Totally Aligned Sales and Marketing Teams Accelerate Revenue Growth

Growing revenue is the life line of any successful business unfortunately in most companies, sales and marketing organizations are viewed separately as:

• sales = revenue creator
• marketing = cost center that is not vital to the revenue creation process

This antiquated way of thinking has created many inefficiencies in the revenue generation cycle and is preventing companies from maximizing revenue growth. Today, digital marketing, social media tools, automation software and one to one messaging have created great opportunities for organizations to rethink their go to market strategy, better align measurement of marketing initiatives and overall transform the way marketing and sales teams are aligned. Some tactics to begin:

1. Manage the marketing department more as a true revenue-generating organization with responsibilities further down the funnel such as outbound calling, lead qualification etc
2. Embrace the fact that revenue creation starts when a company first meets a prospective buyer and continues through deal close and onward to continuous customer loyalty
3. Implement a systematic process that nurtures prospects forward through every part of the revenue cycle and measures buyer engagement at every step of the process
4. Provide sales teams with the real time information and tools they need to help prioritize their time to engage with qualified prospects only when they are ready to commit 
5. Measure the effectiveness and ROI of spending on people and programs at every step of the revenue cycle across both marketing and sales 

By changing corporate perceptions of marketing, improving processes, better aligning metrics and creating a sales and marketing team environment; companies will realize faster revenue growth plus better utilize all of an organizations resources.

Make it a great day... e

e-Nuggets

• "Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."-- Andrew Carnegie 
• "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."-- Theodore Roosevelt 
• "Trust men [women] and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great."--Ralph Waldo Emerson 
• "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."--Henry Ford

Marketeers Must Drive Revenue...and Be able to Prove it !

Today more than ever, marketers must be able to communicate to the executive team ie CXOs and VP  in terms of the overall impact marketing is having on the company’s revenue, cash, profit, and growth.

One way this is being done by successful sales and marketing teams is via joint reporting on a specific dashboards with metrics that the CEO and CFO care about. While typical marketing metrics like number of leads collected at trade shows, twitter followers, or webinar attendees are important to track for program management and enhancement, those metrics lack relevance at the executive level.

For marketing professionals to get a seat at the big table they must incorporate the use of "executive speak" in their discussions by thinking "opportunities" rather than "leads" and "investment" instead of "cost" and "buying cycle" versus "singe event". It's no different from what we marketeers do everyday and that is understanding our audience and then messaging correctly to close the information gap between their need/pain point and our offerings.

Have a great day
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I also recommend an excellent article on this subject by Phil Fernandez, President & CEO of Marketo http://t.co/hO1jwiZw

Social media ... interactive conversations and relationship building

Many businesses jump into Social Media and immediately concentrate on the "what" rather than the "why".  They focus on number of "likes" and "followers" versus the more important metrics of how many people are active on their pages in the on-line discussions and how many new faces take action.

A good social media program must focus on building interaction with visitors and keeping the discussions going with only an occasional mention about new services or products. The goals should be to have more "authentic" interactions with visitors and improved relationships with their customers. Success here comes from well written content that can spark interaction and interactive conversations that engage prospects and build deeper customer relationships.

People who are actively participating in a company's "digital" conversations are more emotionally and intellectually invested so they will naturally spread the positive word through their own personal and business networks. 

Have a great day....e

e-Nuggets

• "A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday." Alexander Pope
• "Refuse to criticize, condemn, or complain. Instead, think and talk only about the things you really want." Brian Tracy
• "Success is living up to your potential. That's all. Wake up with a smile and go after life… Live it, enjoy it, taste it, smell it, feel it." Joe Kapp
• "We have not wings we cannot soar; but, we have feet to scale and climb, by slow degrees, by more and more, the cloudy summits of our time." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What does your customer think of you?

Many companies can ask this question internally and get replies that vary from; I do not know to they like us to they love us. These vague answers unfortunately are just not enough though to help companies take corrective actions that would lead to better business decisions.

Leading companies make sure that they not only know what their customers think of them but can point to specific metrics to prove their case. If you are not there yet a good start would be to formally meet with your top customers and conduct a  business review / interview asking detailed questions that allow you to better understand their use case for buying your product.
Document answers to questions like:

1. What problem(s) were they trying to solve?
2. What were the company’s business drivers?
3. Was there a driving event that catapulted the initiative?
4. What type of decision time frame were they working with?
5. What was the customer using before your solution?
6. Where their other solutions being considered?
7. Were there specific reasons why they selected our solution
8. Did they roll out all at once or was it phased?
9. Is there a secondary use case for the product?
10. Was there a consultant or consulting group involved in the selection process? Who?
11. How has business improved since implementing our product(s)?
12. Can I use a quote or testimonial or write a case study? 

This "Voice of the Customer" activity will enable you get a more thorough understanding of what "value" you delivered to the customer and how you did it. Armed with this information, you can update your existing marketing strategy and then modify the messaging in all your marketing assets as needed to have more impact.

Make it a great day
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Messaging ....FOCUSED & RELEVANT

In today's fast paced world, successful companies continually review their marketing messages for relevancy and ability to clearly address customer and prospect key business issues. 

To do this companies need to implement a continuous process that asks AND documents solid answers to questions like: Who are your target customers? What are their specific pain points that keep them up at night? Who are your main competitors? What are they saying to the marketplace? How does the customer want to acquire products or service.. direct.. distribution.. or through integrators? What is the economic climate in their market segments? What is their sense of urgency to make decisions?

With the answers to the questions above in hand, the next logical step is a facilitated marketing session with your team to answer these important questions:

1. What urgent problem does your product solve for your prospective customer?

2. How is your customer or prospect solving that problem today?

3. What specific benefits does your product or offering deliver?

4. Why is your product better than the competitive alternatives or their current solution?

5. What about your product is unique and relevant from a prospects perspective?

6. How can you uniquely communicate these differences better than your competition?

Including a cross functional team including marketing, engineering, customer support, business development and leveraging outside help

adds new perspectives and optimizes the final results.

Effective facilitation of this session by a 3rd party can be the key to your companies messaging and positioning success. Have a great day!

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e-Nuggets

• “Leadership is Action not Position” – Neil Lisab Cire 1999
• "Forget about yesterday. Prepare for tomorrow. Change, as you have never seen it, at speeds you've never seen." - Jack Welch
• Yesterday is history. Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present! - unkown
• "Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can." Mary Frances Berry
•  "Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing." Friedrich von Schiller
  
  
  
  

Commit to early engagement & collaberation

The best marketeers today are collaborating with all parts of the business. This allows them to deliver more optimized marketing strategies and better execution plans that support the overall business goals.

By engaging early in the other business processes, marketing can influence the team brainstorm and help shape the strategy. This enables a company to more creatively apply the best marketing tools & techniques available that will accelerate business results.

 

Early involvement by marketing in other parts of the business planning improves efficiency and drives awesome results!

 

Have a great day!
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Vision and Commitment

e-Nuggets

• "Change before you have to." - Jack Welch
• “You only fail when you decide to quit” - Anonymous]
• "We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present." - Adlai E. Stevenson
• "There is very little success where there is little laughter." - Andrew Carnegie
• “Those who say it cannot be done should get out of the way of those who will do it” - Edward Demming

LAUNCH - Day One

The blog will offer insights, resources and links to some of the latest most innovative ideas & trends in marketing. Additionally, I will share some of my favorite inspirational pictures & e-Nuggets.

Stay tuned and have a great day!

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e-Nuggets

• "Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare" - Proverb
• "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
• "People with goals succeed because they know where they are going." - Earl Nightingal
• "Talent + Relationships + Clear Expectations + Delivered Results = Success" - Neil Lisab Cire 1995