Webinar: How to shift to strategic marketing with commercial punch

The Tech Data One Percenters Program is a search across ANZ to uncover the most outstanding IT businesses and teams that are inspiring incredible change in business and society, powered by IBM solutions.

As part of the program, Tech Data hosted a series of leadership sessions with subject matter experts. Topics covered included:

  • The inaugural 2021 winner sharing invaluable tips and tricks on what it takes to a be a One Percenter and how winning the award has contributed value for their business and helped them to stand out from their competition
  • The Senior Data Scientist and Team Lead for IBM Client Engineering ANZ sharing IBM’s future Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology roadmap; and
  • Rocket Science was invited to present the third session on the topic of ‘How to Shift to strategic marketing with commercial punch.

I was joined by executives, and sales and marketing leaders across the Tech Data and IBM ecosystems, and from partner organisations who are interested in best practice B2B marketing.

During the 40-minute session, we covered a lot of ground including:

  • Why the IT industry is feeling particularly optimistic post Covid
  • Invaluable research insights that unveiled why we must be focused on buying groups not personas, why sellers cannot effectively influence the early stages of the buying journey without alignment with marketing, and why we need to shift from selling to teaching our audience something new and surprising about their own business challenges and opportunities
  • 8 strategic cheat sheets covering how to build a robust strategic foundation that supports both our customers and our commercial vision and how to make the shift from reactive quarterly campaigns where we are constantly on the back-foot toward structured and intentional programs of work, and finally how to underpin our marketing activities with robust financial forecast models that set upfront success parameters, so that we can continually optimise our resources and budgets towards those channels, customers and activities proven to deliver the greatest return on marketing investment (ROMI).

Finally, we looked at some real-life applications with a couple of Australian vendor and partner success stories.

View the recording

If you have any questions on the webinar, please get in touch.

See the 2022 One Percenters for more information on this program including other leadership sessions.

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  • I had the pleasure of working with Mel and the Rocket Science team as we developed our go-to-market strategy for our CPaaS platform. Their expertise in product architecture and overall strategy was invaluable to our success. Mel's engagement throughout the process was exceptional. She consistently brought fresh ideas and approaches to the table, ensuring we were exploring every avenue for growth. The quality of their deliverables was consistently high, and they were always willing to go the extra mile to ensure we were satisfied with the results. Thanks to Mel and Rocket Science, we now have a clear, actionable roadmap. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Mel and the Rocket Science team to any company looking to refine their product strategy and accelerate their go-to-market efforts.

    - Andy TybellChief of Products and Partnerships - Uniti Group

  • It has been so awesome working with Mel and the Rocket Science team, who have put in so much effort, passion and drive to bring our brand and people to organisations that we can create value for. Despite so much to do in these early stages, having Mel in our corner makes us feel like everything will be alright. The strategic influence and direction that Rocket Science have brought to articulate our message in such a sophisticated way to a market that needs as much support as it can get, shouldn’t be underestimated. I am very humbled and grateful for the contribution Rocket Science has made to our business.

    - Scott McKeanCEO, Peloton Cyber

  • Mel just get's it and more importantly, get's it done! Her knowledge and experience is second to none, her strategic planning and leadership is thorough, realistic and delivers! Working with Mel, she was part of the team not just another agency. She built strong and influential relationships across our wider business and team that deeply valued and appreciated her approach and work. Mel's drive and enthusiasm for her clients success and deep knowledge and experience within the IT Channel is unique as is her ability to build deep commercially centered, results driven relationships with her clients.

    - James BrightICT Marketing Strategist (formally Tech Data ANZ Marketing Director)

  • Mel and the team at Rocket Science worked as an extension of our team. They went well and truly above and beyond to ensure that the campaign was a success. I have never worked with a more dedicated, passionate and capable team. The campaign set a platform for our CX integration capability to reach new and existing customers.

    - Tamika SercombeHead of Marketing & Channel at Uniti Group Limited

  • With our recent Surface campaign, Mel managed to unite and inspire some very experienced Microsoft marketing, product and industry education leaders. The campaign she devised gave us a razor-sharp view of our education customers, the problems they experience, and how we can help. She connected our team internally, enabling us to keep up with our customers as their needs changed, and helped us to get global exposure and support for our local approach here in Australia. As a result, we achieved the highest ever sales of Surface in education for the financial year. Microsoft is now considered to be a trusted partner to our education customers, rather than just a technology vendor.

    - Emily WeightProduct Marketing Manager at Microsoft

  • Mel Johnstone was engaged by Metallurgical Systems to create and execute a marketing strategy. In a short timeframe, Mel had researched and defined our industries challenges and created a customer-centric communications plan to inform our industry how Metallurgical Systems products and services helps to solve these challenges. Mel worked with our team of subject matter experts to develop the best-in-class marketing content and customer experience to showcase the expertise, knowledge and proven success of Metallurgical Systems. It has been an absolute pleasure working with Mel - her professionalism, perfectionism and knowledge of B2B marketing is second to none.

    - John VagenasManaging Director, Metallurgical Systems

  • Over the past few years Mel has emerged as one of the leading strategists in Australia. She’s consistently tasked with solving some of the most complex communications problems in the industry. Problems that span business silos, customer segments and industries. Her depth of research, data acumen and ability to tie customer insights to commercial value through end-to-end campaign planning has made her invaluable to the clients that ask us to tackle these expansive challenges. Mel elevates the level of everyone she works with and is genuine, humble and contagiously passionate about what she does. While at Splendid, she has also been deservedly recognised as a finalist for Australia’s ‘Marketer of the Year’.

    - Tim SandsCo-Founder and Director, Splendid Group

  • Mel is a super-smart, dedicated and passionate leader who has set the bar high at Splendid with sharp, insight-led strategies and well-considered models and frameworks that really understand the nuances of B2B tech marketing. Mel's passion for improving customer experiences drives her to go the extra mile for her clients and to challenge those around her to be the best they can be. In the time we have worked together I have benefitted hugely from Mel's knowledge, support and sage counsel. Anyone facing a particularly gnarly marketing or business challenge would do well to have Mel onside - she unfailingly brings a deeper level of customer understanding to projects, going well beyond the predictable and formulaic to create clever, often surprising, opportunities for brands to connect with their customers.

    - Jess LittlewoodStrategy Director & Business Lead (UK), Splendid Group

  • Mel worked with us on a complex monetisation project for a large corporate client, and did an amazing job getting to grips with the problem, then sifting through the complexity to create a workable and flexible model. She works extremely well with both clients and other strategists, and is always willing to put in the extra effort to ensure the quality of her work is top notch. Looking forward to working with her again on other projects.

    - Mike ZeederbergManaging Director at Zuni

  • I first worked with Mel as part of a pitch team where she led the strategic response, and resulting win. She brings a sense of calm and rational thinking to her work which in turn, inspires confidence in those around her. Her customer centricity and mastery of data means her work actually delivers against stated objectives. She is also generous with her time, constructive in her feedback, and open to sharing her knowledge. I would work with her again in a heartbeat.

    - Merran MortonGeneral Manager at Inside Policy

Experience creating B2B marketing strategies and programs for the following clients.

microsoft-logo
ISS-Logo
Uniti-Group
Metallurgical-Systems-logo-1
NEXTGEN
hp
telstra
Vocus
Servicely
Intel-Logo
Virgin_Mobile
sap-logo
Dicket-data
Tech-Data-Logo
IBM
nCino