Smash The Funnel - The Secrets To Massive Revenue Growth

It Used To Be A Funnel; Now It’s A Cycle

Have you been listening? The traditional sales funnel created in 1890 is dead. It no longer represents how people buy today. But if you get rid of the funnel, you have to replace it with something, and we think the cyclone replaces it.

The Cyclonic Buyer Journey™ does a much better job illustrating how people buy today. But even if you remove the funnel and replace it with the cyclone, you still need to understand your conversion metrics for your prospects throughout their buyer journey.

We use the term revenue cycle and the revenue cycle model (see the small picture at the top and the bigger one below in this article) to give you the insight into how your prospects are progressing from first touch to final signed agreements and the realization of new revenue.

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It’s That Time Of Year Again! Are Your Goals Aligned, Attainable And Funded Properly?

Setting SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based) is straightforward. Giving all of our readers that advice would be a bit below the expectations, so instead, we’re digging a little deeper with the advice around goal setting.

Specifically, the 10 tips we included here are based on what we see most often missing from our business and revenue goal conversations with clients and prospects.

Data supports that business leaders are adept at setting goals. But are they the right goals? Are the goals based on data? Are they aligned with other aspects of the business?

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Conversational Marketing Produces Results — Fast Results And Sales-Ready Results

What is conversational marketing? Conversational marketing is about allowing your prospects to talk with, connect with and converse with you when and how they want, as opposed to how you want.

Besides being a new label created by marketing people for marketing people, conversational marketing is the application of chat technology that allows your prospects the option to get an immediate response from you to converse with your team in real time.

This technology is not new. Most of us have had unremarkable chat experiences online, and because of this, for years we advised clients away from online chat simply because we knew the experience was going to be horrible.

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And How Does Marketing Operations Improve Revenue Growth?

Marketing operations includes the systems, processes and technology that allow today’s complex collection of strategy, tactics, analytics and software to run smoothly, scale and produce the desired business outcomes.

Last week I was at the Mirren Agency CEO Summit in Chicago (great event, by the way) and got to hear Sarah Armstrong, a partner and Master Expert at McKinsey. Sarah has worked for big agencies and big companies, and now consults at the highest level. Her insight was that one of the fastest growing areas in companies is marketing operations.

So, what is marketing operations? Why should you care? Why is this highly intelligent and experienced McKinsey consultant telling agencies to keep an eye on this little-known aspect of marketing?

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You’re Going To See Calm Water And White Water; You Want Your Guide To Get You Through

Growing your company is likely one of the most challenging tasks you’ll face in your professional career. Whether you’re the CEO and you have the responsibility to drive growth, or you’re the director of marketing and you have the accountability to support the company’s growth, this objective has never been more complex.

The strategy, tactics, analytics and technology that need to come together in perfect harmony for leads to come in, convert into sales opportunities and then turn into new customers requires specialized expertise.

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Marketing Without A Plan Is As Effective As Building A House Without A Blueprint

Our family recently went through a massive home remodel. Actually, we are still going through it – over a year later and we still have no kitchen.

We started by getting bids from general contractors. Each one wanted plans, drawings and permits. My husband felt this was a waste of time and money. So like that, I became a “general contractor.” I started hiring vendors, coordinating projects and trying to learn everything about home building along the way. I took one project at a time and tried my best to get stuff done.

While I had my own idea of a plan, I didn’t really know what I was doing, so my plan quickly fell apart. We’ve had to pay to have work (like painting) done multiple times. In the end, we didn’t save money, and we certainly didn’t save time.

So, what does any of this have to do with marketing?

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See How Many Of The 10 Requirements Your Business Needs To Grow Dramatically

Over the past few weeks you’ve probably noticed a steady stream of growth- and revenue-growth-related articles. There are good reasons for that, which I’m happy to share.

First, I’m pretty sure the world doesn’t need more landing page tips, social media upgrades or website optimization ideas — thousands of those are available, if that’s what you’re looking for.

And it’s more than likely that we’ll eventually get back to more practical tips to help marketing, sales and customer service people improve the performance of their tactics.

But in the meantime, we’re fascinated with how hard it is to systematically grow revenue, and our team here is working on strategy, tactics, analytics and technology to make that easier.

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Seriously? Are You Willing To Invest, To Make Changes And To Hire Or Fire? Are You Really Ready?

Put 100 company CEOs in a room and ask them to stand up if they want their companies to grow, and you’ll get 100 people proudly standing.

Now ask them to remain standing only if their companies have grown over the past year, past two years and past five years, and you’ll end up with somewhere around 20% of the audience still standing.

What’s the story? Where is the gap? If they all want to grow, why wouldn’t all of these smart CEOs be able to figure it out?

The reason is simple: Business growth is the hardest part of running a business. Growing a business requires checking many different boxes, and the challenges associated with scoring well in all of those areas are tough.

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Not All HubSpot Agency Partners In The Diamond Tier Are Created Equally

You’re using HubSpot for your marketing automation or CRM (or both). Good for you. 

However, you’ve been on HubSpot for over a year and you’re not sure you’re getting full value. Your leads are increasing slowly, but maybe you could be doing more. Your salespeople use the CRM, but are you seeing the massive improvement in business results you thought you’d get when you first signed up?

It’s a common challenge. Software rarely solves your problem. What does solve business challenges is the right combination of strategy, tactics, analytics and software.

Now you turn to the HubSpot Partner Directory to look for an agency to help you get to the next level. Pretty quickly you notice 43 Diamond-level partners are listed on the site. Based on reviews, you start talking to each of the top partners, but is that the best way to find a HubSpot partner?

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The Right Digital Marketing Agency Helps You Generate Leads; The Right Revenue Growth Agency Can Transform Your Business

If you’re about to contract with a digital marketing agency, there’s a lot to be scared about. You might not like them. They might not know what they’re doing. They might make a mistake. They might take too long to produce meaningful results.

Your goal as a CEO is to mitigate those risks as best you can, and the best way to do that is to talk to them about guaranteeing results.

Any agency with the right people, the right set of experiences, the right team, the right technology and the right methodology should be happy to work with you to develop a guaranteed results plan.

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