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Found a few similarities and differences between the Customer Journey I learnt in Class (25/3/19) and the “Modern” Customer journey created by Vengresso and shared on their podcast, The Modern Marketing Engine. 

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When your sales and marketing team come together to create good content for sales enablement

#marketing #sales #content #sales enablement #online sales #team #meme

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Ep: 5 Pillars of Modern Account Based Marketing in Action

Within this episode, the advent of new technologies in Account Based Marketing and there potential to create a more effective sales engagement is explored through Sydney Sloan’s 5 pillars of Modern Account Based Marketing model. Mrs Sloan uses her experience as CMO of SalesLoft, a sales engagement technology service, to reveal how to integrate technology successfully into modern account based marketing.

The First Pillar, Know your Customer, is based on deciding who your customers are, establishing a customer profile, and creating a list of target accounts [Borges & Sloan, 2019]. To define your customers is essential to begin with as it identifies who you are engaging with, and potential customers you could engage with. This is known as an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Consider what industries these companies operate in, which problems they face, and the technology they seek [Borges & Sloan, 2019]. This allows you to score the ICP of organizations and their accounts based on online activity or level of engagement for example.

The Second Pillar, Tier accounts and set priorities, is based on recognizing priority targets and categorizing their importance through tiers e.g Tier one would be more hyperpersonalised than Tier two [Borges & Sloan, 2019]. This allows both the marketing and sales teams of a firm to understand the effort and strategy required that their accounts expect. From there, a firm must bring in prospects and guide them through their buying journey, through engagement and interaction that are needed for executing buying decisions [Borges & Sloan, 2019]. This is done by setting up meetings, to manage and track an accounts journey experience.

Pillar Three, Integrating tools and technology, consists of tools beyond CRM systems, that finds information on the web, enabling companies to see what their potential clients are seeking. This technology then creates content such as ads that warm up to such accounts [Borges & Sloan, 2019]. Overall, the technology is a combination of customer intent and a firms ability to drive awareness of solutions. Warming up a prospect and building awareness is effective when a firms sales team reaches out, as the buyer is already aware of the firm as a brand and solutions provider [Borges & Sloan, 2019].

Pillar Four, Executing as one team, requires everybody in the firm to be informed and able to continue dialogue with buyers in a strategic way [Borges & Sloan, 2019]. SalesLoft does this by recording every interaction it has with buyers, through mediums such as phone conversations, email exchanges and meetings for example [Borges & Sloan, 2019]. By doing so, data is accumulated and able to be accessed by individuals in the firm. As a result, this pooled information enhances a sales organizations knowledge of its customer and thus how to best serve them

The Fifth Pillar, Land and Expand, builds upon the standard sales strategy of landing a customer with a deal, and then selling into that organization to expand the account [Talerico, 2018] Mrs Sloan explains building a relationship and service in her words, “I have the opportunity to serve this customer. My goal in life is to make them wildly successful. So that expands within their account, they continue to get more and more value from that. We build a long-standing relationship with that customer to the point where – when somebody on the customer’s team leaves that company to work someplace else, they bring SalesLoft to their new company because of the relationship that we’ve been able to establish together.” [Borges & Sloan, 2019] The importance of the last pillar is that developing a long-term relationship by exceeding their expectations is essential to expand within their customers organization and beyond.

I did a great overview of this episode, but if you would like to hear it, instead of reading all of that ^, I don’t blame you. You can do so @ https://vengreso.com/blog/account-based-marketing-sydney-sloan

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Ep: The Modern Marketer’s Guide To Content For Sales Enablement

Providing content for sales enablement within an organisation is seen as an essential element for modern marketers. Within this podcast, CVO of Vengreso and Forbes influential personal branding expert Viyeka Von Rosen, reveals the importance of a dedicated team needed to build a “vault of sales resources”, in order to boost the sales of a firm by influencing its buyers throughout their buying journey [Borges & Von Rosen, 2019]

Content marketing, the act of creating and sharing material that helps to stimulate interest and educate potential buyers, is integral for modern social media marketers, as it builds visibility of a brand for a targeted audience [Borges & Von Rosen, 2019]. The material aims to attract and retain an audience, and influence their decisions within their buying journey. Sales enablement builds upon content marketing, as it provides a firm’s sales team with such content required to engage in communication with potential buyers, such as addressing their needs and provide solutions to problems they may face [Borges & Von Rosen 2019]

The episode also expands on the 3-step model of the Buyer’s journey, in discussing the different types of content for sales enablement into 7 steps.  The 7 steps in what Viveka calls the New Buyer’s Journey are 1. Create Awareness 2. Generate Interest 3. Instigation/Disruption 4. Consideration 5. Purchase 6. Satisfaction 7. Repurchase/Upsell/Refer [Borges & Von Rosen, 2019]

The interaction of these steps consists of creating content for each category within the customers buying journey, cataloguing them and making them available for their sales counterparts to use when interacting with customers. This form of efficiency allows for a smoother sales process. In turn, firms that implement sales enablement will experience higher levels of productivity and thus sales increase [Rinaldo, 2017]. Without this model, sales targets won’t be met efficiently due to the heavier workload placed on the sales team. As a result not reaching KPI’s will see a decrease in their morale and confidence, which is an essential component of motivation [Rinaldo, 2017] . In turn, staff turnover may occur if individuals are unhappy, which is costly for the business to have to train staff.

If you don’t like the sound of your internal reading voice, feel free to listen to what I just summarised @ https://vengreso.com/blog/sales-enablement-viveka-von-

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You have a better chance of making fetch happen...

To find out how to approach and make the best use of influencer marketing, listen to Amisha Gandhi, Senior Director of Influencer Marketing at SAP, on the Modern Marketing Engine podcast @ https://vengreso.com/blog/sap-approaches-influencer-marketing-reach-audience

Also, be sure to check my last post on my overview of the interview too :)

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Ep: How SAP Approaches Influencer Marketing to Reach its Audience

Within this episode, Amisha Gandhi, Senior Director of Influencer Marketing at SAP, discusses the importance of influencers for the digital marketing industry and her company’s annual conference SAPPHIRE.

Influencer marketing strategy places importance on particular individuals to reach target markets through their social media reach. Amisha defines the relationships between influencers and her company as a mutually beneficial relationship, and is needed for any business that wants to grow their online social media presence [Borges & Ghandi, 2016]. In particular, SAP works with third party influencers that have direct reach on audiences in an attempt to increase their demand generation efforts [Borges & Ghandi, 2016]. This is achieved through co-created influencer content, for example, their annual SAPPHIRE conference, attracts 20,000 attendees and reaches 80,000-100,000 viewers online, due to the help of influencers [Borges & Ghandi, 2016]. Such interactions include conducting live interviews, and sharing updates building up to and at the time of the event.

This episode also describes to its marketer listeners how to identify and locate influencers. Amisha suggests programs such as Traackr can help firms find influencers based on topic, location and audience [Borges & Ghandi, 2016]. Another important aspect marketers must understand when interacting with influencers is their relationship with the firm. Each individual influencer has their own different business model and objectives. It is therefore necessary to find a good medium that is mutually beneficial, in which Amisha describes relationships with influencers to be “a two way street” [Borges & Ghandi, 2016]

If you don’t believe me, you can listen to what I just summarised in the podcast available @ https://vengreso.com/blog/sap-approaches-influencer-marketing-reach-audience

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Winning at Social Customer Care, by Dan Gingiss.

Definitely going to have to amazon buy this after hearing about on the Modern Marketing Engine podcast. So insightful! Listen here @  https://vengreso.com/blog/winning-at-social-customer-care Also, check my last post for my overview and break down of the podcast :)

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Ep: Winning at Social Customer Care

Within this episode, Dan Gingiss, a professional leader in digital marketing, podcaster, speaker and author, demonstrates how social strategy is utilized as a tool to deliver customer service. In particular, Mr Gingiss’ book, “Winning at Social Customer Care”, provides an important topic of discussion within this episode for HR managers, marketers and customer service representatives, by focusing on the theme of social care. Outlined in eight steps, Social care is the process of 1. Creating a Philosophy: Figuring out what your philosophy is in social media and how it pertains to the customer 2. Selecting your technology: Finding the right technology that suits your business, as there are many types of social media platforms and not all are beneficial and able to deliver your product and customer service 3. Forming a team of dual skilled customer service and social media representatives: A unique combination companies need to look for in order to communicate with consumers online, as the access and ease of use of social media has allowed anyone to vocalise their opinions and experiences to a large audience 4. Training: Although there are robust systems in place for training implemented by HR, businesses must constantly improve their social media training, as consumer trends and styles of communication on social media change 5. Establishing a process, or documenting all possible scenarios: This includes writing down scenarios you think might happen, and how you would respond e.g What to do and who you should call in a crisis, and how to communicate with compliments or negative comments online 6. Reporting demonstrating ROI: This step is needed to show management the value being brought back to the company through their social customer care 7. Integration with the core business: Taking what you hear in social media (the voice of the customer) and developing a feedback loop in your company. This is not limited to just answering customers, rather informing your designers and developers for example of the feedback received, so they can improve on these core problems. This ultimately reduces customer complaints, as negative feedback is used to make change in other business areas.   8. Integration with the CRM: The final step, a business must combine its offline and online consumer experience. E.g A customer receiving a hypoallergenic pillow after asking the Hilton for a one via Facebook for their visit in Sydney, and also receiving one a few months later when they book with the Hilton again in another city or even country. [Gingiss, 2017] This episode also discusses the ability businesses have in fixing their customer service problems through social media. By using this format, businesses can solve issues in public view, demonstrating their commitment to helping customers and thus improving their overall image. This ultimately adds to the customer experience and is known as social care. The concept of social care is seen through big businesses interactions with consumers on social media e.g Famous influencers liking and replying to their followers. This interaction makes consumers feel good and strengthens their loyalty, with reference to the customer journey model [Borges & Gingiss, 2017].

Podcast available from: https://vengreso.com/blog/winning-at-social-customer-care

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The Modern Marketing Engine Podcast

The Modern Marketing Engine Podcast, hosted by Bernie Borges, are a collection of useful marketing insights and strategies. Each episode tries to address a new area of marketing that its listeners are unfamiliar with or know little about.

If you’re a modern marketer who wants to understand relevant and real time information from others in the marketing environment, or an analyst, strategist, influencer or students I recommend you give them a listen on their website https://vengreso.com/modern-marketing-engine-podcast. Also, stay tuned for my upcoming review and summary of some of the episodes!