Breakdowns and Breakthroughs: Handoffs Between Sales and Marketing

Oxymoron or greenfield opportunity?

Process Discipline & Marketing

John DonlonResearch Director, Marketing Operations Strategies

October 22, 2014

© 2014 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 2

Agenda• Process improvement examples in marketing• Marketing’s process priorities• Key takeaways• Q&A


Example 1: Marketing Asset Production

Problem Statement:The cycle times for producing marketing assets that support demand generation activities have great variability. In particular, producing an email took between 6 and 84 calendar days, with an Interquartile Range (IQR) of 28 days. With inefficient asset production, lead generation was inconsistent, resulting in surges and droughts of leads for the sales team.


Fewer Snowflakes

Goal Statement:In six months, shrink the variability of email production in half—from 28 to 14 calendar days—as measured by the IQR.


We try to work quickly and stick to the deadlines we establish, but when the demand managers drag their feet on reviewing their assets, it causes delays and there’s nothing we can do about it. (Shared Services)

We need the Shared Services team to take on more internal customers.

The move to bring this function in-house has

started paying dividends, but now we need to

standardize the process so that it can be scalable.

(Management)

If I want to take a long time reviewing the assets for my own campaign, that’s my prerogative.

(Demand Manager)

Leads come to me in waves and that’s difficult to manage; either I’m overwhelmed or I have nothing to do. (Sales)

It’s getting to be the norm that demand managers wait until the last minute and then request a rush

job. We probably enable that behavior

by allowing it, but what can we do–

they’re our customers? (Shared

Services)

Customer Quotes


Cycle TimeVariability

Systems

Production Requests Job Management

Required info not ready at time of request

Requests logged months in advance

Demand managers not responsive after requests are logged

Systems require admin work to record activities & times

Supporting systems require multiple handoffs

Production Partners

Legal review time highly variable

Timing of Web team engagement is inconsistent

Poor coordination with Marketing Ops

Lack of accountability in timeliness of review

Multiple people reviewing the asset for the same thing

Asset Reviews

Resources work on multiple jobs at once

Jobs performed in order of due date

Multiple reviews required

Requests logged at the last minute

Work duration managed to due dates

Cause and Effect Diagram


• Primary goal was achieved: IQR was reduced from 28 to 11 (Goal of 14)

• Median cycle time also dropped from 20 to 14 days

• Both Total and Production Only showed clear reductions in median cycle time and variability

Results


Example 2: Lead Management

Problem Statement:An effective lead management process was put into place two years prior, but lacked ownership. As a result, lead flow procedures were followed inconsistently, leads would go unattended for long periods of time, and feedback mechanisms were not monitored.


Own It

Goal Statement:Assign distinct process ownership and improve MQL-to-Close conversion rate from 7.2% to 10% by end of year.


Rearchitected Demand Waterfall


Root Cause Analysis: Why Don’t Leads Convert?

Disqualified Nurture - Marketing

Duplicate Nurture - Sales Engagement

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%24%

11%

4%2%


Root Cause Analysis: Why Are Leads Disqualified?

No inter

est

Bad Contac

t Inform

ation

Residen

tial

Not a te

chnica

l fit

Not deci

sion m

aker/

influencer

No longe

r at c

ompany

Competitor

Not deci

sion m

aking l

ocation

Outside s

ervice

area

0%10%20%30%40% 35%

25%

14%8% 6% 3% 3% 2% 2%


Four Metrics that Matter

Volume Conversion Rate

Cycle Time Deal Size


Results

7.2%10.0%

13.3%

15.4%


Top Process Priorities

AuditAssess

OptimizeMonitor

• Many handoffs• Historically poor

coordination• Regional

variations• Unclear

ownership

Tier 1• Lead Management• Campaign

planning• Content

managementTier 2• Demand

execution• Planning &

budgeting• Measurement• Data

management

Key Processes Characteristics Approach


Key Takeaways• Alignment between sales and marketing is a constant challenge• Sales and marketing are more data-driven than ever• Lead with the business outcome, not the process mumbo-jumbo• Snap a baseline, measure results and publicize wins• Assign ownership, utilize playbooks and consider gamification

to kickstart compliance


@L2R_Guy

Breakdowns and Breakthroughs: Handoffs Between Sales and Marketing

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