Revenue Marketing™ in the Enterprise does not happen overnight. I know, I know… I burst your bubble, right? Many companies expect instant global revenue impact by simply purchasing a marketing automation platform.
The problem is, driving and measuring change in the Enterprise is like finding meaning in a Will Ferrell movie – it’s a challenge!
Here at The Pedowitz Group, we maintain that for a global Enterprise, a mature Revenue Marketing Center of Excellence takes several years (at least) to establish. And while the #1 metric for Revenue Marketing is and always will be revenue impact, there are vital “signs of transformation” along the way that are important to measure and celebrate.
How do you know if your company is transforming into a global Revenue Marketing Center of Excellence?
Below are 7 Signs of RM Transformation:
1. Executive Sponsorship and Support for Revenue Marketing
True change happens from the top down. Any efforts at implementing Revenue Marketing strategies at a large company will hit a ceiling if there is not buy-in, commitment and joint vision at the executive level. The most successful global RM transformations we see here at TPG are those where the change is driven by the executives, who have the “Revenue Marketing Fever” and use it to drive their teams’ annual goals and direction. Even better is the guiding power of an Executive Revenue Marketing Coalition.
2. Key Marketing Metrics and Goals are Revenue-Focused
How an organization measures success (and therefore sets goals) is extremely important. Before you are able to identify actual marketing impact on revenue and forecast it, changes to the type of metrics you measure are crucial. Most enterprise organizations measure marketing impact by number of raw leads handed to sales, click throughs, open rates, etc. The problem here is that these metrics all have zero connection with revenue – they’re all activity-based. A traditionally “successful” marketing organization could technically generate thousands of leads a year, yet have sales accept none of them because they are not actually qualified (I see this often, sadly). If your company is setting marketing goals and success metrics by lead-to-opportunity and lead-to-booked, you’re on the right track. If your company is compensating marketers based on their actual sales contributions, you’re ahead of the game.
3. Key Business Processes Remapped Around Revenue Marketing Strategy
Process and planning drive effective activity. Often, enterprise companies forget this and, as a result, find their hard work at Revenue Marketing confounded by broken processes. As we always say – a new methodology or tool will just make bad processes worse! I once had a client who spent many months planning an amazing multi-step nurture campaign. However, they refused to re-map how leads are handed off to sales and then measured (i.e. the full lifecycle of the lead). After the campaign had run its full course, and had successfully rendered many marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to sales, they realized that none were followed up on and no one could report on “what happened.” So, if your company is re-mapping key business processes (lead flow, sales acceptance/feedback, etc.) and operationalizing standard inter-departmental interactions (Marketing Programs, Design, Marcom, Product, Sales) around Revenue Marketing, you are laying the foundation for success.
4. Technology Platforms Adapted to Revenue Marketing
Let’s get real here – in most enterprises, technology platforms are a source of pain. Often, they are owned by departments completely removed from the business unit they support (insert IT/Marketing clash here). A vital mark of transformation is if Revenue Marketing processes are being reflected in platform configurations. This could be global assignment rules and reporting changes in the CRM, an expanded global instance of the marketing automation platform, or RM-optimized websites. If your organization has overcome this hurdle, you should pop the bubbly.
5. Hiring Around Revenue Marketing
Adding permanent team resources (like VP Revenue Marketing, Content Developers, Strategic Campaign Managers, Marketing Automation Power Users, etc.) to execute and measure your growing Revenue Marketing efforts signifies an organizational commitment to building a Revenue Marketing Center of Excellence. So, if you’ve aligned your headcount strategy around key Revenue Marketing skills and functions, you can be sure transformation is taking place.
6. Increased Revenue Marketing Budget
Budgets tell all. The percentage of budget allocated to specific departments and initiatives in the Enterprise directly reflects an organization’s commitment to that area. If your organization is increasing or reallocating its marketing and sales dollars around Revenue Marketing initiatives, you are transforming into a Revenue Marketing Center of Excellence. If your sales VP is going to bat for marketing budget increases, then congratulations – you’ve really arrived.
7. Adoption of Revenue Marketing “Speak”
Juicy words spread in any work environment. But if you find marketing employees hanging around the water cooler talking about “revenue marketing,“ “customer-led buying processes,” or “MQL-to-Closed/Won conversion rates,” it’s a sign that Revenue Marketing concepts and culture are going viral in your organization. The other day, I was sitting across a conference room table from the SVP of Demand Generation at a large Silicon Valley enterprise. He shared with my team that he keeps getting emails from leaders all over the global organization titled “Revenue Marketing?”… the Revenue Marketing fever is spreading there!
Have you seen any of these signs in your Revenue Marketing Journey?