As a B2B marketing consultant, I’m frequently called upon to discuss sales and marketing challenges within client organizations. As a result, I find clients searching for the perfect mix of activities to ratchet up sales results.

As a B2B marketing consultant, I’m frequently called upon to discuss sales and marketing challenges within client organizations. As a result, I find clients searching for the perfect mix of activities to ratchet up sales results. When faced with inconsistent sales results many sales and marketing leaders either don’t know what to do or don’t know how to do it. To help add structure and educate during consulting projects, I introduce clients to the following process: 

• Sales & Marketing Assessment
• Client Education on the New B2B Buying Cycle (The Importance of a Digital Strategy)
• Best Practices in Sales & Marketing (See Consulting Services)
• Tools to Facilitate Team Collaboration and Buy-In (The Sales Engine℠, Customer Journey Mapping, Identifying Buyer Personas, Attracting Dream Clients)

The process ensures that, together, we’re able to deliver both a course correction and lasting change to the organization.

My consulting experience has shown the root cause of sales mediocrity is the lack of a cohesive sales and marketing strategy and/or the inability to execute. The common blind spot many b2b clients have is making one-off, disjointed attempts to solve a systemic marketing problem. For example, order-chasing, hastily changing out sales reps and implementing projects in the absence of an overarching sales and marketing structure. It’s the “if only I could solve fill in the blank then my underperforming sales organization would be cured.” It’s undeniable that talent is a large component of building high performing sales organizations but so too is a process that generates predictable sales results. 

The cure for sales mediocrity is implementing a process called demand generation with its cornerstone, The Sales Engine℠. The output of demand generation is booked business, new customer activations and the resulting lifetime customer value. Demand generation integrates marketing (cohesive plan) with sales (execution) by aligning the client’s core competencies with marketplace opportunities.

Although building a demand generation process may sound daunting there are many building blocks that can be implemented quickly and cost effectively so that validation and team buy-in occur over time. The primary components of demand generation include: 

• Strategy Formation 
• The Sales Engine℠
• Digital Marketing Strategy 
• Sales Channels
• Messaging & Commercial Offers
• KPIs & Analytics 

I help clients enter into a thoughtful planning process that considers the message they want to convey, their competitive advantage, their most profitable customer relationships (dream clients) and a vision of the company they want to be in 1, 3 and 5 years. My best clients use me as a trusted advisor to build and implement demand generation so that growth goals are achieved.   

Rather than being reactive, think bigger and make systemic changes to your sales and marketing culture by implementing a demand generation framework. Your underwhelming sales results will be cured and you’ll experience a shift from sales mediocrity to sales predictability!