Take Action Memos are Positioning Notes about major industry events.

They answer three basic questions: What Happened? What Does This Mean to Customers? What Do I Say?

First introduced in 1999 at Nortel by Peter Brockmann on assignment in the CMO's office as Director of Competitive Tactics. The idea was that Cisco's CEO was making great noise about entering the carrier equipment market which would confuse and frighten the company's large and well-paid carrier sales force.  

Our goal was to respond to events as they unfolded with pointed commentary that sales people could use to educate themselves and hopefully inoculate the customer. The process was to convene a small group of five professional marketers on the conference bridge, we would discuss the event and its implications within 15 minutes. The goal was to be timely first. Period. 

We would send an email to the 5,000 people identified as sales. 

I knew this was a good thing when after three months the CEO called and asked if he could be added to the list.

I've put them in the Eyes Only section of the website (login required, get free registration if you've never logged in).

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