The "Bad" – developing and implementing marketing plans/programs with product-focused messaging and one-size-fits-all sales tools.
The
American Marketing Association just launched a great new resource focused on
driving higher sales and marketing effectiveness. The Marketing and Sales
Alignment (MSA) Forum is divided into three practice areas: demand generation, sales effectiveness and
customer messaging. I really like the
AMA’s structure since it represents three-legged stool of great B2B execution. I’ve seen too many excellent marketing strategies collapse due to failure to
execute on one or more of these areas.
· Demand Generation – In my experience, this is a B2B marketer’s primary objective
(driving revenue) and is also the primary concern from sales reps, who always
want more leads and higher quality leads. Therefore, it is essential for marketers to partner with sales/sales
operations to jointly create a lead management system. And critical to that system is Sales
defining their EXACT criteria for targeting and their EXACT criteria for an A
lead vs. a B lead vs. an inquiry.
· Customer Messaging – Foundational to all great marketing and sales
programs is the right message. I’ve seen too many marketers that develop
inward-focused, product-centric messages that talk about how great they are,
how well their stuff works, and why it’s better than the competition. Instead, they need to create messaging that
shows the customer how they can help them accomplish a goal, solve a problem or
meet a need. Customer focused messaging is essential to power compelling
Sales meetings/proposals and compelling demand generation campaigns.
· Sales Effectiveness – Hitting revenue goals requires
that marketing properly equip the sales force to build customer solutions,
communicate value, and clearly differentiate from the competition. As described above, standard product
brochures and presentations are a complete waste of time. Marketing has to develop tools that the
sales force will actually want to use! For starters, marketing must develop a library of presentations that
addresses each of the top pains customers have (i.e. helping them solve a
problem). In conjunction, there should
be a well-written business case for each pain, including a customizable section where the
sales rep can leverage an interactive TCO / ROI calculator to model the
customer’s unique situation. The icing
on the cake is proof-proof-proof in the form of customer case studies and video
testimonials.
These
three areas might not be as sexy as branding, advertising or viral marketing,
but they are where B2B marketers should spend the bulk of their time if they
want to impact the top and bottom line.