Revenue Architecture Archives

9 Best Practices for Demand Generation and Buyer Engagement

B2B, Buyer Engagement, Content Marketing, Demand Generation, Inbound Marketing, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Grader, Revenue Growth, Revenue Marketing, Revenue Strategy, Sales Enablement

A typical priority in revenue growth transformation and Revenue Architecture design is getting to the next level of Demand Generation and Buyer Engagement effectiveness. Quite often, companies come to us with what they perceive as a “marketing execution” issue. When we dig a little deeper in a Diagnostic, it often becomes clear that while there are always improvement opportunity in the mechanics of marketing execution, core issues often revolve around a broader view of buyer engagement strategy.

For better demand generation performance, it is helpful to validate your buyer engagement strategy by answering these 3 central questions and following these 9 best practices:

March 21, 2022/0 Comments/by John Stone

Prospect Qualification in the Age of Inbound Marketing

Buyer Engagement, Inbound Marketing, Methodology, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth, Sales Enablement, Sales Excellence

Qualification requires a more collaborative approach. Deal Qualification should not be considered as a moment in time, rather it happens thorough buyer engagement process and across the end-to-end marketing and sales funnel. Qualification is based on a body of knowledge and insights gained through prospect engagement along the buyer journey.

September 17, 2021/0 Comments/by John Stone

Full-Funnel Revenue Architecture

Account Based Marketing, B2B, Chief Revenue Officer, Closed loop Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth

We left transactional sales behind in the 90s. With recurring business models like ‘as-a-service’, we need to rethink the “sales process” from the traditional vertical funnel to a bow tie funnel that recognizes the role of the post-sale customer execution in revenue realization. We need a full-funnel approach. Predictable, sustainable, and accelerated revenue performance relies increasingly on the customer realizing benefits and impacts from a product or service.

July 9, 2021/0 Comments/by John Stone

Financial Advisor Revenue Strategy

Financial Advisors, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth

Independent Advisors need a strategy-led, systematic growth program.

The Financial Advisor SMART BOOK™outlines the Revenue Architecture Methodology that financial advisors can use to add greater structure and predictability in their revenue engine. We introduce nine steps and advisor-specific marketing and sales strategies that are helping advisors capture client value.

The comprehensive guide helps independent financial advisors build a strategy-led, systematic growth program with 9 proven strategies. The goal is to help advisors:

Increase Volume: Generate More Visits & Inquiries
Increase Client Value: Get Better Qualified Inquiries
Increase Velocity: Increase your Conversion Rate
Increase AUM and Revenue: Optimize Engagement for AUM growth and Revenue Impact.

Having a vision and game plan for growth is important for financial advisors to thrive in a challenging marketplace. The Smart Book™ outlines how you can achieve more predictable and sustainable revenue growth by establishing a Revenue Architecture that fits your firm. The key is to commit to a systematic sales and marketing process by following the 9 proven strategies to guide your approach.

May 28, 2021/1 Comment/by John Stone

Financial Advisor Go-to-Market Model

Financial Advisors, Revenue Architecture

Envision the best ways to access your particular market segments and ideal clients.

In the Financial Advisor SMART BOOK™. we outline a strategy-led, systematic growth program with 9 proven strategies. The goal is to help advisors:

Volume: Generate More Visits & Inquiries
Velocity: Accelerate the Process
Value: Grow AUM growth and Revenue.

March 20, 2021/0 Comments/by John Stone

Enterprise Funnel Math

Account Based Marketing, B2B, Chief Revenue Officer, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth

Enterprise funnel math exercises help align marketing and sales teams by zeroing in on critical funnel metrics like Sales and Marketing Qualified Inquiries (e.g. MQI) and Marketing and Sales Qualified Leads (MQL and SQL).

An enterprise funnel math model can help you identify the mix of tactics for for different funnel characteristics. For example, a sales-driven funnel might be designed with sales-led prospection activities and ABM tactics. A high volume lead gen funnel might be driven by Inbound Marketing or Paid SEM. Each funnel will have its own “DNA” and can be modeled top to bottom across deal stages to inform go-to-market strategies and budgeting.

Defining Your Funnels

A simple spreadsheet can help you produce a flexible working model that can be tailored to each company. To make it work, it is important to identify the right funnels or segments. The more granular your funnels are, the more accurate the funnel model will be – but too many funnels will add complexity. So, we typically identify 4-8 segments that represent distinct marketing and sales motions. Select segment that have a distinctive “funnel DNA” – not necessarily a P&L, or a geography segment. Often a funnel is centered around a product or service offering. Funnels can always be rolled up into geos, or P&Ls.

We develop Funnel Math Models with several tabs:

January 17, 2021/0 Comments/by John Stone

Integrated Marketing and Sales Process

Account Based Marketing, B2B, Chief Revenue Officer, Closed loop Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Automation, Methodology, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Systems, Sales Enablement, Sales Excellence

Buyers want an efficient, effective, quality buying experience. They don’t consider whether their experience is “marketing-generated” or “sales-generated”. They choose if they want to engage with your web content, 3rd party digital outposts or marketplaces or with your sales people. They most likely will interact with all of these in different sequences and in unstructured and unpredictable ways.
Buyer engagement efforts take place all along the buyer journey and to deliver the experiences buyers expect and maximize your revenue impact, you need an integrated marketing and sales process.

December 21, 2020/by John Stone

Chief Revenue Officer Success – The First 90 Days

B2B, Chief Revenue Officer, Revenue Architecture, Sales Enablement, Sales Excellence

Written with contributions from Ed Funaro

As growth focused companies realize the critical synergies required across the marketing, sales and customer success functions, they are increasingly recruiting a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) to lead the way. Yet many CROs fail without a properly defined role and an adequate onboarding process. It is vital to ensure CRO success.

A Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) is responsible for a company’s revenue streams. He/she has the ultimate accountability for driving revenue growth. The role is clearly cross functional. The CRO oversees and aligns revenue-generating departments: Marketing, Sales and Customer Success. It is a challenging role. The average tenure of a Chief Revenue officer working at the same company is incredibly brief – only about 18 months, according to an annual survey from CSO Insights.

The first 90 days are critical – Whether a company makes money rests with the CRO. Expectations are that the CRO will have about one quarter or 90 days to prove they can meet management’s expectations. As Michael Watkins points out in his top selling book The First 90 Days.

August 14, 2020/0 Comments/by John Stone

Financial Advisor Smart Book: Value Propositions and Messaging

Financial Advisors, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth, Valued Offerings

This post is updated. The original post was published in 2017.

Personas represent the needs and behaviors of your ideal clients and are helpful in shaping your positioning and messaging.

We recently published the 2020 Edition of the Financial Advisor SMART BOOK™. This resource is a comprehensive guide to help independent financial advisors build an ‘independent difference,’ that is, a strategy-led, systematic growth program with 9 proven strategies. The goal is to help advisors:

Increase Volume: Generate More Visits & Inquiries
Increase Client Value: Get Better Qualified Inquiries
Increase Velocity: Increase Conversion Rates
Increase AUM and Revenue: Optimize Engagement for AUM growth and Revenue Impact.

[Strategy 2 of 9] Valued Offering ~ Craft Market-Ready Service Offerings and Segment Messaging

You will be surprised how effective it is when you communicate offerings based on specific personas that represent the needs (or pain points) and behaviors of your best clients.

July 23, 2020/1 Comment/by Therese Byrne

Chief Revenue Officer Role Description

B2B, Closed loop Marketing, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth, Revenue Programs, Revenue Strategy, Revenue Systems

The CRO is Responsible for Predictable and Sustainable Revenue Growth

This post is updated. It was originally published in July 2016

Today, companies recognize the need for a company-wide revenue focus and a more integrated approach across marketing and sales. The CRO oversees the traditional responsibilities of the VP of Sales and the Chief Marketing Officer and is a member of the senior team overseeing go-to-market strategy and execution. The CRO is responsible for aligning company resources, defining differentiated go-to-market strategies and delivering on the company’s revenue performance goals.

April 24, 2020/0 Comments/by John Stone

9 Best Practices for Demand Generation and Buyer Engagement

Prospect Qualification in the Age of Inbound Marketing

Full-Funnel Revenue Architecture

Financial Advisor Revenue Strategy

Independent Advisors need a strategy-led, systematic growth program.

Financial Advisor Go-to-Market Model

Envision the best ways to access your particular market segments and ideal clients.

Enterprise Funnel Math

Defining Your Funnels

Integrated Marketing and Sales Process

Chief Revenue Officer Success – The First 90 Days

Financial Advisor Smart Book: Value Propositions and Messaging

Personas represent the needs and behaviors of your ideal clients and are helpful in shaping your positioning and messaging.

[Strategy 2 of 9] Valued Offering ~ Craft Market-Ready Service Offerings and Segment Messaging

Chief Revenue Officer Role Description

The CRO is Responsible for Predictable and Sustainable Revenue Growth

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