#SDSummit15 Recap – Trolleys, Block Parties, and Interlock

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The Q team is just about now recuperated from the week in Nashville. We were there attending the annual SiriusDecisions Summit and wow was it a whirlwind week!  Over 2000 attendees and almost 100 exhibitors – there was a lot to take in and digest. 

The Q team was on site to showcase our latest releases, as well as inspire some robot dancing and referee some intense Rock ‘em Sock ‘em robot battles.

Oh and did I mention our Party Trolley?

One thing I kept hearing was the use of the term “interlock.” It came up in conversations at our booth as well as presentations from SiriusDecisions – it was one of those things that you hear once, then it follows you everywhere you go.  So I asked people – what do you mean when you say “interlock?”

The answers were somewhat varied in use case – some focused on product launches, others on content creation, and others on communications.  But the one thing that was common was the need for departments to be in lock-step when it comes to how their organization communicates to the market.  This is from when product defines a roadmap, to how marketing positions the company and products, what content is produced, through to how sales sells it.

I find this a bit different than “alignment” which is a term we hear a lot.  “We need better sales and marketing alignment,” 

“Marketing needs to align their assets to our sales strategy,” and others.  But a fundamental difference between alignment and interlock is the partnership between groups to reach a common goal.  It’s beyond just sharing in those common goals – they are in the trenches together to ensure success.
This made me reflect on the case study session Qvidian customer Splunk presented during the Tuesday sessions.

Splunk is a global analytics company with over 9000 customers across 100 countries.  Bart Fanelli, SVP of Field Enablement, presented their story about how they achieved substantial growth over the past couple years.

One of the main points of his session was the need for “alignment” – how you need to go-to-field before you go-to-market.  They created a Field Readiness Council where all players – product, marketing, sales ops, enablement, and field managers – work in tandem to ensure success.  This is more than just mere alignment – this is interlock.

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Amanda Wilson
Amanda Wilson is the VP of Global Marketing at MobileBridge, the leading provider of mobile app engagement automation solutions. Her experience blended across marketing, product and sales drives her passion for helping companies market and sell their products through SaaS technology. She has previously held marketing leadership positions at Qvidian and Acquia.

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