If revenue generation is a top priority for your business in 2016, then you need to start looking at the most important part of your business - sales and marketing.
First a bit of background:
From traditional outbound and expensive methods we are now looking to attract the right kind of customer for our business. Marketing has changed because the needs of the buyer has changed.
The buyer is looking to be educated and then make a informed buying decision. Understanding this is a key to drive business growth.
It is now an economy that is driven by trust - being authentic, telling a story and letting people talk back to brands online via social media.
So what's the one thing that can support your revenue generation goals in 2016?
Sales and Marketing have traditionally been likened to the relationship between cats and dogs - fighting, disagreeing and unable to live under the same roof.
Times have changed and like Daniel Pink says, "We are all in sales." But Sales hasn't been looked at with a lot of love in the past and we have often considered negative words and emotions to describe a sales person.
Marketing on the other hand has been referred to as the glamour twin, that often got the glory but in reality did nothing to help the sale.
In the Seller Beware Economy, a buyer is working on making a decision much in advance and it is important that we recognise that the buyer has started the process of research much before they buy.
So it's important that your sales and marketing teams talk to each other and come up with a promising way to align shared business goals and the deliverables associated.
To further identify these deliverables it is important to understand your marketing funnel and describe clearly all the stages. Here's an example from one of the Sales and Marketing Alignment workshops we held recently:
Identifying these stages gives you the basics to get the most success from your inbound marketing strategy and support further lead generation activities.
I'd love to help if you'd like to discuss how you can align your sales and marketing to support your revenue generation goals for 2016.