Bridging the Great Divide: Aligning Sales and Marketing
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•1,208 views
Demandbase Chief Revenue Officer Don Wight discussed the divide between sales and marketing professionals during his presentation at the 2014 Chief Marketing Officer Leadership Forum in Dallas on Dec. 9. In his presentation, Wight noted that there are many good reasons for sales and marketing professionals to collaborate. According to Wight, sales and marketing professionals who share key performance indicators (KPIs) can work toward common goals. Organizations that are focused on business-to-business sales cannot use business-to-consumer tactics to connect with their target audiences, Wight said. In addition, Wight pointed out that B2B buys and sells by account and it also aligns the marketing vernacular to the sales vernacular. And ultimately, organizations can use targeted account-based marketing, Wight said, to support both sales and marketing professionals: “The nice thing about accounting-based marketing is that it is focuses on the best opportunities. You’re going after the accounts that you really think can buy your product. It supports the sales reality.” Also, Wight noted that an account-based marketing approach enables an organization to reduce its marketing budget and get better sales results. Wight said sales and marketing professionals that frequently collaborate with one another can make the most of business leads and help an organization succeed as well: “If marketing is gold on inquires and leads, it’s not going to translate to the salesperson. It’s really important to get together around the same KPIs … It allows you to spend more smartly. It’s not about reducing your budget, but using it in a better fashion. Then it also eliminates waste on the sales side.” - See more at: http://www.argylejournal.com/chief-marketing-officer/2014-chief-marketing-officer-leadership-forum-don-wight-chief-revenue-officer-demandbase/#sthash.mXovIOhF.dpuf
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Bridging the Great Divide: Aligning Sales and Marketing
Similar to Bridging the Great Divide: Aligning Sales and Marketing (20)
More from Argyle Executive Forum
More from Argyle Executive Forum (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Bridging the Great Divide: Aligning Sales and Marketing
- 1. Don Wight Chief Revenue Officer Demandbase Email: dwight@demandbase.com Bridging the Great Divide: Aligning Sales and Marketing
- 2. Sales and Marketing… Can’t we all just get along?
- 3. The sales and marketing divide MARKETING SALES Leads Personas Quantity Individuals Opportunities Buyers/Influencers Quality Accounts
- 4. MARKETING SALES The result… Marketing isn’t supporting us We delivered 1,238 MQLs this quarter. +27% above goal!”
- 5. Focusing on volume wastes time and money 4.4% Inquiries Convert .03% Inquiries to closed/won Source: Sirius Decisions
- 6. Leads aren’t valued… of marketing generated leads are never followed up by sales. 50% - Miller Pierce, 2014 VOC Study
- 7. The buying process happens before the lead is created SALES CALL LEAD SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE VISIT SEARCH DETERMINE PROBLEM WEBSITE VISIT WEB RESEARCH FRIENDS AND FAMILY Typical B2B Buying Process
- 8. B2B can’t use B2C tactics Spray and Pray • Quantity ≠ quality • Wasted resources Persona Marketing • Targeting based on behaviors • Right person, wrong company Targeting Accounts • B2B buys & sells by account • Aligns marketing with sales/revenue ✔
- 9. Account-Based Marketing Identify the companies most likely to buy, and then market to them
- 10. Account-Based Marketing Identify the companies most likely to buy, and then market to them
- 11. Why Account-Based Marketing? • Ensures attention is given to top prospects/customers • Defines growth and timing based on account specifics • More efficient with a defined universe • Delivers on their target accounts • Linked to greater customer satisfaction and retention • Customers experience less noise, respond at higher rates to more relevant outreach Focuses on Best Opportunities Supports Sales Reality Delivers Customer-Centric Experience
- 13. The Process 1 2 3 4 5 6 Identify stakeholders in marketing and sales Use predictive analytics to help establish target account list Scrub list with sales and marketing stakeholders Develop marketing and sales engagement plans around those accounts Execute marketing programs Refresh target list quarterly
- 14. 3 2 1 Identifying key account attributes Multimedia TechnologiesAnalytics Marketing Automations Web Hosting Platforms Live Chat 4 Overall technology applications used Complexity of website Social Activity Revenue
- 15. The DB 1500
- 16. Territory and account planning WHO MARKETING SALES SDR WHAT OVERVIEW BRAINSTORM ALIGN
- 18. Target Geo: Midwest IL, OH, MN, WI, MO Total Accounts in Territory: 270 • # Touched by Q3 Programs: 135 • Average # of Contacts per account: 6 • Average # of Touches per Contact: 7.5 Q3 Activities: • Advertising campaign • B2B retargeting • Field Marketing Event: Aug 7 • # of pipeline opportunities: 4 • Won Deals: 1 • Content Marketing World (Cleveland): September 8 • Prospect Luncheon (Cleveland): September 10
- 20. Measure by territory August July Programs executing this quarter: • Advertising campaign • B2B Retargeting • Chicago Field Program • Cleveland Appt Setting Campaign • Content Marketing World Performance Assessment: • Saw 5 more target accounts engaged this month. • 6 key accounts engaged in in-person activities. • General upswing in engagement, but not as much as planned. • Q4 programs increased to address this. $190,350 $375,500 15 27
- 21. DB 1500 vs Non DB 1500 Accounts Funnel Velocity ASP Close Rate Enterprise 7% +26% +75% Mid Market 4% +5% +10% Advertising -16% +72% +21%
- 22. The NEW result… MARKETING SALES We reached 50% of your target accounts this quarter and contributed $12.6M in pipeline within those accounts And we closed 15 marketing generated opps
- 23. Key Takeaways SALES • Align Marketing and Sales with the same key KPI’s will build a winning team • An account-based marketing approach reduces marketing budget and sales resource waste • A sales and marketing strategy around ABM is producing solid business results throughout the funnel
- 24. Thank you! Don Wight Chief Revenue Officer Demandbase Email: dwight@demandbase.com
Editor's Notes
- For all the investment in marketing technology and the huge leaps in innovation, we still hear 3 common refrains: My advertising doesn’t work My website sucks My sales team doesn’t follow up on my leads I’ll add another reality that has remained unchanged: Sales and marketing don’t get along These are not insurmountable problems, in fact, they are very solvable.
- So in the next 25 minutes or so, I want to figure out, why we can’t all just get along… Unlike the zebra and the lion, Sales and Marketing actually have common goals… So this is achievable.
- Why is there a divide… One of the primary sources is that we just focus on different things. Our end goal might be the same, but our paths to get there are completely different. Marketing focuses on….on primarily on leads, there is so much focus in the industry on this volume metric and quantity. I just got back from Boston and ran a rounttable at ITSMA and that was the groups #1 issue was the focus in their organization on being measured soley on lead volume. And prior to our ABM approach we had much of the same focus, my teams goals were around total volume of inquiries. But what does sales focus on?
- So what’s the result? How many of you have experienced this? You have had an incredible quarter. Mktg just CRUSHED it… You’re going to a meeting with sales and thinking, finally, for the first time since June I’m going to have a good meeting with them. You get in there and report your results… We delivered over 1200 MQLs this quarter. Over 27% above goal. Check it out. And what’s sales response? Marketing isn’t supporting us… What?? I’ve got data… Hmmm, that’s strange, because I just talked to Bob in the midwest, and he said he hasn’t gotten a good lead from Marketing in like, a month… As marketers, we’ve got major problems We are speaking two different languages
- 1) We focus on volume…. But that’s a total waste of time and money…
- 2) We generate all these leads and throw them over the fence….Sales guys take a sniff and go back to what they were doing…
- 3) we’re generating leads after most of the buying process has been completed. Prospects do all of this research. By the time they identify themselves, the only thing they want to talk about is price…
- Use of B2C tactics don’t work. Spray and Pray- going for volume, not quality Persona based marketing attempts to get more targeted, but you’re guessing… targeting based on some behavioral characteristics… But another approach, that does work, is targeting your marketing at ACCOUNTS. B2B businesses buy and sell by account. And this approach aligns marketing with sales, and revenue Marketing to masses is the domain of B2C. An individual purchases things as a consumer…like a candy bar, or a t-shirt, or even a phone. In B2B the masses aren’t your customers. As we’ll show, there is a finite universe of potential target accounts you can sell to, and that’s determined by business DNA. But when it come to business buying, there are multiple stakeholders involved. Research from CEB indicates that the #1 driver of B2B purchase decisions is "widespread support for the supplier across my organization.” (https://sec.executiveboard.com/images/Customer-Stakeholders-Graphic4.gif)
- The term for this is account based marketing. And simply put….
- Account based marketing is about Identifying the companies most likely to buy, and then marketing to them
- There are some really good reasons why account based marketing makes sense for B2B businesses… Focuses on the best opportunities…, the accounts that have the best potential…you’re not going for volume, your are looking for quality ABM supports sales reality… deliver on their target accounts, and you align with the accounts that are most important to them. Deliver a more personalized, customer centric experience by focusing on a more limited set of customers.
- So, it’s awesome to talk about this in theory. And as the post lunch coma sets in, I’m sure you’d love for me to meander on… But this is something that we apply at Demandbase as a regular part of our marketing… And in the time remaining, I thought it would be helpful to show you it in action…
- Once we had the list of accounts, which we dubbed the DB 1500 we mapped it geographically.
- There are two ways we execute marketing against account based marketing... The first is relatively analog. Literally sitting down with with marketing, the sales account rep, and the sales development rep, and brainstorming the marketing programs and outbound sales activities we’ll use for each account in the terriitory… Overview of marketing programs scheduled for each rep’s territory, Demand Gen, Field Programs and Brainstorm on additional programs that could add pipeline for the coming quarter. Local events, associations, etc. Align on the set of accounts that will be the focus of all sales and marketing activities. DB1500 + Other focus accounts
- Which helps inform things like prioritizing the cities in which we execute field events.
- And in the end, we can develop specific plans, by region, against the specific accounts sales and marketing is going after.
- So, that’s the analog approach…important, but tougher to scale…. The other portion of this is to actually use technology to target and personalize the experience for these accounts, using advertising to push traffic to your site, and then personalizing the experience on your site, once they get there.
- So what’s the result? How many of you have experienced this? You have had an incredible quarter. Mktg just CRUSHED it… You’re going to a meeting with sales and thinking, finally, for the first time since June I’m going to have a good meeting with them. You get in there and report your results… We delivered over 1200 MQLs this quarter. Over 27% above goal. Check it out. And what’s sales response? Marketing isn’t supporting us… What?? I’ve got data… Hmmm, that’s strange, because I just talked to Bob in the midwest, and he said he hasn’t gotten a good lead from Marketing in like, a month… As marketers, we’ve got 3 major problems…
- Why is there a divide… One of the primary sources is that we just focus on different things. Our end goal might be the same, but our paths to get there are completely different. Marketing focuses on…. But what does sales focus on? Ships passing in the night… Pipeline -
- For all the investment in marketing technology and the huge leaps in innovation, we still hear 3 common refrains: My advertising doesn’t work My website sucks My sales team doesn’t follow up on my leads I’ll add another reality that has remained unchanged: Sales and marketing don’t get along These are not insurmountable problems, in fact, they are very solvable.