SMA’s database-building expertise goes to work for key business unit of Siemens.

In marketing, your message is only as good as your contact list. Take a shotgun approach and you waste money. Target your marketing and you can score a bulls-eye.

Knowing this, Siemens IT Solutions and Services Inc. (Canada) engaged SMA to target 80 designated accounts and develop a database of C-level contacts. The result was a thorough, accurate list which effectively prepared Siemens to hit the ground running with subsequent marketing campaigns.

Siemens is one of the largest and most diversified companies in the world, providing innovations in areas such as automation and control, power, transportation, medical, information and communications, and lighting. Recently, five Siemens IT and software houses were merged to form a new strategic business unit with 43,000 employees and sales of about 5 billion euros. In Canada, the unit focuses on IT solutions and outsourcing for three main industries: energy and utilities; industrial and manufacturing; and media.

Adopting a business strategy to sell into accounts where Siemens has deep sectoral knowledge, Siemens IT Solutions and Services Inc. (Canada) had to ensure its database accurately reflected the executive suite contacts it wanted to target. Not wanting to tie up its sales resources with the task, Siemens looked for an external service provider.

“We chose SMA because we felt very comfortable with the approach Bob and his team take,” says Walter Lowes, Senior Director, Sales and Marketing, Siemens Canada. “At Siemens we favor forming a small number of partnerships with like-minded suppliers who can understand our long-term objectives and plot out the stepping stones. Bob crafted a solution that met our timeline and our budget.”

SMA’s team of specialists called into 80 manufacturing companies in Southern Ontario in the automotive, food & beverage, and chemical & pharmaceutical industries. Because of the accuracy of the resulting database, Siemens was able to execute a successful subsequent marketing campaign directly to its target market.

“We are very happy with the way SMA understood our marketing objectives and built a suitable program to meet them,” says Mr. Lowes. “The database project is just the first step in what we hope will be an ongoing, productive relationship.”