Revolutionary Marketing and Sales Strategies

CRM Failures - Really?

Stories and statistics of CRM projects being deemed failures 75%+ of the time are running rampant in the marketplace.  In my opinion, unfairly so.

SearchCRM.com 2004 Link: 'F' word still dominates CRM thoughts.

The perception of failure is usually due to wishful thinking or unrealistic expectations (or maybe overselling).  What is it that we really expect a CRM tool to do?  To increase sales?  To lower cost of sales?  If you think of what CRM tools do ... the answer is neither.  CRM tools are critical to a businesses success needed them to track and manage past/present/planned activity (calls, meetings, to-do lists) and to keep track of sales pipeline quantity/timing/probability.  Yes, they do provide some level of efficiencies from a time management perspective and help sales efforts from the perspective of ensuring that we are following up on a regular basis.  But ... CRM, in and of itself, does nothing to help us sell more, sell faster, or sell more profitably.  Sales occur because:

• of a relationship developed between the sales person and the decision-maker based on credibility, knowledge, trust, confidence
• the decision-maker feels the sales person understands their issue(s)
• the decision-maker perceives that the sales person's organization has a solution that will alleviate his/her pain

The degree to which the above three bullet points are true also play a large part in determining the quality (or reality) of the sales pipeline.

CRM tools are not, and never were, intended to help us sell more, sell faster, or sell more profitably.  So if that is the expectation that the 75% failure rate is based upon ... it's an unfair measuring stick.

Executive Level Sales Strategies

Back in January I attended an AIMA (Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association) meeting where the topic of discussion was "alignment of sales and marketing organizations".  John Neeson, one of the co-founders of Sirius Decisions (and a 12 year Gartner executive), was one of the panel members.  After the event I was fortunate enough to meet and have a brief discussion with John where we had a real meeting of the minds.  John connected me with Paul Shiman, who heads up the research for Sirius.

I am constantly in search of new insights from the best and brightest minds in the marketing and sales areas ... especially as it relates to high-level c-suite sales.  My purpose is to verify, and continue to verify, what we, at Sales Builders, say in our marketing literature.  Remember now, that the roots of Sirius go back to Gartner and some serious research (no pun intended .. yes it was ... hahaha).

Paul and I even almost said it in using the same wording:

If you are to gain access to the executive suite, they expect that you come to the table already aware of the issues they are facing in their industry and their role in that industry.  They don't have the time, and will not take the time, to teach you.  You cannot gain access by pitching your offering.  You must approach the executive and constantly work with them from an empathic viewpoint ... from their seat. 

If not, then, like the author of Mutual Respect, Bob Beck, says ... "you'll be thrown under the bus with the rest of the people that the executive perceives to be 'quota-carrying sales reps'."

Believe me, our conversations will continue ...

Cross-Functional Team Selling

Jim Barnes is an ex-KPMG Partner, a close friend of mine, and an extremely highly-valued personal advisor. His company, Customerteam, has developed, an innovative approach where enterprise-wide selling efforts are team-based, cross-functional, and address specific customer issues throughout the quote-to-cash cycle. Here's a blurb that I perfectly align with from their homepage:

… the best way to manage your most important customers.

In the beginning of the 21st century, the large corporation dominates the economic landscape. Acquisitions and mergers continue to occur in every business category. Fewer and fewer companies control the lion’s share of sales, and of course, revenue.

Naturally, these powerful firms are quickly becoming your most important customers. If you provide them with the level of service they require, your business will be in excellent position to prosper and grow.

That’s where Customerteam comes in. We’ll help you create a unique and highly effective team around each of your largest customers. Each team enables you to provide substantially better service, and to become more profitable as well.

The marketplace has evolved. Today, it takes a team to succeed.

This short clip certainly puts it all in perspective. If the market has truly evolved, and believe me it has, what have you done to change how you go-to-market with your solution offering.

Customerteam Video Clip

Certainly, if we combine ... :

• Customerteam's team-selling approach with ...
• Grizzard Performance Group's CPM (Customer Profitability Management), with...
• Sales Builder's Executive Link application

... We will have successfully instituted a well-oiled team of trusted advisors who serve the specific needs of our best and most profitable customers both in acquisition and retention phases ... the most correct, customer-centric focus possible.  And yes ... that IS intended to imply that being customer-centric across all clients is a mistake.

CRM Bits - Emotive Attributes of the Customer Relationship

This IBM guy, Scott Walters, has some great insights into where CRM applications fall short.  His comments refer specifically to the Financial Sector, but, believe me, these issues cross sectors.  Remember ... value is not derived from technology in and of itself.  Value of this type of technology is only realized when it enables and strengthens relationships with key influencers and decision-makers within our best client's organizations.

Scott Walters, IBM Global Consulting Services - CRM article

Enjoy!

Strategic Alliance Alignment - Marketing and Sales

Last night I was at a networking meeting with a group of strategic alliance professionals.  The topic of discussion primarily revolved around metrics that the best-of-the-best use to manage their alliances.  It is clear that this is such new space for most organizations that there really is no well-entrenched "best practice".  One common point of agreement was that 70-80% of the time that alliances are established to DRIVE REVENUE and ACCELERATE OF MARKET PENETRATION.

The format of the event was a panel discussion.  I won't name names, or organizations, to protect anonymity, but the companies were all gigantic technology & healthcare names.  Primary discussions revolved around expectation setting, developing business cases, joint initial planning sessions, ownership/coordination of professional services groups, metrics (the actual topic) and governance issues.  For each of their specific situations they truly have been pioneers in this space and have a great handle on those issues ... these are extremely bright people.

Given that "70-80% of the time strategic alliances are established to DRIVE REVENUE and ACCELERATE MARKET PENETRATION" I asked a question of the panel that earned me this look (click on the image ... very funny):

Dead silence ... deer in the headlights!

The question I asked was regarding "how they align, communicate and collaborate with their partners from a marketing and sales perspective."  If revenue and market penetration are THE reasons for these alliances, it would seem that these are incredibly critical areas ... especially in their verticals, where technology is in a constant state of change.  They must be able to quickly and efficiently disseminate real-time intelligence/knowledge-sharing to a large, cross-organizational, cross-functional and geographically dispersed team.  To drive the alliance to its full success potential both/all partners must have real-time, perpetual:

• Inter-organizational alignment between the Marketing and Sales groups (that's tough enough)
• Intra-organizational alignment between each partner's Marketing and Sales groups
• Knowledge/experience sharing
• Feedback and metrics to improve effectiveness

The question is ... what do we align on?  Think about what we're trying to accomplish (DRIVE REVENUE and ACCELERATE MARKET PENETRATION).  What will determine our ability to succeed?  The degree to which we are able to help decision-makers solve issues they are currently experiencing. 

We, collectively, as an alliance, must align our Marketing & Sales strategies, and tactical efforts, on solving vertical-specific, role-specific issues that the senior executives (the decision-makers) in our target market are currently experiencing.

I'm sure that it's somehow my fault but I really don't think these extremely bright people got this.  If you know me, I communicate in writing much better than when speaking.  Maybe that's it ... yeah.  Or maybe it could be:

• NIH Mentality - Not invented here/pride/ego
• Their experience and intelligence have limited their view to exclude this aspect of the alliance
• They simply don't understand the value
• They don't believe it can be done and have tossed the notion aside
• That I'm wrong, as I'm not the sharpest knife in the block

You Best Know VITO ... Very Well

What could just an average salesperson do with this arrow in her/his quiver?  How about a great salesperson?  How about an entire sales organization?  Better yet, how about Marketing, Sales and Product Development/Management?  Would that define "customer-centric" or what?  In fact, it would redefine that term to "customer role-centric."

Vertical-Specific, Role-Specific Intelligence - EXAMPLE: Healthcare CFO Profile 

Intelligent Selling

This below link is another weblog I publish dedicated to dicussions related to gathering and leveraging prospect and client intelligence.  In a previous post I quoted a study from UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School that conducted a survey in which the #1 reason executives grant access to salespeople is ---- Ability of the salesperson to understand their issues.  Plainly said, "Executives buy, not because they understand, but because they feel understood."

http://trustedadvisor.typepad.com/prospect_intelligence

Customer-Centric AND Profitable Marketing & Sales Alignment

As boring as it sounds this article's full attention will focus on breaking down the title of this article ... it's meaning, implications and application.

"Customer-Centric AND Profitable Marketing & Sales Alignment"

Customer-Centric:

Many marketing and sales organizations tout that they have fully adopted a customer-centric (versus a product- centric) focus and/or a consultative sales approach.  That's great, as happy customers are the lifeblood of any business.  If our organization is not focused on solving issues that our clients are currently experiencing then, quite honestly, there's not much of a reason to waste a lot more time. 

This leads into the definition of customer.  Let's face it, Company A never sold anything to Company B.  It's Bob selling to Suzy based on Suzy's perception of Bob (competency, knowledge, honesty and most importantly, Bob's ability to solve Suzy's issues).   The customer is the person(s) you interact with ... not their company.  Novel concept, huh?

Profitable:

What?  You mean we have to somehow make them happy that we're making a profit off of them?  The answer can be either "yes" and/or "no".  This is a quote from Peter Drucker from 1954, "The true business of every company is getting and keeping customers".

While this is great and timeless wisdom, Michael King, of Grizzard Performance Group (GPG), says that we must add the following to the end of that quote, "... who are providing us with an acceptable level of profit margin."  Here is a link to a white paper by Michael that will shed greater clarity on this issue:

                          Grizzard 2004 Customer Based Marketing Survey

Marketing & Sales Alignment (Throw Product Development/Mgmt in there too)

I love networking and learning.  It's my primary vehicle for creating demand and, frankly, staying sane.  Over the past few months I've attended tons of meetings related to the Marketing, Sales and Technology areas.  This concept of alignment seems to be an issue that all companies are struggling with, none of which have been overly successful at closing the gap.  At a recent AIMA (Atlanta Interactive Marketing Assn) event they had a panel discussion on exactly this alignment issue.  The panel members were John Neeson of Sirius Decisions, Rory Holland of Holland Interactive and Colleen Crafton of MAPICS.  Here is a link to notes I took at this meeting: AIMA Jan05 Meeting Notes

Let's put it all together in a vision statement that we live:

"We build tremendous value for our stakeholders as we are acutely targeted in on better serving the needs of our most profitable customers.  We accomplish this by:

• Utilizing Customer Profitability Management (CPM) methods and tools to ensure that we are in constant touch of who our best customers are
• Alignment of Marketing, Sales and Product Development/Mgmt on solving vertical-specific and role-specific issues the individuals within our client organizations are currently experiencing.
• Becoming an organization of "Trusted Advisors" to our best customers
• Focusing the majority of our resources, budget and efforts on retaining our best customers"