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Attributes of Consultative Solution Sales

B2B Marketing and Sales, Inbound Marketing, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth, Revenue Marketing, Sales Excellence

As we are onboarding some interns with a sales-focused role in a few weeks, we kicked off discussions about what sales and marketing are all about. For people new to sales, it can be a bit confusing and there remains a range of perceptions about sales and the value of sales – from “used car salesman” analogies, to the highly professional sales leader.

There are many personal attributes of effective solution sales that are rooted in the DNA of the individual – like empathy, patience, intelligence, listening, questioning, sense of humor, ability to articulate ideas, being likable. This post is focused more on consultative solution sales – selling a complex, often intangible, product or service to discerning buyers and often, complex organizations. Solution sales requires an approach centered on the client or customer. This sounds obvious, but is often forgotten.

Trends are changing the role of sales.

Buyers are using the web, mobile and social to self educate and they are often far more knowledgeable by the time they engage with sales
There is a bigger role for marketing now because the web plays a much bigger role in the sales value chain including inbound lead generation
Leading companies are aligning the processes of marketing and sales end-to-end recognizing the importance of a collaborative effort

While inbound is increasingly important, there is still a critical role for outbound prospecting and sales. More leads are generated from inbound marketing with valued content and lead gen tools, but sales must qualify and manage these leads while also developing prospects using more traditional outbound strategies.

May 5, 2014/0 Comments/by John Stone

Tracking ROI from Multiple Online Channels

Measurement and Analytics, Revenue Growth

In February, we posted an article about Marketing Performance Measurement and Attribution. In this, he discussed the tricky proposition of tracking offline marketing channels and how it’s important to be able to measure the customer lifetime value (LTV). Much of this is aided by having a good Customer Relationship Management Tool (CRM); but it is also important to make sure you are feeding good data and identifying all the online channels collecting lead generating data.

Establish a Tracking Strategy

We begin with asking the basic questions:

What am I tracking?
Why am I tracking?
What will I learn?

Any traffic source that arrives at our website should be tracked and many are automatically tagged via an analytics program, typically Google Analytics. This gives us the bedrock of data with which to set up goal funnels. These goals – or actions – can be anything from a form submission to a PDF download to viewing a video. It’s all trackable by virtue of actual page views, virtual page views, event tags and campaign tagging of URLs; so once we’ve established the various ways in which a potential customer can interact with our website we want to make sure these actions filter into the right buckets for further examination, with the goal of being able to generate actionable insights such as:

Is a form too long?
Is the call to action weak?
Does the copy need to be re-written?
Do visitors leak on a particular step of a checkout?

Establish Tracking Systems

Provided our goals form data is synced up to a CRM, we will not only understand where our site visitors are converting from but be able to track this visitor’s lifetime value. Then if we segment our visitors into email campaign lists we should also be able to track these visitors back to the website and say compare these efforts against paid ads (cpc) for example:

Of course social media is large contributor to our branding and lead nurturing. There are many social media reporting tools that help take the pulse of your social marketing efforts including how many followers, likes, reach and so on but we want to also make sure we are measuring their true impact on the bottom line.

This is where analytics helps yet again by being able to see which social channels are converting and assisting in conversions. A visitor’s journey to get to our site and take an action may be long and winding. Perhaps beginning with an organic search, then viewing one of our social media accounts to then typing our URL directly into the browser address bar before making contact.

So which marketing channel gets the credit for that lead?

Conversion attribution tracking is the answer in order to understand which channels are assisting in generating leads; to use a basketball analogy – the Steve Nash or John Starks of conversions.

Social media conversions can also be tracked against paid advertising. For instance Facebook offers its own native conversion tracking pixel that means you can set up ad campaigns with the sole purpose of being able to track sign ups to our website or Facebook app installs. This then allows to keep a close eye on the cost per acquisition of that lead and monitor reach and cost. Twitter has also now opened up it’s own native conversion tracking for advertisers.

Establish Tracking Programs

Once we have established what we want and need to track to effectively manage our marketing spend and put into place the systems in order to do this effectively, we mist then initiate our program.

To learn more about Marketing Performance Measurement and Attribution, please feel free to contact us.

April 30, 2014/0 Comments/by Tom Cull

What’s Your Integrated Digital Strategy?

Closed-loop Marketing, Content Marketing, Financial Advisor Marketing, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Strategy

An Integrated Digital Strategy clarifies how you differentiate your online presence and drive revenue with your website, mobile, social media, search, email marketing, apps and online advertising. Using analytics to capture customer insights will inform your digital strategies and tactics and keep you aligned around key performance indicators (KPIs).

As more customers ‘self-sell’ on the web, a digital strategy is increasingly important. It is about integrating digital into all facets of marketing and describing the role of different web channels, inbound marketing, content marketing, search and the role of and social media. Integration can range from adding a URL at the bottom of a print ad to having a common creative message on your home page and in banner ads to the sophisticated delivery of sequenced messaging on multiple digital media vehicles.

Source: RevenuePerform.com

Disruptive Technology Driving Digital

Four specific technology developments are driving a tectonic shift in the digital ecosystem:

Mobile. Widespread penetration and evolution of feature-rich, smart mobile devices
Social. Ubiquitous social networking and user-generated content
Cloud. On-demand, real-time access to supercomputer power and unlimited storage
Internet of Things. Convergence between the real and the virtual worlds.

These technologies are changing the relationships between consumers and companies. Consumers have more power to gather and process information, connect, and voice opinions. And companies can leverage vast new sources of consumer information that lets them engage customers in a microtargeted way across multiple digital touch points.

What’s the State of your Integrated Digital Strategy?

To win in the digital economy, explore new approaches and learn by experimentation, while focusing on crucial capabilities and overcoming any gaps. Ask these questions:

Do we have a dynamic digital strategy that generates value and considers new business models?
Do we have deep insight into how our customers are using new digital tools?
Do we have a partnership strategy with the key technology players to enable us to respond?
Does our marketing strategy take advantage of new technologies to enhance our traditional campaigns?
Are we fully utilizing online and mobile channels as part of our go-to-market strategy?
Do we have the right talent and organization to execute our digital strategy?

Addressing these questions and formulating an integrated digital strategy will ultimately make your businesses relevant in a digital era while growing opportunities and profits, as well as scaling efficiently in the process.

Identify opportunities to address now with DIGITAL EXPERIENCE INDEX.

Revenue Architects is here to help with our digital marketing assessment using the DXI or DIGITAL EXPERIENCE INDEX. It’s complimentary!

The Digital Experience Index (DXI) is based on eight interdependent dimensions: Brand, Visibility, Design, Content, Usability, Functionality, Conversion and Amplification.

SIGN UP FOR YOUR DXI DIAGNOSTIC TODAY!

April 20, 2014/0 Comments/by Therese Byrne

Boost Performance with Sales Incentives

Measurement and Analytics, Revenue Programs, Revenue Strategy, Revenue Systems, Sales Excellence

When sales and marketing work together harmoniously, all is well. Marketing builds the brand and drums up leads; sales reels them in and brings them home as paying customers. Yet we know. particularly for sales, that sales incentives are the critical driver for performance focus. With today’s more unified revenue value chain and closed-loop across marketing and sales, you may need to realign your incentive programs to drive alignment and focus on the behaviors and results you seek. Programs need to fit in with your revenue operating model and reinforce team revenue performance.

Motivate Success

Incentive systems can motivate the right behaviors and align activities across marketing and sales. The incentive model should be transparent and readily understandable while clearly motivating your teams to perform in accordance with the prevailing company revenue strategy. Incentives can be a highly effective way to encourage and motivate, build morale and drive desired behavior. A study called Incentives, Motivation and Workplace Performance showed that a stunning 92% of respondents cited incentives as the top reason they achieved a workplace goal. Incentives can have particularly big impact when the sales and marketing teams devise a program together to effectively drive sales team behavior.

The best, most effective incentive programs are SMART.

Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
Assignable – specify who will do it.
Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

Begin by identifying your specific and measurable performance goals. Ask focused questions:

What exact targets and changes do we want to accomplish?
What behaviors would we like to reinforce?
How will we measure and track success?
How will the incentive campaign be implemented and promoted?

Once you’ve defined core metrics of success and created an incentive program that’s right for your team, there are some additional things you should keep in mind:

Stretch targets. Incent based upon new, desired behavior, e.g. meeting a higher quota, selling a new product, etc. Rewarding existing quotas and behaviors won’t likely enhance productivity.

Find the sweet spot. Don’t set your incentive payout too high, or the sales team will neglect their core responsibilities to focus only on the prize. Conversely, the payout should not be so too low that it doesn’t drive interest. Find the measurable incentive payout “sweet spot” that truly motivates your employees.

Public recognition. Public recognition helps to affirm good behavior, boost morale and foster a sense of friendly competition among the staff by celebrating the successes.

Keep campaign awareness fresh. Send regular reminders to the staff that the incentive is in place.

Choose a long enough timeframe. Consider running your incentive program for a substantial amount of time, not just a month or a quarter. Studies show programs that run for at least a year generate a 44% increase in performance, while programs running for a week or less boost performance by just 20%.

Measure and Track ROI. Establish baseline measurements at the beginning of your campaign so that you can track results and successes back to actual sales.

Promote team spirit. Team-oriented incentive programs generate a performance increase of around 45% compared with incentive programs geared toward individuals, which yield just a 27% increase. However, both approaches can have a motivating effect, and it doesn’t have to be an either-or decision; experiment with different programs and see what your staff responds to the most.

Good luck and good selling! Are you looking to enhance revenue performance? Sign up for a revenue diagnostic using our 50-dimension model.

April 15, 2014/0 Comments/by John Stone

Use Pricing Strategies for Maximizing Revenue and Profit

B2B Marketing and Sales, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth, Revenue Marketing, Revenue Strategy, Sales Excellence

Companies take a number of different approaches to establishing their pricing , but many wrongly assume that they have limited control on revenue and margin by using more effective pricing strategies. Businesses can implement different pricing strategies and tactics to maximize revenue and margin. Depending on the pricing models and business-specific circumstances, it may take some time to find the right balance. The key strategy is to enable your front-line sales team with the tools and insights needed to maintain optimal pricing.

Here are some tactics you might consider.

1. Segment Around Buyer Values to Drive Value Pricing

If you’re struggling to get a grip on your customers’ buyer values, you aren’t alone. Buyer values can fluctuate based on the market competition, market sensitivity to pricing, and other challenges. For companies that serve diversified markets, a one-size-fits-all approach can leave revenue opportunities untapped. Segmentation around buyer business impact and value offers the flexibility to manage pricing differently across different segments, adjusting for those markets where the underlying business value justifies premium pricing. When managed effectively, segmentation strategies can produce margin increases of 10 points, and sometimes more.

2. Pricing Decision Support

Sales representatives have a significant influence on revenue margin. In many cases, sales professionals might be pursuing volume over margin, and with poor pricing tools at their disposal, they likely give away revenue margin needlessly when adjustments to their discounting and other pricing actions might give them better guidance. Getting this right leads to improved margins for the sales reps as well as the business. Companies should be on the lookout for tools and resources that can help sales reps handle these pricing considerations.

3. Allocate Resources Towards Higher Margin Opportunities

Profit is always welcome of course, but some sales efforts will prove to be much more profitable to a company than others. Those marginally profitable segments may be turning over a net gain, but their consumption of resources could be taking away from other opportunities that offer greater pricing power and are even more profitable. Businesses should stratify their various segments by profitability and allocate resources to the most attractive segments.

4. Assess and Adapt

With these strategies in place, use observation and analysis to evaluate the success of new pricing strategies. By closely observing the effects, you will gain insights into what’s impacting revenue and margin performance and you can fine tune your strategies.

Ultimately, the market will be the main driver in determining pricing, yet leaders are recognizing the importance of using value-based segmentation, market research and decision support to inform and enable their pricing strategies. Contact us if you need help in maximizing pricing impact.

March 13, 2014/1 Comment/by John Stone

3 Ways to Increase Website Conversion

B2B Marketing and Sales, Closed-loop Marketing, Content Marketing, Financial Advisor Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Automation, Revenue Architecture, Revenue Growth, Revenue Marketing, Revenue Programs, Revenue Systems, Technology & Websites

Getting a web visitor to take action is the main objective of any web page. Unfortunately, many businesses see still a website as a brochure and do not take into account the way that web usage has changed and what the real purpose is. They spend all their time on design and not enough on usability and website conversion optimization. Pretty is good but conversion grows a business.

1. Use of Strong Visuals

Images need to have a purpose not just be decoration. Derek Halpen at Social Triggers put together a great article on the effective use of images.

He pointed out the following potential reasons for using images.

-To show a key product or service feature

Derek points out how genius the image of Apple Air in the envelope is. Apple is selling the “thinness” feature and nail it with the image. If you are selling a service, a good graphic can explain your offer.

-To direct attention

Images can be used to direct the web visitor’s attention. Images of people looking at or pointing can emphasize a key headline or call-to-action like a sign up form.

-To build trust

Using pictures of real people involved in the business whether they are customers or team members builds trust. Derek points out that people want to deal with real people. Stock images just don’t cut it. Customer testimonials have a lot more credibility if they have an image of the customer with them.

2. Get the Headline Right

Another key page element is the headline. Copyblogger found 8 out of 10 people read only the headline. The promise of the headline must be compelling enough to turn a browser into a reader and then a sign up. Copyblogger offer a 11 part course to help with this. You won’t get the headline right first time. Optimizely lets you to test different headlines (and images) with no coding required. Testing should be an ongoing process.

3. Be Mobile Friendly

The big movement right now is towards responsive design. This means that a web site will reconfigure to be usable for any device from laptop ti smart phone. Website builders from Virb to Wix and Sq uarespace now offer responsive solutions. Excellent responsive themes are available for WordPress.

Despite this, only 6% of small business websites are mobile ready according to a recent survey. The same study calculated that the lack of mobile readiness is costing US small businesses $1T each year. Mobile is now 28% of all web traffic. 4 out of 5 of these visitors will leave a site if it is not mobile optimized.

Make sure your emails are mobile optimized also. 70% of users will delete an email if it does display well on their smartphone. 75% of users open emails on smart phones.

Looking for help with improving conversion. Contact us at Revenue Architects.

For more ideas, go to Revenizer for 400+ more tips on optimizing digital + real time stats on your marketing performance.

The article summary is below.

March 10, 2014/0 Comments/by Phil Rogers