KnowledgeTree’s Peter Mollins outlines the tactics that can turn a CMO into a year-end MVP.
We’re deep into the fourth quarter. For traditional demand generation, that means there’s no way to impact the end-of-year sales number. All you can do is ensure that the first quarter of 2017 looks bright, right?
“Not true,” says the Sales CMO. “Marketing can have an immediate and significant impact, even in the most complex B2B sales.”
Let’s see four ways you can drive revenue in 2016.
Accelerate stuck deals
Almost 60% of opportunities simply never close. That’s because today’s buyers are overwhelmed by shifting priorities, tight deadlines and complex buying processes. Many of these deals are well qualified and significantly advanced, but just can’t get over hurdles in the middle of the pipeline.
The Sales CMO looks to simplify the buying journey. That means eliminating friction points. So interview your sales team and existing customers. Look at deal velocity and where deals slow. You’ll quickly identify opportunities for acceleration. That could include:
Data, content and templates to help build better internal business cases.
Access to case studies and customer references (preferably scalable, e.g. via video) to demonstrate urgency.
Creative packaging and pricing that help buyers overcome fear of the unused tool and the wasted budget.
Upsell deals in progress
B2B buyers aren’t buyers by profession. They are HR leaders that might buy HR software. Or office administrators that might buy practice management services. So you can’t expect them to know every option that they should buy.
That’s where you can help boost the fourth-quarter number. Just as a great waiter can increase a diner’s enjoyment (and the size of the check) by pitching appetizers, desserts and other add-ons, you can do the same.
Assess which products are often sold in tandem. Or how existing customers upgrade to add other products. When you see patterns, you build packages and promotions of those packages. Make sure your sales team knows the offers and how to pitch them. And ensure that your marketing automation (not just email, but dynamic content, social and display, etc.) pushes the value of these add-ons.
Cross-sell to existing customers
The easiest sale is to a customer that already values your other offers. Use the analysis you ran in the previous section to understand what promotions and bundles you can pitch to existing customers.
Companies will have excess budget that needs to be spent in the fourth quarter. Spending that with an existing vendor is simpler to justify. The budget holder has less of a hurdle to convince peers internally. And the internal lift required to sign or extend an agreement is significantly lower. There’s often less additional paperwork or contractual heavy-lifting to add more to an agreement.
Get quick wins in the boat
Odds are that your highest converting opportunities come from inbound prospects. That makes sense since these are folks that raise their hand to say they are interested. And right now, on your website, there are likely dozens of potential inbound prospects wondering if they should spend their remaining budget with you.
So make it easy for them. Re-assess your inbound vehicles: your demo request form, contact us, etc. Are you clear about what is offered? Are you showing enough of your value upfront so a prospect can self-qualify and avoid the fear of wasting their time? Do you have low-pressure ways for them to test value?
Also, take a lesson from the consumer world and its analysis of abandoned shopping carts. Prospects that repeatedly visit your site without converting are likely looking for a reason to convert. Push customized, special offers to them that make it comfortable and worth their time to convert now.
The Sales CMO is always looking for ways to impact revenue. That means long term and short term. So, don’t despair if the fourth quarter is still soft. Take those four fast steps to make 2016 even more of a revenue success — and strike up a big win for the sales and marketing partnership.
