Focus Funnel Expert: Matt West of Genius.com
Today, The Funnelholic continues its series of interviews with the industry thought-leaders who contributed to the Focus Experts’ Guide: Sales and Marketing Pipeline and Funnel Models.
Meet Matt West, Director of Marketing at Genius.com and author of the Connected Marketer blog. Matt has more than a dozen years of experience managing B2B marketing and demand generation programs for technology companies. With experience in both the agency/consulting and client-side marketing departments, he is focused on strategy and committed to results.
The Funnelholic: Explain your approach to the funnel.
Matt: A few years back, we coined a term “Sales 2.0,” which at its core is about two things: acknowledging that the sales process has become a buying process; and in order to harness this new dynamic to benefit both the buyer and the organization, Sales and Marketing need to align to help the buyer navigate the buying process as quickly and seamlessly as possible. In order to truly align, organizations need to rethink and update three areas of their business: people, processes and systems.
So our funnel addresses four dimensions: 1) The all-important buyer, is the actual funnel. They interact with the company before they even enter the system; they eventually engage with the company and self-identify; the organization begins a dialogue with them; they develop a rapport; they eventually buy and ultimately buy more or advocate for the company. 2) The salespeople have a set of needs and contributions throughout the process. 3) The marketing people have unique needs and contributions throughout the process. 4) There are systems that align with each stage in the buying process. Sales is getting involved much earlier in the process, and Marketing is remaining involved much deeper in the process. This has a lot to do with the new tools and systems available, like social media, CRM and marketing automation.
The Funnelholic: Besides your own, were there any other funnels that resonated with you?
Matt: I really appreciate Ardath’s approach to the funnel. We share the common sentiment of being Buyer-focused, rather than Sales-focused. But she drives home an interesting point. As buyers work through the process toward a purchase decision, they invite additional people in their organization into the conversation. This is definitely the case with technology purchases. In the recent 2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Benchmark report, they found a trend of seeing multiple decision makers getting involved in the process. Interestingly, what Ardath doesn’t touch on in her overview of the funnel, is the implications that come of this model. Having worked with her, this is clearly what drives her marketing philosophy — it’s all about content. In order to connect with each of the parties involved, marketers must develop valuable, relevant content that speaks to each party at every stage in the buying process. I’m a huge believer in this, and companies that follow this process will be very successful.
The Funnelholic: What did you learn from the exercise?
Matt: When we were asked to create and submit our funnel, I really had to think about which direction to take. The funnel has three primary uses: an almanac, a map or a crystal ball. In other words, it’s used as an analytics tool to see where you’ve been, a snapshot of your current state or as a predictive modeling (planning) tool. I had to be careful to make sure it applied to all three of these uses sufficiently.
The Funnelholic: If everyone needs to create a funnel to model their business, what are best practices for creating it?
Matt: When creating a funnel, make sure it is usable for all three items mentioned above, a map, an almanac, and a crystal ball. The map should be relatively easy. The systems you have in place should be able to tell you how many people are currently in each phase of the funnel. An almanac may be a little more difficult if your system wasn’t set up to track these phases in the past. If it was, it should be pretty easy. The most important thing to focus on when looking historically is not necessarily the volume of people at each phase of the process, but the areas between. What were the conversion rates from one phase to the next? By combining the map and the almanac, you can make some hypotheses as to where each phase of your funnel can be optimized. In order to use it as a crystal ball, you will need to flip the funnel on its head. Start with the known variables. If you know your revenue goals and you know your average sales price, you can determine how many deals are needed to reach your revenue target. Then apply the conversion rates back up the funnel to determine how many leads are needed to reach your deal target and what each phase of the funnel should look like.
Join the conversation: ‘Is the funnel still a relevant metaphor for the b2b sales and marketing process?’
Written by Craig Rosenberg - The FunnelholicSign up to receive emails when new articles are posted
The Funnelholic
