Who is responsible for your company\u2019s bottom line? In most B2B and B2C companies, sales is considered the \u201ccow that lays the golden eggs,\u201d while marketing is often viewed as the \u201cmoney machine.\u201d As a result, sales holds most of the \u201cpolitical power\u201d at any organizational level in the company. Marketing is often viewed as a \u201clower hand\u201d in the company. Many companies favor sales\u2014they attend all weekly meetings, while no one from marketing attends. The directors of such companies think of marketing as an expense, not a strategic asset for business growth. As one marketing expert said at a recent CMO Conference in the United States, \u201cOur department is seen by senior executives as the ones who create \u2018flashy\u2019 sales pitches.\u201d According to Phil Fernandez, president and CEO of marketing automation firm Marketo (www.marketo.com), it\u2019s clear that marketing is suffering from a crisis of credibility. So what can marketers do to be seen as part of the profit machine, not just a cost to the company?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Forecast outcomes, not expenses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketers must forecast and calculate the number of potential customers, sales and profits generated with great confidence. Sales and Marketing must sit together at the profit table to forecast the next quarter and the next year. Marketing's role is to forecast how many qualified prospects will enter the marketing funnel, how many will pass through the funnel and how many will become customers at a given point in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Create essential business cases for spending<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketing also needs to create a hard business case for the resources needed to deliver on its forecasts. This requires marketing to know what it will take\u2014in time, money, and effort\u2014to acquire leads and nurture them until they are ready to talk to sales. Marketers who use this kind of rigorous approach to deciding on marketing spend will also be able to justify and defend their spending. If the CEO wants to cut 10% in marketing costs, the CMO can show exactly what impact that will have on the company\u2019s revenue next quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Use marketing metrics that actually matter to the CEO and CFO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Soft measures like brand awareness, impressions, organic search rankings, satisfaction, and quality are important, but they are only truly useful when linked to a quantifiable approach to \u201chard\u201d measures like sales, revenue, and profits. The Marketing Dashboard must measure and measure the impact of all marketing activities, whether \u201chard\u201d or \u201csoft.\u201d However, it is also important to maintain all internal measures that are essential to Marketing. When speaking to company executives, marketers should do their best to articulate how changes in upstream measures will impact downstream measures that matter to the entire company. By speaking the same qualitative language as CEOs and CFOs, CMOs will better communicate the impact and value of Marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Use standard methods and best practices<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are two main benefits of using a practical and documented approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, it provides a common language for consistent communication within and across departments. Consistency is essential for reliable relationships and forecasting, as well as for accurate comparisons of value between prospects and opportunities. Second, a best-practice methodology improves performance by helping individual marketers act like true experts, regardless of their experience with any given tactic or channel. Marketing has long been viewed as an art, not a science. Implementing a consistent, practical marketing methodology goes a long way toward changing that perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Implement marketing automation technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales force automation (SFA) has become a no-brainer for most companies. It is estimated that 751,300 companies in the United States have implemented this technology. SFA solutions are a critical factor in linking the Sales department to the company\u2019s bottom line. Without SFA, sales managers will have a harder time meeting forecasts and effectively implementing various sales methodologies. Unfortunately, most marketers find it almost impossible to implement marketing automation technology to support their actions. The problem is that traditional marketing solutions are expensive, requiring immediate investments and requiring significant IT resources to implement and maintain the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, with the proliferation of on-demand software, there are now solutions that fit the realities of marketing budgets and IT support. These solutions provide the automation and support Marketing needs to predict results, plan spend, measure impact, and improve action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, Marketing can and must earn a seat at the corporate profit table. Earning this seat requires the same actions as other departments that already have that seat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 It requires making forecasts, planning expenditures and evaluating results using appropriate methods such as cash flow, revenue, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 It requires implementing best-practice learning \u2013 powered by marketing automation software \u2013 to help build consistent communications and improve actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 And since better accountability is needed for better actions, it requires Marketing to deliver on its promise by delivering more and better leads to the company's sales team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only then will Marketing be seen as an equal partner with Sales in efforts to increase the company's profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Bwportal<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ai l\u00e0 ng\u01b0\u1eddi ch\u1ecbu tr\u00e1ch nhi\u1ec7m cho l\u1ee3i nhu\u1eadn t\u1ea1i c\u00f4ng ty b\u1ea1n. Trong h\u1ea7u h\u1ebft c\u00e1c c\u00f4ng ty B2B c\u0169ng B2C, b\u1ed9 ph\u1eadn b\u00e1n h\u00e0ng \u0111\u01b0\u1ee3c coi l\u00e0 \u201ccon g\u00e0 \u0111\u1ebb tr\u1ee9ng v\u00e0ng\u201d c\u1ee7a doanh nghi\u1ec7p, trong khi b\u1ed9 ph\u1eadn ti\u1ebfp th\u1ecb th\u01b0\u1eddng b\u1ecb coi l\u00e0 “c\u1ed7 m\u00e1y ti\u00eau ti\u1ec1n”. V\u00e0 k\u1ebft qu\u1ea3 l\u00e0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1364,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","tag-marketing"],"yoast_head":"\n