Engagement 2.0: A new mindset for modern B2B marketing

Adam B. NeedlesDirector, Field Marketing Twitter: @abneedles

Adam[B2B marketer]

My background

Are you a B2B marketer?

B2B marketing is different.

Agenda

• Challenge of modern B2B marketing• Engagement: A new mindset

– Engagement 2.0

• Best practices• Getting going

• B2B case vignettes + resources

What are your objectives?

A note …

• Customers = (both)– Future prospects– Current customers

Challenge of modern B2B marketing

B2B marketing in ‘ancient’ times• Get listed in yellow pages• Advertise in trade publications• Attend trade shows

Processing trade-show leads

B2B case >>> AllRegs

• Mortgage industry data provider

• 2006– 25+ tradeshows per year– Low conversion rates– Major source of leads

• Today– 10 tradeshows per year– Higher conversion rates– New lead-gen avenues (e.g.,

alerts)

Modern B2B customer• More-informed + more-demanding

More-informed + more-demanding

“With the rise of the Internet and social connectivity, there is now a more informed and demanding customer who is capable also of influencing peers' buying decisions.”

>>> Sandy Carter, The New Language of Marketing 2.0

Modern B2B customer• More-informed + more-demanding• Multi-channel

– Buying– Communicating

• From push to pull

From push to pull

“No longer is the corporation the fulcrum around which customer groups and suppliers revolve. ... [T]he customer is now the pivot point.”

>>> Paul Greenberg, CRM at the Speed of Light (3e)

From push to pull >>> B2B redux

>>> MarketingSherpa

17.50%

12.50%

70.00%

Average B2B Initial Lead Break-down

Discard / disqualified

Sales-ready now

Longer-term oppor-tunity / worth nurtur-ing

5-6X more ‘pull’ than ‘push’ oppos

Modern B2B customer• More-informed + more-demanding• Multi-channel

– Buying– Communicating

• From push to pull• Engage sales as a last step

Engage sales as a last step

Customer-led education + qualification + analysis

Contact sales

Implications for B2B marketing?• Permanent power shift• Sales / marketing line is blurring

Meanwhile …

Engagement: A new mindset forB2B marketing

Engagement marketing• Engagement = dialogue

Engagement marketing• Engagement marketing =

– Putting ‘engaged’ dialogue at the center of your go-to-market strategy

– Making your marketing customer-led– More than just mere ‘targeting’

Engagement marketing

Targeting A one-way inquiry

Engagement

A two-way dialogue

B2B case >>> Workforce Software• Workforce policy and

compliance management solutions

• Challenge qualifying leads based on demographics, assessing BANT

• ‘Mass qualification’ strategy– Content-based marketing– Use of survey forms to support

scoring– Scoring model + nurturing– Customer self-selection

Engagement 2.0

Customer

Sales

Marketing

Engagement 2.0 results• Tighter sales/marketing alignment• Higher rates of sales conversion

B2B case >>> Brainshark

• Online presentation software

• Challenge w/ efficient lead-gen

• Outcome-focused lead management process– Quality of leads = sales

conversion rate– Tight MQL definition– Focus on reducing cost of sale

Engagement 2.0 results• Tighter sales/marketing alignment• Higher rates of sales conversion• Stronger customer relationship• Increased customer lifetime value (CLV)• Greater word-of-mouth references

Engagement 2.0 ‘best practices’ for B2B marketing

Best practices• Static >>> dynamic campaigns• Lead generation >>> lead management• Sales antagonism >>> collaboration• Measurement >>> scorecard

Static >>> dynamic campaigns

Static view of leads

Dynamic campaigns• Customer-led• Cross-channel• Iterative• Patient

Dynamic campaigns

>>> Silverpop Engage B2B

Lead gen >>> lead management

Leads + revenue = top goals

>>> Adam Needles, Propelling Brands (original)

Generate more leads

Generate more revenue

Identify, reach and communicate with new customer prospects

Gain real-time insight into how my marketing programs are doing

Drive word-of-mouth and brand advocacy

Manage dialogue with customers and prospects

Identify new marketing approaches

Better manage/nurture existing leads

Improve execution across marketing communication channels

Improve sales-team execution/management

Improve 'sales-readiness' of leads

Improve management of marketing resources

Improve channel-partner execution/management

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Strategic Goals Behind Current Marketing Technology Deployments

Product Marketing – 2% Marketing

Communications – 12%

Hiring – 10%

Market Definition –20%

Sales Process – 10%

52%Lead

Generation

Leads = your greatest challenge

52% of marketing organizations say lead generation is their #1 marketing challenge

>>> SiriusDecisions

Lead economics• 70-80% of leads = lost or ignored• 45% of leads = will buy from

someone, not necessarily your company

• 10% improvement in lead quality = 40% improvement in sales productivity

• 1% reduction in dropped/lost leads, combined with a 1% improvement in lead-to-order conversion rate, increases annual gross profit by 136%

>>> Annuitas Group

Lead Generation

Lead Nurturing

Lead Qualification & Scoring

Sales Collaboration

Reporting &Analysis

Lead Routing& Acceptance

LeadManagement

Process

Dynamic view of leads

Marketing Qualified

Interest + investigation

Sales Qualified

Sales Accepted

Awareness

Marketing

Sales

New Business

Lead workflow

Lead scoring = Lingua Franca for Engagement 2.0

Lead scoring components• Explicit

– BANT– Demographics

• Implicit– Recency– Frequency– Behavior

Lead scoring example

>>> Silverpop Engage B2B

Lead scoring example

>>> Silverpop Engage B2B

Role of lead scoring

“A solid lead scoring approach not only helps to rank prospects against one another, but can smooth the lead flow and serve as the baseline for building a range of business rules that include ownership, role and activities.”

>>> SiriusDecisions, “What’s the Score?”

Lead scoring = staying focused

Nurturing inquiries into leads

Filling funnel with inquries

Measuring ROI

Ensuring leads convert to opportunities

Improve close rates

Cross- or up-selling customers

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

47%

41%

16%

42%

41%

29%

35%

36%

9%

56%

31%

14%

Score Don't Score >>> Silverpop

B2B case >>> Edgar Online

• Online corporate financial information

• Challenge managing leads and qualifying them

• Highly-granular lead scoring– Based on everything lead views– Helps with campaign evaluation– Enables greater scale– Quality vs. quantity of leads

Silverpop: Lead management

Sales antagonism >>> collaboration

Marketing / sales divide

Marketing / sales divide - mindset

Marketing

• “They don’t follow up on any leads we give them”

• “A lead to them is a sale”• “They ‘cherry-pick’ and act

like they know what the leads want before calling them”

• “They don’t even look at half of the leads we give them”

Sales• “We have no visibility into

what they are doing”• “We need more support

from them”• “The leads they pass to us

are worthless”• “They don’t understand

who our target market is”

Marketing / sales divide - activity

Alignment = plugged leaks

sales is marketing’s customer

B2B case >>> Sant Corporation• Sales proposal, RFP, and

document automation software

• Challenge as sales really needed marketing to ‘warm up’ leads

• Catalyst for ‘engaging’ sales– Educating about nurturing– Building lead-qualification

consensus– Aggressively using scoring– Building sales/marketing

relationship

Measurement >>> scorecard

Low confidence in marketing ROI

“Despite marketing’s drive toward financial accountability, only 7% of senior-level financial executives surveyed report being satisfied with their company’s ability to measure marketing ROI …”

>>> Marketing Management Analytics, March 2007 release

Danger of blanket ‘measurement’

“Too many metrics will not help articulate the value of the marketing organization. … [I]n this digital world, so many things are measureable that it can become overwhelming. Just because something is measurable, does not mean it should be measured or that it is valuable to measure.”

>>> Sandy Carter, The New Language of Marketing 2.0

Marketing scorecard• End goals

– Profitable revenue• In-process sales goals

– Sales conversion rates

Sales conversion ratesUnique IRs % Prospect

Outbound 2000 30% % LeadNew Prospects 851 33% Fast Leads 281

Inbound 250 50% % Prospect Nurtured Leads 46 % Opportunity62% Total 327 25%

Events 250 30% % Junk5% dead

Partners Foo Barrecycle

Prospect DatabasePrior Period 5,000Attrition % 7.50%Attrition 375

Move to LeadDB size 4625 1%

New Adds 527New DB 5,527

Marketing scorecard• End goals

– Profitable revenue• In-process sales goals

– Sales conversion rates– Lead management efficiency

Lead management efficiency

Don't measure

Cost per opportunity

Cost per closed opportunity

Cost per qualified lead

Campaign ROI

Sales-qualified leads

Marketing-qualified leads

Email open and click rates

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

18%

21%

21%

32%36%

44%

52%

58%

46%

50%

43%

45%

31%

32%

19%

Want Use>>> Silverpop

Marketing scorecard• End goals

– Profitable revenue• In-process sales goals

– Sales conversion rates– Lead management efficiency

• Customer-retention goals– Net Promoter Score– NPD insights

‘Balanced’ marketing scorecard• Functional perspectives• Financial + non-financial metrics• Corporate strategy mapping• Predictive + lagging indicators

>>> David Raab, Marketing Performance Management Toolkit

B2B case >>> TIBCO

• SOA and BPM software• Challenge knowing what was

working / what was not• Focus on achieving a ‘closed

loop’– Integration of platforms– Tie in to company’s own

platform– Analytics ‘mash-up’– Tuning of lead-generation

activities

Getting Going withEngagement 2.0

Embrace the goal >>>

Engagement 2.0

Customer

Sales

Marketing

Partner with sales >>>

Build your infrastructure >>>

Learn more >>>

Continue the dialogue >>>

http://www.silverpop.com/blogs/demand-generation/

Thank you

• Phone: 617.413.6087

• E-mail: aneedles@silverpop.com

• Twitter: @abneedles

• www.silverpop.com

• Marketing Automation Solutions