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9 STEPS TO MEASURABLE SALES REVENUE INCREASES! Written by David Mackey with contributors Margery Murphy and Michael Murphy
9 STEPS TO
MEASURABLE
SALES REVENUE
INCREASES!
Written by David Mackey with
contributors Margery Murphy and
Michael Murphy
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
Page 1
Contents
About the Author and Contributors .............................................................. 2
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases: An Introduction ............. 3
Step 1 - FIND .............................................................................................. 6
Step 2 - CAPTURE ..................................................................................... 8
Step 3 - TRACK ........................................................................................ 10
Step 4 - ACQUIRE .................................................................................... 12
Step 5 – ONBOARDING ............................................................................ 13
Step 6 - MEASURE ................................................................................... 15
Step 7 - OPTIMIZE ................................................................................... 17
Step 8 - REPEAT ...................................................................................... 18
Step 9 - SCALE......................................................................................... 19
Summary .................................................................................................. 20
About Us ................................................................................................... 21
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
Page 2
About the Author and Contributors
David Mackey has 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and business
management. Prior to founding LeadMaster Australia Pty Ltd in 2004, David
held senior management positions with New Skies Satellites, Access1 Ltd,
UUNet, OzEmail and Mars Inc. During his career he has conducted business
across Asia, the Pacific, North America and Western Europe and specializes in
helping companies increase their revenue.
Margery Murphy, Founder and CEO of Acadia Lead Management Services,
has focused her career on creating measurable results and metrics for sales
and marketing. She has demonstrated success in creating, managing and
positioning lead generation solutions and developing revenue-generating sales
and marketing campaigns. As a 2014 Sales Lead Management Association
Top Woman, she continues to pursue technology and process to provide her
clients with best-in-class solutions.
Michael Murphy, a degreed Electrical Engineer and Sales and Marketing
professional, brings a wide range of industrial and technical expertise to the
table, ranging from first-hand experience in design and engineering to
corporate leadership and business management roles in the industrial
automation industry. Michael coordinates specific marketing and product
management projects for clients and is intimately engaged in technology
transfer issues, performance program evaluations and positioning.
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
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9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue
Increases: An Introduction
The buyer is in control, which means that
businesses have to change the way that they sell.
You may be thinking, “Wait, what? Since when?”
It’s possible that it snuck up on you.
In the past, buyers relied on sales teams to educate them about their
products. As you probably know, the internet has changed that process
dramatically. Since your product information is now on the web (or it had
better be on the web), buyers are now able to do their own research. They
may know all about your products, services and prices before they even
contact you!
Prospects often complete
the research and
evaluation phases of the
buying process without ever actually speaking to a person. This means that
by the time they contact your sales team, they could be at the bottom of the
funnel (BOFU) and ready to purchase!
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
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What does all this mean? The role of the salesperson has changed.
In 2014, the salesperson’s role is to walk the prospect through the final
stages of the modern buying process.
So now what? How do you adapt to this new way of buying and selling?
Think about the goal of your business. Sure – you want to deliver your
quality product or service. But at the end of the day, you’d better be in the
black. And a little growth would be nice too, right? To achieve this, you
must generate revenue.
Before you read any further, repeat
this: Revenue is a cycle. Revenue
is a cycle. Revenue is a cycle. Yes
- the recurring set of steps
(basically - business activities) that
[had better] result in creating
revenue is called a Revenue Cycle.
Revenue Performance
Management (RPM) is the process
by which, through a series of 9 repeating steps, we generate more
customers and do everything we need to do to keep them coming back. To
keep the cycle going, you need to optimize your interactions with prospects
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
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and current customers at all stages of the cycle. You’ll see revenue
increase while your business grows!
Revenue365 has outlined a 9-step B2B revenue cycle that applies to
almost any business. It all starts with the premise that both sales and
marketing have a shared objective: revenue creation. With that understood,
this 9-step cycle involves the seamless process of creating demand and
converting it to revenue, using both sales and marketing. This takes your
prospect from the bottom of the marketing funnel as a marketing qualified
lead (MQL) to the top of the sales funnel as a sales ready lead (SRL).
Let’s see it in action and learn how using the 9 steps can lead to a
measurable revenue increase!
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
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Step 1 - FIND
The first thing you need to do is find
leads, i.e., prospects and potential
customers. Finding leads is referred to
as demand generation and can be done
in a variety of ways, including:
● Old-fashioned telemarketing
● Events
● Networking
● Inbound marketing (keep reading!)
According to Market Charts, only 17% of marketers spend more than 15
hours a week on demand generation. Yet, according to Lattice Engines and
CSO Insights, 68% of companies admit they struggle with finding new
leads. So – while most companies admit demand generation is a challenge,
they don’t put in the necessary time to make it work. In marketing, just like
anything else, you have to put in the time and effort in order to get the
results.
Part of the problem is that traditional methods of demand generation (cold
calling, generic email blasts, bulk mail, etc.) are losing effectiveness
compared to what is called content, or inbound, marketing - building a
meaningful, long-term rapport with your audience.
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Building (and keeping) these relationships involves creating engaging
content, then pushing out that content via social media, ebooks, white
papers, blogs, your website, webinars and more. Doling out free stuff like
sample, trials and apps won’t hurt either. And don’t forget to communicate
with potential customers via personalized messages.
Most importantly, once you get prospects to your website, you must present
them with meaningful calls to action (CTAs). These catchy graphics or
phrases compel the prospect to deliver their most valued asset, their
contact information. Yes, inbound marketing takes time and effort, but it’s
work that is definitely worth it.
DOWNLOAD
Download this free
ebook for
marketing tips and
tricks.
Sample CTA
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
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Step 2 - CAPTURE
You have leads! Wonderful! Now, you must
capture everything you know about them
while managing and tracking your
interactions with the prospects as they
move through their buyer’s journey.
In the early stages, a marketing automation
tool like HubSpot or Marketo will do the job.
As a lead is nurtured and progresses
through the buying process, all data relating
to this lead needs to migrate seamlessly to a salesforce automation or
customer relationship management (CRM) system in real time.
No matter what salesforce automation or CRM systems you use, be sure it
accepts leads from multiple sources (hand entered, referred by email, filled
out a website form, left a blog comment, etc.).
When entering these leads, you’ll need to decide where they are within the
buying process.
Those who are researching your services can be regarded as top of funnel
(TOFU). They are searching for information to solve one of their business
issues.
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Once potential solutions have been identified, they move to the middle of
the funnel (MOFU). Here, they are evaluating which solution is best for their
needs.
With a shortlist of solutions, they move to the final stage: bottom of funnel
(BOFU). After final evaluation of potential vendors, buyers in this stage are
ready to make a purchase decision.
Funnel stages, courtesy of HubSpot. Visitors research your company (TOFU), become
leads (MOFU), then make buying decisions (BOFU).
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Step 3 - TRACK
Great – you’ve captured your leads! Now
they’re part of your revenue cycle and
you can start thinking about tracking
them! We do this by using tools like lead
scoring, lead qualification, lead nurturing,
and marketing automation.
It’s hard work. (Which is probably why,
according to MarketingSherpa, 68% of
B2B companies have not defined their
funnel and 79% of B2B marketers don’t use lead scoring).
It’s essential.
Lead tracking involves knowing what stage your prospect is in and what
their next step will be. You should assign each lead a value based on what
products or services they are seeking.
Before a prospect becomes a real MQL, your marketing automation system
manages the tracking for you. The system nurtures your prospect with
information and resources – sort of like an employee who’s working all day,
every day. Lead scoring, the prioritizing of a prospect based on their prior
activity and other data, is an excellent tool to help you manage this part of
the process.
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At Revenue365, we refer to anything we learn while a prospect trickles
through our marketing automation system as the prospect’s “digital body
language.” For example, cookies track our website visitors and all of their
interactions. We then store this information in our marketing automation
system, HubSpot. If a prospect leaves their name on a form, we can then
see all of their interests and all content they’ve viewed.
This means that when we do make contact, we continue the conversation
where they last left off. For example, we can see that a prospect
downloaded a white paper, read an ebook and viewed a video demo, all
regarding one specific product. This means they are in or near the decision
phase of the buyer’s journey and we need to engage immediately! Provide
information about your company as a potential vendor and the value and
benefits of your product/service. In the marketing days of yore, we would
have guessed at the buyer’s stage, and could have easily pitched our
portfolio too early.
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Step 4 - ACQUIRE
Customer acquisition is the finale of the
buying process and typically involves
high levels of human touch. Enter the
salespeople!
This acquisition phase can start at
varying times or involve various tactics.
In some companies, a junior
salesperson may engage at the sales
ready lead (SRL) stage to conduct and
verify the initial sales qualification information.
From there, if the lead becomes a sales opportunity, salesperson
involvement may increase. The prospect must be transitioned from the
marketing automation tool to the salesforce automation tool for sales
forecast management and tracking.
Quoting, negotiation, and closing are the critical final steps of the
acquisition stage.
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Step 5 – ONBOARDING
Surprisingly, the cycle does not end
when the deal is signed!
Managing the quote-to-cash process is
becoming very topical. Unless you
properly onboard your new services,
the collection of revenue may be in
jeopardy.
How you treat your customers and
deliver your goods and services makes all the difference in business. The
viral world of social media makes the good news travel fast and the bad
news travel at the speed of light, like an epidemic. If you make an
unsatisfied customer out of someone, everyone will hear about it - fast.
Managing your customer’s experience is more important than ever!
Your job is to not only make sure your customers get what they paid for, but
to make them feel that they got even more than what they expected. They
need to see that your customer-business relationship is more than a mere
sales transaction - you care about how the product/service affects them.
This means aiding them in the implementation process, following up to see
if they have any issues with the product/service, sending them a freebie
every now and then (an add-on, sample trial, ebook, webinar, seasonal gift,
coupon, etc.), asking for their feedback on how you can improve your
9 Steps to Measurable Sales Revenue Increases
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products/services, and much more. It’s up to you to keep your customers
happy and make them come back for more once they’ve had a taste of your
brand. For this – you must be willing and determined!
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Step 6 - MEASURE
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage
it.
To optimize your revenue cycle, you
absolutely need to manage it. And if you
can’t measure it, managing it becomes
nearly impossible.
You have to be able to measure the
effectiveness and the success of your
revenue cycle, understand where your sales and marketing funnel is falling
short, and see what requires immediate attention and readjustment.
The problem for most businesses, however, seems to be using the right
metrics for measuring the revenue cycle. Metrics that your revenue cycle
shouldn’t go without include:
1. Conversion rate : The ratio of closed deals to the number of leads at
each stage of the pipeline.
2. Average stage time: The average time a lead spends at each stage of
the pipeline.
3. Average revenue cycle time: The average time it takes to convert a
lead into a customer.
4. Lead source success ratio: The number of leads compared to the
number of conversions that come from a particular lead source.
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5. Funnel leakage: The number of leads dropped at each stage of the
funnel and why.
6. Closing rate: The number of proposals per sale.
7. Average deal size: The average dollar amount brought in by each
deal.
8. Pipeline value: The monetary value of all opportunities in the pipeline.
9. Cost of sales to revenue ratio: The cost of closing the deal compared
to deal revenue.
Your company may track other information as well, such as number of
deals closed per sales rep. You can find the numbers behind all of these
metrics within your marketing automation and salesforce automation
systems.
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Step 7 - OPTIMIZE
Once you get insight into what works
and what doesn’t work for your revenue
cycle, you’ll have the know-how to
figure out what improvements are
necessary and where. All too often,
businesses get stuck in their ways and
just keep doing the same old thing
that’s worked in the past.
If you find low conversion rates at a particular stage of your funnel, it’s time
to readjust your lead generation, nurturing, or scoring strategy at that stage.
If your leads are only coming from one source, you should come up with
alternative lead sources. You can also eliminate any lead sources that
aren’t producing any leads.
Revenue cycle metrics and analytics act as magnifying glasses, helping to
pinpoint bottlenecks in your sales and marketing processes and steer you
in the direction of new business solutions.
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Step 8 - REPEAT
As important as it is to continuously improve
your revenue cycle, it’s equally as important
to repeat the successes of your revenue
cycle. You must implement these successes
over time in a consistent manner.
According to a survey conducted by Marketo,
companies that actively utilize the revenue
cycle and practice RPM achieve 128% more
revenue then they’d anticipated!
If you want to know whether your revenue cycle is a success, talk to your
staff and your clients. Touch base with your staff regularly and figure out
which aspects of the revenue cycle are working and which ones aren’t and
why. Visit with your existing customers to talk about things they’d like to see
more of and ask them about things they didn’t like throughout the sales
process. Give them a chance to give feedback on your social media sites -
create forums, Facebook and LinkedIn groups, photo contests, blogs,
customer success stories, and more.
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Step 9 - SCALE
Consistency is good, but only if it translates
into growth over time. The same goes for
your revenue cycle. The whole point of
optimizing your revenue cycle is to scale it
and grow it to make your business even
more successful and competitive. Being
great means you have to be consistently
good – every single day.
But - scaling can cause issues if it’s not
done correctly. When scaling your revenue cycle, you need to ensure that:
1. The technology required is in place (i.e. marketing automation and
salesforce automation systems with seamless lead generation,
nurturing and management programs, pipeline analytics, salesforce
automation, etc.).
2. Staff are ready and able to handle every aspect of the revenue cycle
(i.e. they are experts in the revenue cycle, know exactly how to it
relates to their own and other departments and manage it with utmost
efficiency).
3. Sales and marketing fit into the revenue cycle like a well-oiled
machine and work it with harmony and competence.
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Summary Are you ready to beat your measurably increase your revenue? If so, this is
your blueprint! Remember, business has changed - the buyer is now in
control. In order for your business to adapt, your sales and marketing
departments must be aligned with one goal: revenue. This is just another
process in your business that can be managed (like finance, operations, or
HR). These 9 steps of the revenue cycle methodology can help you
structure your business and set you up for revenue success!
If you’d like to talk with someone about how Revenue Performance
Management can revolutionize your revenue cycle, contact us today. In the
US, contact Acadia Lead Management Services. Outside the US, contact
365RPM Group.
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About Us
Revenue365 helps companies accelerate revenue by identifying, managing and
optimizing their revenue cycle via the use of people, processes and technology. Learn
more at www.365rpmgroup.com.
Revenue365
Level 6, 80 Mount Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
Australia
Phone: 1.300.852.599
Acadia Lead Management Services works with clients to streamline the sales pipeline,
create a process for each client according to their needs and measure results along the
way. Learn more at www.acadialms.com.
Acadia Lead Management Services
4738 Gateway Circle – Suite A100
Kettering, OH 45440
USA
Phone: 888.605.3194
