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.::B2B Marketing Thought Leadership: Tom Pick ::.

B2B marketing professionals in today’s economy are always looking for new ways to do more with less and still gain a competitive advantage within the marketplace. As part of a new feature on this blog, I will be interviewing industry thought leaders to provide expert advice on lead generation, making the most of your current leads with effective lead management, and increasing your marketing ROI.

First up in our B2B Marketing interview series is Tom Pick of WebMarketCentral. Tom also writes for the WebMarketCentral Blog, providing resources and tools for the Interactive Marketer.

You've been a B2B marketer since 1992. Tell us about what you do and how you got into B2B marketing.

After 14 years on the client side of B2B marketing, primarily in enterprise software, I moved over to the agency side in 2006 as a Marketing & PR Executive with KC Associates.

What's unique about KCA is that it's the only PR/marketing firm in Minnesota, and one of few anywhere, that's exclusively focused on working with B2B technology companies. I also write the WebMarketCentral B2B marketing blog, and manage WebMarketCentral.com, a site that connects web marketers with online resources and services.

From reading your blog, I see that you write a lot about marketing innovation. What are your top 3 tips to help business to business companies tackle the art of innovation?

First, if you sense that the pace of innovation is changing, that isn't your imagination, it's real. According to author Tim Harford in The Logic of Life, back around the time when your grandparents were young, the innovation rate was "one stunning idea every year." In your parents' youth, that increased to one world-changing idea every six months. Today it's a significant new innovation — Wikipedia, YouTube, the iPhone — every two months, and the pace continues to increase. That means when it comes to new marketing tactics, there is no time to wait until something is proven before trying it. Blogs are already mainstream; podcasting is close if not already there; and video is fast approaching that status. It's better to try something new fast, and run the risk of well-intentioned mistakes, than to wait and miss an opportunity.

Second, constant learning is more important than ever. This relates to the first point. Given the accelerating pace of change, the shelf-life of knowledge is becoming increasingly short.

Third is an old lesson but an eternal one: meet the needs of customers. Marketing and PR practitioners have actually, in many ways, been slow to get this. Buyers used to rely on marketing for product information because even though they knew the information would be biased, detailed product information was scarce and difficult to obtain. Today, information is abundant. People ignore — or do what they can to avoid — most marketing messages because they no longer need them. The solution isn't to SHOUT EVEN LOUDER, it's to take a step back and try to understand what kind of information your prospects really need. Listen and solve problems first, sell later.

What techniques and marketing tactics have you personally used to push the innovation envelope?

That's tough, because again, with the increasing pace of change what's pushing the envelope today is old news tomorrow. I try to experiment with new tools using my own sites, then apply what I learn to client work. I've been blogging since 2003, so as I've worked with clients in that area, I've been able to bring a decent length of real-world experience to it. I started experimenting with social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us and StumbeUpon for B2B marketing in early 2007. I've had some success with Wikipedia, although the editors there are so hostile to anything remotely commercial that it's tough; I think Google's Knol may offer greater possibilities.

A recent post on your blog discusses using blogs for social media. What opportunities do you see for companies to leverage social media and blogs to increase inquiries and improve Marketing ROI?

Blogging has brought meritocracy to the notion of expertise. The "best" writers aren't necessarily employed by trade magazine or analyst firms; this is now determined by the wisdom of crowds in the marketplace.

For example, look at the Ad Age Power 150 blog rankings. Sure, a few of the bloggers like Seth Godin and Tom Peters would be B2B celebrities even if blogging didn't exist because they are very smart and have written best-selling books. But how widely known would names like John Moore, Leigh Householder or Lee Odden be if weren't for their blogs? These individuals have developed an audience by writing great stuff, and as a result, they have built exceptional credibility with their readers.

Marketers can tap it into that, but it has to be earned and it takes time. "Here's my latest press release, please write about me" rarely works. But blogging, and developing relationships with other bloggers, is a powerful way to increase brand awareness and credibility.

In your experience, what do you see as the biggest opportunity for B2B marketers striving toward marketing ROI?

Make your company easy to "be found" when buyers are looking for what you have to offer. According to a recent study by MarketingSherpa, 80% of B2B purchase decision makers say that they found the vendor when they were ready to buy, rather than responding to a vendor finding them.

So here's the test. Let's say you sell blue thingamabobs. First off, your own website should be optimized as well as possible for that term. But beyond that, you need to have a presence on as many sites as possible that show up in searches for "blue thingamabobs."

That means establishing relationships with the key bloggers in your segment, analysts, the trade media, YouTube videos properly tagged, photos of your blue thingamabobs that come up in image searches, and tagged content on social bookmarking sites.

What do you see as the biggest oversight by marketers in terms of lead generation?

The biggest challenge is in understanding and articulating the value of activities like branding and PR in the lead generation mix. Everyone loves search engine marketing (SEM) because it's so measurable: impressions, clicks, conversions, conversion rate, cost per click — it's all there on one nice screen.

Activities like blogging, blogger outreach, PR, social networking and bookmarking, or most types of advertising aren't so easy and clean to measure. Yet the lead generation results that a company actually gets depend a great deal on these other activities.

So all of these activities are important to cost-effective lead generation, they're just harder to measure.

In the B2B market, what do you see as the biggest hurdle to effective lead management?

Companies need to have the right tools in place (and Marketo's marketing automation software system is one of the best) and then have the right processes in place to use those tools. First, every lead needs to be followed up on quickly; when a prospect reaches out to multiple vendors, the "first responder" has a tremendous advantage in getting the sale.

Second, typically 90% of leads aren't ready to jump immediately into a sales cycle. Nurturing these leads properly over time has a much higher ROI than constantly churning to get new leads.

Wild Card: What question or topic would you like to address?

I recently heard someone make the point that "everyone is the media now." That is, tools like blogs, wikis, forums, video-sharing and social bookmarking let everyone express themselves publicly. If a trade journalist you've never heard of writes a positive review of a product, but a blogger or someone else you trust online says it's crap, who are you going to believe?

In that same vein, I'd say that "everyone is a marketer" now in most companies. When your developers, consultants or tech support people are able to answer industry-related questions or contribute something thoughtful to a discussion forum, blog post or social networking site, they are potentially performing valuable "marketing" for your company.

Every public exposure of your company, products or services has some impact — positive or not — on public perception. The people who actually have marketing or PR in their titles still have a vital role to play, but no longer have a monopoly on information dissemination. They can help guide these conversations but no longer get to do all the talking.

As we are all B2B Marketing experts in our own right, what tips can you share to overcome every day hurdles in effective lead management? Watch for our next interview series at the Modern B2B Marketing Blog.

.::B2B Marketing Best Practices - Fireside Chat with MarketingSherpa's Anne Holland::.

In Part 2 of our three part series based on MarketingSherpa's new B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook, I had the unique opportunity to sit down for a "fireside chat" with their founder, Anne Holland. She's chock-full of practical tips and best practices for B2B marketing, so we had a great discussion about how demand generation is different from lead generation; the changing nature of B2B branding; topics in sales-marketing alignment; lead scoring; marketing ROI and accountability; and appealing to C-level executives.

This and other B2B marketing podcasts are part of the Modern B2B Marketing podcast series, which can be found at:

RSS Feed

iTunes

Download the podcast: B2B Marketing Best Practices - Fireside Chat with MarketingSherpa's Anne Holland.

.::B2B Lead Generation: 7 Tips from MarketingSherpa::.

In Part 1 of our three part series, Anne Holland, founder of MarketingSherpa, discusses key findings from their new B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook. Included in this 30-minute teleseminar are practical tips for:

Search engine marketing
Whether to put your content behind registration barriers
Lead nurturing and quality
and more

The Practical Tips for B-to-B Lead Generation webinar is available on demand from Modern B2B Marketing and Marketo. Parts two and three of the series are scheduled over the next couple of weeks; you can sign up to participate yourself.

Play now: Practical Tips for B-to-B Lead Generation.

Download the mp3 audio: Modern B2B Marketing podcast, Episode 8.

.::B2B Lead Gen Series of Best Practice Events::.

Modern B2B Marketing is sponsoring a don't miss multi-step event that starts this Thursday! MarketingSherpa and Marketo are presenting a series of 20-30 minute online events focused on B2B lead generation best practices, with information from MarketingSherpa's new B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook.

This series includes:

Teleseminar presenting key research findings about B-to-B lead generation best practices, presented by Anne Holland, founder of MarketingSherpa — July 31
"Fireside chat" with Anne Holland and Jon Miller — Aug 7 @ 11:00am Pacific
Open town hall meeting with Anne to ask questions and share best practices with other B-to-B marketers — Aug 14 @ 11:00am Pacific

We don't typically do promotions in the blog, but this is information you'll want to know. Attend one or all three, but register now!

.::Proving Marketing's Value: Tools & Metrics for the 21st Century - Part 3::.

At the MarketingProfs B2B Business Forum, held in Boston in June, I had the pleasure of speaking with Laura Patterson, president of VisionEdge Marketing and author of several books, including "Gone Fishin for Marketing and Sales Alignment eBook." In the interview, Laura talks about how marketing accountability is becoming more important and how metrics help prove marketing's value in today's economic turmoil as well as in sales and marketing alignment.

In part three of "Proving Marketing's Value: Tangible Tools and Metrics for the 21st Century," Laura suggests that in order for success to be measured, a marketer must place a stake in the ground.

.::Proving Marketing's Value: Tools & Metrics for the 21st Century - Part 2::.

In part two of "Proving Marketing's Value: Tangible Tools and Metrics for the 21st Century," Laura says that marketing should be viewed as an investment, not an expense.

.::Proving Marketing's Value: Tools & Metrics for the 21st Century - Part 1::.

This podcast is part one of our conversation, entitled "Proving Marketing's Value: Tangible Tools and Metrics for the 21st Century."

.::Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus - Podcast Vol III - The Sales Perspective::.

One of the interesting things about lead management software is that although the soft benefits (e.g. running campaigns with less manual effort, more time to focus on the strategic and creative activities that improve marketing ROI) apply to the marketing department, the hard ROI benefits (e.g. more and better quality leads, faster deal cycles, and higher win rates) are primarily seen by the sales department (and of course the company as a whole).

At the same time, companies that can get marketing and sales to stop fighting and instead unite around a single revenue cycle can experience explosive revenue growth, a.k.a. a Revenue Revolution.

The ironic thing is that most of the time I've see people talk about lead management, lead scoring, or sales marketing alignment, they've come at it from just the marketer's perspective. I myself am sometimes guilty of this. This is a flawed mindset since success for any of these initiatives by definition requires full cooperation and coordination with the sales department.

Of course, this is easier said than done since as we all know, "sales is from Mars, and marketing is from Venus". Marketing and sales work differently, think differently, and are measured differently. That's why as a marketer, I work hard to understand how my sales counterparts think and what they find important. Getting this right is as important as any other aspect of successful lead management.

That's why I was pleased when Marketo's own VP of Sales and Customer Success, Bill Binch, agreed to participate in our ongoing series of podcasts about sales and marketing alignment with Paul Dunay of the Buzz Marketing for Technology podcast. Enjoy!

Download the full podcast: What Sales Really Thinks About Marketing?

.::The Revenue Revolution Manifesto::.

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That marketing and sales are equally important contributors to Revenue and have certain rights and responsibilities;
That among these are Cooperation, Communication and Collaboration in the pursuit of Revenue; and
That marketing and sales Coordinated in action can create easier and better quality sales cycles that foster explosive revenue growth.

In order to form a more functional Revenue organization, we hereby declare and decree that marketing and sales will unite to:

Go beyond the Sales Cycle and focus on the complete Revenue Cycle
Respect the different strengths that each function brings to the organization
Communicate regularly and develop trust
Create a common definition for lead stages and a “sales ready lead”
Nurture relationships with prospects regardless of timing to buy
Interact with prospects in an intelligent way that respects the communications they’ve already received and the interests they’ve demonstrated

This manifesto is not just a static list of ideas. It is a living document that will grow as the Revenue Revolution community grows. Please join in expressing your commitment to Revenue by signing the manifesto yourself at www.marketo.com/revenue-revolution.

.::The Revenue Cycle: A New Model for Explosive Revenue Growth::.

Traditionally companies have talked about and analyzed the 'Sales Cycle'. The problem is that the sales cycle looks at only a portion of the complete revenue process. This presents two main problems:

Insufficient to manage and guide growth beyond the current or subsequent quarter. The Sales cycle can usually predict revenue in the short term, but because the sales forecast is based on what a specific account will do at a specific time, the forecast for future revenue becomes increasingly inaccurate. Asking the sales organization — which by definition is focused on revenue in the near term — to predict revenue in future quarters is typically highly misleading. For this, a company should look to the function that is inherently focused on the long term: the marketing organization.
Inefficient processes result in reduced sales effectiveness and wasted marketing budget. The traditional model of a sales cycle that begins when sales accepts a marketing lead or contacts a prospect directly results in waste and inefficiency. It means as much as 50% of sales time is spent on unproductive prospecting even as reps ignore 80% of marketing leads. The resulting lost sales productivity and wasted marketing budget costs companies at least $1 trillion a year. The sales cycle mentality also ignores the fact that before, while, and after sales interacts with a prospect or customer, marketing has been and will continue to touch the prospect with marketing messages via the website, campaigns, advertising, and PR. Ignoring this is like ignoring the ambiance at a fine restaurant — even if the food is good, if the ambiance isn't in sync the whole experience is off.

CEOs and marketing and sales leaders who care about revenue need to recognize that the sales cycle mentality is making it harder for them to meet and exceed their revenue goals. Instead, they need to focus instead on the complete "Revenue Cycle", which starts from the day they first meet a prospect and continues through the sale and beyond to the customer relationship. This is important since when marketing and sales coordinate their activities as part of a unified Revenue Cycle, companies get better at properly identifying and prioritizing opportunities, and better quality leads result in easier and better quality sales cycles, with more wins and ultimately more revenue.

Enabling the Revenue Cycle

The Revenue Cycle means more than just tacking marketing onto to the front of an existing sales process; it requires coordinating marketing and sales activities throughout the entire cycle to generate maximum impact. The old model of a linear handoff from marketing to sales must give way to an intertwined model where both organizations jointly own prospect relationships and coordinate their activities. To use an analogy, imagine a fighter jet that first ran with just the left engine, then turned that engine off and lit up the right engine. That's pretty inefficient compared to lighting both engines and going full speed!

The Revenue Cycle requires collaboration between marketing and sales activities, but of course this is easier said than done. (Even my own organization, which is laser-focused on achieving this goal, finds new challenges every day on our journey to holistic revenue cycle management.) The key challenge is that each function works differently, thinks differently, and has different usage requirements (aka "Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus").

Viva la Revenue Revolution

Companies that can figure out how to coordinate marketing and sales in a way that respects the different strengths and needs of each function will experience what I'm calling a Revenue Revolution. The Revenue Revolution occurs when marketing and sales stop pointing fingers, cease working within their own silos, and unite to create dramatic improvements in marketing ROI, sales productivity, and most importantly top-line growth. I invite any readers who care about revenue to join in and demonstrate their own commitment to marketing and sales alignment by signing the Revenue Revolution Manifesto at http://www.marketo.com/revenue-revolution.php.