b2b sales and marketing transformation
TRANSCRIPT
B2B Sales and Marketing Transformation
A Reflection on the CSO 2016 Sales Best
Practices Study Results
By Christopher Ryan, CEOFusion Marketing Partners
…if the sales team isn’t happy with you, life can be very unpleasant.
Barry Trailer, Chief Research Officer of CSO Insights highlighted the CSO 2016 Sales Best Practices Study Results.
…but in fact…
You may think of your customers as being the end users of your products or services…
Four Key Takeaways
1. 94% of world-class companies indicate that sales and marketing
are aligned.
2. 84% of world-class companies have specific criteria as to what
constitutes an acceptable prospect.
3. Life gets really good when you move up the value chain.
4. How you sell is more of a competitive differentiation than
what you sell.
However, if you don’t have it, you know it, and it is definitely costing you revenue and
productivity.
1. 94% of world-class companies indicate that sales and marketing are aligned.
2. 84% of world-class companies have specific criteria as to what constitutes an acceptable
prospect. The lack of well-defined criteria:
Lost opportunity = reps forgo qualified prospects because they spend so much time chasing unqualified prospects.
Missed quotas due to reps spending time on potential deals that are actually undoable.
Discouragement and burnout from what would otherwise be effective reps.
Failure to accurately forecast revenue, leading to all types of problems with the C-suite, partners, customers, analysts, etc. (especially for public companies).
Granted, they may not know exactly what they want or may have unreasonable expectations – but it is better to be upfront and address the issue early than pretend it is going to work out downstream.
Quantity versus Quality
If the sales department says it needs X number of leads to make its number, marketing salutes and delivers X number of leads.
If our colleagues who carry business cards with a “sales” title believe they’re getting a bunch of non-qualified, uninterested and non-relevant tire kickers, it makes for an unproductive and tense relationship.
3. Life gets really good when you move up the value chain.
Your higher-value relationship is a barrier that can prevent other companies from taking your revenue.
Rewards are great in terms of referrals, access, repeat business, trust and credibility
Equally important is what you will get less of: competition, sales cycle, price sensitivity and the importance of any particular feature.
Differences in how sales reps approach the account and what they bring to the table
partner
contributor
consultant
preferred supplier
vendor
• trust = credibility
• access• # of contacts• knowledge of
customer’s business
• repeat business• referrals• references• total time
• # of competitors• tclose
• barriers• significance of
any feature or function
Source: MHI 2016
4. How you sell is more of a competitive differentiation than what you sell.
Just remember the formula:
Elevated Relationships
= More Revenue and More Profit
The real problem may be that you are selling at the lower end of the value chain and being perceived as a commodity supplier, where sales cycles are long and price pressure is greatest.
As Barry put in, the CSO definition of selling is “Establishing and elevating relationships over time.”
Practical application
These strategic actions can have a strong positive impact on your revenue and effectiveness. Combining all three can be
transformational.
Get aligned: Do what 94% of them do: gain alignment between marketing and sales organizations. For some relevant info on how to do this, read my article about marketing and sales alignment.
Get specific: You have to be very quantitative when it comes to establishing lead criteria. You need to create a service level agreement (SLA) that is specific about lead quantity + attributes.
Get close: Modify your marketing and selling processes to intentionally move up the value chain and get closer to your clients/customers.
About Fusion Marketing Partners
Christopher Ryan, CEO
We Do This: Brand building/messaging Website optimization Content creation Lead Generation
You Get This: Much greater levels of awareness Higher quantities of qualified leads Ability to generate faster revenue
Lots more information at: http://FusionMarketingPartners.com/http://Greatb2BMarketing.com
(blog)
Elevate Your Game