A company needs an effective go-to-market strategy that makes it easy to buy from and sell to. Go-to-market strategies and plans are a blueprint for how the company will reach customers, streamlining and establishing a strong focus on the steps that a company must take to co-create value with customers.
This blog post is part of a series providing an in-depth exploration of each dimension of the 12 Dimensions of Revenue Architecture.
The commercialization process prepares you to introduce products and services into the market. There are several different frameworks that describe the product development process in detail and commercialization is typically included in this overall process. For our purposes, in assessing and constructing a revenue architecture, we focus on elements of commercialization that impact marketing and sales execution.
Consider the traditional “7 Ps”: product, place, price, promotion, people, process, physical environment. For the purposes of the Revenue Architecture framework, the commercialization activities are central to marketing and sales execution. Sales and marketing teams do sell for a hypothetical company – their job is to sell the products and services the company offers. Commercialization helps influence product design and quality, and paves the way for more effective productive marketing and sales execution.
Activities prior to Commercialization include Market Strategy: Customer Value Research and Analysis, Firm Competencies, Competitive Industry / Market Analysis, Customer Win/Loss Analysis, Firm Performance Analysis, Requirement Definition, Product Line Economies , Budget Planning and Cost Management, Market Acceptance and Availability,Product Strategy, Product Roadmapping.
The Commercialization process includes: Value Positioning including Target Market Definition and Sizing, Customer Engagement Model, Commercial Use Cases, Pricing, Terms and Conditions.
Activities we review after commercialization include Go-To-Market: Positioning and Value Communication, Routes to market, Channels and Partnerships, Marketing Planning, Launch Planning, Customer Acquisition Models, Sales Enablement, Collateral, Lead Generation, Sales and Channel Training, Customer Relationship Management, Funnel Analysis, Market Assets at Different Sales Stages, Technical Tools and Marketing Assets.
This blog post is part of a series providing an in-depth exploration of each dimension of the 12 Dimensions of Revenue Architecture.
A Market Strategy is a core element of a company’s revenue architecture and differentiated strategy. Revenue leaders need to define how to approach the Market Strategy based on attractiveness, competitive positioning and fit.
This post dissects Market Strategy and its components, and explores why it is essential to any business.
A Revenue Architecture defines the building blocks for Revenue growth. You can think of the Revenue Architecture as a Sales and Marketing Operating Model. It is critical that the revenue architecture is designed and deployed to directly align with the business strategy and business model.
Business Models Change Along A Continuum
In pursuit of greater margins (by moving to higher value products and services) or greater scale (by moving toward a more standardized products and bigger markets) a businesses will adjust strategy and business models. The diagram below depicts a simple set of axis that firms generally move along in their go-to-market approach.
A Revenue Architecture is a process for accelerating revenue growth.
Rev-en-ue noun: the return or yield from any kind of property, patent, service, etc.; income. Ar-chi-tec-ture noun: the process and product of planning, design and construction. “Revenue Architecture” is the process and product of planning, designing and constructing the capabilities for sustainable revenue performance. A Revenue Architecture helps businesses of any size align marketing and sales and engage the market to generate demand and convert sales.
There are three dimensions of a Revenue Architecture:
- Strategy: Defining the innovative strategies and prioritized initiatives that will help you differentiate in the market.
- Systems: The integrated platform of brand, channels, people, process and technology forming your revenue engine.
- Programs: Creative and predictive marketing and sales campaigns that engage audience, drive demand and convert sales.
A world class Revenue Architecture is defined by leading practices across 30 dimensions. We developed a diagnostic tool called Revenue Grader to help business owners and revenue leaders sell-assess their capabilities and prioritize focus.
The promise of Account Based Marketing (ABM) is to increase sales success by coordinating marketing and sales efforts for target accounts. The ABM concept is a departure from mass marketing that casts wide nets with generic messages. Instead, with ABM, marketing tailors messages to each targeted prospect account, making marketing activities more efficient to help sales close more business. More tailored experiences mean relevant information for each account and a greater likelihood that potential buyers find the information they’re looking for, speed through the initial stages of the buying cycle, and become ready to be contacted,nurtured, and converted.
It’s the middle of Q4 and the end of the year is fast-approaching. For many, it is a time to slow down from work and spend time with family. For sales people, it’s can be a frantic time, as many B2B companies must close sales opportunities to achieve revenue goals.
So, what can the marketing team do to help the sales team and ring in the New Year on a positive note? Here are a few tips to align marketing and sales and help ease the December frenzy and drive some upward momentum into the New Year.
Closed-loop marketing represents an evolving challenge for many organizations. While the promise of closed-loop marketing has been with us for over a decade, effective implementation can still be elusive – particularly for larger enterprises that have data and organizational complexities that can impact a smooth implementation.
As part of the architecture for a closed-loop system, it can be very helpful to agree a set of Closed-Loop Marketing Design Principles that can serve to guide decision making around applications, data, technology and processes. We often develop and facilitate agreement of a set of principles across marketing, sales, technology and finance teams. Below are a few examples of Design Principles that can serve as a starting point. These need to be refined and tailored to your organization through a cross-functional facilitation process.
A “build it and they will come” approach to web design is an uniformed approach. Still, some people ignore UX completely or forge ahead with limited knowledge only to find out later that users are bouncing off their brand new web pages like ping pong balls.
Then there’s mobile UX concerns to think about. With mobile devices proliferating and their users becoming more adept at using them, expectations are high. Not only are you expected to have a responsive mobile design, but the overall experience you deliver must be fast and easy for users.
Even if you understand that UX is an essential part of web design and internet marketing, you may still be operating under some misconceptions. Are you really following UX best practices? See if you’ve subscribed to any of these UX myths:
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