Smash The Funnel - The Secrets To Massive Revenue Growth

Learn How To Develop Your Own Unique Messaging

Hey, Gus, how do you dance? How do you groove? Can you teach me how to move?
Sure, Pete! It’s a simple song. Just do the robot and dance along.
  - From “Pete The Cat And The Cool Cat Boogie”

Be different. Be unique. Stand out.

We’re constantly pushing clients to find the things that separate them from the competition, then shout about it from the rooftops for the whole world to hear.

It’s no surprise then that when we suggest a competitive audit, those same clients are often confused, if not downright incredulous. “If the point is to stand out,” they ask, “why do you want me to copy my competitors? Isn’t that a waste of time and money.”

We don’t. And it’s not.

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It’s Back To The Future For Marketers, Sales Leaders And CEOs

Back in 2003, we heard “my marketing isn’t working and I don’t know why” time and time again from CEOs. In fact, it was the main messaging for Square 2. People were confused and we helped them figure it out.

We solved it successfully for years. Then along came inbound marketing and we worked to explain this new methodology. We taught our clients about earning attention, being patient and executing a collection of inbound-only tactics. Inbound was the answer.

A few years ago, the ground shifted again, and as inbound became more commonplace, new concepts popped up like conversational marketing, account-based marketing (ABM), advocacy marketing and influencer marketing. Those concepts further confused an already confused set of people who simply wanted more leads, more sales opportunities and more new customer revenue.

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Marketers struggle to measure exactly how their efforts are contributing to the bottom line. It’s difficult to decide what metrics to focus on and what measurement tools to use; then tying that data directly to revenue can be daunting.

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If You Want To Hit Your Revenue Goals For 2019, Sales Enablement Must Be A Top Priority

The percentage of salespeople making quota has dropped from 63% to 53% over a five-year period, according to data from CSO Insights.

What’s driving this drop? It’s primarily changes in the buyer journey, the massive amount of information available to buyers and the continued inability of companies to adjust their sales process accordingly.

The way prospects behave isn’t going to change anytime soon, and it’s likely that buyers will take an even more active and independent approach to how they buy products and services. But that doesn’t mean business leaders can’t have a major impact on how their sales teams perform and how effective their company is at hitting its revenue goals.

One proactive step you should be taking is making sales enablement and alignment of the sales and marketing functions a top priority in 2019.

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Achieve Your Goals With Repeatable Processes And The Right Technology

Marketing is made up of many, many facets, from strategy to creative to execution and everything in between. Your team members put their blood, sweat and tears into creating content strategies, writing brilliant ad copy and creating stellar brand videos.

However, none of this work matters if you’re unable to operationally manage all facets efficiently, track your efforts to results and make data-based decisions to improve.

That’s where marketing ops comes in.

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12 Tips For Delivering A Great User Experience

The last thing you want to do is frustrate your website visitors. Unfortunately, that might be exactly what your website design is doing if it isn’t UX optimized.

UX is the user experience your visitors have while on your website. It’s how they feel when they’re navigating from page to page.

Ideally, visitors should be able to intuitively find what they’re looking for, whether that’s your contact information, your pricing page or a list of your services. Thoughtful organization, compelling content and design that matches the user intent at every interaction help to create a positive user experience.

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Of course you do. Right? Don’t be so sure.

Companies are missing their revenue goals month over month. It’s an epidemic sweeping the country. The tenure for CMOs is the shortest it’s been in years. Agencies are getting fired left and right for “random acts of marketing” that produce little or no results.

One of the most common stories I hear from marketing and sales leaders is about the challenges associated with getting results, getting results fast enough and getting enough results to keep your CEO or board happy. Sound familiar?

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Are You Focusing On Finding The Right Prospects?

If you’ve been in sales for any length of time, it’s likely you’ve encountered the “ABCs” of the field: always be closing.

One recent trend, however, has been that it’s more difficult than ever to close a sale. The number of sales reps hitting their quotas has decreased over the last several years. It’s now slipped to just over half, according to CSO Insights.

Even if you do manage to move the customer through to the proposal stage, you may not close the sale.

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Marketing: It’s Not Just For Marketers Anymore

I’ve spent my career working in tech, higher ed and professional services. I’ve worked at fast-growing startups and huge established institutions. I’ve worked on both coasts. Every successful organization I’ve worked in has one thing in common: top-notch talent.

At the time I’m writing this, the unemployment rate is 3.9%. That makes it incredibly hard to recruit and retain A-players.

Every HR leader and hiring manager I know has struggled to get the caliber of resumes they need. It’s even harder to get top candidates to come onboard. Top talent doesn’t even need to look for jobs. Aggressive recruiters are swarming with offers that provide high salaries and attractive benefits.

Meanwhile, talented employees in basically every company in America are contemplating whether they should seize the moment and jump to another organization.

That’s not a pretty picture for HR. All of this leads to one conclusion.

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Revenue Growth Doesn’t Always Come From More Leads

Everyone typically thinks that having more leads is better, but it’s not always the case. More frequently, companies have enough leads, but they’re not optimizing the follow-up process on those leads to close them faster and more frequently.

Maybe this is your company, or maybe not. One way to find out for sure is to know your conversion rates at each stage of your sales process, or as we like to refer to it, your revenue cycle.

You need full click to close, from the first time someone visits your website to the time they sign your paperwork. Each stage in that buyer journey and each touch point has a conversion rate associated with it.

The only way to know if you’re optimizing your leads and your opportunities is to know these numbers.

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