Hugh Macfarlane, Author at align.me

Measure B2B Marketing on closures

Want to receive more content like this? Subscribe to our monthly B2B marketing blog! You should expect, what you inspect, and it seems that measurement of Marketing still has a great impact on effectiveness. "You should expect, what you inspect" is one of many quotes attributed to W. Edwards Deming, the American Engineer who contributed so much to the regrowth of post-war Japan. Working with the industrial leaders of Japan he instilled many of the strong management principles that Japan is now famous for and lifted Japan from poverty in the 1950s to being the second largest global economy in the READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Velocity|

B2B Marketing Definition

I've not typically been big on the necessity for definitions, but became frustrated recently when a senior marekter threw terms like strategy, tactics around as if they were interchangable. It is not hard to understand what B2B marketing is, nor how it is different from consumer, or B2C marketing. Let's start at the top: B2B marketing can be defined as the planning, execution and measurement of the strategy and the tactics needed to sell a product or service to a business. In this blog, I'll unpack that just a little, argue why the four P's is READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Tactics|

Why Marketing should report to Sales

Get your copy of our 2014 Sales and Marketing Alignment Report Marketing needs to report to Sales. I'll get to that blasphemy in a minute. If you have listened to some of my recent blogs, you know that in 2005 we published the first of our landmark reports into alignment. What we learned then has shaped much of the debate on the topic of alignment ever since. In 2014 we published the 2013 refresh of the landmark alignment research. What we learned about training, process, automation, structure, tactics, demand generation, measurement and location is going to get the READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales|

How to Generate B2B Leads

B2B Marketers are asked, more than anything else, to generate leads for Sales to pursue. But what kind of B2B leads do we want Marketing to generate? Broadly speaking, Marketers can generate three types of leads: named prospects who meet your ideal client profile; buyers who have shown interest in a topic you write about or a category you sell; or buyers who have shown they are troubled about the problem you solve better than any other; or buyers actively looking for solutions like yours. What we’re really distinguishing here is, how ‘done’ does Sales want its READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales|

B2B Buyer Behaviour

Want to receive more blogs like this? Subscribe to our twice weekly B2B marketing insights! I can show you how to almost double your closure rates from marketing leads with just 5 minutes work. I'll defend that outlandish statement in a minute or two. If you have listened to some of my recent blogs, you know that in 2005 we published the first of our landmark reports into alignment. What we learned then has shaped much of the debate on the topic of alignment ever since. In 2014 we published the 2013 refresh of the landmark alignment READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales|

Marketing Funnel isn’t dead

The marketing funnel isn't dead. Sorry Forrester, Aberdeen and HBR, it's just that you never understood it. The funnel is an old metaphor, and only a loose one: lots of buyers at the top and a few at the bottom, and our job is to move them through. The flaw in the metaphor is obvious: not all buyers move through - even if you are infinitely patient, and so it's more of a sieve than a funnel. This is the basic idea that I began with when I wrote 'The Leaky Funnel' in 2003 when I introduced two READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Velocity|

Sales and Marketing systems don’t deliver the benefits you’d expect

Want to receive more content like this? Subscribe to our monthly B2B marketing blog! Adding sales and marketing systems to a business previously struggling without either will not deliver the uplift in sales performance or marketing contribution you'd have expected. So why would you bother investing in processes at all? In 2005 we published the first of our landmark reports into alignment. What we learned then has shaped much of the debate on the topic of alignment ever since. In 2014 we published the 2013 refresh of the landmark alignment research. What we learned about training, process, automation, READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales|

Inbound marketing B2B and the role of long tail search

Inbound marketing for B2B requires the same skills as for B2C, plus a few. In B2B, the inbound marketing lead is often not a lead at all, but a nurture opportunity. So we need inbound marketing tactics for both early-stage and late-stage buyers. I've just found a great new b2b marketing tool I'd like to share with you. Think about your own use of search. Sometimes, you are looking for a 'thing', a solution. You have already worked out that something needs to change, and you have an idea about what the solution might involve, and so READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

Sales and Marketing training lifts performance where you’d least expect it

Training your marketers does little to help them generate leads that are more 'acceptable' to Sales, nor does increasing the training of your salespeople improve their ability to close. If this is the case, why bother investing in training at all? In this week's blog, Hugh explains why investing heavily in training for Sales and Marketing does deliver benefits, but not where you'd expect. Want to receive more content like this? Subscribe to our monthly B2B marketing blog!

By Hugh Macfarlane|Evergreen, Skills|

Marketing automation delivers scale, but not confidence

Want to receive more blogs like this? Subscribe to our twice weekly B2B marketing insights! Get your copy of our 2014 Sales and Marketing Alignment Report Is Marketing automation really worth the effort and expense? In this week's blog, Hugh delves into findings from the 2013 Sales and Alignment report to show how marketing automation delivers scale, but not always confidence. Even firms just planning to automate marketing have improved efficiencies in marketing's contribution to revenue and customer retention. That's got to be something to consider.

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy, Tactics, Velocity|

About Hugh Macfarlane