Uncategorized

Ideal Customer Profile and Personas: Your Broken Funnel Starts at the Top

Who would have thought this vacationing couple would be the poster children for sales marketing misalignment?!!!

Originally posted at CMS Wire by Aimee Schuster and Jessica Schultz

Imagine you and your partner are on a beach vacation together. On the first morning you both get up to get ready to go to the beach. You bring your stuff in the bathroom and your partner gets ready in the bedroom. When you both meet at the front door, you’re in your running clothes, and your partner is in full snorkel gear. You thought you were both going for a run on the beach; your partner thought you were headed out for an early morning swim and snorkel session.

What happened? Wrong assumptions based on a lack of communication.

Extrapolate the scenario; marketing is you and sales is your partner. You think all your content, advertising and organic search efforts are for CFOs at big box retailers. Your sales partner is focused on VPs of HR at manufacturing firms.

What happened? Wrong assumptions based on a lack of communication.

While relationship counseling is definitely not our specialty, we are experts at sales and marketing counseling for B2B businesses. We’ve seen the fallout from a lack of communication and how it negatively impacts demand generation and ultimately sales and revenue. We know that problems at the bottom of your funnel are a direct result of the miscommunication at the top.

So how do you make sure both sides show up at the front door in the right outfit? The very first step is to agree on who you are targeting. That means a deep dive into ideal customer profiles (ICP) and personas.

Crafting Your Ideal Customer Profile

Defining your ICPs -– a process involving analysis of existing customers, market research and ongoing testing to make sure the ICP reflects customer needs and market trends — is mission critical in making sure that both teams agree on how big the target market is. Without definition around a few ICPs, the organization is basically saying they’re going to market to everyone. This is fine when there’s an unlimited budget, but in most realistic scenarios, we have to be more exacting in where our dollars are allocated.

We like an ideal customer profile to have the following characteristics:

• Large Industry Bucket (can use SIC codes if necessary)
• B2B | B2C | D2C | Other?
• Revenue Size

Effective Strategies for Defining Your ICP

• Look at existing successful clients. Who are you successfully marketing and selling to already? What industry buckets do they fit in? Do you notice a trend among FinTech or a large number of D2C retailers? Without even knowing or planning it, your product/service helped to create your default ICP by appealing to specific groups in the market. You may have new product lines or offerings where you are trying to break into new ICPs; if that is the case, use your existing success (or lack thereof) to help define a new set of criteria for an additional ICP.
• Review existing unsuccessful clients. Looking at the clients you closed-lost in aggregate will help you define buckets of groups you don’t want to go after. Sometimes defining who was not a good ICP helps you figure out who is a good ICP. Also, understanding these groupings of closed-lost clients can reveal themes and characteristics that help you define and develop new products.
• Use third party resources and tools. Get technology to work for you to help further understand and define your ICP.
  • Baseline: Your website’s traffic analytics, CRM and marketing automation platform tell you so much about your potential ICPs by letting you know which individuals are investigating your content. For example, Joe Smith, VP of HR from Building Corporation comes to your site, visits 10 pages and downloads a white paper on “Career Coaching in a Virtual World.” You learn about Building Corporation as a potential ICP.
  • Step up: Buyer intent and ABM tools like ZoomInfo and 6sense can help you to understand global search for terms and solutions. For example, companies like Building Corporation are searching for career coaching on average 3,000 times per 30 days, and it is up 20% YoY. This is great information as it validates that this type of search is popular among ICPs like Building Corporation. This tells you that you are reaching the right audience.

A very important concern that we hear often is, “If I create an ideal customer profile, I might miss out on a great potential industry. I don’t want to turn anyone away.”

To be clear, you are not turning anyone away. Your inbound will capture more than just what is defined as an ICP, and you can always work those opportunities. Instead, you are narrowing the outbound focus of your sales and marketing teams to just one or two ICPs. You are putting dollars and resources toward the industries that are most likely to buy from you quickly, at the highest price point and with the greatest return on investment.

Developing Target Personas

Once you’ve got the profile of the company you’re targeting, the next step is to establish the buyer persona(s) you’re targeting within those companies. A buyer persona is the profile of the person or people you are targeting.

In the B2B world, we like a buyer persona to have characteristics like:

• Title
•  Length of time / History in role
• Education level
• Prior work experience

For example, let’s say we are selling to the HR department. A company that fits my ICP definition may have an HR leader with a chief people officer (CPO) or chief human resources officer (CHRO) title. While it may look like a subtle difference, this matters a lot for some products. If I am selling a career coaching service, which title do you think would care more about career coaching? Due to historical knowledge in the industry, we know that a CPO title signifies the person and the company may be a bit more progressive and people-focused. They may be more likely to value providing an ancillary benefit like coaching to their workforce. Additionally, there is publicly available data on the demographic makeup of certain roles. Find that data and consider it for your overall brand, tone and messaging.
The length of time in their role may matter as well, particularly in an enterprise sale. It may take time for them to build the political capital needed to implement a large-scale change. The same is true with their education level or prior work experience. For example, if the CPO used to work at a Big 4 consulting firm, she is likely going to be more aware of digital transformation trends and more open to strategic changes. If she used to work at a large bank, she might be used to more structure, process and compliance.

Put together a list of top champions within your current client base and analyze their LinkedIn profiles. What trends do you see in their titles, tenure in role, education level and prior work experience? Why do you think those trends are making them your biggest super fans? That is how you’ll get closer and closer to a persona that is more refined than “We sell to HR departments.”
Finally, sometimes you are targeting more than one persona because there are different use cases for your product. The same process applies to identify their common characteristics.

How to Optimize Your Positioning

For your targeting to convert your target audience, you need to clearly understand your positioning. Why do you win with your ideal customer profile and buyer persona(s)? What pain points do you solve for them in their roles? How does your approach or solution differ from your competitors?
You need to speak directly to this defined target audience in their own language and answer those questions. One of our favorite positioning experts is April Dunford, and this is her stellar framework for approaching positioning:

• First, consider the competitive alternatives. What would your customer use if they didn’t know you exist? This could be another vendor, or it could be a homegrown system or a manual process.
• What key unique attributes, features or capabilities make your product different from those alternatives?
• What value do those attributes provide to your customers?
• Who cares a lot about that value?
• What context makes that value obvious to your target segments?
• Your positioning will and should change overtime, and that’s a good thing. As you scale and acquire more logos, features and case studies, you may broaden your ICP definition or add new verticals to target. The important thing to remember here is that your current positioning should reflect your current product capabilities and therefore your current ICP at all times.

Aligning Sales and Marketing with Your Ideal Customer Profile

By now it’s clear that your sales reps want — and your marketing team needs — clarity on ICPs and personas to effectively target the right people at the right companies with the right message. And industry experts agree with your sales and marketing teams.

This type of industry work is part of the Deep Sales: The B2B Sales Playbook to Boost Revenue in 2024, recently released by LinkedIn. According to the report, only 18% of sellers are "deep sellers," meaning that they are top performers and are more likely to succeed using AI and sales intelligence (SI) tools to outperform “shallow sellers.” Those AI and SI tools are used to conduct industry research, such as identifying ICPs and personas.

According to the report, doing that research is a “difference maker, [as] 62% of deep sellers conducted industry research.” The report also said that “buyers say demonstrating a clear understanding of their industry is one of the top ways to increase the likelihood of closing deals with them."

But what happens if you don’t do deep sales work like ICPs and personas? If you don’t give sales the right roadmap, a few things can happen:

1. They get analysis paralysis and don’t know where to start, so their activity is stalled.
2. They spend time (and money) bringing in leads that don’t convert because they aren’t a good fit.
3. They somehow close customers who aren’t a good fit, leading to poor experiences that ultimately result in customer churn.

If you fail to give marketing the right roadmap, you will see the following:

1. An incredibly wide net that captures everything under the sun, bloating the top of your funnel.
2. Sales gets frustrated and starts to say, “Marketing keeps sending me bad leads.”
3. Marketing gets frustrated and starts to say, “Sales won’t convert the leads I send.”

Not properly defining your ideal customer profile and buyer persona is like telling your revenue department to go eat an elephant. It’s really hard. But when you define it, they will be able to perform more effectively, resulting in better leads and ultimately more closed deals.

by bandwidthstrat

Three Questions To Ask Before Hiring A CMO

It's an exciting time for most growth-stage ($5 million in annual recurring revenue and above) companies when they decide to hire a chief marketing officer. Sales are happening, revenue is finally real, and leadership is ready to scale the product.

The company may have minimal marketing support or what's been determined as the "wrong marketing" in place, and they believe now is the time for a new strategic direction.

Filled with optimism, leadership finalizes a chief-marketing-officer job description and imagines how this magical marketing savior will descend to start getting revenue to rain down on the company.

The reality is much different and explains why the median tenure of a chief marketing officer has been closer to 27 months for the past few years.

It's also why I'm constantly hearing from clients, startups, and my contacts in the private-equity and venture-capital world: "Why do we keep hiring the wrong chief marketing officer?"

The answer isn't that you need a different chief marketing officer. The answer is that the company isn't ready to hire a chief marketing officer — period.

So how do you know it's the right time?

1. Do you need a coach or a player?

There is a sentiment I hear all the time among CEOs: "No one can know my business unless they are in it day to day."

There's some truth to this statement, but what a chief marketing officer does best is not unique to your business. Much like chief revenue officers aren't spending their days cold-calling and chief financial officer aren't setting up basic spreadsheets, chief marketing officers should not be posting on social media, curating email lists, or executing web copy.

You would be wasting their experience and skills.

This is not to say that chief marketing officers are not often "player-coaches," but to get the "coach" part, you need to provide the right resources: staff and budgets.

What goes into a growth-stage marketing budget?

• Technology stack: 
  • Marketing automation/customer-relations management
  • Analytics/reporting
  • Social-media management
• Advertising/paid marketing 
• Public relations/earned media
• Social media 
• Design 
• Content/editorial
• Search-engine marketing/search-engine optimization
• Sales enablement 
• Events

There are different schools of thought around whether a marketing budget should include salaries. Because many of the outputs (blogs, social posts, etc.) are usually marketing-staff deliverables, it makes good sense to include staff in the overall number.

The salary of a chief marketing officer should not roll up though; it inappropriately inflates the numbers. As a quick rule of thumb, I like to allocate between 5 and 15% of annual recurring revenue as a good guideline for marketing spend. 

 2. What's the timing of your exit event?

When do you want to transact? If you're the CEO, answer as if you're the one who's asking and be brutally honest with yourself.

If you're transacting in the next 24 months, do not hire a chief marketing officer. Chief marketing officers bring experience, strategy, and a desire to build long-term plans for long-term results. Getting to know the business, the players, and the landscape takes at least six months, and it often takes 12-plus months for real and substantial revenue growth from things like strategic content initiatives.

That doesn't mean there won't be quick wins along the way, but truly changing direction takes time.

Below is a useful rubric to explain the areas of marketing that will produce value for your company depending upon your transaction timeline. Transaction is defined as a strategic acquisition, investment round, or partnership with a private-equity or venture-capital firm, or even a merge. In short, a transaction is a major change in leadership or ownership.

3. Will you be able to staff the role appropriately?

"I hired a CMO for $250,000 — they should be bringing me leads," a client said recently.

But leads don't happen because of a single person. When you pay for a chief marketing officer, you're paying for a high-level marketer to be in the business day to day and provide suggestions on how to make strategic long term changes to drive results and success.

Seasoned marketing leaders help set the structure. They put in place the systems, playbooks, and rubrics they've used successfully to drive revenue and goals before. Then the junior folks execute on that strategy.

Those companies with longer runway can use the editorial strategy, writing support, and day-to-day interactions of a chief marketing officer to help strengthen the overall brand experience.

If you're looking to increase leads or test a few different acquisition approaches, consider using a part-time resource to help you set your marketing strategy. Or look inward: Invite your middle-level folks to higher-level meetings and get them even further steeped in the business. You may find there's a seasoned marketing leader waiting to come out.

If it's not already clear, the secret to finding the right CMO is time.

As a CEO, the most important conversation is the one with yourself. Do you have a multiyear runway to let your chief marketing officer succeed?

If the answer is no, that's OK. Put your efforts into creating a team that drives the quick wins needed for a faster transaction.

It's up to you to be one of the lucky CEOs that hires the right marketing talent at the right time with a much better outcome for you, your business, and your team.

Originally Published In Business Insider

by Dylan

Should I Be a Fractional CMO?

If it seems to you that everyone is going fractional these days, you're not alone. According to Google Trends, search-term interest of "Fractional CMO" totaled 284 in 2018 and jumped to more than 2,043 in 2022—a 600% increase!

There are a lot of reasons for that growth in interest. Gen X, Millennials, and (my personal favorite subgroup) Xennials know that, unfortunately, few companies reward loyalty today. In addition, many of those folks have reached at least two decades in the workforce—more than enough experience to go out on their own.

In today's dynamic landscape, there's less time for CMOs to ramp up and build an organization with a five-year plan. Enter the fractional CMO, who brings expertise as a "hired gun," with more cross functional expertise, more objectivity, and less ego.

Unsurprisingly, as someone who has run a fractional CMO practice, I get asked about it a lot.

The fractional CMO conversation starts out something like this...

'Have you had success as a fractional CMO?'

Success has come in waves. The first two years were gangbusters (I made more money than any previous full-time job I held, and I was working fewer hours), but Year 3 started out slow. The recession fears and the SVB scare certainly had an impact on my business (as they have on many other services-based businesses). It's not all roses all the time.

'Can you be fractional without 'hustling' for business?'

The world "hustle" is often associated with sales, and most folks not in sales tend to shudder at the term. Though I don't fear sales, I do believe in the long game. I don't offer a widget, so I'm looking to drive ongoing mutually beneficial relationships. Not surprisingly, my "sales" techniques are for the most part long-game marketing: writing articles, speaking on podcasts; most important, I try to provide as much value to my network as possible.

'What is the difference between fractional and consulting?'

Fractional is a part-time role for approximately six months (or more) and probably at least 15 hours a week. As a fractional CMO or COO, I often receive an @company email, evaluate teams, audit systems, and coach up (or out) employees. I have a handle on and drive actions toward the overall business objectives. I'm also often a sounding board and ear to the CEO, who may not want to discuss certain frustrations with C-suite colleagues directly.

Consulting is for the most part project-based: Think shorter timelines and defined deliverables.

Then the conversation shifts toward 'Is fractional right for you?'

When I meet with folks interested in exploring fractional work, I use the following rubric to lay out what I consider to be some of the important questions to ask. I call it a "Fractional Hierarchy of Need."

Fractional Hierarchy of Need

1. Can you access health insurance?

Unfortunately, health insurance is still among the No. 1 concerns when going out to start a consultancy, business, new opportunity.

The healthcare marketplace does provide some options, but for those of us who have spent our lives in jobs that provided steady and reliable health insurance, independent health insurance is not an equivalent. It's unfair, frustrating and something uniquely American; but it is the reality.

I'm very honest in saying I get my health insurance through my spouse. I'm lucky, and I don't gloss over that when talking to folks. Insurance is a real concern in the evaluation process. Many people I talk to are just leaving jobs and have the option of COBRA, which is great as it affords someone an 18 month runway to try to make a go of fractional work.

2. Do you have a network big enough to support you?

I built my network throughout a 20-year period by always saying yes. I say yes to meetings with people who want my advice, I say yes to speaking engagements, I say yes to writing opportunities, yes to mentoring, and yes to volunteering. Whenever possible, I say yes—because despite knowing that 90% of the conversations I have won't turn into "wins" right away, there is a good chance they will turn into wins (for me or someone else) later on.

If you are considering fractional work and you are someone who doesn't have an extensive network, you might want to consider that...

You will probably need to do more outbound sales activity — which is great if you're comfortable with that.

If sales isn't your thing, whether finding another full time role might be the better move.

3. Does this type of work light you up?

Years ago, when speaking with a brand new colleague at a company where I was an employee, she said, "I just hate the first year of a new role. Nothing is set, everything is new, I have to build from scratch."

My jaw hit the floor. I couldn't believe it. The first year was my favorite time: I loved the building, scaling, and trying out new things. You are afforded so many opportunities in those first 12 months; you aren't yet beaten down by politics or the "we've already tried that" mentality. You have a fresh perspective.

After 12 months at a full-time job, the work becomes more rinse and repeat; and that never got me going. That is how I knew I would love fractional work. I really like the beginning; I want to be a part of the setup and the start line. I don't need to see the project to fruition to get satisfaction and feel gratified.

If you need to see the end of the project ,  fractional work will not light you up.

* * *

Although "Fractional CMO" has become a trending term, the practice, for many of us, is here to stay.

The opportunity to be a fractional CMO and to lead a practice is a tremendous privilege. I find a lot of fulfillment in both the work I do and the opportunity to mentor people who are considering becoming fractional. For many, I'm able to shine a light on a new world, a new way of thinking, new ways of using skills and benefiting businesses. For others, I've walked them through a scenario that doesn't work for them in their specific place in life. In both cases, the Fractional Hierarchy of Need provides clarity.

by Dylan