Get Aligned or Get Left Behind - Funnel 2013

ip@bobapollo | #FoM13

PLAN:Get Aligned – or Get Left Behind

Funnel 2013Bob Apollo | Inflexion-Point | @bobapollo

@bobapollo | #FoM13

B2B FocusComplex Sale

Considered Purchase

Growing Market

The plan is nothing…

Planning is everything

@bobapollo | #FoM13

No plan survives first contact with the enemycustomer

How cantechnology help?

Hoping for

HarryPotter…

@bobapollo | #FoM13

Endingup with

Valdemort

@bobapollo | #FoM13

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

So what should we be planning to do?

What CEOs expect you to plan for…

1 Accelerate Revenue Growth

2 Improve Sales Performance

3 Increase Marketing Effectiveness

SALES MARKETINGALIGNMENT

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

What’s Missing?

SALES + MARKETING PLAN

CUSTOMER-AND THEIRBUYING

JOURNEY

SALES + MARKETING PLAN

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

Get your CUSTOMERSto design your SALES +MARKETING PROCESSES

CUSTOMERS

ORGANISATIONS STAKEHOLDERS

OPERATIONAL TECHNICAL COMMERCIAL

themost valuable organisations

@bobapollo | #FoM13

BEHAVIOURTRUMPS

DEMOGRAPHICSEVERY TIME

SECTOR

LOCATION

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?

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

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

The Buyer’s Journey:How and why they choose to buy

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

The Funnel is a flawed metaphor

The Funnel leaks

Deals defy gravity

Buyers bail out

Deals go into limbo

Gartner B2B Buying Decision Process

A more manageable perspective…

ABSORB IMPLEMENTEXPLORE

IDENTIFYNEED

INVESTIGATE EVALUATE VALIDATE

ESTABLISHCRITERIA

PREFERREDOPTION

PLACEORDER

CASE FORCHANGE

Critical Milestones

Traditional responsibilities

IDENTIFYNEED

ESTABLISHCRITERIA

PREFERREDOPTION

PLACEORDER

CASE FORCHANGE

WHATMARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

Aligned throughout the journey

IDENTIFYNEED

ESTABLISHCRITERIA

PREFERREDOPTION

PLACEORDER

CASE FORCHANGE

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

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

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

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?

HIGHLIGHT THE COST OF INACTIONProvocative messages | Exploratory

conversations | Lead towards, not with | Key

issue keywords | Key solution keywords |

Cost/consequences of inaction | Executive

Briefing

SHAPE THEIR DECISION CRITERIAFunctional checklists | War stories, anecdotes

| Journey-based demos | Datasheets | Case

studies | Frequently asked questions

GET SELECTED AS PREFERRED OPTIONEvaluation guides | Trials/Proofs-of-Concept |

Detailed functional demos | Detailed

technical documents | Solution proposal |

Reference calls

GET APPROVED, BOUGHT AND IMPLEMENTEDNegotiation guidelines | Support your

champion | Reference visits | Reinforce case

for change | Eliminate remaining concerns |

Make it easy to buy

Create content paths

+ISSUE

BLOGARTICLE

WHITEPAPER

PRODUCTDEMO

CASESTUDY

EXECBRIEFING

WEBINAREVAL

PROOFOF

CONCEPT

REFVISIT

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?

What happens when we look at ourSales + Marketing Processfrom the perspective of the

Buyer’s Journey?

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…

@bobapollo | #FoM13

50%+ Waste@bobapollo | #FoM13

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

But once you eliminate the waste…

SHORTERSALESCYCLES

FEWER LATE STAGE

LOSSES

INCREASEDMARKETING

ROIip@bobapollo | #FoM13

But even more important…

Your pipeline will be far less pants…

Flabby

Building theBuyer’s Journeyinto your plansfor 2014

And how technology can help

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

2: Map out key stages in buying journey

IDENTIFYNEED

ESTABLISHCRITERIA

PREFERREDOPTION

PLACEORDER

CASE FORCHANGE

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

WHAT THE CUSTOMER

WHAT MARKETING

WHATSALESDOES

Impact: lead scoring, qualification criteria, CRM, marketing automation

3: Every piece of content connected

Impact: sales playbook, qualification criteria, CRM, marketing automation

EXECBRIEFING

SALES TALKING POINTS

WEBINAR

BLOGARTICLE

WHITEPAPER

PRODUCTDEMO

CASESTUDY

4: Direct the Buyer’s Journey

+ISSUE

BLOGARTICLE

WHITEPAPER

PRODUCTDEMO

CASESTUDY

EXECBRIEFING

WEBINAREVAL

PROOFOF

CONCEPT

REFVISIT

Impact: Content creation, website navigation, calls to action, marketing automation

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

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

GET ALIGNEDOR

GET LEFT BEHINDBob Apollo

Inflexion Point Strategy Partners

bob@inflexion-point.com

07802 313300

Get Aligned or Get Left Behind - Funnel 2013

fom13 plan

fom13 b2b

fom13 whats

fom13 sales marketingalignment

fom13 traditional approach

fom13 buyer mindset

fom13 gartner b2b

fom13 key targeting

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