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March 24, 2010
Today our Marketing Analytics team lead, Creig Foster, dives into the sexy topic of predictive analytics (PA). Why are we so enamored with PA? One of my students, the Marketing Operations leader at fast-growing software company, captured the essence of why PA is compelling in a recent essay: “I have a better chance of my marketing department growing and my personal relevance moving up the food chain if I can predict the future – plain and simple.” So if that’s the case, why aren’t more marketing leaders actively applying PA in their marketing strategies (particularly in the B2B world)? Perhaps they just don’t yet understand the many PA applications that are available to run their Marketing Operations better. Creig’s aticle takes some of the mystery out of the magic of predictive analytics. Gary
Increasing the Value of Marketing Operations with Predictive Analytics
by Creig Foster
A recent blog post by James Kobielus of Forrester Research advances the idea that business success depends on your company’s capability to see likely future outcomes and take appropriate steps now to realize them. He goes on to say that predicting future scenarios successfully, laying plans and deploying the needed resources is critical in seizing opportunities, minimizing threats and mitigating risks. I fully support this view and believe that for a company to be successful these days it must use predictive analytics to its fullest extent.
So what is Predictive Analytics? From the all knowing source, Wikipedia, “Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of techniques from statistics, data mining, and game theory that analyze current and historical facts to make predictions about future events.” You might ask yourself what is the big deal; humans do this sort of thing all the time. Yes, but predictive analytics takes in huge amounts of data, analyzes complex interrelationships, and discerns patterns in the data that the human mind could not possibly see. Besides, the models can do their processing 24/7 without making a mistake.
Kobielus goes on to state that the “grand promise of predictive analytics – still largely unrealized in most companies – is that it will become ubiquitous, guiding all decisions, transactions, and applications.” For a company (large or small) to become a truly predictive enterprise, I believe it will take more than an investment in the technology and people to accomplish this transition. It also takes a change in how a company thinks about its business.
Instead of a reactive response to challenges and opportunities as they are presented, I believe that a proactive and investigative approach to building the business is enabled by predictive analytics. Yes, I know we all plan with the best intentions of positive outcomes. What I am suggesting is using predictive analytics in making decisions about future directions and strategy. In other words, the use of predictive analytics should become part of the way a company thinks about its business and a cornerstone of the overall business strategy.
Read the complete article here.
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March 12, 2010
Whether in a new business process, in conversation with current client executives or via a daily supply of Tweets from Social Media experts and wannabees alike, the subject of ROI has become a mantra for those either advocating or trying to embrace Social Media.
If I hear one more marcom director ask me what kind of ROI they can expect from an investment in Social Media, I might just throw a bucket of water on him or her (<:}.
Or perhaps, more appropriately, his or her boss.
It seems people have forgotten that the purpose of Social Media:
- To build quality two-way relationships with customers, partners and other stakeholders.
- To mutually exchange information, insight and thought leadership.
- To naturally attract the right people with whom to do business when they are willing and ready to do business with you
Social Media is not a replacement for a company or product brand, but it certainly can help reinforce brand (it can wonderfully augment public relations and customer service, for example).
It is not a lead generator, though over time a company will organically receive leads through Social Media efforts (a strong Social Media presence is a powerful support system for new product launches and gaining critical insight from customer and developer communities, for example, to hone the innovation process).
Social Media is not a vehicle for aggressive, “won’t take no for an answer” salespeople or spin-doctor marketers to apply their old-school sales and marketing tactics to manipulate customers to buy. (in face, the use of such invasive and overly-persuasive approaches is actually a barrier to the wholehearted embracement of Social Media).
So what about ROI?
Well first, let’s remember this a brand new channel so when your company decides to enter the Social Media world, do so with an investment mentality. The payout is highly unlikely to be in a few months. It might be a few years.
Second, defining what ROI is for Social Media is not straightforward. What do you measure and track? How does that measurable outcome link back to your enterprise strategic objectives? How does Social Media fit into your overall Marketing strategy in contributing to the success of the enterprise?
Remember, Social Media is an unchartered and mostly standard-less world. Even if your company has established what it is going to measure and track, it probably doesn’t have enough history with Social Media to be able to project specific desired outcomes with a high degree of confidence. Examples of success in Social Media are still the exception, not the norm. Few companies can state with absolute certainty that a success triggered through a Social Media effort wouldn’t have happened anyway through some other marketing or sales approach.
So, Social Media ROI??? Good to think about. Good to begin to define. Good to track. But, ROI? Forgetaboutit! At least until you have a seriously well-established SM program, anyway.
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Speaking of Social Media, as you may recall, Marketing Operations Partners is a sponsor of NewCommForum 2010.
Today is the final day to register and take advantage of Early Bird discounts for NewComm Forum 2010.
If you want to take advantage of a significant price break, register today at http://www.facebook.com/l/18c3d;www.newcommforum.com
Use the Marketing Operations Partners discount code, NCF2010MOP, to save an additional $100.
NewComm Forum will feature:
* 5 in-depth workshops with experts Geoff Livingston, Kami Huyse, Katie Paine, Shel Holtz, Paul Gillin, Susan Getgood, Chuck Hester, and Nancy Duarte for only $195 each for a 1/2-day or $295 for a full-day workshop if you register today!
* 40 sessions in five tracks covering everything from social CRM to social media program development, management and measurement, from online communities to online video and podcasting.
* 5 keynote presentations by online marketing expert and author Jackie Huba; Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora; Scott Monty of Ford; Jack Holt of the DoD; and social media and communications expert Neville Hobson.
Hope to see you San Mateo, CA next month!
Gary
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January 11, 2010
In conjunction with his new book, Bernie Borges recently interviewed me about Marketing Operations 2.0. We’ve received a lot of great feedback about the value of the conversation. Check out the podcast.
I thought it also would be instructive to share what Bernie wrote in his blog in introducing me and the podcast. I’m sure you’ll appreciate his interpretation of the work I (and fellow Marketing Operations practitioners) perform every day to help change the MO of Marketing. Gary
Gary Katz is CEO of Marketing Operations Partners, located in Silicon Valley. Gary has a background in PR. He developed a concept which intrigued me because it fits well with the mindset shift in my book.
Gary authored a chapter in my book, Marketing 2.0, appropriately named Marketing Operations 2.0. Here is the definition of Marketing Operations (MO) from that chapter.
“Marketing Operations is a relatively new discipline that can be defined as a comprehensive, end-to-end operational discipline that leverages processes, technology, guidance, and metrics to run the marketing function as a profit/value center, growth driver, change catalyst and fully accountable business. MO reinforces marketing strategy and execution with a scalable and sustainable infrastructure. MO seeks to nurture a collaborative, well-aligned ecosystem, both within and outside the marketing department, to drive achievement of strategic objectives.”
MO Delivers the Operating Plan for the Marketing Department
When I asked Gary to translate that explanation into plain English, he used an analogy which I believe does the job. Gary says that the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of a business is like the driver of a car. The purpose of getting into a car is to drive to a destination. The driver is responsible for the outcome, but there are many other factors that must be in place to get there. The car’s engine must be operating well. The tires must have enough air. The wheels must be aligned to drive safely. The roadways must offer an efficient pathway. And, the driver must have knowledge of the roadways or have a navigation system for guidance. And, the car needs periodic maintenance to stay prepared for ongoing use.
MO builds a high performance car and makes sure there is a plan to get to the destination. Gary points out that MO is essentially like an operating plan for the CMO. He refers to his company, Marketing Operations Partners as a COO for the CMO. This explanation makes sense to me because the CMO needs an operational plan to manage all the marketing activities which include a myriad of marketing campaigns comprised of advertising, email, SEO, SEM, social media marketing, media relations, etc.
Gary says that MO places a lot of emphasis on alignment of messaging with the rest of the company. MO helps deal with change management for the marketing function acting as a chief of staff for the CMO to guide in effective execution of all marketing activities. In other words, the CMO is like the CEO of their business. MO is the COO to the CMO.
Accelerating the Sales Process
In my book, Gary addresses how MO can accelerate the sales process. Here are two key points on this popular topic.
1) Lead Flow: Nurtuing prospects who are not ready to buy today into prospects of tomorrow. A Sirius Decisions study indicates only 20% of leads get followed up by sales, 70% of which are disqualified. Shockingly, 80% of those leads buy from someone within 24 months. The issue for any CMO is the pressure to show ROI in the face of so much waste.
MO offers a lead process supported by a technology solution. Many companies put in place the technology (CRM systems, tracking systems, etc.) before creating the lead development and nurturing process. Can you say “cart in front of the horse?”
2) Alignment of Sales Process with Buying Process: Since social media is meant to be a platform where conversations occur and relationships are built, new processes must be defined. Remember MO is also a mindset. Gary was inspired from the book Think Like your Customer. He encourages marketers to ask: “How attractive are we to our prospective buyers?”
Thinking Differently
Businesses need to think differently in an environment where economic pressures ask you to close deals this quarter. Sellers have big pressures. But, buyers don’t want to be engaged in a sales pressure situation. Sellers need to get the buyer to “like you.” MO provides the roadmap for a CMO to implement marketing strategies with process and discipline. Organize marketing activities around the customer. Break down the silos that exist in your business. Examine how the functions in your business align with marketing such as customer service, P.R. sales, manufacturing/distribution, etc. They are all part of the marketing function. If they are not aligned, those who touch the customer directly will reflect a different message or attitude than your marketing message.
Demonstrating Measurable Returns on Marketing
Using MO to measure results always comes back to the business goals. Social media is a new channel. You can measure details such as RSS subscriptions, website traffic from new keywords used in social media, names of employees producing great content, etc. The challenge for many companies is that using social media is still new. There is no history or benchmark. The analytics usually provides indicators but not results. Executives ask the CMO how these metrics impact revenue today? In most cases they will affect revenue in the future, not the immediate present. So, it’s imperative the CMO has strategic alignment with the CEO and all other key stakeholders in the business for short term survival and long term success.
MO Take Away
Regardless of the size of your company here’s the take-away on marketing operations…How do you execute a marketing strategy regardless of individuals? How can you build a marketing organization that sets the right processes and can scale effectively as the company grows? The more you grow, the more marketing programs you run and the more challenges you will face in measuring, managing and staffing.
Companies are wise to think with an MO mindset before you get into trouble. You can’t defend your marketing budget, your people or your programs without processes. You’ll get marketing programs (or people) cut when things go wrong without MO processes in place. Often senior management doesn’t understand the value of what was cut in the absence of MO processes until after it’s been cut. Reduce your risk and maximize your long term success with an MO mindset.
If this topic interests you, you can learn more from Gary Katz and his company Marketing Operations Partners at his website, his MO blog, his LinkedIn groups, and his MO presentations on Slideshare. You can also follow Gary on Twitter.
So, what’s your take away from this MO discussion?
Bernie Borges
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October 18, 2009
The following post appeared on Boulder Logic’s Reference Success blog last week. Today we have a guest post from Gary Katz on his experience applying a formal Marketing Operations model to customer reference management. Enjoy… About five years ago, I walked into Shoreline Communications as the new director of communications and corporate marketing. After completing my first objective – helping to re-brand the enterprise phone company from Shoreline to ShoreTel – I realized I had a significant challenge ahead:
- ShoreTel had great customer loyalty, which needed to be leveraged as a significant competitive advantage in the market.
- Our marketing programs depended heavily on great customer references – webinars, seminars, case studies, media relations, analyst relations, speaking engagements.
- The company’s sales channel model provided neither the structure nor motivation for Sales to collect timely customer reference data. Once the deal was done, the heavily lifting was passed to a channel partner and Sales was on to something else.
- The same customer references were being burned out, used over-and-over again. Why? Because with more than 1200 customers and more than 150 channel partners at the time, no one wanted to assume responsibility for qualifying and managing these customer references.
- My success was directly related to being able to tap into this rich pool of customer references.
At that time, I didn’t know about Boulder Logic. I didn’t even know what Marketing Operations was. I just knew I wasn’t getting anywhere trying to qualify these references on an ad hoc basis.
So I worked with a consultant to design a customer reference process aimed at developing a robust and renewable pipeline of customer references – just like a sales pipeline.
Specifically:
- ShoreTel’s customer database was categorized, continuously updated and mined for strong reference candidates
- All references were qualified for use in marketing and sales efforts
- Qualified references were matched to appropriate marketing, public relations or sales opportunities
- Select customer references were converted into case studies or e-newsletter articles, or used in webinars, editorial calendar, article, analyst research or speaking engagement opportunities
- We began formally tracking all active references, including customer contact info, channel partner info, reference type, usage log and color-coded status information
Since that time, ShoreTel’s customer reference program has grown from about 20 qualified references to more than 1000. The program generates approximately 25 new case-study candidates every quarter. The public relations team has a ready supply of credible references to present to editors and analysts as publicity opportunities arise or are uncovered.
But most importantly, within months of rolling out the program, the major benefactor and requester shifted from Marketing to Sales. Today, ShoreTel Sales relies on this program to identify references that help it win strategic deals in new vertical markets and new geographic territories.
And who do you think helps them find the best matches for their requests? The same consultant I hired to implement the program one day a week back in 2004! Dick has out-survived four of my successors and his value (and workload) is greater than ever, even in a miserable economy.
So let’s get with it, people! Odds are, your customer reference effort is suboptimal. Bringing operational discipline to your customer references is not only a Marketing Operations best practice, it’s a proven way to increase your value and contribution to your company’s success. Today, you have great tools like Boulder Logic to make the customer reference process even more effective.
Think about it. What other marketing program can simultaneously influence your company’s customer lifetime value, ensure that valuable Voice of the Customer insight is collected and utilized in marketing, potentially transform your customers’ technologists into industry rock stars, and help Marketing become Sales’ best friend by increasing the velocity of the sales pipeline?
With a heightened emphasis on Marketing optimization and ROI, today you can’t afford to miss this golden opportunity. Highlight any portion you want:
Is your organization effectively leveraging your customer loyalty in your sales and marketing efforts? If yours is like most organizations, your customer reference process is less than optimal. While this is a big challenge, it’s also a huge opportunity. Solve the reference problem and you will not only dramatically increase your company’s sales and marketing results, but boost your career in the process. Do you need to bring greater discipline and control to your customer reference process? Do you want to protect your best customers from suffering reference burn-out so you can get the most out of these invaluable assets? Are you ready to run your reference process like you do (or should) your sales pipeline? If your reference process could use an overhaul, please join Joshua Horwitz, founder of Boulder Logic, and me this Tuesday, May 12 at 12 p.m. PST for a free webinar to learn about the opportunities and challenges of bringing Marketing Operations approach to customer reference activity in your organization. Among the areas Josh and I will address:
- The economic relevance of customer reference management
- How to apply an operational approach to references
- Consideratiottps://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/868352752ns before introducing new customer reference practices
“Good customer references are known to influence sales, however an ad hoc approach to providing those references is less productive and jeopardizes existing relationships,” says Horwitz. “Executives that attend this event will learn how applying operational controls and metrics to customer reference management can lower costs, protect existing customers and drive new sales.” Register now for the free “A Marketing Operations Approach to Customer References” webinar.
Gary
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October 12, 2009
The recording from yesterday’s “A Marketing Operations Approach to Customer Reference Management” webinar is now available. Due to a technical glitch, Josh and I weren’t aware that there were many questions in the queue. So we will be providing responses to those questions on this blog and Josh’s Reference Success blog within the next day or so. Gary
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Customer reference management is definitely a great area to apply Marketing Operations discipline and tools. If you didn’t get to attend our live webinar this week, here is a link to a recorded archive: A Marketing Operations Approach to Customer Reference Management, with Josh Horwitz of Boulder Logic and yours truly. Josh and I were having fun during the discussion and time got away from us. Since we didn’t get to all the great questions we received, we decided to post the Q&A below. Enjoy! Q: What could be customer incentives to participate in the program? A: There is a lot of debate on this topic and there was an earlier Boulder Logic blog post on points that you might find interesting. Generally the incentive for customers comes from their appreciation for a successful partnership with you as a vendor or service provider. A desire to see their success communicated externally is a personal motivator. An effective program typically has elements in place to reinforce these factors and augment them with other benefits. Benefits that have a direct monetary value risk the perceived integrity of the testimonial and open legal and accounting issues. Some of the most successful programs tap into the customer’s relationship with your business and products by offering VIP input to product roadmap and access to executives. Q: Do you have any other numbers to elaborate on the impact of references on sales/revenue? A: One of the really nice things about customer reference management is that it is so closely tied to revenue. One way this is done is linking specific sales opportunities to deals that were impacted by customer references. There have been a few folks that have published numbers related to their results, including a nice write up by Abby Atkinson of Infor. Boulder Logic will be publishing a recording from another webinar shortly that walks through the calculations at a very detailed level. Stay tuned! Q: We do have a reference program and we are moving into an indirect channel and it’s proving to be difficult. How does one engage the indirect channel more? A: Organizations with an indirect selling model do have additional challenges because the customer relationship is typically owned entirely by the partner. In these cases, it is very important to have an executive sponsor that promotes the importance of the initiative directly and through the executive responsible for the channel relationships. From a marketing perspective, you should apply internal marketing techniques to bring visibility to partners that do engage an awareness to all. If possible, secure the opportunity for your channel to apply co-marketing dollars to their own customer reference efforts. After all, they are both the producers and consumers of an important resource. Q: Any tips on how to get seasoned sales executives, who may be used to a culture of guarding their reference customers and “keeping them in their back pocket,” to adopt a sales reference tool/process and be active contributors? How do new customer reference programs build trust? A: Your question acknowledges that it is all about a trust relationship, which is great. Trust is achieved in steps where expectations are set and consistently met. Acknowledge and respect the relationships that exist. Break down their concerns about overuse and the lack of other available references by sharing how your program will work. Leverage your executive sponsor and ensure that sales management is involved so they hear that the initiative is being supported. And when you see success, promote it and whoever made it happen! Q: What kind of applications can be used for customer reference management? A: It isn’t uncommon to start with using Excel, however the challenges of sharing access, defining workflow , data quality, and tracking details for reporting make this a challenge. Many organizations ask their IT department to build something; however there are specialized tools for managing an enterprise customer reference program available as a stand-alone or integrated with your CRM system. Q: How do you get marketing & sales execs to understand reference management (the need, the processes, the business case, best practices, etc.) when you’re given 3 minutes to present AND you’re also trying to describe the status quo of our particular situation internally to get them to fully understand the problem? They say “we need more references” but won’t stand still long enough to understand how else it can be done… A: Wow! That doesn’t sound very fun, but your situation isn’t actually so uncommon. Customer reference management is surprisingly difficult and organizations fail to realize that the solution and the responsibilities need to cross groups. I’d set aside the 3 minute presentation until you’ve secured an executive sponsor that will help. If that isn’t easily obtained, follow the advice of one of our clients: “My advice to organizations considering managed reference programs is to rally their salespeople around the idea first. Having your sales team champion the need for a managed reference program can make the difference between getting executive buy-in and funding or not (see ShoreTel case study blog post for a good example). This isn’t easy and requires good planning and communication but when you can get sales to say, ‘I can generate more business with references’, somebody high up in the marketing organization is going to take notice and back the venture.” Q: To your point about skill sets: I have the process & operational mindset — the marketing execs holding the money do not.  How can I break through that? A: If your executive audience doesn’t think with an operational mindset, I wouldn’t advise trying to convert them to a different way of thinking. Know your audience. Keep your business justification focused on the business benefits, high-level execution plan and your resource requirements. If there isn’t a real process today, it shouldn’t be too hard to highlight lost opportunity or business problems. If they are more apt to listen to sales reps, follow the guidance from the answer above and solicit input to sales about how the topic impacts their ability to generate new business. Q: How often do you see customer management programs successfully integrated with existing CRM solutions? A: The successful integration between Customer Reference Management with an existing CRM solution is a pretty consistent part of the customer reference program vision. Obstacles typically include other IT priorities, budget and limited adoption of the existing CRM. To answer your question, we see successful integration about fifty percent of the time. Q: Good idea of integrating these very interesting topic(s)! Nice slides  A: Thanks for the positive feedback. Marketing Operations fits pretty easily with customer reference management. Q: Is it important to monitor the use of references by the sales force [to prevent them from] using a reference too early in the process? A: Good question. I think it is very important to understand the different phases of the sales process and consider how some form of customer testimonial should be applied in each. By presenting this back to the sales team, they’ll be more inclined to use what is appropriate for each phase. Q: Where are/were the customer references for Boulder Logic in this presentation? A: Ha! Who planted this question? Seriously, we decided to avoid too much self promotion. Here is a page with a few of Boulder Logic’s client references. Q: What are some successful strategies for motivating hesitant customers to participate as a customer reference? A: We talked a bit earlier about what incents a customer to participate as a reference. When customers are hesitant, it may be because they don’t understand these benefits, don’t believe them to be relevant or have external pressures affecting them. Your effort to overcome these should be based on the importance of their participation, but some of the approaches would be: 1) working through individuals that have the closest relationship, 2) showing them others like them that have participated, 3) starting with something small like providing a quote, or 4) redefining how they participate, such as doing an anonymous case study. Josh and Gary
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