Jeff Davis's Blog

Without question, the B2B buying process has become more complex and difficult to navigate than ever before. In fact, Gartner data shows that 77% of B2B buyers state that their latest purchase was very complex or difficult. There are many dynamics that have caused this process to become more complex and challenging to navigate. The one with the most influence is the increasing size of the internal buying committee. Each of these groups can consist of upwards of 10 key stakeholders or more. With this number of stakeholders, which many times have competing priorities, agendas, and needs, it is more difficult to reach consensus and ultimately a purchase decision.

In addition to larger buying committees, buyers deal with other complexities, such as:

Being more socially connected to peer groups and thus more influenced by their opinions and decisions;

A higher cost of choosing the wrong vendor (e.g. poor adoption by the organization, career reputation, negative impact on company morale);

Increasing numbers of millennials entering leadership positions and thus buying committees; and

Information overload from vendors.

All these factors together have made the traditional, linear sales model obsolete. Sales and marketing leaders have to come to terms with the fact that the buying cycle is much more fluid and that buyers will come in and out of phases as they please. They also come to expect to be able to get the information they want when they want it whether it comes from sales or marketing. This is why sales and marketing must act more like an integrated revenue-generating system that orchestrates its interactions with the buyer to be focused on delivering value at every touchpoint the buyer has with the company. By working together seamlessly, sales and marketing remove unnecessary friction in the buying process and improve the overall buying experience, which we’ve seen have a direct impact on improving close rates. 

For marketing teams to be successful in the new B2B marketplace, they must move beyond looking at themselves as just a “lead mill”. The days of sitting in a silo generating massive amounts of leads (or MQLs) and throwing them over the fence to sales are over. Instead, marketing must start providing engaging content at each stage of the buyer’s journey that is focused on helping the buyer achieve what they need to at each phase of their journey – not what we want them to know about us. Digital disruption has completely changed the buyer-seller relationship and because buyers have nearly unlimited access to information, B2B companies are being forced to become truly customer-centric. Most companies are still in the process of understanding how to transition their content from being 100% self-serving to being focused on the needs of the buyer. And feedback from buyers agrees that there is more work to be done as 65% of B2B buyers believe too much vendor-provided content is self-serving.2

This means marketing teams must move away from producing content that is just focused on getting a lead to delivering content that is focused on empowering the buyer to make the best decision for their unique business challenges. This also means that content must become more personalized and address the individual concerns and priorities of each persona the sales team needs to engage. We can no longer give that same “sell sheet” to the CEO, head of marketing, IT lead, and the end-user. The information they need to make an informed decision can be, and in many cases is, vastly different. 

In addition, marketing teams must focus their content strategy within the context of the customer journey. Think about how you buy in your personal life. If you were to find out tomorrow that you had a leak coming from your roof would you automatically go to the Jeff Davis Plumbing Company branded website? Probably not – unless you had already worked with me in the past or I had established a relationship with you in some way. More than likely the first thing you would do is go to the web and type “best plumber near me” and pray you get in contact with someone that has good reviews and can help you diagnose what’s causing the leak. B2B buyers are no different. Once they realize that something isn’t working in their business they go right to the web to educate themselves so they can better understand what issues they are actually dealing with. They are not coming to your branded website as their first stop. Thus, marketing is more effective when it uses content as a way to meaningfully engage the target buyer into a sales conversation and then continues to support the buyer along their road to becoming a brand advocate. 

While more and more marketing teams are adopting the practice of developing journey maps, the strategies they deploy are still heavily focused on promoting their product or service – not addressing the needs of the target buyer. In a new report, “Predictions 2020: B2B Marketing and Sales”, Forrester, in fact, found that only 40% of marketing teams prioritize solving customers’ problems over promoting products. That means that the majority of marketing teams (60%) are still primarily focused on “pushing product.” As B2B buyers continue to have amazing buying experiences outside of work that are obsessively focused on helping them with their personal needs, their expectations of the typical B2B buying process they encounter in the workplace are changing. This is why we’ve seen customer experience (CX) increase in importance over price and product in recent years. It’s frustrating to experience the ease of buying from standout B2C companies such as Amazon, Zappos, Birchbox and more and then come to work and be inundated with vendor content that is all about how amazing their company and products are. Marketing teams thus need to reorganize themselves to be able to support what the buyer needs at each stage of the buying journey rather than solely focus on industry segment or specific channel. Marketing leaders would be better served to create mini teams or pods that support the different stages of the buyer’s journey through multiple engagement methods (i.e. email, social, field marketing, etc.)

Marketing, however is not the only one connecting with the target buyer throughout the buying journey. As we move from the traditional lead hand-off to a more fluid engagement strategy, marketing leaders must increasingly understand how their activities directly support sales in achieving their goals and impact revenue. Thus, both sales and marketing leaders should look at their functional touchpoints with the customer as interactions. No longer does sales or marketing own a part of the funnel. Together, they must orchestrate buyer experiences that empower the buyer to make the best buying decision for their unique business challenge. One way marketing leaders can do this is by working closely with their Sales Enablement counterpart. The Sales Enablement function has a great vantage point, and sometimes technology, that can help the marketing team not only better understand what resources the sales team needs, but also where the optimal opportunities exist to integrate their interactions with the buyer after sales has started a conversation with them. In addition, the sales enablement function is a great ally in helping marketing quantify the impact of their activities and further demonstrate their contribution to pipeline and ultimately to revenue growth. 

The best way to make the transition from an MQL-focused strategy to an engagement-focused strategy is to map out the buyer’s journey and then have marketing, sales enablement, and sales partner together to ensure that adequate interactions (sales and/or marketing) exist at each stage of the buyer’s journey. These interactions must be focused on what the buyer needs to accomplish or questions they need to answer for them to feel comfortable moving to the next stage of their journey. In my book, Create Togetherness, I encourage leaders of each of these functions to get together and audit all of their current interactions (or content) to identify where gaps exist in helping the buyer achieve their goals moving through the different stages of their journey. Then, they are able to strategize about how to close these gaps by deploying resources that the team already has or creating new resources that address a specific need.

To orchestrate the best interactions for buyers, leaders should go through the following steps:

Know the six stages of the modern buying cycle

Understand the buyer’s motivations during each stage of the cycle

Be aware of all the buyer-seller interactions in each stage so sales and marketing can navigate buyers through the cycle seamlessly

Stage 1: Problem Naive

Buyer mindset: Buyers are unaware they have a major business problem.

Buyer-seller interactions that will resonate: Sellers (sales and marketing) should focus on creating a disruptive, emotional, and compelling message to awaken the buyer to the significant business issues they face. Sellers should also focus on helping buyers

Resources to leverage: Video marketing, Influencer marketing, and Social media marketing/social selling

Stage 2: Realization

Buyer Mindset: Once target buyers realize their business faces challenges, they will research all issues to discover the specific business problems they face.

Buyer-seller interactions that will resonate: Sellers should focus on educating buyers to help them understand all the relevant variables so they can narrow the possible causes. Once the problem is discovered, the extent must be quantified so the buyer has the necessary information to discern the depth of the problem. For example, when a roof leaks, can it be patched or must it be replaced entirely? These are similar solutions but on a different scale. Taking a consultative approach over a traditional sales approach creates a relationship built on trust and service. Helping the buyer with all aspects of the problems adds a level of respect that is lacking in the traditional sales approach.

Resources to leverage: SEO/SEM, Social media marketing/social selling, Podcasts, Speaking at trade shows/conferences, Analyst reports, eBooks

Stage 3: Exploration

Buyer mindset: With a clear understanding of the business problems they face, buyers now look to explore all the potential solutions available.

Buyer-seller interactions that will resonate: Sellers should help buyers understand the different types of solutions that could potentially be used to resolve their business issues. Sellers should help buyers weigh the pros and cons of each option as well as consider how their choice will impact their long-term company goals.

Resources to leverage: Third-party review site listings, Case studies, Product webinar, Sales demo, Educational field marketing events

Stage 4: Confirmation

Buyer mindset: Now that buyers understand which solutions show promise of being a good fit, they look to confirm the specific capabilities required for their unique business challenge and organizational dynamics. These criteria will help them develop a shortlist of vendors and ultimately be able to choose the right one for the company.

Buyer-seller interactions that will resonate: Sellers should focus on demonstrating to the buyer that they understand what solution capabilities are important to them. Sellers can also share how other companies with similar profiles have been able to leverage their solution successfully. If it is clear what capabilities are most important to the buyer, sellers may want to provide a direct comparison to competitors that shows how their solution is a better match.

Resources to leverage: Competitor comparison charts, Solution impact calculators, Personalized sales videos, Consultative sales call

Stage 5: Decision

Buyer mindset: Target buyers are clear which solutions can meet their needs and make a final decision on which company they think will be the best fit. Many factors beyond solution capabilities come into play, such as the overall buying experience and how they envision working with the company.

Buyer-seller interactions that will resonate: Seller should focus on demonstrating how intimately they understand the company’s goals and will act as a trusted advisor and partner to help them achieve those goals. Interactions should be highly personalized and feel as if they have already started working with the seller.

Resources that can be used: Free trial, Customer success stories, Testimonials, Personalized implementation plan

Stage 6: Evaluation

Buyer Mindset: Once the buyer becomes a customer, they are continually evaluating whether they made the right decision, are achieving the results they expected, and want to continue working with the vendor. This cycle will begin again when the seller helps the buyer uncover another problem they can help solve or the buyer wishes to expand its use of the company’s products or services.

Buyer-seller interactions that will resonate: Seller should focus on reinforcing the reasons why the buyer chose to work with the company. These interactions should continue to build trust and demonstrate the seller’s commitment to ensuring success. The buyer should feel like they’ve added a strategic partner to the team to help them achieve their company goals.

Resources to leverage: Customer success services, Scheduled follow-ups from sales to ensure progress, Content that shows major milestones that the customer can expect to accomplish, Comparison benchmarks

As sales and marketing teams work in this new highly aligned and integrated way focused on the buyer’s journey, sales enablement can play a huge role in helping ensure that both teams are communicating effectively and that they can both measure the impact that their interactions are having on the buyer. This allows leadership to evaluate the effectiveness of the Revenue Engine and ensure it is effectively engaging the modern buyer, guiding them through the buying process, and ultimately facilitating them in reaching consensus around making a buying decision. 

https://www.gartner.com/en/sales-service/insights/b2b-buying-journey

Predictions 2020: B2B Marketing and Sales (Forrester)

B2B sales and marketing leaders are tasked with driving revenue goals forward to meet the company's business objectives. It's never been more important that these revenue leaders understand how to leverage their cross-functional teams to achieve their business goals.

With that in mind, we've compiled a list of the top conferences (remember those?) for B2B sales and marketing leaders to attend together to start building an aligned, high-performing Revenue Engine for their organization.

B2B Marketing Exchange (B2BMX) - Feb 28 - Mar 2 | Scottsdale, AZ

Why Attend: Although an event for marketing executives, the conference has an entire track dedicated to sales and plenty of content focused on cross-functional alignment. It's also a great way for sales leaders to network with marketing executives and learn how to leverage marketing in a different and better way in their own organization.

Unleash 2022 (Outreach) - April 4-7 | San Diego, CA

Why Attend: Although the 2022 agenda has not been released, in past years this conference has focused on building the future of sales with the help of marketing, operations, customer success, and more. The team behind the event brings in world-class revenue leaders from some of the fastest-growing companies and Fortune 500 leaders to help B2B revenue leaders transform the way they think about accelerating revenue growth in their companies.

B2B Summit North America (Forrester) - May 1 - 4 | Austin + Virtual

Why Attend: This conference focuses on marketing, sales, and product leaders and helps them realize that when working as a united front, they are a power-house trifecta that can enable any business to maximize client satisfaction, retention, and spend. Content offered includes: 110+ role-based sessions aligned to your priorities, Numerous session formats to meet your learning style including analyst presentations, panel discussions, Fireside chats, marketplace opportunities to help you find the right solution provider for your marketing, sales, and product needs, and Networking opportunities to help you expand your community, meet with Forrester analysts and connect with peers facing similar challenges.

Chief Revenue Officer Summit - September 15 | San Francisco, CA

Why Attend: This event focuses on strategies and tactics that drive rapid, cost-effective and sustainable B2B growth. Topics include: Cross-functional collaboration with marketing, sales, R&D, and finance, Altering corporate culture for best growth-based results, and Building and retaining highly effective teams.

INBOUND 2022 (HubSpot) - TBA (usually October)

Why Attend: Need time to step back and think about the big ideas that are going to transform your teams this year? Then, this is the event you need to be at. In the past, HubSpot has invited world-class speakers such as Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, David Chang to share their thoughts on business and other relevant topics. There are also specific content tracks for sales, marketing, customer success, and RevOps.

Digital Sales and Marketing World  - TBA

Why Attend: This event is the ultimate experience for marketers, sales pros, and business leaders to master inbound marketing with a proven framework. They focus on practitioners that know that inbound marketing works, but can’t quite figure out why it’s not working for them and want to learn more about the They Ask, You Tell framework developed by Marcus Sheridan.

Dreamforce 2021/2022 (Salesforce) - December 9/TBA | San Francisco, CA

Why Attend: Beyond bringing together some of the brightest minds in business, Dreamforce has just launched the Netflix of business content - Salesforce+. Inspired by the familiar user experiences of Netflix and Peloton, Salesforce+ is designed for viewers to experience engaging live and on-demand content in the comfort of their homes. It will consist of four channels covering every role, industry, and topic, plus over 100 additional hours of on-demand content. The new platform will host Salesforce 2021. So attendees can expect a high-caliber virtual experience like none other.

Whether in-person or virtual, it looks like 2022 has a number of great opportunities for cross-functional B2B revenues leaders to learn and grow their skills together to meet the demands of the modern buyer. Get your tickets now!

With most events being transformed into digital experiences, it can be difficult to keep track of all the ones you want to attend. Below are some of the upcoming B2B marketing and sales virtual events that you and your team may want to consider attending.

Marketing

The Digital Experience Conference (Adobe) - starts March 31st

Digital Sales & Marketing Day (IMPACT) - April 6th

2020 Summit (Forrester | Sirius Decisions) - starts May 4th

C3 Conference (Conductor) - starts May 12th

Sales

REV2020 Virtual (Salesloft) - Available now!

Digital Sales & Marketing Day (IMPACT) - April 6th

Unleash 20 Virtual Summit (Outreach.io) - May 4th - May 7th

2020 Summit (Forrester | Sirius Decisions) - starts May 4th

Pulse Everywhere (Gainsight) - May 13-14

What other virtual events should we add to the list? Let us know!

Aligning sales and marketing teams in order to more effectively accelerate revenue growth will continue to be an important focus for all B2B companies this year. One way to ensure revenue leaders truly understand how to enable this transformation is for them to attend conferences together that provide content that empowers both Sales and Marketing to think differently about how they engage the modern buyer as well as how they leverage each other to be more effective in generating revenue growth.

Below are some of the best conferences this year that sales and marketing leaders should consider attending together to increase their ability to align their teams and build a deeper cross-functional relationship with each other. (Note: Conferences are listed chronologically.)

B2B Marketing Exchange (B2BMX) - February 24 - 26 (Scottsdale, AZ)

Although an event for marketing executives, the conference has an entire track dedicated to revenue growth and sales enablement. Also, a great way for sales leaders to network with marketing executives and learn how to leverage marketing better in their own organization.

All-access pass: $1,495

SaaStr Annual - March 10 - 12 (San Jose, CA)

***I will be speaking this year. Be sure to stop by my session!***

This is conference to attend if you want to hear from the very best in SaaS today. It is the largest non-vendor SaaS conference in the world and brings together 15,000+ SaaS executives, founders, VCs,and more. The event is all about community. It provides endless opportunities to share and learn with peers from every role, function, industry, company size, and beyond. 

VIP Big Company Executives & VCs - Early Bird Discount: $3,094

Modern CX - March 23 - 26 (Chicago, IL)

***I will be speaking this year. Be sure to stop by my session!***

This conference focuses on Customer Experience (CX) and allows attendees to get access to rockstars across marketing, service, sales, and commerce. You can easily flow through different tracks to pick up some cross-functional learning and make powerful connections. With CX becoming more important that price and product, this is the place to be to learn how to deliver an exceptional CX for your target buyers.

Full Conference Pass - Early Bird Discount: $1,295

Unleash - April 7 - 9 (San Diego, CA)

Building the future of sales is the focus of this conference and that will take the help of marketing, operations, customer success, and more. This team behind this event is bringing in world class revenue leaders from some of the fastest growing companies and Fortune 500 leaders to help B2B revenue leaders transform the way they think about accelerating revenue growth in their companies.

Full Conference Pass - Early Bird Discount: $1,024

TOPO Summit - April 23 - 24 (San Francisco, CA)

If you want to join the world’s best marketing and sales organizations then this is the place to be. They done a great job of providing actionable content and insights across 6 different tracks. There is also a focus on providing significant opportunities for sales and marketing leaders to connect via countless networking and social events.

Early Bird Pass: $895

SiriusDecisions Summit - May 3 - 6 (Austin, TX)

I like this year’s theme of Feel The Energy: Aligning. Empowering. Performing because it focuses not only on improved alignment but also performing at a higher level. This event brings together sales and marketing leaders as well as product innovators and trendsetters.

Early Bird Rate (non-client): $2,995

Pulse - May 13 - 14 (San Francisco, CA)

This is the biggest Customer Success learning and networking conference in the world. With providing an amazing CX and reducing churn being at the top of the list of things to be focused on, this conference can provide both sales and marketing leaders something valuable to take back to their teams in that regard.

Full Conference Pass: $1,646

INBOUND - August 18 - 21 (Boston, MA)

Need time to step back and think about the big ideas that are going to transform your teams this year? Then, this is the event you need to be at. Sales and Marketing leaders can even sit next to each other for the entire event and be inspired together. Talk about “bonding time.”

All-Access 4-Day Pass - Early Bird Discount: $799

REACH - October 7 - 8 (Chicago, IL)

This is a conference created to be unlike any other that you’ve attended. G2 has taken an “un” approach by providing unbiased perspectives, uncensored sessions, and unexpected insights. The two-day-only event is also specifically designed for people who sell and market software. This is a great chance for tech/SaaS sales and marketing leaders to learn about the rapidly changing tech industry landscape, create meaningful cross-functional connections, and learn from industry peers facing similar challenges.

Pricing information coming soon.

The Sales + Marketing Alignment Summit - November, TBD (Chicago)

This event series is an intimate peer-to-peer learning opportunity for senior-level B2B sales and marketing leaders. It provides a chance to get together and discuss the most forward-thinking alignment strategies and actionable insights that drive revenue growth in the modern B2B economy. Panelists include informed perspectives from several different areas of the business to provide a more holistic view of what leaders need to be thinking about as they transform their teams into an aligned Revenue Engine.

Pricing information coming soon.

Dreamforce - November 9 - 12 (San Francisco, CA)

Beyond being probably the largest conference I have ever attended in my life, Salesforce brings together every aspect of their ecosystem all in one place. There are also a ton of opportunities to pick up some cross-functional learnings and make game-changing connections.

Pricing information coming soon.

Do you know of any other conferences that should be added to this list? Let us know! We are always looking for the best resources to help B2B sales and marketing leaders align their teams and achieve faster growth for their companies.

I had the pleasure of being on The Predictable Revenue Podcast with Collin Stewart recently. We had a great conversation about what it takes to be successful in connecting with the modern B2B buyer and winning their business. If you didn’t have a chance to catch my episode, check out a great summary of our conversation below.

Be sure to also join my community of B2B leaders that are focused on driving revenue growth by strategically aligning their sales and marketing teams by following me on…

Linkedin

TheAlignmentPodcast.com

Twitter

Instagram

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Sometimes the most obvious ideas can be the most difficult or elusive to execute. Case in point: having your sales and marketing teams work together to grow your business. Seems so simple, right? Afterall, these are the two functions in every company explicitly tasked with revenue generation.

Unfortunately, those shared ideals have, historically, run counter to how marketing and sales have actually worked. You know the drill: marketing is expected to generate as many leads as they can every month, by hook or by crook. And once they bring them in, they deliver them to the sales team to work.

That system, historically, has worked.

But things have changed – buyer expectations have matured and, as such, sales and marketing teams have been forced to design more nuanced approaches to company growth. And a more nuanced growth playbook requires better alignment between marketing and sales.

“This is the business transformation we’re talking about. Sales and marketing can’t operate in silos. The overarching theme here is that sales and marketing begin to look at themselves as a cohesive revenue engine,” says Jeff Davis, noted consultant and podcast host, on a past edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast.

So...how has the modern buyer changed? Goliath B2C technologies such as Netflix and Spotify, says Davis, have changed our expectations of the B2B  buying process. For example, signing up with a streaming service requires no interaction with a sales team. You input your email address, credit card number, and choose a password – that’s it.

In fairness, complex B2B software such as procurement tools or accounting suites require much more hand-holding to sell: buyers need to know the software they’re purchasing satisfies their security requirements and integrates with their existing technology. Such critical considerations notwithstanding, Davis says the B2B buying process doesn’t have to be as cumbersome as we’ve made it.

It can even be fun.

“We need to realize that our personal lives are changing the expectations we have in our professional lives. When you begin to be serviced in a way that is easy and tailored to you, you start to expect that at work,” says Davis.

You may think your sales process is dynamic already. And, in some respects, that’s probably true. But, every business function needs to be tightened up from time to time.

To understand the experience your buyers are having with your product, have your sales and marketing team experience the process as a consumer. What better way to get a firsthand look at what you’re asking your buyers to do?

“We have made the buying process so complicated – discovery calls, demos, second demos etc. And we don’t know how it feels until we step back and think like the buyer,” says Davis.

“So, walk through your sales process as a buyer and ask: “how does this feel?”

How that process ends up changing to better reflect the buyer will be different for every company. Maybe your company needs to improve its discovery. Or, potentially, your sales content isn’t resonating. Maybe, it’s both aspects.

But regardless of where you change your sales process, the only way to know where to make those changes is to experience that buying  process. From there, you can really start to provide your prospects with what they need to make a buying decision.

“So we need to know who our real customers are, why they care, and, then, how to attract more of those. We have to stop thinking volume, and take a more targeted approach,” says Davis.

Okay, so you’ve outlined areas for improvement in your sales funnel to better support your buyer’s needs. And both your sales and marketing team is on the same page after having experienced your process firsthand.

What’s left? Officially aligning your marketing and sales team to develop a high-performance Revenue Engine.

Again, how a company does that will be unique to them – some establish “revenue” teams, comprised of both marketing and sales. Other companies expect sales and marketing leaders to work more closely together through a series of weekly meetings and check-ins.

To help companies find the alignment that suits them, Davis developed a three-pillar approach to bringing marketing and sales into better alignment. This framework helps them take a system approach to alignment rather than a functional, siloed approach.

Data – Every company needs to have a strong data strategy. And that data must be clean – if it isn’t up to date, it doesn’t matter what systems you have.

Process – This is about designing an end-to-end revenue generation process. How are you getting leads? Is it events? SEO? How are you transitioning those leads between functions ? And, how do you get them to close?

Communication – Modern communication requires formal feedback loops – executed in scheduled meetings where both internal and external communication needs to be addressed.

“Everything that I’ve seen that needs to be done to establish the foundation of alignment falls into one of those three buckets,” says Davis.

But don’t forget: this work is, fundamentally, a people issue. It’s people that design holistic processes, it’s people that staff your marketing and sales teams, and it’s people that buy your product or service.

“Sales doesn’t know about marketing and vice versa. That prevents people from approaching their counterpart – they don’t even know what to say. People need to see themselves as part of a unified revenue engine. That is paramount,” says Davis.

Need help building a Revenue Engine that can turn modern buyers into customer? Then book a complimentary meeting to discuss how we can work together.

create #togetherness.

I was recently invited to attend the Sirius Decisions 2019 Summit in Austin, TX. As a sales and marketing alignment thought-leader this was not only an honor but I was also ecstatic to network with other B2B professionals focused on how we can align these two teams to transform them into high-performing Revenue Engines. And oh what a week of learning it was.

I was especially happy with the chosen them of "Together". I, of course, thought it was perfect as my own tagline is "create togetherness". Whether it be working with a client or speaking at a keynote, part of my work is helping leaders understand that we must create an environment where sales people and marketers understand that achieving revenue growth in B2B is becoming harder and we need each other more than ever before to be successful. The customer experience that the modern B2B buyer is demanding can not be accomplished by either team alone. Full stop.

During my awesome, hot, and rainy week in Austin, there was way too much great content and conversation about sales and marketing alignment to sum up all in one post. So, after reflecting on the week and looking at my copious notes, I'm sharing some of the key strategic highlights that I think are most important for leaders to understand in order to begin transforming their business.  

First, I will share a quick video that I took inside one of the “customer experience rooms” about the importance of sales and marketing coming together to develop an accurate buyer's journey. There are things Sales knows about the customer that Marketing doesn’t know and vice versa. The only way to get the complete picture of what’s happening behind the curtain of the buyer’s internal buying process is to come together and share each other experience the buyer.

The buyer's journey is not about how you want "leads" to flow through your revenue generation process rather it's about the internal process that they go though to make a decision about purchasing a product or service such as yours. 

Key Strategic Takeaways from the Conference

Most B2B companies struggle with three major business issues (via Alan Gonsenhauser)

product-centric focus (instead of customer-centric)

strategic misalignment

marketing inefficiency

B2B leaders must focus on Five Foundational Principles to most effectively drive growth

Who are you selling to?

What are selling?

How do you manage leads?

Who's involved in the buying process?

How do companies buy? (the buyer's journey)

There are 3 major phases of the buyer's journey that companies need to be prepared to address

Education - Why they should change?

Solution - How will they achieve the change they seek?

Who - Who has the best product/service to meet their specific company needs?

Both sales and marketing leaders should start with the overall business strategy (if it exist) and work backwards together to ensure they are aligned on their strategic approach to achieving revenue targets

In order to develop an accurate buyer’s journey, sales and marketing must come together and share their wisdom about the buyer (via Alexa McCloughan)

The time and energy you spend on work will lead to better business results when you are aligned and together (via Tony Jaros)

Company leaders must have clarity about two things concerning the way work is done in the modern B2B organization 

The Origin of Work - The type of work that needs to be done due to the strategic vision of the company (must come from leadership)

The Form of Work - how the work actually gets done

Strategy and tactics may change, but a deep relationship and understanding of each other will remain and help you continue to be successful - together (via Common keynote address)

Ai is helping us understand what messaging and focus will be best for certain prospects so we can sell and market to them more effectively (via Mary Shea)

AI should be seen as an augmentation tool to push down mundane tasks so that we can concentrate on the activities that require a higher-level of thinking (via Steve Silver)

We must strive for digital adeptness, not just add on more tech

ABM will eventually go away and become the norm in B2B (via Steve Casey)

We've been condition to not pay attention to brands we don't know, thus we need to develop a relationships with our target customers so they "know" us before they buy from us

If your organization is struggling with poor quality leads from Marketing, an inability to consistently hit revenue goals, and/or having a dysfunctional relationship between Sales and Marketing you are probably operating within a misaligned organization. And, this is costing your business more than you think because of lost sales and marketing productivity.

If you are ready to start the process of transforming your sales and marketing team into a high-performing Revenue Engine, I encourage your to follow my work, subscribe to TheAlignmentPodcast.com and schedule a meeting directly with me to discuss how we can work together to get your teams on the same track to drive revenue growth for the organization.

As always - create togetherness.

There is no question that most b2b companies are sitting on an immense amount of underutilized customer data. This data is rich in its ability to help us understand our customers better and how they interact with us throughout their buying journey. Having this type of data is however not valuable until we are able to leverage it to create insights. Insights (not data) are what help us make smart and timely business decisions.

As DiscoverOrg so rightly shares in a recent article, there is a b2b “customer data tsunami” coming because of all the increased sales and marketing tech that companies are rapidly adopting. The true benefit of tech is not all the cool bells and whistles – it’s the data it provides. As these technologies help us to create a more seamless customer experience (CX), leaders must recognize the huge underlying opportunity that sits inside the massive amount of increased data points we will have about customers and their interactions with us. One major predictor of success for b2b companies moving forward will be their ability to leverage their customer sales and marketing data.

If we continue to look at data in silos we will continue to not allow ourselves to optimize the revenue generation process. Before investing in more sales or marketing data, we must first learn to leverage the immense amount of data we already have - together. Our ability to win business with the modern buyer is almost solely dependent on our customer data.

Let’s explore how sales and marketing leaders can begin the process of aligning their data to improve the revenue generation process.

“Too many organizations lack synergy in their sales and marketing efforts because they don’t have the data they need to set goals, measure results, and refine their approach. This starts with having one view of the customer but ends with having one view of the results of your strategy.”

Is not uncommon for companies to have data stored in different tools owned by different teams. This can cause sales and marketing to have a substantially different view of what is happening in the business. The differing views on data overtime erodes trust between sales and marketing leaders who may feel their counterparts are making the data look how they need it to so they look good. The only way to start building a high-performing Revenue Engine that has a complete view of the buyer’s end-to-end journey is to start looking at a uniform set a data that is consistently being pulled from the same data sources.

Creating this single source of truth is not as easy as unifying and cleansing the data. It really is about making sense of all the different data sources so you are able to develop insights about your customers. One factor about unifying the data that can get complex fairly quickly is establishing a stable identifier across different data sources. You may have several different tools that use unique identifiers for customer interactions, but without a stable identifier you cannot match your data together. This is where having a strong sales and marketing operations team member can come in very handy.

Some high-level steps to think about as you start the journey to creating a single view of the customer are:

Be sure to connect all your sources of customer data (i.e. email, CRM, web leads, etc.)

Determine a way to create unique and stable identifiers for people and company leads

Cleanse and standardize data to ensure it is reliable

Focus on creating actionable insights for both sales and marketing from your customer data

By investing the time and energy required to create a single view of the customer, leaders will enable sales and marketing to be able to work together better, create more personalized customer experiences, and develop a more efficient revenue generation process.

Not all data is created equal. As most marketing teams are starting to realize, vanity metrics like clicks and likes are not directly linked to business outcomes. Thus, we must all focus on the metrics that show the highest correlation with converting buyers to customers. The first metric that we should always be focused on is revenue attainment. As calculating marketing ROI becomes more attainable, marketing leaders must take on the responsibility of having a direct impact on building customer pipeline.

Other metrics that are influenced by both sales and marketing and have a strong impact on revenue growth include:

End-to-End conversion rates

Sales cycle length

Average deal size

MQLs to opportunity ratio

By focusing on the same metrics that have the most impact on closing business, leaders can ensure team incentives are aligned and that we are laser focused on doing the things that have the most impact on the business.

Regular feedback on marketing campaigns is a must to ensure we stay agile as a Revenue Engine and can adjust when we see that things are not hitting the milestones that we expected. Not only should sales be included in the early stages of creating marketing campaigns but there should be regular updates to let them know the progress that is being made on our stated goals and objectives. This helps keep both sales and marketing accountable for their contributions to building pipeline and closing new business.

Wrangling all your customer data can be a daunting task – especially if you are a leader that is not an expert on data. It requires working with someone or a vendor that has a strong understanding of how data works and how to make it work for you. Of the 3 Pillars of Alignment Transformation (Data, Process, and Communication), data is the most important as it affects every aspect of how we interact with buyers as they consider choosing us to resolve their business challenges. By Investing in creating a single source of truth you will easily put yourself ahead of your competitors.

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There is no question that most b2b companies are sitting on an immense amount of underutilized customer data. This data is rich in its ability to help us understand our customers better and how they interact with us throughout their buying journey. Having this type of data is however not valuable until we are able to leverage it to create insights. Insights (not data) are what help us make smart and timely business decisions.

As DiscoverOrg so rightly shares in a recent article, there is a b2b “customer data tsunami” coming because of all the increased sales and marketing tech that companies are rapidly adopting. The true benefit of tech is not all the cool bells and whistles – it’s the data it provides. As these technologies help us to create a more seamless customer experience (CX), leaders must recognize the huge underlying opportunity that sits inside the massive amount of increased data points we will have about customers and their interactions with us. One major predictor of success for b2b companies moving forward will be their ability to leverage their customer sales and marketing data.

If we continue to look at data in silos we will continue to not allow ourselves to optimize the revenue generation process. Before investing in more sales or marketing data, we must first learn to leverage the immense amount of data we already have - together. Our ability to win business with the modern buyer is almost solely dependent on our customer data.

Let’s explore how sales and marketing leaders can begin the process of aligning their data to improve the revenue generation process.

“Too many organizations lack synergy in their sales and marketing efforts because they don’t have the data they need to set goals, measure results, and refine their approach. This starts with having one view of the customer but ends with having one view of the results of your strategy.”

Is not uncommon for companies to have data stored in different tools owned by different teams. This can cause sales and marketing to have a substantially different view of what is happening in the business. The differing views on data overtime erodes trust between sales and marketing leaders who may feel their counterparts are making the data look how they need it to so they look good. The only way to start building a high-performing Revenue Engine that has a complete view of the buyer’s end-to-end journey is to start looking at a uniform set a data that is consistently being pulled from the same data sources.

Creating this single source of truth is not as easy as unifying and cleansing the data. It really is about making sense of all the different data sources so you are able to develop insights about your customers. One factor about unifying the data that can get complex fairly quickly is establishing a stable identifier across different data sources. You may have several different tools that use unique identifiers for customer interactions, but without a stable identifier you cannot match your data together. This is where having a strong sales and marketing operations team member can come in very handy.

Some high-level steps to think about as you start the journey to creating a single view of the customer are:

Be sure to connect all your sources of customer data (i.e. email, CRM, web leads, etc.)

Determine a way to create unique and stable identifiers for people and company leads

Cleanse and standardize data to ensure it is reliable

Focus on creating actionable insights for both sales and marketing from your customer data

By investing the time and energy required to create a single view of the customer, leaders will enable sales and marketing to be able to work together better, create more personalized customer experiences, and develop a more efficient revenue generation process.

Not all data is created equal. As most marketing teams are starting to realize, vanity metrics like clicks and likes are not directly linked to business outcomes. Thus, we must all focus on the metrics that show the highest correlation with converting buyers to customers. The first metric that we should always be focused on is revenue attainment. As calculating marketing ROI becomes more attainable, marketing leaders must take on the responsibility of having a direct impact on building customer pipeline.

Other metrics that are influenced by both sales and marketing and have a strong impact on revenue growth include:

End-to-End conversion rates

Sales cycle length

Average deal size

MQLs to opportunity ratio

By focusing on the same metrics that have the most impact on closing business, leaders can ensure team incentives are aligned and that we are laser focused on doing the things that have the most impact on the business.

Regular feedback on marketing campaigns is a must to ensure we stay agile as a Revenue Engine and can adjust when we see that things are not hitting the milestones that we expected. Not only should sales be included in the early stages of creating marketing campaigns but there should be regular updates to let them know the progress that is being made on our stated goals and objectives. This helps keep both sales and marketing accountable for their contributions to building pipeline and closing new business.

Wrangling all your customer data can be a daunting task – especially if you are a leader that is not an expert on data. It requires working with someone or a vendor that has a strong understanding of how data works and how to make it work for you. Of the 3 Pillars of Alignment Strategy (Data, Process, and Communication), data is the most important as it affects every aspect of how we interact with buyers as they consider choosing us to resolve their business challenges. By Investing in creating a single source of truth you will easily put yourself ahead of your competitors.

To learn more about how you can more effectively leverage your customer data to drive growth, be sure to join us at the upcoming 4th Edition of the Sales + Marketing Alignment Summit in Chicago on Thursday, 4/25. This unique event is the premier event series exclusively for B2B sales and marketing leaders focused on growth through the alignment of their teams.

Reserve your spot today at www.SMAsummit.com!

Learning is always more fun with friends. With that in mind, I put together a list of conferences that marketing and sales leaders should attend this year together. As alignment becomes more important for B2B companies it’s key to make sure that leaders understand how best to work together and communicate the value of the other function to their teams. One of the best ways to do that is to attend events together where you both can learn new ideas and bring them back to the organization - together.

Take a look at the list and if you find one that’s a fit - tell them that Jeff Davis sent you!

B2B Marketing Exchange (B2BMX) - February 25-27, Scottsdale, AZ

Although an event for marketing executives, the conference has an entire track dedicated to revenue growth and sales enablement. Also, a great way for sales leaders to network with marketing executives and learn how to leverage marketing in their own organization.

Modern CX - March 19-21, Las Vegas, NV

This conference focuses on Customer Experience and allows attendees to get access to rockstars across marketing, service, sales, and commerce. You can easily flow through different tracks to pick up some cross-functional learning and make powerful connections. It is all about CX, right?!

TOPO Summit - April 17-18, San Francisco, CA

They make it easy by saying that this event is the “best sales and marketing conference in the world.” There seems to be a good variety of related topics such as account-based everything, sales effectiveness, marketing ops, and more.

The Sales + Marketing Alignment Summit - April 25, Chicago

This event series is an intimate peer-to-peer learning opportunity for B2B sales and marketing leaders to get together and discuss the most forward-thinking alignment strategies that drive growth. Panelists include informed perspectives from several different areas of the business to provide a more holistic view of what leaders need to be thinking about as they transform their teams.

SiriusDecisions Summit - May 5-8, Austin, TX

I like this year’s theme of “Why Together?” because it happens to be one of my favorite words. This event brings together sales, marketing, and product innovators and trendsetters.

Pulse - May 21-24, San Francisco, CA

This is the biggest Customer Success learning and networking conference in the world. With providing an amazing CX and reducing churn being at the top of the list of things to be focused on, this conference can provide both sales and marketing leaders something valuable to take back to their teams in that regard.

INBOUND - September 3-6, Boston, MA

Need time to step back and think about the big ideas that are going to transform your teams this year? Then, this is the event you need to be at. Sales and Marketing leaders can even sit next to each other for the entire event and be inspired together. Talk about “bonding time.”

REACH - September 11, Chicago, IL

This is a conference created to be unlike any other that you’ve attended. G2 has taken an “un” approach by providing unbiased perspectives, uncensored sessions, and unexpected insights. The one-day-only event is also specifically designed for people who sell and market software. This is a great chance for tech/SaaS sales and marketing leaders to learn about the rapidly changing tech industry landscape, create meaningful cross-functional connections, and learn from industry peers facing similar challenges.

Forrester B2B Marketing & Sales - November 5-6, Austin, TX

This event leverages Forrester’s deep research and front-line knowledge to help B2B marketers and sales professionals transform their teams to meet the needs of the modern buyer and adapt to digital transformation. This is a great chance to get evidence to support your ideas or proof that you should be doing something different.

Dreamforce - November 19-22, San Francisco, CA

Beyond being probably the largest conference I have ever attended in my life, Salesforce brings together every aspect of their ecosystem all in one place. There are also a ton of opportunities to pick up some cross-functional learnings and make game-changing connections.

Hope this list will inspire sales and marketing leaders to look at their conference schedule together and find opportunities to build a stronger relationship outside of the office. Let’s make transforming our business more enjoyable and focus on the opportunity of what can be.

If you are interested in having me speak at your next conference, meeting, or event make sure to learn more about my most requested speaking topics or contact me directly here.

Hope to see you at a future conference - learning together!

I‘ve had the pleasure of learning so much about how to strategically align B2B Sales and Marketing this year through too many different interactions to count. Whether it be through conversations with guests on TheAlignmentPodcast.com, talking to attendees after a keynote address, attending a conference, or reading great content published by others that have an interest in the topic, one thing stood out every time - alignment is no longer an option for B2B leaders.

With that in mind, I’d like to share some of the top resources i think Sales and Marketing leaders show be aware of it they are looking to transform their teams into a high-performing Revenue Engine where Sales and Marketing are aligned to meet the needs of the modern buyer.

“Aligned to Achieve” (book) by Tracy Eiler and Andrea Austin

A great book for Sales and Marketing leaders to be able to understand why alignment is so important and how to start the conversation not only together but with their senior leaders to gain support.

TheAlignmentPodcast.com

A fast growing podcast for B2B leaders that fuses conversations with experts in sales, marketing, leadership, psychology, data science and more to create insights toward a more holistic and strategic approach to aligning Sales and Marketing.

Customers 2020: The Future of B2B Customer Experience [Walker]

Study that demonstrates the rapidly changing demands of the modern buyer and how customer experience (CX) will be more important than ever in the near future to stay competitive.

AI Growth Summit (online conference) [InsideSales.com]

Online conference sharing proven strategies from top companies and thought-leaders on how Sales and Marketing can leverage AI to dramatically improve their results.

Solving for Marketing ROI [LinkedIn]

Resource that can help marketing leaders better calculate and quantify the ROI of the marketing team’s efforts and demonstrate the value that the team brings to the sales organization.

From Priming the Pipeline to Engaging Buyers: The B2B CMO’s New Role in Sales Enablement [Forrester]

Study that highlights some practical benefits that the marketing team can offer Sales to help them gain new customers. Also, great content for sales leaders to better understand what they should be asking for from their marketing counterpart to help their sellers succeed.

How Sales Can Win Before 57% of the Buyer’s Journey is Over [LinkedIn Sales blog]

Article that helps sales and marketing leaders think differently about how they can work together to get in front of the buyer earlier in the process and help them shape a vision for what business solution(s) they need.

Content Marketing and Sales Alignment: Bridging the Gap [Content Marketing Institute]

Article and research on the benefits of Sales and Marketing aligning on content and its affect on overall strategic alignment between the two teams.

The Ideal Customer Profile: Why is “fit data” so important? [DiscoverOrg]

Article on the importance of figuring out what a “good lead” looks like by creating an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) by focusing on “fit” data which should include input from both Sales and Marketing.

I hope these resources are helpful as you start planning out your journey to a more aligned sales and marketing team.

If you are interested in:

having me speak at your organization,

conduct an executive workshop, or

business coaching services

Excited to help B2B leaders get better at connecting with the modern buyer in a meaningful way and driving revenue growth for the organization.

See you in 2019!!!