In the 1950s, Dr. Lawrence Weed realized the inefficiency and inherent danger embedded within paper-based medical records. Paper-based medical records were a manual process that did not allow for or encourage a collaborative or holistic intake or diagnosis process, and thus, the electronic medical record (EMR) was born. EMRs allow for collaboration between all stakeholders within the medical ecosystem: patients, insurance companies, medical providers, pharmacies, medical facilities, etc.

Similarly, today’s buyers are interacting with multiple aspects of an organization, as well as resources outside of the organization, both through personal and self-guided interactions. These interactions send a variety of signals about the buyer journey and determine how sellers should interact with the buyer. While the sales tech stack and marketing tech stack aren’t quite as integrated as electronic medical records, we’re getting closer as more integrations, partnerships, and acquisitions occur. Sharing the data and insights that portfolio marketing and sales operations collect, and infusing that knowledge into each stage of the buyer-aligned process, will amplify the experience and results.

What are the key insights that portfolio marketing and sales operations can provide?

Portfolio Marketing Insights:

  • Understanding of the buyer journey across its three stages: discover, evaluate, and commit
  • Key buyer questions and inflection (insights) points within each stage
  • Buyer persona’s preferred self-guided or personal interactions
  • Core content needs/assets based on the buyer persona

Sales Operations Insights:

  • Understanding of the seller journey and the associated sales process (stages, activities, content assets, knowledge requirements, etc.)
  • How to best leverage your sales technology stack to glean insights
  • Key seller inflection (insights) points, across each sales stage:
    • Effective sales cadences across buying groups/personas
    • Understanding of buying groups and their decision process
    • Best solution design/pricing based on historical performance

Portfolio marketing and sales operations can collaborate effectively in the following ways:

  • Review or define your buyer-aligned sales process.
  • Identify and map the key insight inflection opportunities within your buyer-aligned sales process.
  • Set up a regular cadence of communication between portfolio marketing and sales operations to share key insights and their implications.
  • Identify key success metrics, measure progress, and calibrate accordingly (pipeline value, deal velocity, win rates, etc.).

To learn more about how to collaboratively share insights between portfolio marketing and sales operations, please join Katie Fabiszak and I at Forrester’s B2B Summit in Austin, Texas, from May 2 to May 4. We look forward to seeing you there!