Demand Generation Metrics and Analytics

by | Oct 26, 2022 | Metrics and Reporting

 B2B Marketing ROI is a Must in 2022

“Marketing suffers from a crisis of credibility. Often, executives outside the marketing department perceive that marketing exists solely to support sales, or that it is an arts and crafts function that throws parties, churns out Tweets, and puts logos on pens. Either way, marketing often does not command the respect it deserves.”

The Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics, Marketo™

 

B2B Marketing ROI illustration

B2B marketing ROI is a must-have for any serious CMO.

At any decent sized company credible metrics are now required from the Chief Marketing Officer and his/her team.

Not the Same As Brand Marketing

Demand generation is different from brand marketing. It consists mainly of inbound and outbound campaigns which lead to conversions and sales conversations. With engaging content that encourages audiences to say “tell me more”, campaigns also include a next step such as clicking to go deeper, engaging in chat, or registering for events and notificatinos.

Please note that asking website visitors to fill out a form is rapidly going by the wayside. We must be smarter with our outreach and deliverables, or risk losing prospect engagement.

Corporate marketing includes brand building, print advertising, public relations and other activities. Their impact is important however results are more difficult to measure when it comes to conversions and sales conversations.

Tech CMO and B2B Marketing ROI

B2B Marketing ROI

Campaigns and tactics can be adjusted to yield far better results when measured. This has huge implications for budget and B2B marketing ROI.

A marketing automation platform is the fastest way to do this. Thousands are in the market today and there are MAPs available for every size of B2B company. MAPs can personalize emails, segment databases, automate lead nurturing and track sales throughout the funnel. Plus they can give you reliable metrics so you can plan and adjust going forward.

Many B2B marketing leaders report difficulty in measuring overall results. We believe it’s due to an overall lack of education and willingness to tackle it, not for any lack of numbers. Focus on small victories before moving to more difficult measurements like calculating content ROI. Since email is the number one lead generator, start there.

Marketo is one of the world’s leading enterprise marketing automation platforms. Their Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics is a wonderful guide to B2B marketing ROI, updated for 2022.

This paper is good reading for any B2B marketer, regardless of company size. It’s a bit lengthy so read it in chunks you can digest.

Use the button to view and download your copy. No fee or email required.

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Tech and SaaS Marketing Interview Questions for 2022

by | Oct 14, 2022 | Chief Marketing Officer, People

Tech and SaaS Marketing Interview Questions for 2022

Today’s challenge.

You need to know what B2B marketing interview questions to ask.

Requirements for being a high performing B2B marketing director or VP have grown dramatically in the past five years.

These jobs used to be 80% creative and 20% technical. Today they’re 80% technical and 20% creative.

Plenty of B2B marketers today are lacking the technical skills needed to find a qualified audience and deliver sales qualified leads. It’s hard work.

Why am I doing this?

Because it’s your job to discover:

  • Can this candidate do the job?
  • Will they do the job?
  • Will they fit in?

Why is it a challenge?

B2B marketers must understand that today’s B2B purchaser gets 70% of what they want to know about your product from the web. Your prospect will rarely take a phone call before this.

Most of the B2B marketing mix is now digital. Sales and marketing automation, SEO, PPC, social…it’s all digital. Hundreds of variables must be addressed using multiple software platforms.

And measurement is virtually all digital now. With CEOs and CFOs demanding to see a return on the B2B sales and marketing investment, marketers must be numbers driven.

Part 1: Can they do the job?

The telephone screen

There’s no point in going further if your candidate doesn’t have the skills and capabilities your company needs.

Use telephone screens to address ‘can they do the job?’, which focuses on a candidate’s B2B  technical and technology skills.

Remember to take careful notes and refer back to them when making decisions about next steps.

Q: Tell me how you became interested in marketing and how you got started.

A: This is a general question that helps the candidate get comfortable chattinng with you. It also helps you discover if their background is what you need. I look for candidates who pursued a degree in business, economics, marketing or similar. An undergrad degree in liberal arts coupled with an MBA may be strong. I prefer candidates with experience in B2B marketing in a relevant market space. Past jobs might have been in sales, product management, and product marketing.

Q: What do you believe are the top three marketing challenges today?

A: Look for answers that touch on sales/marketing automation, metrics, internet/social marketing, qualified lead generation, budgets, talent, resources and sales/marketing cooperation. Sales and marketing automation is a ‘must’ response. Ask the candidate to elaborate on responses. Why is that important? It’s important because proper and consistent use of automation helps deliver a leaner, faster and more cost effective marketing department. Very important to your CEO and CFO.

Q: How would you create a marketing plan you know our CEO will read?

A: Look for answers that include the following:

  • I include a short executive summary showing where we are today compared to where we want to go. It includes budget, timing, resources, use of sales/marketing automation and measures of success.
  • I ask the CEO and other colleagues what’s important to them.
  • I emphasize what our competitors are doing.
  • I emphasize helping the sales team.
  • I tie marketing spend to revenue and valuation.

Q: How would you prioritize marketing tactics for our company?

A: Look for answers that demonstrate the candidate’s current knowledge of what’s working and what’s not.

  • Lead generating website
  • Email is still #1 
  • Relevant, interesting content
  • SEO and PPC
  • Social media marketing
  • Referral campaigns

Be sure to ask the candidate to elaborate on his/her answers and ask for specific examples of their work, and the results.

 

Q: How have you measured marketing success in the past?

A: Look for answers that include sales team priorities:

  • Increases in number of sales qualified leads
  • Marketing originated pipeline
  • Decreases in average sales cycle
  • Customer acquisition cost
  • Marketing percentage of customer acquisition cost
  • Organic search rankings
  • Search advertising ROI

Note: The rest of this article is in a PDF. Click button to view. No email required.

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About Mike Harris

Mike is the founder of Harris CMO Partners, a Nashville based firm offering on demand CMO services for SaaS and tech companies.

He enjoys writing about what's working in B2B sales and marketing.

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The tech or SaaS sales conversation…fix it with simple sound bites

by | Sep 27, 2022 | B2B Sales Transformation

Tech or SaaS sales conversation planning – a few simple sound bites

The tech or SaaS sales conversation.

A SiriusDecisions study found that 82% of B2B decision makers felt that tech or SaaS salespeople were unprepared for the meeting.

Many salespeople, even the pros, spend too much time on slides and not nearly enough time planning the sales convo.

Inevitably the slides often focus on the tech or SaaS salesperson’s company and solution, which is the wrong information.

Remember, by the time you’re in a sales conversation the prospect has already gathered 70% of everything they want to know about your solution from the web.

Waste not one minute repeating the obvious.

Creating sales convo sound bites

If your offering is complex, like tech or SaaS, you can’t have too many sound bites. Get together with fellow sales people and marketers to create them. Write on a yellow pad or, better, put them into an organized sales playbook, preferably digital so your reps have instant access.

How do I fix the tech or SaaS sales conversation?

So how do we fix this? Create 60-second conversational sound bites that lead the prospect where you both want to go. Some simple conversation planning will go a long way to getting a prospect to commit to the next step, and then the next.

A simple framework that we use is based on the customer’s decision making process. We find that customers want answers to three big questions:

Why Change?

Why Now?

Why Us?

     

    • Why change?

    What is it about my current state that’s inadequate?

    Sound bite: “Lots of our clients have found themselves in that exact same situation. Their current state was too labor intensive and managed with spreadsheets (or whatever they were doing). What have you seen about our solution that makes you think we might be a good fit?”

    • Why now?

    What will it cost your company to delay fixing this?

    Sound bite: “In one case a client was spending _____ annually on that situation. With our solution they were able to cut their costs by 75% and show positive ROI in the first year. Let’s calculate an average monthly or annual cost of delay, based on an estimated cost of ______.”

    • Why us?

    Sound bite: “We’re having this conversation because you think enough of us, so far, to spend this time with me. What capabilities do you see that we bring to the table?”

    Create sound bites. Experiment with them. Watch your numbers go up.

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    Website content and all attachments are the property of Harris CMO Partners LLC  2022

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    Nashville, Tennessee, USA

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