The Future of Demand Creation

Higher Performing Demand Creation as a Managed Service

We acknowledge managed services aren’t new in our technology-focused age. For many organisations, it’s a very attractive proposition to be able to hold someone else accountable for guaranteed service levels.?Having a single place to go when things go wrong, or have a back to slap when things go well, works extremely well for those in need of consistency and assurance.?

IT is a business-critical function and an area where managed services are broadly embraced, allowing businesses to focus on what they're very good at and to place business continuity - IT in this case - in the hands of the experts. Importantly, it doesn’t have to mean there’s no IT staff on-site at all, but they’re likely to be specifiers and managers with the overall key services being delivered by specialists.

Benefits??Cost savings and accountability mainly, because they’re highly measurable and there’s no need to worry about skills gaps or continuity of service.

Is Marketing Business Critical to the Organisation?

When applying the same logic to other areas of business – demand creation being our focus here - managed services aren't mainstream.?Yet the logic for validation of the approach can reasonably be applied.

Some argue that marketing isn’t a ‘business-critical’ function.?Consequently, when things get tough organisations often cut budgets, freeze MDF programmes and lay off marketing staff as a first resort because they don't believe it's critical to the future of the business.

If things are going well, they leave it to tick along and don't review whether it's delivering peak performance.

Either way, knowing how to get the best from all the component parts of your business can only come through centralised visibility of what's going on and accountability for results. This is almost impossible if component parts are individually outsourced.

Higher performance, less cost

Knowing what's successful and what's not before taking remedial steps is the answer and prevents a race to the bottom. When channel sales are also involved, cutting MDF budgets simply because they are being under-utilised or aren’t performing well enough surely can’t be the answer?

With a managed service, you'd rightly expect better performance and economies of scale (typically, you can expect to achieve savings of around 50% as well as experiencing better sales conversion).

Sales are Definitely Business-Critical

If you take at face value that Sales are ‘business critical’ then having a solid strategy and delivery mechanism 'feeding the beast' with its lifeblood - a solid pipeline of leads - is marketing's ultimate goal. It's critical for those making the calls to have as much knowledge of an individual's buying intent as possible before picking up the phone. Could your sales teams be better informed?

Time to re-evaluate

This is neither about me defending nor beating up my profession, but more about re-evaluating its true impact on business, whether in good times or bad.

Of course, outsourcing is an option many deploy but, by definition, this shouldn’t be mistaken for a managed service. Outsourcing throws up similar challenges to in-house – managing multiple teams for each component part, with no individual being responsible for delivering the overall goal of a joined-up sales and marketing approach.

A managed service, on the other hand, offers performance guarantees at a centre of excellence.

Interpretation of Buying Intent

Even without a pandemic, life in a marketing team has become way more complex with the evolution in data/intent-driven strategies relying on sales and marketing working seamlessly together.

As recently as the last couple of years, changes in buyer behaviour and the availability of sophisticated marketing technologies (Martech) have combined to thwart even the most dedicated marketing individual trying to keep pace. Throwing more content at it, or investing in a swanky new website, isn’t enough.

A razor focus on getting optimum performance out of every component is essential, whether it’s from content, technology or interpretation of multiple indicators of intent. Knowing what that intent means is a prerequisite for high performing demand generation.

Resourcing for success – specialists or generalists?

The truth is, you need them all. Specialists are in high demand and can provide great value to smaller marketing teams, but they come at a premium and usually aren’t needed full-time.

On the flipside, generalists are well known for wearing many hats, making them more cost-effective for the business, yet they’re unlikely to be able to perform at the level of specialists at an all-round level - whether on input or results.

Cost vs Value and the impact on ROI

Insourcing, outsourcing or a combination of both, the costs can be eyewatering when you look at salaries, technologies, overheads and the budget you apply to the function as a whole. This has a serious impact on ROI, especially if it’s underperforming.

What a Managed Service for Demand Creation will do

It’ll offer transparency, control, visibility and accountability for the most important function – demand creation. Not only that it will be 100% sales-aligned.

You get all the skills required, but you’re only paying for them when they’re needed and it also includes all the technology to deliver higher performing demand creation.

Because it’s a plug-&-play service taken as an annual subscription it comes in up to 50% cheaper than taking it in-house/using outsourcing. There are a number of models that can even make it cost-neutral.

Summary

So you've had my take, now what are your thoughts? Is it a case of better the devil you know, or are you open to the possibilities that come with adapting to reach the benefits of a managed service?

If you’re ready to think differently about demand generation, our team at The Amigos Network would love to demonstrate – yes, demonstrate – how managed demand creation will make a difference to your business.

Taken individually or in combination, take time to look at Market Activation? for direct sales and/or Automated Channel Management? as a bolt-on if you have an indirect model.

About the Author

Max Sherwood, Co-Founder, The Amigos Network

With a background in retail advertising, Max has a deep understanding of buyer behaviour and uses his knowledge to help businesses better understand their current landscape by providing them with the knowledge, skills and tools to increase service value and revenue potential.

Contact: [email protected]