The Science of Trust: How Brands Can Build Lasting Customer Loyalty

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The Questions That Drive Trust

  1. Why do we instinctively trust certain people and organizations?
  2. How can brands earn the trust of customers they’ve never met?
  3. And what strategies can they use to turn that trust into lasting loyalty?

These questions captivate me. As a fractional Chief Marketing Officer with a deep passion for neuroscience and psychology, I find the dynamics of trust—especially in today’s digital age—both fascinating and complex.

The Trust Gap: Perception vs. Reality

The trust gap is real. According to  PCW, while 90% of executives believe their customers highly trust their companies, only 30% of consumers agree. That’s a staggering 60-percentage-point gap—a disconnect that highlights how unpredictable and elusive trust can be.

The Personal Nature of Trust

Trust is deeply personal. It’s shaped by a complex mix of internal beliefs and external influences.

Consider Apple’s TV series Franklin. In it, Edward Bancroft betrays Benjamin Franklin, yet Franklin defends their friendship to John Adams, focusing on their shared history and Bancroft’s likability. Despite the betrayal, Franklin values the deeper connection—an example of how trust can transcend logic and be rooted in emotional and instinctual ties.

This hidden layer of trust is what brands need to tap into. It goes beyond product features and benefits, living in the emotional and subconscious spaces where true loyalty is born.

The Three Pillars of Trust

At its core, trust is built at the intersection of:

  • Logic: Demonstrating competence and consistency.
  • Emotion: Building connection and empathy.
  • Instinct: Appealing to intuition and subconscious cues.

Brands that balance these pillars create a trust that feels authentic and lasting.

How Brands Can Build and Activate Trust

In this guide, we’ll dive into:

  • The Psychology of Trust: Why we trust certain people and brands.
  • Neuroscience Insights: How our brains process trust signals.
  • Evolutionary Roots: Understanding trust’s role in human survival.
  • Proven Strategies: How brands can cultivate trust and turn customers into loyal advocates.

👉 Click here to download the guide

A BRAND’S HOLY GRAIL – ebook Virginie Glaenzer

Connect with Virginie Glaenzer to explore how your brand and organization can increase customers’ trust.

 

Personalization at Scale: The Right Message at the Right Time

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Personalization is the approach of choice for leading brands. In fact, personalization is a large part of what has made some of the world’s biggest brands the enormous successes they are today.

Amazon knows what you want to buy. Netflix knows what you want to watch. Why shouldn’t an educational portal know what courses you’re interested in taking? Or, better yet, what courses you haven’t thought of yet?

“Why shouldn’t an educational portal know what courses you’re interested in?”

Since I was recruited as CMO of UCLA Global Online and UCLA Extension, I’ve had a vision to create an educational portal that’s as easy — even as fun — to use as Amazon or Netflix. One that understands your interests and acquires a sense of your passions and objectives, by analyzing your behavior, comparing your behavior to that of similar website visitors, and utilizing every other tool in the algorithmic tool belt.

“I’ve had a vision of creating an educational portal that’s as easy as Amazon or Netflix.”

Such a portal has never existed for education. This is why, at UCLA Global Online and UCLA Extension, we’re building one practically from the ground up.

Why is personalization at scale so important?

In the olden days (in Internet terms, anyway: meaning not so long ago), websites were mere buckets of information. In a sense, they were imagined as not much different from books or catalogs: they were just made of pixels rather than paper. Visitors came by and tried to find the information they needed, and — except for the ability to send a message or sign up for a course — that was the end of it.

The modern concept of a website as being embraced by UCLA Global Online and UCLA Extension is rather different. In a sense, there is no home page. Rather, there is a framework into which information flows, based on where the user has been before, what they do when they arrive, and where they go next.

“The site is a framework into which information flows.”

Much like your Amazon or Netflix homepage won’t look the same as that of your friends, the UCLA Extension and UCLA Global Online homepages will “speak” to you on a personal level. They will motivate you to complete a certificate you may have started, by showing you what courses you have remaining, and display your progress toward your goal. It will even help you explore new opportunities you may not have thought of. (Yes, you like nursing science. But did you know 80% of people with similar interests also studied to become an anesthesiologist — which pays considerably more? And that they often enjoy Renaissance painting, as well?)

The goal is not simply to monetize, but to inspire.

When finished, UCLA Global Online and UCLA Extension will serve as an educational concierge, helping visitors improve their educational and job prospects, and even help them tap into undiscovered talents.

Point. Click. Learn.

As the big brands have already discovered, the future of marketing is not talking “at” customers, but listening intently to them. When you understand their needs, you’re able to speak to them: at the right time, and with the right message.

Better Marketing Through Marketing Technology Architecture

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Whether you are a marketing giant or whether you have a “lean and mean” marketing team, your marketing technology architecture is crucial to success.

Why? After all, marketing is all about getting people into the funnel: that journey that begins at knowledge of your service, and leads them all the way through to a purchase of some kind. What does a MarTech architecture have to do with that? A lot.

The first step to getting people into the funnel is to generate awareness. Digital can be targeted, agile, and less expensive than many traditional methods of advertising.

A blended marketing strategy that combines both organic social media and paid digital media can be an effective approach for attracting prospects. Depending on your needs, there are a number of great platforms available to help manage your social media accounts.

For paid digital media, consider a three-pronged approach consisting of paid search ads, paid social ads, and display advertising. Digital paid media is important for several reasons:

  • It exposes your message to new audiences
  • It amplifies awareness of your “owned media”

Once you build awareness, the next step is to invite prospects to enter the marketing funnel by getting them to visit your website.

For most enterprises, the majority of consumer interaction happens through their website. You can think of your website as the equivalent to your business’s storefront. Your website is the medium through which most prospects will form their first impression.

Now you’ve got a great website and you’ve invited your prospects to enter the marketing funnel. What’s next? You have to move your prospects down the marketing funnel and convert them to paying customers. An important tactic to keep in mind is to ensure that every interaction the customers have with you is outstanding.

What’s the final step? Measure, measure, measure! This means doing in-depth analysis of and reporting on key performance indicators that demonstrate how effectively an organization is achieving key business objectives. For example, at UCLA Extension we measured performance by evaluating web analytics at the department level and business analytics at the institutional level. For our web analytics, we used Google Analytics, which provides insight and data visualization for our website.

We also used a business intelligence software to provide insight into areas such as predictive modeling and to ensure key decision makers have the insight they need to make the right choices for UCLA Extension.

Great marketing begins with great strategy, but all the strategy in the world can fall short without the proper infrastructure. And that’s where it pays off to invest in Marketing Technology Architecture for success.

An Example of Marketing Technology Architecture

 

 

How Personalized Marketing Can Increase Your E-Commerce Sales

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Point, click, buy? If only it were that easy.

In his book Successful Advertising, penned in 1885, Thomas Smith famously said that a prospect has to see an ad 20 times before they are finally convinced to make a purchase.

This typical customer journey – from ignorance of a product or service to a sale – is sometimes condensed into the “Rule of Seven,” stating that, on average, people need to see something seven times before making a purchase.

What does this have to do with personalization? Well, considering the mercurial nature of Internet surfing, you can’t always count on your web visitor to stay on your website long enough to see your message seven times. In fact, you might be lucky if they see it just once!

This is where “remarketing” comes in. By creating advertising that “follows” a visitor once they leave your site, you create that all-important frequency that drives them from an initial impression (one they may not even have remembered!) to a purchase.

But this is only one form of personalization.

Personalization is also important while prospects are on your website, and particularly if they return to it. The first visit, if tracked, provides a wealth of information that can be leveraged for subsequent visits. Where did they go? Does their journey align with any other previous customers?

In other words, if your current visitor has shown an interest in A + B, and 90% of prior customers who liked A + B also liked C, shouldn’t we show the new customer C, as well?

Personalization can be even more powerful once a customer is logged in, and we know (presumably) even more about them. If their purchase history shows they bought Widget A, we wouldn’t want to show them Widget A again. Rather, we might show an accessory for Widget A. Or, if we know they bought Widget A two years ago, we might recommend they upgrade to Widget A 2.0.

Surprisingly, relatively few companies are making use of the incredible power of personalization to boost eCommerce. According to Econsultancy & Adobe, 63% of companies surveyed do not have the ability to target personalized web content in real time. Even more shockingly, roughly 1/3 of those surveyed didn’t believe it was important!

Another aspect of personalized marketing is, of course, email. According to Forrester 30% of eCommerce repeat purchases come from email marketing. This can be everything from “empty cart reminders” to emails tailored to the behavior of almost any (registered) user on the web.

The upshot of all this? Not just eCommerce success, but a rise in customer satisfaction, as well.

According to a research by Invesp, 53% of online shoppers find customization to be valuable, and 45% of shoppers prefer to shop on sites offering personalized recommendations.

If that isn’t enough, personalized ads have a conversion rate 10 times higher than “one-size-fits-all” ads. Which means customers are finding what they’re looking for.

Talk about an undeniable recipe for success. When vendors and customers are happier, it’s a “win-win” that creates a good experience for both parties, and can even boost brand loyalty in the process.


Michael Buczkowski is a digital marketing leader and executive who has been helping global brand marketers navigate the new digital world by successfully operating at the intersection of marketing, data and technology.  See his full bio.

Mike Buczkowski | Partner
Strategy, Sales & Marketing

mike.buczkowski@techcxo.com
+1  (312) 420-4398

Mapping Your Customer’s Journey: A MarTech Adventure

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How do your customers find you? And once they find you, what do they want?

Knowing the answers to these questions gives you extremely powerful insights into understanding how to convert visitors to your website into paying customers. Just as importantly, it also helps identify what your visitors don’t want.

What frustrations are your prospects experiencing while looking for what they need? As we know, the moment a customer becomes frustrated, they start looking for another business that understands their needs better.

“The moment a customer become frustrated, they look for another business”

Fortunately, no matter how varied each individual prospect’s journey may be, most prospects follow a familiar pattern. Their journey is defined by “touch points.”

Common touch points along a journey may be as simple as this:

The first touchpoint, “Google search” (68% of all searches are with Google) is addressed by implementing an SEO strategy that ensures people looking for your product or service actually find the relevant pages on your website.

The second, “Landing page,” is addressed by User Experience (UX). Do they find what they’re looking for immediately, or do they have a sea of information to swim through? If they see too much information, or information that’s not relevant to what they’re searching for, they may back out immediately. (This is called “bouncing” away from your site, without clicking any further.)

“Do they find what they’re looking for immediately?”

The third, “Browse site,” delves deeper into UX. Once they find what they’re looking for, do they know what to do next? Is the messaging compelling, as to WHY they should choose you?

Is the cart visible? Does it work properly? Are there discount codes visible, to add incentive? Some companies, like VistaPrint, have elevated the practice of discount codes to a fine art, offering discount codes seasonally, for first-time shoppers, repeat shoppers: almost every reason imaginable.

The fourth, “Email signup” – assuming this is part of your desired user journey – begets obvious questions: Do they know WHY they should sign up for emails? Do they know how? Is it easy to opt in (and opt out)? All of these smaller moments will not only affect the likelihood of a sale, but will also affect the user’s impression of you and your brand.

The fifth, “Receive email,” asks whether the email they’re receiving is truly relevant to their needs. In the case of an educational institution, were they browsing nursing courses, and now receiving information on piano lessons? Are the emails graphically pleasing? In a sea of competitors, do they compel a purchase?

Finally, “Make purchase.” At this stage, the first cycle of marketing is complete. But an effective marketing strategy demands the customer be marketed to again, with content relevant to their first purchase. In fact, thanks to that first purchase, we have a much more informed idea of what truly matters to this customer.

Mapping the journey encompasses analytics and personalization. By mapping user flow, from landing pages to subsequent pages, we form an idea of whether our goals are aligning with actual user experience. (Are they going to pages that have low value simply because of the way our navigation is organized? Conversely, are the most important pages hardest to find?)

In terms of personalization, the “2.0” approach is to guide each user individually based on what we know about them from their actions once on the site. This is accomplished by assigning a cookie to each visitor, which forms a history of where they go on the site, and then populates the next pages of the site based on that history.

This creates a truly “customized” experience for prospects.

Only by listening carefully to our customers — by seeking to understand their entire journey — can we serve customers effectively, by helping deliver what they truly need.

AI for Marketers – 3 Critical Questions

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AI… Artificial Intelligence may have a greater impact on business, communication and interaction than social media has today, according to Marketing Expert Jeffrey Whitney.

We ask him three critical questions for how marketers should be thinking about AI in the new year.

What impact do you think AI will have on marketing strategy in 2018?

JW: The debate is over. AI is already having a huge impact on marketing. Amazon, the company that wants to eat everyone’s lunch is driving a third of its business from an AI-powered function.

But, it’s not just large corporations that can benefit, AI can play a critical role in everything from building target lists for start-ups, to driving account based marketing, to keeping up with cross-channel buyer preference and next-best-action.

AI has the potential to revolutionize customer engagement, customer service, and marketing automation. It can enhance the way we communication with new, current, and inactive customers, and automate admin functions in the backend. In other words, it can help make marketing and marketing operations far more efficient and effective.

What kinds of skills and insight/intelligence will marketing professionals need in the future to work with AI?

JW: What marketing professionals need is a basic understanding of AI. AI systems shouldn’t require you to become a mathematician or a data scientist. Just like we don’t need to be a mechanical engineer to use cars with AI system, marketing professionals will be able to focus on the results not the process.

AI can have a far greater impact on marketing than even social media.

How should a marketing department get started with AI?

JW: In 2018, marketing departments should be using, testing, or at least strategizing for AI. Immediately, look for tools that solve real business problems, now. I have a small start-up client that’s using an AI tool to build its target list. Another client uses it to pull together all customer interactions across channels to better understanding them in real-time (rather than waiting 2-3 months for the IT group to analyze the data). A third is looking at AI tools to help with analyzing their account-based marketing targets.   These are just a few examples and none of these clients have massive IT resources or particular strengths in AI.

Then longer term, as you better understand AI, look for ways that can dramatically change your marketing paradigm.

AI Briefer for Marketers

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Like my peers, as a longtime CMO, I’ve learned to deal with rapid technology change. But, each new technology can create fear, uncertainty and doubt until we understand it better. No doubt, AI, with all its hype and science fiction legacy, fits this bill. But to remain current and relevant, CMOs must quickly understand and begin to apply AI. To help, from one CMO to another, here’s a short AI CMO Primer.

Can I put off AI until tomorrow, next month, next year?

The answer is no, no, and no. AI is here. Waiting to deal with it risks putting you well behind the curve. As you can see below, leading businesses are already either using AI to great effect or actively planning for it.

• Amazon, the company that wants to eat everyone’s lunch, is already driving a third of its business from a AI-powered function: its recommended purchases.
• In a June 2016 report, Weber Shandwick found that 68% of CMOs report their company is “planning for business in the AI era” with 55% of CMOs expecting AI to have a “greater impact on marketing and communications than social media ever had.”

To wait is to get left behind. Fortunately, getting started doesn’t have to be painful or costly.

What is AI and how does it differ from machine learning, and cognitive intelligence?

Academic experts might hate my explanation, but differentiating between AI, machine learning and cognitive intelligence from a practical CMO perspective isn’t necessary. I use AI as an umbrella term that refers to software that carries out a task that normally requires human intuition, including learning and problem solving.

AI can be thought of as a set of repeatable steps, and so while AI doesn’t technically replicate free-will and decision making, it does map out these steps and uses computer processing speed to make its way through them to come to an outcome. And it often can do this much faster while considering far more relevant data than a human might.

Why is AI ready for marketing now? How can AI be applied to marketing?

AI has the potential to revolutionize engagement, customer service, and automation. It can enhance the way we communication with new, current, and past customers, and automate admin functions in the backend. In other words, it can help make marketing more efficient and effective.

AI can far more accurately predict next best interaction, by churning through (in seconds) all relevant data about the customers – purchases, interactions, social media posts, email exchanges and then learn from the results and do it on a scale not possible previously.

For example, let’s say you have a few million customers and want to communicate with them as if you know them very well, and offer them something of value – specifically to them. AI can enable that level of personalization at a scale of millions and in near real time.

In short, AI can save marketers time and bring companies far closer to our customers.

Do I need to become an AI expert?

The short answer is no. AI systems shouldn’t require you to become a mathematician. With good AI systems, you’ll be able to focus on the results not the process of churning through of thousands, millions or trillions of data points and arriving at the insights you need.

How much will it cost?

Surprisingly, AI systems can reduce costs and eliminate waste. AI systems can significantly reduce the number of data engineers and data scientists required today to prep data and create insights. I’ve seen AI projects deployed within weeks with yearly costs less than that of a single data scientist.

And AI can take wasted effort out of the system by providing a deeper understanding of what your customers want and how to interact with them effectively.

How do I get started?

First, start exploring today. Read, talk to other CMOs and marketing technologists), and evaluate first hand – select a contained, but impactful area. A subset of your customer loyalty system could make a great initial project. Loyal customers should be the life blood of your company, but often are underserved, because it’s so difficult to pull together and analyze all relevant data in a timely manner. This is a perfect fit for AI, as compared to prospects, there’s typically a lot more known data for AI to analyze. And it’s a project where you can start seeing high-impact results in weeks.

Summary

AI is unavoidable and should be desirable. Its critical to research and experience it first-hand. And the results might surprise you. Unlike other systems that can take months and cause havoc (e.g. CRM systems), working with ZyloTech, I’ve seen companies deploy AI in a matter of weeks, without needing technical expertise, and experience eye-opening results.

Is it time for a Fractional CMO? 5 Scenarios

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There is a consistent thread on where the need arises for a fractional CMO. Interestingly, this is consistent whether the company is 2 or 15 years old, whether it’s B2B or B2C, whether they have under $5 million in revenue or over $100 million.

Profile:

  1. Growth has stalled (yet still can be quite profitable)
  2. Objective is to find way to significantly accelerate growth (e.g., double revenue or more)
  3. Only junior to mid-level marketing staff on board, as few as 1 person in the “department”
  4. Marketing plan doesn’t exist
  5. Marketing exists to service sales and/or the CEO

These companies typically have been quite successful but have plateaued. Growth has stalled in part due to the fact that no one in the organization owns the customer across functional silos, someone to champion customer interests and needs, someone with an eye on and in touch with the target market at all times.

Growth has stalled because no one owns the customer across silos

Success has been driven by strong product/service and/or sales effort. And to be successful, plans were developed and adhered to: product development plans, sales plans, financial plans, etc. So it isn’t surprising that marketing hasn’t contributed when there has been no investment in putting together a marketing strategy or plan to fuel growth. “Let’s go to that trade show,” or “let’s advertise on Facebook” falls far short of a plan.

It’s only now that these firms are beginning to recognize the role and value of a CMO and his/her department. In recent posting on www.cmo.com, Jake Sorofman, a research VP at Gartner describes how the “most progressive CMOs think like CEOs.”

He does a great job highlighting how the role is critical to success: “More often than not, CMOs take the lead or substantially contribute to digital commerce, customer experience, and innovation projects, and most CMOs now own or share P&L responsibilities….Customer experience is the new battlefield for competitive differentiation; innovation cycles have compressed; and consumer expectations for personalized and tailored products and experiences are growing rapidly. Marketing is now data-driven, technology-dependent, broader in scope, and more accountable to business metrics than ever before.”

As for the marketing department, Sorofman describes: “The pressure and responsibility is shared across the entire marketing organization. Today, marketers are expected to be both broad and deep…They have utility skills in many aspects of data, technology, design, brand, etc. They don’t need an army to accomplish a whole lot. And they focus their efforts through the lens of the customer and specific KPIs. There’s no hiding behind the veil of internal goals and highly specialized roles anymore.” The full article is here: http://www.cmo.com/interviews/articles/2017/3/3/quick-chat-with-gartners-sorofman-the-most-progressive-cmos-think-like-ceos.html

I was fortunate to have landed my first job at Procter & Gamble where we “owned” the business results of our brand (for me it was Crest and then Vidal Sassoon) as we worked across all functions to ensure brand revenue growth. Subsequently, forward thinkers in B2B and B2C companies hired me to build marketing organizations that were responsible for and led company growth.

In these cases, the CMO became the right hand of the CEO, involved in every decision that impacted the customer which meant every critical decision.

If you lead an organization, ask who “owns” the customer? Is your organization customer-centric? Is there an advocate for what’s right for the customer in every executive meeting? Is there a marketing strategy that clearly positions your firm as different and better for a specific target audience? How thorough is the marketing plan and does that plan lay out a path towards profitable growth?

Clearly, organizations recognize the growing importance of marketing and how CMOs area of responsibility now covers more of the sales/enterprise P&L and customer success functions. In fact, just recently I was engaged in a meeting with a bunch of sales executives across different companies and industries who acknowledged that their relative role is shrinking while marketing might influence as much as 60% of the sales process.

One challenge in this evolution is that CEOs have CMOs and marketing staff without the skillsets to handle the evolution, becoming more frustrated and impatient as expectations increase.

CEOs grow more frustrated and impatient with their CMOs as expectations increase

For small to mid-size companies that can’t afford the risk of failing to find the right CMO who thinks like a CEO (thus risk a bad hiring decision), it is often most expedient and productive to turn to a fractional CMO. This interim executive can instill confidence with the CEO and has the experience to help the organization become customer/marketing-led. He/she can lead existing staff, begin demonstrating the revenue impact of marketing strategies and plans, and establish a structure that can be handed off to a full-time executive.

This creates a natural transition for your on demand/interim CMO who can prove the concept but won’t cost a loaded salary.  Best of all to limit the risk – you can terminate easily at any time.

Acquisition Integration Part 2 – Sales and Marketing

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Companies seek to accelerate revenue growth or enter new markets through mergers and acquisitions. They spend a lot of energy and resources identifying the right targets based on synergy and combined financial models.

But oftentimes, the real value of the acquisition is not realized. M&A typically fails during integration. All that effort and capital spent on acquiring the target is wasted.

In the area of Sales & Marketing, the acquiring company needs to identify the critical issues prior to the closing in preparation for “Day One.” Day One is an important milestone and should be well coordinated. It’s the best day to communicate to employees, the sales team, vendors and customers (in that order). My motto is always: “If you don’t communicate what is happening right away, they will make stuff up – and that’s always worse than the real story.”

At the heart of the merger is the story…not as stated in the press release, but as interpreted by existing and potential customers. What is the resulting value that the combined entity should contribute to the customers’ experience? Delivering this value should guide merging companies on 1) Marketing messaging and Alignment, 2) Sales Organizational Structure, 3) Go-to-market solution planning, 4) Channel Partner and Vendor Programs, and 5) Sales Incentive Plans. (There are a thousands decisions that must be made, but these are 5 of the most-critical). The Day One messaging must include compelling statements to provide assurances, generate enthusiasm and hope, and keep nerves subdued.

Marketing Messaging and Alignment:

What value is in the acquisition for current and potential customers? The combined entity is doomed to failure if an acquisition doesn’t create a 1+1=3 scenario. So, it starts with the messaging that will shape the picture in the minds of customers, partners, employees, vendors, and the marketplace.

See Part 1 – Why Acquisitions Fail

Day One messaging must include a very clear, credible, and compelling market promise. Acquisitions are a very anxious time for all stakeholders. And, this is no time for “good enough”. If the market promise is unclear…well, as they say, “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”. If the market promise is clear, everything else below is easier to create. So, take the time and be thoughtful here. If you need help, go and get it. And, get it long before Day One.

Sales Organizational Structure:

Are we merging sales leadership by identifying the best talent or are we subordinating the target sales team under our sales leadership? Either approach has merit, but it requires leadership and clarity at the highest level. The Market Promise will be a strong compass when making decisions on who will lead and the desired, resulting culture. Again, this is where an experienced (TechCXO) integration leader can be critical.

Many companies put off this crucial sales organization integration decision until days or week after the closing, creating disruptive sales force confusion which can lead to sales “stars” exiting on both sides. (I have worked on mergers, where the issue is never addressed by the leadership and left to the sales management to battle out – this is not a good approach.)

We recommend absolute clarity in announcing sales leadership during Day One, then including the sales leaders of both companies in the Integration Steering Committee.

Channel Partner and Vendor Programs:

Acquisitions are an especially anxious time for Channel Partners, Vendors, and anyone else (like a sales professional) who has an established territory. These stakeholders will defend, and rightfully so, the significant investments they made in the past and relationships they have established. When the merged entity depends on these stakeholders, navigating how future territory lines are drawn can be a political power struggle.

The Market Promise and strengths and weaknesses of these stakeholders will determine their ultimate role in the delivery of the expected value. And, many of these discussions and decisions can’t be made prior to Day One for reasons of confidentiality. Communicating to the critical Partners and Vendors is critical.

Sales Incentive Programs:

When acquisitions happen, sales professionals get nervous. And, most Sales People…hate change. The perception is that their job, their established customer base, and their opportunity to earn is all in jeopardy. In most cases, few promises can be made on Day One to quell these nerves. I’ve always said that the sales incentive plan drives the sales culture.

Fortunately, the acquisition integration risk in the area of Sales & Marketing can be greatly reduced by bringing on the right leadership. The partners at TechCXO specialize in being an acquisition integration lead executives. We can help you make a successful acquisition by providing hands-on, experienced on-demand executives who partner with the C-Suite, board and stakeholders to ensure the integration is given the leadership, skills and experience required for a successful merger.

Next, we will look at technology integration.

Matt Oess (full bio) are partners in TechCXO’s Atlanta office.

 

CSOs and CMOs Must Hang Together

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As recently as five years ago, few would’ve predicted the unification of Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs). They didn’t speak the same language, often with differing definitions of terms as fundamental as “what is a lead?” They fiercely competed for budget… the CSO wanting to hire more sales people and the CMO wanted to fund additional marketing programs. They blamed each other for shortfalls in revenue. The CMO was the creative type and the CSO was the customer relationship expert. Although they sometimes sat in adjacent offices, they couldn’t have been farther apart.

So, what has changed that will finally unite CMOs and CSOs? Answer…The buyers are back in control. Today’s post explains what this means and the four steps CMOs and CSOs must take (together) to stay relevant.

Five years ago, sales people had all the information that buyers needed. Buyers had to engage sales in order to get information and make informed decisions. Today, the proliferation and availability of companies’ product information on the Internet has put buyers back in the driver’s seat. Buyers today have seen your (and your competitors’) products on your website, read reviews on your company, seen a demo, downloaded white papers, attended a webinar, configured their solution, and probably reviewed pricing long before speaking with anyone from your sales team. In fact, many buyers, now referred to as Customer 2.0, have already made decisions prior to speaking with a single sales person.

So, how does sales and marketing get re-engaged with Customer 2.0 and influence the buying process? CSOs and CMOs have now been forced to work hand-in-hand to remain relevant to buyers, follow the buyer’s journey through the buying process, and find ways to influence the buyers though their exploration. Here are the steps they are taking, together.

Step 1 – Gaining visibility into this new buying process

Marketing Automation tools like SilverPop, Pardot, Eloqua, and Marketo, combined with sales automation tools like Salesforce.com give companies the ability to track a buyer’s journey through this new buying process. The tools detect every click on your website, every white paper the prospect downloaded (from your company), every email they opened, every webinar and demo they registered for, as well as all the interactions with your sales team. And they do this for every prospect that in some measurable way engages with your company.

The thirst for customer data and the loss of the buying process control is forcing CMOs and CSOs to work together to find budget to purchase these analytics tools and sit together to agree upon a common language to understand what the numbers are saying.

Step 2 – Understanding Customer 2.0 buying behaviors

CMOs and CSOs must cooperate to understand the behaviors and activities that buyers undertake during their buying journey. Which content on your website is popular? Why do customers stop interacting with you as a result of seeing your online demo? Which are the common sets content and interactions that led to a purchase for a particular vertical industry? When is the appropriate time to introduce a sales person?

The aggregate buyer behavior intelligence and analytics from the marketing and sales automation tools are amazing. And while the dashboards are awesome, CMOs and CSOs have to really roll their sleeves up and get dirty in the data to really understand what’s going on, especially early in the learning process.

Step 3- Build campaigns, content, and tools that attract buyers

The content needed to attract Customer 2.0 is much different than the content of yesteryear. These buyers don’t want to be sold to. They want to learn and they like learning through webinars, podcasts, twitter, videos, blogs, and thought leadership content. They want to understand best practices and how other companies are solving their problem. CMOs and CSOs must co-create budgets to fund these campaigns, content, and tools. They must work together to build, test, and determine when is appropriate to deliver which piece of content to customers, based on their behavior.

Step 4 – Processes and execution

CMOs and CSOs must create much tighter linkages and effective handoffs between sales and marketing teams. And, they must consort to change all the marketing processes, sales processes, forecasting methodologies, manager coaching practices, etc., etc., etc.  They must change the working relationship, language, and communication between their teams. Leveraging both the new content and the marketing and sales automation tools, they must work together to proactively engage with Customer 2.0, influence them, create and nurture the opportunity, and close the deals.

The bottom line

Changes in buyer’s behavior and the necessary tools needed to compete for and attract buyers have created an environment whereby CMOs and CSOs must now work in resplendent harmony. Failure to do means certain failure to attract and keep customers over time. Customer 2.o is here to stay. So, I sure hope the CSO and CMO like the person in the office next door.

Question: What are you seeing that demonstrates this new buyer behavior? Have you noticed your CMO and CSO burying the hatchet and collaborating?