From A Salesforce.com Alum:

5 New (& A Little Crazy) Ways To Align Sales & Marketing

1

Who’s This Aaron Ross Guy?

• High school coding geek (NASA)• Stanford Undergrad + GSB dropout• CEO of LeaseExchange: -$5 Million• Ironman Triathlon, Boulder Outdoor Survival School• Created Salesforce.com’s Inside Sales Leadgen Team (&

$100 Million In Recurring Revenue)• ‘Entrepreneur-in-Residence’ at Alloy Ventures ($1B)• Author, “CEOFlow: Turn Your Employees Into Mini-CEOs”

Now: I consult with companies on creating predictable revenue & autonomous, happy teams

2

Created A $100M Inside Sales Team At Salesforce.com

Grew F5000 bookings by more than 60%...

3

And Years Of Consulting/Advising

4

Book Coming: “Predictable Revenue”

5

Register for a free excerpt at:BuildASalesMachine.com/book

Early reviewer comments:“Entrepreneurial crack”, “I couldn’t put it down”, &

“Freaking awesome”

Sales & Marketing Alignment Must Adapt

All salespeople prospect

ABC / Always Be Closing

Measure activities (Dials)

Cold calls

Manipulative selling

CRM hurts productivity

Long letters & emails

1.0 2.0Dedicated prospecting team

Is there a mutual fit?

Measure results (qualified leads)

Research, referral calls

Short and sweet text emails

CRM multiplies productivity

Authentic selling

6

5 New & A Little Crazy Ways To Align Sales & Marketing

1. Specialize Sales To Ensure Every Lead Gets The Attention It Deserves

2. Use Common Terms, Metrics & Compensation3. Pull A Switcheroo4. Discover Your “Unique Genius”5. Turn Your Employees Into Mini-CEOs

+ Bonus Method: “_____”

7

Method #1

Specialize Sales Roles To Ensure Every Lead Gets The Attention It

Deserves

8

Distinguishing Lead Types

•Highest value/lead•Hard to increase

•Low value per lead•Easy to increase

•High value per lead•Medium work to increase•“Most Controllable”•Grow client revenues 40-100%+

9

___ Website Visitors

___ Leads(Registrations)

___ Qualified Leads

___ QualifiedOpportunities

$___ Pipeline

$___ Bookings

__% Conversion

__% Accepted

__% Converted

$___ Avg /Oppty

___% Close

SALESDEVELOPMENT

SALES

MARKETING

Sales Cycle Length ____

__ Lead Qualification Reps per __ Leads per Month

__ Account Execs per $__ Pipeline per Month

Cost per Lead$___

Example Nets Funnel

10

Add Target Accounts

Add Contacts

Example Spears Funnel (Cold Calling 2.0)

Prepare

Define Ideal Target Profile

__ Demos/Appointments

__ Call Conversations

ProspectWork Responses (9% Response Rate)

Send __ Cold Emails / Make __ Mapping Calls

__ New Opportunities

__ Closed Deals

Begin SalesCycle

11

Critical Success Factor: Specialize Sales Functions

“Outbound”

Customer Success /Account

MgmtAccount

ExecutivesSales

Development

Organic & Marketing

Leads

“Inbound”Qualified Opportunities

New Customers

12

13

You’ve Been Doing It Backwards

Cold Calling 1.0

1. Cold CALL

2. Cold Email

Cold Calling 2.0

1. Cold EMAIL(9% response rate)

2. Warm call people who respond (internal referrals)

14

Prospecting Emails: Less Is More

1. You can get a 9%+ response rate asking for referrals

2. State simply why you are reaching out – and be honest! (In every way)

3. Make the first email SHORT & SWEET: easy read & respond to on a blackberry

15

Run EmailCampaignsRun EmailCampaigns

Generate Internal

Referrals

Sell TheDreamSell TheDream

Connect TheirNeed To

Your Solution

Pass TheBaton

Pass TheBaton

Seamlessly Handoff To

Quota-Carrying

Salesperson

5-Step Cold Calling 2.0 Outbound Process

Build List

Build List

Import Into

Sales/Marketing

Systems

IdealCustomer

Profile

IdealCustomer

Profile

Highest Revenue

Potential & Close Rates

16

Method #2

Align Terms, Metrics & Compensation

17

No Common Language…

• Lack of common terms, metrics & even language creates confusion, errors & frustration

18

Align Terms

• Prospect: An untouched/cold list or ‘name’• Lead: A prospect that has shown positive

interest (usually by registering)• Opportunity: A lead that has been qualified by

a human (90%+ requires phone call)• Client: Cha-ching! • Champion: They refer you leads, offer

testimonials (not necessarily a client)

19

5 Key Metrics For Both Sales & Marketing

1. New Leads per month2. New Qualified Opportunities: a) # of them

and b) dollar value of new opportunities3. Conversion Rate: of leads into opportunities4. Closed Bookings 5. Win Rate: what percentage of your pipeline

is closed/won into bookings?

20

Align Compensation

• Measuring marketing on new leads is like measuring sales on dials per day

• What matters: qualified opportunities created each month from marketing leads

– # of opportunities– Dollar value of opportunities

• Tie marketing to this number!• Incents marketing to generate better leads and

help sales qualify them

21

Method #3

Pull A Switcheroo

22

Have Them Walk A Mile In Each Others’ Shoes…

• Busy people lose touch with others’ realities• How can you have sales people & executives

work or intern in marketing roles, and vice versa?

– Switch Sales & Marketing execs for 60 days– Involve sales people in marketing projects– Involve marketing people in sales calls &

opportunities

23

How Badly Do You Want Your Results?

• Lots of “We can’t do that” excuses will come up

• How committed are you to aligning sales & marketing?

24

Method #4

Discover Your Unique Genius: “Your Purpose, Translated Into

Fulfilling, Profitable Work”

25

What Makes You Unique? (Not Just Different?)

26

Unique Genius Aligns People & Attracts Results

• A big vision rallies employees around a cause bigger than them

• What is your purpose that is bigger than you? What do you stand for?

• If your company is on the cover of BusinessWeek for changing ____, what did you do?

27

The Value Of Unique Genius & Alignment

• Having a clear and actionable mission (& set of core values) will align sales & marketing…

• And every employee…• And your partners and your clients!

28

Unique Genius Attracts Results

• It’s not a tagline, it’s everything you do• Are your mission & values words on paper or

do you LIVE by them?• Salesforce.com “No software”• Zappos: “Deliver happiness to the world”• Google: “Organize the world's information and

make it universally accessible and useful”

29

Forget About What You “Do”

• Customers care less about what you do than the results you create

– “We are the leading application platform for widget integration on the social graph…blah blah”

• My example: – “I am a sales & management consultant” vs. – “I help companies create predictable revenue” & “I help

companies turn employees into Mini-CEOs”

30

Homework

• When someone asks “What do you do?”, pretend they asked “How do you help customers?”

• What is your Ideal Customer Profile?• Talk to your customers & ask them:

– What difference have you made to them?– Why did they do business with you? – Why do they continue to do business with you?– Why would they refer others to you?

31

Method #5

Turn Your Employees Into Mini-CEOs

32

Command & Control => CEOFlow

33

3 Fundamental Values To Creating CEOFlow

• Trust• Transparency• Alignment

…All of which help create an authentic workplace

34

Why Turn Employees Into Mini-CEOs?

• When people are empowered with – A common mission & clear goals– Transparent operations & – Decision-making authority

• You get:– Less drama – Higher morale & energy– Higher productivity & creativity

35

The CEO Is The Pebble In The Pond

36

Three Ways To Begin

1. More Transparency– Operational & financial transparency– Weekly or monthly updates, online dashboards– “Brutal honesty forums”

2. With employees create a joint vision for your “ideal company & culture”

3. “Meeting Of The Minds”– Regular forum for any employee to share any concern

(without discouragement), suggest solutions, and take ownership of improvements

37

CEOFlow: The Book

38

Register for a free excerpt at:CEOFlow.com

“A must read for every CEO and aspiring CEO…”

Bonus Method:

Just Frickin’ Listen!

39

Communication

• Like a marriage, lack of authentic communication creates 90% of the problems

• When people don’t share or listen, minor issues fester and stew into bigger dramas

• Keep it simple & listen to what they are saying : – Weekly meetings / calls– Happy hours– Walk the halls

40

5 New & A Little Crazy Ways To Align Sales & Marketing

1. Specialize Sales To Ensure Every Lead Gets The Attention It Deserves

2. Use Common Terms, Metrics & Compensation3. Pull A Switcheroo4. Discover Your “Unique Genius”5. Turn Your Employees Into Mini-CEOs

+ Bonus Method: Just Frickin’ Talk!

41

Aaron Ross Services

• A clear, step-by-step plan to create predictable revenue?

• The ability to repeatedly source sales-ready leads from ideal clients who aren’t calling you?

• Attracting & developing top-notch sales talent?• Autonomous, happy employees?

“Build A Sales Machine” Client: WPromote

Michael Stone, VP Sales, Wpromote#1 ranked Inc500 Search Marketing Firm:• “Working with Aaron Ross has been nothing short of

amazing… • We saw at least 40+% new business growth. • Deal size is still growing. • We’re getting in the door with big brands like Overstock,

AT&T, IBM, etc. – people that would have never come to us. • The best part is, we had a blast while doing it!”

43

Contact

Best address for speaking, consulting: info@pebblestorm.com

(My personal email: aaron@pebblestorm.com)

Thank you!

44