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Professional Selling with LinkedIn
B2B Marketing and Sales, Content Marketing, Revenue Programs, Sales Enablement, Social MediaProfessional selling is senior selling. It may be a seller-doer model, as in consulting, or an expert-driven sales model for high value products and services. Professional selling is not about directing a junior team of salespeople, it is about senior people doing the selling – establishing their personal brand, actively building a network and engaging both existing relationships and new prospects with thought leadership and insights.
Clearly, LinkedIn is an established resource for professional sales. It helps senior professionals find and engage with specific prospective clients or buyers with personal 1:1 interaction, establish professional credibility and share content and resources to nurture and develop prospects. It also offers paid options to build awareness and encourage lead conversions.
So how can senior professionals take advantage of LinkedIn? You can simplify it with three steps (and a few sub-steps). 1. Develop a strategy, 2. Establish the systems you need, 3. Execute your program(s).
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9 Questions for Your Sales and Marketing Plan
B2B Marketing and Sales, Chief Revenue Officer, Revenue Growth, Revenue Marketing, Revenue StrategyAccelerated, predictable, and sustainable revenue growth requires a company-wide commitment. When developing a marketing plan, consider these questions. These can help you develop your Revenue Architecture and expand your revenue performance potential.
The 9 dimensions take a broad view of revenue growth dimensions and help you focus your sales and marketing planning.
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B2B Digital Buyer Engagement
Account-Based Marketing, B2B Marketing and Sales, Buyer Engagement, Revenue GrowthCollaborative platforms enable B2B account-based sales .
As consumers, we are accustomed to the efficiency and effectiveness of digital buying experiences. Amazon has set a bar. We search for products using almost any device, shop online, read product reviews, compare and contrast pricing information, review product descriptions, chat with customer service, access Q&As, watch videos, evaluate specs, and consider reviews and ratings. We are conditioned to getting everything we need for our buying process – right at our fingertips. So why don’t we have similar buyer experiences in B2B account-based sales?
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Build, Measure, Refine, Repeat: How to Maximize Advisor Engagement
Buyer Engagement, Demand Generation, Revenue Architecture, Revenue StrategyHave you Calibrated Metrics-Driven Advisor Engagement?
To engage advisors, you are using various communications tools/media channels roughly based on their ability to help you target your audience, but you may not have a good feel for their effectiveness. And perhaps there isn’t a cadence to your ‘touches’, that is, a systematic communications plan with some frequency to maximize impact. Further, you may not have a feel for your Revenue Funnel and budgets.
This is an indication that you have not:
Metrics-Driven Methodology
To build a metrics-driven advisor engagement strategy, the first step is to connect your business model / budgets with your goals. The next step is to build a good understanding of your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or measurable values that will show the progress of your business goals. Examples include:
Second, create a high-impact, results-focused marketing plan, choosing tools and media channels in the context of:
It’s advisable to test and recalibrate your plan and media mix over time. Testing will help to determine the optimal number of impressions or touch points that should be factored into your plan before you begin to see significantly diminishing returns. Testing is also essential to understanding what tactics, messages, content, formats and media are most effective AND cost-efficient.
Start small by using a few key metrics that are easy to track using your marketing automation / CRM; then build from there, ultimately incorporating predictive and other data-driven business intelligence.
Revenue Funnel Metrics
To give your plan a real litmus test, consider reverse engineering your Revenue Funnel and do the “funnel math”: From impressions and leads created at the top-of-funnel all the way through to revenue and ROI at the bottom-of-funnel.
At a high level, there are three steps:
Taking the Revenue Funnel Metrics approach further, consider the alignment and integration of your Marketing and Sales teams in a ‘closed-loop’ revenue architecture (See related post.) Optimally marketing / sales will:
Bottom line: a closed-loop revenue architecture and metrics-driven methodology will help you measure and optimize a high performance advisor engagement strategy.
Download a copy of the Buyer Engagement eBook: “Exposed: The False Promises of Revenue Marketing”
Have Something to Say, and Say it Well
Brand Presence, Content Marketing, Sales Enablement, Sales ExcellencePersuasive Communications Enhances Sales and Marketing
Persuasive Communications helps you communicate more effectively and deliver your message in a logical and persuasive manner. A very useful framework for communicating and persuasive arguments is S-C-Q-A. At Revenue Architects, when discussing a client presentation, we often ask each other, “What is the S-C-Q-A? ”.
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