There are loads of marketing buzzwords out there. Well, this article introduces some new concepts but they will be easy to get a grip on and they will be the most important for you to remember driving a successful commercial engine. Implementing these steps or principles will take your modern commercial engine to the next level.

Step 1: SMARKETING IS NOW SPARKETING ✨

For many years it has been discussed how marketing and sales should work together to reach ambitious revenue goals. But really it is three departments driving revenue: Sales, Product, and Marketing, I call it Sparketing. The Sparketing machine needs to work closely together in a cross-functional collaborative task force. Only together the Sparketing-team can take product-led growth and enterprise growth to the next level.

How do sales, product, and marketing work together in your SaaS company? Please answer in the comments 👇

Step 2: CUSTOMER JOURNEY ORCHESTRATION 🥁

Is your SaaS-company going bananas on metrics to follow? The key results you decide to follow should help you make better decisions and not confuse you. 

Your customers are on a journey with you and how they experience you will determine your success. It is this journey your company should focus on. All departments need to understand how they support the Customer Journey and it is from here you decide your key results. You need someone to lead your orchestra that has the trust and authority to work with all departments and teams. This person will zoom in and out on the journey and must work holistically as well as detailed. The journey must also belong to a team, I suggest that the Customer Journey Director sits in marketing and makes sure the instruments play a beautiful hymn.

How do you work with the Customer Journey in your SaaS company? Please answer in the comments 👇

Step 3: WORK IN SPRINTS 🏃🏾

A company typically has a vision,  mission,  strategy, one-year plan, and quarterly objectives but if a company cannot execute this there is a huge problem. To have the marketing team work in sprints is an excellent way of making sure you get shit done. You can apply the sprint methodology you use in your tech/product department and do not forget to have a Scrum master leading your work. Of course, everything you work with should support the company’s long-term vision:

The best marketing sprint I have ever worked in is working in two-week sprints. You typically start on a Monday and bring the most urgent tasks from the quarterly planning session. You set goals for the coming two weeks and then you have stand-ups every second day.  At the end of the sprint you do a retrospective and reflect on the results, did you reach your goals? How can you as a team improve? What can we do better next sprint? 

This is a full blog post of its own, might get back to you on this one 😉

Step 4: SALES ENABLEMENT EXCELLENCE🏅

Marketing departments have been accused of working on too fluffy brand things and not taking into consideration that sales peeps have certain content needs. With a Sparketing-machine in place, you will align on what content needs to happen and when. You co-create the content plan and you get everyone onboard with expectations on lead creation as well as closing deals from the leads generated. Since there are recurring happenings each year, make sure you align on different themes for the year, and do not forget to allocate budget and resources to the biggest fairs and events you want to attend. Plan ahead, then execute!

STEP 5: IDENTIFY NEW OPPORTUNITIES 🔭

What worked 6 months ago might not work any longer and what did not work in the past years might work now. Being in the same role or in the same company can make you blind to testing new things out (sometimes) therefore you need to nurture your own and your employees’ curiosity to try new things. Make sure you try at least one new creative crazy idea at least once per quarter. Work according to to crawl, walk, run principles, test things out and fix it later and if something breaks – hey that is great, you don’t have time to perfect it! 

What about conquering a new market in only 90 days? Can it be putting together an industry report with all the data you already have available? Can it be trying out a new channel you’ve never ever tried and giving it a go? Can three peeps with different competence work in a task force and make this happen? 

STEP 6: A LAND AND EXPAND STRATEGY 🌎

Companies spend loads of resources to land new customers. By now we all know that landing a new customer is way more expensive than keeping existing ones. But why not land more users within the existing customers that are still a good match for your product? Follow the steps below:

1. Create a “list” or tag in your CRM of your targeted accounts, everyone in the company should know your targeted accounts.
2. Have a tailored approach to your targeted accounts, let it be specific nurturing campaigns, events, ads etc.
3. Track new user signups from targeted accounts. Also, keep an eye on user adoption. This is a perfect prospect list for Enterprise Sales peeps.
4. Deepen your relationship with the key stakeholders in the company. Add all decision makers on LinkedIn and engage continuously.
5. Deliver exceptional support and service, these accounts need instant support if they have any issues.
6. Create case studies, webinars, podcasts, and other content to deepen the relationship. Ask your point of contact to spread it internally.

STEP 7: REINFORCE MARKETING INTERNALLY 🦸🏾

Marketing these days gets swooped out by digital teams or other teams internally that get a bigger focus. Also, the CMO can be swooped out for a CRO. 

Marketing is fantastic, has a unique competence, and has a real impact on your business. Let us not forget that. You are owning ICP, Personas, Brand, Value prop, Tagline, etc. Let us involve the rest of the organization to get a real impact and at the same time reinforce ourselves internally.