webinar slides - an empowered sales rep becomes a content concierge

1

Welcome!

Peter O’Neill, Vice President – Research Director Forrester

Melissa Andrews, Vice President - Marketing Mediafly

Twitter: #mflywebinar

© 2006-2015 Mediafly, Inc. | Confidential

Mediafly Founded in 2006 | Based in Chicago

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Buyers’ frustrations have bottom-line impact

•  Increase in sales and marketing friction •  Destructive sales experiences •  Decrease in potential revenue •  Increase in competitive losses

Source: SAP What’s the Future of Sales (2014)

An Empowered Sales Rep Becomes A Content Concierge

Peter O’Neill, Vice-President, Research Director

Mediafly Webinar, September 3, 2015

“… Considering the material you receive from sales people, how much do you agree with the following statements about the content you are provided?”

What do buyers think of the content your sales people offer?

Combined “agree” and “strongly agree” responses Base: Senior-level IT and business executive decision makers at companies with 1000 or more employees. Source: Forrester’s Q4 2013 North America and Europe Executive Buyer Insight Study

I usually scan the information, then throw it in the trash.

Vendors give me too much material to sort through.

Much of the material is useless.

Business decision makers (N=159) IT decision makers (N=160)

© 2014 Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited 7

Source: Forrester Q4 2013 Global Executive Buyer Insights Survey

We are not enabling our sales people well


Customers have their life cycle

The business buyer’s decision experience

from problem identification and

comparative analysis through the purchase decision and ongoing engagement with the

supplier

Source: April 2014, “The Customer Life Cycle: A Blueprint For Customer-Obsessed Enterprises” Forrester report


Your content and conversations must meet differing needs through the life cycle

ENGAGE

ASK

USE BUY

EXPLORE

DISCOVER

Customer recognizes need to solve a problem. Budget and approach discussed with stakeholders.

Needs refined into requirements and business case. Vendors invited to present.

Shortlist of vendors invited to bid. Vendors submit offers. Solution purchased.

Onboarding/install action completed. Solution put

to use by customer. Results measured.

Support and service are provided.

Relationships with company are expanded.


ENGAGE

ASK

USE BUY

EXPLORE

DISCOVER Growth

Retention

New Customer Acquisition The life cycle is a series of journeys

Source: April 2014, “The Customer Life Cycle: A Blueprint For Customer-Obsessed Enterprises” Forrester report


Sales is now asked to do more than selling

Source: July 18, 2015, “Take Lead-To-Revenue Management Beyond The Campaign” Forrester report


Sales is now asked to do more than selling


What makes a conversation valuable for business executives?

Source: November 22, 2013,“What Do Executive Buyers Find Valuable?” Forrester report


Content types and channels vary through the life cycle

ENGAGE

ASK

USE BUY

EXPLORE

DISCOVER

Custom Social Content

Videos

Thought Leadership Paper (TLP)

Executive Summaries

Business Case / ROI / TEI

Webinars

Proposal / Offer

Infographics

Tweet jams

Advocacy programs Communities

The difference between marketing and sales content

§ Marketing creates content “one to many” § Targeted at a segment (or persona) § Perhaps targeted to a buyer journey phase § Perhaps digitally-interactive for deeper engagement

§ Sales requires content “specific to one” § Supports THIS conversation § Tuned to the specific needs of the account and/or buyer role § Serves as a leave behind §  Ideally available for further distribution in customer org.

Content

+

Buyer(s) Sales Person

Buyer-centric content - “in their moment“

Link your content to sales conversations

§ Create (internal) content about the marketing content

§ Tag each content asset: audience, sales stage, next step. § Provide sales guides/battlecards around content programs.

•  Thought leadership: What is the thought? Who? Why? What?

•  Forrester Wave™ reprint: Where are we good/not so good — why, what do we say about it?

§ Help sales people be a “content concierge” § Recognize Sales as an important content channel § Make your content easy to locate § Enable your content to be “customized“

Content audit checklist - message Each piece of content must pass these audit test questions

Is the “message” implicitly but clearly positioned?

Is one target-role audience clearly being addressed?

Message Effectiveness Questions

Has the content piece expressed a unique vision - an achievable end-state?

Does the content piece address the buyer's impact proposition with clarity?

Can the content piece be used in more than one buyer journey stage?

If not, is the content piece matched to the appropriate buyer journey stage?

Is there a “call to action”/trigger to move the buyer along their journey?

Does the message align to other content pieces?

If the content piece references products, is that justified?

Source: June 6, 2014, “Valuable Message Development For B2B Marketing In The Context of Sales Enablement” Forrester report

Is the content piece being recommended/distributed by Sales?

Is the content piece improving revenue velocity or conversion rates?

Content Delivery Effectiveness Questions

Is the content piece being used by buyers?

Do you know how the content piece performs by content channel?

Have you optimized the content piece with A/B tests?

Content Delivery Effectiveness Questions

Channel(s) used

Buyer-Role(s)

Title

Expiry Date

Last Audit

Call to action

Content audit checklist - effectiveness

Source: June 6, 2014, “Valuable Message Development For B2B Marketing In The Context of Sales Enablement” Forrester report


Forrester forecast: B2B buyers will prefer NOT to talk to sales reps

Base: 236 B2B buyers; Source: Q1 2015 Forrester/Internet Retailer B2B Buyer Channel Preferences Survey

I do my research online and prefer NOT to interact with a sales representative as my primary source of research.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Agree Disagree

59%

19%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Agree Disagree

53%

17%

I find gathering information online on my own superior to interacting with a sales representative.


But they will need help from sales reps

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

When expensive

When complex When negotiating

price

Requires Installation

Requires Service

Note: (N = 224); Source: Q1 2015 Forrester/Internet Retailer B2B Buyer Channel Preferences Survey

67%

82% 91%

67% 64%

When do you want to talk to a sales person?


Forrester’s B2B buyer/seller archetypes

Source: April 13, 2015, “The Death of A (B2B) Salesman” Forrester report


Your salesperson archetype mix will change

Source: April 13, 2015, “Death of A (B2B) Salesman” Forrester report

(US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR REPORTS THERE ARE 4.5M B2B SALES JOBS IN 2012)


›  Understanding of their customer‘s life cycle ›  Socially networked ›  Following data-insight signals ›  Engaged in the buyer‘s context ›  Marketing skilled ›  Content concierge (online and printed)

Sales people attributes in “The Age Of The Customer”*

* Forrester term for 20-year business cycle which started in 2010


Modern marketers prime the sales pipeline

Source: March 2015, “From Priming The Pipeline To Engaging Buyers: The B2B CMO’s New Role in Sales Enablement” Forrester report.

•  Feed the pipeline •  Appreciate role of sales •  Leverage automation


Optimal automation primes the sales pipeline

Source: March 2015, “From Priming The Pipeline To Engaging Buyers: The B2B CMO’s New Role in Sales Enablement” Forrester report.

Automation examples •  Lead-to-Revenue •  Content management •  Content delivery

Thank you

forrester.com

Peter O’Neill [email protected] blogs.forrester.com/peter_oneill Twitter: @poneillforr


Buyers expect…

•  Relevant and engaging content •  Contextual content at every stage of the

buying cycle •  Valuable conversations with sales •  Interactions with an empowered sales

force •  A “perfect selling experience”


The perfect selling experience •  Customer-centric content

strategy •  White-glove delivery of

engaging and impactful content

•  An empowered sales force; delivering only the most relevant and optimal content

•  Value and insights provided during every in-person interaction

•  Establish trust with buyers and reinforce differentiation

Source: SAP What’s the Future of Sales (2014)


Quantifiable success

•  100,000 hours of admin time saved in 1st year

•  >1% market share increase, Fortune 500 Food & Beverage customer

•  $9 - 18 MM in incremental Net Revenue per year, Fortune 500 Alcoholic Beverage customer

•  90% adoption, since 2011 Fortune 500 Financial Services customer


Mediafly

Mediafly SalesKit empowers sales teams to deliver the perfect selling experience.

Questions? [email protected]