Vendor Success Checklist 2009

Maximize the return on your vendor membership investment

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TA Vendor Success Checklist 2009TA vendor members should use this checklist to ensure they take maximum advantage of all 2009 paid vendor membership benefits.

How to use this checklist

Below is a list of the 2009 primary paid TA vendor membership benefits, a brief explanation of each benefit and a checklist of items to ensure you get the most from each benefit.

1. Permission based email marketing review
2.. Vendor directory listings
3. Annual "Members Choice" Awards Campaigning
4. Vendor testimonial postings
5. Actively participate in TA webinars and other "content events"
6. Access available channel partner prospecting lists
7. TA customized program consulting

If you have questions about any of the checklist items please contact Kathleen Brown at 951-296-3870 or Dan Baldwin at 951-251-5155.

1. Permission based email marketing review

TA creates an email list for each vendor from TA complimentary members who wish to receive email marketing messages from TA vendor members. Vendors may send email marketing messages to their TA maintained list via TA up to once per week. To ensure the highest "open" and "click-through" rates for email marketing messages sent to their list, vendor members should double check the following:


Concise Subject Line

The value proposition in the email marketing message must be distilled down to just seven to ten words. Effective subject lines include your product or solution "search terms" like "colocation" or "web conferencing" as well as some numeric measure like "25% off" or "ranked 2 out of 10". The subject line must invoke curiosity. Do not use your company name in your subject line as it is already included in the "From".


Measureable Call to Action ("CTA")

To be able to measure success your email marketing message must instruct the recipient to do something measurable that is easy to do and seems innocuous. The best CTA is "click here" to access some premium like downloading a white paper or viewing a tantalizing survey result. clicks can be counted and because all email marketing messages are sent to a registered audience, TA can provide you the name & phone numbers of anyone who clicks any link in the email.


Content Matches Subject Line

It should go without saying that the content of your email marketing message should deliver on the curiosity that your subject line generated to get the recipient to open the email marketing message. If it does not the recipient may quickly unsubscribe from your list.


Content is Fresh, Tantalizing or Offers an Immediate Premium

If you send the same email marketing message over and over the recipient will assume you have nothing else to say and unsubscribe. "Fresh" content suggests you have something new or updated to say like "New Product Roll-Out". "Tantalizing" content often answers a question like, "How to Beat a Lower Priced Bid". "Immediate Premium" content offers something of value in exchange for a click like, "Click here to download 10 best telemarketing pitches". Have an annual calendar of content to put out over the year or at least four to six different email messages to rotate with the different messages highlighting your individual service differentiators or case studies.


Transfer Respondents to Your Own Prospecting List

The whole idea behind TA's email list is to have you prospect in it until the members of that list "raise their hand" indicating they have interest in your product and service. When they reveal themselves to you you need to transfer them to your own in-house prospect list to follow up with them until they "buy" or say "no". TA's job is to constantly add new names to the big TA membership list for the vendor to "fish" in.


2. Vendor directory listings

TA is constantly refining the categories and sub-categories of its vendor directories.


Confirm vendor directory listings are correct

Check that listing is correct under all categories and that new major or minor categories are suggested to TA as are appropriate to the evolving industry.


Confirm vendor's "TA index" page is correct

The vendor name on any directory links to the TA index page that TA creates for the vendor. Double check that all information on this page is correct and that it presents the vendor properly.


3. Annual "Members Choice" Awards campaigning

From November through February every year TA conducts nominations and balloting for it's annual "Members Choice" awards. These awards distinguish the best performing vendors in all vendor categories and sub-categories.


Confirm that vendor has been nominated into proper categories

The categories of the "Members Choice" awards are the same as the vendor directory. Be sure that one of your distributors goes to www.TAvote.com and follows the directions to vote you into the appropriate categories. Voting closes at the end of February and annual Members Choice winners and runners up in each category are announced at Virgo's Spring "Channel Partners" trade show in Las Vegas.


"Get out the vote"

It's easy to get nominated but it's hard to win. TA really inspects every vote per the voting procedures posted at www.TAvote.com. Contact all your agents and distributors and ask them to go to www.TAvote.com and vote for you.


4. Vendor testimonial postings

After the "Members Choice" voting is done in February, TA will continue to keep track of and report on which vendors are doing the best jobs for their customers and agents as measured by the number of testimonials submitted to TA per the instructions published at www.TAtestimonial.com. New testimonials and links to previously submitted testimonials will be published weekly on TA's weekly email newsletter.


Solicit agent managers to secure agents testimonials

Ask agents and customers to submit testimonials via the instructions posted at www.TAtestimonial.com.


Solicit agent managers to secure customer testimonials


5. Actively participate in TA webinars and other "content events"

Visit www.HowToSellTelecom.com to view annual calendar of TA recorded, on-demand webinars and "content events" that are scheduled for the year.


Volunteer to get extra exposure for your program by paneling a webinar

TA moderates most webinars but invites knowledgeable vendors to contribute objective content to all webinars as expert panelists. Submit content to any webinar by following the instructions at www.TalkToTA.com.


Suggest and/or write and moderate webinars not listed but needed


6. Access available channel partner prospecting lists

TA maintains multiple prospective channel partner lists for the use of TA vendors.


Ask TA which lists are available for telemarketing or mailing


7. TA customized program consulting

When new vendor members join TA and then not less than annually TA will meet with channel program directors to discuss a customized annual plan so that vendor is knowledgeable about all TA vendor benefits and that TA is knowledgeable about vendor program benefits.


Meet with TA consultants annually or more often to ensure success




Questions? Please contact Dan Baldwin at Dan@TelecomAssociation.com or 951-251-5155





TA Vendor Members
as of 1/28/9










































 








 
   

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