Crafting an Event Story...
We've talked a lot about how to "tell a story" and not just "give a presentation" in your event.
As you know, the next evolution of Synergy events (starting in March) will be focused on the challnges that organizations face when it comes to Communication and Collaboration. It's a 201 to the Office/Vista/Exchange 101 launch.
Wanted to share with you the "storyboard" for how our team is going to tell a compelling story in these events to:
- build awareness of solution capability
- stimulate demand for additional products (SQL, Windows Server, SharePoint, Groove, etc.)
- engage customers emotionally
It's a working draft, but I think you'll get the idea....
Vision Document-1st cut
Part 1-the story
Our customers are sophisticated people that take their businesses seriously. It is important to them to provide superior customer service as they are mostly in services business and that is one of the few, key differentitators.
They serve a clientele that is far flung around the world and heavily dependent on technology. They expect the right answer quickly.
Our story to the customer might begin with a sales rep out on the road who is on his way to a meeting. He might check his email through OVA on the way. As he approaches the meeting, he hits traffic and uses OVA to notify everyone that he will be late. In the meeting, the client might ask for some up to date account of the project status, on KPI’s such as budget, on-time, etc. The rep might use OWA via SPS to pull up a view of Excel Services w/conditional formatting, of course, to quickly give the answers to the customers and together, in real time, they will drill down on the red and yellow lights, so they can have a meaningful conversation about the project instead of scrambling for data.
The rep has it all at his fingertips. He pulls up previous emails and phone calls w/in a CRM interface and explains how, w/unified messaging, all of the data for the client’s account now sits in one place. Emails, phone calls, data, etc. He spends less time looking for data and more time analyzing/acting on it.
{remember, these guys are pre-disposed to CRM, office, and exchange}
The customer sees that he hasn’t VPN’d in and expresses some concern about security. The rep allays these concerns. First, he says, “you know, everyone asks that, so I got the story from the IT guys.” Then he answers by talking about the new email server, the Forefront security, System Center, and ISA. You can even throw in the remote mobile wipe feature here.
He drives home the point that his company invests in security b/c safeguarding their clients info is one of the most important drivers of customer sat (he might even pull up his own scorecard at that point to help drive home the BI message and show how he drills into problems in his own companys-BSM/PerfPoint/ProClarity, etc.)
Finally, he shows how w/a few clicks, the data from CRM and/or Excel goes right into Word and/or PowerPoint and after a little SmartArt action, he has those dazzling reports that the client gets every week/month, whatever.
Part 2-Technology deep dive
Then, I’d take apart the scenario and explain HOW each one works; what’s required for implementation, and the new features of each product, how it fits together, and satisfy the IT Pro’s desire to understand.
Comments
- Anonymous
February 26, 2007
I might slide in another part in-between the current part 1 and 2 with a succinct list of the parts, the intial and ongoing cost and the time to implement and maintain. As a business user I always want to understand the cost, time, and demand on my resources and this type of information is rarely provided succinctly and usally requires to set up a sales call which adds more time and delay. Just give me a ballpark of each of these key pieces now for your sample scenario and I understand how it might vary depending on the specifics of my situation.