Selling marketing automation to executives
C-level decision makers have the power to influence senior managers; they’re also responsible for making sure that businesses meet modern demands. Sourcing new technologies and strategies to help elevate organisations and bring in revenue is a big part of their job, which is why marketing automation - the guaranteed way of driving companies forward – sounds extremely appealing. Not only does the adoption of automation hugely benefit employees, who can get more done at a faster rate using fewer resources, but it also promises greater profit margins for businesses.
Converting the decision makers
But convincing company leaders about the value of marketing automation can prove tricky. Which is why Oracle has released a whitepaper to persuade organisations about the power of opting in.
Converting the CEO
A CEO’s biggest priority is to ensure the company hits its targets, while also outsmarting competitors and retain their clientele. Equip your CEO with information that tracks the performance of the business in a measurable way as they’re sure to be excited about this as it means they can analyse the organisation’s behaviour and act accordingly.
When pitching marketing automation to the CEO, sell the Revenue Performance Management (RPM) strategy. The software manages the company’s interactions with buyers throughout the purchase process by analysing revenue, standardising practices at each stage and looking at the business’ overall performance. RPM can also grow profits consistently thanks to various functions such as accurately capturing customer information and behaviour to push messages out at the right time and on the right channel and reliably predicting revenue outcomes of marketing and sales efforts.
Implementing the automation technology, RPM, into the workplace will produce regular results across marketing and sales, making it easy to measure the company’s performance against competitors and the industry benchmark. Plus RPM will speed up sales cycles, generate a higher average selling price and create more predictable sales forecasts; changing the sales and marketing processes for the better.
RPM is more than just technology; it requires employees to upskill and modify practices, which can be evaluated easily through the tracked analytics function. The technology is bound to expand across the sector, with many competitors likely to already be considering its implementation. Tell that to the CEO and he’ll be sure to back your decision immediately.
Getting the CFO on board
Finance executives are driven by numbers, so the RPM strategy will definitely appeal to their analytical brains. As the tool tracks everything from the time a lead is generated until it translates into revenue, CFOs will be keen to understand the interactions between marketing programs and future returns. Marketing automation will deliver the relevant information and help them to measure contributions according to revenue, basing their decisions on data rather than intuition and focusing the marketing budget on areas where they’re most likely to make the biggest financial gains.
Why the CIO is also important
The IT department do need to get involved when establishing marketing automation at the organisation. They’ll want to know whether the automation will be hosted on the premises and how involved they’ll need to be in the installation of the solution, as well as how secure the company’s data will be and what provisions are offered to ensure existing operations and security won’t be compromised.
The best way to impress your head of IT or CIO would be to involve them in the marketing automation investment process early on. That way, you can keep a list of their questions to hand and answer them as you’re researching marketing automation solutions.
Marketing automation delivers results, increases revenue while personalising customer experiences and provides a ROI for the company. Once you’ve preached its benefits to the CEO, CFO and CIO, they consider it a win-win too!
For all C-level decision makers looking to embrace marketing automation into their company, Oracle gives advice on how to buy in the strategy. You can download the whitepaper here.