The Value Equation

2012 Networking with Houston TeXchange

As we head into 2012, the TeXchange Board of Directors of the Houston Chapter would like to formally announce the upcoming Houston Networking Events Schedule for CEO’s of technology oriented businesses.

Join community leaders and technology executives as we strive to make Houston known as a preeminent hub for technology business.

 

We kickoff the year this Thursday the 26^th at 5:30 pm at The Briar Club!

Event details:

Houston TeXchange Sponsored Happy Hour Meet & Greet Kickoff for 2012

• Come network with a hundred of your peers and community leaders.
• Start time: 5:30 pm.
• This event is raising awareness and benefiting Justice for Children ( a voice for abused and neglected children).
• Register by emailing me or any TeXchange board member.
• Read more online here: http://tinyurl.com/7oktth6

How To Be Found Online for your top keyword phrases: B2B Marketing 101

Do buyers find you online today?

B2B Marketing Best Practices included in the above video (also available on YouTube) includes: How to Be Found Online for your top keyword phrases.

Referral Marketing versus Inbound Marketing

In 2012, what is the most effective and capital efficient way to generate revenues?

Do you agree?

 

Checkout our latest on referral marketing versus inbound marketing in the slide presentation below and download more revenue strategies for growth from our website resources.

Referral Marketing versus Inbound Marketing

View more presentations from charles bedard

2012 HR Software Technology Forecast

“The times they are a changing…”

As the famous Bob Dylan song goes, 2012 is going to be known as the year many leaders separated from the pack and overcame the slow growth economy, global and competitive pressures, and leveraged HR software technology to thrive.

In 2012, many buyers of HR software technology will opt for:

• Solutions and not software.  Software that is not easily deployable with near-term ROI (i.e. a few months as opposed to years) is fading away.
• Self-Service in order to empower employees (employee engagement) and enable both managers and HR professionals to focus on strategic activities. “Consumerization” is the key in healthcare, software, and many B2B services.
• Social and mobile tools to drive collaboration and productivity.
• SaaS and cloud based applications or “apps” that are available on-demand, easily deployable, and easily integrate with other applications.
• Business-centric decision making for investment and budget justifications. HR will become business centric.
• Data management tools and best practices.

In light of all the changes in today’s economy, such as increased regulations, cost pressures regarding health and welfare, and the need to get more done with fewer resources, managing today’s workforce is a real challenge.

Download a copy of recently published 2012 HR Technology eBooks below.

HR Technology Guide for Workforce Management e-Book which includes:

• 2012 HR Technology Guide
• Workforce Performance Management Strategies for 2012 and Beyond
• The Evolution of HR Technology
• Workforce Research Findings Report Summary

 

Fully Engaged! People Strategies for Tough Times.

Download the eBook and boost employee engagement, productivity, and revenues.

Happy New Year 2012!

As we look to generating success and positive outcomes in early 2012, we must reflect on the many vicissitudes of the past 3 years. The one element the recent past has highlighted is the importance of adopting new methods and being open to change!

Below we have highlighted a few of our favorite publications we’ve created for adapting to the new economy and potential strategy elements to consider employing to grow in 2012.

We appreciate the opportunity to be of service to you!

Have a Happy New Year and a prosperous 2012!

Most Sincerely,
The Entire Ephor Group Team

Recent articles:

• Revenue Growth Strategies for 2012 and Beyond
• 2012 Economic Forecast
• The Role of the Chief Marketing Officer

 

The Business Case for Marketing Automation Software for B2B Lead Generation

Are your buyers early adopters or do you focus on converting those that are dissatisfied with their current solution and searching for a better alternative?

Either way, marketing automation software helps attract buyers that are searching and then capture and convert prospects into repeat buyers.

The business case for marketing automation software includes:

#1. Inbound marketing is a more cost effective source of lead generation.

The shift towards inbound marketing versus outbound marketing is largely based on the cost effectiveness and ROI of attracting, capturing and converting sales opportunities that are “ready to buy” using marketing automation software.

#2. Increase in Sales Effectiveness via tools provided by marketing automation software.

Marketing automation software empowers every sales rep and account manager to have the resources and capabilities of a marketing department at their fingertips.

• Aberdeen Group found that companies saw double their proposal-to-win ratio, plus a 47% higher average total contract value.

• Forrester Research Group found that salespeople follow up on >75% of leads using lead scoring and workflow from marketing automation software.

Marketing automation software also provides competitive intelligence, social media, and other sales support and sales enablement tools that enables salespeople to be more efficient.

#3. Lower cost of client acquisition via Multi-Tier Distribution. Marketing automation software enables capture, lead scoring, and workflow to route leads to direct sales, inside sales, partners, or other 3rd parties as it best fits the needs of the company.

#4. Target “ready to buy” high probability opportunities based on event driven triggers such as new personnel. a company change event, or social triggers.

Typically, the breakeven ROI is only two months for marketing automation software that includes:

1. Lead Generation
2. Lead Capture, Scoring, Qualification, Workflow, Alerts
3. Intelligence – competitive, client and sales
4. Sales Enablement tools

In an age where detailed product comparisons can be found online, and customers can easily connect to peers online; it’s no longer enough to have the best product as being found online and “making it easy to buy” is paramount.

Leveraging marketing automation software can help companies see significant bottom-line impact by creating dialogues between providers and buyers directly and via online communities which reduce sales cycle time.

Because marketing tactics have changed dramatically over the past few years, what drives marketing ROI in 2012 and beyond will be heavily skewed towards programs that drive referrals, channel sales, and inbound sales opportunities that are “ready to buy.”

Marketing 2010	Marketing 2012
Advertising and lead generation supports Direct Sales “Feet on the Street.”	> Capital efficient revenue models utilize referrals from Alternative Distribution as well as inbound marketing to generate leads for direct personnel and partners.

Are you evaluating adopting marketing automation software?

SaaS Adoption of marketing automation software:

Contact us for our “Getting Started Playbook” which includes an evaluation and selection checklist, scorecard, and short-list of vendors, providers, and implementation firms.

Getting Started Playbook	Vendor Evaluation Scorecard	Marketing ROI Calculator

Email Marketing is Dead.

The death of B2B email marketing effectiveness to generate qualified leads that result in new clients can be attributed to a combination of:

1. spam,
2. the economy has caused buyers to elect for trusted brands that deliver immediate value, and
3. the rise of more effective lead generation tactics such as social media that allow for direct engagement with with early adopters and dissatisfied opportunities based on triggers.

While email is widely used and checked ALL THE TIME; its effectiveness to generate new clients is dead as leads from referrals have a 30% to 50% conversion rate while email marketing is less than a few percent.   In today’s Internet centric world, referrals and inbound marketing tactics are much more effective in generating B2B leads that result in new client sales. 

Source via the Corporate Executive Board blog.

In a buyer centric world where buyers can ask their friends on FaceBook  for a reference, review a product Group on LinkedIn, or review providers/vendor reviews from trusted 3rd party sources online, prospects no longer buy from buyers they do not know and trust. Today’s B2B buyers require information about a product or service provider to be found online easily and that the product or provider be a branded solution.

Generating B2B leads is more effective when companies realize the “consumerization or B2B buying” is here and act accordingly:

1. Engage buyers when they are searching or dissatisfied. Use research, competitive intelligence, and social media monitoring to respond to prospects and clients when they are evaluating and searching.  Don't over-automate your marketing messages or neglect to monitor social media activity on a daily basis. Be sure a real person is tracking and responding to questions and commenting in social media and are at the ready to provide the best and most appropriate content to addresses potential buyers and followers' specific needs.
2. Create targeted LinkedIn Company Product Page variations. LinkedIn Company Pages offer an awesome targeting tool that enables you to personalize the products/services a LinkedIn page visitor sees when they visit your company product page on LinkedIn. You can target based on demographic information such as industry, job function, and geographic location.
3. Online advertising and inbound marketing offers a wealth of data analytics to guide product marketing and marketing tactics. 

“Email marketing” is mostly generic, interruption oriented, pushy, and untargeted. However, when email is used by sales and in conjunction with highly targeted (personalized) sales campaigns by sales people directly the results can be outstanding. 

Contact us for case studies for your industry.

Do you have the right revenue growth strategy for 2012?

Do you have the right revenue growth strategies for 2012?          

The answer is “NO” unless you have a more capital efficient and effective strategy than your competition.

 

Based on primary research interviews we conducted during 2011 with more than a hundred software company and VAR providers these are the most common revenue growth obstacles:

1. Not enough qualified leads. Lack of qualified sales opportunities.
2. Long sales cycle complicated by a committee buying process.
3. Ineffective sales and marketing programs.
4. Misaligned or ineffective sales workforce including mediocre performance and talent constraints including lack of industry expertise.
5. Unrecognized brand. Lack of brand awareness and brand credibility.
6. Financial engineering, capital, and resource constraints.

Overcoming these revenue growth obstacles requires an effective revenue strategy that fits the buying process for today’s B2B buyers.

Marketing cannot fix a product, revenue model, nor a company. Effective revenue growth requires a strategy centered around a portfolio of lead and revenue sources that is highly focused and differentiated.

Do you have a more effective revenue strategy than your competition?

At Ephor Group, we work with software, outsourcing and resellers on their revenue growth and expansion strategies and around this time of year, as we prepare budgets and plans for 2012, we ask the following questions to ensure that we have the right revenue model and revenue growth strategy.

1. How does cost of client acquisition compare to competitors?
2. How will you improve your Portfolio of Lead and Revenue Sources and Alternative Distribution?
3. Are we leveraging marketing automation software technology? 

 

Top Three Actions Every Executive Should Evaluate for 2012:

#A. Have a lower cost of sales than your competition.

1. Implement multi-tiered sales compensation across multiple channels including partners, agents, alliances, account managers, and sales personnel.

2. Implement marketing automation software to take advantage of inbound marketing and social media by leveraging technology which can do a lot of the work.

3. Shift towards more variable compensation tied to performance.

#B. Make every client worth more to the bottom-line.

1. Create incentives, user conferences, or seminars that drive referrals.

2. Make, buy or partner to add product extensions and ancillary services.

3. Improve workforce sales performance by focusing on cross-functional revenue management, team selling, and leveraging matrix organizational structures. Create team, matrix, and cross-functional initiatives and revenue goals.

#C. Implement Management Science reporting to proactively manage Cash Forecasts and Client Contracts including upsell and cross-sell opportunities, partner forecasts and revenue pipeline forecasts.

Have a great holiday season and a prosperous new year!

 

Technorati Tags: Revenue Management,GrowthStep,Revenue Model,Alternative Distribution,Channel Management,Marketing Automation Software,Strategy for Growth

Does your company need Marketing Automation? ­

The short answer answer is YES. 

Because marketing automation makes it easy for clients to find, evaluate and compare, try and buy; every software and services provider  needs to implement marketing automation to facilitate lead generation, lead capture and scoring, lead nurturing, and community building.

Marketing automation software helps lower the cost of sales and cost of client acquisition by improving both the number of lead sources as well as improving the sales conversion cycle.

 

Marketing automation helps companies build communities.  Communities = Tribes.  Tribes give you the opportunity to engage in dialogues and build relationships.  With today’s global, mobile, remote workforce, for many B2B companies; communities are your most important asset beyond your employees.

Marketing automation software helps nurture the entire buying committee.

 

Marketing automation software drives inbound marketing lead generation.

Download our Marketing Automation Vendor Evaluation & Selection Criteria Scorecard.

 

Download our Marketing Automation Checklist for Inbound Marketing, Lead Generation, & Lead Nurturing which includes blogging, Search Engine Optimization (i.e. How to get found 101 on Google with SEO optimized content),  social media community building and more.

Strategies for Growth in 2012: Create a Community Ecosystem

Are you searching for ways to convert prospects to clients quicker and more efficiently?

We recommend fishing where the fishes are currently.

For the first time in history, you can find, listen to and interact with prospects directly online. Whether you actively participate in an online community such as a LinkedIn user group for HR technology, or you create your own online community, the opportunity to bypass administrators and gate keepers and reach buyers directly is readily available.

HR Tech LinkedIn Community	Alsbridge Outsourcing Leadership Community

 

There are clear benefits of focusing marketing and sales resources on a community:

1. Increase quality of leads because when you select the right community, then you are starting with qualified prospects .
2. More cost-effective to become recognized as “Branded Sector Leader” by focusing on a community versus mass market advertising.
3. Refer leads within the community to a select group of partners and vice-versa.

Takeaway: Spend your marketing and sales resources @ the right place (strategy) and you will see improved ROI.   Email us at Ephor for a list of current communities for your software or service industry sector.