I told myself I would move away from the Thought Leadership interview series. But I met some really smart people and had to get them on The Funnelholic. This interview is with David Thompson, CEO of Genius.com Inc., and it’s full of REALLY good stuff, so my return to the interview series is a success.
Thompson has got chops in the sales and marketing world:
- Co-author of “Sales 2.0 For Dummies, Executive Edition”
- Co-host of the sold-out Sales 2.0 Conference
- Vice president of product marketing before becoming chief marketing officer of WebEx Communications Inc. (before Genius.com) where he helped them go big (really big, if you didn’t know)
Now, he is rocking with Genius.com, a hot marketing and sales 2.0 startup here in the valley.
Here’s the great interview:
1. What are the three trends you see emerging in 2009?
Wow, that’s a broad question. I’ll focus on three that are important to our business and the customers we serve:
- Because of their ability to deliver quick time to value at an affordable cost, SaaS solutions will continue to grow in importance.
- Marketing automation, which is increasingly aligning sales and marketing teams and driving top line revenue, will see increased adoption.
- Cloud computing is starting to become part of the business vernacular as more companies look to leverage the Web to conduct and grow business.
2. What are the biggest challenges for 2009?
Besides the elephant in the room? Obviously everyone is trying to do more with less. Operational efficiency is more important than ever. As I just noted in the previous question, I’m seeing a lot of companies that are looking to increase sales and marketing alignment so they can effectively and quickly nurture prospects and provide quality service to those who are ready to buy. Along with this, vast changes in how people are buying are dictating changes in how sales and marketing approach their customers and prospects. Organizations need to provide the right level of service at the real time. It’s no longer good enough to have the right insight; you must have it at the right time. Speed, deliverability – and ultimately, accountability– are increasingly important.
3. What are three metrics that B2B marketers should care about and why?
More and more companies are adopting a sales 2.0 strategy that leverages Web 2.0 technologies to sell more, faster.
While B2C vendors have been doing sales 2.0 for a long time now, B2B just beginning to view it as a business imperative. In my book,”Sales 2.0 For Dummies,” I recommend that you measure everything – and online you can and should do just that. As marketers I think we need to be looking at metrics that not only are indicative of marketing success but are indicative of sales success as well. Three good metrics are: open/click-through rates from marketing initiatives, connect rates in which sales has a meaningful interaction with the prospect and the number of leads that convert to qualified opportunities.
4. What are the top oversights marketers are making regarding lead generation?
We need to move away from the notion of lead generation and toward the concept of lead management. Lead management occurs deeper into the sales funnel where sales and marketing are dynamically engaged with each other to determine which leads need further nurturing and which need immediate follow-up by sales. During the lead life cycle, there can be multiple hand-offs between sales and marketing as the lead goes in and out of the sales cycle. The trick is to make sure that the right team member is servicing the prospect or customer at the right time.
5. What will you prescribe to marketers to carry out effective lead generation?
Tagging onto my answer above, solutions that enable effective lead management should be considered. I’ll leave it at that and spare you the product pitch (but Genius.com would be good place to start). Seriously, there are several vendors out there who can help organizations better manage their customer relationships and I list a bunch in my book. They should be considered. Yet, one size does not fit all and companies need to find the right solution for their organization. At Genius.com, we focus on ease of use, real-time sales insight and quick time to value.
6. What three Web 2.0 applications, cutting-edge technologies, or lead generation sources do marketers HAVE to consider to be successful?
You’ll need tools to attract new prospects, whether that’s through search or prospect database vendors. While it’s probably not considered “cutting edge,” you should also have a CRM platform to track and manage your leads and prospects. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention products like ours that enable sales and marketing teams to better connect and serve their qualified prospects.
7. What do you hope for in B2B sales and marketing for the new year?
Ultimately, I think we all hope that sales and marketing will find a road to greater success. I believe that starts with better alignment, adopting tools that enable that and a stronger focus on serving the customers that are still out there and ready to buy.
Written by Craig Rosenberg - The FunnelholicSign up to receive emails when new articles are posted
The Funnelholic
