Step Eight of Ten Steps To Marketing Relevance
Learn from experience, and share the lessons

In our last installment, we discussed steps to integrate a Marketing Automation System (MAS) with the Sales process.  To get your company to see the value of your marketing process, you will need to conduct continuous grass-roots training.  But your executives need a different type of evangelism: data.  The good news is… with a MAS, you can prove ROI like never before.

You don’t always get much time to make your point, so do it as effectively and rapidly as possible by speaking in numbers, the language executives understand.  And it helps to have an elevator pitch as well.  When I’m trying to get an executive’s attention, I say, “Did you know that marketing-generated leads have an 88% close rate once they are converted to an opportunity?  That’s 18% higher than any other lead source, including our traditional referral leads.”  That usually gets their attention!

Then be prepared to dig into the data with them, emphasizing that marketing and sales are all part of an integrated revenue-producing pipeline.  As with any audience, pictures help.  Here are a few generated by Marketo.  The left shows channel ROI on an investment-to-success grid.  The right shows a customer sales journey (each interaction leading to the win).  Of course, you’ll need all the supporting data at hand, but don’t underestimate the value of good graphics.

As with Sales evangelism, you’ll need to continuously remind management of Marketing’s worth.  Unfortunately, many are old-school and think of Marketing as an “arts and crafts” cost center.  You can change their mind by continuously measuring, testing, analyzing and reporting on Marketing’s value.  Get your data and get going!