Developing a Revenue Marketing Organization: One Quick Tip!

Recently, Kevin Joyce published a blog post on the Business 2 Community (B2C) website which talks about how he would turn inbound marketing into a ‘revenue marketing’ organization. In the post, Joyce recommends that all of marketing should be measured on sales qualified leads (SQLs) and nothing else. It reminded me of the similar experiences I had in the past when I turned my marketing team into a ‘revenue marketing’ entity.

On two different occasions, I took an approach which was quite similar to Joyce’s - I put the entire marketing and the inside sales teams on the same goals - Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) and took away all other goals. Of course, this announcement shocked everyone and it took almost two quarters for the teams to successfully collaborate, streamline the process, and hit the mutual goal. In one instance, I had a 15% turnover in staff that included those who could not adjust to the new way of thinking. This proved to be a blessing in disguise, as it gave me the opportunity to hire people with the right mindset.

The concept of revenue marketing meant that my PR team had to change their focus. With the introduction of this concept, PR now had to ‘integrate’ their activities with the marketing team versus writing articles or case studies on any topic that was ‘easy’. This meant getting a view into the events and campaigns that were being planned and developing content on THOSE topics in order to provide ‘air cover’ for the demand generation team.

Naturally, if the PR team is publishing articles and case studies focusing on the same topics as the demand generation team, you will eventually see an increase in webinar attendance, email responses, and ultimately qualified leads. Recently, I wrote a blog post that provides some interesting statistics on this topic where I talk about experiencing a 300% increase in the cost per lead for products that do not have PR ‘air cover’ versus those that do. The ‘air cover’, along with the higher quantity and quality of marketing content coming from PR, also helped the demand generation teams develop deeper campaigns and improved nurturing.

As Joyce also mentions, the mutual SQL goal forced the teams to work together. The marketing team carefully listened to the feedback provided by the inside sales team with regards to both lead quality and campaign ideas. And, over time, the inside sales team religiously followed up on each and every lead that marketing delivered.

Have you had similar experiences turning your organization into a revenue marketing entity?

References:

http://www.business2community.com/marketing/how-does-inbound-marketing-relate-to-revenue-marketing-0564580#XLYO0MdGarvQ3fdu.99I

http://b-to-bmarketingdigestfortheceo.blogspot.com/2013/10/integrated-marketing-its-still-in-isnt.html

Integrated Marketing: It's still 'IN', isn't it?

It's interesting how everything I see and do working with clients always brings me back to the

concept of 'integrated marketing' - a term coined years ago but I believe is just as relevant today. Whether you are talking about digital marketing, revenue marketing, internet marketing, email marketing, PR, AR - anythingmarketing; none of it works unless all dials are tuned and all marketing disciplines, campaigns, activities are integrated across the board.

I wrote about examples of what happens if marketing is not integrated in older blog posts but there is one experience I had that 'showed me the money' - what it costs when marketing isn't integrated.

A client of mine had three different product lines - two of which were their core products and one which was an after-thought product developed by an engineer who thought it was a solid piece of technology. Let us call each: Product A, Product B and Product C.

Marketing activities, either by design or by accident, were integrated for Product A and Product B; the message to customers, the marketplace, media and analysts was consistent and the branding, website, positioning, targeting, lead generation, partner management and field marketing were all aligned.

Product C, on the other hand solved a completely different business problem for a completely different audience than the other Products. Regardless, sales viewed Product C as an easy way to bring in incremental revenue quickly. The Sales VP assigned three full times sales representatives and one inside sales representative to focus solely on Product C and instructed Demand Marketing to run lead generation activities. Corporate Marketing was not supporting any activity over Product C other than the Product Marketing Manager (who was one of the best the company had) to develop marketing content and sales collateral without any oversight to ensure brand and messaging consistency.

The results? Demand Marketing barely generated leads for Product C and the cost per lead was way out of line when compared to the other product lines - over $9,000 per sales lead - 300% higher than the cost of a sales lead for Product A or Product B.

Was it the marketing? You bet it was - a great example of what happens when you do not have integrated marketing.

If you have had similar experiences, I'd love to hear.....

3 Sales Questions You Should Always Ask and Answer

You are working with sales to develop a value proposition for a specific prospect. The presentation is going in different directions as the sales and marketing teams suggest different strategies. Some want to talk about product and features; others want to focus on benefits and ROI. The conversation gets tangled and so does the presentation.

One of the most important things to remember when developing client-facing content is to put yourself in the prospect's shoes. What questions are the BUYERS asking themselves? What do THE BUYERS need to know to justify a buy decision?

It's more simple than you might realize because at the end of the day, the prospective buyer needs to know the answer to only 3 QUESTIONS:

1. Why should I buy?
2. Why should I buy from you?
3. Why should I buy NOW?

Wow! 

Now you are asking yourself, "Why didn't I think of that on my own?" No worries. I can't take credit for developing the 3 questions. The concept was passed down to me from a marketing consultant many years ago.

But I can demonstrate how to respond to the 3 questions, and I decided to use my own company and services as real-life example. Note that I've limited my responses to 5 points because that is the most a human being can digest - 3 points is even better.

Why buy marketing consulting services?

So let's pretend that we are the buyer. We sit in her chair. We wear her shoes. Speaking as the buyer, what want to be able to articulate the business problem?

• B2B marketing organizations need to be agile and move quickly. I need a consultant to keep the wheels on the marketing machine especially when priorities and staff requirements change.
• Sometimes I need to fill a temporary gap in headcount. Other times I need specific marketing expertise fast.
• Hiring great team members takes time and if work stops or slows down, the company can loose its competitive edge which can negatively impact my reputation across the company.
• Sales doesn't care if marketing is understaffed or overworked, sales needs leads.
• The company's revenue number is depending on me. 

Why buy McGee Marketing Consulting services?

The answer to this question highlights your differentiators and the responses change depending upon the specific needs of the prospect. Make sure that for any differentiator you mention, you can provide proof to support your claim. This is an example that I recently provided to a technology company that sells B2B insurance software.

• Over 20 years of 'old and new-school' experience as a strategist with the ability to execute and achieve measurable results. 
• Expertise in 'womb to win' integrated marketing (e.g., from GTM plan development through all aspects of marketing and sales execution). 
• Experience across all marketing disciplines in the B2B technology sector. 
• Domain expertise in both the healthcare and insurance segments.
• Innate ability to quickly simulate with your team and achieve success fast.

Why buy now?

This is a very important question - it is the compelling event that has a strong sense of urgency and can only be answered after a discovery session with the prospect. Here are the reasons why clients have engaged with me - again from their point of view.

• I need an expert to put a new set of eyes over our messaging and value proposition NOW.
• I need someone to manage my PR agencies NOW. I'm spending a fortune and need the PR activities integrated with the rest of marketing.
• I am understaffed and need to launch a new product NOW.
• Sales needs more leads NOW and the current demand generation machine isn't working.
• We are a small company, need help with strategy NOW, but not ready to hire a full time VP of Marketing.

I am interested to get your point of view on the "Why buy...Why buy your company...Why buy now" perspective.

3 Reasons Why You Need to Redesign your Website

Several weeks ago, HubSpot published an excellent blog post discussing 10 Terrible Reasons to Redesign your Website and as I read it, I recalled how many times I heard these exact reasons from former employers or clients.

And when one of these reasons surfaced, I remember how the marketing team stopped everything to redesign, relaunch, revamp, re-something the corporate website as fast as possible. Many times, the website looked so much better - everyone agreed - but no one really knew whether the website was 'behaving' better - meeting the objective of 'why a website'?

For this reason, I thought I'd share with you my views on 'when to redesign your website' - IMHO.

Reason 1: Prospects tell you they don't know what you do

One of the key components that drives a superior website is crisp messaging which is developed from the customer or prospect's point of view. I myself have made mistakes here, getting caught up in coining new technology or marketing terms, trying to look 'new school', modern, on the bleeding edge, only to later discover that website readers are scratching their heads wondering what we are talking about. Other times, I've seen organization's get caught up in focusing on the 'unique' features of their product - versus the 'unique' value - which only leads to presenting your product while standing in the weeds.

IMHO - You should crystallize your value proposition, key messages and unique selling propositions (USPs) before you even think about a website redesign. Prepare yourself because if you are a SMB and haven't done this in a process-oriented way, you may be surprised to see how long and difficult this can be. Also look under Reason 3 for other homework you will need to do before finalizing your messaging.

Reason 2: Your customers tell you they can't find anything on your website

Website navigation is more important that you think. Regardless of how much great marketing content you may have on your site, it's of no use if no one can find it.

IMHO, you need to think about what your customers and prospects want to know - NOT what your company wants the customer to know - and put that content front and center.

Depending on the objective of your site (see Reason 3 below), customers, customer stories, resources such as your blog and other thought leadership pieces, and educational opportunities such as webinars, events, should be front and center - in other words, ABOVE the fold.

Reason 3: Your website isn't meeting your company's objective

Reason 3 assumes, of course, that you have identified the objective of your website at some point. For most B2B enterprise software organizations, the objective of a website is one or more of the following:

• Provide product, company and/or industry/thought leadership information for existing customers and prospects
• Generate leads (note: for a software company that provides 'free trial' software, the objective of their website may be to generate sales AND leads)
• Enhance your company's brand
• Any combination of a through c above.

Provide information (a.k.a. marketing content)

With regards to product and company information, you know if you haven't reached the objective if you can check off Reasons 1 or 2 above. What is more interesting is that if you are doing a good job at providing compelling information about your company or product, and your customers/prospects can decipher and find it, you can still get a low grade for your site if you aren't delivering industry and thought leadership content.

IMHO - many technology organizations have great websites both visually and content-wise but it only talks about the company and/or the product. Your readers want more. They are looking to be educated about your 'space' and the value of your product or service. Don't just talk about yourself, your company, your product, your product features.

Generate leads

Both marketing and sales will know, intuitively, if the website isn't generating inbound leads from either organic search or PPC. The problem here can be a combination of not identifying the right keywords (or any keywords for that matter), not delivering the information the prospect wants, not making the information easy to find. 

IMHO - you should develop your list of initial keywords as you develop your messaging, value proposition, USPs and web content. And, bear in mind that this will be an iterative process. Hire SEO and PPC SMEs and don't forget that a strong social media presence can also bring leads to your site.

Enhance the company's brand

Your sales team, customers, the media and the industry analysts will tell you, in a heartbeat, whether they recognize your brand. What they can't necessarily tell you as easily is whether the brand personality, as portrayed on your website, is the personality you want portrayed. 

IMHO - if you feel your brand and/or brand personality is weak or needs to be more 'current', you will need to bring your company through a re-branding exercise. Unless you have a branding SME on staff (and even if you do and depending on your size), re- randing is best done in collaboration with an outside marketing agency.

Have you had other experiences for 'why a website redesign'? If so, please feel free to comment and add additional ideas.

A True Leader Passes...

Yesterday, my business colleagues and I were sad to learn that a great sales person, a great business leader, and a great man  - one we all admired - passed away. While we don't know the circumstances of his death, we all know he was too young to die and his passing was unexpected. I personally had limited dealings with him, but still admired him from afar. We are all grieving as a good man has died too soon, leaving an unmatched legacy we can only wish to leave behind when we pass on.

He was unlike any of his peers. He had a smile and a charm that made a lasting impression. And his charisma was real. He was trustworthy and true to his word. He knew how to motivate and lead people to win - win for themselves and win for him. You wanted to be part of his team. You wanted to be near him in the hopes that some of his 'greatness' would rub off on you. He was one-of-a-kind.

With his passing, I remember the recent articles I've seen on LinkedIn about the difference between a boss and a leader. I know that when I read these types of articles in the future, I will always think of him - a true leader.

I wish I had known him better so I could have learned how to emulate him. While there are many people who were close to him - worked or lived close to him - I am sure there are many more people who lived on the periphery of his life, and like me, could only wish there had been more opportunity to know him better.

This is my personal goodbye to an individual who made a lasting impression on my life. I will always remember him fondly and I pray for his family, who I hope can find some consolation in knowing how he changed so many lives for the better.

10 Steps to Develop a Lead Generation Plan

Hey Marketing....is Sales your BFF?

I just heard yesterday that one of my marketing colleagues abruptly left their company, less than a year after taking the position. This happens more often than people know. Statistically, CMOs barely survive more than 18 months on the job. Recently, I was speaking with another colleague who has been in their marketing leadership role for several years. When I congratulated him on such an accomplishment, he replied that his tenure and success is the result of the organization's view on collaboration and partnership attitude across the organization. I realized that it does 'take two to tango' which is what has motivated me to write this blog and share some of my thoughts.

It is no secret that in the technology sector in particular, sales and marketing organizations can be at odds. My experience has been that in 50% of the technology companies that I've worked with or for, sales and marketing had a mediocre to bad relationship. What this means for both organizations is that marketing will have continued high turnover, particularly at the highest levels, and sales will find themselves continuously looking for leads to make their numbers. It will be a vicious circle and the biggest loser will be the company itself.

Today, marketing is ABOUT LEADS and as far as sales is concerned, nothing else matters - not analyst relations, not public relations, typically not anything that can't be quantitatively measured in the number AND QUALITY OF LEADS. But for marketing to meet this objective, the executive team, as well as marketing and sales leadership, need to 'own' it collectively, particularly for companies in small to mid-sized companies - those organizations who need leads (and customers) fast in order to survive.

For marketing executives looking to join a small to mid-sized technology firm, here are some pointers on what to look out for:

• If you are considering joining a technology organization as a VP of Marketing or CMO, make no mistake about the fact that your sole objective will be delivering 'qualified leads' regardless of what the executive team tells you during the interview process.
• As a marketing executive, probe the executive team on the history of the organization's sales and marketing relationship. Understand what types of marketing leadership had been in place prior to your arrival, what they accomplished and more importantly, what they didn't accomplish according to the Sales VPs in particular. If you determine that the relationship between the two organizations has not been good historically, you need to determine whether you think you can turn that situation around.
• Be sure you meet with all Sales VPs during the interview process and pay particular attention to the 'vibe' you pick up about their views towards marketing and also towards you, as a candidate. If you have any inclination that you cannot build a meaningful, long-term relationship with any Sales VP in the organization, you should consider NOT taking the position. I have never seen a situation where a CMO/Marketing VP, who is at odds with his/her sales counterpart survives. In fact, I predict that if, as a marketing executive, you DO NOT have a good relationship with a Sales VP, your tenure in the company will be less than one year, 18 months best case and it won't be fun.

 For sales executives, here are some pointers:

• Try to view and treat the marketing leadership as a partner. Always make the time to interview ANY senior level marketing candidate regardless of how busy you may be with sales. Be clear about your objectives and expectations during the interview process.
• Think about how you can help the marketing team be successful. After all, if your company is a 'marketing revolving door', that won't help you meet your revenue goals. It is in your personal interest to find and keep good marketing leadership and open and honest communications are the best way to make this happen.
• Work with the executive team on how sales and marketing should be organized. If you have been unhappy with the volume or quality of leads that have come from marketing, you can consider
• Taking the demand generation team from marketing, consider it a 'field marketing' entity, and have it report to sales
• Likewise, if you have an inside sales team that warms up leads, put the field marketing and inside sales team under the same leadership under sales as well

I expect that my marketing counterparts will not like this last suggestion

but I believe that it is one way to better shore up relationships between the organizations. As time marches on and the company grows, marketing can then put a 'corporate marketing' demand generation organization in place to augment field marketing and ensure that the company meets both tactical and strategic goals.

There is so much more I could write about this situation but I'll stop here.
For more insight into other ideas on this topic, here is a good blog that provides other ideas too.

I'm interested to hear what you think about this topic and these suggestions so feel free to comment.