The Annuitas Group Announces Plans To Expand Partner Roster As Part Of Vendor Neutral Strategy

“We will be vendor neutral, which means we won’t be taking commissions from any vendors,” said Carlos Hidalgo, CEO of The Annuitas Group. “It’s impossible to maintain objectivity when you’re taking commission from vendors. So this is really about delivering what’s best for our clients.”

Hidalgo said the decision to move to a vendor-neutral approach was largely driven by the maturation of the market and overall feedback from the market. “Our clients today have a breadth of options when it comes to marketing automation technology, so it’s important that our team understands those options so that we can best match our clients’ process needs with the right solution,” he said. “The unique advantage of our Lead Management Framework methodology is that it can be applied to any marketing automation technology to help companies improve their lead management process and the return on marketing investments.”

Hidalgo said he expects The Annuitas Group will likely work with a top 10 list of solution providers, which will likely include leading brands such as Eloqua, Marketo, Siverpop and others. “We’re in the process of engaging with all the leading solution providers right now, getting to know their products and understand their value proposition,” he said.

The Annuitas Group will continue to partner with Silverpop. The long-time partner of Annuitas continued to speak highly of the firm. “For almost five years, The Annuitas Group has been a valued strategic partner with Silverpop and we’ve seen first-hand the value they bring to BtoB companies with their expertise in the development of lead management process,” said Will Schnabel, VP of Channels for Silverpop. “We believe that expanding partnerships between vendors and consulting experts like The Annuitas Group is only a good thing for the industry as a whole and will bring broader awareness, expertise and value to the BtoB and marketing automation space.”

Other marketing automation vendors also welcomed the news on The Annuitas Group’s shift in strategy and predicted that BtoB marketing organizations will benefit from the lead management process work delivered by The Annuitas Group. “The Annuitas Group delivers domain expertise around the lead management process that will only enhance the value of a company’s marketing automation investment,” said Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo. “We look forward to working with them and in turn, delivering more value to our customers.”

The shift in strategy has also been noted by several industry thought leaders and most importantly, Annuitas customers. “As the marketing automation industry matures, marketers have an increasing number of system choices,” said David Raab, Principal of Raab Associates Inc. “This means they rely more heavily on vendors like Annuitas Group to help them find the product that best meets their needs, develop the necessary processes and to deploy whatever system they choose. This change in strategy will allow more marketers to take advantage of Annuitas Group's lead management expertise and derive more value from their automation solutions.”

According to Hidalgo, this transition was key to better serve their customers, so they can be confident that they’re getting input from a completely objective and neutral view. With their knowledge of vendors, their processes and what they can offer customers, The Annuitas Group in turn introduce them to the program that best suits their needs.

“It’s going to be a very strong working relationship with the different vendors from a exchange of ideas, to what process do we bring to their customer base if they so desire and just continuing to do what we do in developing the process,” he said. “And when it’s necessary, bring those vendors in that match up best with our customer.”

Although Hidalgo explained that The Annuitas Group’s double-digit growth shows promise for the industry, there is still some confusion among businesses and what is expected to be common lead management processes.

“Now we’ve run into the space where every body is using the term lead management,” he said. “Vendors are talking about lead management automation, which is great if you already have the process. But when you read that 70% to 80% of leads are still being ignored, I would say that there’s still not a common practice of lead management and organization.”

This no-commission partnership is expected to help companies be more willing to develop a definitive idea of what is key in lead management practices.

“I think this is a continuation of people realizing developing a process helps you get better at what you do and in the end create more revenue,” Hidalgo said. “I really think for the remainder of this year, well into 2011 we’re going to still be educating the market place on what lead management is, define lead management framework, and why it’s important.”