MARKETING | DEMAND GEN | EARLY STAGE
Where to start with digital marketing for demand generation – especially for early-stage companies
"Regardless of the industry, the audience or the maturity of the business, our recommendation is often the same…
"Start at the end of the lead generation process."
Challenge
Buyer behavior and preferences changed greatly in 2020.
It's appropriate to rethink how you've done things in the past.
You're well into the new year. You have fresh targets and budgets.
Where should you start with your demand generation activities?
Why it matters
Imagine if you worked on a great piece of marketing content and then sent traffic to a landing page that doesn't convert.
It's like fishing with a net that has holes your catch can swim through.
Lead generation isn't the only legitimate goal for content creation. Branding and awareness are also important. Maybe more so.
But if lead generation is your main goal, it's a waste of money and effort do things in the wrong sequence.
An idea to consider
Start backwards. Fix the holes in your net before fish with it.
Improve conversions before investing in traffic.
Resource
"Where to Start with Digital Marketing? Do These 10 Things First." Andy Crestodina. January 2021. Orbit Media Studios.
Related
The $958M Marketing Problem: Quantifying the Cost Inefficiency in Your Content Production Process. Kapost. 2020. [Downloadable PDF. 23 pages. No charge.]
orbitmedia.com
SALES & SELLING | OPERATIONS
To improve revenue forecast accuracy, stop this misguided but common practice
"None of the probability weightings [in CRM systems] have anything to do with whether the customer likes what we are doing, cares about our solution, or even is interested in buying from us."
Challenge
Revenue forecast accuracy is near the top of the wish list for most chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial officers (CFOs),
But accurate revenue forecasting is one of the harder responsibilities of sales leaders.
It's especially hard to forecast revenue for companies that sell a small number of big deals each year.
The most commonly used method is a weighted forecast.
It assigns increasing probabilities to closing a deal as it moves through steps in a sales process.
This is the basic forecasting you get with many out-of-the-box systems for customer relationship management (CRM).
But it's useless in forecasting big deals. Worse, it's dangerously misleading.
In the 1990s, many revenue leaders started assigning upside and downside potential to a forecast. Many still do it today, though it doesn't improve accuracy so much.
Why it matters
The revenue forecast drives nearly all functions within a SaaS company. It's the single metric that drives business planning from the highest to the lowest levels of a company.
(Thanks to John Stopper, a Driven subscriber, for this observation.)
In smaller companies, the revenue forecast may be critically important to cash-flow planning.
An idea to consider
Stop basing your probability of winning a sale on where you are in your sales process.
Despite what your CRM system may suggest, submitting a proposal doesn't increase your probability of winning the sale to 85%,
Remember, your competitors have also submitted proposals. You can't both have the same 85% likelihood of winning.
Base your forecast instead on how you prospect is progressing through their decision process.
Also factor in other elements you can measure. You might try these:
- A match or mismatch between your companies' cultures
- The amount of value you've helped your prospect discover
- How well you've connected with the prospect at multiple levels of their organization
- How fast or slow the process is moving, and whether it's speeding up or slowing
Resource
"Stop basing Your Probability of Winning on Where You Are in the Pipeline." David Brock. February 26, 2013
Related
"Weighted Pipelines and Forecasts." David Brock. July 22, 2014. Partners in Excellence blog.
"The Most Used – Useless Metric in Sales." David Brock. July 16, 2010. Partners in Excellence blog.
partnersinexcellenceblog.com
SALES & SELLING | PRESALES | EXECUTION
Don't rush to demo high-value SaaS products
At the highest level of skill, a pre-demo discovery process uncovers pain, explores and broadens, investigates impact, quantifies, and reengineers vision.
Challenge
Many SaaS companies push a product demo as one of the first things they want their prospects to do.
That may work for some transactional SaaS products, where...
- The product is sexy.
- Its cost is relatively low.
- The product and the buying decision are relatively simple.
But demoing too early can be a big mistake for companies that sell...
- More complex products
- At higher price points
- With more involvement of sellers
Why it matters
The more complex and costly your SaaS product, the more you must build its value with your prospects.
And to do that, you must customize your product demo.
Premature demos can waste huge amounts of time.
They can also kill your prospect's interest. If you show your demo too early, your prospect may think they've seen everything you have to offer.
An idea to consider
Don't demo until you've done proper homework.
Driven subscribers Paul Schweet and Bob Neeser are senior sales managers in SaaS. Both recommend delaying demos until the right time in the buyer's decision process.
The seller's homework includes working with the prospect through a proper pre-demo discovery process. And you don't leave this process to a junior business development rep (BDR).
You delay your demo even if your prospect wants one before you've done discovery.
Resource
"Assessing Discovery Still Levels – How Does Your Team Rate?" Peter Cohan. February 9, 2021. LinkedIn blog post.
Related
"Thousands of Websites Offer 'Book a Demo' – Should Another Option Be 'Book a Conversation?'" Peter Cohan. April 13, 2020. Great Demo! blog.
linkedin.com
WRAP UP
That's it for this week.
You may have noticed that in this issue I've shared articles that are a little older than in other Driven issues.
That's intentional.
Instead of sharing recent goodies I've come across, I now start by thinking about challenges you're likely to face.
Then I look for the best resources I can find on those topics.
Often the best resources are not the most recent.
In the coming weeks, I'll also post longer, more in-depth articles to the Driven blog.
Here I'll focus more on topics that are timely for you but also evergreen.
By that I mean they're likely to be on your mind now, but they'll still be current in a year or 2.
I'll keep the most popular topics up to date.
If you have ideas for topics you'd like to see in Driven, please email me with a quick suggestion. Or go here to share your ideas fast and anonymously.
It'll take only a few seconds. And it'll save you time to have me work on your topic for you.
If you've enjoyed this issue, please share it with a friend or colleague.
Today's issue is a day late because an iPhone malfunction hijacked my Saturday.
See you next on February 27.
Best,
Dave Vranicar
Dave Vranicar at Driven
ABOUT DRIVEN
Driven is a fortnightly digest for busy revenue leaders in business-to-business (B2B) SaaS.
It's likely to be most useful if your company sells higher-ticket products that require moderate to heavy involvement of professional sellers.
Driven is here to help you:
- Achieve your most important goals
- Overcome your biggest challenges
- Solve expensive problems
- Become a better version of yourself.
You'll find an online archive of back issues 12 through 43 at this link.
About links, commissions, and endorsements
When I provide links to articles from vendors, does it imply an endorsement?
Only of their content. Not of their products or services.
If I recommend a service or a book, it’s because I think it’s likely to help you. Period.
I get nothing from providing links to any commercial service, including the books for which I provide a link to Amazon.
That may change. I’ll tell you when it does.
Dave Vranicar at Driven