Revenue Strategies

While sales and marketing teams focus largely on mapping out initiatives based on the buyer’s journey, many still have not addressed an untapped opportunity to measure and optimize the customer experience.

During the SiriusDecisions Summit last week in Scottsdale, Ariz., Group Director of Data-Driven Marketing, Megan Heuer, highlighted the research firm’s Customer Lifecycle Framework and underscored the framework's four phases from two points of view: the company and the customer.

LeadMD, a marketing automation and CRM services company, recently reported results of a marketing automation usage study, which found that programs yielded more than $300 million in marketing-created, top-line revenue. The data was collected from more than 8,000 customer marketing programs implemented through the Marketo platform, as part of a 2011 Marketing Automation Benchmarking Study.

After six months of lead management utilizing marketing automation, LeadMD customers saw an additional $10.2 million in net new monthly revenue, according to the company.

Many BtoB organizations rely on demo tools to help convert prospects into customers by providing immediate visibility into the solution’s value proposition. Atlanta, GA-based Reed Construction Data delivers targeted and timely project information, cost data and market intelligence designed to simplify decision-making for Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) professionals throughout North America.

Rather than using a manual demo, Reed had used a homegrown demo system that gave prospects access to its production data for a short period of time. Because the access was ungated, many prospects used the system to simply access the data they need without ultimately purchasing from Reed.

By Paul Albright, Chief Revenue Officer, Marketo

Marketing execs: Do you know how much revenue your demand generation team is bringing in? If you can’t answer this, you’ve got a real problem. The good news is it’s not a tough fix — especially using new technology. And once you do, you’ll be at a huge advantage since most marketing efforts are seen by CEOs and CFOs as cost centers rather than revenue engines.

Microsoft sought a better way to engage with decision makers for core IT infrastructure, business productivity and application development, but was having trouble moving its enterprise sales group and channel partners from the traditional product/solution presentations.

To address this opportunity, Alinean developed a suite of Microsoft Infrastructure Optimization Assessment tools, which are used to diagnose customer’s most pressing issues, and help them advance along a four-step capability and maturity model. The suite consists of three assessment tools to engage at a strategic level with core IT infrastructure, business productivity and application lifecycle development decision makers.

The assessment tool automates the benchmark comparisons, scoring and intelligent recommendations, delivering a 20+-page assessment report. In a tough selling environment, the tool has helped Microsoft and its channel partners proactively engage customers, collaboratively set customer goals and strategies, help deliver tangible savings and incremental value to customers, while allocating discretionary budget to Microsoft proposed projects.

The assessment tool has been available since 2008 and consistently generates more than 600 analyses per month, driving more high level customer engagements, significant evolution of Microsoft’s relationship with clients from tactical to strategic, and generating substantial multi-million dollar incremental sales opportunities.