My colleagues and I (Peter O’Neill here) have been busy here at Forrester putting together the agenda for our next Forum which is in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 4, 2013 under the title “Accelerating Revenue In A Changed Economy.” Now, achieving that objective requires contributions from many different parts of a B2B enterprise – it is more than a sales enablement topic. So we have gathered together a strong team of analysts from across Forrester to work on content and invite leading practitioners who they work with to provide insights and to advise members on these three B2B functions:

·  The sales and marketing teams that support the direct sales organization that must be empowered and enabled to grow their assigned accounts

·  The marketers in the demand-generation group who must power up their revenue management processes, find new logos and generate new business (see previous blog)

·  The channel management team which needs to orchestrate and manage the partner community to win their loyalty and business.     

The agenda has been built on this shared focus on accelerating revenues with parallel tracks for each set of professionals in addition to the keynotes. The keynotes from our own CEO and CFO will highlight why and how top executives are so focused on revenue acceleration and what they need to hear from you. Other best practice keynotes from peer practitioners will showcase their experiences and successes. And a special keynote from Forrester Research Director Dave Frankland will raise the topic of current gaps in customer insight, one that is a little awkward for us B2B sales and marketing professionals but one of increasing importance for our success.  

In the breakout tracks, we will discuss cross-selling, content standards and management (both sales tools and marketing content); the lead-to-revenue process; current research on your customers; and sales force development to optimize sales conversations.

So please do not be misled by the label “Sales Enablement Forum” and check out the agenda in detail. I would recommend that there is plenty of material there for all B2B marketing professionals including those responsible for channel marketing. As usual, in addition to the presentation sessions, there are one-on-ones with us analyst for you to take advantage of. We are also preparing a binder of Forrester frameworks and tools that will give you and your fellow attendees the knowledge and insight you need to make immediate progress when you return to your work. 

I look forward to seeing you there. If you are interested, we could even hit a few golf balls together before or after the event days.  Please let me know and I will confirm that. As always, I’d love to hear from you on this and other topics.   

Always keeping you informed! Peter