Sales & Marketing Society of the Mid-South

RedRover, a growing Memphis, Tennessee sales and marketing consulting firm is seeking an Office Manager with 5+ years of high-level administrative experience to join its pack. Ad agency/marketing firm experience is a plus, but not required. Selected candidate must have a proven track record of successfully managing projects, identifying the need for and developing needed systems/processes that improve efficiency, and developing organizational systems that can be executed firm-wide. Ideal candidate has exceptional follow-through skills and enjoys working in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment.

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, journalism, communications, English, or similar field required.

Special skills required:

• Writing/editing/proof reading
• Advanced skill level with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook 2007
• Substantial experience using social media tools FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn
• Project management
• AR/AP
• Basic tech skills such as trouble shooting printing and wifi problems

Additional experience preferred:

• Basic working knowledge of web content management tools such as Adobe Contribute
• Experience using an HTML email platform (such as Constant Contact or Emma)

Job responsibility overview:

• Heavy administrative support to managing partner
• Light administrative support to account service team
• Office organization and supply management
• Management of all firm files
• Answering phones and greeting guests
• Training and support to clients using the firm’s HTML email marketing platform, including product demos for prospective new clients
• Marketing the firm by booking speaking engagements, generating PR and messaging through the firm’s social media channels
• Market research support
• Contract/Proposal development
• Identifying and maintaining relationships with freelance creative talent
• Project/traffic management
• Light bookkeeping

If you’d like to be considered for this position, email your resume to careers@redrovercompany.com. In order to be considered for this position, please include a complete salary history and your current salary requirements in the cover letter. Resumes without this salary information will not be considered. No phone calls or office visits please.

While many SMS members know Lori Turner as managing partner of RedRover Company Sales & Marketing, they don’t realize that she was also contributing ghost writer for “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guerrilla Marketing.” She possesses tremendous knowledge about how small businesses can use non-traditional marketing tactics to promote their brand, product or service.

Lori shared the secrets of why guerrilla marketing works and 10 types of guerrilla marketing that you may have never heard of in a recent SMS workshop. Attendees learned about proximity marketing, intrusive marketing, ambient marketing, and more. The presentation also included examples of brands using guerrilla marketing – some successfully and some not so much. Lori also outlined the six steps to creating your own winning guerrilla strategy.

We had a packed house for the workshop, so if you missed out then make sure you’re on our mailing list to find out about our great upcoming events! You can register on the homepage of our website at http://www.sms-midsouth.org

Billions of dollars are spent every year on creative and artistic advertising campaigns that don’t resonate with consumers because they fail to reach them where and when they want to be reached.

This was the message from Maria McLendon, a marketing and communications leader who shared her expertise in market segmentation, targeting and positioning with attendees of the Sales and Marketing Society of the Mid-South March luncheon. McLendon is a marketing and public relations consultant who is skilled in orchestrating internal and external resources in order to develop and implement effective advertising and sales promotion programs.

“Great ads and marketing can be lost if we are not fully aware of who is receiving the message,” McLendon said. “We have to know our customers inside and out. To have a successful campaign, we must identify our ideal customers, and then reach them when, where and how they want to be reached.”

“Maria’s presentation was timely and well received by our SMS audience,” said Lori Turner, Managing Partner, Red Rover Sales and Marketing. “As business owners and marketers, its easy to get excited about all of the new and exciting marketing delivery channels, thanks to the explosion of social media, but it’s critical that we don’t lose sight of the fundamentals — proper market segmentation, understanding the common traits of those segments and messaging accordingly.”

The Sales and Marketing Society of the Mid-South is a network providing continuing education to sales and marketing professionals with the intention of continually improving the standards for professional selling, sales management and marketing. Its primary goal is to provide educational events and services for sales and marketing professionals. In addition to being a source for education and information, SMS is also involved in sponsorship and scholarship programs for college students from the University of Memphis, Christian Brothers University and Southwest Tennessee Community College.

Check out the photos from the Luncheon, courtesy of Gary Baldwin:

Our February luncheon was another great success. We were excited to have Susan Stephenson, who did a wonderful job explaining and discussing the current banking industry.

She is the Co-Founder, Co-Chairman and President of Independent Bank in Memphis, Tennessee.  Established in 1998, Independent Bank is now an $800 million institution, the second largest bank headquartered in Shelby County.  One of the fastest growing financial institutions in Tennessee history, Independent Bank is also one of the top performing banks in the state and country in terms of earnings, margins and asset quality.

Prior to starting Independent Bank, she was Chairman, President and CEO of Boatmen’s Bank of Tennessee.  When named to the position in 1995, the 37-year-old Stephenson was the first female Chairman and CEO of a Tennessee bank.  Following their acquisition of Boatmen’s Bancshares, Nations Bank appointed her President of their Memphis/West Tennessee market.

She provided a thought-provoking lecture that was timely and interesting. We appreciate her spending time with our group.

We had a great turnout for our workshop featuring our own president James Hutto with Valeo Design & Marketing. He focused on The PLET Method for understanding Twitter. We learned everything from the basics of starting an account to tips and tools to growing a successful following. No matter the exact industry you may be in, we learned there are already people talking about it, and we need to be a part of the conversation.

Check out his slide show below. It has lots of great tips that will help you use Twitter successfully for your business!

We also want to thank Union University for the use of their facility, and Simply Fabulous Catering for the delicious lunches.

Don’t miss our February 17th luncheon, featuring Susan Stephenson. Sign up here. We’ll see you there!

We had a sold-out house today for our 3rd workshop, and this one was by far one of the most compelling.

Lori Turner, Manager Partner at RedRover Sales & Marketing delivered an amazing overview of what an effective sales strategy is, and then how social media tools can be used to increase sales effectiveness.

James Hutto of Valeo Design & Marketing covered the “Four C’s to Conquer LinkedIn” and talked the audience through the building blocks necessary to using Lori’s strategy of prospecting and profiling sales leads using social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.
Here is their presentation:

We’re looking forward to the next workshop which is tentatively scheduled for October 2.  Due to the last two workshops selling out, we’re going to seek a new location that will allow us to accomodate more seating.  We hated to have to turn so many down today that tried to register the 1-2 days before the event!

October Workshop

We get more questions about Twitter-this and Twitter-that, we feel like its time to jump in and get you some answers.  We’re going to have a panel available to answer questions about how to use Twitter, how people are using it in their businesses, and most importantly- how (if) people are profiting from their use  of it.

We want to hear from you! Fill out our Twitter Survey to submit questions that you would like to see us cover.  We’ll get some savvy people there to give you some different perspectives.

A little planning goes a long way… or doesn’t in the case of a Mixer that was scheduled on a night where not one, not two, but THREE other local groups were having the same kind of event!  Luckily we still had a good time at the Flying Saucer and there were enough of us in attendance that we ran up an respectable tab and met some new people!

The funniest thing of the night was how well we were received by the generous folks at the Flying Saucer. We were also fortunate to have some new prospective members to the “Sells & Marketing” Society come out, and we’re always glad to see new faces.

Upcoming Workshop!

Don’t miss our upcoming events- the workshop on Sept 2 with Lori Turner of Red Rover Company and James Hutto of Valeo Design & Marketing will be presenting a workshop titled: Harnessing the Power of Social Media to Fill Your Sales Funnel and Close Business

If you’ve been dabbling with LinkedIn and FaceBook but wondering how they’re actually going to help you generate revenue, this is the workshop for you!

Learn how to integrate LinkedIn and FaceBook into a successful sales prospecting plan to ensure you’re filling your sales funnel, closing more business, and actually generating a return from your precious time investment in social media.

Register online today- there is limited seating and we are definitely going to sell out once again!

We just finished up our second workshop in our new series designed to offer more value to our members and the community.  This was titled Weaving the Social Web: How to Maximize Your Time Spent on Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and More.

We had an even better turnout for this session, and there were some great questions from the crowd.  Social media continues to be a hot topic, and this organization is dedicated to helping you understand the practical ways to implement this new channel for your marketing efforts.

Make sure and mark your calendar for our next workshop, which will be on September 2nd.  This one will feature Lori Turner of Red Rover marketing, and James Hutto of Valeo Design & Marketing.  They will be covering how to harness social media to fill up your sales funnel and close more business.  Details to come!

We had some great photos from the June Luncheon featuring Emily Yellin.  This was a great meeting and Emily did a great job talking about her book Your Call Is (Not That) Important To Us!

We experienced a great turnout today for our Facebook Tips workshop. Thanks to everyone who was able to come and to guest speakers James Hutto of Valeo Marketing and Joe Spake. Below is a copy of today’s presentation. Enjoy, and remember to engage your business in the social media conversation!