A sound marketing strategy requires understanding customers' needs through market analysis and customer insights. The strategy development process involves setting goals, analyzing the market and customers, formulating the strategy based on customer insights, implementing the strategy across tactics, and evaluating effectiveness. Collaborating with consultants during strategy formulation leads to the most successful outcomes for clients.
Introduction
Content is a nexus between the sales and marketing functions in most organizations. The traditional content model calls for marketing to produce content assets and sales to use them. Having this model work well requires a great deal of intentionality on the part of both functions: marketing must endeavor to understand customer content needs and how well the assets they produce engages those customers. Then, the sales team must diligently provide feedback to marketing so that content quality and effectiveness rises.
While this model is conceptually simple, there are challenges related to alignment that impact content effectiveness in the form of visibility, communications, feedback, process, tools and even culture. The statistics tell the story: when the level of sales/marketing alignment is high, 81% of study participants report that marketing content meets sales’ needs well. However, when alignment is poor or non-existent, the content effectiveness percentage drops to 35%.
Quality content that is easy for sales to find and use is a critical success factor in sales interactions. The dynamics of the content process are not difficult to understand, but the content creation, deployment, usage and feedback loop is often a point of friction between sales and marketing. This friction is not one-sided; marketing is frustrated when it has limited feedback and visibility into the use of content assets. The sales team gets frustrated when content assets don’t meet customers’ need, or those assets are hard to find and use. This frustration is more than just an inconvenience: 70% of sales teams acknowledge that the lack of effective content negatively impacts the outcome of a sales conversation.
Since content is so often the key to successful sales interactions, it merits constant attention and improvement efforts. Demand Metric and Showpad together conducted research to understand the sales-marketing relationship around content, and how it affects sales interactions. This research shares key insights, such as when marketing has little or no visibility into sales conversations, only 32% of the content produced meets the needs of sales team well. This research will help organizations understand how to get better results from their marketing content.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Executive Summary
- The Content Process
- Content Process Success Factors
- Content Use
- Content Impact on Revenue
- Analyst Bottom Line
- Acknowledgements
- About Showpad
- About Demand Metric
- Appendix - Survey Background
Introduction
Content is a nexus between the sales and marketing functions in most organizations. The traditional content model calls for marketing to produce content assets and sales to use them. Having this model work well requires a great deal of intentionality on the part of both functions: marketing must endeavor to understand customer content needs and how well the assets they produce engages those customers. Then, the sales team must diligently provide feedback to marketing so that content quality and effectiveness rises.
While this model is conceptually simple, there are challenges related to alignment that impact content effectiveness in the form of visibility, communications, feedback, process, tools and even culture. The statistics tell the story: when the level of sales/marketing alignment is high, 81% of study participants report that marketing content meets sales’ needs well. However, when alignment is poor or non-existent, the content effectiveness percentage drops to 35%.
Quality content that is easy for sales to find and use is a critical success factor in sales interactions. The dynamics of the content process are not difficult to understand, but the content creation, deployment, usage and feedback loop is often a point of friction between sales and marketing. This friction is not one-sided; marketing is frustrated when it has limited feedback and visibility into the use of content assets. The sales team gets frustrated when content assets don’t meet customers’ need, or those assets are hard to find and use. This frustration is more than just an inconvenience: 70% of sales teams acknowledge that the lack of effective content negatively impacts the outcome of a sales conversation.
Since content is so often the key to successful sales interactions, it merits constant attention and improvement efforts. Demand Metric and Showpad together conducted research to understand the sales-marketing relationship around content, and how it affects sales interactions. This research shares key insights, such as when marketing has little or no visibility into sales conversations, only 32% of the content produced meets the needs of sales team well. This research will help organizations understand how to get better results from their marketing content.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Executive Summary
- The Content Process
- Content Process Success Factors
- Content Use
- Content Impact on Revenue
- Analyst Bottom Line
- Acknowledgements
- About Showpad
- About Demand Metric
- Appendix - Survey Background
Proposal for boosting Sales force effectiveness at ITravelCoVivek Jha
This presentation has been prepared by students of IE business school as part of the making change happen competition. This presentation demonstrates a proposal prepared by students to boost the sales of a leading company (Name changed). The competition was designed by Bain & Co.
Disclaimer: This is a project work prepared by students with limited facts. This has no relevance to any company or firm in real life.
Sales Force Effectiveness Research InsightsSHOWPAD NV
Procurement officers confirm that the number 1 challenge for sales reps is demonstrating true value during sales visits. However, 64% of sales leaders struggle with uncovering the pain points of every member in the decision making unit, making it extremely difficult to deliver that value. These 2 insights are just a few of what Professor Deva Rangarajan from the Vlerick Business School uncovered during the Sales Force Effectiveness research. Take a look at the presentation to learn more about what great sales leaders have in common.
You’re probably spending money on areas that reap no real return on investment.
Half the money you spend on marketing is wasted. The problem is, which half?
If only that money can be better allocated to other areas with proven marketing effectiveness.
Contact marketer@digirine.com for more information.
Inspired by the Agile Software Manifesto as well as the Lean Startup Movement and Business Model Canvas, the Visual Marketing Plan is a new agile approach to marketing planning that's collaborative, adaptive, user-friendly and fun.
This presentation is step by step guide to market feasibility report. How to write market feasibility report. The factors and forces affecting the market. How the market can move. How are target market and their buying behaviour.
Proposal for boosting Sales force effectiveness at ITravelCoVivek Jha
This presentation has been prepared by students of IE business school as part of the making change happen competition. This presentation demonstrates a proposal prepared by students to boost the sales of a leading company (Name changed). The competition was designed by Bain & Co.
Disclaimer: This is a project work prepared by students with limited facts. This has no relevance to any company or firm in real life.
Sales Force Effectiveness Research InsightsSHOWPAD NV
Procurement officers confirm that the number 1 challenge for sales reps is demonstrating true value during sales visits. However, 64% of sales leaders struggle with uncovering the pain points of every member in the decision making unit, making it extremely difficult to deliver that value. These 2 insights are just a few of what Professor Deva Rangarajan from the Vlerick Business School uncovered during the Sales Force Effectiveness research. Take a look at the presentation to learn more about what great sales leaders have in common.
You’re probably spending money on areas that reap no real return on investment.
Half the money you spend on marketing is wasted. The problem is, which half?
If only that money can be better allocated to other areas with proven marketing effectiveness.
Contact marketer@digirine.com for more information.
Inspired by the Agile Software Manifesto as well as the Lean Startup Movement and Business Model Canvas, the Visual Marketing Plan is a new agile approach to marketing planning that's collaborative, adaptive, user-friendly and fun.
This presentation is step by step guide to market feasibility report. How to write market feasibility report. The factors and forces affecting the market. How the market can move. How are target market and their buying behaviour.
A marketing plan is a document that contains information with the direct impact on the firm's marketing strategy that facilitates the alignment of decision makers.
Marketing strategy is different from marketing tactics. You have to know where you want to go and you have to know what it looks like when you get there. Market research and analysis plays a vital roll in marketing strategy. The information collected aids in making the correct product, competitive, and pricing decisions while minimizing your risk of expensive incorrect decisions.
1. Marketing Strategy Translating Insights Into Action
Keith Flint, Strategy, Sudden Impact Marketing, Inc.
A sound marketing strategy equips you with the greatest advantage in a competitive market. Armed with a thorough
understanding of your customers’ needs, informed by a full appreciation of your customers’ perceptions, and confident in
your assessment of the competitive landscape, you can more effectively market your products and services.
In a crowded marketplace populated with viable options, subtle differences in product offerings—and how they are presented—drive customer
choice and selection. Those decision-altering differences are not achieved serendipitously. They are carefully planned and strategically guided.
Like so many other aspects of contemporary marketing, strategy development is a process-oriented undertaking.
At a macroscopic level, the strategy development process is composed of six essential elements:
• Goal setting
Establish clear, attainable goals and delineate measurable objectives. Identify the necessary steps required to effectively establish a presence
and maintain awareness of your brand, product, or service within its market.
• Market Analysis
Evaluate the environment in which you compete. Thoroughly survey the landscape of your market and use that intelligence to help plan your
strategy. One key fact to establish is whether your market is broadly generalized or highly segmented. You must also be keenly aware of current
and future competitive threats, and their potential impact on market conditions.
• Customer Insight
Listen carefully to consumer perspectives and perceptions. Understand end-user needs and the motivations behind them. Learn the most
desirable benefits of the products or services they prefer—even if this does not align with the features of your company’s offering. Whether you
conduct a formal needs assessment, poll your sales team, or gain insights through direct dialog with everyday users, you have to know what the
customer wants. You need to know why they make their purchase decisions. And you need to understand the barriers to adoption.
• Strategy Formulation
Devise a strategy informed by customer insights. Gain an appreciation of customer needs. Informed by their perspectives, you can establish
your eligible market, apply your newly gained understanding of decision drivers, and carefully craft actionable strategies to achieve your
designated goals.
• Implementation
Implement your strategy effectively and completely. Strategy must serve as the foundation for your tactical plan. Each tactic identified must be
linked to a specific strategic imperative. Given the constraints imposed on most marketing budgets, you simply cannot afford tactical
executions that are not strategically driven. This guidance should be applied to all aspects of program development, project management, and
creative campaign development and execution. It is absolutely critical to include a thorough roll-out of each tactic to the sales organization.
• Critical Evaluation
Assess the effectiveness of your strategic guidance and implementation at a time appropriate to your product’s life cycle, and within the time
frame relevant to your promotional project or marketing campaign. Evaluate these efforts against your primary goals and objectives. Be
prepared to adapt your approach and adjust your execution in accordance with your outcomes analysis. Too often, the assessment phase of the
strategy process is de-emphasized or ignored completely—often with dire consequences.
At Sudden Impact, our greatest client successes have been achieved when the SI team collaborated from the outset of the project with active
participation during the strategy formulation stage. Our best tactical development and creative executions have been the result of a common
understanding and shared vision with our client partners.
Needless to say, we attain the most desirable outcomes for our clients with common objectives, shared insights, and a unified vision.
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