A Training Transformation:
Taking Action With Agile
Overview
SolutionsIQ is an Agile pioneer. At the time of this engagement, they had 300 Agile practitioners and were the largest agile practice in the country.
As the Agile movement grew, so did SolutionsIQ, first making a name for themselves with cutting-edge Agile software development, then scaling up to become a fully Agile organization.
Their success encouraged them to build a business within a business – an Agile training organization.
The very nature of Agile dictates that the training must be live and in-person. Coast to coast, competition among training providers was fierce. SolutionsIQ not only competed with other instructor-led sessions, but also with newer training formats like webinars.
When faced with a large nationwide training campaign, the new training director insisted on hiring marketing expertise.
Enter MASONKELLY.
The Problem
SolutionsIQ needed to step up their game.
They needed to host their premier Agile training events with a bigger nationwide training presence while commanding top dollar for the experience.
The company required nothing less than a training transformation — everything from automation to merchandising to digital communications — a complete reengineering and build-out of their program offerings. Yet like so many smaller firms, SolutionsIQ had neither the bandwidth nor the budget to hire a whole implementation team.
Thankfully, the MASONKELLY team members are marketing generalist gurus. Kimberley focused on building the company’s training presence while SolutionsIQ focused on building its technology.
Solution
Kimberley knew she needed to build a world-class consumer experience that was superior in every way, driving registrations and creating live training experiences unlike no other.
The Agile world is like so many other industries — the business niche is so specific that everybody knows everybody. As such, SolutionsIQ was not particularly strong at branding themselves as Agile experts. It didn’t take Kimberley long to spot the trouble source, and she began work on creating a tangible brand. Despite having done a fair amount of content marketing, SolutionsIQ had never run a traditional marketing campaign. They had never created a television commercial, built a landing page or performed a marketing study.
In Kimberley’s detailed discovery process, she benchmarked previous training campaigns to begin the miraculous training transformation. She quickly adapted to the very different working styles of the company’s East and West coast locations, and rapidly developed good working relationships with the client’s teams. The extensive lineup of MASONKELLY assets expertly supported those cultures and their people.
Kimberley set out to teach SolutionsIQ how to sell through marketing and how to ultimately create a training experience that would be the talk around the water cooler.
She designed a multifaceted campaign that included:
email marketing
social media channels
“Big Payback” campaign incentives for early registration
better branding in the form of signage and course materials
forward-looking course calendar
promotion of the training venue and city
testimonials from attendees to complete the marketing cycle
Result
Agile affects change — so does MASONKELLY. At the heart of our engagements, we solve problems to implement real, positive change. Agile embodies constant iterative improvement, and MASONKELLY incorporated those principles in this effort. Kimberley started with what SolutionsIQ did well, and then incrementally created the fundamental change needed to take Agile training to a whole new level.
Live events have their share of challenges. The difficulty lies in being able to engage people enough to bring them to a live event. SolutionsIQ needed a firm adept in the practice and principles or marketing. This effort was an aggressive nationwide push to target the SolutionsIQ audience to fill training seats, and MASONKELLY rocked it!
SolutionsIQ definitely experienced a training transformation. After a Charlotte, North Carolina training event, one of the company VPs said, We’ve never had anything like this.”
While in Seattle, Washington, the SolutionsIQ CEO and head of training watched a commercial MASONKELLY had produced for them. “Is this our video?” They were simply blown away, and couldn’t believe Kimberley was able to pull all the pieces together in such short order to produce such a superior product.
“Before taking on the role of Director of Public Training, I knew that having solid marketing would be critical. Kimberley and team did a fabulous job!”
Leslie Morse
Director - Public Training
Solutions IQ/Accenture
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