Marketing Superstars: A CMO’s Smart Guide To Cracking Education

When our podcast host was in college, smartboards were in every classroom. But what marketing strategy led to such a ubiquitous domination of the education market—and beyond? Jeff Lowe, CMO of Smart Technologies, explains.

When I was in college, smartboards were in every classroom. But how did Calgary-based Smart Technologies, creator of these “fancy chalkboards,” penetrate the market? What marketing strategy led to such a ubiquitous domination of the education market?

I spoke to Jeff Lowe, CMO of Smart Technologies, who laid down the marketing strategy the company used to become a force in the education industry—and in the collaboration market, in general.

“The way students learn has fundamentally changed in the past 10 or 20 years. It’s much more about student-based learning and how a [business] keeps up with that,” said Lowe, who, along with his company, is featured in the CEB’s recent book “The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results.”

This drove him to focus on developing a customer advisory board to help shape the strategy.

“It all starts with setting out a strategy and having some documented goals and objectives of what you’d like to get out of an advocacy group … how might you measure success and what are the ways you might use advocacy?” Lowe said. “Like everything thing else, starting with a plan.”

Highlights from our conversation also include:

• Evolving with mobile and the Internet of Things (2:15)
• Solidifying your value proposition (5:15)
• Establishing a customer advisory board (8:15)
• Building your go-to-market strategy (15:00)
• Effectively putting data into the hands of sales (22:45)

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F251088250&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false

Listen in iTunes.

Click here to listen to previous episodes of Marketing Superstars.