get your head in the clouds: improving green marketing and sales
DESCRIPTION
Marketing and sales is challenging in these times anyway, but green businesses have an even greater need to manage relationships over a long sales cycle and to provide greater education to prospects. This presentation illuminates the current sales environment and how the Cloud can help you be more successul!TRANSCRIPT
Get Your Head in the Clouds!Sales and Marketing Optimization through Technology
Christopher JohnsonCofounder and CEO, ifPeoplewww.ifpeople.net | [email protected]
October 27, 2010
Get Your Head in the Clouds
Source: Global Technology B2B Survey, Media Screen LLC
Get Your Head in the Clouds
Source: B2B Buying Patterns and Website Influencers
Get Your Head in the Clouds
About This Session
Goal: Help you increase through more effective sales and marketing for green products
Audience: People in businesstobusiness salesEntrepreneurs, sales and marketing, business development
What We Will Cover
What do we need to know about today's sales environment?What does it take to be effective in this environment?How can we influence the volume of sales made?
Partnership focused
Relationshipcentric
We help green businesses sell more
About ifPeople
Implications• Sales cycle starts long before sales staff engaged
• More people involved in buying process
• Internet and social media are early research channels
Today's Sales Environment
Customer 2.0
• More informed than ever
• Seeking relationships
• Exerting more control
• Expecting companies to engage in dialog with them
Today's Sales Environment
Marketing & Sales Challenge
• Mandate: do more with less
• Technology: crucial but still challenging to adopt
• Insight: Data often trapped in silos and not used in automation
Today's Sales Environment
A huge opportunity...
• Most prospects not ready to buy immediately
• Most prospects not followed up with by sales
• 70-90% of leads are ignored by sales
Today's Sales Environment
0.18
0.12
0.7
Lead Breakdown
%
Discard/DisqualifiedSales-ready NowLongterm Opportunity (with nurtur-ing)
Source: MarketingSherpa
...with achievable results!
• Generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% less cost per lead
• Raise win rates on marketing-generated leads (7% points higher)
• Reduce ignored leads
Today's Sales Environment
Sources: Forrester, CSO Insights, Marketo
How do you capture lead data?• Capture lead:
• On paper
• In spreadsheet
• In central database
Lead Management & Sales Process
What Next?
What type of sales process?• Is your sales process:
• Random?
• Informal?
• Formal?
• Dynamic?
• % 2009 Sales Target:
• 74%
• 78%
• 82%
• 87%
Source: CSO Insights
Sales process considerations• How does it map to the buyer's process?
• Where is the handoff between marketing and sales?
• What is the common definition of sales-ready lead?
Click to edit Master subtitle style
What tools & processes do I need for more successful engagement?
Effective Engagement: Tools & Processes
1. Create collaborative work space
2. Measure and improve
3. Target communications
4. Focus on valuable leads
5. Make the cloud work for you
Get everyone on the same page withcentral information repository
1. Create collaborative workspace for marketing and sales
Prospects
Past dealsProgress
in pipeline
Events, calls,and emails
Staff share information in central place...
...So You Get 360o View
contact infofrom event attendees
Membership staff
Development staff
Programming staff
Fast ResultsLow riskLow cost Scalable
CloudBased CRM
Benefits to Cloud Quick timeto
value Pay only for what
you use No hardware cost No software
maintenance
Popular Softwares Salesforce.com NetSuite MS Dynamics SugarCRM Zoho ...and many more.
CRM Works!
Average Improvements of 3,500+ Salesforce Customers Surveyed by Market Tools, Inc., December 2008
CRM Discounts for Green Biz
Steep discounts available to certified B Corporations for CRM
75% discount on Salesforce.com
50100% discount on NetSuiteApply at www.BCorporation.net
2. Measure and refine your approach
Database Dashboard
Web Analytics
What's working? What's not? What can we do about it?
edit content on website
targeted emails
newsletter
3. Targeted, direct communications
campaign management
Capabilities: Segmentation, results track and content deliveryCapabilities: Segmentation, results track and content delivery
Click to edit Master subtitle style
For your relationships to evolve, you must effectively engage your prospects.
To have an effective engagement, you must communicate appropriate content (at appropriate time)to prospects.
What are their needs to make decisions and do their job?
What are their motivators?
What role do they play in the decision making process?
Define Your Audiences
viewcontent
subscribe to content
Product trial
Buy
Refer peers
Defining Process: Ladder of Engagement
High rungs: higher levels of commitment
Low rungs: easy ways to engage
example
viewcontent
subscribe to content
Product trial
Buy
Refer peers
viewcontent
website, pamphlet, direct mail
newsletter, RSS, action alerts, Twitter, Facebook
Case studies, Webinars
Client testimonials, case studies,personalized demo
Collateral to share, incentives to refer, recognition and thanks
Effective messagingmoves people up ladder
viewcontent
subscribe to content
Product trial
Buy
Refer peers
If groups within your audience vary significantly, you can have multiple ladders.
Unqualified Leads
Recycled
Advisors /Consultants
Existing Customers
Engagement begins with people finding you online
Continues as they move to higher levels of interest until they're ready to act.
Some people never move up. That is ok!
A process, Not a destination.
Define Your Content
Content needs to be appropriate to where someone is in the process
Develop needed content before launching campaigns
Grass RootsOrganizers
UndecidedVoters
Requests to hold support parties, participate in rallies, drive others to
polls, etc.
General messaging about policies, hope for
change, etc.
experiencecontent
start something
Obama Campaign
PetitionSigner
AlertSubscriber
subscribe to content
take part
Ask to contact politicians, write letters to editor, forward info to
networks
Info about membership/ services,
invitations to attend events/ rallies
Search engines love new content.
For higher rankings, update content regularly.
Update Content
events
news
stories
4. Focus on valuable leads
What demographic characteristics makes a good prospect for your company?
• C*O title• Company size
What behaviors indicate strong interest? • Attending a webinar• Trial of product
5. Automate processes
form submissionssubscriptions
templated responses
Make it easier with tools
Set up “drip campaigns”
Pre-MQL Recycled Reconstituted
Want More?
Sign up for free monthly webinar (ifpeople.net/learn)
ifPeople Newsletter (ifpeople.net)
ifPeople blog (blog.ifpeople.net)
ifPeople Twitter (@ifpeople)
Thank you! Christopher Johnson
[email protected] || 678-608-3408 x1@ifpeople || @nomadslounge
www.ifpeople.net