Your marketing strategy is not just about making the number this year. Great CMO’s set a strategy to make the number in 2014 and beyond. As the CMO you’ve done everything you can without the use of marketing automation. You now have the support of the CEO to modernize the marketing organization. The goal is to leap frog your competitors and never look back. This post will share 10 ideas from someone who has already blazed this trail.
You were probably hired because the last person failed. Perhaps the prior leader didn’t keep pace with the market. Maybe the internal marketing structure failed to evolve with the customer demands. Whatever the situation, you were hired to solve the problems quickly.
Like many marketing organizations, the sales organization doesn’t give you the time of day. Why would they? Your predecessor gave them no reason to! Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) numbers were so low, they didn’t bother measuring it.
How are you going to significantly increase the number of SQL’s? How will you increase marketing’s revenue contribution to 30% or greater?
Joe Andrulis, VP of Marketing at AMX shared his top 10 best practices for the newly hired CMO.
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Background
Joe Andrulis is responsible for all aspects of AMX’s marketing strategy and programs globally. He has over 25 years’ experience with multinational technology companies. His experience includes multiple turnaround opportunities. His focus has been on building marketing organizations from the ground up. In many cases, this involves the implementation of the organizations first marketing automation solution.
Joe recently shared 10 best practices for the newly hired CMO or VP of Marketing. Here are five.
5 Key Areas:
- Clearly and fully understand your customer: Buyer Process Maps (BPMs) are designed to map the buying process. BPMs begin with the buyer “not in the market” and continue through the entire buying journey to “closed business”. Joe and his team developed detailed buyer process maps to clearly understand their buyers. The BPMs were developed for each vertical and shared with Sales. The value in the BPMs continue to increase AMX’s success rate.
- Establish your value proposition to your customer: Joe’s focus was a combination of stimulating latent demand while supporting active demand. He created an Inbound Content Marketing capability within AMX. The approach supports AMX’s ability to nurture clients through the entire BPM.
- Develop the right message to clearly convey your value proposition: Messaging starts with Personas. The combination of BPMs and personas provides AMX with the right framework for targeted messaging. Content Marketing efforts utilize the BPM’s and personas as the road map to success.
- Make your plan implementable, measurable, and sustainable: Clearly defining the demand generation program was just the beginning. Joe implemented a structured lead management process including Lead Development Reps (LDRs). He also worked closely with sales on a customized sales process. The custom sales process was mapped to the buying process. The alignment allowed for increased collaboration with sales.
- Get your online marketing plan right: the marketing plan without the automation to support it is a heavy lift. The AMX team’s implementation of a marketing automation was world-class from start to finish. Flawless execution continued to increase the collaboration between sales and marketing.
Compare your best practices with Joe’s. Use the Comments section below to share what you discovered. Here are comments from Joe about his top five:
- Clearly and fully understand your customer: Who are you trying to serve, what are the critical issues they are facing, and how will they evaluate potential solutions?
- Establish your value proposition to your customer: Carefully align your company’s offerings with the key issues your customers are struggling with, even if they aren’t aware of or actively looking for a solution.
- Develop the right message to clearly convey your value proposition: Craft your story such that it crisply conveys your value proposition. The message should be focused on key points of differentiation from competitive positioning. Make sure you use the language of the customer and not your own industry. It is your job to understand the customer, not their job to understand you.
- Make your plan implementable, measurable, and sustainable: The automation and tracking available in today’s technology systems make it possible to be more systematic and scientific about marketing than ever before. Use the tools available to good advantage; your competitor is.
- Get your online marketing plan right: This is a bit tactical but it is such a critical channel that you simply must get it right to succeed.
The rest of Joe’s Top 10 best practices are equally valuable. Simply sign up for SBI’s 7th annual research tour: “How to Make Your Number in 2014: A Sales Strategy You Can Execute.” You’ll receive a copy of the “Top 10 priorities for the Newly Hired CMO“.
