There are times when it feels like everyone is “on the marketing team.” One person has an idea for a direct mailer. Another person feels we should do more industry white papers, while somebody else is adamant that we just have to be at an upcoming conference. And while I love the passion, enthusiasm and idea sharing, we can get ourselves in trouble by saying yes to try to please everyone.
We often don’t realize that by saying yes to something, we are saying no to something else. In a world of finite resources, there is an opportunity cost to that yes, such as a higher-than-anticipated customer acquisition cost, a dilution of our brand, or a stressed-out and overworked team.
So, I think a lot about how I can say no to say yes. I have found two key questions that keep me on track and help me decide if an idea, event, white paper, etc. is a no or a yes.
Is this aimed at our ‘in-market ICP’ (IICP)?
ICP stands for “ideal customer profile,” which is often confused with total addressable market (TAM). Your TAM is anyone who could be a potential customer. Your ICPs, on the other hand, are the best customers for you, right now. These are the prospects and customers on which you want to focus the majority of your top-tier sales and marketing resources because they are the most likely to buy, most likely to be profitable and most likely to be successful using your solution.
By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, anyone can define a strong ICP. Looking at historical patterns, AI and big data can determine which accounts look like previous accounts with which you’ve had success. Furthermore, these insights can help uncover your dark funnel and the accounts ready to buy, also known as “in-market” — the “I” in IICP.
Our company offers a platform that provides users with this type of insight, but especially if your company is in its infancy or not ready to make an investment into this area, there are other ways you can strategically identify your ICP. CMOs who are looking to get the ball rolling can start by analyzing their pipeline and customer base. For the pipeline, look at what recently converted to an opportunity versus what did not. What did you win versus what did you lose? For customers, look at profitable versus not profitable, and segment renews versus churn.
By grouping segments, you can start to find patterns that indicate a positive or negative result. The next step, which is the most difficult, is aligning the organization on criteria that make up your ICP. Involving a diverse team to determine your core set of criteria can help here.
Does this support our V2MOM?
You are probably saying, “V2 what?” V2MOM is a framework Marc Benioff used to launch Salesforce, and the company continues to use it for organizational alignment. It stands for vision and values, methods, obstacles and metrics. And now, V2MOM has become the strategic framework for many companies, both in the Salesforce ecosystem and the tech world in general.
(Full disclosure: Salesforce is a partner of 6sense.)
So I figure, if it’s good enough for Marc, Salesforce and other growing companies, it’s good enough for me! I’ve successfully used the framework at multiple companies to focus our energy on the initiatives we deem most important. Over time, I’ve adapted it slightly to meet my needs and the needs of my team.
Here is how I use the V2MOM, and why it works well for us:
• At the beginning of every year, the leadership team helps shape the V2MOM, so it isn’t just me telling everyone what to do and how to do it. We create the vision and values together. I challenge the team to make these bold and aspirational because V2MOM isn’t for maintaining the status quo — it’s about changing the business for the better.
• We then look at what we are actually going to do to achieve the vision. These are the “methods.” The methods are time-bound — typically quarterly — and they are hyper-prioritized. So, method one gets more attention than method two, and so on. The team and I rank the methods together so that we all understand the priority of each.
• The “MOM” in V2MOM stands for methods, obstacles and metrics, but I have made a slight tweak there. I’m not a big fan of obstacles (shocker!), so for me, the “O” stands for owner. Every method has a clear owner driving it. This is critical since methods are often cross-functional.
• Metrics are the last part — like the owner, they are also associated with a method. I typically like three or four metrics per method. If you have too many metrics, the method is always yellow. Metrics need to be clear, so on a weekly basis, you can deem them red, yellow or green.
We make our V2MOM completely transparent. The entire company knows and understands what we are working on, along with why and how we are tracking. And it is just as much about what is on the V2MOM as what is not.
So, while we can’t go to every event, write every blog or send every direct mailer, I know that what we can commit to will be amazing because we have prioritized and resourced it accordingly.
I hope this helps you say no to say yes! Here’s to sleeping soundly at night because you know your money and efforts are focused on the right accounts and your teams are aligned to achieve bold plans.
