Affect

It seems that marketing organizations are producing more leads than ever before. More prospects are visiting our websites, downloading our content and attending our events. But the increased lead volume isn’t impacting our sales pipelines and revenue growth. What’s happening to all the leads? How can we engage more of our MQLs and convert them to SQLs and ultimately opportunities?

It’s a simple straight-forward model. Marketing’s job is to generate leads and Sales’ job is to close them.  It’s the execution of the model that’s often flawed. Actual execution for many organizations looks more like this. Marketing produces a lot of contacts (Hidden within these contacts are some qualified leads).  And Sales produces a lot of activity (Hidden in their busy calendars is some meetings with closable opportunities). There appears to be a lot going on, but is it as efficient as it could be? Probably not.    

The weather and data have a lot in common. Both are common topics of conversation and complaints.  Mark Twain once said, “Everybody complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it.” The same can be said for marketing databases. Put a group of marketers in a room, and it won’t take long for them to start telling horror stories of their databases and complaining about their inability to find “good” data sources. Bad weather and bad data both have the capacity to ruin our plans and cost us money. However, unlike weather marketers actually can do something about the bad data that’s wreaking havoc with their marketing and sales performance. It seems, though, that many marketers have succumbed to the misguided assumption that bad is just like tomorrow’s forecast of thunderstorms – It’s something they must learn to live with.

Marketing databases get a bad rap. Very few business leaders give data its due. It’s often viewed as an inconsequential ingredient to an organization’s go-to-market strategy. Too often, data is an afterthought. Organizations make significant investments of time and money to design a marketing strategy that produces results, and then they look for cheap and easy solutions when it comes to the data that will drive the effectiveness of that strategy. They purchase a list from a third-party data source and then milk it for all its worth for as long as they can.

It’s Your Data, Stupid

Business-to-business marketers invest millions of dollars and countless hours into the design and execution of their marketing strategies. The tactics that drive these strategies include highly creative and innovative communication channels. Slick campaigns that are designed to generate leads, nurture opportunities and accelerate deals through the funnel are launched with high expectations. Unfortunately, many of these initiatives fall flat and fail to deliver the desired results.

I was watching an interview of a college basketball star recently as he was preparing to be drafted into the NBA.  The reporter stuck a microphone in his face and asked him what he was going to do with his new-found riches.  The young man gave the obligatory response about taking care of his mom but said the first thing he would buy would be a Ferrari 458 Spider.  He went on to explain how he had always dreamed of owning such a beautiful car.    

Perhaps, like me, you have recently returned from the Sirius Decisions – 2017 Summit. You’re back at your desk, settling in for the long hot summer, and you’re thinking about what you learned and what could be leverage to impact your sales results now and into the future.

The inside sales rep was excited as he hung up the phone, “Just scheduled another appointment.  That’s my third one so far today!”.

Marketing organizations spend a great deal of time and money defining their target audience and building a comprehensive database of target contacts.  The most effective marketing databases are much more than a compilation of purchased 3rd party lists, event attendees and names that sales decides they need to call.  Instead, they are comprised of only those contacts that meet pre-defined buyer persona parameters.   

An organization can have the most valuable solution in the market, a compelling offer, and a sophisticated marketing campaign supported by leading-edge tools and tactics, but if it isn’t targeted to the right audience, it could fail miserably.   Consequently, many marketers seem to be in a never-ending search for data.  They’re investing millions each year purchasing lists and databases from a seemingly endless supply of new third-party list sources and brokers.  Each vendor promises cleaner and more accurate data than the rest.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long (usually their first email campaign) to realize that the data is flawed.  Instead of being a source of new leads and sales opportunities, it’s populated with the wrong contacts and dated information.