The Best Time to Align Marketing and Sales

If you sense that your revenue engine is under-performing and believe that aligning Marketing and Sales will lead to the necessary transformation you might next ask when is the best time to launch an alignment initiative. Fair enough question and I’ll provide some ideas beyond the obvious answer of, “right now”! Aligning the Marketing function and the Sales function to the buyers’ journey and to a single, measurable revenue-generation plan is frequently the transformation that leads to breakthroughs in revenue growth and revenue-generation efficiency. Here are several events that usually trigger a decision by top management to READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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10 A/B test Do’s & Don’ts for B2B Marketers

When was the last time you tested some part of your marketing? If it takes a bit of thought, you're probably not doing it enough. The problem with that is, even just a minor test can go a long way - improving traffic, leads, and even sales if done right. And if you're not taking advantage of some simple A/B testing tactics, you could be missing out on some major marketing improvements. So without further ado, I present to you 10 great dos and don'ts of A/B testing to motivate you to get moving and start doing READ MORE ›

By |Strategy, Velocity|
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Six Strategies for Sales and Marketing in 2012

The liquidity risks of 2008/9, public bailout, market nervousness and contraction, financial market uncertainty, high unemployment and subsequently sluggish US economy have all commanded world attention for the last two or three years. None of this though prepared most of us for the genuine risk of sovereign debt default for a growing group of member states, and the potential collapse of the European Union, or at least that of the Euro Zone. 2012 is, at best, a period of further uncertainty. How should sales and marketing leaders prepare? In a paper entitled. “Collateral Damage. What next? Where READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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Competitively superior in-field targeting

Fish where the big fish are! Go for the 80/20! Don’t mess around with the small end of town – spend your time at the big end of town. All laudable exhortations. As a fledgling Sales Exec decades ago, I heard them all. You probably did too, huh? Calls to arms like this aren’t good enough for sustained competitive advantage in field targeting of the customer base and prospect pool. Calculate the cost of a visit in your sales organisation. Do it properly. Load up the full cost of the Sales Team with direct Sales Management PLUS READ MORE ›

By |Strategy, Velocity|
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Social media: from B2C to B2B

Although B2C companies were first to jump on the social media bandwagon, B2B companies are starting to recognise that social media can also work in a B2B context. But, as a B2B marketer, where do you start? We hosted a Funnel Masters dinner (alumni of Funnel Academy and other funnel zealots) recently, and this is what they concluded: 1. Start with the basics, and decide where social media can add value (if at all). The first rule of thumb is – don’t do it just because it feels like everyone else is. Social media may make no READ MORE ›

By |Strategy, Tactics|
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Sales and Service: Healthchecks on customer interfaces

The medicos tell us that it is good fundamental health and wellbeing practice to undertake a regular health assessment. You know the stuff………blood pressure, cholesterol, weight: height ratios, lifestyle questionnaires etc -  a simple and quick way to ensure our all-important health and wellbeing is on track. The same principles apply to B2B sales organisations. The sales process is mostly conducted out in the market and not within the walls of your office, so the process is often not visible, and you may not be able to readily see whether it is working effectively or being implemented READ MORE ›

By |Sales, Strategy|
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Top 3 priorities for B2B marketers: Marketing Sherpa

According to new research from MarketingSherpa, published recently by eMarketer.com, marketers are concerned primarily with 3 stages of the marketing funnel. While 60% of B2B marketers revealed that lead generation is their top priority, converting leads into customers trailed closely behind with 57%. This is good and bad news. What this tells us is that increasingly marketers understand that their primary role is to contribute directly to the business in the form of one key metric: revenue. Its really, really good news because it shows that marketers are increasingly acknowledging that they form a key part of READ MORE ›

By |Strategy, Velocity|
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To market, to market, to buy a fat pig…

The term “market” must be just about the most over bandied term in...ironically...marketing. As Sales and Marketers, we use the term occasionally when we mean market. Accidentally or with educated intent. We also use it on occasion when we mean customer segment. And sometimes when we mean value chain. And sometimes when we should use the term distribution channel. Worst offence of all is when we call groups of products or services “markets”. I was in a Group Exec meeting of a global goliath’s Australian affiliate that supplies to major construction and they spoke about their “accessories” READ MORE ›

By |Strategy|
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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 |Strategy, Velocity|
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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 |Strategy|
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