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BCG Building An Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine For B2B June 2018 NL Tcm9 196057
BCG Building An Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine For B2B June 2018 NL Tcm9 196057
Historically, the marketing function has fo- Marketing’s mandate has expanded to in-
cused on the early stages of lead genera- cludebeing the key interpreter of customer
tion, then handed off leads quickly to sales. needs and pain points across the buying
Today, marketing plays the primary role in journey. Digital engagement gives marketers
designing and executing the customer buy- significant insights into the decision-making
ing journey and has an expanded role in process and customers’ key needs and con-
ensuring that customers are effectively en- cerns as they progress toward a decision.
gaged and nurtured as they move through Companies need to provide a seamless tran-
the pathway to purchase. (See Exhibit 1.) sition from online engagement to offline in-
Marketing
• Companies find customers
• Mostly mass, outbound Awareness Marketing Awareness
marketing, such as ads Marketing • Customers find
and trade shows companies
• Mostly inbound
Interest marketing, such as Interest
Marketing
search and websites,
along with targeted
Sales outbound
• Customers require education Research Research
and high touch
• Direct-sales team is needed to
provide information, influence Evaluation Direct Evaluation
sales Sales
product evaluation, and close sale • Customers self-educate
and require low touch Data-driven
Demo • Data-driven sales team is Demo sales
Postsales support needed to focus on
• Customer purchase ends sales solutions and closing sale
Purchase Purchase
motion
• Focus is on reactive support but Customer Postsales support Customer-
Retention/ support • Customer purchase starts Retention/ success
not proactive customer success upselling upselling
long-term relationship management
• A proactive focus on customer
success, e.g., retention and expansion
Source: BCG analysis.
The Boston Consulting Group | Building an Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine for B2B 2
Exhibit 2 | Go-To-Market Models Aren’t One Size Fits All—but All Start with Digital Engagement
THE PRECISE FIT OF A GO-TO-MARKET APPROACH DEPENDS ON THE LIFETIME VALUE OF THE CUSTOMER
Unknown
teraction (both direct and through third- buying journeys, misaligned objectives,
party partners) and ultimately to hands-on misallocated resources, and poor team
postsales engagement that is focused on morale. They can also find themselves
customer retention and expansion, rather unable to learn from performance.
than just on requests for support. Customer alienation, loss of market share,
and slowed or no growth will follow.
The Boston Consulting Group | Building an Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine for B2B 3
direct contact with sales teams, particularly marketing budget on technology. At more
with enterprise customers. In the end, this than 70% of these companies, marketing is
strategy will prove counterproductive as cus- responsible for choosing and managing the
tomers will migrate over time to competi- marketing technology providers.
tors that are easier to do business with.
Data is another major issue. It is the fuel
Changing customer behaviors have a cou- that powers the technology cylinder, and
ple of implications for sellers. One is that marketing and sales need to be working
marketing must become more “pull” ori- from a clean, common customer data
ented as customers increasingly seek out source. Using existing transactional plat-
information online—at a time of their forms such as marketing automation or
choosing—rather than in response to mar- sales CRM as the system of record for cus-
keting solicitations. Companies need to un- tomer data is often a mistake. Best-practice
derstand how customers are using digital companies today create “a single source of
and mobile channels for research in order truth” for customer data, which is often dis-
to effectively guide their purchase jour- tinct from these transactional systems. They
neys. Another implication is that customers also construct “data lakes,” repositories that
expect not only richer online engagement store all kinds of data and facilitate its use
but also multimedia and interactive con- by advanced software programs. Companies
tent. The personalization and engagement can handle both structured and unstruc-
that used to be the job of the sales rep now tured data and enable specific use cases—
takes place in digital channels. Companies providing visibility across the key touch
need to invest in technology, data, and ana- points of the customer journey, for exam-
lytics to improve insights into customer ple. Data lakes also can be used to integrate
buying behavior and help provide more rel- third-party data that will enhance a compa-
evant, personalized experiences and con- ny’s understanding of buying behavior and
tent to buyers. support the ability to isolate and target par-
ticular groups. Integrated data ultimately is
Integrate technology and data critical to generating insights and enabling
across marketing and sales more advanced modeling efforts, such as
Building the right marketing and sales stack, predictive analytics and artificial intelli-
or technology architecture, is critical. Many gence, to better anticipate customer behav-
companies struggle with complexity here, iors and needs.
especially given the rapidly expanding uni-
verse of marketing and sales technology Measure performance along the
platforms. Most have yet to build a well- entire customer journey
functioning stack that facilitates end-to-end To show what’s working and demonstrat-
digital and offline engagement, and few ing value, it’s necessary to tie marketing
have sufficiently integrated all of the com- dollars to revenue generation in digital as
ponents (such as sales CRM, marketing au- well as physical channels. Many companies
tomation, content management, do not measure, or connect, results through
account-based marketing, and analytics and the sales funnel, so marketing has no way
data) so that the stack supports a well- of knowing whether the leads it develops
executed, integrated go-to-market approach. result in sales or which marketing tactics
are really effective. Similarly, sales has no
While the availability of cloud-based tech- visibility into the lead generation and scor-
nology and software substantially reduces ing process.
tech costs, the tech stack still represents a
significant investment. This is increasingly Attributing revenue in B2B is difficult
being borne and managed by marketing because of complex buying journeys,
and becomes an operating, rather than a longer sales cycles, and the fact that the
capital, expense. On average, companies buyer’s journey typically spans online and
with annual revenues of $500 million or offline channels. Nonetheless, companies
more are spending about one third of their need to track leads end-to-end, including
The Boston Consulting Group | Building an Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine for B2B 4
lead quality, lead velocity (the speed at incentives and metrics. Strong collaboration
which a lead develops toward a sale), and and communication among marketing and
lead generation and conversion by funnel sales executives, including joint strategy de-
stage. Revenue must be attributed accu velopment and planning, are essential. The
rately to assess the return on marketing marketing and sales teams must recognize
dollar invested, allowing companies to that each function needs an equal seat at
adjust m
arketing spending, campaigns, the table and that mutual respect, open
and tactics accordingly. and regular communication, and common
ways of measuring success are critical.
All of this requires agreement between mar-
keting and sales on what constitutes One useful tool is account-based marketing
a high-quality lead as well as regular (ABM), which can help align marketing
discussion and feedback on whether the and sales on account-specific goals, strate-
leads coming from marketing fit the bill. No gies, and measurement. While account-
one wins if marketing hits its goals focused strategies have typically been used
for marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) for the largest enterprise customers, ABM
while sales misses its overall revenue t argets. tools are now a cost-effective option for
Marketing must be accountable for revenue midmarket companies, enabling a more
goals as well. A key indicator of good mar- integrated go-to-market approach across
keting and sales alignment is the c onversion marketing and sales by customer segment.
of MQLs to sales-qualified or accepted
leads—if this ratio falls below 50% or so, it’s However the evolution plays out, regular
a sign that marketing is not sending enough communication and interaction are key. At
leads that sales views as valuable. some companies, marketing and sales lead-
ers meet as frequently as twice a week to
To optimize performance and measure the review what’s working and what’s not.
return on marketing investment, companies
should also develop the ability to attribute In our experience, a strong CMO who forg-
revenue on a multitouch basis to capture es deep relationships with sales and busi-
the contributions of various marketing and ness-unit leaders plays a vital role in estab-
sales activities. This is a big challenge, given lishing a sense of common purpose and a
the complexity of the typical B2B buying one-team culture, which are often key indi-
journey, but B2B leaders are using their in- cators of success in achieving revenue
house business intelligence teams and goals. Some companies have found that a
third-party vendors and tools to meet it. chief revenue officer (CRO) structure, in
which one executive oversees marketing,
Bridge organizational silos sales, and sometimes customer retention
Different roles, historic divisions, and dis- and expansion, can be very effective in
tinct cultures make breaking down market- creating a seamless customer experience.
ing and sales silos a tough task. At the
same time, the importance of close collabo- Finding a suitable CRO candidate can be
ration between marketing and sales keeps difficult, however, as the ideal individual
rising. Because of marketing’s expanding should have a strong working knowledge
role in orchestrating the customer journey, of both marketing and sales and be able to
we have seen marketing evolve toward a connect the two worlds. We have seen suc-
stronger leadership position in defining the cess most often in small to medium busi-
go-to-market strategy. Inside sales teams nesses and software-as-a-service compa-
now have more data available, enabled by nies. We have also seen successful
marketing engagement, and must capital- instances in which the CRO manages mar-
ize on this intelligence to coordinate better keting and the general salesforce, but prod-
with field and partner sales groups. uct sales specialists sit in separate business
units. Alternatively, the CRO role can be
Companies need to align overall direction embedded in freestanding business units
and strategy with executives’ roles and and act as a change agent to drive coordi-
The Boston Consulting Group | Building an Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine for B2B 5
nation and integration. This model de- mand centers can support multiple busi-
pends heavily on having the right incen- nesses globally, particularly if they are tar-
tives and metrics and the backing of top geting common customers with related
management to ensure that the CRO products, as well as individual business
function has teeth. units, products, segments, or regions. They
typically house the marketing operations
The challenges are greater for larger organi- function as well, which acts as the engine
zations because of their organizational scale for demand generation and lead nurturing.
and breadth and, frequently, the need to
navigate numerous business-unit and mar- Companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and
keting fiefdoms. Larger companies tend to Salesforce.com have embraced the demand
use a combination of approaches to improve center approach and have seen benefits
alignment, including combined incentives, that include revenue that grows faster than
matrix or dotted-line reporting structures, marketing costs, improved marketing effi-
cross-functional teams, and formal and in- ciencies (lower cost per lead, for example),
formal forums to enhance communication, rising conversion rates, improved execution
such as governance councils, extended staff of customer buying journeys, and higher
meetings, liaison roles, and collaboration returns on media spending.
platforms and tools. At businesses where
channels and partners play an important Invest in culture and talent as a
role, the need to manage channel conflict competitive differentiator
and coordinate the company’s go-to-market At leading B2B companies, marketing and
approach with additional organizations can sales leaders set the tone for driving digital
add one more layer of complexity. transformation programs by effectively us-
ing culture and cross-organizational integra-
Build out marketing operations tion as competitive differentiators. (See Ex-
and demand center capabilities hibit 3.) Leaders invest in, and reward, a
At most companies, marketing operations wide variety of factors and behaviors, many
is responsible for ensuring that a well- of which have not been recognized in the
functioning, integrated technology stack past. These include:
and data infrastructure are in place to sup-
port core processes and analytics. As mar- •• Clarity of direction
keting becomes increasingly technology
and data driven, marketing operations is •• Well-defined processes and cross-group
evolving into a more strategic role, with re- handoffs
sponsibility for driving the marketing tech-
nology strategy and managing the interface •• Frequent communication via multiple
with IT and sales operations. Recruiting channels
and retaining top digital and analytical tal-
ent, which gets harder all the time, can be •• Collaborative and flexible approaches
a key differentiator. Indeed, at many com- to working together
panies, the head of marketing operations is
second in importance only to the CMO. •• Creativity and innovation
The Boston Consulting Group | Building an Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine for B2B 6
Exhibit 3 | Digital Marketing Today Coordinates Multiple Types of Activity
much more prominent role. Marketing and ers. Many B2B companies are reaching the
sales leaders must also be willing to invest point where they must accelerate this trans-
significant time and energy to bring in new formation to engage their customers effec-
blood—employees with skills that encom- tively. New tech, data, and analytical skills
pass digital technologies, data and analyt- need to be seeded throughout the organiza-
ics, and digital content marketing. tion, as do new organizational approaches
and ways of working. None of this happens
overnight. In our experience, it can take 12
The Boston Consulting Group | Building an Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine for B2B 7
About the Authors
Phillip Andersen is a partner and managing director in the Seattle office of The Boston Consulting
Group. You may contact him by email at andersen.phillip@bcg.com.
Robert Archacki is an associate director in the firm’s Dallas office. You may contact him by email at
archacki.robert@bcg.com.
Basir Mustaghni is a partner and managing director in BCG’s Frankfurt office. You may contact him by
email at mustaghni.basir@bcg.com.
Roger Premo is a partner and managing director in the firm’s Boston office. You may contact him by
email at premo.roger@bcg.com.
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advi-
sor on business strategy. We partner with clients from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in all
regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform
their enterprises. Our customized approach combines deep insight into the dynamics of companies and
markets with close collaboration at all levels of the client organization. This ensures that our clients
achieve sustainable competitive advantage, build more capable organizations, and secure lasting results.
Founded in 1963, BCG is a private company with offices in more than 90 cities in 50 countries. For more
information, please visit bcg.com.
© The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. 6/18 Rev. 1/19
The Boston Consulting Group | Building an Integrated Marketing and Sales Engine for B2B 8