“It started with an idea.” OK, that’s cheesy but it’s true. My partner-in-crime, Sarah Miller, and I decided that we would lead the charge and put together something called “Focus Experts’ Guide: Sales and Marketing Pipeline and Funnel Models.” It has been a mini-labor of love, and we have finally published volume No. 1 today. Click here to download.
Our goal was to assemble a collection of funnels created by a select set of Focus Experts. They would each get one page to represent their funnel and about 150 words to describe it. The result is really exciting. You know when you make something, and you’ve worked on it for so long that you can’t bear to look at it anymore? That is not the case here; I’ve been having fun looking through the different takes on the funnel over and over. I hope you will too.
I believe every sales and marketing organization should consider its “funnel.” Correction: They should understand their buyer’s funnel and then layer their sales and marketing funnel on top. And if you ask the Focus Experts who created funnels for the project, they will tell you it’s not easy. It’s an ongoing, iterative process that grows and changes with each new lesson learned. Once your funnel is understood and designed, then you can plan the strategies necessary to create revenue, such as lead management, sales process, post-sales process, and so forth.
In the coming days, The Funnelholic will interview the Focus Experts who took part in this project, so you can get a feel for how they thought about their approach and what they learned. Stay tuned as I post those interviews.
First download “Focus Experts’ Guide: Sales and Marketing Pipeline and Funnel Models.”
Now, props to everyone involved!
First, my editor Alec Wagner and my muse Sarah Miller; they both kept the trains running on time and on the tracks.
And, of course, the Focus Experts:
Ardath Albee, CEO and B2B Marketing Strategist at Marketing Interactions
Michael Brenner, Director of Online/Social Media at SAP North America
Michael Damphousse, CEO/CMO of Green Leads LLC
Christopher Doran, VP of Marketing at Manticore Technology
Barbra Gago, Social Media Manager of Cloud9 Analytics
Steve Gershik, CEO of 28Marketing
Sue Hay, CEO of BeWhys Marketing Inc.
Matt Heinz, Principal at Heinz Marketing LLC
Carlos Hidalgo, President of The Annuitas Group
Jon Miller, Vice President of Marketing at Marketo
Adam Needles, VP of Demand Generation Strategy at Left Brain Marketing
Tom Scearce, Principal at Scearce Market Development
Matt West, Director of Marketing at Genius.com
Steve Woods, Chief Technology Officer of Eloqua
Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter
