Change agent finds collaboration key

FAST TRACK: TribalVision Marketing Manager Anna Barcelos, left, counts resilience and lack of fear as important factors in keeping her working through challenging times. Above, she speaks with Molly Rosenbaum. / PBN FILE PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE
FAST TRACK: TribalVision Marketing Manager Anna Barcelos, left, counts resilience and lack of fear as important factors in keeping her working through challenging times. Above, she speaks with Molly Rosenbaum. / PBN FILE PHOTO/DAVID LEVESQUE

Marketing professionals succeed by getting to know their clients and developing creative and workable plans for them.
That’s the foundation for marketing, says TribalVision Marketing Manager Anna Barcelos, but her passion for her work motivates her to strive to provide services – and results – way beyond the basics.
Barcelos has been in the business 20 years and describes herself as “a purebred marketer” – someone who has been trained in the field and has evolved with the rapid pace of change.
“If I’m not learning every day, I might as well just go home,” said Barcelos.
Headquartered in Providence, with offices in Cambridge, Mass., Hilton Head, S.C., and Brussels, Belgium, TribalVision focuses on small- to mid-sized businesses.
TribalVision’s style and practices attracted Barcelos after experience working in sales and finance for larger companies early in her career, then working with smaller technology companies.
“I’m a risk-taker. I’ve been attracted to companies that are fast and furious and on a great path,” said Barcelos.
An early believer in social media, Barcelos began building a network of contacts via LinkedIn and Twitter, blogging and strengthening her expertise in those areas. That led her to working with companies to develop social media campaigns.
Barcelos joined TribalVision a year ago when she found her skills, experience and professional style fit well with the company’s mission to work as part of its clients’ staff.
“Right now, I have three large clients, and I’m in their offices every other week. We have constant email and phone contact,” Barcelos said.
That communication is the foundation for a marketing strategy not based on big media buys or commissions, but what the client really needs, in the most cost-effective way, to enhance business, she said.
“I’ve seen companies who have invested tens of thousands of dollars, for instance, in a new trade-show booth recommended by a company, and they used it once,” said Barcelos.
Sometimes a client might be considering a new website, but that may not be the most cost-effective plan or be at the top of the priority list, for instance, if their specific goal is generating new leads, she said.
Collaboration is part of the way TribalVision, with 21 employees, keeps flexible and adds to its services.
Sometimes collaborators become clients. That happened with John Polumbo of East Providence, the owner and sole employee of Winning Edge Selling, who’s been doing consulting and training for 15 years.
He saw Barcelos get clients to develop and agree on a plan, follow-up with frequent status reports and keep the plan in motion.
“She does what she says she’s going to do. And she gets other people to say what they’re going to do and do it,” said Polumbo.
That’s what convinced him to use TribalVision and continue to work with Barcelos on marketing for his own company.
“We look at the client’s business and goals and base our marketing plan on that,” said Barcelos. “We will not sell things to our clients that make no sense to them.”

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