Chris Koch

JULY 31, 2009

It’s time to measure sales and marketing together in that process. Marketing and sales are both part of the same process: raising revenue. Create a unified lead process. He or she emphasizes one revenue generating process that both groups contribute to. Measure CPOD instead.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Work Management B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010

From what I can tell, the internet didn’t disrupt the basic model for the sales enablement process; it just moved much of it online. Who should own the process? Don’t worry, I’m not going to say, “and then everything changed,” because it didn’t. Salespeople remained dependent on marketers for information.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Wiki Marketing Management Internet Marketing 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

The era of the sales process beginning with a lead is over. We have to come to terms with the fact that there is a stage of the buying process that comes before the buyers we are pursuing are ready to become leads. We need to create that content. We need to see that we are ignoring many people who aren’t leads. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Lead Generation B2B Thought Leadership Generation 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Then came the Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, who offered certain applications and business processes through their own servers. Another CIO archetype, the Transformational Leader CIOs that have been focused on using IT to improve business processes, may disappear as distinct IT leaders. CIOs’ power is rooted in complexity.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

So you have to start with the bigger process picture. And as I discussed in this post, the qualification process needs to be gradual and non-invasive, what Brian has since christened “micro-conversion.” The key to this process is getting sales and marketing to work together create an integrated process. Lead scoring.

Lead Qualification 100

Lead Qualification Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Create a content development process. The key components of the program are: Create a publishing process and calendar. Marketers must become publishers, with a process for refining and presenting thought leadership content through various vehicles, (such as conference presentations, white papers, social media, etc.).

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing B2B Sales 100

Chris Koch

JULY 24, 2009

So you have to start with the bigger process picture. And as I discussed in this post, the qualification process needs to be gradual and non-invasive, what Brian has since christened “micro-conversion.” The key to this process is getting sales and marketing to work together create an integrated process. Lead scoring.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 21, 2009

Create a content development process. The key components of the program are: Create a publishing process and calendar. Marketers must become publishers, with a process for refining and presenting thought leadership content through various vehicles, (such as conference presentations, white papers, social media, etc.).

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Network Marketing Paper 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 15, 2010

Assuming CIOs would be willing to accept the pay cut, and smart and determined as they are, I’m certain that few have the talent for or interest in the publishing process. If we automate the processes that matter, the metrics we need will be staring us in the face. What am I paying for? The funnel becomes electric.

Social Media 100

Social Media Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Of course, devising those incentives, putting them in place, and driving the cultural change necessary to make them stick is a maddeningly complex process that helps keep consultants and academics in business. Companies need to make it worth salespeople’s while to endure the longer sales cycle and lower margins that come with services.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services B2B Sales Consulting Marketing Automation 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Posted in Marketing Strategy Tagged: B2B marketing, ITSMA, Marketing Processes, Marketing Strategy, social media strategy. Tags: Marketing Strategy B2B marketing ITSMA Marketing Processes social media strategy. What else are you doing to improve marketing? How are you surviving these times?

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 22, 2010

And that is a huge change in the buying process. ITSMA’s annual survey of IT buyers found that this year, for the first time, a majority of buyers in the US—and 75% when you include other countries—are using social media in the purchasing process—especially the younger ones. Buyers are removing salespeople from the buying process.

Lead Management 100

Lead Management Marketing Management Automation Marketing Automation Services 100

Chris Koch

MAY 15, 2012

As buyers do more searching, they are stretching the buying process earlier and earlier, to the point where they may not have a specific product or service in mind when they search. So you’re saying there’s a part of the buying process that doesn’t involve salespeople? What does online search have to do with selling?

FAQ 100

FAQ Custom Publishing B2B Sales Work Management 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

One of the reasons I know that B2B marketers get this is because the number one goal of marketers in our survey was to integrate social media into the larger marketing strategy —to link social media to their idea marketing process and their events—the channels that are proven and where the business has committed to contributing content.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 7, 2011

One of the reasons I know that B2B marketers get this is because the number one goal of marketers in our survey was to integrate social media into the larger marketing strategy —to link social media to their idea marketing process and their events—the channels that are proven and where the business has committed to contributing content.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Peer-to-peer 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 18, 2011

They want more strategic answers, such as whether marketing is increasing the velocity of contacts through the buying process and reducing the time and effort that salespeople need to expend in making a sale. A lead management process gives you the ability to get the right content to the right people at the time they need it.

Work Management 100

Work Management Thought Leadership Marketing Management Paper 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Of course, devising those incentives, putting them in place, and driving the cultural change necessary to make them stick is a maddeningly complex process that helps keep consultants and academics in business. Companies need to make it worth salespeople’s while to endure the longer sales cycle and lower margins that come with services.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Consulting B2B Sales Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

FEBRUARY 11, 2011

Most companies do not yet have closed-loop lead management processes supported by systems, for example. We need to use analytics to quantify and manage how fast we move prospects through the buying process and to increase loyalty and trust after they’ve bought from us. So we need some important systems installed in the short-term.

Analytics 100

Analytics Paid Search Agency Marketing Management Loyalty 100

Chris Koch

MAY 20, 2011

Marketers need to facilitate a process for internal development of ideas and for external feedback. Marketers need to help create that culture in the company by facilitating the idea process. Create an idea network as the basis for social media. When ideas are an expectation, social media participation is easier.

Social Media 100

Social Media B2B Thought Leadership Media Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2014

The intent behind journalism (in theory anyway) is to get at the truth, without commercial interests interjecting themselves into the process. And even if you’re as objective and factual as all get out in what you produce, it still isn’t journalism because the intent behind the work is different. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Brand Identity 100

Brand Identity Branding Intent Positioning 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 22, 2011

I think this means that marketing must be ready to take a larger role in facilitating the innovation process and in being the ears to the ground on all the innovation that’s happening externally to organizations out there on the internet. CMOs can succeed where CIOs struggled. So the question is, will CMOs step up to the innovation challenge?

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management Social Media 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

Because they have this cross-business visibility, they have the opportunity to become business process experts and use IT to make those processes more efficient and effective. Following through on those process opportunities requires more than programming and project management skills, however.

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 100

Chris Koch

AUGUST 7, 2009

Because they have this cross-business visibility, they have the opportunity to become business process experts and use IT to make those processes more efficient and effective. Following through on those process opportunities requires more than programming and project management skills, however.

Planning 100

Planning Segmentation Work Management Gartner 100

Chris Koch

MARCH 25, 2011

This process is usually facilitated by marketing. Can you start to see that by creating these idea development processes, it becomes much easier for companies to engage in social media conversations that will impress customers and influencers? The winning ideas are implemented. Make it competitive. Make it visible. What do you think?

Social Media 100

Social Media Organization Peer-to-peer SME 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 10, 2012

For customers in this realm, I think utility has long meant access to their peers and to expert advice during the purchasing and post-sales processes. I am concerned about the B2B side of things, though, for complex technology solutions in particular.

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer B2B Social Media Mobile Marketing 100

Chris Koch

JULY 10, 2009

In the epiphany stage of the buying process, we should be offering people great information, not turning them off by trying to sleaze information out of them when they’re nowhere near being ready to buy. Sync your content to the stages of the buying process. Stop collecting this data.

Web 2.0 100

Web 2.0 B2B Thought Leadership Ideal Customer Profiles Thought Leadership 100

Chris Koch

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

The process is incredibly expensive and inefficient. The process of getting subject matter experts placed in publications or other third-party content channels is awful for everyone involved. The entire process was focused on trying to use me and my publication for corporate messaging—as though that’s what my readers wanted.

PR 100

PR Press Paid Search Agency Lead Ranking 100

Chris Koch

APRIL 10, 2009

Thought leadership marketing is based on the academic research publishing model, in which academics created journals built around a peer review process. Thus, thought leadership is applicable to any industry with interest in competitive information and process improvement. Why did companies start focusing on it?

Thought Leadership 100

Thought Leadership B2B Thought Leadership Peer-to-peer Work Management 100

Chris Koch

JANUARY 21, 2011

What this means for marketers is that social media have increased buyers’ expectations for intimacy at all stages of the buying process. We have built intimacy into the later stages of the buying process. And this is where the scale issue comes in.

Social Media 100

Social Media Budget Programs Paper Stats 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 16, 2009

Tags: Blogging Marketing Strategy B2B marketing blogs Marketing Processes social media strategy social media technology.

B2B Thought Leadership 100

B2B Thought Leadership Blogger Thought Leadership Word of Mouth 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

One client summed it up by saying that there are two points of resistance in the process of bringing new things to market. The first comes at the beginning of the process—the “why” battle—where everyone takes pot shots at the new idea. That’s why the research process needs to be iterative.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

One client summed it up by saying that there are two points of resistance in the process of bringing new things to market. The first comes at the beginning of the process—the “why” battle—where everyone takes pot shots at the new idea. That’s why the research process needs to be iterative.

Research 100

Research Service Product Paid Search Agency 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Tags: Marketing Strategy B2B marketing ITSMA Marketing Processes social media strategy.

Practices 100

Practices Best Practices Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 100

Chris Koch

OCTOBER 30, 2009

We found that usage of social media among IT and business buyers of technology rose 50% over last year and finally pushed to majority status—55% said they use social media as part of the technology buying process in 2009 versus just 37% in 2008.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Enterprise Management Media 100

Chris Koch

MAY 14, 2010

We’re seeing companies use social media to bring customers into the product and service development processes to collaborate on new ideas and improvements. Our subject matter experts (SMEs) are talking to customers. We’re seeing HR departments using social media for recruiting. Remember that marketing can’t do this alone.

Organic Leads 100

Organic Leads Social Media Social Marketing Organization 100

Chris Koch

DECEMBER 18, 2009

Social media seems better suited to B2C, with its larger scale and simpler buying process. This is why every B2B company should be moving into social media to start the process of building the skills and making the broad cultural changes needed to make social media work. With good reason. What do you think? Tweet This Post.

Social Media 100

Social Media Peer-to-peer Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100

Chris Koch

JUNE 25, 2009

Social media disrupts marketing structures and processes. Hierarchical structures and linear processes work fine because everything has a timeline and a beginning, middle, and end (launch). When you construct and control the messages and programs yourself, you can go home at the end of the day with a clear conscience.

Social Media 100

Social Media Paid Search Agency Social Marketing B2B Marketing 100