21Weeks » Leads https://www.21weeks.com Sun, 08 May 2022 14:14:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.38 Leads, Leads, Leads https://www.21weeks.com/blog/accelerate-through-opportunities/leads-leads-leads/ https://www.21weeks.com/blog/accelerate-through-opportunities/leads-leads-leads/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 13:58:00 +0000 https://www.21weeks.com/?p=20 This is the second post in my Balancing Act series.

“Andy, Andy. I hear what you’re saying about awareness, but we need leads. Leads, leads, leads. Leads are what we need. Leads are what I want. Now, get me some leads!”

Sound familiar? Can you guess who’s doing the talking? And who’s on the receiving end?
This interplay between the CMO of a $100 million technology company and his CEO is one that happens far too often. If you haven’t witnessed or been a part of this kind of exchange, you probably will be. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the CMO or the CEO or even the Chief Revenue Officer. This happens every day in every industry. But it’s especially prevalent in the technology space, where five, six or seven figure enterprise deals are the Holy Grail.
What do you make of this mandate? Should leads be the ultimate measure? Should lead generation be the focus of marketing activity? Is the CEO right? What should the CMO do – salute, push back, or something else? Where would the sales force net out in this decision?
This conversation is real life at many companies I have worked with. It is the story of how short-term needs dominate longer-term value creation. And it is the very place where the Balancing Act challenge is at play.
The tension between short-term and long-term is natural and healthy. They both need to exist for your company to be fully evolved. They both need to be at work to achieve market leadership and continuous quarterly growth. They both need to be seen as strategic and necessary to the well-being of the organization.
How?
The secret is having absolute clarity about two things: 1) your end-state, and 2) the critical markers along the way. Without this kind of clarity, tensions become arguments. One side dominates. And the sustainable value of your enterprise is compromised.
Board and executive team alignment is necessary to achieve the optimum balance between activities that will drive results today and positioning your company to win for the long haul.
Sure, leads are critical. But the only way to get new leads is to create interest from new, qualified prospects. And the only way to create that interest is to make prospects aware of who you are, how you can help them, and why they should entertain a discussion with you. A pipeline of good, solid leads will not happen without smart, compelling awareness programs.
It’s a matter of balance. Thought leadership needs a place alongside webinars. Point-of-view pieces need to complement direct marketing. Brand promotion needs to support trade show events.
How balanced is your sales and marketing act? Add in a comment to let us know.

]]> https://www.21weeks.com/blog/accelerate-through-opportunities/leads-leads-leads/feed/ 3 Short-Term/Long-Term https://www.21weeks.com/blog/bob-young/short-termlong-term/ https://www.21weeks.com/blog/bob-young/short-termlong-term/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:40:00 +0000 https://www.21weeks.com/?p=18 I had a hard time deciding what to title this post. The subject was clear. This post would be about the balance between strategic positioning work and tactical activities. That is, the balance between driving enterprise value over the long run and enabling 90-day results. The word ‘balance’ is what threw me. Balance implies equality, but in a quarterly culture that favors short-term over long-term, sales and marketing activities are anything but balanced. Imbalance more accurately reflects the weighted state in which organizations operate today.
The reality is that this balancing act is a classic case of what Bob Young, founder of Red Hat, referred to as ‘the tyranny of or.’ It’s not a matter of choosing one over the other. You need to do both. But how? Doing both, and getting clear on how to do just that, is easier said than done. Because when the going gets tough, any long-term, value-creation activity falls prey to activities seen to induce immediate results.
You know the scenarios.
– Profits are off. Costs need to be trimmed. What gets cut first? Any uncommitted marketing expenses, which usually means activities that reach beyond 90 days.
– The pipeline is weak. What happens? Anything not driving leads is deemed to be off-strategy/purpose.
– The quarter is at risk. What’s next? A crisis is sounded and the entire company focuses on uncovering immediate opportunities.
This might work for a quarter or two or three, but sooner or later, you will be in a permanently weakened position, one where profits will be at risk, the pipeline will be soft, and sources of revenue will be the same usual suspects.
All good things take time to produce meaningful, sustainable results. Exercise is a classic example. Investing is another. So too is the proven strategy of positioning an enterprise to win over the long-term.
How should companies think about, plan for, and execute a strategy to balance short-term requirements with the absolute upside of long-term value creation? That’s another post.

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