B2B Marketers often struggle to demonstrate Marketing ROI, and they may need your help to change the status quo.
- Statistics from studies by Fournaise underscore the reality of using an outdated ROI approach to measure Marketing:80 percent of CEOs admit they do not trust the work of Marketing
- 90 percent of Marketers need training and help in measuring Marketing Performance and Marketing ROI
- 80 percent of Marketers struggle to demonstrate the business efficacy of Marketing
- If you are in a leadership position where marketing’s effort and impact are essential to achieving your sales objectives, we suggest the following actions to get to the real ROI conversation with the marketing team: Tell them to push “Vanity Metrics” to the Appendix – Often called engagement or consumption metrics, they include impressions, likes, shares, comments, followers, open rates, views, traffic, time on site, bounce rate, and many others. If the marketing team leads with these metrics, they need your help.
- Marketing isn’t responsible for the value of Won Opportunities – Marketing has a lot of responsibilities, but selling and winning Opportunities is not one of them – the sales and sales support teams own Opportunity wins and losses.However, the marketing team should focus on the value of Opportunities they contribute to the sales pipeline. Test how well they know your sales cycle and the connection between marketing initiative timing and results.
- Today’s modern B2B marketers realize the game is less about generating Opportunities, and more about influencing Opportunities – The days of prospects and customers asking for a salesperson to “call me” is on the endangered species list. To that end, modern B2B marketers measure Marketing Generated Opportunities (MGO) and Marketing Influenced Opportunities (MIO). You can only measure MGO and MIO if your CRM and marketing automation tools are in sync, and your sales and marketing operations functions are in sync as well.
- Help ease the tension with sales – Tracking Marketing ROI is a team sport. Sales teams have a vested interest in marketing investments to succeed in the marketplace. The sales team must commit to using the CRM as designed and pay particular attention to the few things marketing needs to better track ROI. Get their attention by threatening to cut-off marketing investments unless they cooperate. Also, insist that sales leaders attend the marketing ROI meetings. If they are unhappy with marketing’s support and ROI, they’ll have a forum to air their concerns.
- Don’t wait! – Marketing ROI measurement is a real-time activity, not a monthly or quarterly agenda item. If the marketing team needs help with processes, reports, and dashboards, now is the time to get them the support they need.
Changing the marketing ROI conversation can be hard, but essential. It starts with you.