Using Customer Journeys to Supercharge RevOps

• Christine
• December 4th, 2019
• MarTech Advisor
• 0 Comments

Revenue Operations or RevOps as it is more commonly referred to is, at its core, a business strategy on how to operationalize customer alignment. RevOps combines analytics, marketing and sales operations data and functions into one group (formal and not) to plan, manage and measure go-to-market activities. It’s about understanding, codifying and consistently aligning people, processes and technologies to meet customer needs and wants.  Not just net new revenue but renewals, account expansion, and up-and cross-sales as well.

What Success Looks Like?

As with anything new it helps to understand what results can be for your organization before starting down the road.  RevOps is as much about process change as it is about technology and culture. Guideposts help determine if your implementation is heading in the right direction:

• Meet revenue growth and customer retention goals.
• Grow faster and more profitably than your direct competitors.
• Maintain a single, complete and accurate account view that all teams use.
• Align Marketing, Sales, Customer Success and all Ops teams with each other and to customers.

RevOps doesn’t require a whole new set of dashboards or special metrics. It’s about bringing together the whole story being told by existing metrics - what’s working, where the gaps are and trend lines over time. From our work, our target benchmarks for clients are 20 percent increase in revenue and 40 percent increase in ROIM.  Sirius Decisions suggests targets of twelve to fifteen percent faster growth and over 30 percent increase in profitability compared to your competitors. The most often overlooked key to RevOps success is customer journeys. Learn More: RevOps Is the Life Jacket If You’re Drowning in MarTech

How Journey Maps Supercharge RevOps?

According to Forrester Research, “one of the biggest challenges for Ops teams is to identify, interpret and respond effectively to buyer signals.” Imagine if you knew ahead of time what buying teams do with your competitors? What influencers they trust? Why and when they turn to their peer networks for advice? Journey maps deliver these insights. If RevOps is the backbone enabling organizations to meet their revenue targets; journey maps are the “Google Maps” to buyer signals with turn-by-turn directions. A journey map is a way to uncover and act on how a buying team goes about addressing a business issue or opportunity – and what they expect from the brands they engage with. What touchpoints have (or not) they engaged with you on and what your next best action should be. The most accurate journey maps – and predictors of buyer behavior - are developed through qualitative interviews. It’s not just about what buying teams do but also how they feel at each step along the way. Including emotions is what turns your journey maps into the decoder ring that supercharge RevOps. By having a detailed understanding of customer journeys you gain the visibility needed to assess where each account is in their journey. The maps also provide a blueprint for your sales and marketing strategy and how to align all customer touching teams so you can deliver a consistent, seamless experience; next best actions; and accurately measure weighted attribution. Learn More: Driving Faster B2B Purchases through Sales and Customer Alignment

Four Steps to Supercharge your RevOps

There are four steps that any organization can take to supercharge their RevOps:

1. Focus on key micro-moments and decisions
2. Align internal workflows to journey steps
3. Anchor campaigns, content and CTAs to journey maps
4. Implement journey-based lead scoring and prioritization

The first step is to identify those micro-moments that matter the most to each buying team persona because ‘not every interaction in a journey is of equal importance or weight’. Google coined the phrase micro-moment and defines them as “intent-driven moments of decision-making and preference-shaping that occur throughout the entire consumer journey”. Focus on those micro-moments where emotion is high (fear, uncertainty, confusion, hesitation) and where the outcome has a significant consequence (real or perceived) to the decision success and/or persona’s reputation/career. For each micro-moment, define the pro- or re-action your brand should take that enables the buyer to achieve their desired outcome. Who (role) in your organization owns that action, how it will be delivered, measured and what is the ‘next best action’. The second step is to align internal workflows to journey steps. Begin by documenting and redefining workflows, processes, and data to mirror the journey maps (yes, it is very possible and it works).  Quarterly refine processes based on changes to journeys and identified opportunities to deliver more differentiated and value-based interactions. The process flows along with the journey maps should be part of your organization’s standard onboarding program that every employee and contractor attends. The benefit is better internal coordination between customer touching teams and external consistency in messaging and experience. The third step is to anchor campaigns and calls-to-action (CTAs) to journey milestone decision points. There are three hallmarks of journey-based campaigns: Sequence integrated campaign elements across omni-channels to mirror journey steps which increases lead velocity; Align CTAs and content to journey milestone decision points which can increase conversion by 100 percent; and Tune messaging to the target segment and buyers’ roles which increases relevance. Aligning content and CTAs to what buyers have said they specifically look for at decision points is critical because 80 percent of buyers say that word-of-mouth is the most trusted channel. After that they seek user generated content, analyst reports and 3^rd party reviews. Cluttering campaigns with content that buyers don’t value or seek not only reduces conversion but also your brand’s relevance in the eyes of buyers. Learn More: Marketing Operations Has a Pivotal Role in Customer Experience The three steps to anchor campaigns to journey milestone decision points. 1. For each journey stage identify the top one or two decision points that buyers must address before they can proceed to the next journey step. Often the buying team is not the decision-maker and the decision point is a micro-moment. 2. Identify the specific high value content, irrespective of source, that buyers seek or need to successfully address/resolve the decision point.  Define their preferred channels you can use to engage buyers who are at these decision points. 3. Structure integrated campaigns to mirror specific journey steps and tie CTAs to milestone decision points.  Be sure to hyper-personalized every interaction. The fourth step is to base lead scoring, prioritization and tracking on the journey stages and milestone decision points. By attaching CTAs and metrics to milestone decision points, the RevOps team is able to more accurately measure the opportunity – how qualified it is and where is the account in the journey. Prioritize leads based on the number of journey steps completed (sequence of steps is less important here), the velocity through the journey and the engagement level between the buying team members and your brand. Automation, especially artificial intelligence (AI), CDP, RevOps and revenue cycle applications can really help with this step. Technology enables everyone to work off a common set of data and shifts the focus to effectively engaging with each sales opportunity.

The ROI of Supercharging RevOps

According to Sirius Decisions, less than 20 percent of organizations report they have a RevOps function. Organizations with RevOps grow revenue three times faster than peers that do not. The ROI we’ve helped clients realize is, on average:

• 100 percent increase in campaign results
• 40 percent increase in marketing ROI
• 30 percent increase in pipeline opportunities
• 20 increase in revenue

RevOps is a huge opportunity for you to be a superstar by building a competitive advantage for your brand. The time to act is now because in 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. RevOps is a linchpin to an effective customer experience strategy and the growth that results.   First published in MartechAdvisor

What’s Going to Keep CMOs Awake at Night in 2019

• Christine
• January 27th, 2019
• MarTech Advisor
• 0 Comments

5 Influencers Predict AI’s Impact on Business in 2019

• Christine
• December 20th, 2018
• MarTech Advisor
• 0 Comments

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) already proving its worth to adopters, it’s not surprising that an increasing number of companies will implement and leverage AI in 2019. Now, it’s no longer a question of whether AI will take off. Instead, it’s a question of which companies will keep up. Here are five predictions from five influencers on the impact AI will have on businesses in 2019. From retail giants to Silicon Valley startups, a rapidly growing number of companies are embedding AI into their businesses. Even the public has begun to welcome AI into their homes. With 2018 soon coming to a close, it’s time to start asking what the future holds for AI and how its reach will continue to expand in 2019. We surveyed a diverse group of industry leaders for answers. Here, we’ll take a look at their insights and learn what AI has to offer in the coming year.

# Prediction 1: Improved Cyber Threat Detection, Will Lassalle

“My prediction for artificial intelligence in 2019 is specific to the 3 million employee shortfall in cybersecurity, where the opportunity exists for artificial intelligence to help automate threat detection and response,” said Will Lassalle, CIO of Lynx Technology Partners and JLS Technology USA. “This can ease the burden on employees, and potentially help identify threats more efficiently than other software-driven approaches, shrinking the attack surface instead of constantly chasing after malicious activity.” The numbers support Lassalle’s sentiment — according to Cisco’s 2018 Annual Cybersecurity Report, 32 percent of organizations are “completely reliant” on AI in terms of their security infrastructure. As AI platforms and tools continue to learn and improve, it wouldn’t be unlikely that 2019 would see those numbers climb even higher.

# Prediction 2: Machine Learning at Scale, Sam Charrington

“Over the past few years, early-adopter enterprises have launched their initial machine learning and AI projects, with many of those efforts recently coming to fruition,” said Sam Charrington, founder of CloudPulse Strategies. “In 2019 and 2020, these companies start to understand that scaling machine learning in the enterprise requires a different set of skills and technology than successfully delivering individual machine learning models and projects. As a result, we’ll start to see enterprises establish specialist machine learning infrastructure teams and platforms to help reduce the barriers to delivering machine learning at scale.” Charrington’s predictions are in line with a recent report from Indeed, which discovered that employer demand for AI-related jobs more than doubled between 2016 and 2018. However, the same report revealed that job-seeker searches for AI-related jobs are beginning to plateau. For leading companies, this means that finding and retaining AI talent in 2019 will be crucial.

# Prediction 3: Next-Gen Virtual Assistants, Evan Kirstel

“An AI-based personal assistant — aka Siri on steroids — will hit the market in 2019,” said Evan Kirstel, chief digital evangelist at EviraHealth. “It will be the true human-like, natural language-based personal executive assistant that we have been dreaming of (and that Siri, Cortana, Alexa and others have yet to achieve). It may come from Google, Microsoft, IBM Watson or a dozen other startups that are working in this space.” Kirstel’s forecast isn’t hard to believe: According to Adobe’s 2018 State of Voice Assistants report, an astonishing 48 percent of consumers will own a smart speaker after the 2018 holiday season, illustrating the demand for this technology already. Knowing that the market for voice assistants is already so strong, the race is on for a new and even more advanced option than we have today.

# Prediction 4: Adoption Across the Board, Isaac Sacolick

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning will increase adoption in 2019 in several ways,” said Isaac Sacolick, president and CIO of StarCIO. “Companies leading the adoption curve will invest more in reinforcement learning, address bias gaps in their data sets, and look to make their AI algorithms more explainable.” He added, “Mainstream organizations will take advantage of AI embedded in their strategic platforms such as AI-driven sales forecasting, marketing automation and AIOps. Lastly, public cloud vendors will make their AI offerings easier to use and more scalable for IoT applications.” Sacolick’s forecast seems to agree with a survey from McKinsey & Company found that nearly half of respondents’ organizations have integrated at least one form of AI into their standard business processes. The same report also found that companies across a wide array of industries are seeing value in AI, from manufacturing to human resources.

# Prediction 5: AI Solutions Put to the Test, Marshall Choy

“With a multitude of new AI products and services becoming available in 2019, the complex and large requirements of early adopters will truly test and challenge these new technologies,” said Marshall Choy, vice president of product at SambaNova Systems. “AI is not a product to be bought and sold, but a core enabling technology for driving innovation. Therefore, an AI-driven approach to tackling data management requirements will necessitate a focus on not only individual layers of the technology stack but also in how those layers interact and integrate with each other.” This prediction’s veracity is reflected in data from McKinsey & Company. Findings revealed that of those companies that have adopted AI, only 15 percent believe they have the right technological infrastructure and architecture in place to support AI systems. It’s clear that industry leaders don’t expect to see AI slow down anytime soon. Rather, experts anticipate better threat detection, a slew of new jobs, cutting-edge products and widespread adoption. Along with that, AI solutions will no doubt be put to the test in 2019 by the underlying technology that supports them. Also Read: Make Your Marketing Great With AI already proving its worth to adopters, it’s not surprising that an increasing number of companies will implement and leverage AI in 2019. Now, it’s no longer a question of whether AI will take off. Instead, it’s a question of which companies will keep up.

Assess How Great Your Marketing is

• Christine
• November 23rd, 2018
• MarTech Advisor
• 0 Comments

It’s said that self-reflection is a good thing. It helps us to understand ourselves more clearly. How we go about that self-reflection, however, determines the value of the effort. Do we give it cursory attention afraid to know the real truth or do we look at all the evidence revealing a great many things we’ve forgotten we do very well and the areas that need some attention? In times of market velocity and economic volatility, it’s essential that every organization routinely evaluate its effectiveness. Is it doing the right things in the best possible way to deliver the results needed today and tomorrow? Nowhere is that more crucial than in marketing. Not only because the discipline is undergoing rapid transformation but also because what defines marketing differs dramatically based on the company’s and its industry growth stage. Unfortunately, for most marketing organizations what should be an annual exercise typically happens only when a new leader arrives. There are many approaches you can use to conduct a marketing assessment; the one we have used with clients for years is evidence-based. It works because over the years we’ve built a comprehensive master template that is easy to customize and quick to complete. The assessment process evaluates strategies, plans, activities, investments and their results as evidenced by artifacts. Documents, files, information, and/or tools are artifacts specifically developed to accomplish an activity; they either exist or they don’t. Each assessment area has between 20 and 100 specific evidence artifacts that we look for, evaluate and then score.  An artifact is objectively assessed based on completeness, adherence to modern marketing and industry best practices including:

• Appropriateness for the company and market maturity.
• Soundness and completeness.
• Resource allocation rationale.
• Use of metrics to manage and measure ROI.
• Identification of data integrity, process integration, and skill/competency gaps.

A marketing assessment for an early stage company in an emerging market will be more heavily weighted on mindshare, reach, content and influencer activities than a mature company in a mature market where demand generation, customer loyalty/evangelism and market share are the number one priorities. Below is a summary assessment of a very mature company that engaged us to conduct a detailed assessment as part of preparing their digital transformation plan.  The blue lines are the total median scores from each assessment category; the green line is the target state. This large client had a lot of work to do to embrace digital marketing and modern marketing best practices. The drill down details under each category in the diagram was instrumental in developing a realistic and achievable prioritized plan.

Contrast that with the assessment results for a technology start-up in an emerging market.  The green line is the target ideal state while the orange is the actual score.  There is no one size fits all, every company and its situation are different. Assessment approaches must compensate for this otherwise the results run the risk of being unachievable and unrealistic, defeating the very purpose of the evaluation.

It’s key that each assessment category can be drilled down to a detailed list of all the assessment points, descriptions, scores and where the artifacts are stored.  Below is the next level down for the “Demand Creation” category from the graph above.  The orange is line represents the company’s actual scores while the green line is the target.

Where does the evidence come into play? The focus is on the information and analysis, not on the artifact’s format.  Let’s look at the Lead Scoring sub-category: Definition: Defined and used consistently across inbound, outbound and Sales.  Segmentation and scoring model is updated every 6 months to reflect changes in buyer behavior, buying team engagement, journey map, market dynamics, and CTA/tollgates synchronized with dynamic web forms to improve score accuracy.

A partial list of artifacts sought:

• “Ideal” lead profiles
• Documented and agreed upon definitions and criteria for each lead stage/type
• Lead scoring, nurture and retargeting definitions and algorithms
• Consistent use of lead definitions by sales, marketing, ops and in reports
• Weighting of each tollgate CTA – in aggregate or by persona/role
• Lead journey stage calculation based on % engagement alignment with journey maps

Care must be taken to make sure there is no double counting of artifacts by duplicating them in more than one subcategory. The focus is less on is making sure the artifact in the right category but a comprehensive list. For each category and list of attributes, we work with marketing team members to find and review the attributes. The review consists of completeness, alignment with best practices, currency and consistency of usage.  Using the lead scoring subcategory, we’d look for a document(s) that defines ideal lead profile(s) that is current, has been signed off and consistently used by marketing and sales, and used as the initial screen of inquiries.  In the case of lead journey stage calculation, we’d look for a series of documents starting with outside-in developed detail journey maps by markets and at the persona/role level.  Additionally, are key CTAs (gated assets or registration required events/engagements) tied to key micro-moments or tollgates and weighed (vs. weighting content interaction). Are the algorithms for calculating lead journey stage documented and tested quarterly? Are systems capturing data to support the algorithm(s) random tested for accuracy quarterly? Evidence is complemented with cross-functional interviews to understand the underlying processes and methods. We’ve learned over the years to only share anonymized interview highlights with leadership teams. Otherwise inevitably someone succumbs to the temptation to share or worse confront team members with comments made in confidence. The final report should include a review of the assessment process, strengths/successes, root causes of improvement areas, recommendations, alternative courses of action, and suggested timelines  We recommend a more detailed presentation be shared with the marketing team and afterward that the team presents a summary recap to the rest of the organization. The advantage of an evidence-based approach is its objectivity. The objective is to not find fault or blame but to help marketing stay aligned to customers, company strategy, and best practices.  As growth and maturity comes from self-reflection, so to for organizations – especially during times of uncertainty, volatility and velocity. First published in MartechAdvisors.