get aligned or get left behind - funnel 2013
DESCRIPTION
My presentation from Funnel 2013 - the UK B2B Marketing Event on 8th October - on the critical importance of aligning the B2B sales and marketing process with the customer's buying decision journey. I hope you enjoy it - and I'd welcome your comments.TRANSCRIPT
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
PLAN:Get Aligned – or Get Left Behind
Funnel 2013Bob Apollo | Inflexion-Point | @bobapollo
@bobapollo | #FoM13
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
B2B FocusComplex Sale
Considered Purchase
Growing Market
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The plan is nothing…
Planning is everything
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No plan survives first contact with the enemycustomer
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How cantechnology help?
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Hoping for
HarryPotter…
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Endingup with
Valdemort
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Examples
“Customer Relationship Management” solutions that are really no more than Sales Force Administration systems
“Marketing Automation” systems that are used to spew out more unwanted emails than ever before
Over-Complex Scoring systems that do nothing to increase sales confidence in the leads generated by marketing
Measuring the success of marketing on the volume of leads generated rather than value of business created
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So what should we be planning to do?
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What CEOs expect you to plan for…
1 Accelerate Revenue Growth
2 Improve Sales Performance
3 Increase Marketing Effectiveness
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SALES MARKETINGALIGNMENT
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Traditional approach to alignment
Define your sales and marketing process
Agree common definitions
Agree roles and responsibilities
Agree hand-off points
Agree measures and metrics
Establish a contract
Review and refine
INTERNALLY FOCUSED
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What’s Missing?
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SALES + MARKETING PLAN
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YOUR
CUSTOMER-AND THEIRBUYING
JOURNEY
SALES + MARKETING PLAN
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Identify with your most valuable customers and understand how and why they make buying decisions
Facilitate their buying decision process, eliminate any obstacles and make it easy for them to choose you
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Get your CUSTOMERSto design your SALES +MARKETING PROCESSES
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IDEAL
CUSTOMERS
ORGANISATIONS STAKEHOLDERS
OPERATIONAL TECHNICAL COMMERCIAL
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themost valuable organisations
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BEHAVIOURTRUMPS
DEMOGRAPHICSEVERY TIME
SIZE
SECTOR
LOCATION
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Key targeting factors…
What systems do they already have in place?
What relationships have they already established?
How are they organised? Where does the power lie?
Are they innovators or late adopters?
What is their position in their markets?
What are their key goals, drivers and initiatives?
What’s happening to them or to their markets?
How do they make buying decisions?
Which stakeholders are leading the process?
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Key Stakeholders (buyer personas)
Roles and Responsibilities
Key Performance Metrics
Issues and Priorities
Motivations and Concerns
Role in Buying Decision Process
Who they influence
Who they are influenced by
OPERATIONAL
TECHNICAL
COMMERCIAL
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Building your Ideal Customer Profile
Talk to your sales people…
Interview your customers…
Observe their behaviour
Look for:
Common situations
Common structures
Patterns of activity
Trigger Events
ASK AND OBSERVE
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The Buyer’s Journey:How and why they choose to buy
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It’s the buyer’s journey that really matters…
…not your sales and marketing process
Measure progress by what they do…
…not what your sales people have done
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The Funnel is a flawed metaphor
The Funnel leaks
Deals defy gravity
Buyers bail out
Deals go into limbo
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Gartner B2B Buying Decision Process
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A more manageable perspective…
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE
TR
IG
GE
R
EV
EN
T
IDENTIFYNEED
INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
ESTABLISHCRITERIA
PREFERREDOPTION
PLACEORDER
CASE FORCHANGE
Critical Milestones
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Traditional responsibilities
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE
TR
IG
GE
R
EV
EN
T
IDENTIFYNEED
INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
ESTABLISHCRITERIA
PREFERREDOPTION
PLACEORDER
CASE FORCHANGE
WHATMARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Aligned throughout the journey
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE
TR
IG
GE
R
EV
EN
T
IDENTIFYNEED
INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
ESTABLISHCRITERIA
PREFERREDOPTION
PLACEORDER
CASE FORCHANGE
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Buyer mind-set evolves along the way
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
EXCITING/NEW SAFE/PROVEN
DIFFERENT BETTER
THEMES LISTS
STRATEGIC VALUES TACTICAL NEEDS
WHY CHANGE? WHY YOU?WHY NOW?
YOUR APPROACH YOUR CAPABILITIES
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Align tactics to buying process
ENABLE THEM TO RECOGNISE THE NEEDThought leadership materials | Social media
engagement | Industry body involvement |
Issue/impact-led campaigns | Profile high-
potential prospects | Prospecting
conversations
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
KEY QUESTIONS AT EACH STAGE:
Where is the organisation on their journey?
Which of the stakeholders are involved?
Current issues, concerns or motivations?
Most effective way of moving them forwards?
What can we do to eliminate any obstacles?
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Align tactics to buying process
HIGHLIGHT THE COST OF INACTIONProvocative messages | Exploratory
conversations | Lead towards, not with | Key
issue keywords | Key solution keywords |
Cost/consequences of inaction | Executive
Briefing
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Align tactics to buying process
SHAPE THEIR DECISION CRITERIAFunctional checklists | War stories, anecdotes
| Journey-based demos | Datasheets | Case
studies | Frequently asked questions
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Align tactics to buying process
GET SELECTED AS PREFERRED OPTIONEvaluation guides | Trials/Proofs-of-Concept |
Detailed functional demos | Detailed
technical documents | Solution proposal |
Reference calls
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Align tactics to buying process
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
GET APPROVED, BOUGHT AND IMPLEMENTEDNegotiation guidelines | Support your
champion | Reference visits | Reinforce case
for change | Eliminate remaining concerns |
Make it easy to buy
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Create content paths
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
+ISSUE
BLOGARTICLE
WHITEPAPER
PRODUCTDEMO
CASESTUDY
EXECBRIEFING
WEBINAREVAL
GUIDE
PROOFOF
CONCEPT
REFVISIT
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Observing behaviours
What do we know about them?
What web pages have they visited?
What content have they downloaded?
Which videos have they watched?
What information have they shared?
What interaction have we had?
What evidence do we have of their current stage?
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
What happens when we look at ourSales + Marketing Processfrom the perspective of the
Buyer’s Journey?
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Orphans Zombies
Sales + marketing actions that add no value to the buying
decision process
Apparently qualified sales
opportunities that have no chance of
ever closing
DroughtSales pipeline
value appears to decline (but deals were never real to
start with)
At first…
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50%+ Waste@bobapollo | #FoM13
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Three examples of waste
UP TO 90% OF MARKETING-GENERATED SALES SUPPORT
MATERIALS REMAIN UNUSED
ONLY 1 in 8 MEETINGS WITH SALES PEOPLE RATED “VALUABLE”
BY PROSPECTS
GROWING TREND FOR COMPLEX B2B SALES CYCLES TO END IN
“NO DECISION”
Sources: Forrester, CMM Group, CSO Insights
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
But once you eliminate the waste…
SHORTERSALESCYCLES
FEWER LATE STAGE
LOSSES
INCREASEDMARKETING
ROIip@bobapollo | #FoM13
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But even more important…
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Your pipeline will be far less pants…
Flabby
Fit
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Building theBuyer’s Journeyinto your plansfor 2014
And how technology can help
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
1: Identify with your audience
Identify the common characteristics of your ideal customers – both organisations and stakeholders – as a joint effort between sales and marketing
Validate by reviewing against recent sales wins
Make sure that you are capturing the relevant data
Research the actionable issues that are most likely to drive the need for change
Impact: prospecting databases, website, CRM, marketing automation
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
2: Map out key stages in buying journey
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE
TR
IG
GE
R
EV
EN
T
IDENTIFYNEED
INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
ESTABLISHCRITERIA
PREFERREDOPTION
PLACEORDER
CASE FORCHANGE
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
WHAT THE CUSTOMER
DOES
WHAT MARKETING
DOES
WHATSALESDOES
Impact: lead scoring, qualification criteria, CRM, marketing automation
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
3: Every piece of content connected
Impact: sales playbook, qualification criteria, CRM, marketing automation
EXECBRIEFING
SALES TALKING POINTS
FAQs
WEBINAR
BLOGARTICLE
WHITEPAPER
PRODUCTDEMO
CASESTUDY
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4: Direct the Buyer’s Journey
ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE
+ISSUE
BLOGARTICLE
WHITEPAPER
PRODUCTDEMO
CASESTUDY
EXECBRIEFING
WEBINAREVAL
GUIDE
PROOFOF
CONCEPT
REFVISIT
Impact: Content creation, website navigation, calls to action, marketing automation
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
5: Pull it all together in a playbook
Ideal customer profiles
The Buyer’s Journey
Stage-Aligned Content
Qualification Guidelines
FAQs and TAQs
Stories and Anecdotes
Impact: sales + marketing playbook
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
Success formula for 2014
Identify with your most valuable customers and understand how and why they make buying decisions
Facilitate their buying decision process, eliminate any obstacles and make it easy for them to choose you
ip@bobapollo | #FoM13
GET ALIGNEDOR
GET LEFT BEHINDBob Apollo
Inflexion Point Strategy Partners
07802 313300