System three
Demand Generation.
Is the offer getting in front of enough customers and causing them to express interest? It covers every source of pipeline, from owned, earned and paid media to partners and outbound.
Why it matters.
Demand Generation is where most go-to-market budgets go, and it is the system where activity is easiest to mistake for results. A company can run campaigns, post every day and book meetings while the pipeline that matters stays flat.
We judge it the way a sponsor does, in pipeline terms. That means coverage against the number, where pipeline comes from, what each channel costs per customer won, how long that cost takes to pay back and whether marketing spend moves anything at all.
What it covers.
Demand Generation has four parts, and each has its own page.
Owned and earned media.
The company’s own channels and the attention it earns, from the website and content to press and speaking.
Paid media.
Advertising in search, social and anywhere else the company buys attention, judged by what it costs to win a customer.
Partners and channels.
The partners, resellers and referrers who bring the company business, and what each relationship is worth.
Outbound.
The pipeline the sales team creates for itself, through prospecting and direct outreach.
What we look at in the Diagnostic.
We read the CRM and the marketing platforms for where pipeline comes from, how it moves from stage to stage and what each source costs, and we set marketing spend against bookings to see whether one moves the other. We build that view before anyone explains the numbers to us, so the explanations can be tested against it.
What we rebuild.
In a turnaround engagement, an operator who has run demand generation sits over it. We cut the channels that produce only activity, put the budget behind the ones that produce pipeline and test until we know what works. What works is written into the playbook and wired into the operating system, so your team can run the motion and read the numbers after we leave.
The other systems.
Commercial Strategy.
Are you selling the right offer to the right customers at the right price, and approaching them in the right order?
Brand Platform.
Is the offer presented so that it connects with the right customers and they get it?
Sales Organization.
Can the team convert interested leads at a reasonable rate?
Retention & Expansion.
Do customers stay and buy more?
The Revenue System.
Can the company see which of these is failing?
The Diagnostic
Start with what is true.
The Diagnostic examines Demand Generation third, in eight weeks at a fixed fee of $95,000.