ITSMA Newsletter Ask ITSMA 2009-07-09
Ask ITSMA: How Much Should Marketing Be Contributing to Revenue?
By Dave Munn, President and CEO, ITSMA
Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions along with excerpts from our replies.
Do you have any insight on services marketing’s average percentage contribution to revenue?
The short answer is that our research has found 8% to 20% to be the average range. For example, one of our product company members tracks marketing’s contribution percentage to the pipeline; their target is 15%. This company includes telemarketing and teleprospecting in its closed-loop marketing model, and it’s helped increase marketing’s contribution. To achieve a high percentage, it’s important to have agreement with sales on the definition of a sales-ready lead, to quantify the amount of the deal potential, and to have a mechanism for ensuring that marketing gets credit for providing the qualified lead in the pipeline.
But this company also tracks another important aspect of the pipeline—what it calls “pipeline movement.” This describes marketing’s role in helping move deals along in the pipeline as a result of marketing support, marketing programs, and so on. They also track individuals within target accounts that are “educated” through participation at events or interaction with marketing (requests for information, etc.).
One ITSMA benchmarking study showed marketing’s contribution to the sales pipeline as one of the three most measured metrics, along with lead conversion rates and sales accepted leads.
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Upcoming ITSMA Events
To view all events, please go here.
Marketing to the CIO’s Hotbuttons
Online Briefing
July 14, 2009
8:00 a.m. Pacific – 11:00 a.m. Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)
(Free for ITSMA members)
Marketers who try to speak to all CIOs with a single voice are getting it (almost) all wrong. CIOs may be individuals, but they represent a composite of different roles, depending on their personal and professional backgrounds, the size and context of their companies, and the strategic importance of IT. Marketers need to segment their CIO audience and speak to each audience member in the voice he or she needs to hear. Join ITSMA’s Chris Koch and a panel of outspoken CIOs and learn how to:
- Segment your CIO audience by role
- Engage CIOs by connecting them to one another
- Discover their buying needs
Get more information and register
ITSMA Research
Web 2.0 Gets Strategic
ITSMA’s Web 2.0 survey revealed that it is critical that marketers develop a Web 2.0 participation strategy if they are to keep up with their competitors. Included in the survey report are best practices for Web 2.0 gleaned from the results and from ITSMA research as well as ITSMA’s Web 2.0 Participation Strategy Model, which can help you plot a course for Web 2.0 and to benchmark yourself against your peers.
The Impact of the Economic Downturn on Developing and Selling Solutions
In a downturn, providers of high-value solutions have to work twice as hard to develop the right offers, craft the right messages, connect with the right prospects, and sell the right value. This survey report captures the latest thinking and priorities among leading solutions providers to help participants benchmark themselves against their peers and better understand recent changes in the solutions marketplace.
Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership
Four Steps to Improving Your Ability to Penetrate New Accounts
Selling to new customers hasn’t gotten any easier. How then can marketing warm up new accounts in these tough times? In this ITSMA Update, we offer four steps that can help penetrate new accounts.
Accelerate the Buying Process with Collaborative Account Planning
Under constant pressure to sell, salespeople often can’t afford to devote the time necessary to plan an account strategy based on researching the larger business issues that customers face. In this ITSMA Update, we introduce ITSMA’s Collaborative Account Planning Model, a tool to help marketers and salespeople accelerate opportunities within existing customers and with important new prospects.
How to Develop a Complex Solution: HP’s Data Center Transformation
When they began developing a solution for the huge task of revamping data centers in 2007, HP’s marketing team faced an equally monumental challenge: How could they package and sell something so big and complex? In this ITSMA Case Study, we examine eight steps that HP took to develop its Data Center Transformation solution.
ITSMA Networking Opportunities
Collaborate with Other Marketers in the Outsourcing Industry
Marketers from a number of companies that serve the IT outsourcing industry would like to create an informal, no-fee council on developing marketing analytics for the outsourcing industry. Marketers in the outsourcing industry who are interested in joining this council can contact Chris Koch at ITSMA for more information.
