Align Marketing and Sales to End 2015 Strong

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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.

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B2B vs B2C: 7 Attributes of Effective B2B Marketing and Sales

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Effective Selling

As we know, several factors fundamentally differentiate B2B from B2C. B2B (Business-to-Business) sales are transactions between business entities and B2C (Business-to-Consumer) sales is where businesses sell to consumers.

Typically B2B sales are complex and considered. Evaluation and decision making follows multiple stages of learning and evaluation. B2B sales cycles are longer and purchases typically have higher dollar volumes and higher risk. B2B is often characterized by team selling to committee buying. Decisions involve various stakeholders and influencers including economic buyers, solution users, procurement specialists, domain experts, etc. B2B buyers self sell.  Sales teams are no longer the single source of product information and benefits. Education has shifted to the web where buyers search products and ‘self-sell’.

The buying and selling process is fundamentally different in B2B and marketing and sales must work well together around the customer buying process. Content needs to be multi-stage and mapped across the buy-sell cycle. It must include a spectrum of TOFU (top of the funnel), MOFU (middle of the funnel) and BOFU (bottom of the funnel) content. Content for B2B is typically less emotional and more educational. It includes value propositions and product facts. Qualification is more important in B2B as the cost and of sales is high so it is important that sales teams are focused on the qualified opportunities. Marketing and sales teams must collaborate on the qualification process and lead nurturing is more important.  The cycle for B2B is elongated and complex and buyers decide when they engage with sales.

7 Attributes of B2B Marketing and Sales

When you design your B2B revenue strategy, consider these 7 attributes.

1. Use the right set of performance metrics.

Measurement focus in not just about lead generation and vanity web metrics, it is about a tangible focus on pipeline and revenue impact.

    • Impact on pipeline / Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) plus impact at each funnel stage
    • Impact on close rate
    • Impact on deal size / contract value
    • Impact on total revenue.

2. Segment your markets and tailor the messages.

Segmentation and clean data is critical in B2B marketing. Campaigns for new acquisition and cross selling are driven by predictive analytics.

    • Segmentation around demographics, firmographics, behaviors
    • Clean data
    • In-house and 3rd party data
    • Business Intelligence Tools for predictive marketing

3. Design and launch integrated campaigns

B2B campaign design is complex and follows a variety of buy-sell paths. Campaigns can be automated and driven by business rules. Marketing Automation is a critical enabler.

    • Multi-touch, multi-stage programs
    • Lead Nurture Strategies
    • Account based advertising
    • PPC vs. Organic
    • Smart (e.g. IP-based) Retargeting
    • Branding and experience
    • Derivative content

4. Maintain a solid digital experience across web and social.

The website continues to be a marketing and sales hub for B2B and social media amplifies your impact and visibility.

    • Social media sites also present a brand and product / service message
    • Website personalization plays a high value role for B2B to tailor content and messages for particular segments
    • Organic SEO around your best content helps build visibility – especially on the long tail
    • Landing pages remain a critical conversion point for lead generation.
    • B2B emphasis on LinkedIn, Twitter
    • Social selling  – enabling the account teams with relationship intelligence and social media engagement
    • Using discussion Groups on LinkedIn and Quora

5. Use the right revenue technology including Marketing Automation, CRM, Data Management and Business Intelligence.

The role of revenue technology, including Marketing Automation, CRM, Data Management and Business Intelligence is prominent in B2B. Closed the marketing and sales loop.

    • Marketing Automation for List management, life of the lead, lead scoring / grading, nurture programs, list management,
    • CRM for contact management, opportunity management, sales nurture
    • Data Management and Business Intelligence for predictive analytics and campaign design.

6. Take advantage of content marketing across the cycle.

The inbound marketing model relies on compelling, search visible and tailored content across the buyer process.

    • White Papers
    • Solution Briefs
    • White Labeled Assets (B2B2C)
    • Webinars
    • Infographics
    • Video
    • Apps and tools

7. Build your selling excellence.

Of course the effectiveness and capability of the sales team is paramount in complex B2B sales.

    • Balance the inside vs. outside mix
    • Align specialists and sales teams
    • Mix your farmers and hunters
    • Activate account and cross selling (3Cs – continue, crop rotation, colonization)
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A 5 Stage Sales Pipeline Management Model

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Effective sales pipeline management is vital to your business. Align your teams around a ‘lingua franca’ to better manage deal qualification, forecasting and the sales process.

We know the B2B sales pipeline is changing.  Inbound marketing and emerging marketplaces (like 99designs, Thumbtack and BlurGroup among others) manage elements of prospecting and the lead generation cycle outside of direct sales. Marketing plays a bigger role to drive inbound leads into the sales pipeline and marketplaces can replace some elements of sales outbound prospecting.

In complex or considered sales, the professional management of the sales process from working lead to committed remains vital.  It is important to get the sales team on the same page and using the same sales process. Quite often, we see companies that are not using a common language for the sales pipeline. Forecasting is much more difficult when we are unclear about the status of each deal and the stage in the process. Firms often over-invest in some deals and under-invest in others while colleagues who support the sales effort become frustrated when time is wasted.

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SharpSpring Review

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If you’re looking for a marketing automation platform that offers many of the same functionality as the more expensive options, give this SharpSpring review a look!  Sharpspring works primarily with agency partners (like Revenue Architects) and is well suited for mid-sized businesses and high end professional sales teams. As an agency, we work with Sharpspring along with other platforms including Eloqua, Hubspot, Pardot and Marketo. We find SharpSpring is an excellent fit for businesses that value inbound marketing. email marketing  and integrated CRM. Depending on the solution architecture in your organization, including the existing infrastructure of CRM and Office, SharpSpring may be a fit.

This post highlights features found in marketing automation platforms as well as a few lesser-known features found in SharpSpring.  Let’s begin with the most common functions of a marketing automation platform:

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7 Attributes of a Lead Scoring Model

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Every company will have different ways of measuring a qualified lead, yet there is a set of factors that you can use to map into a lead-scoring model. Many marketing automation solutions, such as Eloqua, Marketo, Hubspot, Pardot, ShaprSpring, and others, have built-in lead scoring algorithms and pass this information into a CRM system like Salesforce and SugarCRM.

Screen_Shot_2014-03-21_at_10.57.08_AM

These scores can be set up to deliver marketing-qualified leads based on certain criteria and scores, helping sales teams accept the leads (Sales Accepted Leads) and focus their energies on the top prospects.

Marketing Automation and CRM are both important. We use Sharpspring technology for our small business retainer services to deliver inbound marketing programs and integrated marketing. Sharpspring includes an integrated CRM as well as API hooks into leading CRMs so it is great for small businesses. The life of the lead is a great way to see the flow of the lead through time and the lead scoring approach helps sales focus immediately on the top inbound leads.

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Smarter LinkedIn Marketing for Financial Advisors

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HNWI on LinkedIn

Source: Join the Dots

LinkedIn is the most used and most trusted social media platform that high net worth investors (HNWIs) tap to research financial decisions, according to a 2014 survey of HNWIs by Join the Dots. And they are using it across all investable asset ranges.

HNWI tapping LinkedIn Financial Content

Source: Join the Dots

 

 

 

These HNWIs are tapping various forms of content to inform the financial decision journey, according Join the Dots research.  Those who use it for both discovery and consideration are driven to action.

 

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Blog Post Checklist

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Before you publish a blog post, ensure the content, and context meet your company’s standards and the post is optimized and ready.  Too often, authors get off topic or write overly complicated information without proper context resulting in a less than positive response and engagement.  When we publish a post or work with clients on publishing a post, we use a checklist to remind ourselves to address a range of important factors.  Below is a Blog Post Checklist that includes questions you can ask before pressing the ‘publish’ button.

Download and save for later use!

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How Digital Strategies Can Supercharge Your Referral System

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It has been well over a decade since the digital revolution went mainstream. However, according to Google, 55% of small businesses don’t even have a website. The vast majority of those that do, have a website that lacks key features necessary to make digital a revenue generating channel. A common reason for this lack of focus is the belief that real business comes via traditional channels like referrals.

How to supercharge referrals

The problem is that referrals are heavily influenced by digital channels. Your client base needs to know exactly what makes you great and be energized to make a referral. Digital channels provide the necessary energy. A well thought out digital strategy is vital to guide the referral process.

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