Wow, have we come a long way in demand generation over the last 7 years! There are more vendors in the market and more users in the market from companies of all sizes. Yet, while we are seeing all this hoopla around how easy all of the automation systems are to implement and use and (and many of them are), it’s still not about the technology. The key elements of people, skills, org structure, compensation, role, and ultimately revenue impact should be more of the focus. Yet, for many reasons, companies can find transitioning from traditional marketing to revenue marketing a real challenge.
Lately, we have been having substantive conversations with larger companies around building Demand Generation Centers of Excellence. The kernel of the idea came from the fact that there is lot to learn to get a revenue responsible Demand Generation Practice up and running. You have to learn the technology, you have to become a Revenue Marketer, it requires new skills, new roles, new responsibilities while often still doing your old marketing job as well. We see it every day. A company buys a demand generation solution and now marketing has yet another box to check in the long list of to-do’s for the marketer. Because the learning curve is steep and building a Revenue Marketing Practice that will have longevity and produce a revenue result is a strategic imperative for many companies, we are seeing a strong trend towards outsourcing this competency. In this new model, the current marketing team remains focused, a new team comes in to build and run the practice while establishing the Demand Generation Center of Excellence with documented and trainable best practices. The key role of the Center of Excellence is help the company produce a revenue result from the efforts of marketing.
BPO for Revenue Marketing…what have you seen?
