Nobody would use a 30-year-old computer -- but many sales & marketing organizations lack modern distributed multi-channel marketing automation solutions -- and that's just as costly.
Although 2011 has been a good year compared to the last two, most sales and marketing organizations still face many challenges including the lingering economic downturn, a hyper competitive business landscape, and rising customer expectations.
Add in the complexity that comes with multi-channel communications and complying with burgeoning regulatory requirements, and it’s easy to see why a formal marketing strategy isn’t a luxury.
The Aberdeen Group wrote it its report Sales & Marketing Alignment: Collaboration + Cooperation = Peak Performance that common goal identification, defined responsibilities, and established workflows for sales and marketing are essential for competitive survival.
During the planning and budgeting phase for 2012, one critical consideration is multi-channel marketing automation and how it can affect performance. That’s because Aberdeen reports that ready access to marketing collateral by field and local sales organizations is a good predictor of overall sales success.
Companies with a distributed marketing platform that provides relevant stakeholders in marketing, sales, service and channel partners with access to compelling content and assets are 86% more likely to achieve best in class results compared to those without.
Marketing automation solutions, Aberdeen says, speed time to market and generates faster sales cycles. This is especially true in organizations where tracking and reporting are automated, and reports are available on demand across the organization in near real-time so that there is never a question about how a campaign performed, or which marketing assets delivered the best results.
One reason that organizations with a distributed multi-channel marketing automation solution outperform those without may be the fact that sales people who can select, customize, and personalize everything from email campaigns to proposals and bid books have more time to focus on actually selling. Another may be that there’s less lead spoilage if less time passes before great creative is on its way to them.