Are You Customer Obsessed?

Forrester's head of research made an interesting statement in its recent CIO/CMO Forum. Cliff Condon, Chief Research Officer said that "customer obsession is your only source of competitive advantage." I am curious what you think about that statement. Forrester says its now the 'age of the customer'. I agree with them, but there is definitely a lot of work to do. 

Did you know that only 18% of marketers say they have a complete view of their clients(Teradata, see the great article from CMO Lisa Arthur http://t.co/W1MWTf3cTH ).

Similarly, only 15% of companies believe they have the talent, resources, and alignment to execute on a truly digital strategy. 93% of those same companies said that they are being impacted by some form of digital disruption(Forrester)

At the same time, customers are setting the bar higher than ever before when it comes to choosing and keeping suppliers, vendors and partners. And for good measure, there are plenty of choices besides your company. The challenge is now out there in plain site and the good news is that its an open field for your organization to shoot to the head of the pack in your industry. Are you ready to compete solely on the basis of customer 'obsession'? More importantly, what does it take to succeed in the age of the customer? Here are a few key elements to chew on:

1. Define The Customer Experience - Back in the late '80's when I was in the manufacturing space, we had "the customer is always right." Well he's still right but he's evolving so fast, you had better keep up. You must create a strategy which puts the customer in the center of everything you do. From when he is just a name on a target list to a serious prospect consuming your content and the first conversation he has with your team. From the time he makes a decision to buy your solution until you deliver his final product. Then there is the ongoing development and nurturing of this relationship into a long term returning client. You gain and continue earn the customer's trust throughout. Rinse and repeat for all of your clients across all of the channels through which you sell. 

2. Use Technology To Drive It- Email platforms, CRM, social media, marketing automation, client portals, mobile automation tools, sales tools, interactive content, playbooks, predictive analytics, content management, employee advocacy platforms and even customer experience platforms. All of them yielding reams of data about your clients and prospects and designed to help you personalize their experiences, deliver valuable insights, anticipate, meet and exceed their needs.

3. Invent and Innovate: The digital disruption that companies are feeling are being driven by new inventions in addition to product and technology innovations. Aim to be the disruptor instead of the disruptee. Employee advocacy platforms and programs are becoming an integral part of turning employees loose to deliver ideas, solve problems and preach your companies gospel to the world. Develop a culture of free thinking and communicating. The companies that invent and innovate will attract and keep their customers from fleeing to a sexier or more cost effective solutions.

4. Learn and Teach: As you bring your digital and mobile capabilities to full maturity, strive for subject matter expertise in your space and teach your clients how do to the same. Your ability to provide ongoing value to your clients will determine your future in the age of the customer. At Alinean, we changed our focus and business model as our clients evolved. We invented around the iPad, mobile devices and HTML5. We changed our strategy to help clients identify issues, deliver insights, solve problems, create more effective content and ultimately bring personalized value to their customers in a compelling and engaging fashion. We are working closely with our clients to accelerate change in their organizations. What is your organization doing to be more customer obsessed? Eager for your comments!

Why is Sales Performance Declining? Part 1: Buying Committees

Did you know that...?
....In 2014, only 59% of sales reps will achieve their quota?(Accenture) -this number is down sharply from 67% last year. Not only that, this number had been gradually increasing for each of the past 5 years before this drop-off.

...The #1 criteria that decision makers look for in making a purchasing decision is widespread support for you and your company across his organization? (CEB)

....At the enterprise level, there are as many as 10 members in the buying decision committee. A recent deal we were involved in needed 21 signatures before completion! As Chris Berman would say: "C'mon Man!"

The reality though is that its getting immensely complicated to sell effectively today. The number of decision makers and influencers involved in a purchasing decision has increased steadily over the past 3 years and is direct fallout from the Great Recession. Buyers continue to remain risk averse and require compelling evidence to move forward with your solution as opposed to staying with the status quo. Here's how to deal with this new selling fact of life:

1. Identify The Members of The Buying Committee- One of our senior leaders and Alinean Co-Founder, Betty McNeil, a former sales trainer and current rainmaker advises to ask the following question: "Who besides yourself will be involved in the decision?" This is a critical first step in identifying the team that will be involved in the prospect's(or current customer's) final decision. While it is great to have a champion on your side within the organization, it is very rare that this person alone can seal the deal with you. Step 1 is to create a map of all of the folks involved in this decision, the executive sponsor, budget holder, product and technical leaders, and influencers of all types.

2. Connect Deep Within The Organization- As a general rule, connecting with numerous stakeholders within your client or prospect's organization is now a must. Jill Konrath in her popular sales blog outlines a formula which heavily uses LinkedIn as a tool: http://bit.ly/1tprRJO. If you haven't already uncovered the names of the buyer decision committee, Konrath advises to search your champion's name on LinkedIn and then look for 'others at company xyz' for ideas. You can also leverage the advanced search to select specific titles at that company. Now you need to connect with these folks on LinkedIn. Konrath also advises that you may actually need to help your champion identify others who will help finalize the deal. Again, LinkedIn is a great tool for this. This must be managed tactfully and on a case-by-case basis. Work with and leverage your champion as much as possible. Let her know that you will be working to help her move your deal through the process. But the new terrain means you need to be more proactive and involved in your client's decision making process than ever before.



3. Demonstrate Personalized Value To Each Decision Maker-As you move along the process with your champion, invariably you will be called upon to meet several new members of the committee and each of them likely will have a different agenda. Their focus may be technical, operations, business, marketing, sales or financially focused. In order to be able to facilitate each of these stakeholders decision, you will need to understand what challenges are important to each unique person and then deliver a tailored and personalized identification of the pain and value message in response.

 Beyond mere value messaging, today’s buyer requires more motivation. It is key to also provide a quantification of the “cost of do nothing” and business benefits, as well as 3^rd party evidence to support the claims. The ability to connect with each buyer’s unique point-of-value is critical. 

 Our team at Alinean creates value messaging and tools that do just this.ValueStory for Sales enables sale execs to deliver tailored messages for each stakeholder in the organization. The Tools intelligently create messaging paths and personalized value conversations on the fly based on role in the decision making process, industry, company size or any other pertinent profile data. The ability to connect and build a bridge of value to each member of the buying decision committee is critical.

4. Use Social Channels To Closely Monitor The Company: In addition to connecting with as many key players from the prospect's organization on LinkedIn, there are other social tactics that are effective. Set up a Google Alert for the prospect company so you can stay up to date on everything that is happening around the organization whether its product releases, executive moves, company priorities, positioning against the competition or financial reporting.
Follow the company on Twitter and Facebook to get a sense of the company's social personality and the issues which on which it chooses to focus. Having detailed knowledge about your prospect's organization and its challenges will help you properly position your solution and also give you added confidence in future conversations.

The Bottom Line: With more stakeholders involved in each decision, your deals are getting more complex, with more deals getting stalled, and the deals that do close taking longer to close as a result.

To overcome quota shortfalls and thrive in this more complex sales environment, you need to find new ways to identify the stakeholders involved in the decision and deliver tailored value messages and quantification to all members of the buying decision committee. 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The ROI Guy", Tom Pisello

*Thanks to Tom Pisello, CEO & Founder of Alinean for co- writing this post. See his popular 'ROI Guy" Blog here: http://bit.ly/1ytlWH0

What's Missing From Nearly Every Agency Website

Did you know that.....

82% of agency search consultants say that brands are looking for a 'differentiated experience' when selecting a new agency partner (Avidan Strategies) and that...
57% of a CMO's decision making process is complete before even engaging an agency (CEB)? and that..
In two years, 90% of companies expect to compete almost entirely on the basis of customer experience(Gartner)

So what does this mean for the future revenue growth of marketing and ad agencies? It means that the marketing world is racing down the tracks at a breakneck pace and the very core of what it means to be a relevant agency is on the line. How do you differentiate? What does a CMO find when he researches your agency? Compelling content? Regular thought leadership pieces from your senior strategists? Insights gleaned from across your client base? A community portal for answering questions about marketing challenges? All of your fully engaged employees serving as brand advocates across social media? A personalized experience that tells a story and leverages the latest technology to effectively nurture this new relationship? Unfortunately, a look over many agency websites and social presence delivers little of this. A total reset is needed. Here's a framework:

1. Blow Up Your Website! The typical agency website looks like this: A ton of random videos, 'who we are' sections, 'awards' 'the team', 'client names' more jargon, 'services' and more videos with no context. The agency that truly wants to differentiate needs to take a challenge focused approach to its web presence. Are CMO's looking for specific awards you won or rather trying to solve important business issues? Are they just looking to web surf for cool videos or seeking partners that understand their challenges? Marketing leaders need to be agile, customer obsessed and data focused. They are trying to navigate an abundance of new marketing technologies, developing and reporting on metrics for success, assisting in setting the strategic agenda with the CEO, outlining a seamless customer journey which delivers personalized and contextual conversations across the digital and mobile terrain, converting and retaining customers and oh yes, delivering profitable revenue gains. While you might be doing this all day long with your current clients, your site needs show how you address these challenges. Position yourself to proactively set the buying agenda as opposed to reacting in a shootout with ten other agencies.

2. Thought Leadership is a Must According to The Challenger Sale by Matt Dixon and Brent Adamson, buyers today want more than anything to learn something new from a prospective new supplier. The ability to deliver unique insights is the most powerful weapon that can be leveraged. That's why agencies need to do a better job of delivering thought leadership in the form of regular online posts. Agencies today have some of the brightest minds in the world on their team. Its time for them to build a pipeline of though leadership bloggers and attract radically more prospects to your agency.

3. Build an Online Community Learning Center  IDC, in its Worldwide Social Business Predictions for 2015, lists the continued growth of online communities in support of business innovation (+30%) as its #1 prediction. The newly renovated agency online image should include a community learning portal which will bring together agency employees and prospects in a socially engaging, welcoming and low pressure environment. Prospects can interact with agency thought leaders, execs, and 'regular' employees to develop and nurture an authentic relationship built on credible information and trust. Trust, by the way, is moving to the top of the list of foundational components needed to drive revenue, and social media is an ideal way to develop and nurture this trust. The Edelman Trust Barometer of 2014 shows regular employees and subject matter experts to be the most credible sources of information about a company--more so than the senior executives. Companies that have deployed online community learning sites have seen impressive results. Performance Bicycle realized a 300% increase in traffic to its e-commerce site in the first four months with a 20% higher conversion rate.

4. Create an Employee Advocacy Program- In addition to deploying a new online community, agencies can leverage the power of the many to become a fully socially engaged business. Your non-sales employees are a huge source of untapped potential and Employee Advocacy channels their passion, personality and knowledge across their social networks. It acts as compound interest for the agency and delivers significant benefits for a very low cost investment. Advocacy programs maximize the chances of reaching the right person at the right time with the right message from a person they trust. While still a relatively new concept, IBM is one company that is delivering impressive results through Employee Advocacy and there are a number of platforms which can automate the process. In an initial run with 200 internal thought leaders, the company pushed out 146,000 shares which delivered 188M impressions and 603,000 clicks-an organically generated program which would have cost potentially $1M in paid advertising.

5. Look Out for Oracle, Dell, Salesforce and Adobe! These power house tech firms have all recently rolled out "marketing cloud" initiatives and are going after the CMO's budget. And they are leading with technology. Software is starting to eat every industry. Is marketing services next? Competition has always been fierce and costly for agencies. There are now some very big and powerful players looking for a seat at the table and agencies need to show more of their chops around the subject of marketing technology to continue to thrive.

By radically transforming its online and social presence, agencies have the opportunity to leverage its exceptional brainpower and the strength of its full organizations to ride the next wave of massive opportunity in the marketing space.

The Modern Day Social Seller: Buyers Are More Empowered But So Are You!

The research and the reality: B2B buyers are more knowledgeable than ever before and they are using readily available information about your company, products, services, customers, team, history and competitors to propel themselves toward a purchase decision. 57% of the decision process is complete before prospects engage sales. (Source – CEB, The New High Performer Playbook, Arlington VA, 2012). If you are in sales today, this poses a challenge. Here's how the top sales teams are dealing with this new reality and turning it into a higher win rate, and quota-busting performance.

Internet research works both ways: High performing sales teams are using the internet to educate themselves on their buyers' organizations: their challenges, corporate objectives, personnel, financial performance, competition, leadership profiles, solutions, clients and so on. In addition to websites, they subscribe to their prospects' and clients' twitter feeds, scour the financial reports on Yahoo Finance and set up Google Alerts for real-time info on their activities. When the clock starts on the remaining 43% of the process-where the rubber meets the road-they are ready, well informed, asking leading questions, delivering insights and properly positioning their solutions to match up with prospect challenges. 

Deliver Insights that are NOT publicly available: When your prospect picks up the phone to call, the high performing sales teams have a well stocked arsenal of insights to provide which the prospect has likely not heard before. This is a value ad that the empowered sales exec leverages to her advantage. Where do these 'proprietary' insights come from? Marketing organizations are deploying tools and advanced technology to glean information from prospect visits to websites and sales conversations. They then aggregate these key metrics which the high performers are using as insights in their ongoing conversations with buyers. In a recent article, "Acres of Diamonds", Alinean CEO Tom Pisello and VP Mark Schlueter detail how insights can be mined right in your own "backyard": http://bit.ly/11vPHJm . Sales tools like Alinean's ValueStory   http://bit.ly/11tPCVP  capture key data from all client and prospect conversations and deliver them back to sales and leadership in real-time. High performing sales teams are analyzing this up to the minute intel on buyer behavior and delivering them as insights to their prospects.

Sign Them Up! Today's top sales performers are leveling the playing field by doing in depth research on their buyers, properly planning their sales strategy and personalizing and leveraging 'proprietary' insights to establish credibility, earn the right to continue the relationship and advance on to more closed deals.

Note: I join Tom Pisello, Alinean's CEO to deliver a  deeper dive on this and other critical issues on his successful 'ROI Guy" Blog (http://blog.alinean.com/) check it out!

Like a Phoenix: The Newly Empowered CMO Storms Back With a Vengance

Research firm Forrester delivered some very interesting news this week: It is predicting that the average tenure of the Chief Marketing Officer role in organizations is expected to grow to 60 months in 2015. This is up from 23.2 months in 2006 and 45 months earlier this year(Spencer Stuart, WSJ http://on.wsj.com/1wmnufF ).

Why is the lifespan of the once embattled CMO the rise? Are companies taking a longer term view these days? There are a number of factors that play into this new found strength for the CMO. Here are four:

1) Digital disruption and the role of technology: Organizations increasingly are wrestling with fast moving buyers, (whether consumers or business to business) a rapidly expanding number of channels from which these buyers can be reached, and the need for advanced technology to manage communications to these digitally enabled and socially connected buyers. The rising CMO is well versed in the needs of these buyers and is orchestrating the multi pronged initiatives around real-time and two-way communications, personalization, value focused marketing and sales strategies, integrated content, PR, social media, push and pull marketing, CRM, marketing automation, data/analytics interpretation and alignment with sales-- to name a few(ok, maybe more than a few) relevant buzz words and categories that require proficiency in order to effectively drive revenue success today.

2) The CMO is now front and center in the revenue equation: A recent article attributed the CMO's rise with "better relationships with CEO's." So are the new CMO's better glad handers and relationship builders? Not necessarily. CMO's are taking the lead in and are increasingly accountable for driving revenue. They are controlling all of the touch points along the buyer's journey and leading prospects through to sales for close. They even help sales with the tools and content for deal finalization. Their relationships with CEO's are in fact better because the are becoming invaluable members of the senior team in delivering revenue growth.

3) Customer Experience will soon be the leading point of difference for organizations: As is widely known in marketing and sales circles, buyers have more control over their purchase decisions than ever before. Instead of starting with sales, they visit online reviews, online forums, user groups, social media, websites and financial reports to learn about a company's products and strategies. The CMO and his team create the content that these buyers will access and they work to provide the right messages to the right prospects at the right time. In addition, rich intelligence can be gathered at each one of these touch-points in the buyer's/consumer's decision journey. The CMO's organization helps organizations interpret and leverage this data and shares it with sales, finance, and customer service to be used as the foundation of an exceptional customer experience. And according to Gartner, in two years 90% of companies expect to compete 'entirely' on customer experience.

4) It is costly to frequently swap CMO's: There is great cost associated with frequently changing CMO's. One such example centers around bringing on marketing agencies. CMO's hire marketing agencies and in a recent interview with The List, the leaders of Agency Search consultants, External View, estimated that it takes 18 months to bring a new agency up to speed. New CMO's every couple of years means new on-boarding of agencies as each newly crowned CMO either replaces an incumbent agency or adds his/her own favored agency. There is tremendous cost associated with this including the change in personnel and learning curves of new staffers. Just this week, a few major brands (Kraft, Nestle and Sears ) announced plans to consolidate agencies in an effort to reduce overhead. This is a direct result of the CMO revolving door that has plagued companies in the past.

The modern day CMO has an incredible opportunity to lead his organization's success. The changing face of the consumer and business buyer, the growing complexity around selling channels, advancing technology and explosion of data are key elements of the CMO's focus which now makes him vital to the success of the organization. The CMO's rise in stature is good news for business. More stability within the leadership of organizations coupled with an enhanced ability to effectively monitor, navigate and lead through a changing landscape bodes well for future corporate success, a greater customer experience, more sales, increased profits and a demand for talent.

Social Selling is Hot. Social Buying is Hotter.

Social selling is a term that is gaining frequent use in business circles these days. But it may not be what you think.

First a few interesting facts:

Did you know...?

*98% of sales reps with 5000+ LinkedIn Connections achieve their quota numbers? (Sales Benchmark Index) Wow! I need another 3300 or so--got to elevate my game!

*86% of IT buyers use social media in their purchase decision process(IDG Connect)

*74% of B2B companies use Twitter to distribute content(CMI)

*5x: Sales increases its chances fivefold of gaining an initial meeting if it has a first level LinkedIn Connection with that person(Sales Benchmark Index)

There are several more eye opening facts in a recent article by Business 2 Community http://yhoo.it/10tnuRX

What does this mean for B2B companies and their employees? It means that your prospects and clients are all over the social media playing field. They are researching solutions, delivering information about their company, providing detailed information about themselves, their careers, goals, challenges, interests, background, and education. This modern social media-craving buyer is more knowledgable than ever before and in a high stakes game to grow their organizations--it's win now or go home. The long term is not in the vocabulary of most companies today.

So how should organizations use social media to find and connect with these buyers?

What's clear is that buyers want to buy. They are not interested in being 'sold' to. The sales cycle is now the buyer's journey. They want to learn and exchange ideas with thought leaders. The socially advanced companies understand this fact and their leadership and associates are positioning themselves to be discovered. With this in mind and thinking about the numbers we learned about earlier, here are some initial observations around maximizing you organization's social success:

1. It starts at the top: Your company needs a social media personality. And it starts at the top. Your CEO needs to be large and in charge for the organization's social efforts. My company's (Alinean, Inc) CEO Tom Pisello is known as the "ROI Guy" and blogs weekly on B2B issues and strategies around driving revenue through value selling and marketing( http://blog.alinean.com/ )He has also set up a number of LinkedIn discussion groups related to this subject. Here is one such example: http://linkd.in/1xdMQ3k .

2. But, its everybody's job: Yes, the CEO needs to be active and of course sales needs to be all over it, but what is more interesting is the fact that those organizations with all or a large percentage of their associates out there and active on social media are more successful at connecting with target prospects and eventually winning more business. Every employee that participates opens the door to on average 2500 new connections for the company. (Inside Sales, see article: http://onforb.es/1vPWCVf ). Dell, Cisco, SAP and IBM are all investing in and creating Employee Advocacy programs which leverage the immense strength of their entire organizations, turning them loose in the social media universe.

3. Thoughtfully grow your LinkedIn network: Its a steep climb to 5000 connections but it needs to be done thoughtfully and strategically. It doesn't mean engaging in a promiscuous speed dating-like invitation spree. The end result of this will be a very low percentage of acceptances and in all likelihood a warning from LinkedIn to cease and desist and a threat of going into the penalty box. Connect with those prospects that can make a difference to your business, but send a personalized invite. So many of us receive random invites from strangers that leave it up to us to figure out what the motivation is. And 9 times out of 10 its a sales call waiting to happen. To personalized your message click on the drop down next to the send a message radio button and it will prompt you to personalize the invite. Send a brief note with why you are interested in connecting. I usually mention our common interest around business development, technology, marketing or sales enablement, tell them I am interested in sharing ideas and staying in touch. We usually have a few connections in common which will also help. I am not selling them anything, talking too much about myself or my company. You will be successful in winning the trust of your targeted contact with this approach and as a new 1st level connection, there is a greater chance they will be exposed to your blogs, tweets, groups, comments, favorites and the like. Again, put yourself in a position to be noticed.

4. Establish a personal brand: Social media sites are tools to be used, but its up to you as to how you will be viewed, the digital personality you put forth and the content you create and/or share. And don't forget, a picture is mandatory for your profile. Be human and approachable. Be active, both to learn and research your clients, prospects and to share relevant facts about you and your company. Blog, tweet, interview clients, create YouTube videos. The content is a critical piece to this as it needs to inform, educate and not be thinly disguised product pitches. Educate and inform, don't interrupt and sell. If you have something interesting to say, people will notice and come to value your advice. In short fish where the fish are. B2B buyers are consumers too and they want B2C type experiences. This YouTube video from Cisco is a great example of meshing the consumer experience with B2B marketing:




5. Make it "real time": David Meermam Scott, author of a number of books including The New Rules of Marketing and PR recently spoke at the Richardson Client Forum in Philadelphia, Pa and spent a good portion of his energetic presentation renaming social selling, ''real-time selling." The most successful companies are agile and can leverage their social presence to pounce on the needs that are occurring now more so than at a future point in time. It's about instant engagement, and monitoring the digital buying signals. Some personal tools I like to use to mine for digital buying signals are Google Alerts, which sends real time news via email from my target prospects and current clients in addition to Twitter feeds which I have sent directly to my phone as texts as news unfolds.

As in the early days of digital marketing, the companies and individuals that help blaze the trail in the area of social selling by engaging in real time, mining for digital buying signals and creating thought provoking content will be in a strong position to supercharge their sales.

Agency New Business: A Framework To Drive More New Logos

Did you know.... that a recent survey conducted by RSW/US indicates that 66% of agencies believe that their new business leaders were unsuccessful because they did not leverage a specific methodology?

In addition, 71% of agencies believe it is more difficult to break through to prospects than ever before. This is backed up by IDC's research which found that as compared to three years ago, 50% more leads are needed just to generate the same amount of revenue. Open rates are down and marketers are busier than ever-a by product of the Great Recession-as they are now typically doing 2 or more jobs. 

A methodology is critical to the biz dev department's success because bringing in new logos has become infinitely more complex that it was just a few years ago. 

Here are some of the key elements of a new business development framework:

Research: Understand your agency inside and out. Not only its services, but its personality and its point of view. What has it done well? What is its true core competency? What is the agency's point of view and how is it unique? At iNDELIBLE in the early days of digital, we offered many different services, but our pioneering in online video experiences was at our core the most distinguishing point of difference. Next, work with the other senior leaders in the agency to determine the best client prospects, industries and roles to target from a new business perspective. Lastly, using case studies and proof points from successful client engagements, create compelling insights which you can use in your campaigns and pitch decks. Create a prospect list which maximizes your chance of making a match. Now research those companies--their financial reports, websites, social media and executives. Create Google alerts so that you are notified of key moves within and by the organization. What are the key challenges facing those prospects? What are the key initiatives? What does their competitive landscape look like? How would you help them..? Work with your team to craft a few high level concepts. Then....(in tandem with your PR and marketing teams--if they exist at your agency)...

"Push:"  Reach out via email. Include a value-ad--a link to relevant work or recent blog post and success metrics. Your prospects want to learn what their peers are doing successfully. Also send a brief Linkedin inMail requesting an intro meeting and a chance to discuss some of those ideas in more depth. Help the prospect see how you understand her business issues and how you can help her build a bridge to the desired state. Connect the dots(constantly!): Schedule coffees, lunches, phone calls, chats, skypes, face times. Everyone you know needs to be briefed on what you and your agency are doing and the type of people with whom you are looking to connect. That means all of your circles--old and new friends, high school, college, grad school alums, folks from your daughter's soccer team, your train mates. When you meet someone new, ask what they do. I delivered a major win for my agency out of a chance meeting at a "back to school" night for my son. Your antenna must always be up and on high receive. Turn your family into disciples of the agency, asking them to be on the lookout for marketers. Your kids' friends' Moms and Dads, your wife's friends, your husband's golf buddies---push the envelope. You want to get your team to the plate but it takes an extraordinary effort--a multi faceted approach. Meetings=revenue!

"Pull:"Many prospects prefer to find you, and are researching online so you and your team need to be blogging and posting to social media. Podcasts interviewing clients and industry luminaries, links to work, case studies, speaking at conferences and relevant news programs(MDC Chairman Miles Nadal does a great job of appearing on networks such as Fox Business and CNBC)are all critical. Establish thought leadership in key areas which map to your expertise.. Make sure the content is compelling. Give them a reason to call you.

Phew...So, you've got the meeting at long last. Great job, yes, but now its time to shift it into overdrive. A new set of skills are needed.

Assemble and prepare the team for the initial meeting: Select the team that matches up the best with the prospect based on the assessment you have conducted of the prospect's challenges and business objectives. In addition, based on the personalities and constituencies involved on the client side, assemble the team that will mesh the best. Deliver all of the key intel you have collected to your team and prepare as a group for the meeting. Provide strategic direction and insight. When you get to conference room and its showtime, start and finish the meeting strong, watch the clock and make sure there is sufficient time for questions and next steps--moderate accordingly--if people's eyes are glossing over--change the direction- call a time out and regroup with the team. Make sure everything presented maps back to the objectives and challenges you uncovered previously. Establish timing for the follow up meeting/call---try to schedule it right there on the spot if possible. Make sure everyone connects on Linkedin.

Write a summary of the meeting: What was discussed, agreed upon and include all follow up materials. Keep it short but continue to paint the picture of your prospect achieving his goals and moving toward a successful partnership with you and your agency. You heard them, you get them, you can help them and here's a brief overview of how you'll do it and what it will mean to them in the way of results.

Close with ROI: Assuming your follow up meeting goes well, when you proactively scope out the engagement, deliver the SOW, and ask for the business, there is one key element that is a must and potentially the difference between ringing the cash register or going back to the drawing board. The term ROI is thrown around a lot in marketing circles these days. In fact a study released recently and published in AdAge (http://bit.ly/1tG3VUp) says CMO's are increasingly being asked to deliver 'measurable ROI' for their marketing spend. 93% of CMO's in the study said they feel this pressure. More importantly, the CMO's in the study said they do not have the tools and/or team/skills to do so. This is a major challenge of the modern CMO and the agencies that can deliver proposals which clearly show the value of their services will have a leg up on the competition. As an example, in the high tech world, the companies that can quantify benefits, lead with value and ROI have seen sales cycle times decrease, deal sizes increase and stalled deals move to the win column by being able to demonstrate value. For the agency new business team you need to work with the prospect to determine what levers are going to be pulled and what KPI's need to be impacted. The final proposal sent in to the client should include a value analysis with an estimated ROI. According to best selling author Jeffrey Fox from How To Become a Rainmaker, "Rainmakers sell money." "They turn benefits into dollars." At Alinean, we train our clients in value selling and create tools which intelligently deliver the appropriate value messages based on the prospects' profiles. Buying decisions today occur with equal parts emotional and rational components. Many agencies are great at nailing the emotional...rolling out the A team, showing off their coolest work--Connect and feel good for sure, but there is another part of the decision makers' brains which need to be satisfied--the logical. The procurement teams are there to remind you of that! The agencies that can demonstrate ROI will be ultimately more successful in sealing the deal and winning new business.

New business leaders and growth officers have a tough job. Like a good NFL coach, you need a well thought-out, orchestrated and executed game plan which covers all bases and possibilities. No doubt your team is an impressive group of individuals, but like the coach you need to put the right players in the positions that fit the team the best. You need to strategize, research, prepare, practice, and execute a detailed and airtight plan. Happy selling!