That’s how people shop.

Marketers know this as “the sales funnel”. The concept has different names and maybe an additional element or two, but it works pretty much the same way since the concept was first described—in the late 19^th century.

The advent of AI and the avalanche of data has distorted the shape of the funnel. If it is not shaped like a funnel any more, then what is it? There are different opinions out there.

Think about a spider web

Ryan Brock, chief solution officer at marketing strategy platform DemandJump, no longer sees a funnel.

Starting in 2012, Brock realized that the funnel concept was not making sense. He was creating separate marketing campaigns for each persona, developing specific content that would mark the customer’s interest at the top, middle and bottom of the funnel. “I was trying to move people along what I assumed the journey was.”

The customers had been living in the Internet age for a long time, Brock noted. “People learn in a lot of different ways,” he said. That’s when he noticed that how people shopped resembled a spider web more than a journey down a funnel.

“The spider web is built so that the spider can go from anywhere to anywhere,” Brock said. Look at the customer’s search behavior, look at the context of their search, look at the Google recommendations, and you will notice that the same words, terms, and topics will come up all the time. This creates “inflection points” between your solution and their search. The customer can start their search anywhere on that web, but you know where the web strands come together, Brock explained.

AI, coupled with search, will only make the journey faster. For a simple answer to a question, the first answer may be good enough. There is a trust issue here. “You risk [getting] the wrong information, but you save time.” Brock said.

The AI/search combination cannot understand a culture or understand a context that is “too unique”, but it can be used to uncover complex topics and is research-oriented, Brock noted, if you care to research the customer experience.

Dig deeper: What is sales enablement and how do these platforms help bridge the marketing-sales divide?

Everybody still calls it a ‘funnel’

“There are 77,000 different paths to a purchase,” said Don Simpson founder of sales intelligence platform Lift AI. “We try to use the funnel because that is what everyone is used to.”

Simpson deals with B2B sales, often featuring a year-long sales cycle punctuated by lots of customer research. There are many different customer journeys that must be tracked, “from the initial time the customer surfaces all the way to the sales process,” he said. “We try to see the customer journey and predict the likelihood to convert.”

Lift AI does that analysis at the web page level. How people engage with the online material may be indicative of what they will do next. The client’s web site is treated as a “buyer intent tool.” Simpson said. “We track from the first visit to the sale close. We predict conversion in real time.”

The data gained by Lifts AI’s modeling can be fed into a sales tracking tool. “You can play with (the data) and build models based on that with varying degrees of success.” Simpson said. Developing and tracking that situational awareness on the web site has led to increases in sales on an order of magnitude.

Marketers want to put in “what they think is important,” Simpson said, but what is important is that the model is accurate. Model accuracy is a sign that the marketer is on the right track. If that rate is 85-90%, then it is “accurate,” Simpson explained. “You keep tweaking and refining until you get accurate. ” So with AI, the marketers hypothesis is actually no longer as important.

A funnel? Yes, but a dark funnel

For Latane Conant, CMO at ABM platform 6sense, the funnel is still there. “It feels nice, it feels tidy, and it feels organized. But it’s not our reality.” With the shift to digital buying, we get “The dark funnel”.

“[B]uyers do their research anonymously instead of through a conversation with a seller. They’re still showing signals of where they are in the buying journey, but now those signals are happening out of plain sight,” Conant said. 

For example, only three percent of visitors will fill out a form, Conant noted. The rest of them go un-noticed, unless de-anonymized. “Yet only 26% of B2B organizations do actually de-anonymize this traffic,” Conant said.

“The truth is the buying journey has never been linear. Buyers don’t progress neatly from one stage to the next,” Conant continued. “Buyers may spend a month in the awareness phase, a week in the consideration phase, and a day in the decision phase before reverting to the consideration phase. Or they may jump straight from awareness to decision/purchase…It doesn’t follow a pre-set cadence, which is why it’s so important to have the intent data, and the AI to distill it into insights, so you can track buyer readiness at any given point.”

Funnel or not, it’s still about data

Marketers can get a handle on divining buyer intent, provided they ask the right questions and find the right answers. The “shape” of the customer journey is less important than the data being analyzed.

Marketers should start investigating “the questions that matter to you the most,” Brock said. Look at search behavior itself. Do research. Will the AI supplant your voice, or will it find people who are looking for something unique? Carefully develop content to appeal to customers at those information junctions. A sales web has inflection points, and an algorithm can provide content to suit the customer at those points, he noted.

Simpson took a more direct approach. “People come to your store for a reason,” he said, so buyer intent is already there. Identify the behavior that shows likelihood to convert. Engage in a conversation with that cohort. Apply the time and resources to that audience in buy mode, and capitalize on opportunity, he said.

Conant offered these three steps to meet the challenge:

1. Use AI to be more human.  Artificial intelligence can draw customer information from many sources before engaging them on their own personal terms.
2.  Use AI to be more efficient. Predictive AI can take over routine tasks, like crafting personalized messages aimed at specific customers.
3. Use AI to streamline workflows. Use AI to augment CRM, finding accounts and adding meaningful data, then getting that information to the sales and marketing teams.

“As the sales journey and funnel evolve in this anonymous buying age, demands on marketers are higher than ever.” Conant said. “Rather than seeing AI as another complicating factor, I look at it as our lifeboat — the way we’re going to meet these rising demands without killing ourselves in the process.”

The post If it’s not a sales funnel, what is it? appeared first on MarTech.

In this article, we will explore the significance of marketing and sales alignment for business success, discuss the benefits of alignment, such as increased revenue, enhanced customer experience, and efficient operations, and provide actionable strategies to ensure your organization operates cohesively.

Building a collaborative environment

Establishing a collaborative environment is fundamental for marketing and sales alignment. A shared sense of purpose and mutual respect can bridge the gaps between these departments. A workplace where both teams feel valued and supported fosters trust and boosts overall performance.

Developing a service level agreement (SLA) is one way to stimulate collaboration. An SLA clarifies expectations, outlines roles and responsibilities, and sets key performance indicators (KPIs) that both teams can strive towards. This promotes accountability and simplifies expectation management.

Frequent check-ins enable both teams to communicate openly, exchange insights and data, address challenges, and realign goals and strategies. This continuous dialogue facilitates improvement and fortifies the relationship between marketing and sales.

Aligning on the buyer’s and workforce’s Journey

Synchronizing marketing and sales efforts around the buyer’s and workforce’s journeys is crucial for delivering outstanding customer experiences. This shared understanding allows for identifying key touchpoints where marketing and sales teams can collaborate, providing a consistent experience for prospects and customers while addressing the needs and concerns of the employees serving them. Considering both aspects, you can craft a seamless experience for prospects, customers, and your internal team, resulting in higher conversion rates and a more unified organization.

Developing detailed buyer and workforce personas is an effective way to understand and target the right audience and shape your internal culture. Marketing and sales teams can pinpoint their ideal customers’ common characteristics, pain points, and motivations, crafting personalized and relevant messaging that resonates with prospects. Simultaneously, comprehending your workforce’s personas enables you to cultivate an environment that promotes employee growth, engagement, and satisfaction.

Streamlining processes and leveraging technology

Optimizing processes and employing technology can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing and sales teams. Adopting the appropriate tools and implementing well-defined processes empower both teams to collaborate more seamlessly, ultimately driving exceptional customer experiences.

Defining the lead qualification and scoring process is a critical area to address. Establishing the criteria for qualifying leads enables marketing teams to pass high-quality prospects to sales, saving time and increasing the chances of closing deals. Sales teams can then prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert, ensuring their efforts are focused on the most promising prospects.

Implementing CRM and marketing automation tools is essential for keeping both teams organized, sharing information effectively, and maintaining alignment on their goals and strategies. Integrating these tools into workflows streamlines processes enhances communication, and fosters collaboration.

Measuring and analyzing shared key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of the strategies in place. Regularly tracking these metrics allows both teams to identify areas for improvement, adjust their tactics accordingly, and ensure their efforts are aligned and focused on delivering the best possible customer experiences.

Crafting consistent messaging and content

A consistent and coherent brand story is vital for building trust and resonating with your target audience. Sales and marketing teams play a crucial role in shaping this narrative by aligning their messaging and collaborating on content creation.

Both teams should collaborate to ensure their messaging is consistent across all channels, including emails, social media, website content, and other touchpoints where prospects and customers interact with the brand. Maintaining a cohesive and compelling brand story can create a solid and memorable impression that sets you apart from the competition.

Sales and marketing teams should also join forces in content creation. Collaborating on developing relevant and engaging content enables both groups to leverage their unique insights and expertise better to address their target audience’s needs and pain points. This not only helps to nurture leads but also aids in closing sales and fostering long-term relationships with customers.

Lastly, it’s essential to encourage a culture of feedback and continuous improvement. By maintaining an open line of communication, marketing and sales teams can learn from each other’s experiences, adapt to new challenges, and continually refine their approach to deliver the most remarkable customer experiences possible. Regularly reviewing and updating strategies ensures that both departments remain aligned and focused on achieving their shared goals.

The key to marketing and sales alignment

Marketing and sales alignment drive business success and create remarkable customer experiences. By fostering a collaborative environment, aligning efforts around the buyer’s journey, streamlining processes through technology, and maintaining consistent messaging and content, mid-market and enterprise sales and marketing leaders in B2B companies can achieve better results and drive growth. Implementing the strategies outlined in this article will equip your teams to face the challenges of today’s competitive landscape and deliver an exceptional customer experience.

The post How to align B2B sales and marketing teams appeared first on MarTech.

The all-cash agreement reflects a $12.5 billion valuation of Qualtrics.

SAP and Qualtrics. Since SAP bought Qualtrics in late 2018, it has moved to integrate its AI-driven experience management capabilities across SAP’s customer experience solutions, including SAP Service Cloud and SAP Sales Cloud. SAP says that Qualtrics has more than tripled its revenue since the acquisition. SAP floated the platform in 2020 but retained a majority share.

Qualtrics describes itself as an online survey tool. It uses AI to measure both customer satisfaction and employee engagement in real time. It claims to improve customer experience, team performance and product design.

“SAP intends to remain a close go-to-market and technology partner, servicing joint customers and continuing to contribute to Qualtrics’ success,” said SAP CEO Christian Klein in a release.

Why we care. What to make of the SAP Qualtrics story? Towards the end of the 2010s, SAP — under then CEO Bill McDermott — was plainly looking to put its CX offerings on a footing to rival Adobe, Oracle and, above all, Salesforce. Building on its 2013 acquisition of successful, Swiss-based commerce solution Hybris, by 2018 SAP had added Gigya and Callidus Cloud to its portfolio and launched C/4 HANA.

C/4 HANA was the umbrella term for SAP’s CX offerings — and the name was aimed at positioning it alongside SAP’s leading enterprise ERP suite S/4 HANA. Although Qualtrics joined the party, SAP never seemed to completely absorb it, as it had Hybris, for instance, which became SAP Commerce Cloud.

Qualtrics is the clear leader in its category and now begins another chapter in its story under long-time CEO Zig Serafin.

Dig deeper: Why did SAP buy Qualtrics?

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This week, Salesforce also unveiled Einstein GPT, integrating ChatGPT functionality with their CRM, sales clouds and Slack.

ChatUX. The ChatSpot app aims at providing an easier way for users to work within HubSpot’s CRM using general language prompts. This technology, which Shah calls “ChatUX,” can help users interact with the CRM and perform various marketing and sales functions in fewer steps.

CRM. Shah shared several use cases for ChatSpot that applied to CRM and other use cases.

For example, if a user wants to add a contact to the CRM, all the user has to do is type this contact’s information into ChatSpot, instead of weeding through menus in the CRM.

The ChatSpot app can also provide answers to help with sales research, fielding questions about contacts that are located in specific markets, or organizations that are a specific size or are part of a specific industry.

Content. The ChatSpot app can generate emails and other messages that pull in contextual information about the company and contact the salesperson is addressing.

With a single click, the user can copy these messages into a clipboard to use in their preferred channel.

Reporting with ChatGPT data sets. While ChatSpot provides an easier natural language interface for accessing data within the HubSpot CRM, it also pulls in additional data sets through its integration with ChatGPT.

In generating a report on global markets, for instance, the user can add columns of data from ChatGPT about populations of countries and other data that isn’t in the CRM.

Why we care. This is an early look at some generative AI and chat functions that have the potential to cut down on a marketer’s repetitive tasks. As Shah emphasizes in the video below, the content that ChatSpot generates for emails is a “first draft” intended for a human to build off of and proofread.

The post HubSpot debuts ChatSpot generative AI tool appeared first on MarTech.

The company also announced a partnership with OpenAI, out of which a ChatGPT app (currently in beta) is available for Slack. The partnership will also make other “out-of-the-box” integrations between Salesforce tools and ChatGPT.

Dig deeper: OpenAI unveils ChatGPT API at very low prices

Einstein GPT. Billed as the world’s first generative AI CRM technology, Einstein GPT matches Salesforce’s proprietary AI models with real-time data from Salesforce’s Data Cloud. Salesforce customers can then connect that data with OpenAI’s models or other generative AI models, and generate content within their Salesforce CRM.

Customer data in the CRM allows marketers to communicate with their customers, and from that, the generative AI can help create personalized messages. For instance, salespeople using the tool will be able to generate personalized email responses or create other personalized content in campaigns that can potentially drive up response rates.

Integrations. In addition to integrations in all of Salesforce’s clouds, as well as Slack, Einstein GPT will also integrate in Tableau and MuleSoft, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement.

“The world is experiencing one of the most profound technological shifts with the rise of real-time technologies and generative AI,” said Benioff. “This comes at a pivotal moment as every company is focused on connecting with their customers in more intelligent, automated and personalized ways.”

Marketing and sales capabilities. Here are all the Einstein GPT tools Salesforce announced:

• Einstein GPT for Sales. Auto-generate sales tasks like composing emails, scheduling meetings, and preparing for the next interaction.
• Einstein GPT for Service. Generate knowledge articles from past case notes. Auto-generate personalized agent chat replies to increase customer satisfaction through personalized and expedited service interactions.
• Einstein GPT for Marketing. Generate personalized content to engage customers and prospects across email, mobile, web, and advertising.
• Einstein GPT for Salesforce’s Slack app. Deliver AI-powered customer insights in Slack like smart summaries of sales opportunities and surface end users actions like updating knowledge articles.
• Einstein GPT for Developer.: Improve developer productivity with Salesforce Research’s proprietary Large Language Model by using an AI chat assistant to generate code and ask questions for languages like Apex.

Generative AI Fund. Salesforce Ventures also announced a new $250 million generative AI fund, the aim of which is to develop the AI ecosystem and bolster development around responsible generative AI.

Why we care. So far, this has been the year of generative AI. For years, Salesforce has been developing its Einstein AI capabilities. Now, that intelligence is given more pointed chat and content generation functions through its integrations with OpenAI’s Chat GPT.

Of course, AI in marketing has other flavors of functionality. For instance, Petco uses Einstein to generate product and experience recommendations to customers. They also keep a human close by to review many of the personalized templates the AI comes up with.

The post Salesforce unveils Einstein GPT appeared first on MarTech.

“Copilot brings the power of next-generation AI capabilities and natural language processing to Dynamics 365, working alongside business professionals to help them create ideas and content faster, complete time-consuming tasks, and get insights and next best actions — just by describing what’s needed,” Emily He, corporate vice president for business applications marketing, wrote in a blog post.

CRM. In Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Marketing marketers can use natural language to ask questions to explore, analyze and understand customer segment sizes and preferences.

Dig deeper: ChatGPT: A marketer’s guide

“For example, a marketer might want to identify customers that reside in San Francisco, California, with a high customer lifetime value, who have also made a purchase in the last 90 days,” He wrote. “With a few clicks, Copilot produces the results, along with information such as the customers’ average age, product preferences, or average purchase price. These insights can then be configured into a segment to support a campaign. With Copilot, marketers can now get a deeper understanding of their customers in near real-time.”

Sales. Copilot adds capabilities to the AI enhancements announced last month for Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales. Those included generating content suggestions based on customer emails with data specifically relevant to the recipient, such as pricing, promotions, and deadlines. 

New capabilities include putting email replies into general availability and integrations for customizable emails. For example, it can generate an email proposing a meeting time based on availability on the seller’s Outlook calendar. There’s also a feedback mechanism that allows sellers to rate the AI-generated content with a thumbs up or thumbs down, refining and improving future replies. 

The copilot also provides AI-generated meeting and call summaries of key topics, issues and concerns. It can then draft a recap of the discussion with action items and follow-up dates, based on CRM and meeting data. “Summaries can be generated for a range of meeting types in Teams, including multi-participant and internal calls, helping sellers stay organized and on top of critical, content-heavy sales meetings,” according to the company’s blog.

The copilot is included in Viva Sales and can be purchased separately for other CRM systems, including Salesforce.

Customer service. In Dynamics 365 Customer Service, the copilot has access to the case history of a customer and is able to help support personnel with customer inquiries.

“With Copilot, agents can quickly craft a draft email or chat response to customers with a single click. Copilot understands the context based on the current live conversation; identifies relevant information from trusted websites and internal documents, including knowledgebase articles and previously resolved cases; and crafts a response that the agent can review and send to the customer.”

It can also help diagnose more complex customer issues, discover resolutions and summarize draft responses across all communication channels.

Other products with AI. 

• Copilot in Microsoft Supply Chain Center can flag issues like weather, financials and geography that might impact supply chain processes. Planners can then choose to have Copilot automatically draft an email to alert any impacted partners.
• Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central will now be able to help organizations rapidly create product listings.

Why we care. All of these copilots look to make life easier for marketers, salesfolk and customer support people. That’s a good thing. They automate tedious, repetitious tasks and enhance them with data and integrations with other Microsoft products. Never mind the hype about what AI may do in the future. In the here and now it is already providing tangible benefits to businesses and workers.

The post Microsoft unveils AI “copilots” for sales, CRM and customer support appeared first on MarTech.

To help B2B marketing, sales and customer success teams power through the current and foreseeable choppy macroeconomic environment, this article dives into core strategies and tactics to turn GTM efforts into results. This counsel has been gathered from tens of conversations over the past 60 days with GTM leaders on what teams are doing to optimize performance in uncertain times. 

Dig deeper: In this economy CMOs need to spend more on training, not tech

1. Stop chasing leads, double down on customers and top opportunities

First, GTM teams need to stop generating and chasing random leads, accounts and markets with little to no familiarity with your company or solutions. 

Rather, prioritize existing customers to expand relationships. Work to win over prospects and accounts that have been active with your company and in your pipeline. 

Yes, this approach should always be a priority. But right now, there is little choice where buyers, sellers and all players involved in the process are skittish.

2. Surround and co-create with your current customers

The best and most important revenue opportunity already is in your world — your customer base. 

This is not just traditional customer marketing or listening to the voice of the customer (always essential), but a more purposeful, strategic effort to surround your customers and to help them navigate uncertain times. 

Start with tapping into the customer data and account intelligence you have accumulated to understand your customers, their current state and their priorities.

To get in front of customers, leaders can organize an orchestrated tour of customers where executive sponsors, solutions experts and small teams are formed in your company to focus on specific accounts. 

These dedicated tiger teams are deployed to sit down with and listen to customers’ needs, challenges and plans for the road ahead. They are accountable for:

• Identifying client needs.
• Determining if, how and when to act.
• Rallying the right resources.
• Delivering on client requirements. 

An example deliverable of this high-touch collaboration is using product and engineering know-how to tweak solutions required to help the customer be more efficient or effective. 

This customer co-creation approach not only helps keep customers and become a preferred provider, it also sets up the opportunity to increase revenue and deepen customer relationships. 

3. Review your prospect opportunity pipeline over the past 18 months

With the same vigor and use of data you applied across connecting with customers, GTM teams should prioritize accounts where interest, engagement and past conversations are active or have gone dormant. 

This prospect effort starts with revenue operations, data science, sales and marketing teams coming together to identify the accounts and then develop a strategy to win their business. 

Apply creative thinking and innovative tactics. Be ready to be flexible with customer priorities. Agility can be applied to how customers purchase. Use your solution or add specific resources as part of your relationship agreement to help the company achieve immediate ROI and payback in tight times. 

The focus on top account opportunities outlined above is relentless. It requires disciplined, regular sessions (weekly and fortnightly, for example) to review opportunities, roadblocks and ways to creatively break through. 

Marketing and sales can orchestrate specific roles and plays, much like what GTM teams implement in account-based 1-to-1 motions where resources are maniacally concentrated on a few accounts. 

Operations teams are on the ground monitoring and ensuring key account and buying committee data is used and available to all the players on the team. 

With resources shifted to this more precision GTM approach, marketing can also add always-on programs to listen to customers and top prospect account and buyer activities using intent and first- and third-party data. 

Dig deeper: How ABM strategies can accelerate marketing and sales velocity

4. Strengthen your channel and partner ecosystems

To bring additional resources and trusted expertise to both customers and prospects, organizations can turn to partners with specific expertise to provide strategy and execution support. 

Top partners have relationships with prospects and customers and are often in a strong position to:

• Understand how to get more out of your solution.
• Combine your offerings with other providers to develop pin-point solutions.
• Deliver where companies have gaps. 

In addition, partners are under the same type of urgency to prioritize and look for ways to add more value to existing and new customers. 

Just like the customer engagement strategy outlined earlier, now is the time to prioritize and sit down with like-minded partners to build GTM strategies and co-create solutions to meet specific prospects and customer requirements. 

Many teams are shifting sales and marketing resources to concentrate on forming deeper partnerships and solutions. In the spirit of trust and collaboration partnerships, sharing customer data with your partners to mine for opportunities and craft smarter solutions should be part of the effort.

5. Invest in and utilize AI and buyer and account intelligence to identify and prioritize your GTM focus

Today, GTM teams can tap into useful buyer and account data and AI-driven models available in sales, marketing and revenue tools, platforms and data subscriptions.

For those GTM teams that have already made the investment, now is the time to double down on fully utilizing intelligence in your GTM strategy, outreach and account and buyer identification. If you don’t have the experience or expertise of using data, now is the time to make it happen. 

Let’s start with the GTM teams with access to AI models and account intelligence. This can come from optimizing ABM tools, intent engines or solutions that apply AI models to identify account propensity, priority, fit and timing. 

No longer can we skim the surface. Rather, we must dig in to:

• Maximize the use of our first and third-party data.
• Aggregate and mine intent signals across all the sources and tools we are using.
• Activate this intelligence in-market to identify existing customer and best prospect opportunities. 

For those teams just getting started, it’s a steep climb, no doubt. The positive side is this work will be foundational to creating a high-performing customer and revenue generation machine going forward. 

If you need help and hands to accelerate your effort, both individual consultants and strategic firms can be brought in to provide deep expertise to put intent, propensity models and other forms of buyer and account intelligence to work. 

Don’t stand still, act now

Buckle in. Nobody really knows what we are in for in the coming year. However, history has proven if we focus, remain flexible and act swiftly, the likelihood of success increases. 

The good news is GTM leaders have access to much more intelligence and experience than we’ve had in the past. Now is the time to put it to work.

The post 5 strategies B2B marketing and sales teams can bank on as markets tighten appeared first on MarTech.

Booksy also benefited internally from their digital asset upgrade. It made assets easier to create and access across their growing organization. They now have 19 million users, and over 500 employees.

“It’s really helped us to tie everything together and put everything in one place so it’s easy to find,” said Rebecca Baxter, Booksy’s global marketing coordinator, at The MarTech Conference. “So if marketing teams all over the world are looking for [assets to] support this step of the journey, they can easily find one link to that collection [of assets].”

Dig deeper: What is digital asset management?

Silos, inefficiencies and duplicates

Before implementing the DAM supplied by digital asset management company Bynder, Booksy’s content was less organized, creating inefficiencies and silos.

“We were using Google Drive and we struggled with how to keep version control,” said Baxter. “You find a file on the Google Drive, and you think that’s the most updated version, but it’s really not. There could be duplicate files, duplicate folders, so it’s really hard.”

She added, “The lack of governance made things difficult and people were just assuming that anything they found could be used, but that really wasn’t always the case. So we wanted something where we could really have that version control, really have a good management system so when people are pulling things off of here, we know it’s going to be the most updated version and it’s ready to go live.”

Aligning with product positioning and local promotional materials

The new DAM allowed Booksy to consolidate internal marketing and sales assets for Booksy’s outreach to their small-business customers. Additionally, it made digital marketing assets accessible as part of Booksy’s services to customers.

“We have different stages of our product positioning and it helps us to align our assets to those different steps,” said Baxter.

As Booksy continues to grow, they now have markets in six different countries. Even though they began in Poland, the U.S. is now their biggest market.

“We have tiles that we put on our home page, one for each country that we work with,” Baxter explained. “And that way they can find their country-specific localized materials in one place very easily. It keeps them accountable, making sure that you know they’re using materials that follow our brand guidelines, that they’re the most updated versions and that they’ve been approved by the global teams in order to use in their regional markets.”

Dig deeper: How to build your DAM foundation

Coordinate marketing and sales

The DAM helps Booksy’s marketing team create single folders of the best, most timely assets, which they can share with sales team members. Doing this builds efficiencies and reduces the circulation of the wrong assets, or of duplicates.

“For the sales team, we put collections together for each type of sales material — whether it’s a brochure or a one-pager or a rack card,” said Baxter. “They can easily go to the collection for brochures and find what they’re looking for instead of searching through the hundred sales materials that we have loaded.”

When Booksy is rolling out a new feature for its services, that’s something sales will want to take to Booksy customers. Marketing will place all related assets in a single collection. Those assets could include a video, a sizzle reel or a brochure that describes the new feature.

“The guiding principle really on all of this is collaboration,” Baxter said. “I use collaboration and communication when I’m talking about my job responsibilities, and the way that we manage our assets is definitely part of that. It really helps us to collaborate when we have this one system that we all use, and that we’re thinking on a global level while everyone’s acting locally and doing what they need to do in their own markets.”

Register for The MarTech Conference here.

The post How Booksy used DAM to organize their digital asset production appeared first on MarTech.

“The multi-channel marketing approach the customer journey orchestration utilizes also means that things can get more complicated,” said Greg Kihlstrom, principal and chief strategist at GK5A, at The MarTech Conference.

Here are the key teams that will be involved in the process and what to do to prepare them.

Dig deeper: How to decide if you’re ready for a CJO tool

Leadership

“Customer journey orchestration often requires big changes in process resources and expected outcomes,” said Kihlstrom. “Leadership support is needed to make these big changes happen.”

There must be a C-suite sponsor for the project to prove how important it is to the company. She or he needs to be regularly updated about any resulting changes in organizational structure or processes.

“Ensure you’re on the same page as your executive leadership and keep that leader in the loop so that they can report to other stakeholders,” Kihlstrom explained.

Marketing and experience teams

“Customer journey orchestration often requires closer collaboration among teams, even if they’re used to working with each other on a regular basis,” said Kihlstrom. “Who is designing and managing the journey? Is it marketing? Is it customer experience? Is it a combination of both?”

The business should take a full inventory of the tools and methods these teams are already using. This way, changes to marketing and customer experience processes can be anticipated ahead of the implementation.

Kihlstrom also recommends these teams consider a flexible work method, like an agile or sprint-based approach.

Dig deeper: A new way to navigate agile marketing

Data and engineering teams

It’s important to give careful consideration to the data that will power the new CJO platform. Therefore, data and engineering teams need to be included in the implementation.

“How frequently will new data need to be requested from either from these teams or from the systems that these teams support?” Kihlstrom asked. “What are both short- and long-term engineering needs for customer journey orchestration?”

He added, “You might already be working with your data engineering teams on other efforts, but make sure you share the big picture of customer journey orchestration with these data and engineering teams.”

Having data and engineering on board helps get stakeholder buy-in across the organization.

“Make sure everybody understands where you’re going, and make sure that you understand resource availability,” said Kihlstrom.

Will data requests from the new CJO-related processes stretch data and engineering too thin? Will these needs be filled in-house or will they be outsourced? These kinds of questions can be answered by including them in the process, and they can also help in coming up with solutions.

Customer service and support

The customer service and support team will be able to answer questions about how the new platform can move customers along in the customer journey. For one thing, they can report how interactions with customer service and support affects people’s propensity to buy.

“Obviously if someone just complained about your product or service they may not be as likely to buy more, so you want to take that into account with your customer journeys,” said Kihlstrom. 

This team can also suggest ways the platform can help anticipate customer service issues and proactively solve them.

“They know a lot, they interact a lot with your customers, they have a lot to share on this,” Kihlstrom said. “So make sure you discuss some common issues and potential problem areas when you start orchestrating things.” not talk about opportunities. It’s not just about solving problems, it’s also about opening up new opportunities like proactively. Solving some challenges.

Sales

Like customer service, sales teams know a lot about customer journeys and automated flows. They can give insights into when a personal touch is preferred over an automated or orchestrated response.

Also, remember that teams might have different needs in supporting customer interactions with the CJO platform.

“A large sales team focused, perhaps, on B2B or larger sales, may have a high-touch sales environment, and therefore journey orchestration and the automation that’s involved in it, may not be the best approach for every single communication,” Kihlstrom explained. “Make sure you understand the cadence that your sales team uses for one-to-one more personal touches and make sure you coordinate that.”

Building consistency

A CJO platform helps an organization become more customer-centric and content plays a big role in this. As customers move through their journeys, they are often engaging with tailored to their specific place in it.

Content must be relevant and consistent. This requires coordination with the content team, as well as with marketing and other teams.

“Right now, if you’re not doing journey orchestration, you might be doing a lot of single-channel orchestration or automation and therefore there may not be quite as much of a need for consistency,” said Kihlstrom.

The more channels involved in customer journey orchestration, the more you need to focus on consistency and internal communication. Kihlstrom said this requires understanding how different systems are used to create, manage and publish content.

“Start to understand where and how you can start standardizing content creation and creating efficiencies,” Kihlstrom said. “If you’re orchestrating content across multiple channels, chances are there’s some opportunities to create similar content using similar language across those channels.”

He added, “Even though customer journey orchestration involves plenty of technology and integrations, anyone that has implemented it knows that there are team members or people behind the important work of both implementing it.”

The post How to prepare teams for customer journey orchestration appeared first on MarTech.

Data suggests that sales rep turnover is 30% or higher, while an estimated 90% of sales reps report burnout. Burnout may be attributed, in part at least, to the longer hours triggered by remote working.

New features. Drift, which offers conversational support for marketing, sales and customer success through live chat, chatbots and personalization, is announcing the following new capabilities:

• AI engagement score: This will provide sales reps with an algorithm-led metric estimating a prospect’s propensity to buy based on interactions with marketing and sales initiatives.
• Live view: This gives sales reps real-time visibility into prospects interacting with the website, the ability to filter based on account priority, geography and other parameters, and the opportunity to open live conversations.
• Mobile app parity: This is intended to make it easy for sales reps to sell from anywhere.
• Sales real-time dashboard: This will provide an overview of team performance including conversation volume, team capacity, meetings booked and opportunities generated.

Dig deeper: Drift extends offerings across the customer lifecycle

Why we care. Pressure is growing on both marketing and sales teams to do more with less. As budgets tighten or remain flat, performance expectations remain high. It’s hard for any business teams to meet those expectations when faced by high turnover and the ongoing “great resignation.”

In this environment, there’s a demand for tools that support performance and bring confidence and transparency to marketing and sales processes. That’s a demand Drift is seeking to meet here with enhancements to its Conversational Sales Cloud.

The post Drift launches features to support sales teams appeared first on MarTech.