B2B Sales & Marketing Alignment: How to Drive Collaboration to Beat Your Numbers J. David Green

Transcription

1 B2B Sales & Marketing Alignment: How to Drive Collaboration to Beat Your Numbers J. David Green Best Practice Leader, InTouch

2 Takeaways Sales empathy Economics rational for sales and marketing transformation Playbook for alignment: practical steps for creating greater alignment with sales

3 What image comes to mind when you think of sales and marketing alignment? 3

4 CAMP KUMBAYA NEXT EXIT 4

5 Sales and Marketing Alignment: Running with the Big Dogs. 5

6 What is sales and marketing alignment?

7 What are common symptoms of misalignment between sales and marketing?

8 How does the size of your sales and marketing departments affect alignment?

9 Your Take: Please Vote Be honest. How does sales perceive the leads marketing produces? 1.They love them couldn t be happier! 2.They complain about lead quality. 3.They complain about lead volume.

10 What is a lead? (Let s vote). People who respond to a marketing campaign. People who respond to a marketing campaign and provide sufficient information for sales follow up. People who respond to a marketing campaign, provide sufficient info, and are in the target market. All of the above, plus people who have problems that we can solve. All of the above, plus people who have plans to buy something in our category. A lead is what sales and marketing jointly define it to be.

11 38 up to 5 Dials What is the Cost of Giving Unqualified Hours Leads to Sales? Registrations Filled out a web form, called a toll free number, visited your booth, attended a webinar, etc Hours Valid Registrations Insufficient info, bogus info, not in target market 2 4 Hours Tele Qualification Ready Leads Sales Ready Opportunities Decline in the response population through the funnel

12 In What Ways Might Marketing Overlap with Sales?

13 Sales and Marketing Overlap Sales Prospect Qualify Nurture How are you avoiding duplication of effort? Marketing Generate Demand Qualify Nurture What s the most scalable approach to each function? In what ways might sales and marketing collaborate to improve the top of thefunnel activities? Buying Cycle

14 Marketing Campaigns Affect Sales Production (one way or the other) Generating Leads/Researching Accounts, 18.7% Selling: Face-to-Face or Over-the-Phone Meetings, 36.6% Account Service Calls, 15.2% Administrative Tasks/Meetings, 18.0% Other (including Travel, Train in g, etc.), 11.5% How much time do your sales people spend prospecting? How much is that prospecting time costing your company? From the CSO Insight Sales Performance Optimization report, 15th edition: over 1,800 companies surveyed. Copyright 2009 CSO Insights. All Rights Reserved.

15 Sales Impact of Optimizing Lead Generation 7% 9.3% 16.5% Sales Wins Reps Meeting Quota Lead to Appt. Conversion New Rep Ramp Up Sales Cycles From the CSO Insight Sales Performance Optimization report, 15th edition: over 1,800 companies surveyed. Copyright 2009 CSO Insights. All Rights Reserved. 62% vs. 42% 10%

16 Lead Generation: Increase Sales Productivity Profitably & Materially 100% Allocated Percent of Sales Resources As much as possible, replace these partner sales resources with lower cost methods of marketing & telemarketing contact These reallocated partner sales resources result in an increase in revenue capacity / higher sales productivity Less Efficient Sales Model More Efficient Sales Model 0% Stage One Connect Stage Two Assess Buying Cycle Stages Stage Three Purchase Copyright PipeAlign, , all rights reserved.

17 OK, a lack of sales and marketing alignment is a problem. But what can we do to make it better?

18 Playbook for Sales & Marketing Alignment 1. Get executive sponsorship. 2. Establish a common goal for sales and marketing. 3. Develop a joint service level agreement. 4. Collaborate on optimizing sales capacity. 5. Make tele qualification a bridge between sales and marketing. 6. Evangelize the new approach

19 Step 1. Get Executive Sponsorship. Alignment can affect profits, revenue, budget allocation, compensation, job descriptions, and other executive level issues. The level of sponsorship will depend on the degree of misalignment. It may need to be the CEO. Alignment must become institutionalized, not something that has a start and stop date. Consider benefits (e.g., bonus) and consequences for non compliance.

20 Step 2. Establish a Common Goal for Sales and Marketing. High volumes of leads that don t turn into sales can actually hamper sales production. Transparency is key. Consider the goal of improving sales productivity. Share the credit. Sales and marketing will drive more revenue at a lower cost if they share a common goal.

21 Step 3. Develop a Joint Service Level Agreement. Form a lead roundtable. Get thought leaders from the sales and marketing teams. No more than 10 people. Insight into customer buying behavior and knowledge of best practices is key. Ask them to define and document the qualification criteria for (and the taxonomy of): What goes straight to inside sales (smaller, transactional items); What goes to a tele qualification team; What goes to the field; Then ask them to establish and document the policies and practices for the timing, level of effort, and feedback required to follow up and report on leads. Review this definition quarterly (may require phasing).

22 Qualification Information Areas Decision Influencers Ideal Customer Explicit Information $ Opportunities Implicit Information Accounts What is the required information? What is the optional information? What is the level of importance, from a lead qualification standpoint, of the required information? What required and optional information is subjective and more qualitative? What effect will deal size and solution area have on the criteria? Content Response History Purchase History Slide 22

23 What Sales People Typically Need Probability Value Deal size Pilot vs. Roll Out Account/Level Area(s) of Interest Problems Drivers / Trigger Events Problem Implications Depth of Interest Intent Plans Budget (Have/Get) Timing (Rep/Deal) Decision Dynamics Process Description ID of Players Authority Have/Seek? Slide 23

24 Methods of Lead Qualification Targeting/Messaging/Calls to Action Lead Scoring Data Hygiene, Enhancement & Consolidation Explicit User Supplied Data (e.g., Registration Forms) Implicit User Tracked Behavior (e.g., what content have they engaged?) Phone Qualification & Discovery Sales Qualification & Discovery Data, Rules, Content, and Automation (quantitative) Human Interpretation (qualitative) For deals with a high average selling price, lead scoring is not a substitute for human touch. It prioritizes where you invest resources.

25 Don t Wait to Close the Loop Feedback Loops Early Can Improve Efficiency Quickly Business Days Tele Qualification 3 Calls, 3 s, (2 Calls & 2 s in the First 10 Business Days) Inside Sales 2 Calls, 3 s Field Sales Days to Contact Days to Disposition 3 Attempts What sales needs to tell you quickly: Sufficient/good info? Duplicate? Reachable? In the target market? Ready for human follow up?

26 Establish a Common Language for the Key Funnel Stages Inquiries Buying Cycle Registrations Valid Registrations Phone Ready Leads Phone Validated Leads Sales Ready Opportunities Sales Validated Opportunities Tele Qualification Team Sales Forecasted Opportunities Sales Outcomes Sales Copyright PipeAlign, , all rights reserved.

27 Step 4. Collaborate on Optimizing Sales Capacity. Jointly plan what will be done. How many leads does each sales team need to optimize sales production, given the new lead definition? What percentage of the sales pipeline should marketing leads account for? How will sales and marketing jointly measure the investment? Consider the tradeoffs between speed of deployment and the level of confidence in pilot results. Use baselines and benchmarks as a sanity check. Jointly assess the plans against the goal.

28 Step 5. Make tele qualification a bridge between sales and marketing. This group has obligations to both departments: Sales ready leads for sales Precise feedback on marketing responses to marketing. Consider aligning each tele qualification rep with the sales person(s) he or she might support to create teamwork and mutual accountability. Use the feedback from the tele qualification team to improve up stream practices and use the feedback from sales to improve tele qualification process. One rep on the phone can usually support two to four field sales reps effectively, in terms of pipeline development and optimizing sales production.

29 Step 6. Evangelize the new approach Use the thought leaders on the lead roundtable to sell the new approach to skeptical feet on the street (where the rubber meets the road). Use the tele qualification team to reinforce the new criteria. Consider linking the lead definitions to new leads and any /web feedback loops. Educate new sales people on the program.

30 Review: Playbook for Sales & Marketing Alignment 1. Get executive sponsorship. 2. Establish a common goal for sales and marketing. 3. Develop a joint service level agreement. 4. Collaborate on optimizing sales capacity. 5. Make tele qualification a bridge between sales and marketing. 6. Evangelize the new approach.

31 Takeaways Sales empathy Economics rational for sales and marketing transformation Playbook for alignment: practical steps for creating greater alignment with sales