The Left Brain Approach
The BMA’s new Marketing Skills Assessment/Building/Certification (MSA/B/C) system was developed in response to a greater demand on the part of CEOs and senior management to hold marketing managers accountable for producing measurable sales results from their company’s marketing programs, and to make company marketing programs more responsive to the company’s sales effort.

Citing recent trends where B2B company marketing functions are now being re-integrated into sales departments, with marketing staff now reporting to company sales executives, BMA Executive Director Rick Kean says this trend emerged because “CEOs are questioning the contribution of their company’s marketing programs to the company’s tangible sales results.”

“What we are now seeing is a return to marketing that serves the company’s sales efforts. For marketing managers, this means a greater emphasis on the basic skills and competence required to perform the daily tasks essential to B2B sales success, such as how to produce effective advertising, or how to execute sales-oriented direct mail programs and trade shows. These are the practical skills marketing managers need to drive the content and execution of the company’s marketing program, to increase their company’s sales.”

Measure, Develop, Correct, Certify
The BMA’s new Marketing Skills Assessment, Skill-Building, and Certification System (MSA/B/C) is the B2B marketing profession’s first and only integrated program to assess, train, and certify the practical skills and knowledge required for marketing and product managers in B2B, trade, industrial, and high-technology markets.

The MSA/B/C System not only identifies marketing skill areas needing improvement, but also identifies “wrongly-held misinformation”—what marketing and product managers think they know that is actually wrong, and which can be harmful to their company when put into practice.

Assessment
The BMA’s MSA/B/C System consists of three Web-based modules that help companies assess, train, and certify their marketing staff’s knowledge levels and competency to perform the essential daily aspects of B2B marketing execution. The first module, the Marketing Skills Assessment (MSA), is a Web-based tool that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of a marketing manager’s essential background knowledge and skill, and pinpoints key areas where marketing skills can be improved.

Training
The second module, the Marketing Skills Builder (MSB), is an extensive training program that covers the wide range of practical skills and techniques required for day-to-day planning and execution of B2B marketing programs: Sales support, print advertising and direct mail programs, trade show opportunities, PR, copywriting, and Web site development.

Certification
The third module, the Marketing Skills Certification (MSC), is the updated version of the Business Marketing Association’s CBC credential, the industry’s most respected and established certification program for B2B marketing professionals. According to a survey conducted by the BMA in 2003, marketing managers who hold CBC certification earn on average 15% more than their peers.

Content for the MSA/B/C System was derived from The Marketing Manager’s Handbook, written by Eric Gagnon. This 512-page book, selected by the BMA as the master study guide for the MSA/B/C program, is a self-contained training reference marketing managers can use to prepare for the MSA/B/C training and certification programs, and is included with the MSA and MSB modules.