Strategy

Are you suffering from “Top of Funnel Myopia”?

Bob Apollo recently launched a poll on LinkedIn asking: “Which one of the following initiatives has the greatest potential to boost your organisation's sales performance ?” a) Finding more qualified opportunities b) Shortening our average sales cycle c) Increasing average sales win rates d) Qualifying bad deals out earlier e) Improving sales & marketing co-operation Finding more qualified opportunities as well as improving sales & marketing co-operation are “top of funnel” initiatives. Three quarters of the respondents to Bob's poll consider that this is the key to boosting sales performance. For those respondents, Bob has since written READ MORE ›

By Christian Maurer|Strategy, Velocity|

What happened to the real CMO?

Once upon a time not so long ago in a kingdom not so far away, Marketing asked for a seat at the big boy’s table. Determined to lose the tag of being purely a communications role, CMO’s insisted that it was marketing that held the key to improving the bottom line - and therefore, must be included in all strategic business decisions. These pioneers had a strong point, it echoed often enough, and was reinforced widely enough as a ‘good thing to do’. For its efforts, Marketing was granted a seat at the table, and grinned for READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|

The attributes marketers need to be revenue marketers

In the past few months a cool new term has appeared on my radar. That term is, “revenue marketer”. Wish I had thought of it first. It defines a new level of marketing professional. While I’m energized by the term, sadly, I’m concerned that too many B2B marketers don’t have the right perspective and skills to play in this new league. My latest exposure to the term was at an event in Austin hosted by Marketo, a marketing automation platform vendor. Speaking at the event was Debbie Qaqish , Chief Revenue Marketing Officer of The Pedowitz Group, READ MORE ›

By Chuck Besondy|Sales, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|

align.me CEO & Founder, Hugh Macfarlane’s featured keynote at DemandCon now available

Hugh Macfarlane’s featured keynote at DemandCon in May 2011 now available as an interactive video. July 8, 2011, Melbourne, VIC, AU – Hugh Macfarlane, Founder and CEO of align.me and author of The Leaky Funnel, was a featured keynote at DemandCon in May 2011. He then joined Funnel Coach, Charles Besondy, to run a full day Funnel Plan training workshop with the foremost thinkers in B2B demand generation. His keynote was centred on a topic that has made it to AMA’s Top 10 list of primary focus areas two years in a row – Sales and Marketing READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy, Tactics, Velocity|

Is VC Funding the Best Strategy? A Look at Marketing Automation

Marketing automation software is still considered a relative newcomer in the enterprise software space. However, there are new entrants popping up regularly, leading to a lot of activity and buzz in the market. With the growth in this space, the topic of venture capital comes up fairly often. Some vendors are taking on new rounds from top tier VCs, while others are pursuing what they perceive to be the more sustainable method of bootstrapping. I decided to explore both ends of spectrum: from the Marketos that have raised $58 million in VC funding to the Pardots that READ MORE ›

By Lauren Carlson|Strategy|

Account Ownership as an Alignment Indicator

Charles Besondy, President of Besondy Consulting & Interim Management, writes... The attitude your company has and the processes your company employs for its strategic accounts can be an indicator of the degree of alignment between Sales and the rest of the organization... This thought struck me last night while enjoying drinks with a former client. He was recounting how a new CEO and CMO at his company had very refreshing views about the handling of strategic accounts. Previously, the five major accounts identified as strategic were “owned” by account managers in the sales department. The company’s attitude READ MORE ›

By Chuck Besondy|Strategy|

B2B marketing that reaches executives

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Is there a failsafe way to engage executives as prospects in B2B marketing strategies? We talked about selling to crazy-busy people when we reviewed Jill Konrath’s presentation titled to that effect, but it’s definitely a topic that B2B marketing professionals are drawn too. This is why I’m confident that Adrian Ott’s presentation will be a welcome addition to the DemandCon agenda. So what will Adrian have to say about the matter? Adrian has promised to cover the “new rules for engaging today’s 24-Hour Executive”: How much time executive decision-makers READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy, Velocity|

Metric-Based Process to Generate Sales-Worthy Leads

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Metrics for every stage of the lead-conditioning process? B2B marketing professionals will know that proving their worth to the rest of the organisation can prove painful at times. But when metrics are in place, they can serve to facilitate better planning, lead-readiness and maximise ROI. What you need is a solid set of metrics to align with your B2B marketing processes. So what are they? Laurie Beasley, President Beasley Direct, and Tom Judge, VP of Strategy at Direct Marketing Partners, will talk about creating a metrics-based B2B marketing process READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy, Velocity|

Social media panel for B2B marketing

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... The Mecca for social media in B2B marketing is at DemandCon on May 19th. If you’ve ever thought to yourself – ‘how does social media work in B2B marketing’ – but never quite received all the answers you needed, then I would pay close attention to what happens at the ‘Intra Funnel – Social Media Panel’ presentation on day 2 of DemandCon. So why do I believe this presentation to be so significant for B2B marketing professionals? For starters, the panel will be moderated by Kristie Wells, Founder and READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|News, Strategy|

Why B2B marketing needs an element of ‘boy meets girl’

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... Who tells the stories in your company? Most of you will answer that your CEO or Director of Sales or Marketing is the default raconteur. This quality makes this ‘talent attractive to B2B marketing professionals, prospects, clients, and probably their friends and family too. It’s simple – people enjoy stories. And good nurturing involves an element of storytelling (in B2B marketing, and in general!). So why isn’t the B2B marketing team fine-tuning their ability to tell a good story? Ardath Albee, author of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy|