The Eloqua Road to Revenue tour made a stop in Seattle yesterday, and we had a chance to hang not only with a number of great Eloqua folks but 60 Eloqua customers from throughout the Northwest as well. You’ll find some great highlights from the day via the #EloquaTour Twitter stream (and here’s our summary of Eloqua CMO Heidi Melin‘s keynote as well).
In addition, here are seven other takeaways we had from the day:
Strategy is easy, execution is exceedingly difficult
Sometimes strategy is quite difficult as well, but it was clear in the room that we all have a good sense for what, strategically, needs to happen. Boiling that down to exactly how to do it, then executing on that plan, that’s where it gets complicated and difficult. This event did a nice job of taking strategic ideas and boiling them down to actionable tactics. Putting that into practice, measuring and refining, is the next big hurdle.
Few people are actually doing most of this
It’s really easy to assume, at an event like this, that everyone’s doing it all. They have all the right software, the right mix of people, and they’re executing flawlessly. But if you talk to enough people, even those featured on stage and in the success stories, you’ll find they too are struggling with this. And further, the vast majority of the market and your colleagues aren’t doing most of this yet. We have a long way to go, individually and collectively, but in the end it’s not worth worrying about what someone else is doing. Focus on your opportunity, your execution, your growth first.
Innovation and ideation is moving much faster than execution
There was a palpable energy throughout the event, from innovative people thinking about breakthrough ideas and innovations. Of course, our ability to execute on those ideas is a little behind. But if nothing else, that’s a sign that there’s plenty of runway to continue driving growth and value, for the companies in the field currently as well as new start-ups that emerge in the coming months (and even years).
Everyone has best practices to share
Maybe it’s because we’re perfectionists, are too hard on ourselves, or focus too much on the things we’re not doing. But I lost track of the people who said yesterday that they were intimidated by what others in the room are doing, then a moment later would share a brilliant best practice they were doing themselves. Everyone is doing something valuable that others need to hear about. Or, maybe better, has made mistakes that the rest of us would like to avoid repeating.
Keep a bias for action & testing while you do the big things
I really liked the theme of longer-term planning, integrated marketing programs & campaigns, as well as a customer lifetime approach woven throughout the day’s content. These are not quick initiatives and will take significant work and effort to prepare and execute. That said, it’s important to continue working with a sense of urgency and test new ideas quickly to validate a premise and build confidence in a longer-term direction.
People, content and process are the foundation of world-class marketing organizations
It was implicitly clear listening to featured Eloqua users yesterday that they prioritize their people, their culture and the systems they use to help execute. People and process have been on our priority list for some time, but it’s clear now that content deserves a spot in that conversation as well. Effective, customer-centric content is the lifeblood of a good marketing strategy.
You will be overwhelmed if you try to do all this at once (pick a few, triage the rest)
I spoke with a few attendees after the event who were clearly both impressed and overwhelmed with what they’d just learned. They had dozens of ideas and best practices to get started on, not to mention the fire drills and existing priorities waiting for them back at the office. But instead of tackling everything, pick just 1-2 things. Put those on your immediate to-do list and table the rest (at least until next week). If you can be disciplined enough to continue making progress on that list over time, you afford yourself the luxury of not burning yourself out too quickly.
