Why one + one is not proper integrated sales and marketing
Today I will discuss four commons silos that if not handled, will perpetuate the glass ceiling that often impedes true integration.
1. Failure to Embrace the Full Values of Social and Digital as a Means to Learn and Adjust
Integration through the customer’s journey requires more listening and adjusting than action. There is no one perfect path, but the most successful brands are highly engaged in digital and social communications so that they can adjust at all stages. Embracing engagement (listening, dialoguing and reacting) is the driving factor of effective integration, as it allows companies to course-correct in real-time.
2. Fear that Engagement with Customers Through the Journey Delivers More Problems than Advantages
We should embrace engagement as a unique opportunity to learn and relate to customers. Often a lack of openness makes integrated sets of activities difficult. Thus, what might be one degree off target at the start is at least 30 degrees off at the end. A philosophy of engagement through digital and social mechanisms, allows for constant small adjustments.
3. Anxiety About Not Getting Credit Where Credit is Due
Productivity with marketing and sales functions is normally determined by a standard metric. For example, lead-to-close ratios multiplied by total margin. For marketing it is determined by the ratio of verified suspects to suspects-to-lead. Integration invariably creates a smoother transition for the customer instead of specific and isolated activities. Allocating resources based on effectively transitioning customers from one phase in the customer’s journey to the next can be tough. B2B and B2C brands alike need to build integration metrics in order to loosen up the anxieties in each of the integrated areas. Instituting a more engaged digital and social approach encourages more feedback from the customer.
4. Lack of Realization that Engaged Social and Digital Sales and Marketing Creates a New Idea for Customers
The upper level of the value of engaged social and digital integration offers incredible insight from the customer about potential product needs that are not being met. Imagine being able to out maneuver a competitor by 10–20% just based on the quality of your integration and a philosophy of highly engaged digital and social activities with customers through their journey.
Social and digital engagement is the key for world-class integration. Looking at the framework below (please feel free to use it so long as the source is acknowledged) it is obvious that the more mature the engagement is the greater the differentiated value is for the brand. At the very top of the frame is a brand that can co-develop products and solutions with its customers. At the bottom of the framework we see a useful listen and partial response capability. Many brands feel comfortable in that lower left box.
The remaining posts will cover how to ensure your organization is a digitally and socially engaged entity.
- A basic scorecard for engaged social and digital brands.
- What to listen for and react to as you build your engaged digital and social integrated journey.
- The right skills and plays to help bond all our integrated activities through the customer journey.
- Some best practices and examples we have seen for the future of integrated and engaged customer journey programs.
Part 2: The Seven Drivers of Integration are a Little Eclectic
Michael Gale
August 12th, 2011
The integration philosophy is born from seven concurrent trends (for more on this, stay tuned), but the challenge is that each “one” tends to function in its own differing ways. In effect, true integration often stalls very quickly because we look for limited bridges between one or two areas in our organization, versus looking for customer-led moments where we can test, prove and broadcast the value of integration across a much wider gamut.
Seven drivers of integration:
1. Wastage: Marketing is increasingly under pressure to show ROI. Integration portrays much less of a “waste-oriented mantra” than channel-only or share of voice (driven by awareness activities).
2. C-suite lexographic shift: Increasingly c-suites talk about customer journeys and pathways. These views need a more customer-based lens. Integration offers a logical step towards achieving this by talking about combining elements through the journey.
3. Online makes it much easier to track and act faster: Social and digital allow you to track activities in near real-time. This means it is a touch easier to monitor, or at least correlate with simple regressions. For example, what happens when activity A and activity B happen together or in sequence? It is about measurable baby steps to some (apologies for misquoting Bill Murray in the film What About Bob).
4. Budget shortsightedness: SOX forces a lot of late-in-the-quarter investment models and it rarely gives marketers time to roll out large, complex programs. Integration offers a simple process that feels closed-looped enough to quickly justify a change in short-term available funds by the next quarterly scramble. It feels a little like trench warfare (a few inches at a time), but it is the reality of where we are, especially in U.S.-led organizations.
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Tags: Commentary, Integration, Organizational Design, PR Education
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