Traveling Together: Aligning Your Sales & Marketing to the Education Buyer's Journey. September 7, 2017

Transcription

1 Traveling Together: Aligning Your Sales & Marketing to the Education Buyer's Journey September 7, 2017

2 Today s Speakers Jacob Hanson Managing Partner PR with Panache! Chris Piehler Lead Storyteller & Editorial Director PR with Panache! Jenny Schumacher Vice President, Sales &Marketing Agile Education Marketing

3 Sales vs. Marketing: Why are they at odds and what can we do about it? In a recent Hubspot Survey, more than 80% of sales and marketing described the other using negative terms The teams have separate goals, rather then unifying goals Sales says: I can t hit my numbers because Marketing didn t provide enough leads or maybe if marketing spent less time on social media we could actually hit our numbers Marketing says: Their job is so easy, we pretty much hand them deals ready to close and they still can t do it! or We aren t hitting our quarterly number because sales isn t following up on leads in a timely manner

4 Issues with How Marketing is Viewed Marketing is viewed as a support position rather than a business driver Many of us still measure ROI on last-click attribution- filling out a form on our website, signing up for a webinar That lead could have: saw retargeting ads that kept your brand front of mind, been a part of a drip sequence that built trust, subscribed to your blog or more They are only their to support sales Sales doesn t fully understand what marketing is doing

5 Issues with How Sales is Viewed They are only interested in the sale, not how the sausage is made They get all the credit Their job is easy!

6 The Unification of Sales & marketing: Money! We cannot put our sales and marketing teams at odds: they are all working towards the same goal If one doesn t hit their number, neither will the other Unite them by: Communication Team building (lunch and learns) Service Level Agreement (SLA) Collaboratively creating your buyer persona(s), buyer s journey and understanding your buyer s context

7 K-12 Cycle May - July August - December January - April Summertime Planning Awareness & Familiarity Consideration & Trial PURCHASE

8 Creating an SLA between Sales and Marketing Having a Service level agreement between sales and marketing allows both team to understand the other s role in the process of lead gen and lead qualification Holds each team accountable for their part in nurturing leads towards a close Allows for the use of common language between the two teams Fully defines what a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is- once a lead becomes an MQL, it should be handed off to sales Needs to create a culture of open feedback between the two teams

9 What is Your Buyer s Journey A Framework that acknowledges a buyer s pathway, or progression, through a research and decision process that ultimately leads to a purchase First point of contact through P.O.- are you able to track this process? The power of data to replicate what works

10 Why is this so important? The Buyer s journey unifies sales and marketing- we are all working towards one goal: Revenue A fully developed buyer s journey cannot be effective unless it is mutually agreed upon by both sales and marketing teams Buyer s journey can and should guide a mutually developed lead scoring strategy between sales and marketing Marketing knows exactly how far to nurture a lead before passing it to sales Sales knows and understands the criteria that lead must meet before it is handed to them

11 Lead Scoring: Unification *move below buyer s context slide Understanding your buyer s journey is crucial to creating an effective lead scoring strategy Marketing understands what they are responsible for Sales knows where a lead is in their journey to purchase An effective lead scoring strategy will also allow marketing to give sales information to better understand the buyer s context Things to think about: Website activity: page views (and which pages they are viewing), unique web visits, time spent on page, how often they are visiting, watching videos on your site Interaction: accessed gated content through a form submission, opens and/or clicks, registering and/or attending a webinar or other event, conversation at a conference, social media interaction (clicks too!), earned media/articles How does your Marketing Automation Platform assist with this?

12 Marketing Automation & Prospecting *move with slide above to follow buyer s context

13 Why is Communication SO important? Marketing NEEDS feedback on leads Were they actually qualified? If so, why? Were they not ready? If so, why? Sales NEEDS to understand what Marketing is up to What campaigns are in place and why How do those align with mutual goals Sales needs to understand where the lead came from and how they can help Buyer s context

14 How to Engage Educators Social Media Direct Mail Digital Advertising Content Marketing Webinars Website Conferences

15 Buyer s Context Why is this so important? Unified experience for the lead Sales understands the buyer s challenges and knows how they can help Personalizing the buyer s experience Buyer s have all the power Aligning your tactics to what the buyer needs, not what we need from them What does that lead need in order to move to the next stage in the funnel?

16 Timing the Tactics August - May Most companies still rely heavily on for outbound prospecting and branding campaigns allows for quick hits to highly targeted audiences Easy-to-understand interaction data Important to remember the difference between prospecting and lead nurturing August December: call to action should generate leads January April: call to action is to generate sales Mid-November end of December: tread lightly!

17 Timing the Tactics Direct Mail Direct Mail August November January April Can be highly effective Expensive trial and error is necessary Much longer campaign lifespan Timing sensitive due to deliverability issues Absolute dead zones: Mid-November through January 1st & mid/end April through beginning of July

18 Timing the Tactics Website Website Year-Round The face of your company, keep it up-to-date year round! Keep in mind K-12 seasonality when messaging on your website Effectively gating your content effectively encourages download yet still captures actionable information Include product benefits, features and pricing Review design & navigation at least every 2 years to see if it needs updating

19 Either reiterate Jacob s comments, add a few additional here, or delete the slide entirely. Timing the Tactics Content Content Marketing Year-Round Always develop meaningful marketing content for your prospect, not your company! Yes, this includes blog but content marketing means more than that Current content Keep it visible Keep it relevant Your best SEO tactic

20 Timing the Tactics Social Media Social Media Year-Round Choose the media that s right for your business Develop your networks wisely Don t over-extend Use social media as a delivery mechanism for your content Social media in our market creates ripples, not waves

21 Timing the Tactics Digital Advertising Digital Advertising It depends Use in combination with other channels Understand your digital presence Google Adwords Banner ads Retargeting Solicit response, not just traffic to your website

22 Timing the Tactics Conferences Conferences As they happen Have a clear plan & objective What s your cost of exposure? Think outside the hall Depending on what you re trying to achieve, it might be better to do something else entirely Don t go just because you (or your competitors) always go

23 Timing the Tactics Webinars Webinars August May Great tactic for building awareness and generating later stage leads Showcase product One event can generate significant leads Both Fall and Spring are great times

24 Integration: Buyer s Journey, Context & our industry Aligning your efforts to what is happening in the market Buying cycles Trends Funding sources Going a few steps further: how does your buyer s journey align with the market? Lead nurturing Not all leads are ready to buy because the market says so

25 Questions? Jacob Hanson e: p: Chris Piehler e: p: Jenny Schumacher e: p: ext. 109