Debbie Blog How Digital Transformation Drives the Revenue Marketing J...

Are You a Revenue Marketer?

Hello Fellow Marketers: Are you a Revenue Marketer?

Join my Partner, Debbie Qaqish, one of our resident Demand Generation experts, and John Follet, Chief Analyst at Demand Metric, as Debbie presents findings from her forthcoming white paper: The Revenue Marketer.

Introducing the Revenue Marketer:

How Marketing Fulfills Their New Revenue Obligation

Thursday, March 25th from 2 - 3 PM EDT

 

Attend this webinar and you will learn:

• The anatomy and skills of the Revenue Marketer
• Typical measurement of revenue impact by the Revenue Marketer
• The 2010 opportunity for the Revenue Marketer

C-Suite expectations for return on marketing spend are changing, and there is a trend towards tying individual Marketer's variable compensation directly to revenue generation. This webinar will introduce the methods with which Marketers are leveraging technology and aligning themselves with sales to contribute and measure their contribution to revenue targets.

Who Should Attend?

Marketing Managers, Directors and VPs at B2B companies involved with generating new business leads and pipeline for their company.

The Revenue Marketer - No Longer an Oxymoron

Two years ago, using the term "revenue" and "marketer" together was an oxymoron - a phrase in which two words of contradictory meaning are used together for special effect, e.g. "jumbo shrimp" or "wise fool." In 2010, it is no longer an oxymoron, it is a special role in marketing that is making a measurable impact on revenue

With the business imperative to drive top-line revenue growth in 2010, businesses are exploring all options to achieve this goal. This business driver paired with the new marketing automation tools that are now available to marketers, create an environment where, for the first time, marketing efforts equate to revenue production.

This is an epic change in the world of marketing and one that requires the successful Revenue Marketer to have a revenue focus and a unique set of skills across the Revenue Marketing Team. In 2009, I interviewed 12 leaders for my Demand Generation Essentials series and these Revenue Marketers had amazing stories to tell in how they re-shaped the role of marketing in their companies. You can listen to these interviews at http://pedowitzgroup.com/dgassets.htm.

Here is a synopsis of the key roles for a Revenue Marketing Team:

1. VP of Marketing Revenue

• Obsesses over driving revenue through marketing effort
• Works closely with sales to align marketing and sales initiatives
• Manages a lead funnel and has a predictable run rate for leads to the sales funnel
• Understand the customer's buying process and digital body language
• Focuses on revenue oriented metrics to measure success

2. Business Analyst

• Focuses on improving the performance of campaigns that lead to revenue
• Responsible for reporting and dashboards

3. Power User

• Sets up and executes campaigns
• Fully leverages the technology

4. Revenue Creative

• You will need a lot of creative but the creative needs to be focused on driving a dollar of revenue
• Think about creative as the way to invite and create a digital relationship

5. Content Maker

• Content is king in the world of the revenue marketer. It is what fuels campaigns and helps set up the view the the client's buying process
• Your content, third part content -anything that creates an exchange of value

The numbers are in. Revenue marketers around the globe are making a measurable impact on revenue. Key metrics for the Revenue Marketer include:

• # of Marketing Qualified Leads passed to sales
• Conversion rate of an MQL to an Opportunity
• Conversion rate of that Opportunity to close
• % of the sales funnel contributed by marketing
• Length of sales cycle

The Revenue Marketer is certainly no longer an oxymoron in 2010. It is a marketing role that is here to stay.

What have you experienced?

Lean Manufacturing Concepts Applied to Lead Production

"So, Debbie, how do we apply lean manufacturing concepts to demand generation?" This recent question from not one, but two of my clients, made me start thinking how cool this could be. This is a topic I have been thinking about for some time and so over the next few months, using social media and client conversations, I'd like to open up this dialog.

The first wave of companies to adopt lead generation and demand generation practices and tools were primarily technology and business services firms with a sprinkling of financial services. As we enter the next big wave of adoption, the manufacturing sector is now looking at how they can embrace demand generation to help improve the revenue picture in 2009. And a big part of their discussion includes how to apply one of their foundation processes - lean manufacturing - into the discussion.

From Wikipedia, lean manufacturing is defined as "a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any other goal than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. In a more basic term, More value with less work."

I find this fascinating as my view of demand generation is very much like a factory production line. In 2004 when I bought my first marketing automation system, I actually produced a flash file of an assembly line that created leads in a predictable and measurable system. This is still a metaphor and language I use today with my clients. I often talk about "getting to a run rate" or "follow a Plan-Do-Check-Act" philosophy to test, test, test as you begin production or "demonstrating a measurable return" or "producing the highest quality leads." While these are all very common concepts to the manufacturing world, they are startling concepts to marketing. This is why I am so pleased to have this discussion. My belief is that lead production is a process and that wasteful time and effort can be driven out of the process to produce the lowest cost, highest quality lead that will delight our customer - the sales team. I also believe that by taking a manufacturing approach to lead production, marketing can get better buy-in and alignment to this invaluable initiative.

There are a few major areas we can dissect:

1. Eliminating waste
2. More value with less work
3. Test, test, test

The whole genre of marketing automation systems focus on the word "automation" in terms of reducing waste for the marketing team. This waste is time spent doing heavily manual processes and producing higher quality leads which eliminates "lead waste" or leads that aren't worth the follow up time required. The application of technology to improve process is widely accepted in manufacturing and has transformed the manufacturing industry through the years. The application of technology to transform marketing begins with less "transformation" and more "another project to do." Make no mistake about it. This class of technology is powerful and it is transformational. The most successful marketers see this, embrace it and drive the change across the company. Other marketers will get there, especially as this becomes a common set of practices that created a competitive advantage for companies.

My husband used to work for Lever Brothers and his plant produced Surf detergent. Their newly constructed plant had state of the art technology and processes which allowed them to produce a case of Surf and deliver it to the LA plant for less money than the LA plant could produce the same case of Surf. Which plant stayed open? In these trying economic times who doesn't want more revenue that costs less to get? That is part of the promise of marketing automation.

More value with less work speaks to the most common top challenge we hear from marketers responsible for lead generation - producing higher quality leads. With the power of functions like lead scoring, automated programs and automated responses based on online behavior, marketing automation fits this lean tenet perfectly. This shifts the responsibility for some of the key qualifying of a prospect from the expensive shoulders of sales people (it's even more expensive when they don't do the follow up) to the ever vigilant marketing automation system. When set up properly, it is executed well with a high level of predictability.

Finally, while I'm not sure if this is a part of lean, you must test, test, test. Every production line has to be thoroughly tested before full production runs begin. At my husband's plant, they would often run different formulations of Surf. The formulations would vary by the part of the world the product was being sent to. Before every full production run, they had multiple tests to ensure the end product met all the specs of their target market. Marketing needs to take a very similar approach. When beginning with lead generation and working with these powerful tools, you only think you know what will happen - you have a best guess. In order to produce the highest quality lead for your target market (sales), you need to test, test, test everything from your list to your message, to your subject line, to the expected prospect response and behavior.

Over the next few months I want to talk to the market and continue this dialog with an end purpose to apply discipline and rigor to the lead production process. This is going too be fun!

Improving B2B Lead Management hosted by the Direct Marketing Association

Dear Fellow Marketer,  On behalf of our affiliation with the Direct Marketing Association we are extending this webinar invitation nation wide as an opportunity for you to kick off 2010 with specific, valuable, marketing insight from Forrester Research, Eloqua, and The Pedowitz Group.  We have assembled 3 top industry experts to help you clearly understand how you can improve your marketing process by identifying, monitoring, and evaluating the online research behavior of prospective buyers. Panelists: Laura Ramos – Forrester Research – Vice President, Principal Analyst. Author – B2B Lead Management Automation Market Overview,Improving B2B Lead Management. Steve Woods – Eloqua – Chief Technology Officer / Co-Founder. Author – Digital Body Language. Debbie Qaqish – The Pedowitz Group – Chief Revenue Officer. Demand Generation Agency – Digital Buyer Behavior applications. We look forward to seeing you there! Sincerely yours, Scott Benedetti | The Pedowitz Group Director Demand Generation & Sales Operations Phone: 732-475-2806 | Skype: 732-475-4110 Email: scott@pedowitzgroup.com | www.pedowitzgroup.com		Webinar Details:   How to Track a Buyer's Online Purchase Research Behavior: and then send appropriate messages to influence that buyer's purchase   Wednesday, January 13th 2010 10:00 AM Pacific 1:00 PM EST More Information Here

Manage your subscriptions here The Pedowitz Group 14162 Seabiscuit Alpharetta, GA  30004 USA

The Elephant on the Conference Room Table

On September 17th, I'll be interviewing Tom Weinbaum, VPof Demand Creation Marketing at Foundation Source. Isn't that a great title! Our topic is "Lead Management" and how to do it successfully. This is often a highly charged area as for the first time, marketing is requiring accountability from sales and vice versa - I call it "The Elephant on the Conference Room Table."

It's the Monday morning senior management team meeting. It starts with the VP of Sales giving an update on the sales pipeline and revenue and then it's your turn, Mr/s Marketer to give an update on the lead funnel and the impact you are making on revenue. Your report focuses on all the leads you are turning over to sales, how qualified they are and how you don't think they are being followed up on (is that correct English?) Sales volleys back that what they are getting is not qualified and so goes another Monday morning senior management team meeting.

People there is an elephant sitting on that conference room table that no one is acknowledging and it's called lead management. This has been a topic of my last few blogs because I think it deserves a lot of attention in 2009. My friend Eric Blumthal of Count5 just responded in our LASER Lead Generation Group on this topic and here is a synopsis of the problem.

1. Sales and marketing don't have a common set of lead definitions
2. Sales isn't classically trained to work the very top of the sales funnel - nor are they compensated for this work (in a sense)
3. Marketing is not trained in selling at all - they don't know what they don't know
4. No one is responsible for working these leads they way they need to be
5. There is no "lead management process" in place with assigned roles, accountability, tools and time lines

Here is an example. Marketing works hard to get a lead - as defined by marketing. How often does marketing take it upon themselves to have their own definition of a lead and never invite sales to this discussion? VERY often. Sales gets LOTS of leads from marketing and based on prior experiences, sales will cherry pick through these leads and call them when they get some free time or the pressure to get more opportunities into the sales funnel gets high. Big mistake as the shelf life of a lead is 72 hours max and in some industries, several hours. Does all of this sound familiar?

Here is a sample outline of a joint sales and marketing workshop I have facilitated many times that will help address that elephant on the conference room table.

1. Do a survey - have sales comment on lead production from marketing and have marketing comment on lead followup from sales. Discuss the results.
2. Create a common set of lead definitions, given the tools available to marketing today. "I, Marketing, will pass a lead to sales when it meets this set of criteria..."
3. Create an SLA with sales - "I Sales, will follow up on qualified leads from Marketing within 24 hours of receiving the lead."
4. Jointly develop campaign ideas. Sales is your best resource for what potential leads will respond to..ask them!

Of course, this is all very simplistic but you would be amazed how often these basics are not in place. Why? Because this represents a process and role change for marketing - it's hard for marketing to do and it's hard for sales to accept. It is the elephant sitting on the conference room table that everyone is hoping will go away. It won't and you will have to address these process issues around lead management.

How have you addressed this issue in your company?

Metrics That Matter

If your CEO or VP hasn't yet asked you for metrics that demonstrate your impact on the business - get ready for 2010 because it's coming! As we travel across the country and meet with marketers now fully tasked with making a lead generation and demand generation impact, it is apparent that more and more companies are asking for, even requiring, "Metrics That Matter." In business speak, this means what is the revenue contribution from marketing. For many marketers, this is a daunting task but with the arrival of marketing automation systems on the market, this is now a slam dunk!

As you look at how you can report on "Metrics That Matter," here are five best practices:

1. Start with what you have
As you adopt marketing automation systems and implement and begin to fully utilize them, you will change what you measure because you will now be able to measure things you could not before. However, in the beginning, start with what you can tangibly and discretely measure. Items such as: # of emails sent, % open, % click-throughs and % effective rate (click-through/open)

2. Create a set of base-line metrics
To see improvement, you have to start with a baseline. Create a baseline (even if it is your best guess) for every key metric you will be tracking and reporting. Try to get general agreement on these metrics.

3. WAG for every campaign
A few years ago Harvard Business Review did an article on the art of guessing (Wild *#* Guess) in business and found that experienced professionals were often no more than 10-20% away from their WAG when compared to actual results. For the DG marketer, this means that EVERY campaign needs to have a set of WAGs associated with them - from Day 1. This will help you get used to working to achieve these key metrics.

4. Only a handful of metrics matter
While there are many things you can measure, ask yourself - "What does my leadership team care about?" This will help you define the Metrics That Matter. For example, your CEO could probably care less about how many emails got sent out or the number of opens or even click-throughs. What he probably cares about are the number of highly qualified leads sent to sales as measured by the % of these leads that converted into opportunities.

5. Walk and talk like a VP of Sales
Last year we did a study on metrics by interviewing top Demand Generation Marketers. We found many common attributes across this seasoned group but one of the most surprising was they sounded like a VP of Sales. They were incredibly Metrics That Mattered driven and could tell you at anytime where they were against plan - almost like they had a quota (some did.) Additionally, they were deeply integrated with sales and knew that if sales was going to achieve their quota, then they had to achieve theirs.

What have you seen?