We’ve talked about what marketing automation is, the benefits of using it and covered some ideas of how to show the value of it within your organization. But it really comes down to those key facts that are pertinent to your company that will help you sell marketing automation to your executives.
To be successful, you need to make the case that your plan serves the company’s – and management’s – best interests. Emphasize results, not features, and be ready to make your business case with numbers and support from your counterparts in sales, customer success, and other stakeholders.
What Your Business Case Should Include
To improve your chances for getting executive management’s buy-in, here’s a list of key points to address as you craft your business case:
- Clear objectives for implementing marketing automation.
- Specific benefits of marketing automation adoption and how they map to company objectives.
- Technological components and benefits. For example, are you recommending email, website visitor tracking, social integration? If so, why? What about CRM integration? SEO auditing?
- Data sources, including integrations with your CRM systems, other prospect and customer data, and campaign data.
- Budget and milestones – i.e., the real-world schedule and costs for implementation. This includes phases, technologies, and reasonable times/milestones for learning, evolving, and refining to the point where ROI can be achieved.
- Analytics and reporting.
- ROI projections, including:
- Outline the volume of activity required to meet lead, quota, and revenue goals. Base this on historic data in your target market.
- Calculate what sales and marketing activities cost now (without marketing automation).
- Calculate potential improvement in costs and results after implementing marketing automation.
- Calculate current and projected profit improvements.
- Define the results of sales and marketing alignment in terms of lead generation, qualification, and enhanced cooperation.
- Risk management; include risks associated with adopting and not adopting marketing automation.
- Timelines and target dates.
Try to avoid generic phrases like “shortened selling cycles or “more effective use of marketing assets”. Be sure to key in on exactly what your company’s pressing challenges are today, and ensure your case speaks to those specific issues.
Need Help Crafting Your Strategic Plan?
We can help you build a plan for marketing automation that meets the specific needs of your business. Contact us here.
Debbie Paul is Partner at Distribution Strategy Group. Debbie helps distributors identify and communicate their value so they can better serve and sell to their customers. At Newark Electronics, she oversaw the growth of small- to medium-sized high-potential accounts with results of over 10% growth in the first year, continuing in subsequent years at a rate of 15-20%. Ready to tap the full potential of your customer base? Contact Debbie at dpaul@distributionstrategy.com.