• News,  Vendor Selection

    Wer ist ein Digital Marketing Service Provider?

    In meiner neusten Vendor Selection Matrix wurden Marketing Fachleute danach befragt, mit welchen Service Providern Sie bei ihren Digital-Marketing Automatisierungsprojekten zusammenarbeiten. Die erste vergnügliche Herausforderung im Design der Studie war: Wie nennen wir diese Bestie? 

    Marketing Agency … Marketing Consultant …. Marketing Systems Integrator (SI)  …Media Agency …. Full Service Agency ….. Digital Agency …. Digital Experience Agency …..

    Dann erinnerte ich mich ein an Projekt, an welchem ich im Jahr 2011 (bei Forrester) arbeitete gemeinsam mit einem Unternehmen, dass ich zu dieser Zeit bereits seit 15 Jahren kannte, ursprünglich als HP Value-Ad-Reseller. Sie erwähnten, dass Sie zunehmend mehr Marketing Software Projekte vorantreiben und entschlossen sich zu einer Review/Übersicht ihrer Gesamtstrategie und Positionierung, mit meiner Unterstützung. Anschließend konnte das Unternehmen erfolgreich als „Global Digital Agency, mit Fokus auf Business Transformation“ neu belebt werden.

    Ich habe die Erkenntnisse aus diesem Projekt genutzt (mit Erlaubnis), um einen Forschungsbericht mit dem Titel „The Emergence of Digital Marketing Service Provider (DMSP)“ zu veröffentlichen. Meinen Forrester Kollegen gefiel diese Terminologie zum Teil nicht, jedoch erhielt ich daraufhin viele Anfragen und Aufträge von Marketing Agenturen, welche mehr IT-Skills in ihrem Angebot anstrebten und traditionellen Sls, welche ihr kreatives Angebot erweitern wollten.

    Dies ist also der Begriff, den ich in dieser Studie verwendet habe. Ich stellte diese Definition 750 Marketing Fachleuten in Deutschland vor und bat Sie die DMSPs zu nennen und bewerten, mit welchen Sie bereits Erfahrungen sammeln konnten. Wir generierten dadurch eine große und wertvolle Menge an Daten, da etwa 33% der Befragten angaben, mit vier oder mehr DMSPs zusammen zu Arbeiten.

    A screenshot of a cell phone

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    Die Zweite Phase des Projekts besteht daraus, die Vendors (Anbieter) zu kontaktieren und Briefings mit Ihnen zu organisieren. Dies erwies sich als eine mühevolle Angelegenheit, da die Unternehmen kaum/keine Erfahrung mit Branchenanalysten wie mir haben. Die meisten besitzen im Grunde keine Kenntnis von meiner Arbeit, auch nach einleitenden Telefonaten, bei welchen das Projekt diskutiert wurde. Dies ist eventuell keine Überraschung, da Sie meist selbst kein Marketing durchführen (Werfen Sie einen Blick auf ihre Websites: Multi-Media Ego-Trips anstatt durchdachtes Engagement Marketing). Zudem wird dies durch den Forschungsbericht meines Kollegen B2B Marketing bestätigt, beim welchem die Frage: “Where does your new business commonly come from?” – „Woher kommen ihre neuen Geschäfte/Aufträge üblicherweise?“ gestellt wurde. Die Antworten werden im Folgenden aufgelistet.

    1. Direct referral                                                     – 96%
    2. Referral from an external individual (not client)      – 88%
    3. Request for Proposal process                                 – 63%
    4. Pitch                                                                  – 77%
    5. Paid/unpaid media exposure                                  – 43%
    6. Advertising                                                         – 27%
    7. Specialist referral agency                                      – 17%

    Ich werde jedenfalls weiter an dieser Thematik arbeiten, da die erhobenen Daten sich durchaus sehr interessant gestalten und ich bisher noch nie so eine umfangreiche Menge an Ratings/Beurteilungen erhalten habe. Hier ist eine Auflistung der genannten DMSPs in der Deutschland Studie (Alphabetisch, wie in dieser Phase üblich).

    EPAM, INTIVE, MPHASIS, PLAN.NET, PUBLICIS SAPIENT, R/GA, SINNERSCHRADER, TWT DIGITAL, VALTECH

    Seien Sie gespannt auf den endgültigen Bericht, welcher im September erscheinen wird. Wie ich zu sagen pflege entdeckt unsere Forschung ein „Vendor Landscape“ (Anbieter Wettbewerbslandschaft) – Bestehend aus jenen Vendors (Anbieter), welche von den Nutzern am höchsten angesehen werden für Dienstleistungen rund um Digital-Marketing Projekten, im Fall dieser Studie. Aufgrund von geographischen und funktionalen Differenzen, sowie von Unterschieden in der Marktsegmentierung ergibt sich nicht grundsätzlich eine Liste direkter Konkurrenten. Wie zuvor bereits erwähnt, arbeiten hier die meisten Befragten tatsächlich mit mehreren DMSPs zusammen, um ihre Bedürfnisse abzudecken. 

    Wenn Sie diese Thematik mit mir diskutieren möchten, zögern Sie nicht mich zu kontaktieren.

    Always keeping you informed! Peter.

    peter@teamoneill.de , poneill@researchinaction.de , peter-oneill@b2bmarketing.net

  • Uncategorized

    In the World of SaaS, ROI is an Ongoing Calculation

    The concept of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has transformed the software industry. On the demand side, clients enjoy the new consumption model, with generally lower entry points, continual support in some cases, and a less capex-intensive approach overall. And the software/SaaS providers have learned that business success and profitable growth depends more as much on the full adoption of their solutions and renewals across their customer base as it does on winning net-new customers. So they invest heavily in Customer Success (in the form of onboarding and implementation services) and Customer Support resources to ensure customer satisfaction and maintain a strong renewal rate.

    Buyers also have their financial metrics and most business purchase decisions, including software, must be supported by some sort of financial analysis and forecast, using financial instruments such as: 

    Return-on-Investment (ROI) — Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) — Internal Rate of Return (IRR) —  

    Payback Period — Net Present Value (NPV)

    In response, many software vendors routinely offer one or more tools to establish value during their sales process – tools such as an online ROI calculator or other spreadsheet templates. Or they help buyers to develop their own business case, perhaps by providing data collected from their existing client base. This was so important in the traditional software sales process that the vast majority of vendors even deploy a supplemental consulting resource to collect data and advise on the topic.

    The irony is though, in my experience, most sales conversations still dwell and stay focused on the price of a product or subscription instead of the value. This is due to some serious muscle memory on both sides of the purchase decision:

    • A business culture of sales quotas and discount models instead of a customer-first, value-based selling approach 
    • A focus from buyers on the cost budget they must invest instead of the value they are creating.

    The other issue with most vendors’ ROI tools is that they are mostly focused on the initial investment approval process and tend to produce a one-off report. Anyway, collecting accurate data is quite difficult and so most of the ROI/TCO/IRR/NPV forecasts are some sort of estimate based upon many assumptions. Often, the document is completed on a pro-forma basis and not validated; and it is hardly ever audited at a later date on the actual outcomes of the project.

    SaaS has also democratized software buying and many SaaS subscriptions are now signed up by individual contributors out of their expense budget – curiously, in these cases, IT or procurement only gets involved when the renewal phase is reached. But the SaaS spending honeymoon is likely ending. Chief Financial Officers are now turning their attention to these software expenditures and expect answers –  answers in their taxonomy of return on investment, business outcomes, and revenue contribution. 

    Many SaaS providers tell me that the renewal negotiation has moved from a “shall we continue the project” discussion to an almost full-blown re-evaluation of the initial investment decision. Compliance guidance, or just good procurement management practice, is pushing buyers to evaluate a new shortlist in the renewal phase and each additional user group or functionality is treated as a brand new project.

    The potential advantage for the current SaaS supplier is that they have, hopefully, provided a strong customer experience and that is well documented. Another is that the supplier is able to prove that their service has provided value to the organization: 

    • At the minimum, as measured against the forecasted benefits from the start of the project
    • Ideally, based upon a continuous value management process. 

    I’ve known DecisionLink as a pioneer in the topic of customer value management for quite a while now, so I wasn’t surprised to hear they were interested in the above developments. They decided to find out how the SaaS industry is reacting to this new emphasis on ongoing value management and field a survey across numerous SaaS sales organizations. Then, they asked me to review and analyze the survey data and write up an insights report which you can see here

    I hope you will enjoy the report and it will help in your planning; whether on the demand or supply side. It also discusses lessons learned in the SaaS industry that will be useful for all sectors. Manufacturers of any type of goods can transform from a “product” orientation to a “solution” orientation by packaging up their “piece of hardware” and wrapping services, maintenance and support, upgrades, financing, monitoring, replenishment and other value-add services to an otherwise commoditized piece of hardware. For example, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that produce tractors, airplane engines and printers, are all delivering full solutions “as-a-service”. 

    Always keeping you informed! Peter.

  • Channel Marketing and Enablement,  Sales Enablement Management

    More on Sales Enablement

    The sales engagement/enablement topic keeps ticking along. After my Vendor Selection Matrix report on Sales Engagement Management was published in May, I completed another research project on sales enablement in June. This was a trends survey across 177 marketers (42% US, 48% Europe) and the findings and insights are published by the B2B Marketing community as what they call a premium report. And I presented the report, within a specialized SE stream, at their IGNITE conference which was attended by over 3,000 people. My report and presentation title was 

    “The Sales Enablement Moment is Now”.

    The report concludes that now is a golden opportunity for B2B marketers to share their knowhow and expertise and help sellers look good in front of buyers. The perennial goal of marketing/sales alignment depends heavily on mutual trust and respect, and that would be easy to obtain with a successful SE programme. The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted this need to both individual sellers and their executives. An SE programme with a full supply chain of services and process addressing the competencies now required in a digital business world; providing content and training on a dynamic and responsive platform; and helping sellers to configure the right solutions for their customers quickly.   

    Our research showed that the typical sequence of an SE project goes through these stages of maturity: 

    1. Improve sales training.   
    2. Provide sales with digital content – passive. 
    3. Promote content to sales proactively.
    4. Add customer insights
    5. Integrate to other sales systems.

    Some companies will be able to improve marketing/sales alignment by just extending the current marketing automation processes and/or better-integrating Marketing Automation with the CRM or SFA systems. Others will want to invest in a new SE platform that does quite a bit more. An action plan is shown below, but here are some important points to consider: 

    • Address sales adoption from day one. The most successful SE projects focus on providing the optimal selling experience. Consider sales to be your customer for content, training and insights; research their needs first; and provide the information in the format and technologies that they prefer.
    • Compare various SE platforms. Please do not sign-up to the first SE vendor that calls. For the SE vendors, it is gold rush time currently and the SE software demos are all impressive – flowing PowerPoint presentations and running on tablet devices. Ensure there are standard interfaces to the systems that matter in your company; look for an empathetic user interface and adaptability in the software; and, perhaps most importantly, ensure it supports those devices that your sellers use. Sellers are already collecting a massive number of apps onto their devices through their own efforts. The SE system of choice needs to be visible, and recognised as important by the sellers, among that forest. It has to earn its adoption, based on ease of use, accessibility, comfort and applicability to the sellers’ daily tasks.  
    • Assign an SE programme manager high up in the organisation. Unless you set up a team of 510 people, the SE goals listed above cannot be achieved by your SE programme manager alone. Much of the work will be done by colleagues in other departments with encouragement and assistance from the SE programme: creating content, cranking data, providing training modules. So executive support across the organisations is, therefore, critical.

    If you would like to see more of the report, please contact B2B Marketing or myself. I am also doing several webinars on SE in the next weeks: here is one, here another.   

    Always keeping you informed! Peter

    peter@teamoneill.de poneill@researchinaction.de peter.oneill@b2bmarketing.net