Sales and marketing are in it together now. Quota isn’t just a sales term now; most marketing organizations have a substantial quota to gauge their contribution to the pipeline. While undoubtedly a positive trend, marketing’s responsibilities have evolved beyond the traditional finding, nurturing and qualifying leads. Now, marketing must focus on how leads are actually converting to opportunities and deals beyond the hand-off. In How Progressive Sales and Marketing Teams are Improving Pipeline Metrics by Triggering the Right Content at the Right Stage, you’ll gain insight on: • Buyers Charting Their Own Educational Journey • Closing the Gap to Reach Revenue Goals • Moving Beyond Random Acts of Sales Enablement • Making the Most of Limited Opportunities Sales and marketing are on a new course, together, and this ebook is your first step to better understanding how to support your teams through this transition and how to ensure continued, even increased, revenue.

1. e-book
Driving Conversations &
Conversions Within CRM
How Progressive Sales & Marketing Teams Are
Improving Pipeline Metrics By Triggering The
Right Content At The Right Stage
Sponsored by

2. Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
s
Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction 3
Buyers Charting Their Own Educational Journey
6
Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
8
Moving Beyond Random Acts Of Sales Enablement
10
Making The Most Of Limited Opportunities
11
Conclusion 13
About SAVO 14
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 2

3. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
s
Introduction
The majority of marketing organizations
now have specific revenue goals and
most have a substantial quota in place
to gauge marketing’s contribution to the
pipeline. In fact, according to a 2013
benchmark report from Demand Gen
Report, nearly two thirds of organizations
reported that as much as 50% of their
pipeline is now marketing sourced.
This shared approach to driving revenue
is generally seen as a positive trend,
but it has also upped the ante for
both marketing and sales to track and
influence performance at all stages
of the pipeline. Where marketing
was traditionally tasked with finding,
nurturing and qualifying leads, they are
now focused on how leads are actually
converting to opportunities and deals
after they are passed over to sales. The
sales team enters the equation when it
comes to connecting with prospects,
bringing them further along in the sales
funnel and closing deals.
Since marketing teams are now investing
significant budget to create leads with
the expectation that they will turn into real
revenue, these teams are paying more
attention to how their leads perform at
various stages and identifying potential
points where they are stalling or dropping
out of the pipeline.
This expanded role has also changed
processes and approaches for marketing
and sales. Where marketers used to
Sales teams must be equipped with the right
resources that address the exact need of buyers
at their particular point in the journey.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 3

4. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
only focus on the outbound messaging
working within an email or marketing
automation system, they are now
spending more time within CRM systems
and developing resources for specific
stages to convert and accelerate more
leads to deals.
The focus on lead conversion has led
to an expanded relationship with the
entire sales organization, which is also
concentrated on deal velocity and
accelerating sales cycles.
To become true sales professionals,
sales teams must be equipped with the
right resources — content, collateral
and support materials, coaching and
expert guidance — that address the
exact need of buyers at their particular
point in the journey.
It means both sales and marketing teams
now rely heavily on buyers having positive
interactions with the sales team at key
stages of the sales or buying cycle. In
order to achieve this, both sales and
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
marketing are more focused on coaching
and aligning resources and content to the
buyer’s buying cycle. Otherwise, good
leads potentially end up in a black hole.
Given the increased investments in
generating leads and the increased
pressure of creating opportunities in the
sourcing pipeline, both marketing and
sales now must have confidence that the
investments they are making convert and
accelerate into revenue.
Progressive companies are recognizing
that the best way to achieve this goal
is to have one central place where the
marketing team can feed the sales team
everything they need to help them convert
leads and accelerate the buying process.
Since customer relationship management
(CRM) systems have emerged as the
central point of revenue reporting, where
both marketing and sales are tracking
responses and buyer behavior, many
leading companies are building out new
tools and tactics within those systems
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 4

5. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
to help ensure the right messages and
resources are provided to buyers at key
stages in the decision-making process.
This e-book will take a look at the
opportunities to boost the impact of
CRM systems on both lead conversion
and deal acceleration.
It will explore the following topics:
■■ How marketing can improve lead
conversions by feeding sales
development teams with relevant,
prescriptive and situational
resources, and coaching tools that
create immediate alignment to the
buyer’s process to better qualify and
accelerate leads at the early stages
of the sales cycle.
■■ Simplifying the process of accessing
the pertinent resources — relevant,
dynamic and situational — to help
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
close deals. Sales professionals
need a consolidated screen with
all of the content and support they
need to control their conversations
with leads or opportunities at all
stages of the process.
■■ Recognizing where some deals are
hitting a “bump” and providing the
appropriate messaging to move
deals along more quickly.
■■ Taking coaching and support tools
to the next level by going beyond
sales playbooks and other standard
operating procedures.
■■ How progressive organizations are
developing repeatable processes
that help sales and marketing zero
in on the pertinent content that is
meaningful to an individual prospect.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 5

6. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
s
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
One challenge for sales and marketing
to convert and accelerate leads is that
B2B buyers are educating themselves
much more thoroughly prior to
engaging with the sales team. Research
estimates that buyers are 50% to 75%
of the way through their journey before
talking to a salesperson. As buyers
move from research to conversation,
studies show that they are becoming
increasingly dissatisfied with the quality
of their interactions.
in both a timely and relevant manner.
According to the B2B Buyer Behavior
Survey by Demand Gen Report, more
than half of buyers have already compiled
a short list of solution providers before
connecting with a salesperson.
This changing buying behavior has made
it essential for both marketing and sales
teams to communicate with buyers
■■ 53% cited the relevance of information provided by a company as a
key trigger.
50%
75%
The survey also found:
■■ 57% of respondents ranked the
timeliness of a vendor’s response as
a key consideration in their purchase
decision; and
Research estimates that buyers are
50% to 75% of the way through their
journey before talking to a salesperson.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 6

7. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
“Despite all of the tools available — CRM,
web analytics and marketing automation
— this shows that marketing and sales
teams are still struggling to keep pace
with the changing expectations of
buyers,” the report stated. “This also
underscores that those firms that can
transform their engagement models
rapidly will have a decided advantage
over their competitors.”
B2B organizations are seeking solutions
to help the sales team accelerate leads
and differentiate their offerings. “The
sales-enablement marketplace — a few
years after the first flushes of interest
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
passed — has recently begun to return to
life,” according to Matt Mullen and Alan
Pelz-Sharpe, analysts for 451 Research
and authors of Sales Enablement: CRM’s
Forgotten Sibling Attempts A Comeback.
They noted that the growth in interest
for digital marketing is a driving force.
“Sales enablement’s basic premise is that
the influence of the salesperson is on
the wane, so best use the limited touch
points in prospect interaction as cleverly
as you can,” the report stated.
B2B organizations are seeking solutions
to help the sales team accelerate leads
and differentiate their offerings.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 7

8. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
s
Closing The Gap To
Reach Revenue Goals
The pressure on marketing to justify
its investments has clearly focused
the attention on improving marketing’s
alignment with sales. According to the
IBM Global CMO Study, 75% say that
return on marketing investment will be
the primary measure of their effectiveness
by 2015, but only half feel sufficiently
prepared to provide hard numbers.
Those findings were echoed in another
study by Demand Gen Report,
entitled Data Rich: The Payoff of
Marketing Measurement On Revenue
Performance. More than two thirds (68%)
of respondents reported pressure to
justify marketing spend. According to the
survey, nearly half of all CEOs are now
actively tracking marketing’s impact on
revenue and almost one quarter of CFOs
now have direct visibility into the revenue
performance of marketing.
A majority (63%) of respondents said that
CMOs are now providing reports, which
show marketing’s impact on revenue.
This increased visibility is linked to the
technology solutions now being used by
organizations to tie marketing investments
to revenue performance. Nearly three
quarters (72%) of respondents are using
their CRM systems to measure and track
Nearly half of all CEOs are now actively tracking
marketing’s impact on revenue and almost
one quarter of CFOs now have direct visibility into
the revenue performance of marketing.
— “Data Rich: The Payoff of Marketing Measurement On Revenue Performance,”
Demand Gen Report
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 8

9. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
marketing’s impact, 69% are using a web
analytics application, and 54% are using a
marketing automation platform.
As the CRM system is the primary tool
of the sales organization and anything
related to revenue, marketing needs to
be integrating with the CRM at some
level. As more organizations are adopting
marketing automation systems, which
typically integrate with a CRM system,
marketers are also spending more time
within CRM and tracking buyer behavior
and pipeline acceleration.
Because marketing’s contribution to
revenue is now more visible, there is
increased incentive to expand marketing’s
responsibility for lead performance
beyond just sending the lead “over the
wall” to sales. The more deals that make
it to the signature stage — and the faster
they make it through the pipeline — the
quicker they reach their goals.
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
The primary way for marketing to bridge
that gap is to improve lead conversion
rates. However, marketing faces a
challenge when it comes to managing
and impacting lead conversion rates,
because the person who is responsible
for converting a lead to a sale — either
a sales rep or someone such as a sales
development rep who does some of
the pre-sales screening — is typically
someone outside of marketing.
This is where sales enablement tools
come into play. These tools provide
dynamic and prescriptive resources to
prompt the person making the phone
call with the information that aligns to
that prospect and helps accelerate the
process. Without that, they aren’t giving
their salespeople the best opportunities to
qualify their leads.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 9

10. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
s
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of
Sales Enablement
While sales enablement happens in an
unstructured way in many companies,
leading organizations are putting more
structured and dynamic processes in
place. These processes help ensure that
the sales team has the right messaging
that speaks to the needs of the prospect
at their point in the buying process.
“As technology vendors work to respond
to the changing conditions their buyers
face, salespeople are overwhelmed
with an avalanche of random acts
of sales support generated from
many different groups throughout the
organization,” according to a Forrester
report, Launching A New Sales
Enablement Service With A Bang.
“Lacking transparency into the causeand-effect relationship between sales
support investments and their value,
executive management also lacks the
appropriate visibility into how its revenue
engines actually function and continues
to suffer from these profit-undermining
inefficiencies.”
Forward-thinking organizations are
arming their sales team with structured,
repeatable processes that can be
accessed from the CRM screen that they
view for all of their day-to-day activities.
Structured processes help ensure that the sales team
has the right messaging that speaks to the needs of
the prospect at their point in the buying process.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 10

11. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
Making The Most Of
Limited Opportunities
One of the major hurdles to lead
conversion and deal acceleration is the
lack of the proper resources to guide the
salesperson during their initial contact
with a prospect. They need content and
context to help steer the conversation to
what is most important to the buyer.
Sales enablement is responsible for
applying a sales methodology to a
company’s content development
efforts, noted SiriusDecisons executives
Marisa Kope, Vice President and Group
Director; and Erin Estep, Service Director,
Strategic Communications Management,
in a presentation at SiriusDecisions
Summit 2013. They explained that
high-performing reps require persona
knowledge and assets, as well as tools
that customize the business value
conversation. They identified a need for
content that does more than describe the
product, adding that content must align
with the sales process.
While a prospect may have attended a
webinar, downloaded a white paper and
visited your web site a few times, in the
B2B world, buyers still buy from people.
There is a finite period of time that a
salesperson has to connect with a lead
or it is gone forever. In particular, leads
that are generated from your web site
need to be handled quickly. According
to research conducted by Dr. James
Oldroyd, Ph.D., the odds of qualifying a
lead if called within five minutes versus the
first 30 minutes are 100 times greater. The
odds of entering the lead into the sales
cycle increase 21 times if called within five
The odds of entering the lead into the sales cycle
increase 21 times if called within five minutes of
receiving a web site message compared to 30 minutes.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 11

12. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
minutes of receiving a web site message
compared to 30 minutes.
The key is to have the right content and
resources in front of sales professionals
each and every time they call on clients.
Salespeople can be overwhelmed if they
have to determine what information they
need for each interaction. By putting the
information in front of them, it tells them it
is important to their success on this call.
At an early point in the sales cycle, it may
be appropriate to present the salesperson
with a script, a list of hot topics in the
prospect’s industry, and an image of the
ad that sparked their interest. Further
down the sales funnel, the right resources
could involve a PowerPoint presentation,
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
a subject matter expert and opportunityspecific coaching to help salespeople
overcome objections and differentiate
their offerings.
All of these resources go beyond the
standard sales playbook and operating
procedures found in most organizations.
These are typically static documents
that treat every lead the same. Every
organization — and even every buying
decision in an organization — has a
unique flow and set of requirements. With
a dynamic approach, these documents
are automatically parceled out based
on the information currently at hand.
The more information the sales team
possesses, the greater the chance to
accelerate the buying process.
The key is to have the right content and
resources in front of sales professionals
each and every time they call on clients.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 12

13. Introduction
Buyers Charting
Their Own
Educational Journey
Closing The Gap
To Reach
Revenue Goals
Moving Beyond
Random Acts Of Sales
Enablement
Making The
Most Of Limited
Opportunities
Conclusion
Closing The Gap To Reach Revenue Goals
Conclusion
To reach the goals of lead conversion and
deal acceleration, marketing and sales
must work together to optimize and simplify the selling process.
Realizing that more buyers are often
self-navigating through the early stages of
the buying cycle, it is critical that both marketing and sales teams focus on having
the right resources and content accessible
at specific stages of the buying process.
While buyers are waiting longer before
initiating contact with sales, it hasn’t
meant a reduction in the number of times
they contact a company before making
a buying decision. In fact, more than one
third of respondents to Demand Gen
Report’s 2012 B2B Buyer Behavior Survey
(35%) reported at least four contacts (via
sales calls, email or other methods) with
the winning vendor, and 31% said they
had eight or more contacts.
One of the biggest benefits to aligning
marketing and sales is having clearly
defined goals. It is not just about having
a script and a small bit of information on
the lead available to salespeople before
they make calls. It is about ensuring that
they have all of the resources — both
content and context — to give them the
best shot at success.
There has to be structure to the process
of arming the sales team with the right
information, but it also has to adapt to
the situation. Every company, every sale,
every lead and every stage in the buying
cycle has a different set of requirements.
With the right tools, marketing and sales
can work together to ensure that the
resources spent to develop those leads
result in signed contracts.
It is critical that both marketing and sales teams focus
on having the right resources and content accessible
at specific stages of the buying process.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 13

14. About SAVO
SAVO is the market leader in sales enablement. Our
SaaS solution uses the power of content management,
team selling, RFP/proposal automation, mobility and
insight to harness companywide knowledge to deliver
professional selling. Smarter Selling™ methods align
sales, marketing and operations to prescribe materials,
coaching, tools and experts at the right time in the
buying process. SAVO is helping customers close the
Corporate Headquarters
155 N. Wacker Drive
Suite 1000
Chicago, IL 60606
312.506.1700
877.542.7266
performance gaps in their business. Driving higher
profits, volume and market share goals.
Driving Conversations & Conversions Within CRM | 14