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Month: May 2023

How Automation Can Benefit Sales Ops

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TLDR: Is your Sales Ops team feeling the strain of manual processes? Learn to discuss with leadership what you should automate, why, and how to prepare for automation.

Why organizations don’t automate: Sales ops teams rely on manual processes for various reasons. Automation might not be a priority in small or scaling businesses where teams are still developing their tech stacks and systems. Teams in larger organizations might use legacy systems customized to the business’s specific needs and aren’t designed to scale. In either case, there tends to be a shortage of people who understand the tools and mechanisms to accelerate work.

The problem with manual processes: Business that don’t prioritize automation can suffer issues from manual processes that compromise revenue, including:

❌ Inaccuracies
❌ Inefficiencies
❌ Limited forecast and analytical potential

And while companies might be mature in their commercial offerings and field of expertise, a lack of alignment prevents teams around the business (e.g. Sales and Technology, Sales and Operations, Sales Ops and Marketing Ops) from coming together to discuss and address these issues.

What’s in this article for you? If your business is feeling the strain of manual processes — and your teams aren’t talking about it — this Tough Talks Made Easy is for you. We’ll help you have a strategic discussion about automation with your CRO and COO, covering what to automate in Sales Ops and why, and how to examine your processes and communication channels so your business can reap the benefits.

 

Benefits of automation

Your CRO and COO want to understand how automation can translate into increased revenue. To that end, there are a few important benefits that automating your lead and opportunity management can create:

✅ Efficiency: Automating the likes of lead capture and routing will simplify and reduce the overhead of your operations, freeing up your sales and sales ops teams to focus on higher-impact initiatives.

✅ Accuracy: Automation reduces the risk of costly errors that can occur. For example, manually creating contracts and quotes or entering data into your CRM.

✅ Data enrichment: Automation tools can enrich your lead data with publicly available information and activity metrics, helping Sales to better segment leads and prioritize the best matches to the business.

✅ Forecasting: Tools with forecasting capabilities can also lead to more accurate predictions (e.g. how Sales is performing vs. quotas) and more comprehensive analyses of various metrics. For instance, understanding how Sales is set to perform against quotas, how seasonality impacts lead behavior, or which channels to optimize your spending on, will fuel greater strategic decision-making that makes it easier to captivate leads and win business.

 

“Become more productive, predictive and responsive
to customer needs.”

 

 
Automation can help your Sales Ops function become more productive, predictive, and responsive to customer needs and preferences. In theory, these improvements should translate into growth, but there are several logistical and financial complexities with implementing automation.

Prepare to discuss the following points with leadership to show you’ve thought through what it takes to make automation successful:

👉 Recruitment and training: Implementing any technology entails having the knowledge and skills to use it. You’ll want at least one dedicated person or team to manage your workflows, with the know-how to maintain processes in good order and fix things. This might require a headcount budget, agency support, or upskilling people in your business who can progress into this role.

👉 Change management: What existing tools and integrations could be impacted by our implementation of automation? Given the available time that our team members have, what other projects and initiatives are we willing to put on hold in order to prioritize this?

👉 Data quality: Between tools, you might have disparate methods of categorizing the same data points. To make integrations between tools work correctly, and for your reporting to be accurate, you’ll need IT to help with data normalization as you implement and connect tools.

👉 Awareness: How will leadership educate people on the benefits and risks of automation? If Sales isn’t aware of how new processes and tools can improve their workflow, or if people aren’t encouraged to embrace the changes in how you do things, you risk wasting the investment of time and money.

 

Implementing automation

To address these challenges, your CRO and COO play important roles in the process of implementing automation:

🎯 Direction: Your CRO and COO can position themselves as sources of guidance and authority on data initiatives, offering mentorship and incentives to encourage a greater understanding and adoption of new processes and tools. Being able to answer questions and assure people of the logic behind what they’re doing will be crucial to the ongoing success of automation.

🎯 Communication: Your leaders should encourage communication between Sales, Marketing, Operations, and IT to encourage collaboration and alignment as automation impacts the business. This will be crucial to ensure that your uptake of automation in Sales Ops compliments the tools, processes, and workflows in other departments.

🎯 Resources and development: Leadership can allocate the budget for software purchases, training, hiring, and agency support towards the initiative. This can involve working with Sales Enablement to come up with a training plan, and devising a plan for hiring and skill development to ensure that automated processes are well understood and integrated into the team.

🎯 Measurement: Based on what your CRO and COO want to achieve with automation, they can establish success metrics for the initiative—KPIs and other points of reporting for Sales Ops to track in order to gauge the success of automation. Monthly or quarterly meetings between Sales Ops and leadership, discussing these data points and talking about how to further optimize things, can aid the ongoing success of the project.

 

“Automation is equally about
making changes to your communication structure.”

 

Implementing automation is equally about making changes to your communication structure as it is about adopting new tools and processes.

If you can explain clearly to your CRO and COO the kinds of preparation that are required to realize the benefits of automation, your leaders can use their time to guide and align stakeholders around the business and incentivize people to adopt new ways of doing business to achieve a strategic vision.

Treating the interpersonal elements of change management with care puts you in a good place to enjoy the strengthened efficiency, accuracy, forecasting potential, and growth that automation offers.

Get in touch for more guidance on change management and automation in Sales Ops.

Do I Have a Future in Marketing Ops?

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Hi Jo,

I’m new to Marketing Operations, and it feels like a wide-open field.

On a given day, I’m planning and budgeting for email campaigns, learning how new integrations work, and working with different teams on issues far and wide.

Sales needs leads scoring, Marketing wants to know where to spend ads, and IT and Data Science need input on the processes for managing our systems and data.

It’s a lot.

I appreciate the challenge and variation of my job, but that same nature makes it difficult to figure out if I’m in the right place or how I might progress. How can I succeed in Marketing Operations? How do I know if I’m on a path with a bright future?

Yours,
Unsure in Utah

Unsure in Utah, you’ve come to the right place.

My journey to marketing operations wasn’t planned. I became the Marketo person for my team while working in demand gen. This was long before MOPs was a carved-out role.

 

“You’re at the crossroads of
many different corners of the company.”

 

I got to grips with how the tool works, how to handle and maintain data, and how to run reports — but that didn’t quite prepare me for the real, full-time deal in MOPs.

You’re at the crossroads of many different corners of the company. The good news is you get to choose where you walk.

 

Determine what excites you

Ask yourself: Of all the things that I’m doing, what really excites me?

If it’s the tactical side of planning and analyzing campaigns, Campaign Management might be for you.

Digital runs on a parallel track, but it takes similar skills with creativity and data, one if you’re equal parts art and science.

Read our post “When Is It Time For a Career Change in Marketing Operations?” for more on this subject.

 

Everything is a learning opportunity.

Here’s the beauty in MOPs: Everything is a learning opportunity.

You’re around different people with unique perspectives, there are new and interesting problems to solve, and new tools and technology, like AI, give you more time/resources/insights to experiment.

There’s always a need for your skills, so if you take the reins and specialize, you’ll go far and fast at once.

 

Positive signs you’re in the right place in MOPs

Wherever you are right now, here are some positive signs that you’re in the right place in MOPs:

👉 You’re being challenged — and you like it.

👉 You’ve got a problem-solving mindset, and you’re learning and growing from putting it to use.

👉 You’ve got access to senior figures, managing upwards and making your opinions heard. This is a tell that your company takes its investment in MOPs (and in you) seriously.

👉 You’re passionate (or at least curious about) your industry and space, what you’re selling, and who you’re selling to.

 

“You’re not an order-taker.
You’re a strategist. A doer.
An expert.”

 

That’s quite a bit to think about, Unsure in Utah.

For now, I’ll leave you with this. You are not an order-taker. You’re a strategist. A doer. An expert.

That’s your future in MOPs.

You’ve got this,
Jo Pulse

How to Improve Data Hygiene in Sales Ops

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TLDR: Is your CRM heaving with old records? Time to clean up your data. Learn how to advocate for good data hygiene to your Sales leaders.

The problem with data hygiene in sales ops: Sales ops teams struggle to succeed without clean, well-organized data. To work efficiently and make the right decisions, people at every level and in every function of your sales team need easy access to accurate, relevant information.

Why data hygiene is hard to maintain: Sales Ops handles troves of information from different avenues, which are often difficult to standardize including contact forms, data enrichment tools and research from sales reps.

The cost of poor data hygiene: Sales and revenue leaders can be reluctant to part with data, even when a prospect’s interest and engagement have long cooled. As a result, CRMs bloat with duplicate and incomplete records that only become less viable as time goes on—and this bloat costs in many ways.

What’s in this article for you: If your CRM’s heaving with records and difficult to segment, or your reporting doesn’t match the reality of your team’s performance, it’s time to clean up your data. In this Tough Talks Made Easy, you’ll learn how to:

➡️ Illustrate the impacts of poor data hygiene with your CRO/COO

➡️ Raise awareness of practices that will keep your data clean and your Sales team on track

➡️ Save money for your organization

 

Why data hygiene matters

Bad data encroaches on everything your Sales team does.

❌ Leads to inaccurate analyses of opportunities in the pipeline.

❌ Slows progress on deals as Sales reps chase prospects who are no longer relevant to your business.

❌ Creates a lack of clarity on the accounts, industries, and regions you should target and how to target them.

❌ Results in technical debt, smaller pipelines, leads being routed to the wrong places, and hours burned cleaning up and correcting messy databases.

 

Why do these problems arise?

A lack of clean, consistent practices around how your organization handles data. Often, this is due to business culture. For example, your sales leaders might oppose deleting data because they’ve paid for the methods to acquire this information that could yield business at some point.

 

“It pays to know when
to part ways with your data.”

 

But it pays to know when to part ways with your data. Records that have been sitting cold in your CRM for years, with no signs of engagement, cost more than they’re worth.

Insights expire, industries evolve, and peoples’ interests and roles change.

After a few years of inactivity, you’re more likely to reengage a prospect inbound, in response to a different product or service line, than what you’ve previously been sending them. And at that point, as far as their potential as a customer goes, they’re an entirely new prospect whose old data is no longer relevant.

Your head of sales, CRO, and COO should all understand that data hygiene = time and money well spent.

 

Before renewing your CRM instance, follow these steps:

👉 See what your capacity costs annually.

👉 Scope out the data that you don’t need, such as duplicates, outdated and irrelevant information, and metrics that your reps don’t use.

👉 Then, present leadership with the savings you can make by getting rid of old records.

Important: This isn’t a one-time clear-out. Data hygiene has a systemic impact on the productivity of your Sales team and requires a continuous, purposeful effort to maintain. To increase revenue, Sales reps need easy access to accurate information that will allow them to focus on the most viable leads. Leadership can help Sales to achieve this by enshrining data hygiene into the culture and practices of your business.

 

Data standardization

Data should enter your system according to standardized methods of collection and categorization, following a central repository of business definitions that your sales and RevOps teams universally agree upon.

You also want to standardize the fields across channels people can use to enter information. Discrepancies between, say, United States vs. USA vs. US will bloat your database and compromise the accuracy of your reporting.

Sales Ops can take the lead with regularly auditing the CRM and other databases for data quality. Things like merging duplicates, flagging records with missing data, and removing data that are no longer correct or relevant.

Chat with your CRO and Head of Sales about the conditions that make data meaningful for the team:

  • Do we use it in reporting?
  • Do our Sales reps use it in their work?
  • Does it concern prospects who are reasonably engaged given the norms of our industry?
  • Does collecting and storing it drive our desired outcomes?

If the answer is ‘no,’ chances are you can safely delete a record. To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your data cleanups, encourage leadership to invest in a data preparation tool to automate parts of the audit.

 

Helping Sales win

In Sales, data hygiene and quality will make or break your capacity to strike deals and achieve growth.

Adopt clear and consistent practices for collecting and categorizing data, with regular audits to streamline your databases to only include accurate and relevant information, and it’s likely your pipeline will prosper.

Get in touch for more guidance on maintaining good data hygiene practices.

Experiment #1: Defining Your True ICP With GPT

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TL;DR In our first AI experiment, our team used GPT analysis to determine our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Our process involved data preparation, cluster analysis and refining the dataset using a genetic algorithm. This experiment was a significant step forward, enabling us to determine an organization’s true ICP within just a few hours of work. Exciting possibilities lie ahead!

A couple of weeks ago, one of my colleagues said to me, “I really believe that within 3-5 years, we’ll be able to analyze Salesforce data and determine the true ICP of an organization”.

My immediate thought to this was: why wait?

With the AI tools available at our disposal, we can do this now.

 

“Determine the true ICP of
an organization within a few hours.”

 

So I put a small team together, and we started working on a way to achieve this – and frankly, the results were pretty incredible. After 3 days of work, we came up with a process centered around GPT analysis that can determine the true ICP of an organization within a few hours.

Here’s how we did it.

the steps for defining our true ICP with GPT

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Step 1: Data Preparation

The first thing we did was ask ChatGPT directly how to approach this project. Essentially, it told us we needed to run a cluster analysis on a CRM data export using a Python script (this is the simplified version of the response).

With that in mind, we went into Salesforce and exported the last 2 years of our company data. For privacy and confidentiality reasons, we anonymized the data by deleting some information like client names and project values, then replaced those fields with unique identifiers and profitability approximations.

 

Step 2: Cluster Analysis

After that, we ran our data through a cluster model using a Python script we created. After some testing and tweaking, we were left with 4 cluster groups based on 3 company variables we chose: profit, frequency of purchases, and number of employees. This cluster analysis in and of itself is far from revolutionary – but the next step is where things started to get very interesting.

 

Step 3: GPT’s Initial ICP

We took our 4 cluster groups and asked GPT to give us a description of each – and it did. It was able to pull from its enormous knowledge base to give relatively accurate, complete descriptions of each group. Then, we fed GPT a short definition of our company profile and asked it to define our ICP based on the cluster group that best fit. The results were interesting, but it wasn’t exactly what we were looking for. How could we refine things further?

 

Step 4: Refining Our Dataset

We decided to use a genetic algorithm whereby ChatGPT would generate a list of companies that fit the chosen cluster, then regenerate the list but keep the top 3 companies and drop the worst 2 companies. After doing this 25 times, we were left with a highly refined list of 27 companies that matched the chosen cluster group.

 

It gave us information about
revenue, growth profiles and marketing priorities.

 

Step 5: GPT’s Improved ICP

Now, using this new list of 27 companies, we asked ChatGPT once again to generate an ICP for us. And this time, the results were amazing. It gave us extensive information about revenue, growth profiles, industry, location, marketing priorities, primary tech, and business models. Astoundingly, it also summarized all of it beautifully for us.

 

Step 6: Going Deeper

In pursuit of the best results possible, we took things a step further by giving GPT more information about who we are as a company and where our strengths lie as an organization – allowing it to refine our ICP even further based on that.

We also asked GPT questions about our ICP, such as: Who are the decision-makers at this company? What are their pain points relative to their positions?

And it gave us great material to work with, highlighting general ICP pain points as driving growth in revenue, optimizing and improving marketing and sales efforts, keeping up with industry trends, and ensuring seamless integration of technology and security. Wrapping it all up by asserting that if we focus on solutions to these pain points, we can demonstrate value to decision-makers.

 

Data Privacy and Safety

As a final note, I think it’s important to emphasize that there is no data privacy or security risk involved with this process either. The core Salesforce dataset we used was not only anonymized, but it was never actually touched by the GPT engine; The data itself was only used in our internal cluster analysis before we fed these clusters – which are essentially just groups of companies based on characteristics – into GPT.

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The irony of all this is that when we look at the list of companies GPT defined as our ICP, many of them are already our clients. But it also gave us a list of companies we need to start a conversation with, which is highly valuable for any business.

Overall, this first experiment has been an excellent step forward. Having a process that can utilize GPT analysis to determine the true ICP of an organization within just a few hours of work is incredible output.

Stay tuned for what’s next.

P.S. In case you missed it, you can read our post about the essential skills of the AI economy.

How Can Our Teams Create a Better Customer Journey?

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Hi Joe,

The sales team at my company is struggling to close, and it’s become clear that the leads they’re receiving aren’t correctly qualified.

Upon taking a closer look, it seems there is a significant lack of alignment between Marketing and MOPs, especially when it comes to managing leads as they progress through our funnel.

Any advice on how our teams can get back on the same page – and help our Sales team close more deals?

Thanks,

Alignment Anna

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Hi Anna, thanks for writing in.

This is a challenging issue.

The unfortunate news is that it’s a common issue.

The good news is that it’s one that can definitely be remedied with a few tactical moves.

 

“Good communication is
critical to this solution.”

 

I should start by saying: good communication is critical to this solution. Without regular discourse and updates from all sides, alignment between teams is nearly impossible.

With that out of the way, I do have some more practical tips that will improve collaboration between MOPs and Marketing, ensuring they are fully calibrated when it comes to managing your buyer’s journey.

 

1. Plan and document lead progression metrics.

Leads are constantly coming into your database from several different ingestion points, such as

👉 landing pages
👉 paid advertisements
👉 events, and more.

As these leads are collected and segmented, it’s important to put relevant metrics in place that clearly demonstrate the requirements that must be met in order to progress a lead through your system.

For example, these metrics should specifically indicate when a site visitor is converted into a lead, then a marketing-qualified lead (MQL), sales-qualified lead (SQL), sales accepted lead (SAL), and so on, until they eventually become a customer.

Once your teams understand – and agree on – what these metrics are, I encourage you to create a well-defined, metrics-based map of the buyer’s journey that everyone can refer back to.

 

Well-defined buyer’s journey
=
sustained alignment.

 

Having accessible, detailed documentation like this is a reliable way to sustain alignment and eliminate future confusion. It ensures that your MOPs, Marketing, Sales, and even Demand Gen teams know the exact metrics and qualifications that push leads through funnel thresholds – leading to efficient collaboration and more effective campaigns.

Constantly testing these metrics for accuracy is important, too, as it ensures the desires of your Marketing team are aligned with how your audience is interacting with your content.

 

2. Clearly define buyer personas.

It is also important that everyone is on the same page about the categorization of leads as they relate to the type of buyers you want to target. For example, is your company looking to target C-level executives, lower-level managers, or something in between?

The answer to this question must be consistent for every team. Clear buyer personas allow Marketing to create more relevant content, nurture campaigns, and personalized messages that should be delivered at the right time in the buyer’s journey.

And while MOPs doesn’t create the actual content, the team is responsible for managing your lead database. This responsibility includes scoring and qualifying leads based on relevant metrics and characteristics that should be informed by those your buyer personas.

Some examples of these metrics include the number of:

➡️ CTAs a lead has clicked within marketing emails over the past several months.
➡️ service- or product-specific webpages visited.
➡️ interactions they’ve had with sales personnel.

 

3. Leverage tracking for timely content

Once your company’s buyer personas and lead progression metrics are well understood by all teams, the next step is to implement solid processes that track leads throughout the buyer’s journey.

Where is the lead in your sales funnel? Are they at the top of the funnel at the awareness level, in the middle of the funnel past problem identification, or near the end of the funnel and ready to purchase?

These are questions that your MOPs team can answer through the use of good tracking and filtering in your MAP.

This will allow personalized content send-outs, such as nurture campaigns, to be meticulously timed, reaching leads at critical points in their journey.

 

Bringing it all together

Your MOPs and Marketing teams can work together to create the best buyer’s journey possible by:

1️ Documenting proper lead progression metrics for all teams to see.
2️ Clearly defining buyer personas that inform these metrics and steer content creation.
3️ Implementing good tracking processes to enable timely content send-outs.

Ultimately, following these steps will improve your organization’s conversion rates and reduce headaches for your Sales team.

For more advice on aligning sales and marketing, download ‘The Roadmap to B2B Marketing Success.’

You’ve got this,

Joe

Disrupt Or Be Disrupted

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TL;DR: AI’s rapid advancement poses new challenges. Essential skills for the AI economy include AI literacy, ethics, and human-AI collaboration. Organizations and individuals need to proactively develop these skills to align with the demands of the AI economy. Read last week’s post here.

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At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re already using some form of AI technology on a daily basis in your personal or professional life. Nearly every week, a new AI tool is released that can boost our productivity and improve our work.

But with the accelerated advancement of AI comes a slew of new challenges and implications for our future.

Last week, we discussed how the rapid evolution of AI would impact the core skills we’ve come to rely on over the previous three decades in the knowledge and digital economy. And with so many of those core competencies now called into question, what areas should we prioritize as we go forward?

 

“What essential skills will we
need in the AI economy?”

 

In other words: what essential skills will we need to flourish in the new AI economy?

I don’t have a crystal ball, but here is what I think will be the most important.

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AI Literacy

Understanding the fundamentals of AI technology will be a critical starting point for both individuals and organizations. This means constantly updating yourself on AI’s evolving capabilities and applications, as well as familiarizing yourself with core concepts that underlie these tools – such as machine learning, big data, model training, and so on.

 

AI Ethics and Responsibility

Looking at AI ethics and responsibility from an organizational perspective, it’s crucial to explore how AI will affect not only the company’s products or services but also internal relationships and team dynamics. We must recognize that these systems are currently trained on biased data sets; therefore, they often produce biased responses. Educating our teams on these potential biases and inaccuracies is important as we integrate these tools into our daily work.

 

“We’re in uncharted waters,
and we must tread carefully.”

 

There are also much broader concerns pertaining to AI ethics and responsibility. Many have been pushing back on AI development, with tens of thousands signing an open letter to slow down the training of more powerful AI systems. Another report recently released about a top-level engineer at Google who expressed concern about the dangers of the AI chatbot he is helping to create.

We have entered uncharted waters, and we must tread carefully.

 

Data Management and Privacy

As organizations train AI systems on specific data sets to prompt deeper analysis, they must securely manage data to protect user privacy and confidential company information. Who can access this data to train the system, who will have access to use the system itself, and where will the system be hosted — these are all questions companies must consider from a data management and privacy perspective.

 
Astronaut using smart tablet

 

Human-AI Collaboration

On an individual level, we must ask ourselves what our core skills are and how AI tools can complement them. Keeping up-to-date with the latest AI tools and getting creative with how we utilize them to accelerate our productivity and improve our output will be a major skill as we look ahead.

 

AI System Design and Development

The number of applications designed with AI support will grow exponentially, highlighting the importance of people who can design and develop these large language models and AI systems. Even becoming proficient with key programming languages like Python will have short-term and long-term benefits, allowing you to interface with existing APIs to create customized systems that enhance AI collaboration. Programming will become a real superpower, especially if you’re in a technology-oriented space.

 

AI-Driven Decision-Making

As AI systems become more complex and intricate, their ability to generate actionable insights will increase as well. Going forward, combining and utilizing the right AI tools to generate these insights and draw conclusions from them will be an essential skill.

 

“Many of the roles we
fill will be transformed.”

 

Change Management and Adaptability

The disruption that will take place as AI systems become more integrated within organizations will be significant. Leadership must be able to manage this change and help their teams adapt to new skill sets, new collaboration methods, new organizational structures, and so on. Many of the roles we currently fill will be transformed and rescaled — adapting will be vital for success.

 

AI-Enhanced Creativity and Innovation

Regarding creative work, we already see potent tools that can generate high-quality writing and images. Naturally, these tools will continue to reach other creative domains like video, animation, and music to the same effect. And with the help of these tools as AI collaborators, the creative process will accelerate and transform; There will likely be less time spent on ideation and labor and more time spent on art direction and editorial decision-making.

 

AI Policy and Regulation

It’s absolutely critical for organizations to understand policies and regulations surrounding AI systems. What are the legal implications of using these tools? What are the creator’s rights? These are just a few of the many questions companies must consider when developing internal policies and regulatory frameworks.

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When we take a closer look, there is quite a departure from the skill sets of the knowledge and digital economy we previously discussed.

And I think there is a major opportunity here, from both an organizational and individual perspective, to proactively develop our skill sets so they align with what the AI economy will demand.

We have a choice to make:

Either we self-initiate this disruption and get ahead, or we wait for AI to inevitably cause disruption for us.

That’s all for this week.

How Can I Get Sales & Marketing in Sync?

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Hi Jo,

My sales and marketing teams aren’t working well together.

People from both teams aren’t really talking to each other or sharing information that could help them both to succeed.

As a result, we work in an environment where:

❌ processes are slow
❌ communication is tense, and
❌ Marketing and Sales don’t understand one another.

How can I make my teams collaborate like partners? How can we bridge the gaps between us?

Thanks,
Out of Sync Sally.

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Sally, it’s good that you’re asking how to fix things.

When disconnect is the norm, it’s impossible for teams to work effectively together.

In a past workplace, my Marketing team would publish whitepapers and run events as a separate machine from Sales. Likewise, Sales turned down the majority of our leads without giving any feedback.

You’d have no idea we shared the same goal: Drive revenue for the business.

We were completely misaligned, and worse still, nobody felt they could speak up. That was ‘the way things were done,’ with little hope for dialogue or change.

Three key elements were missing:

✅ Strong purpose.
✅ Shared understanding.
✅ Active listening.

Now that I’ve moved on to manage teams, I realize just how essential these components are to bring people in the workplace together.

Here are some tips for creating an environment where teamwork actually makes the dream work:

1. Have someone representing each team attend the other team’s meetings and presentations.

Having a representative to share feedback and updates, to show interest in helping and understanding each other — will help both teams to work more considerately.

2. Encourage transparency around data, goals, and knowledge.

If Sales shares where they need help fulfilling quotas, Marketing can help them size up the impact of campaigns. Which Marketing webinars are valuable to particular prospects? Who can Sales pursue based on event attendance? How can Sales and Marketing line their activities up?

3. Invite teams to share their updates on a monthly basis.

Common dashboards that visualize key performance metrics, project presentations from people in various different roles—these initiatives help everyone to demonstrate how their work connects to the bottom line.

4. Consolidate your teams on one project management tool

This will get your teams on the same page. It’s a visual tool to show how each person’s activities contribute towards a shared outcome.

5. Create open channels for people to share their successes or ask for help.

The mindset you want to promote is: “How can we celebrate or solve this together?”

6. Ask people what they see their purpose as, and accept honest answers.

If someone doesn’t know their purpose in the company, encourage them to think about the bigger picture and show them the true impact of their contribution. Whether it’s press coverage from Marcomms or products from Merchandising, quality work in every role plays a part in the company’s growth.

7. Get people moving around and talking to each other.

Hotdesking, catch-up calls, open invites to knowledge-sharing and brainstorming sessions; all of these help sociability and belonging as a team.

Ultimately, people want colleagues and leaders they can trust. Make clear that Marketing and Sales are on the same side, and that you’re here to help and encourage them to perform at their best.

You’ve got this,
Jo Pulse.

P.S. If you’re looking for a take on sales and marketing alignment through the scope of data analysis, read this Tough Talks Made Easy.

Explain the Value of Marketo to Your CEO (In Language They Understand)

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TLDR: Marketo helps you save time, increase efficiency, and grow revenue. Communicate these outcomes and the value of your CEO’s investment in Marketo (and your team) will be undeniable.

You’re great at your job. 🔥

Why? Because you work hard to demonstrate the value that marketing operations brings to your organization.

The problem: Now you’re on the hook to explain the value of Marketo to your CEO.

What do you do next? Read this Tough Talks Made Easy. We’re going to arm you with everything you need to maximize your minutes with the C-suite. Ditch the buzzwords and focus your approach on the language C-Suite speaks on a daily basis: outcomes.

 

Focus on outcomes

Your CEO needs to worry about the bottom line without being bogged down by minutiae.

When we talk about speaking in outcomes, we don’t mean:

❌ increased clicks
❌ better open rates, or
❌ the things that only excite marketers. (Sorry).

Your CEO is interested in outcomes with positive impacts on pipeline.

✅ improved lead conversion by stage
✅ the ability to enable your existing sales force and help them achieve quota, and
✅ any other outcomes that lead directly to increased revenue.

The value of Marketo speaks for itself. But, it’s up to you to communicate its many uses into outcome-focused conclusions.

 

Outcome 1: The value of marketing automation

Marketing automation lets you streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks to save time, increase efficiency, and grow revenue more quickly. (Pretty good outcomes!)

Marketing automation takes every aspect of your existing campaign management and marketing programs and allows you to run them ‘lights out.’ With automation, you’ll get real-time data on what’s working and what isn’t, and a comprehensive scoring system to strategize new leads as you get them.

Your CEO needs to know what Marketo can do. Marketo is to marketing what Salesforce is to sales.

Here are a few features of Marketo

👉 boosts pipeline while providing insight into the customer journey
👉 allows for more targeted, relevant communication as relationships progress, and
👉 delivers insights to drive account and prospect intelligence to sales.

 

Outcome 2: Enhances doesn’t replace talent

Marketing automation isn’t about making humans obsolete. It’s about giving your talent the data and feedback they need in real-time to flex their marketing muscles in the right direction and do what they do best.

Marketo isn’t some set-it-and-forget-it approach—far from it.

 

“Marketing automation is
only as effective
 as those who implement it.”

 

Marketing automation is only as effective as the marketers who implement it. Campaigns are at their best when the creativity of your talent is able to thrive.

Marketo provides digital experiences that weren’t possible before, but to be successful marketing ops need the right support, funding, and data to make it all work.

 

Outcome 3: Actionable data

Marketo isn’t about creating a deluge of information—it’s about telling you precisely which strategies are working and which aren’t, so you can react accordingly.

The insights delivered by Marketo are focused on efficiency, scalability, and ROI.

 

“Marketo tells you

which strategies work and

which do not.”

 

Without marketing automation, you simply aren’t measuring these things effectively—if you’re measuring them at all.

With Marketo, everything is tracked and displayed. It provides a comprehensive analysis that allows you to compare every facet against others—and keep constant track of how much everything costs.

 

Outcome 4: Enhanced relationships

Marketing automation has been exploding for a reason. Companies like Fujitsu and the Portland Trail Blazers have made big investments in Marketo and the teams that run them.

Buyers have the ability to google every option, consider every purchase, and compare every choice in spending.

In order to make a sale, relationships need to be fostered, nurtured and brought to fruition. This requires personal, targeted communications that don’t push for sales until the customer already feels confident in their decision to buy.

That’s where lead scoring identifies the best incoming leads for your sales team.

 

Outcome 5: Sales and marketing sync

Every CEO wants their sales and marketing teams on the same page.

The real-time, first-hand insight into customer behavior and lead ranking mean your sales team will receive a comprehensive list of the ‘hottest’ leads the moment they come in.

 

“Marketing will do

the same thing upstream

that sales is doing downstream.”

 

And once they’ve received the lead, they won’t only be armed with what they need to react immediately, they’ll also know how to react in a relevant way.

Your sales team will receive the same deep, actionable insights regarding which content has the most immediate, positive impact on conversion rates and closed sales. And they’ll receive instant notifications when it’s time to leap into action.

That means your marketing team will be doing the same thing upstream that your sales team is doing downstream. This is a harmonious tandem that spells success and it’s the type of outcome that CEOs’ dreams are made of.

 

The big takeaway

Marketo helps you save time, increase efficiency, and grow revenue by:

🎯 providing your talent’s with actionable data
🎯 deepening and nurturing relationships with your leads
🎯 enabling your marketing and sales teams to align with a shared strategy, and
🎯 working for the same goals with the information sales and marketing need to succeed.

Communicate these outcomes, and the value of your CEO’s investment in Marketo—and your team—will be undeniable.

And remember: if we can help prepare you in any way, let us know. That’s what we’re here for.

Mastering Salesforce: A Must for MOPs Professionals

Posted on by admin

Hey Joe,

My company recently invested in Salesforce and we’ve been using it for a few months.

Our sales team has been receiving ongoing training for the platform, but I’m not getting much guidance on the marketing ops side.

I’m concerned that when the time comes for me to use certain parts of Salesforce (or other platforms, I’m less familiar with), I’ll be lost.

How can I bolster my technical toolbelt and stay prepared?

Thanks,
Eager Ed

pink seperator line

Ed, I applaud your proactivity. Keeping your technical skills polished and up to date is very important in the marketing ops world!

 

“It’s rare to be a pro at
Marketo and Salesforce.”

 

Many MOPs members are proficient with marketing automation platforms like Marketo. Still, they won’t know as much as they should about CRMs like Salesforce. In fact, it’s rare to find someone who is a Marketo expert as well as a Salesforce admin.

This can be a problem because MOPs members must know how to navigate Salesforce to access lead modules, campaign data, and several other integrations to keep information across MOPs and Sales Ops clear and synchronized.

Let’s talk about some things you can do to improve your proficiency with less familiar tools:

 

1. Complete certification courses 🎓

Tell your boss you want to build your technical toolbelt and inquire about services you can use to train yourself independently on different platforms. For example:

👉 Many companies have training programs that allow their employees to acquire a Marketo certification.

👉 Hubspot also has a free certification course – as long as you can access a Hubspot instance.

👉 Salesforce has a free online learning platform called Trailhead that you can use as well.

 

2. Explore external resources 🧭

If you want to supplement these certification courses, or you want to hone in on a specific area of a tool, there are plenty of high-quality external resources available out there if you look carefully.

Healthy, active communities of users can be found online and are very helpful when it comes to learning about different platforms.

You can turn to sites like Reddit or official user forums managed by the platform owners themselves – such as Marketing Nation by Marketo or the Salesforce Developer Community forums.

Youtube is also home to many experienced users who create screen share tutorials, walking you through processes step-by-step.

 

3. Attend conferences and workshops 🧠

There are plenty of workshops and conference events (both in-person and online) that major platform companies like Salesforce, Hubspot, and Adobe will host throughout the year.

Attending these events is a great way to pick up technical skills, as well as build relationships with other MOPs and Sales Ops people who can offer guidance.

Many companies will pay for their employees to attend these events to expand their technical knowledge and bring back information for other team members to learn from.

 

4. Connect with your sales team 🤝🏽

If you still need help when it comes to using Salesforce at your company, try reaching out to one of your Sales Operators.

Ask if they can briefly walk you through a certain integration or process – this can go a long way in strengthening your understanding of the platform.

When you go down this route, however, be sure to come prepared. I recommend doing as much independent research as you can (through the above methods), so you can approach your Sales Operator with high-quality, concise questions.

🔥 Pro tip: Record the session with your Sales Ops team for internal reference purposes. Sales Operators are busy, so having that recording will allow you to independently review it after a one-time walkthrough. This will be helpful not only for your own reference but to train other members of your MOPs team who need to learn the same process.

Over time, this can develop into a useful collection of internal training resources for MOPs if anyone needs a walkthrough of Salesforce features in the future.

 

“Remember to stay curious
and stay engaged.”

 

It’s great to see you taking ownership of your professional development. Remember to stay curious, stay engaged, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

With these tools and resources at your disposal, you’ll be well on your way to mastering new platforms and adding value to your company. Keep up the good work!

You’ve got this,
Joe.

Exploring CPQ (Configure Price Quote) Solutions

Posted on by admin

TLDR: Are manual CPQ processes eating up your time? Learn how to discuss the benefits and tradeoffs of CPQ solutions with your leadership team.

What is CPQ? Configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions allow Sales teams to automate the production of quotes and contracts.

The problem with current CPQ processes: Manually creating quotes results in time spent correcting mistakes, bloated approval processes, and delayed starts to projects that can leave negative impressions on customers.

How CPQ solutions help: CPQ solutions can improve the speed, accuracy, and scalability of quote and contract creation. Before adding another tool to your stack, you’ll want to establish whether or not the investment makes sense.

What’s in this article for you? In this Tough Talks Made Easy, we’ll help you have a purposeful discussion with your CRO and COO about CPQ solutions. You’ll learn how to:

➡️ Position the benefits

➡️ Voice important strategic and logistical considerations

➡️ Impact ROI

➡️ Get the support you need to evaluate and implement a potential new solution

 

CPQ ins and outs

Your C-level execs want to know how investing in a CPQ solution will contribute towards the organization’s goals and needs.

Start by identifying where your CPQ processes are straining and what your leaders want to achieve. Then frame your arguments around the impact a CPQ solution can create to meet their priorities.

👉 Productivity: How many hours per week do your Salespeople spend on quotes? Automation can free up this time and allow Sales to focus on higher-impact initiatives. Do your teams struggle to produce contracts in a timely manner or end up spending way too much time on the approval process? You can issue contracts and get them over to QA, Legal and your customers quicker, and begin working with customers sooner.

👉 Accuracy: Do errors or ambiguities cause approval delays and extend contract execution time? CPQ solutions can ensure consistent pricing and service terms, including standardization and controls for customizations such as discounts and tiers.

👉 Scalability: Does leadership aim to grow the RevOps, Sales or Retention teams? The more people involved, the more complicated pricing and approvals can become. CPQ software enables efficiencies for scaling teams by reducing error-prone manual processes. CPQ solutions offer multi-currency support, which is beneficial for organizations working internationally.

 

CPQ solutions can help refine pricing models.

 

👉 Insights: Tracking recurring revenue streams and establishing a trailing twelve months can highlight key insights to help make intelligent pricing decisions and better understand your client base. Dynamic pricing capabilities can also suggest effective price points for your services based on customer behavior and market conditions to enable better forecasting.

👉 CX: Automating renewals reduces friction during the contracting process. By streamlining work with your organization, CPQs can help improve customer relationships and have a downstream effect on churn reduction.

Your bottom line: How might the above factors translate into costs saved, revenue gained, and losses avoided?

 

Make your case for CPQ

These are all salient points to get your CRO and COO interested in a CPQ platform, but as with any tool adoption, there are trade-offs and planning elements to assess. Before you approach leadership, think through and prepare to discuss the following factors:

✅ Appeal to your customer journey: At what points in the customer journey can you integrate a CPQ solution to close contracts more effectively, boost customer satisfaction, and improve retention? How will using this tool achieve the aims of your organizational strategy?

✅ Immediate and future needs: What does leadership want a CPQ solution to address in the short- and long-term? For the investment to pay off, people need to know that using the tool will make their lives easier. Does the tool have the potential to continue meeting your organization’s evolving needs?

✅ Alignment with existing tools and processes: Any CPQ tool should fit smoothly with your tech stack and business processes—if it doesn’t, teams may resist adopting the tool. CPQ processes often impact teams in charge of renewals in addition to Finance, Legal and Procurement. Getting the perspectives of key stakeholders can help you to identify whether a new piece of tech can complement your current finance, payment, and audit processes and align with the needs of your business.

✅ Highly integrated vs. siloed products: What is the projected future state of your tech stack? You might opt for a CPQ solution that seamlessly integrates with a core piece of technology (e.g. your CRM), but what happens if you remove or change that piece? Alternatively, the autonomy of a siloed product may be more suitable than the high performance offered by a solution that integrates more deeply with your tech stack.

✅ Power vs. lift: A more sophisticated solution will likely have a heavier lift, demanding more time and expertise to implement and manage, but will result in a more comprehensive solution. Consider who will be in charge of setting up and managing the solution? You may need to recruit a contractor or bring on a new hire to get the job done. Consider if your needs justify the cost of a more powerful, intensive tool over a lighter solution that is easier to implement.

 

“Leadership can help people
see CPQ as an investment.”

Raising these points will help your leaders gain a clearer sense of the total cost of implementing a CPQ solution and whether the ROI justifies the lift.

If your CRO and COO want you to explore this further, there are various ways they can offer guidance to support the process of evaluation and implementation:

💰 Parameters: What does the minimum viable solution look like—the capabilities and traits that have to be present to support your goals and needs? What is the maximum budget your leadership is willing to allocate—will this cover the purchase price and any hiring and training needs?

🎯 Choice factors: Based on C-Suite’s top-level goals (e.g. increase revenue by 10%), what performance factors make sense to prioritize? For example, can you best achieve these with a solution that’s optimal for speeding up quote creation, freeing people from admin, or deepening analytics?

🌱 Roadmap for growth: Where does a CPQ solution fit within the planned growth of teams within the organization? Will a new CPQ tool impact the requirements of the personnel within your team?

📈 Impact measurement: Which analytics and reporting points are crucial for understanding how the solution meets your organization’s KPIs, such as enabling growth, saving time, and cutting costs?

🧭 Alignment and direction: Your CRO and COO can be huge allies with this endeavor, using their pull to capture thoughts and encourage buy-in from people and teams involved and impacted. Crucially, this involves managing expectations since, for the first few months, the benefits of using the solution may not yet be apparent.

As you establish a baseline, leadership can help people see the tool as an investment that reveals its value over time and showing how riding out the bumps of implementation and onboarding is worthwhile. This understanding is key to internal adoption, which is how you fully realize the long-term benefits.

As you begin using the tool, leaders can stress its long-term value as an investment and inspire employees with their vision during difficult stages of implementation and onboarding. Leadership’s enthusiasm plays a vital role in achieving internal adoption, which is necessary to gain long-term benefits.

 

The bottom line

As you explore the pricing and specs of options on the market, you might find a piece of tech that responds perfectly to your needs, or you might decide that adopting a new tool isn’t the right move.

In any case, voicing the opportunities and realities of taking on a CPQ solution will help leaders make a decision that best meets the needs of the business.

Get in touch for more strategic Sales Ops guidance.

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