the industries served.
In today's super-competitive business environment, survival of the fittest
is often reduced to third-party endorsements. Savvy marketers know that
beyond such crucial criteria as quality, value, CRM, price, services, etc.,
which practically every vendor claims, it is vitally important to rely on
third-party endorsements to differentiate themselves from the crowd!
A coveted award can be the most powerful tool for differentiation by far,
provided that a) it is bestowed from a reputable industry-leading source and
b) it is marketed effectively.
Having said that, the most effective way to differentiate your company is
through award marketing. In the case of the TMC Labs Innovation Awards, the
standards for offering the awards are so high that chances are many of your
competitors may not have such a powerful marketing tool at their disposal.
Consequently, you would be able to differentiate yourself with a powerful
positioning statement, namely, having a unique, competitive advantage. In
business today, third-party endorsement is everything when it comes to
effective marketing. Sure, every salesperson claims his or her product is
the best, but what separates the average from the superior is a prestigious
award such as a TMC Labs Innovation Award, which literally makes the
difference between success and failure in any marketing program.
To help you maximize the impact of your award logo, we've compiled a quick
list of potential uses. Be sure to co-locate your company logo or product
logo with the award logo and use them on:
' Your company's Web site;
' All advertisements;
' Direct mail fliers & brochures;
' Business cards;
' Company letterhead & envelopes;
' Fax cover sheets;
' Incentives & gifts, such as: pens/pencils, clocks/watches, executive folders,
desk accessories, balloons, luggage tags, mugs, key chains, notepads, t-shirts,
tote bags, ties, napkins, calculators, etc. on anything and everything you
can imagine!
Some Guidelines For Effective
Use Of Award Logos
Following are some ideas on how to market your awards efficiently, to gain
NEW customers and increase market share:
1. Develop a powerful, benefit-driven overall corporate concept and strategy
for marketing and promotion.
2. Develop a consistent and cohesive marketing plan in which every part of
the plan delivers EXACTLY the SAME MESSAGE.
3. Saturate the print, broadcast and online media with a powerful news
release in which the importance of the award is clearly defined. Elaborate
on the authoritative position of the source.
4. Make sure your press release is original and doesn't use copycat,
me-too-style wording that turns off every editor.
5. Develop ads that are benefit- and response-driven where your award logo
is LARGE (i.e., one-square-inch size at a minimum) and prominently
displayed.
6. Define the meaning of the award, and use it with your company and product
logo everywhere.
7. Use integrated marketing, and prominently display your award logo on the
Web, in brochures, at trade shows, on stationery, in outbound and inbound
marketing and on specialty promotional items (i.e., mugs, golf shirts, etc.)
along with your company name.
8. Use your award logo and your company name in each and every
correspondence that leaves your company.
9. Be sure you place the award adjacent to your company name on your Web
site.
10. Use your award logo in press conferences and at all board and user group
presentations such as keynotes and seminar presentations. Use it in analyst
meetings and any and all presentations and communications with Wall Street.
11. Always use your award logo EXTRA LARGE in full color. Small logos have
no value.
12. Be proud of your achievement and say: Our award says it all! ' From the
industry's No. 1 magazine, called 'The Bible of the Industry!' by the Wall
Street Journal.
13. Last, but not least, rent a targeted e-mail list or direct mail list and
send frequent messages to your target audience to inform them about the
award and the fact that you are an industry leader in your field. You may
obtain such lists from L.I.S.T., Inc. Contact Marc Negri at 516-358-5478,
ext. 104 ([email protected]) for
more information.
2. Some Teleservices Companies Report 'Sold Out' Situations
As you may know, this publication has been covering the teleservices
outsourcing industry for the last 20 years. By featuring such prestigious
awards as the Top 50 Outbound, Top 50 Inbound, MVP Quality and Rising Stars
programs, Customer Inter@ction Solutions' has pioneered the promotion and
marketing of one of the most respected sectors of the call center, contact
center and CRM industries, which is that of teleservices companies. Having
recognized the importance of contributions made by the teleservices
industry, we created these awards to bring to them a worthy appreciation by
Corporate America. Today, many of the Fortune 1000 as well as smaller and
mid-sized companies are outsourcing teleservices to such companies, and as
far as we can determine, the performance of the teleservices companies, in
general, has never been better.
In the midst of the national focus on off-shore outsourcing and continuous
and relentless attacks by Lou Dobbs of CNN and Senator and Presidential
candidate John Kerry, against off-shore outsourcing, it is refreshing to
know that not only are off-shore outsourcers doing well, but also some
domestic companies are enjoying record sales and profits to a point where
some of them cannot even accept new customers at the moment. Obviously, the
more challenging and sophisticated applications have helped to grow domestic
business for teleservices companies, and less-demanding applications are
successfully being managed by off-shore companies. We consider this a fair
assessment of distribution of workload. If your company does not have the
manpower, savvy or whatever it takes to maintain a call center, CRM and
other related functions within your company, may I suggest that you give
serious consideration to several of the teleservices companies you will find
in this issue.
3. ICCM Show ' A Business Perspective
The latest ICCM show, which was held early in August 2004 at Chicago's Navy
Pier, was unique in different ways. First, even though the size of the show
was smaller than in prior years, I felt the traffic was steady, at least
during the first day, and acceptable to slow the second day. Perhaps what
was more important was the fact that in this show, there was a certain buzz
going on, namely, people were conducting business. Indeed, several
exhibitors reflected satisfaction with the business contacts they made at
this show, and while they expected higher traffic, they felt the quality of
the attendees was high enough.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You For Your Kind Remarks
While attending the show and without any solicitations whatsoever, more than
100 people came to me and explained how much they respect Customer Inter@ction
Solutions. I often was told, 'I read it cover to cover and cherished all
articles and I have kept every issue since the 1980s.' One attendee told me,
'I loved your July 2004 editorial. It was to the point, powerful and told it
like it is. Please keep up this kind of writing. We love to receive the
magazine.' Another visitor stated, 'Every magazine I receive, I start
reading from a certain part of it. For CIS, I begin reading from your
editorial, and I enjoy it all the time.'
Obviously, the more compliments I heard, the more I could not do any
constructive work (particularly because I was expecting to receive at least
some constructive criticism, but fortunately it never came about)! So the
compliments continued. One morning at breakfast, an editor from a competing
media company passed by me and stated, 'I loved your July editorial. Keep it
coming. I look forward to reading it.' Shortly thereafter, a highly
respected industry analyst stopped me in the middle of the aisle and said,
'I enjoy your editorial. Please keep it coming.' Believe it or not, this
type of from-the-heart accolades kept coming to me nonstop the entire time.
And with each compliment of our editorial quality (for which I am enormously
grateful to not only CIS's editorial staff, but also all of the TMC
editors), I became more and more useless because the level of excitement
made me feel as if I was enjoying the wildest dream of my life. I was not
expecting this. Then, I thought, what have I really done to deserve all of
these compliments? I finally got a copy of the July issue, and I started
re-reading the editorial to see what I had done to deserve such excitement.
I guess the only conclusion I could arrive at was that I was just being
myself and telling it like it is!
One Young Lady Beat Everyone's Comments!!!
While I was walking with one of my associates in one of the aisles in the
middle of the show floor, a charming young lady came to me, embraced me and
said, 'Here's the man who started it all!' I asked her what she meant. She
said, 'I may look young, but I attended your first TBT (Telemarketing &
Business Telecommunications) show in Atlanta in 1984. As you know, the
industry practically didn't exist as we know it today, and we know you had a
lot to do with it.'
When I was humbled by being inducted into the Hall of Fame by the American
Teleservices Association last year, Tim Searcy, the Executive Director of
ATA, asked me, upon bestowing the award to me, 'If you had to start all over
again, what would you have done differently?' I answered by saying, 'I would
have done everything precisely the way I have done it so far.' And, frankly,
given the above unbelievable comments, I would still do it exactly the same
way, and I wouldn't change anything. And thank you, thank you, thank you
again for your kind words and your support.
As always, I welcome your comments. Please e-mail them to me at
[email protected]
Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
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