As budgets grow, marketing and sales teams are left with the task of doing more with less.
In times of economic crisis, efficiency becomes even more important. Many companies are cutting back on spending, which is raising questions about where to invest time and resources.
The good news is that despite the challenges of limited budgets, these teams can work together to be creative and come up with creative solutions. It all comes down to finding a common ground to pursue their goals and investing their money to bring value.
In The latest webinar produced by G2 + ZoomInfothe attendees heard Bryan LawChief Marketing Officer at ZoomInfo, is Mike WeirChief Revenue Officer at G2, talks about how companies can find the right balance between customer acquisition, retention, and expansion to drive revenue growth.
If you missed the webinar, this article covers some of their discussions and some ways to improve retention and growth.
Access problems
A major question on the minds of companies and revenue organizations concerns where to focus their efforts to acquire new customers or to maintain and develop relationships with existing ones. Unfortunately, it is a difficult and ambiguous question with no single answer.
Balancing these three levels of financial management depends on the size of the company. Conventional wisdom suggests that large startups are primarily concerned with acquisitions, while later-stage companies focus on existing customers. But if some industry experts sayCompanies can miss out on great opportunities if they focus on one of these areas too much.
It is also worth considering that Ehrenberg-Bass, one of the most famous marketing research organizations, was published. lesson which suggests that new user acquisition is a more reliable growth strategy for B2B companies than customer loyalty.
Cost of acquisition, maintenance, and expansion
In an era where everyone is spending less, it’s important to ask whether it’s worth investing more in acquisitions than in storage or expansion. These areas have different needs and costs, and cannot drive economic growth. In the webinar, G2’s Mike Weir gave his thoughts on the differences between each.
- Shopping is very expensive. Targeting new customers involves a lot to see the best results. The most expensive include data, media consumption, and production and manufacturing costs. Additionally, consider booking the necessary time for BDRs, Account Managers, and other members of the sales team.
- Saving is cheaper than buying. Aside from customer success and sales team members, retention can have a much lower cost than acquisition.
- Expansion is less expensive than storage. With support from sales, Relationship Managers can interact with customer success to find new opportunities with customers who like your product.
Understanding your position in the market
All companies have unique circumstances and entry points that can affect their investment decisions. Mike Weir suggests that one way to determine which areas to target involves understanding your current market situation.
Mike Weir
Chief Revenue Officer, G2
Although customer acquisition is always important for profitable organizations, Mike went on to talk about what the Ehrenberg-Bass study does not show. As brands grow their reputation and awareness in the market, consumers are naturally more open to learning about your solutions and buying from you.
Questions to know what to do
At one point in the webinar, Bryan Law of ZoomInfo shared his thoughts on how to help companies identify areas of potential growth to prioritize. The following are important questions to ask to move the discussion forward.
- As a company, what stage of growth are you in?
- What are your priorities?
- What do your customers look like?
- Are you in a mature or highly leveraged market?
Ways to achieve great savings and expansion
Your situation may feel that getting customers is important. However, due to the recent economic uncertainty, in addition to the already difficult purchasing process, many companies are exploring ways to reduce disruption and build better customer relationships than ever before.
Targeting new customers goes a long way with a few things, and it’s important to understand how to maximize customer revenue. The following are a few direct strategies from financial and marketing experts to help improve retention and expansion.
1. Access to great sales and marketing
Preaching the importance of sales and marketing integration is not just a distraction. Many industry experts and thought leaders often see the value of communication as an important way for companies to achieve business goals and remain competitive.
Everyone talks a good game about communication, but the reality is that few B2B organizations see a strong connection between these groups. At one point in the webinar, Bryan said that a lot of unprofitable investments are the result of a mismatch between sales and marketing.
When you break it down, reconciliation is about mutual understanding. Marketers need to understand the goals of the ad, and the marketer needs to understand what the ad can achieve with the given target.
Dialing in the right metrics
In terms of what drives the decision to invest in an acquisition, retention, or expansion, Mike talked about the two most important principles to follow in order to set the right expectations and drive the results you want.
- Performance metrics: These metrics can include looking at how much revenue an Account Executive can generate, and how many customers a Customer Success Manager can serve, among others.
- Conversion metrics: This can then be better linked to performance metrics to understand the performance of the brand as a whole. If you’re not tracking every single conversion point, you’re hurting your efficiency and spending a lot of money.
2. Embracing the customer’s voice
As mentioned earlier, high brand awareness and recognition in the market makes consumers more comfortable to explore your offering. But getting to the point where you are a leader takes time and consistency.
In order to overcome the demand for brand information, the voice of the customer can be very useful in creating powerful messages and laying the foundation for good marketing ideas. The good thing is that using the voice of the customer can have a huge impact on acquisitions and growth.
“If you think about customer success in the best possible way, then you take happy customers and empower them to speak for you,” says Mike. “I think one of the most important things to remember is that consumers talk to each other and educate each other about the right company or the right strategy to consider.”
3. Handling signals around the target
Despite its usefulness and power as a tool for overall profitability, many organizations struggle to fully utilize data. We know that G2 Buyer Intent data can drive great results and track buyers in real-time, but many don’t realize that this data can go further than that.
Avoid distractions and build on relationships
Another important aspect of sales and marketing is to build strong relationships with buyers and customers to understand what is stopping customers and how to build better relationships.
To help with this, Mike and Bryan discussed how certain indicators can help identify these opportunities.
- Competitor research & alternatives: With this identification, your team wants to start conversations with these customers that can highlight the problems they are facing or where your solution is not providing the value they need. It is better to deal with the chance of churn if you can plan ahead. This can be valuable information with time to update.
- G2 History tours & group tours: Let’s say you have an established relationship with a company that has offices around the world. You get notifications from their office in San Francisco that someone checked your G2 Profile, but not from the New York office where your contact works. By connecting this information with Relationship Managers, you can find opportunities to develop and participate in the other office.
4. Knowing how to take action and deliver value
When it comes to attracting customers, optimization is the easiest thing to measure. For example, it is increasingly the case that delivering business results requires interacting with a large number of customers.
Mike Weir
Chief Revenue Officer, G2
Ultimately, your goal is to solve a problem that your customers and consumers have. Regardless of whether you have a strong relationship, they need you to provide value.
Bryan said: “Sometimes it’s difficult for our clients to be successful when we don’t know what success means to them. “Being in the conversation to understand what’s most important to those businesses is critical to delivering what you want.”
Since reducing risk is a part of retaining customers and finding opportunities for growth, knowing how to act with the right music is essential.
Achieving economic growth in times of economic crisis
Balancing the priorities of customer acquisition, retention, and growth can be overwhelming. Finding the right mix between these areas requires understanding your market position, how you’re delivering value to customers, and determining which investments will provide the best opportunity with limited resources.
Important requirements
- Access is important, but expensive. Tighter budgets can call for more revenue opportunities, and calls for better usage and conversions can shed light on what might work best. Growth and retention require less investment to increase NRR and customer revenue.
- Multidisciplinary relationships can produce positive results. Since more than one person uses a given program, consider how each of these stakeholders can help identify problems, training needs, or provide additional value.
- Objective indicators can help reduce confusion or reveal opportunities for improvement. Using your target audience, these indicators can provide important information about whether a customer is considering a competitor or whether there is an opportunity to build on an existing relationship.
To view the entire webinar, view the recording of your choice Aligning Strategies for Customer Acquisition, Retention, and Expansion to Maximize Revenue Growth.