Get automation to simplify your sales and marketing functions
Some see programmatic media buying as problematic. Others insist it is one of the most effective and exciting means for clients to get value for their marketing buck.
Whichever camp you side with, you're likely to not be fully clued up on exactly how to harness the power of programmatic media buying and real-time bidding just yet, especially with everyone punting the importance of big data - there's just so much out there that it's hard to know where to get started and what to focus on.
That's why Televerde recently conducted a global study on the impact of automation on the global marketing, sales and advertising industry. Key among these? As much as 60 percent of sales and marketing departments are not on the same page on customer engagement strategies, increasing use of mobile and online tools by consumers is definitely changing buyer preferences, and to keep up, reps are spending an average of 50 percent of their time sifting through department data to find the right info to reach the right target.
Hooker believes that automation is responsible for the continuing gap and misalignment between sales and marketing, but that customer data can be much better used to deliver targeted, highly personalised outreach in a way that aligns these two groups while delivering much higher revenue generation. He explains how and talks us through the survey's findings below.
1. Firstly, give us a brief overview of when/how the survey was conducted, and who responded. 
James HookerHooker: The survey was conducted in April and May of 2015, to determine if sales and marketing departments were aligned around the customer engagement lifecycle.
1. Firstly, give us a brief overview of when/how the survey was conducted, and who responded. Hooker: The survey was conducted in April and May of 2015, to determine if sales and marketing departments were aligned around the customer engagement lifecycle.
This is particularly pertinent as both sales and marketing are messaging to customers.
A third party, Exact Data, conducted the survey using a random, stratified sample of 50,000 sales and marketing professionals in the healthcare, finance, insurance, and technology industries in the US only.
2. Sounds like a good sample. Talk us through the rather staggering finding that 60 percent of sales and marketing departments not on the same page on customer engagement strategies. What are the actual implications of this?
Hooker: The implications reach beyond sales and marketing, affecting the entire organisation, both internally and externally. Internal employees, as well as customers and prospects, are receiving different messages about who the company is, what is offered, results, and on and on. This confuses customers and prospects, and when they are confused they "pause" their buying process. Further, when employees are confused, this may appear to those outside the company as disorganisation. This will affect employees, customers and prospects' attitudes about the company - generally not in a positive manner. All in all, this affects the pipeline and revenue.
3. Pretty damaging then. What does it take to get interdepartmental communication about customer engagement right?
Hooker: A relatively new organisational structure and position has appeared in a number of corporations - the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). The CRO is responsible for coordinating sales and marketing activities and driving joint planning and execution. The goals and objectives are unified and it may be that revenue and speed-to-market will be optimised.
4. Great. How do we keep a step ahead of customer communication trends such as increasing use of mobile and online tools by customers?
Hooker: The use of data marts that move data to and from each of the demand generation tools allows for predictive analytics, data modeling, regression analysis and pattern matching, as well as performance measuring and monitoring. As the data becomes more reliable over a period of 18 to 24 months, individual trends, as well as segment trends can be identified. The use of the demand generation tools allow for that today, but most miss the data mart - the brain of the operation. Keeping your data in the campaign tool is expensive as the charges are measured per record, and none of the tools allow for the mathematical modelling.
5. Sounds murky. What's the easiest way to leverage big data, which reps spend 50% of their time sifting through to find the right info to reach the right target?
Hooker: The purpose of a data mart for sales and marketing is to provide the information needed for both departments. For example, sales needs information about their account base - account-by-account. Marketing needs contact information account-by-account. All should be available in the data mart with an easy GUI for individuals to retrieve the information as needed - based upon permissions.
6. List a few ways customer data can be better used to deliver targeted, highly personalised outreach.
Hooker: Within the data mart, the typical information per account and per target would include industry, firmographic, demographic, psychographic, product purchased, and revenue data. Additionally, this data mash-up would include relevant customer and prospect information from a variety of departments - customer support, supply chain, finance, and the like. Combined with an effective BI tool, the organisation can identify "best prospects" that look like the "best customers," saving time and money avoiding those that will never provide the revenue and margin expected. There are many uses for this data such as developing a joint-coverage model based upon the TAM and revenue per account; joint campaigns targeting cross-sell, up-sell, and loyalty. Lastly, tracking each individual can lead to a very sophisticated preference centre that provides each customer or prospect with only the information they are interested in at the right time and place.
7. Tell us a little more about automation and what we can expect from it in the sales and marketing realm in the future.
Hooker: The use of data facilitates the buyers' journey and therefore the company's revenue and time to market. These benefits affect the early, mid, and late pipeline. Over time and using automation, an organisation should be able to reach a predictable revenue state with speed to market. At the mid and late pipeline, BI and Advanced BI capability is required to reach optimal results. This journey is shown in the embedded image below - click to enlarge. Ultimately, an organisation only markets to the right prospect and customer at the right time and with the right information.
Got it? Good! To find out more, contact Televerde or follow their Twitter account.
About Leigh Andrews
Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.Related
