CRM - March 2008 - (Page E8)

8 March 2008 Sponsored Content Convergence of Sales and Marketing Technologies Leads to Higher Productivity For many business-to-business (BtoB) marketers, overcoming deeply engrained, manual processes remains a major roadblock to achieving success. Worse, many still work in a vacuum, utilizing multiple marketing tools that aren’t linked to sales effectiveness systems such as CRM and SFA. But ultimately the largest challenge is timely access and coordination of customer data across the customer lifecycle. This hinders sales productivity, leading to longer sales cycles and lower conversion rates. For many companies, bridging the gap between marketing and sales technologies is a top concern with a clear business impact. According to a recent report by technology research firm the Aberdeen Group, “The Convergence of Sales and Marketing Technologies,” the top two pressures driving the integration between sales and marketing technologies are the desire to: 1. INCREASE TOP-LINE REVENUE GROWTH AND; MEASURABLE RESULTS MAKE AN IMPACT ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION According to the Aberdeen report, Bestin-Class marketers drive sales effectiveness by providing information about marketing and customer interactions within CRM /SFA systems at the account/prospect level. By automating this connection, companies can achieve more effective customer profiling. Lead scoring and priorities can be assigned based on multiple factors, which could be as simple as answers to qualifying questions. This results in better qualification of leads, improved closure rates, and ultimately increased revenue. HAGER GROUP: Integrated Marketing and Lead Management Brings $42 Million in Incremental Revenue When Hager Group, a $1.5-billion electronics manufacturer, sought to step up its demand generation and automate its lead management, it knew the first step was creating a central repository of customer and prospect data that could be used throughout the sales and marketing organization. The company opted to work with Neolane to build the customer data warehouse, and then deployed Neolane’s Lead Management solution to integrate and automate demand generation, qualification, fulfillment, lead routing and nurturing. THE RESULTS: ■ 1,000 incremental new leads per month ■ 10 percent conversion rate from improved leads ■ Translating to a revenue increase of $42 million per year ■ Additional 1,200 new customers achieved each year through this program represent half of Hager’s total new customers 2. IMPROVE RETURN ON MARKETING INVESTMENT. In fact, the Aberdeen study found that organizations that integrate one or more marketing technologies with CRM achieved on average the following: - 36 PERCENT INCREASE IN MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS While early-adopter “Best in Class” companies have already achieved quantifiable results for their integration efforts, the vast majority of companies (approximately 80 percent) do not currently integrate sales and marketing technologies. The disparity demonstrates there is much work to be done in this area. FIRST STEP ON THE PATH TO INTEGRATION - 23 PERCENT INCREASE IN LEAD CONVERSION RATE - 16 PERCENT REDUCTION IN TIME-TO-CLOSE - 24 PERCENT INCREASE IN BID-TO-WIN RATIO - 15 PERCENT INCREASE IN AVERAGE REVENUE PER ACCOUNT So where do companies start? An important first step for many companies is lead management automation to more effectively bridge SFA and marketing campaign management systems. This helps drive higher quality leads, and ensures that sales can quickly act on those leads and close more deals. Better integration also helps reduce data replication, eliminate manual processes and decrease the strain on internal resources. Creating a tighter, closed-loop system between sales and marketing helps ensure smooth data transfer and the ability to measure marketing effectiveness. Ultimately, achieving a single system of record for all customer information, response management and marketing performance measurement is key to effectively managing leads and driving a more productive sales organization. Enterprise-level marketing management platforms play an important role in improving lead management programs by supporting the integration of sales and marketing technology, while ensuring more consistent, personalized communications across multiple channels. For a limited time, you can download a complimentary copy of the Aberdeen Group report, “The Convergence of Sales and Marketing Technologies,” compliments of Neolane. Visit www.neolane.com/crm for details. http://www.neolane.com/crm

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - March 2008

CRM - March 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Re-shoring Contact Centers NetSuite’s Sweet Ride Takes Another Turn SaaS X.0? destinationCRM Dashboard Retailers Dream Big Detroit: Driven to Distraction Required Reading The Markets Within the Masses In Search of... Selling CRM to Your Sales Force Quixtar’s Quick Fix Travelocity’s New Traveling Companion Chasing Down First-Call Resolution Governing Better Marketing Secret of My Success Re: Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - March 2008

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