We solve a simple problem faced by many B2B marketers.
That is, they create plenty of leads but don’t convert enough closed business.
Why is this problem so widespread?
We think it has to do with silos. Marketers have ‘chunked up’ the funnel into many different teams. Each team has their own measures and priorities. Digital marketers create conversions, field marketers generate leads, content marketers vibe on engagement, and so on. The assumption is that if you optimise every part, you will make the whole machine more effective.
Not so. In place of effectiveness, you get efficiency. You might have more conversions, leads and engagement. But the closed business number remains frustratingly low.
As the number of teams and agencies involved grows, complexity quickly increases. It becomes hard to respond to changes in the market. It is easy to lose sight of the real job: to find and win new customers.
How do we solve the problem?
We have a different approach to demand generation, based on agile marketing principles.
“The Marketing Practice has been consistently effective at driving commercial results from marketing: the sales teams have never been as engaged with marketing opportunities as they are now.”
Louis Fernandes, former Director of Demand Generation at SAS & HPE
Many skills, only one job
We create small, cross-functional teams focussed on client outcomes. We call these teams ‘scrums’ and they combine multiple skills with one common job: to find and win new customers. This is particularly important in complex B2B sales, where the buyer journey is rarely the same in any two deals.
We speak to the audience every day
The B2B buyer journey works best when the ‘human channel’ – the ability to have a business conversation with a real person – is integrated into the process, not simply the last stage in a production line.
Our inside sales specialists work alongside our creative, content, data and digital experts. They have dialogue with the audience every day, using the phone, email and social channels, alongside tools like intent data and social analytics. Honest feedback from the audience is plugged directly into the demand generation process. We use it to refine the messaging and adapt the process as we go, as well as progress opportunities that would otherwise stall. The result is a buyer journey that adapts to the customer.
Agile marketing in action
We believe that success comes by moving away from a fixed production line approach. And instead, shifting to an agile approach with the ability to test, learn and adapt quickly to feedback. For example, a message that resonates when we speak with the audience can be used to create new content. Or when we see which opportunities are progressing best through the sales team, we can use that insight to update our targeting and data acquisition.
Start fast
Our experience allows us to get to market quickly with an approach we know has solid foundations. We can then refine the message and tactics based on what works, avoiding endless planning cycles.
Built on experience
We’ve developed our multi-disciplinary approach based on 18 years of running demand generation programmes for technology companies. It is the way we’ve found works best; if you take demand generation to be about closed revenue, not just leads.
See how
Genpact boosted marketing’s contribution to global pipeline from
5% to 26%
READ THE CASE STUDYOur approach to demand generation
We do it a little differently, using agile marketing principles.
“I am extremely impressed with the approach The Marketing Practice take to build an effective integrated campaign. I have never worked with an agency which has such fabulous market insight, a highly skilled team and relevant WOW factor to make the right statement in the market!”
Caroline Garrett, then
Marketing Director, Veritas
Identify the best prospects
Effective demand generation starts and ends with data. Do you know the best accounts to target? Can you identify and reach the right people? What about the four-letter word…GDPR?
We have built our own data universe that we can use to spot gaps in your targeting. Using intent data and other sources of enrichment, we can create propensity models to find accounts more likely to buy. We can also manage the data in both CRM and automation platforms to keep it clean, up-to-date and usable.
Brian Caulfield, Director of Demand Generation & Tom Upfold, Strategy Director
Get noticed
As the saying goes, the first job of any advertising is to get noticed. In our experience, that means both relevance and creativity. Catch the eye and create intrigue.
Position to win
We pinpoint what gives you an edge on the competition and make sure the buyer journey reinforces your advantage at every stage.
Nurture opportunities
Lead nurturing is much more than sending a series of emails. The journey of an opportunity from awareness to sale happens across multiple channels, digital and ‘traditional’. Our agile teams can integrate these channels and balance short-term opportunities with long-term market building.
The last yard: lead management
Too many opportunities are wasted due to bad lead management. Swift routing, following up and accurate reporting are the foundations on which effective demand generation is built.
Close more deals
The goal is always to win more deals, and create an easier selling environment in the long term. We focus on relentlessly improving conversion rates through the funnel, to increase the number of wins from every marketing sourced or influenced opportunity.
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