Is "Revenue" a Word You Keep Hearing? Let's Align on the Definition
Kyle Mealy
Paradigm Breaker | Leveling Up Marketing and Sales Simultaneously | Building High Growth, Predictable & Profitable Revenue Engines for Small B2B Businesses with Fractional Chief Revenue Officers
For the past year, we’ve been full steam ahead on the Revenue Railroad with a proven revenue process
Now that you know what you need, it might feel overwhelming when...
? You know you need Marketing.
? You know you need Sales.
And now, here comes the word "Revenue" trying to insert itself into our lexicon. This word flies in the face of what we've been taught.
Yet! People who declared themselves as "Marketing Leaders" or "Sales Leaders" are even starting to use "REVENUE" next to their offerings.
It's obvious to agree that Marketing and Sales need to work together. That they need to be "aligned". But truly capturing what we mean by saying Marketing + Sales = Revenue requires a revolutionary process and accepting a new definition of Revenue.
At the risk of being over the top, we need to level up what we can expect from Marketing and Sales.
It reminds me of one of the greatest characters in cinema history - Vizzini from Princess Bride. He kept using the word "inconceivable" when things were happening that were clearly conceivable.
When I started this journey to redefining Revenue and the roles and responsibilities in Small Business, the idea that Marketing + Sales functioning under one seat was "inconceivable". Well, our results speak for themselves - we've had multiple clients DOUBLE their top-line revenue and leads in months.
We’ll be a bit like I?igo Montoya and define what Revenue in B2B Small Businesses really means -- specifically and briefly. So that we can use that word the right way.
It’s more than Marketing. It’s more than just Sales.
It’s a holistic view, a holistic process that generates different kinds of results.
We need to look at Marketing and Sales in B2B as one program ?? Revenue.? So, the more people who share this philosophy, the better.
We’ve taken off the "Is it Marketing or is it Sales" hat entirely (and oftentimes against the grain) to go all-in on REVENUE, and build a modern approach to marketing and sales.
We’re not just “intertwining” or "aligning" Marketing and Sales.?It goes beyond the status quo:
It is the right way. It's what we've intentionally designed at Next Level. The modern way is to generate more opportunities for our business and create more reliable growth so that we, as Small Business Owners (and I am one, too!), can provide for our team and have a healthy night's sleep.
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We Know What It's Not, So What Is It?
We built a methodology - a system - that lets go of all the biases of the past. We've stepped into a new world that's appropriately called “Revenue”. And we're answering the 3 questions that matter most to Small Business Owners:
? What Do We Need to Measure?
? Answer: Revenue Cascade??
You have a Marketing Funnel; it's only half the equation. And even then, it is theoretical, not metrics-based.
You might have a sales pipeline or a sales process, but even then, it has to connect to Marketing in some way.
We duct tape your Marketing Funnel to your Sales Pipeline. Turn each layer/segment/stage in the process into a metric. And then we start to look for "leaks" and/or "blockages" preventing people introduced to your business (Awareness) from working their way from the top of the funnel to a proposal to sign the deal. Measure these consistently and look for "optimization" opportunities that allow us to focus on the best return on effort!
? What's the ROI?
? Answer: ROASS??
Return On All Sales and Marketing Spend (okay, we cheated a little - ROASMS doesn't have the same ring). This simple Northstar metric allows us to make fiscally responsible (read as profit-oriented) decisions on investments in either (or both) marketing and sales.
It allows you to measure ROI holistically not just through one campaign in Marketing (which you might recognize as ROAS -Return on Advertising Spend). If you're catching the "theme," it is only one half of the equation - because it reports only on the Marketing side.
The third question?
? What Do We Say?
? Answer: Revenue Strategy Statement??
If ROASS is our Northstar metric, the Revenue Strategy Statement is our Northstar in content. Intentionally crafted and internally facing, this edgy statement sums up the opinion our business wants to insert into our target audience's brains. It steers all external content and communication strategy (including this article because we have a Revenue Strategy Statement, too!). Done right, themes from your Revenue Strategy Statement show up in every piece of marketing and sales work!
Would you be shocked to know that the Next Level Revenue Strategy Statement talks about Marketing + Sales = Revenue? Revenue needs to be thought of as a Reese's (yes, the perfect blend of Peanut Butter and Chocolate). No one says Reese's is the "next-level" take on a blend of peanut butter and chocolate. It has earned its distinction, just like Revenue needs to become.
Sean Covey said it best,
“We become what we repeatedly do”.
My one commentary on this new burst of chatter is that the people jumping on the Revenue Railroad are still selling and wearing exclusively “Marketer” or “Sales” hats in their everyday work.??
For those who’ve spent an incredible career refining their Marketing (or Sales) skills, do you think those habits and biases disappear overnight? I don’t.
When it comes to the B2B Revenue Railroad, are you getting on board a high-speed rail?
Or are you getting your B2B Marketing and Sales methodology from someone mimicking a train whistle, sitting atop their wagon with yolked oxen struggling to keep up?