Adopting Formula One
Downforce Principles
to Fill Your Sales Pipeline & Win Business Faster

• Ginger Clay
• 20+ years in Marketing
• 5 years working inside your business
• What Qualifies me?
• What does IgniteRM do?
• Ignite180: Strategy & Execution
• Integrated Campaigns
• Marketing Mavericks
• Persona Messaging
• Web Audit & Best Practices
• Social Media Turn-key
Welcome

In the beginning…

The 60’s & 70’s

The 80’s

The 90’s

The 2000’s

Today

The Buyer’s Mindset
Do I have a problem?
How can I do it better?
I heard that product “X” can do “y”.
I think I need to make a change.
Price? Solutions? Vendor?
Which vendor can deliver?
Can I trust them?
60%
67% is done
digitally
(SiriusDecisions)

Shifts in the marketing landscape
• Nearly half of all B2B researchers are
millennials
• LOB Managers are influencing
purchasing decisions or making them
• 71% of B2B research begins with a
generic search
• Mobile usage is getting more play in
the research phase of a buying
decision
• More and more buyers are watching
video
• Takes 7-12 engagements before
buyer’s engage with you

The Gap
TOP
MIDDLE
BOTTOM
Do I have a problem?
How can I do it better?
I heard that product “X” can do “y.”
I am going to make a change.
Price? Solutions? Vendor?

What’s happening?
• 8-9 Billion devices are connected to the internet
• Most are computers, phones and tablets
• Educated Buyer
• Expectations are increasing
• “One-size” no longer can fit all
• Capx to Opex
• Want information to be personal
• Want information to be relevant
• Want information to be timely
• Social Engagements to Learn
• Perception is Reality
• Social Noise

Rise of the Self-Educated Buyer

Buyer Behavior

The Role of Marketing Today

What does Racing and Marketing have in
common?
1. Begins with the knowledge of the road
2. Driver matters
3. Design reduces timing
4. Wing flow varies
5. Downforce is key
1. Target / Pain Points
2. Different skills required
3. Right time/ Right Place/ Top of Mind
4. One size does not fit all
5. Marketing leverages the downforce concept
to attract buyers during the decision making
process

Common Disconnect
1. Marketing is viewed as and IS a cost center
2. Marketing is a compilation of events
3. Hired a lower level marketing assistant type person
who can execute, but lacks strategy/vision
4. Lack a comprehensive plan that includes a way to
communicate to existing customers, sell deeper and
keep them sticky
5. No processes to track performance

Why can I not create downforce?
1. Your not found
2. You would not know if you were found
3. You don’t know what your visitors do
online
4. You don’t know who your online visitors
are
5. You don’t value marketing enough to
invest in the tools to be in the know
6. You are found, but not relevant enough to
engage visitors
7. You don’t offer compelling relevant
information that would make someone
want to continue to stay on your page

5 Ways to Attract (and be found)
1. Be Attractive
2. Know Your Customer
3. Be Relevant
4. Connect
5. Be Found

Be Attractive.
 Web Presentation:
Do you look innovative?
 Message:
Do you have a compelling story?
 Value Prop:
Does it speak to the
customers pain points and
buying drivers?
 Key Differentiators:
Can you back it up?

Know Your Customer.
CIO
Being pushed closer to customer demands yet required to engage in strategic initiatives designed
to provide value to the internal organization and end-user
CHALLENGES
 Priorities have shifted from operations to the
customer, from efficiency to customer loyalty,
from cost control to increasing sales
 Compliance: I have PCI data all over the place.
How do I secure that data?
• Bottlenecks: My team is too busy fighting fires.
How do I determine where my bottlenecks are?
• Staffing: Just when I invest into and train a good
IT Director, he/she is lured away by the
competition
• Cloud issue: I have a bunch of servers sitting on
my network. They all stand alone. How do I
consolidate those and possibly move to the
cloud?
• What are their top 3
priorities? How do you fill
the gap?
• How do you help them
mitigate that risk?
• Where do they find
information?
• What content do they
read?
• Who are the influencers?
• What are the key drivers?
• What are the common
objections?

1. Talk about your customers problems
2. Keep it popcorn sized
3. Pay attention to aesthetics
4. Stop talking at and talk with
5. Stop pushing. Start pulling.
Be Relevant.

Are you willing to connect?
Why be social?

What is social media designed to do?
• Attract people who
are like you & have
similar interests
• Have a conversation
• Sell
How are you doing?

What does social media NOT do?
•SELL
• Be a billboard
• Talk about YOU
• Be a platform for manufacturer-centric
content
• Not have purpose
• Be Unprofessional
• Be a superficial marketing push

Social Disclaimer
27

How do I generate leads using social media?
Answer: You don’t.
You generate interest.
You foster trust.
You establish credibility.
You connect.
You Inform.
You give the visitor what they want: more value.
28

“Marketers use social
media to sell stuff.
Buyers, however, do not.
Buyers are on social to
find value.”

Value
Content
Entertaining
Content
Offers
CTA
Events
About You
70% 20% 10%
70:20:10 Ratio

Value Content
 Blog: How to Welcome the 21st Century Connected Parent into Your Classroom
 Blog: 3 Cost Effective Reasons to Read this Before You Buy Your Next Phone System
 eBook: Evaluating Simpler Infrastructure Alternatives
 Guides: Parents have choices. 6-Steps to increase ADA.
 Checklist: Security Checklist / BYOD Checklist/ Campus Safety
 Report: 4 Critical Elements of an IT Roadmap & 1 Bonus Industry Finding
 Guide: Increasing enrollment through Digital(Media Rich) Classrooms

Instead of Being Social, Connect.
• How do visitors consume
information? 70%
• Align with the customer
decision journey.
• Create patterns, not repeat
messages.
• Create a brand. What does
your brand stand for?
• Be known for something.

LinkedIn Strategy
• Tier 1 Contacts
• Sales Networking for
Leads
• Social Listening
• Brand Visibility
• Branding through Content
• Content strategy through
strategic placement of ads

Get Ranked & Get Found
• 5.9 billion searches a day
• People searching on Google are actually looking for
something
• 10 results on a each page
• Google’s 1st page captures 89% of traffic
• Most users will not look beyond the 1st page
• Of the 89% of traffic, the 1st 2-listings capture 42% of the visits

Where should an organization like mine begin?
1. Be Attractive
2. Know Your Customer
3. Be Relevant
4. Connect during every stage of the decision making
process
5. Be Found

Break?

What will keep my business from leveraging downforce?

1. Sales & Marketing misAlignment
1. Misaligned strategy
2. Misaligned thinking
3. Misaligned goals
4. Misaligned
compensation

The Value of Teamwork
39
“Talent wins game, but teamwork and
intelligence win championships.”
- Michael Jordan

Biggest Sales & Marketing Disagreements
• Role of Marketing vs. Sales
• What is a lead?
• When does it become a “sales qualified”
lead?
• How do we track it as it moves through
the sales pipeline?
• Which “results” do we measure?

---MARKETING FOUNDATION---
• Downloads/Offers
• Events
• Search Engine
• Blogs
• Social Media
• Web Landing Pages
• Case Studies
• Events
• Networking
• Campaigns
• Comparing
• Evaluating • Referral Book
• Testimonials
• Project Portfolio
CUSTOMER ADVOCACY
AWARENESS
CONSIDERATION
DECISION
• Message & Branding
• Aligning Sales & Marketing
• Web Redesign
• Social Media
• SEO
• Content Schedule
• Collateral
• Proposal Redesign
• Marketing Intel
• Cold Calls
• Tele-Marketing
• Prospecting
• Qualifying
• B: Budget?
• A: Authority?
• N: Need?
• T: Timeline?
SALES ALIGNMENT MARKETING ALIGNMENT

How do you tell a cloud prospect from an on premise prospect?
Qualifying a Cloud Prospect

Which Solution is Right For Your Customer?
Cloud Based PBX
• Fully managed solution
• Local & nationwide long distance included
• Perfect for connecting multiple locations
• Anytime, anywhere access
• Predictable monthly operating expense
• Rich business app integration
• Full BYOD mobility support
• Incredible, reliable service
• Fantastic call quality & reliability
On Premise IP-PBX
• Easy to administer and use
• Low operating costs and maintenance
• Perfect for large locations
• Powerful collaboration applications
• Capital expense
• Rich business app integration
• Full BYOD mobility support
• Incredible, reliable service
• Fantastic call quality & reliability

• Background on the prospect is “the” key
• Start up or well established?
• How do they deploy technology today?
• Are they growing rapidly?
• Is mobility important?
• Do they desire to stay technology current?
• What are their business challenges?
• Is OpEx important to them?
Qualifying a Cloud Prospect

“There has got to be a shift from
2005-style marketing to attraction
marketing driven by data, knowledge
and ultimately content.”

2. Not measuring the transition from a
MQL to an SQL.
1. Online Performance
2. Social
3. Email
4. Events
5. Win/Loss
Huh?

What should I
measure?
1. Online Performance
• How many overall visits
to the site?
• How many visits from
different devices?
• Bounce rate?
• Time on site?
• Where do visitors come
from?
• Referral? (Social)
• Direct? (www….)
• Keyword? (SEO,
PPC)
• Email?

What should I
measure?
1. Social
• Followers
• Activity
• Click-throughs
• Trending content

What should I
measure?
1. Email & Events
• Opens
• Click-throughs
• Bounce
• Undelivered
• Click-Through
• Registered vs. Attended

What should I measure?
1. Win/Loss Opportunities
• How many leads move
from MQL to SQL?
• How many MQL/SQL close
with success? Failure?
• Why did they close?
• What is the % of win-to-
lose?
• What are the sources of
closed opportunities?

How can you leverage downforce to attract and drive demand?
• The landscape is changing
• Must align with the buyer’s decision
making process
• Must be attractive
• Know your target
• Relevant & Connect
• Be found
• Influence change by aligning and
marketing
• Measure, rinse, repeat

“There are no shortcuts in evolution.”
--Louis Brandeis

Downloads & Contact Details
Email: Ginger@igniteRM.com
LinkedIn: Ginger Clay
Twitter: @GingerClayCom OR @IgniteRM
www.igniteRM.com