{"id":3467,"date":"2011-07-25T10:31:30","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T18:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/?p=3467"},"modified":"2011-07-25T12:28:51","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T20:28:51","slug":"marketing-automation-is-not-the-magic-bullet-for-your-sales-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/2011\/07\/25\/marketing-automation-is-not-the-magic-bullet-for-your-sales-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Automation is Not the Magic Bullet for Your Sales Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"zemanta-img\" style=\"margin: 1em; display: block;\">\n<div style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/commons.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:KUKA_robot_for_flat_glas_handling.jpg');\"  href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:KUKA_robot_for_flat_glas_handling.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Factory Automation with industrial robots for ...\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/c\/cb\/KUKA_robot_for_flat_glas_handling.jpg\/300px-KUKA_robot_for_flat_glas_handling.jpg\" alt=\"Factory Automation with industrial robots for ...\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sharon Drew Morgen recently authored a good article on the <a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.marketingautomationsoftware.com\/');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.marketingautomationsoftware.com\/\">marketing automation guide<\/a> on <a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.marketingautomationsoftware.com\/blog\/close-more-sales-with-market-1072111ing-automation\/');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.marketingautomationsoftware.com\/blog\/close-more-sales-with-market-1072111ing-automation\/\">marketing automation<\/a>.\u00a0 It spurred some good comments, many of which I agree with.\u00a0 As we develop more expertise in Content Marketing\u00a0 I see a very strong correlation between great <a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Content_marketing');\" class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Content marketing\" rel=\"wikipedia\"  href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Content_marketing\">content marketing<\/a> and increased momentum through the sales cycle.\u00a0 As I read this weekend, &#8220;nurture your leads towards value, not the sale&#8221;.\u00a0\u00a0 What bothers me is that technology companies seem to want to reach first for a technology solution, before they identify their major impediments to sales.\u00a0 Witness CRM systems that sales people still do not use.\u00a0 If they do use it,\u00a0 CRM does not improve the sales activities. Marketing Automation is now under that same cloud.<\/p>\n<p>A long time ago I found that as a CEO you need to be in front of the customer to find out what they think of what you make and what you need to do to better serve their needs.\u00a0 Of course marketing automation will handle lots of leads and provide support to a strong nurturing program. But to do this properly you need compelling content, written for the buyer to support their buying process, when they need it.\u00a0 This is now\u00a0 the time for the writer, not an automated tool.\u00a0 The power is now in the hands of the buyer, not the seller. Buyers chose the field making the old push model, which never worked well, way past its best before date.\u00a0 Sales must be beefed up with a strong inbound marketing program.\u00a0 If you do not have the marketing chops already, buying a tool will not give them to you.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.customerthink.com\/blog\/demand_generation_necessary_for_lead_generation');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.customerthink.com\/blog\/demand_generation_necessary_for_lead_generation\">Demand Generation Necessary For Lead Generation!<\/a> (customerthink.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.customerthink.com\/blog\/b2b_marketing_automation_industry_size_and_segments');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.customerthink.com\/blog\/b2b_marketing_automation_industry_size_and_segments\">B2B Marketing Automation Industry Size and Segments<\/a> (customerthink.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.customerthink.com\/blog\/outbound_vs_inbound_the_risk_management_issue_in_the_complex_sale');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.customerthink.com\/blog\/outbound_vs_inbound_the_risk_management_issue_in_the_complex_sale\">Outbound vs. Inbound: The Risk Management Issue in the Complex Sale<\/a> (customerthink.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/pixy.gif?x-id=a12ac5f3-9333-47dc-85a4-667f5b016cd6\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sharon Drew Morgen recently authored a good article on marketing automation.  It spurred some good comments, many of which I agree with.  As we develop more expertise in Content Marketing  I see a very strong correlation between great content marketing and increased momentum through the sales cycle.  As I read this weekend, &#8220;nurture your leads towards value, not the sale&#8221;.   What bothers me is that technology companies seem to want to reach first for a technology solution, before they identify their major impediments to sales.  Witness CRM systems that sales people still do not use. If they do use it, it does not address a lack of sales skills. Marketing Automation is now under that same cloud.<\/p>\n<p>A long time ago I found that as a CEO you need to be in front of the customer to find out what they think of what you make and what you need to do to better serve their needs.  Of course marketing automation will handle lots of leads and provide support to a strong nurturing program. But to do this properly you need compelling content, written for the buyer to support their buying process, when they need it.  This is now  the time for the writer, not an automated tool.  The power is now in the hands of the buyer, not the seller. Buyers chose the field making the old push model, which never worked well, way past its best before date.  Sales must be beefed up with a strong inbound marketing program.  If you do not have the marketing chops already, buying a tool will not give them to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3467"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3472,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions\/3472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnordman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}