SalesVPI

Another Case for Marketing and Sales Collaboration

We have to be careful not to take words too literally.

Consider the idea that marketing delivers sales ready leads to sales. By doing this, marketing has moved the buyer X% (30% -70%?) of the way through the sales process, right? Well, maybe, but maybe not.

Let's look at what has to happen with that "lead" on the sales side. (Reminder, we're talking complex not transaction oriented sales here.) In most B2B sales processes 4-15 stakeholders are engaged. (A top technology company selling a multimillion dollar solution has 30-50 people on their People Map.)

When we say marketing has delivered a sales ready lead, do we mean the 4-15 stakeholders to a specific opportunity, or a single individual?

Obviously, waiting for marketing to get an entire buying team to sales ready status introduces serious risk factors of being late to apply the critical sales professional resource. After all, people progress individually at different rates, and in a non-linear manner, through their buying process. It's often difficult to determine the specific stage for each individual.

So, at best, what we can say is sales gets a good start. Hopefully they receive confirmed:

• Business needs
• A decision by the customer to resolve some need
• A participant to the buying process who is willing to engage immediately with a sales person (considerable time and effort saved)
• Some degree of information about the customer's preference for the approach of the solution provider (SP) -- at least on the part of the contacted lead.

What we don't know is, do we have:

• A thorough and accurate diagnosis or assessment of the business needs (anything overlooked like peripheral needs, programs, functions or people?)
• Clarity about, or relationships with, all affected participants to the buying process, especially key influencers and decision makers
• Complete understanding of the customer's buying process, criteria, assessment of fit with the SP's capabilities
• The customer's flexibility to modify or evolve those criteria (are the criteria favorable to a positive outcome for the SP, or for their competitor?)

OK, you get it, not all the factors by a long shot (and many more are on the list). And that's the point. A lot of work to do, possibly even to determine if they really ARE a legitimate prospect -- hence the Sirius Decisions distinction "sales accepted lead" and "sales qualified lead."

What's most important from a sales and marketing perspective is, sales must begin enrolling, educating (nurturing), building relationships, trust and credibility with the balance of the buying team, the other people on the People Map.

Without effective marketing collaboration, sales lacks the tools, resources and time to do this efficiently and effectively. They work in a cacophonous, interrupt driven world of phone calls , meetings, travel, preparation and learning -- and did I say meetings?

They need content (tailored to role, issues, buying stage, competitive factors and communication objectives within the downstream portion of the buy/sell process). Sales needs delivery and tracking assistance -- resources and automated tools -- to execute in a consistent and timely manner.

For marketing and sales managers, this raises the question: how have you defined, documented and communicated with your counterpart, requirements for core services that marketing can provide as part of their content marketing and automated delivery and tracking systems, so everyone gets timely and accurate visibility to actions and the "digital body language" of each buying stakeholder?

Marketing: how does this inform your content strategy and execution priorities? For example, have you identified with sales all the downstream risk points that sales experiences after you hand off that lead? Have you defined how you can create content, first, as "bait" to uncover and identify individuals who are at those risk points, and then created content to help sales address those issues?

The most obvious area involves competitive alternatives, but also those nasty related risks of "do nothing" or "deal with it ourselves".

It's natural for marketing to deal with early stage, lead generation requirements that are in heavy demand by sales and senior management, and are more familiar and comfortable for marketing to address.

But if we're talking about collaboration and having marketing take more responsibility to "drive the revenue engine" it's critical to see the whole process as a system that requires alignment and execution of all the elements that make a sale successful.

Too often in the past, these activities were hostage to siloed ownership where the parties never spoke (maybe other than to say your stuff s*cks) let alone had regular meetings, developed a common strategy and process, provided helpful feedback, and shared execution.

This is a great opportunity for marketing to add further value, establish higher relevance, build better relationships with sales, and make a visible and significant difference to the business.

New year, new kidney, renewed energy, marketing and sales insights

Over the past three weeks I have had what can only be described as a transformative life experience. Through the incomparable gift of organ donation by my brother Steve, and the courageous, loving faith of his wife Kate, I have received a kidney that has given me new life -- and with it, an interesting perspective on my businesses and customers.

I'd like to share my story with you, and I look forward to connecting with you soon to make 2011 an incredibly successful year for all of us, for our customers and our businesses.

Background and Condition

In 1999 I was diagnosed with an elevated creatinine level that indicated possible kidney troubles. An ultrasound of my kidneys showed that I had a genetic disease called Polycystic Kidney Disease, or PKD. My kidneys were growing cysts that reduced kidney function as they became larger.

PKD affects about 1 in 500 people, and devastates many families as it is inherited generation to generation. Years ago it was a silent killer as most died from stroke, caused by the disease. (PKD Cure National Kidney Foundation)

My primary symptoms were fatigue, low energy levels due to low oxygen levels, muscle aches, and difficulty concentrating. Essentially my head was in a fog, like a pretty serious hangover that got progressively worse, especially this year.

The gene had muted in me, so no other members of my family were afflicted. At the beginning of 2010 my brothers agreed to be tested for organ donation. My brother Steve ended up being a perfect match, a willing and courageous donor, and we began to prepare for a December transplant surgery.

The surgery was performed at the Brigham and Women's Hospital (Brigham or BWH) in Boston. The Brigham was where the first kidney transplant occurred in 1954. Today, the Brigham regularly ranks in the top of lists for the best hospitals for kidney transplantation in the country. (Celebrating 50 Years of Kidney Transplantation)

Outcomes and Appreciations

The impact of the transplant on me was immediate. It was as though a switch was thrown and I was clear, energized and feeling normal. My creatinine level moved from 3.7 pre-surgery to 1.5 on Friday, 1.0 on Saturday, and .94 on Sunday!

I immediately realized the degree of mental compromise I had been experiencing for probably the last three years, although I was unaware of the full effect during that period.

I am so grateful for the support of so many people, but especially for the patience and support of my family over the last few years. My business partners have really covered and supported me incredibly well in the past year. I am very grateful for their support and eager to jump fully back in the game with them.

I cannot say enough about the surgeons, the supporting staff, and especially the nursing staff at the Brigham. They are, quite simply the best! (Picture of two of my four awesome primary caregivers.)

Starting Friday, three weeks ago, I am no longer sick. I have another week of basic recovery from the surgery itself, but I have no food or travel restrictions. I have a medication regimen that, over the next six months, will taper to the lowest level of immune suppression drugs of any transplant recipient. Assuming adherence to the discipline of daily medication, my risks are extremely low and prognosis very high. I am eager to move forward with my life, my family, my business and my friends.

Business Implications and Insights

But the experience and my story goes far beyond the obvious. As a result of the inevitable reflections during such a period I have gained a new perspective on how we will conduct our marketing and sales operations, and how we will work with select customers who share our values, vision and commitments.

I have had the opportunity to experience and watch "the best" during this period when my renewed senses were especially heightened.

The Brigham and Womens Hospital regularly shares the top spot on lists for the best hospitals for kidney transplant in the country.

But it was more than the hospital quality and process, the top shelf surgical staff. I experienced this quality in care delivery from everyone who touched us. The nurses who cared for us were unique in their skills, personality and approach. But each was absolutely the best. It was impossible to place one ahead of another. As a care delivery team the result over five days was incredible.

This got me thinking: why would I go for this type of procedure to a hospital, surgeon, or medical team that was not the best?

My brother Stephen is among the very best classical trumpet players in the world. This also involves being a music arranger. He has extended that ability on a broader scale by establishing the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago. Watching him for many years, and especially dealing with the challenges of this surgery (it's much tougher on the donor), I realize it's not just that he is the best, he knows how to be the best.

During my hospital stay I had the opportunity to watch the New England Patriots play the Chicago Bears in Chicago. With an 11-2 record so far this year, and impressive wins over the Jets and the Bears, New England are the best at what they do. And they succeed 80% of the time! But they believe they are capable of succeeding 100% of the time. They've developed a process to accomplish this. And that process is embraced by everyone in the organization. When they don't embrace this operating philosophy, they are released (good by Randy Moss).

The Patriot organization is full of people who know how to be the best, from Robert Kraft, Coach Bill Belichek, and quarterback Tom Brady on down.

Over the past few years I have been working with two businesses -- Avitage and PrivateSalesCoach. Each company provides different but related services to improve the quality and level of outcomes of business-to-business marketing and sales organizations.

Most sales organizations win about 10-15% of all the deals they work. The CSO Insights study of sales opportunities that are worked all the way to completion (i.e. sales person thinks they should win the business the night before they learn of the results) indicate only a 50% success rate. The few "best" organizations hit about 65% regularly. And this is considered "normal".

Now, every game has its unique averages (in baseball, the best lifetime batters have averages from 320 to 366 (Ty Cobb). But as I Googled to find these stats I noticed this quotation:

"I don't like to sound egotistical, but every time I stepped up to the plate with a bat in my hands, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the pitcher." - Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby

I suspect our best sales professionals have a similar, if more positive, thinking pattern as they engage new customers.

But are 10%-15% (or 50% depending on your measure) really what our "batting averages" should be? I suspect if these "players" and "managers" were in professional sports they would be unemployed pretty quickly! (A nod to Sharon Drew Morgen who has been leading this cry for a long time!)

This got me thinking about these questions and ideas that I will be writing about over the next few weeks:

• Why would our customers want to buy from us if we aren't "the best"?
• What are we the best at? What does it mean to be "the best"?
• What impact would it have on us and our business if we regularly won 50% - 80% of the business we chased?
• What would we have to do differently to make this a reality?

Please join me in this discussion, online and within your organization. This is key to creating personal and organizational breakthoughs this year.

How long is your sales process?

One of the early questions I ask prospective customers with a complex, B2B sale is, "how long is your sales process?"

The answer is almost always, "it depends, it can be three to eighteen months depending …"

In the past few years we've all gained a stronger appreciation for the idea of the customer's buying process. Sharon Drew Morgan's contribution with Buying Facilitation(R) helps us. Ardath Albee's buyer journey gives us a clear understanding. Automated lead nurturing has forced us to think through the buyer's journey and how to support it with relevant, compelling content.

Sales professionals know the sales process applies to qualified and interested opportunities. Sales participates in the active consideration phase of the customer's buying journey.

Two primary factors determine the sellers sales process:

• How long it takes to assess an active buyer's needs, engage all buyer stakeholders, influence buying criteria, configure a solution, deliver a successful proposal and complete the contract process;
• How sales people are managed, motivated and compensated

In most B2B selling organizations, this is one to two quarters. With sales people pressured for monthly business with quarterly accountability, any opportunity that will enter the active buying phase outside this period will not be on the sales person's active dashboard.

The customer buying process may well be six to twenty four months, from initial awareness of the problem through final vendor selection and contracts.

I see this as an alignment problem. The business challenge is to align the customer's extended buying process with the sales person's practical selling timeframe.

Traditionally, the sales organization was responsible for finding, qualifying and closing every opportunity. This made sense in a simpler, product oriented selling world. Once offerings became more complex, more solution oriented, and buying moved from the professional procurement function into the business functional group, the selling process had to change.

Most organizations I speak with are seeing selling costs getting out of control. IDC recently reported selling costs in the technology industry are rising 4.7% while revenue grow is growing 3.2%.

A fundamental challenge is finding ways to make the sales organization more productive -- to increase the yield from each sales professional. This is more than just improving skills, knowledge and time management. It has more to do with having well qualified opportunities to work.

We are in an era of specialization. The previous, monolithic selling effort has been disaggregated. This introduces a key role and opportunity for marketing. Lead generation, lead nurturing and telesales functions are more effective and affordable ways to handle the start of the buying selling process than an individual rep with a phone and email as primary tools.

This doesn’t completely remove the prospecting function from sales. But sales people are better at the in person activities, where marketing have better tools to engage the broader market with attraction and influencer marketing programs.

A marketer recently told me sales people need to take the long view. I disagree. Sales are the people who get the fish in the boat. Marketing are the people who take the broad and long view, who determine where the fish are, what will attract them, and how get them ready for sales to move them into the boat.

The classic marketing and sale disconnect is and will be replaced by a collaborative effort. This is the best way to deal with aligning dual realities: the extended buyer's process and the practical selling process.

What does your company do?

"It's Not about the Bike" -- the title of Lance Armstrong's excellent autobiography.

Becoming a world class cyclist requires far more than the bike. Strategy, practice sessions, workouts, diet, and mental aspects impact performance far beyond the equipment.

The implications of his statement occurs to me every day. For example, too often people think a software system will solve their business problem.

Another is the way sales people answer the typical customer question: "what does your company do?"

There are two perspectives that can direct the response: the vendor perspective and the customer perspective. Sales people often fixate on their products or services. They think customers are as interested in key features as are they.

Customers are actually asking one of two questions. They may be asking the product or service question so they can attempt to self-diagnose. Have you ever heard a customer respond to a product oriented introduction, "oh, we don't need that"?

I choose to hear the question this way: "what problems that I might have does your company address?" This is a more productive question for both customer and sales person.

With new sales people it takes extensive coaching and practice to get them to maintain a disciplined response this way. I've found using the bike theme to be a useful way to reinforce this discipline.

Consider a company that sells video production. The customer's question could be answered, "we provide custom video production services." Pretty typical, right? Very undifferentiated.

By applying the principle, it's not about the bike, this vendor could consider the other elements of video production that could be stressed to communicate a more differentiated value. This could include expertise around specific topics, style, or purpose of video products. It could be a particular style, technical expertise or process that provides value to customers. Most powerfully, it could address the underlying customer problem or objectives with an insightful association to the expertise.

As I write this I'm looking out the window at the company in the adjacent building. There are eight black limosines lined up outside. The company provides lasik eye surgery. It occurs to me I regularly hear radio advertisements from many providers of this kind of surgery. This company has applied the principle it's not about the bike by providing limosine delivery as a standard part of their service.

There are many different applications of this theme. Apply it to your situation or business to make better decisions or to help your customers make better decisions.

e-Marketing Strategies for the Complex Sale

When we look back at the past decade, I believe we will see a significant inflection point in the transformation of B2B marketing and selling. The rhetoric of the internet has become the reality of the internet. The web, along with digital media, web 20 technologies, and the proliferation of wireless and mobile computing have resulted in the long-awaited convergence. Even user adoption rates, traditionally the regulator on the velocity of technology impact, are accelerating noticeably.

Of course, not all is perfect. We tend to implement new technologies using old processes and methodologies. True breakthrough occurs when we re-engineer these processes based upon the new technologies.

To paraphrase an old line, to ask, "given my business, how should I use these new technologies?" is fundamentally the wrong question. A more helpful question is, "given the capabilities provided by new technologies, how should I design and run my business?"

Ardath Albee helps answer this question for marketers and business executives in her new book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale. For marketing practitioners and executives who are looking to innovate their revenue engine, this is indeed a must read.

The motivation is considerable. When "marketing has taken charge of propelling prospects farther through their buying process, salespeople are selling to more qualified buyers. This means shorter time to revenue and optimized results from your sales force. "

Starting with the well accepted premise that business-to-business (B2B) buyers begin their buying process online with searches for a rich array of available information, Albee lays out the business implications along with a cogent framework for content strategy and execution.

Most organizations lack a content strategy, and many lack a marketing strategy. "Event thinking" pervades our approach to marketing, lead generation, content creation and sales support. Albee makes the case for a "mind shift" required to capitalize on the potential of emarketing and marketing automation.

"It's time to shift your thinking. Think of today's marketing department as a publisher with a variety of content channels at its fingertips that can provide you with a larger communications reach than you've ever had before. Even though 80% of companies say that they "found" their vendors rather than their vendors finding them, chance are high that their initial discovery was somewhere other than your corporate Web site. "

With her guidance, readers will begin to develop not only effective strategies, but new processes and procedures to create the volume and kinds of "contagious content" buyers demand.

"The buying process for a B2B complex sale has shifted in recent years. This shift means that much of the time that was previously spent with salespeople is now spent reviewing online resources. For this reason, it's imperative to be found in the places where your prospects are looking. Now more than ever, your company must be recognized as a source of relevant knowledge that pulls prospects into the sales pipeline. Well-executed content will play a bigger role in building trusted relationships that get salespeople invited into the process more efficiently."

Content -- buyer relevant, edu-focused, convenient, compelling, story-based content -- is indeed the fuel for today's revenue engine. It is the "bait" that attracts prospective buyers to find you on the web, and to be found by you, long before they are ready to speak with your sales people.

For most organizations, "Content development is seen as an overwhelming task that takes too much time, effort and money from an already stretched-thin budget and overworked marketing staff. The reality is that a well-structured content-development plan can supercharge marketing and sales results. A well-designed, integrated content strategy will give you more content with less effort."

Albee fulfills on this promise with practical, actionable prescriptions and recommendations.

I found the following concepts especially valuable:

• Begin the process by thinking from a "problem-to-solution-scenario" perspective


• How to create content for specific "personas" -- because "relevance is king"


• Create a "buyer synopsis" to direct the creation process


• Create content for multiple purposes, buying stages, issues related to the topic, and stakeholders -- in one creation process


• Create content also for sales "conversational resources" and "conversation starters"


• Create content for both "scan" and "read" value


• Numerous ideas for creating content as compelling stories so "people to step into your stories and envision their future with you"


• Create content to support "persistent progression" through the buyers journey


• How "listening" is the marketers "secret sauce"


• Create content to support buyer "step backs"


• Five content "catch factors" that impact viewer attention


• Five content "amplifiers" that guide content creation

Solution Selling Sequence

As I think about executing a complex sale, and the sales communication opportunities associated with it, I think through the following sequence:

The goal is to differentiate our company, create value for the customer through the sales engagement process, and thereby gain a competitive advantage that will result in higher sales, higher margins and a shorter selling cycle (which lowers selling costs).

This will be a transformative process, requiring innovative approaches. This isn't about fiddling around the edges of a selling program, unlesss it's already there.

To do this requires different sales behaviors and a different selling process that shifts sales people from product information providers, to consultative, solution specialists.

Execution differs from awareness. Awareness is knowing what to do, which is addressed by sales training and information, necessary but not sufficient. Execution is winning the business.

This is fundamentally a communication challenge. Communication is all about how we deliver customer relevant messages that demonstrate our unique and relevant value.

Sales execution therefore, is all about sales conversations. Not all conversations are conducted in person, face-to-face. Consider: telephone, email, third party delivery, websites, documents, PR, blogs, events, etc.

The complex sale requires a new and different conversation from the traditional, product sale (again, behavior change). It must be tailored to each stakeholder in the buying process. And this process has shifted from a single, knowledgeable buyer, to a committee of people with different understandings of the underlying problems, associated issues, options to consider, decision criteria and process, timeframe and urgency.

Complex messages must be made simple and consumable. This is more science than art.

Marketing must take a new role to support sales with sales messaging and content that enables sales conversations with quality, consistent messaging that simplifies the complex and creates value for customers.

For most organizations with multiple product managers, this is best done with a defined sales messaging methodology that is consistently applied across all product and marketing groups. It should be supported by a feedback and update process given the dynamic nature of messaging and the ever-changing marketplace.

Knowledge sharing, especially about "what to say, and how to say it", is a critical component of sales execution. This activity is downstream from intial training activity, but is critical for just-in-time sales coaching when complex messages are involved.

Message delivery means supporting ALL the "conversation methods" involved in the complex sale. Perhaps most important is the ability to enable customer sponsors to effectively carry our message on our behalf, without the benefit of sales training, messaging playbooks, or years of experience.

Multimedia programs assist both the real time sales coaching requirements of sales and customer sponsors, and customer delivery requirements. Mutlimedia captures and holds attention, can be a virtual clone of subject experts, explains complexity and nuance better than text, and motives action.

Traditional multimedia production methods don't meet today's requirements for: tailored, personalized and relevant programs, rapid deployment, low cost, high quality and volume.

A new publishing approach to building multimedia, similar to that used with the website development process, is required. This involves a defined methodolgoy that determines what content to build, and for which communication purposes. It requires a new process that defines how to build content so it meets the above requirements.

Marketing must develop a sales communication and multimedia strategy to support these objectives.

Marketing should execute this as a set of services they provide to sales. These services should help the complex sales professional become more like a marketer to: build their personal brand as a trusted advisor (thought leader) within accounts, uncover and diagnose needs and opportunities, educate customers to set decision criteria they can win, and reduct the time and resource sinks that lower sales productivity and motivation.