Our business partner, Marketo, has been articulate promoting a shift in thinking in B2B selling organizations from a sales engine to a new revenue engine. This is an important read.
The key impacts of this shift include:
- Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
- Reduce Wasteful Spending --(reducing cold calls, direct and email blasts --IDC estimates 25% of sales time is spent on unproductive prospecting)
- More Predictable Sales Forecasts
- Greater Pipeline Stability
After many years of listening to the diatribe about the "marketing and sales disconnect," it's refreshing to hear solid discussion of a collaborative marketing and selling process that is focused on the common goal of revenue growth, aligned around the customer buying process, and addressing the questions customers must answer in order to solve their business problems and make a buying decision.
In the past I was among those from the sales side of the equation who thought "marketing didn't get it." For over twelve years we've worked with B2B selling customers, and sales consulting partners, to get marketing to assist sales in the shift from being "product providers" to becoming "consultative problem solvers."
The complexity of most B2B sales demands it. Not just because there are more and complex products (there are), or that there are more competitors, but because of the sales challenge of adequately preparing for effective conversations with a committee of buyers, each with different perspective, objectives and even language.
Higher margins, win rates and much more depend on this shift.
Sales doesn't have the time or expertise to figure all this out while responding to insatiable pressure for monthly closes.
But marketing wasn't prepared to provide this support. Perhaps most still aren't. But at least the marketing community is onboard, promoting sales enablement through more and better sales ready opportunities.
Sales VPs and CEOs
Now it's time for sales and senior executives to join the game. Too many senior executives are clueless about marketing, and especially the potential today's marketing practices have to "pressurize the revenue engine."
Sales costs for most B2B organizations are huge. Yields should be much better. Higher marketing costs, appropriately applied, can drive revenue growth AND lower selling costs.
Be sure to read the Marketo case study at the end of the New Revenue Engine Report.
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