Hello!

Welcome to the very first edition of Demand Crush. I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to bring clarity to a complex function, share my experiences and the best strategies I’ve developed over my very long career in B2B marketing!

The demand side of marketing doesn't have to be a mysterious black hole. Leaving CEO’s wondering what marketing teams are doing, and sales teams feeling out in the cold. 

This week I geek out on how to align marketing and sales around the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). 

What has your ICP done for you lately?

Alignment is a process

I believe that sales and marketing alignment is more than hi-fives and being friendly, it’s a process. It’s something we build into everyday operations, track, improve, and yes, get results from. 

The way I see it there are five key areas to “operationalize” this alignment:

• The ICP agreement

• Goal setting & dashboards

• MQL or “passed lead” definition

• Lead handoff

• Integrated & ABM campaigns

In this post, I’ll talk about the ICP agreement in a fairly generic way. However, the principles I go through apply from mid-market to enterprise, and will take customization based on your business.

Why align?

Well, you’re here so you get it already. But if you need stats to convince someone else…

When marketing and sales do align, companies generate 208% more revenue from their marketing efforts, and they are 67% more efficient at closing deals. Hooray!! (Source: LinkedIn).

The ICP Agreement

The ICP agreement is how sales and marketing decide to align process and resources around the ICP. Now let’s roll up our sleeves and get into the nitty-gritty.

1. Sales and marketing define the ICP in partnership.

   The ICP is more than a list of accounts. It is an agreement about where to focus resources. Don’t confuse the ICP with the total addressable market (TAM). The goal here is to win and then expand. 
   

   🙋‍♀️ But Shannon, what’s the perfect number of accounts? Well, it’s different for every org but you’ll want to keep your goals in mind. More than likely less than 5% of your ICP will be in market at any given time. If your ICP won’t support your goals, you’ll need to add more accounts.

   How to operationalize: Publish the criteria for your ICP. Make it visible and train teams on the definition.

2. Tier the accounts.

   Usually, 3 tiers is a good place to start. I like to segment based on activity, but you can segment by any of your specific criteria. The advantage to segmenting by activity is that you can improve results by working “in-market” accounts showing intent.

   How to operationalize: Score accounts including intent signals and activity to determine account tier. Tag ICP accounts in your CRM by tier. Make it visible and train teams on what each tier means.
   

   

   Determine Account Tiers by Activity

3. Create account tier strategies.

   This is where the magic happens! It’s time to allocate resources and implement a unified plan of action.

   Ideal Customer Profile Fit Tier (ICPF): Your largest tier only gets marketing awareness campaigns.

   Priority Target Accounts Tier (PTA): Turn on more resources including sales engagement. Higher scores from intent signals or activity warrant more resources including integrated campaigns with sales, ABM plays, and setting sales up to outbound. There is no cold calling here!

   In-Market Accounts Tier (IMA): Now sales takes the lead with the account, follows up with inbound requests, and continues work on joint campaigns, and outbounding. This tier includes accounts in the sales funnel.

   How to operationalize: Run integrated campaigns, optimize the lead handoff and follow-up on inbound interest.

And there you have it!

The quick rundown on how to operationalize the ICP agreement. It takes work but it can be done. It’s the first step toward building more pipeline and having more wins together!

Booking workshops in May

I have talked with a lot of CEOs, especially in the past 6 months and I have heard the frustration and lack of clarity around demand generation. It’s inspired me to offer a workshop for startups that don’t want to waste any more time figuring out demand generation.

This is a facilitated one-day workshop geared for Seed to Series D startups check out my website to learn more.

Until the next time…

I’ll see you on LinkedIn. Happy Marketing and thanks for subscribing!

Shannon