Standing out in a sea of sameness - CIM Yorkshire interview with Dr Simon Kelly

Ahead of the anticipated Webinar Express with Dr Simon Kelly on Thursday 8th April at 1pm, CIM Yorkshire Board members Jessica Dodds and Jim Ker caught up with Simon to find out more about what to expect in the upcoming session.

Dr Simon Kelly is a lecturer in Marketing and Sales at York Management School and co-author of two books: Standout Marketing: How to differentiate your organisation in a sea of sameness and Value-ology: Aligning sales and marketing to shape and deliver profitable customer value propositions. Simon is also Chief Executive Officer of Cohesion Marketing Services and Principal at Shake Marketing, focusing primarily on B2B technology markets.

A 'pracademic' Simon has over 35 years' experience in the ICT industry in Customer Service, Sales, and Marketing. He was Marketing Director for BT's Major Business Division until 2002 where he was responsible for marketing to BT's top 2000 Business and Government customers. Over the years through extensive studies, global surveys and in-depth qualitative interviews, Simon has studied the relationship between sales and marketing and the role of a clear value proposition. Research identified that one of the biggest challenges facing organisations is establishing a clear competitive advantage, often leading businesses to follow ‘best practice’ and copying the competitors' crowds.

For marketing and sales professionals, a value proposition is meant to offer clear differentiation of how your organisation delivers above and beyond your competitors. Yet often these values are not clearly articulated, and it is difficult for customers to identify the differences between you and your sea of competitors. In search of a solution, Simon and his Co-Authors Paul Johnston and Stacey Danheiser established that this challenge was actually a human problem and one simply linked to skills.

In the upcoming April webinar, Simon will share the 5 core competencies and how they are interwoven to enable you to swim away from sameness and establish a clear value proposition, built on differentiation. He makes it clear the culture and leadership must exist to enable evolution, but these competencies and skills should be developed across the team to build marketing activity that stands out.

If you are a curious, inquisitive, and driven marketer and want to learn more about which core competencies you and your team possess, your strengths and your opportunities for enlightenment, join us on 8th April at 1 pm to take action!

The webinar is on 8th April 2021 at 1 pm and is kindly hosted by CIM Yorkshire. The session will last approximately 40-45 minutes inclusive of a Q&A session after the presentation. This webinar is free to all and CPD eligible for CIM members.

To register for this webinar please click here.

For more information about activities in Yorkshire, check out the CIM Regional blog and the CIM North Community LinkedIn Page.