The Chief Revenue Officer is constantly stretched in multiple directions. How do we keep it all straight?
Sales leaders wrangle with team leadership, forecasting, partnerships, customer care, implementation strategy, etc. Marketing leaders need to manage Brand, research, communications, media, communities, etc. Both roles require technology and processes to support measurement, reporting, analysis and tactical adjustments to keep progress on track.
Complicating matters further, the Sales and Marketing roles have numerous touchpoints and overlapping responsibility which, managed well, provide a real “power couple” opportunity. How do you map that and keep it productive?
After some years in the role, I came upon a planning tool a few years ago, shared it with a few colleagues, and we evolved it to its present state. It continues to evolve based on input from users.
Here is a screen shot of the planning guide’s clickable map cover (sorry, click-map only works in downloaded .pdf and .ppt versions). Visit our Resources page to freely download the complete Sales & Marketing Development Plan for the CRO.
The tool is three “layers” deep and 33 slides long, with each detail slide covering a major strategic or operational topic. You can freely preview it ( item #5) at this site’s Resources page . There is also a download link where you can request a copy of the native file for your own adaptation and use. See below for details and user tips.
Topics Covered
Sales Strategy – covers distribution models, pricing, direct and partner channel management, pipeline management and sales management.
Strategic Marketing – covers mission and branding, market segmentation, customer profiling, competitive analysis and value proposition development.
Integrated Marketing – covers lead generation, CRM, content marketing, audience / community management, web properties, media and PR.
Customer Engagement deals with product / service satisfaction, account development, customer asset management, etc.
User Tips
For best results, use the Resources page’s “get the file” link to request the MS PowerPoint slide deck. Of course you can click the Preview link and view it immediately as a Google doc online, but you’ll only get the linear version – slide by slide, front to back. It is best viewed in Slide Show mode as a clickable map, with all links activated, so you can jump quickly to any topic you desire. Alas, those links are de-activated in the Googledocs version.
Another benefit of having the .ppt file is that you can then modify it to suit your individual needs, inserting sub-pages under each topic where you can detail your own planning progress.
As with all Resources page downloads, I welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Enjoy!
~Ed
Related articles
- When Sales and Marketing Align, Good Things Happen (FanFoundry article)
- Building the Sales and Marketing Machine of the Future #salesmktg [INFOGRAPHIC] (blogs.salesforce.com)
- Social Media: Somewhere Between Sales and Marketing (roundpeg.biz)
