TASK: "Can't you put the brochures, PowerPoints, and other stuff on a CD that we could hand out?"

SUPPORT THE SALES FORCE!

I polled the IPeria VOIP sales team to compile a wish list. Their highest priorities for marcom materials were a suite of printed product data sheets, a corporate brochure, and an updated Web site describing the features and benefits of the firm's software product.

One of the sales reps asked me, "After you get all of this stuff done, can't you put the brochures, our PowerPoints, and other stuff on a CD that we could hand out at trade shows and customer pitches?"

I did one better. For each specific prospect, I created or gathered only pertinent content and converted it into a Web site. A Contents page served as the home page, with titles in the Contents hyperlinked to content files. The CDs automatically spin up and display a "home page" -- an example is shown below.I inserted the customer's logo at the right top of the "home page" frame. (click to see). 

To make a professional package, I customized self-adhering die-cut labels with the customer's name, contents of the CD-ROM, and the date. I also made a nifty 4-page cover insert booklet. The inside spread of the booklet showed the IPeria ActivEdge system architecture drawing.  I burned the CDs at my desktop, and printed the inserts and labels in-house on a Xerox DocuColor printer, and then hand-assembled everything. An entire run could be completed within hours and be in the hands of the sales rep within a day! 

The CDs became a great asset for sales calls and followups. As a bonus, the marketing label design was used on product CD-ROMs that contained the actual IPeria ActivEdge software product.

A CD-ROM package like the one to the right would feature the customer's name on the  label and jewel case insert. I created both using QuarkXpress, Illustrator, and Photoshop. I printed the label on precut Avery #5824 labels, and the insert on letter-size 80-pound Wausau Exact coated stock, on a Xerox Fiery X12 DocuColor printer. The inserts were trimmed to size with a paper cutter. All components feature the new IPeria branding elements and colors. The Sales force and customers loved them -- and in-house production virtually eliminated production costs.

Shown is a custom Web-style front end home page that I created for a CD-ROM that the IPeria Sales team requested for presentation to a major telecommunications company.  Each of the blue underlined titles are linked to a file on the CD-ROM-- PowerPoint presentations, .pdf Acrobat files, and Microsoft Word files, in this example. By clicking on the titles, the customer opens the corresponding  files, just as on a Web site accessed via the Internet. 

What makes this presentation even more effective is  the "Created especially for" line with the customer's logo at the upper right. To enhance credibility, I also included a positive quote about IPeria from The Yankee Group, a well-regarded industry analyst.