ZIGZAG Marketing Expands Leadership Team

Business Wire, June 02, 2009

Adds Focus on Product Marketing to Improve Sales Proficiency

ATLANTA -- ZIGZAG Marketing, Inc., the Atlanta-based product management training and consulting firm, today announced the addition of a new partner to the firm. Kurt Ballard leads a new practice area for ZIGZAG Marketing focused on strengthening the link between product marketing and sales by helping clients develop messaging and sales tools that make it easier for sales people to position value and differentiate.

“Thinner sales pipelines for many companies put greater emphasis on winning every opportunity and Kurt’s 20 years of consulting, marketing and international sales experience make a great addition to our leadership team at this juncture,” states John Mansour, Founder and Managing Partner of ZIGZAG Marketing.

Studies have shown that up to 90% of marketing collateral is considered useless by sales people. Furthermore, when sales people that don’t have collaterals that help them sell they spend significant time creating their own freelance messaging and sales tools. The result is less time with prospective buyers and eventually fewer sales.

Prior to joining ZIGZAG Marketing, Kurt held the position of Chief Marketing Officer and SVP of Global Sales for PreVisor Inc., an Atlanta-based international software services company where he led marketing and sales organizations serving clients globally. His experience includes sales and marketing leadership positions at General Motors Corporation, outsourcing leader Exult Inc., international technology companies, and consulting for large and emerging organizations.

“I have been in the trenches and observed that too many sales people don’t know what to say to jumpstart and carry on a credible business conversation with prospective buyers,” says Kurt Ballard. “Sales tools created by product marketing are too focused on product details and overwhelm sales people so they don’t use them. We see a significant market opportunity to help our clients bridge the gap. ZIGZAG Marketing’s Product Management Framework makes it easy for product marketing managers to create sales tools sales people willingly use because they’re simple and make the value story easy to articulate,” added Ballard.

ZIGZAG Marketing will conduct a Positioning & Messaging Workshop for Sales June 25th in Atlanta, Georgia. The registration fee is $795 per person.

About ZIGZAG Marketing

ZIGZAG Marketing is a training and consulting firm specializing in product management and product marketing. Our mission is simple - to make product management and product marketing easier with a process than without so companies can grow revenue faster with more successful customers.