(sales x marketing) to the power of technology = extraordinary results

Marketing and Sales alignment requires more than point solutions

According to a recent study conducted by Aberdeen Group, the top two marketing pains are: measuring marketing results and lead generation, followed closely by lead nurturing and lead qualification.

Given the plethora of B2B lead generation channels, such as webcasts, seminars, event marketing, public relations, whitepapers, email marketing, and web-based marketing, and all of the technologies available to manage each of them, why are those still the pain points? 

Because point solutions don't deliver intelligence.  Point solutions offer capabilities.  And there is a big difference.  Qualified leads need to be moved through the sales pipeline as efficiently as possible.  Savvy best-in-class companies know and understand that delivering flat data to sales from business cards collected at a trade show, or names and emails of webinar registrants, is no longer acceptable.  That mode of behavior has created a chasm of trust between Sales and Marketing that lengthens sales cycles, and results in duplicate work being done by Sales because they don't trust Marketing to deliver the goods.

Integration and automation are an essential component of marketing intelligence.  Sales has tools like Sales Force Automation (SFA) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to help manage the selling process.  What Marketing needs is CRM for Marketing.  Integrated tools that help to tailor messaging specific to leads, that can be automated to deliver messages relevant to a leads' interest based on their activity in the lead nurturing process, and the ability to trigger those leads over to the Sales CRM system when they are ready for a sales conversation (including the rich set of ever-expanding Interest Profiles so Sales can pick up right where Marketing and the prospect are).  Include the ability for sales to pass them right back if the opportunity is outside the current sales focus, and Sales and Marketing have tools that will help achieve meaningful alignment.

Marketing needs a solution that will allow them to manage the messaging, value propositions, and lead generation and nurturing activities so that Sales can leverage it rather than reinventing it. 

It's time to get Sales and Marketing rowing the boat in the same direction - leveraging the expertise and capabilities they both bring to the table - in service of the overall organizational revenue and growth goals.

Point solutions for email, webinar registration, surveys, content management, you name it, just don't provide the sort of intelligence that's needed to keep up in today's world.

Start propelling your company forward -- empower your marketing activities with CRM for Marketing.

CRM for Marketing: It’s time!

One of B2B Marketing’s greatest challenges is providing well qualified leads to sales and yet they all too often don’t have the systems that support that effort. What would a Marketing CRM system look like? It would include:

1. Having an engaging interactive marketing website that has relevant and timely content and is easy to use. It should be easily adaptable for the times when new email campaigns drive traffic to the site.

2. An email blast capability that allows targeting to specific audiences. When they arrive at your site, the ability to know that not only did they open that email and clicked through to the site – but also to know what they actually did at the site. You have the capacity to track prospects from the email through the time they spend on the various pages of your site.

3.  An integration with Sales’ CRM so that when the lead wants to have a meeting with someone, that meeting can be scheduled in your CRM system with the appropriate sales person.  That sales person can add information they learn in the prospect meeting to what is known about the lead so that if there isn’t an immediate opportunity, that lead can continue to be nurtured by marketing – and not just dropped by sales.

4.  Allowing the sales person to know all the information that the lead has been exposed to and looked at (their Interest Profile), so sales can gauge their interest levels, and present information that furthers the conversation, rather than starting at the beginning.

5.  Being able to get metrics on leads that become customers, so you can know Marketing’s contribution to revenue, as well as everything provided along the way.

That’s just the start of what a Marketing CRM system could provide to an organization, if they wanted to upgrade their interactive capacity and the value they deliver to the organization. And such systems are available for less than a fulltime, experienced IT headcount on an annualized basis.

What’s the ROI? For one of my customers, implementing this type of a solution resulted in 35% increase in sales the quarter following the first full quarter the tools were implemented and used. If your company earns $3.75M per quarter, that’s a $1.3M increase – and that’s only over a single quarter. In the next few months I’ll be exploring more lead nurturing techniques on Sales x Marketing and demonstrating why Marketing CRM can give such a dramatic increase to your company’s bottom line.

Living beyond your opinions

In so many of my conversations with Sales and Marketing folks, there’s a disdain within each organization for the other. The Sales organization thinks Marketing doesn’t provide good leads and is out of touch with the 'real' customers. Marketing departments have attitudes about the inept Sales folks who don't properly use the marketing tools they're provided with. 

Whatever your position in the organization, a breakthrough in the Sales & Marketing relationship begins with seeing your own opinions about your counterparts in the other department – no matter how petty or ugly. Just take a clear look at what you tell yourself when a sale doesn’t happen or you don’t meet target numbers for a quarter.

When we believe something has gone wrong, it’s built into the machinery of our minds to make up an explanation – one that’s favorable toward us. There’s nothing wrong with that, the problem is that we believe our own hype and over time these solidified opinions can become part of our departmental culture.

One person can change the tone of a department. It’s difficult to move against a group, but also rewarding when you begin to see yourself as a change agent.

First you need to understand the background opinions in your department. What are the stereotypes and common complaints? Make them glaring obvious for yourself so a red flag goes up when they slip into a conversation. Then, stop honoring the prevailing opinion. If you find yourself parroting the party-line about how Sales is arrogant or Marketing is useless, take responsibility and revise what you’re saying. Contradict the status quo.

If you’re ready to test yourself with a real challenge, find someone in the other department who you think really doesn’t get it. Set up time to meet with them and leave all your judgments behind. As you listen to them talk about their job, find things to appreciate them for. You might say something really surprising like, “I used to think Marketing people didn’t do anything. I apologize, I realize I haven’t been paying attention and you’re trying to help me.”

I love to hear outcomes from people who have taken the challenge of living beyond their opinions. If you have a story to share, add a comment here or drop me an email.