Back in Q1 of 2020, you likely had a rock solid marketing plan and a bright outlook for new revenue growth. With Covid came an unparalleled period of major disruption followed by ‘new-normal’ dynamics.
The ‘new-normal’ hit every corner of your enterprise. It required significant adjustments in policy, process and people. It did not skip over your Marketing Department.
Sales-development ‘outreach initiatives’ stalled as targeted prospects became displaced, unreachable. Your universe of ‘likely prospects’ became harder to reach via typical touch campaigns.
“Ramp up your prospecting”
Harvard Business Review (July 2020) rightly suggested that adapting to a multi-faceted strategy would be required. What has developed over the past year is that many companies ‘have become a lot more effective’.
The most critical advice Harvard Business Review offers; “Ramp up your prospecting”.
I’ve referenced that quote before. The simplicity requires no explanation. Yet the ‘doing’ now requires a true omnichannel, sales and marketing on the same page, effort. That had always been the utopia to strive for, but it’s much more critical now.
Your prospects ‘like’ having new ways of communicating during the discovery -- buying process. There’s many granular reasons for this, but the result is a more efficient acquisition experience.
"time for the CEO, to lift up the hood and see if Marketing has adjusted”
This may be the time for the CEO, the leader, the company role-model, to lift up the hood and see if Marketing has adjusted.
It’s typical for the person at the top of the Marketing food chain to resist tinkering with budgets. Especially when revenue goals are not being met. So they tend to stick to more of the same.
This is why it’s important for the CEO to do a heartbeat check. It is more critical than ever that Sales and Marketing are completely aligned in process and goals.
So with the clarion call to “Ramp up your prospecting”, what’s your tolerance for a new holistic approach? Will you be able to motivate a ‘business as usual’ marketing department to better communicate with Sales?
Your Sales engineers are counting on Marketing to deliver qualified opportunities. And if Marketing thinks that it’s solely the job of sales to prospect, the 1990s called to say it doesn’t work that way.
Alignment between Sales and Marketing allows everyone to do what they do best. Salespeople want to close sales. This may reveal some vacancies that you may have in the Business-Development and Demand Generation talent pool.
“The BIG and even BIGGER REVEAL”
The BIG REVEAL here is that ramping up your prospecting will require a comprehensive Demand-Generation strategy. That is not lead-generation, it is not just having Business Development resources, it’s the entire end-to-end cohesive process.
Perhaps an even BIGGER REVEAL is that as long as the strategy is cohesive and aligned, you don’t have to have it all completed in-house. In fact, a properly executed outsource partnership allows in-house processes to be executed more efficiently.
This is what Hinge Research Institute, a marketing consulting firm, has to say about “resource” requirements:
“The in-house approach is appealing from an accessibility perspective. And if a person is fully utilized there can be some cost savings. Of course, no single person is likely to possess the full range of skills you need to implement a modern marketing program. So you are faced with the challenge of filling in the gaps. But how?”
They go on: ‘One avenue is training -- But even if you scrupulously train your marketing team, you’ll still need outside help -- In fact, our recent research has shown that high-growth firms tend to spend more on outsourced resources than their slow-growth peers.’
“Outsourcing Demand-Generation is in fact Right-Sourcing”
Unless you have the ability to be highly effective at Demand Generation in-house, that is a process you should consider outsourcing. It is in fact ‘right-sourcing’. A solid Demand-Gen partner will deliver qualified sales opportunities.
As a CEO, you likely depend on KPIs to measure results. Second Sight Demand Generation offers focused, results-driven, campaign architecture.
The process of Demand Generation has several critical requirements. Chief among those is the ability and resources to build a ‘universe’ of highly targeted prospects. Ultimately that becomes the foundation for an effective outreach campaign. The end-result? Qualified opportunities funneled to your closers.
A Demand-Generation partner will facilitate that entire end-to-end process. They will be strategically aligned with your Marketing and Sales teams. They will ‘ramp up your prospecting’ with measurable results. The CEO can go back to being a CEO.
-JF
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