Lead generation and “range anxiety”
This morning I participated in a B2B seminar. It was about different marketing/sales setups, collaboration and lead generation. The well known struggle, why do digital marketing, how to set the right org. setup, and why make marketing and sales work together.
And it probably doesn't come as a shock to anyone, anymore, that the B2B buying process in general (around 60% and sometimes more) is mostly self-driven in the discovery phase before contacting the company. And if you are not out there, ready with relevant and tailor made information, at the right time, the risk of not being a part of the evaluation phase, before purchasing, is high.
Some short takeaways/learnings and as well some reminders from my own point of view, in non prioritized list:
- Lead generation is not here to kill sales but to support and help on the digital transparency of customers behavior when we don't talk to them, it's all good
- Sales can truly benefit from the collaboration and get more mature leads
- Opportunity for marketing to take more ownership of the funnel with data insights
- Make same KPI′s for sales and marketing ensure same momentum in the collaboration
- Start the communication between departments, no fancy stuff, just share what you know as a start, connecting systems is next step
- Not expect everyone to embrace so find the right ambassadors
- Learning is a big part of the change, back and forth, accept changes takes time
So easy on paper but to anchor a new way of working or adjust a well known business process, can be a challenge. In the end, no matter how you do your setup, or how you work with data and leads, it starts with curiosity. How to bring all our digital insights together, and be there for the customers through their journey.
On another note, and the article photo. Today I drove our brand new VW ID.3 electric car to work. It's a pleasure to drive, really is, and I actually only went to the car dealer once, and that was to pick it up. Yes, the rest I already knew from discovering digital content and from various digital touchpoints with both sales and customer service :) Point is, I was still in touch with sales, of cause, but in a different way than before, and that's basically why sales and marketing should care to collaborate - to ensure the best impact on the customers digital journey. (not B2B example, I know, but the point is the same)
In the end I still work on the “range anxiety” though, but thinking of all the good environmental aspects it brings to the table, I assume it will go away (fingers crossed)