Sales and Marketing Alignment. Easy to say, hard to do.
WittyParrot is a platform that enables the physical process of aligning sales and marketing messaging and content creation.
Mark GibsonSales Enablement at Centrify à Centrify Corporation
1. A GUIDE TO SALES & MARKETING
MESSAGING ALIGNMENT
WITH WITTYPARROT
CAPTURING, MANAGING, MAINTAINING, RE-USING AND SHARING MESSAGING COMPONENTS
1
Marketing
Buyer Needs
Sales
One Voice
Alignment Enrichment & Delivery Amplification
Messaging Value Messaging Sales-ready
Architecture
MARK GIBSON
Published by
www.wittyparrot.com
2. /Introduction
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C H A P T E R
3. WHAT
ISWITTYPARROT?
WittyParrot is an intelligent content
delivery platform that helps companies
and individuals to “achieve speed
and consistency in all of their
communication”.
WittyParrot helps companies to create,
manage, maintain, protect and share
content to enable marketing, sales,
support and partners to speak with one
voice.
More about WittyParrot at
http://www.wittyparrot.com
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 3
4. Mark Gibson
Mark Gibson is head of global marketing at Cupertino CA. based
software company, WittyParrot.
Mark founded Advanced Marketing Concepts, a sales and
marketing consultancy and training company in the UK in 2004.
Mark has consulted to B2B companies around the world selling
novel technology products and services to the early market, as well
as helping established companies to overcome the weak pipeline,
no lead-flow and weak sales engagement problems caused by
weak messaging.
Mark is a certified HubSpot partner, and Mike Bosworth Leadership
affiliate and the author of the forthcoming book, “The Death of
Selling - and the Rise of Facilitated Buying”.
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 4
ABOUTAUTHOR
THE
5. FOR?eBOOK
• Sales and Marketing Leaders
• Sales Enablement Professionals
• Marketing Professionals
• Executives
• Business Development Professionals
• CXOs
• Startup Entrepreneurs
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 5
WHO IS THIS
Anyone in your organization who is responsible for content in the form of brand
messaging, marketing messaging and sales ready messaging in some way will
benefit from this eBook.
These include but are not limited to:
6. /Facts and
Figures
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 6
C H A P T E R
7. Collateral, as we knew it is dead...
RIP document-based messaging
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 7
FTP
CMS
PORTALS
CRM
CLOUD STORAGE
CMS CMS
WIKIS
PORTALS
FTP
CMS
CMS
PORTALS
INTRANET
PORTALS
CRM
DRIVES
FTPCMS
PORTALS
DATABASES
FTP
INTRANET
CLOUD STORAGE
PORTALS
PORTALS
CMS
PORTALS
CONTENT REP
LOCAL FILES
WIKIS
CONTENT REP
DATABASES
DATABASES
DATABASES
EMAILS
DATABASES
DATABASES
DATABASES
CONTENT REP
DATABASES
CLOUD STORAGE
DATABASES
INTRANET INTRANET
EMAILS
EMAILS
EMAILS
EMAILS
EMAILS
EMAILS
EMAILS
DRIVES CRM
EMAILS
DRIVES
CMS
EMAILS
EMAILS
CDs & DRIVES
EMAILS
EMAILS
INTRANET
EMAILS
CMS
CRM
FTP
WIKIS
CMS
CRM CRM
CMS
FTP
LOCAL FILES
LOCAL FILES
CONTENT REP
LOCAL FILES
DRIVES
FTP
New research from SiriusDecisions shows that up to 70% of content
created by B-to-B marketing teams is never utilized.
8. A 10 person sales organization generates 32,000 brand messages per year,
not including marketing, human resource, presales and support.
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9. 5/10 Message Clarity
In response to the question, “on scale of 1-10,
how clear is your message?”
We interviewed more than 50 sales and marketing professionals over the
past 2 years and we asked the question “how clear is your message on a
scale of 1-10”; and the average response was only 5/10 for clarity.
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 9
50%
Message Clarity (ave.) 5/10
10. 90% of meetings with sellers add no value
(Reps failed to connect dots between buyers challenges and their solution )
According to Forrester Research, 90% of meetings sales people have with
buyers contribute no value from the buyers perspective.
That is, sales people cannot connect the buyer’s challenge with their solution. 90%
CLEARLY - Fixing your Messaging presents a huge opportunity to
improve inbound lead flow, sales engagement and to qualify and close more
business.
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11. Sales Effectiveness/Effort
Sales & Marketing Alignment
Sales Collaboration
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 11
This Chart from
analyst firm CSO
Insights shows
effectiveness
vs. effort in
implementing
various sales
productivity
initiatives.
CRM
ERP
Sales
Knowledge
Mgt.
Sales Training Event
LOW
HIGH
LOW IMPACT HIGH
EFFORT
Sales Process Mapping
Blitz Campaigns
& SPIFS WittyParrot
Solution
Size of the bubble
indicates relative cost.
12. /Differentiation
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C H A P T E R
13. Differentiation?
Differentiation is challenging when your competitors co-opt
your messaging and ideas.
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 13
14. Differentiation requires strategy and
investment… not tactics
Here is an unbeatable formula for differentiation. Get all three right and you
will be in a very select group of the World’s best companies.
Salespeople need buyer-relevant
context for effective engagement
CONTEXT, is important. When you do speak
to a buyer you need to know how engaged
they are, if they are opening your email, what
web pages they visited on your website and
any prior history with your company.
Insight Context
Responsiveness
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 14
90% of salespeople fail to connect
the buyer’s problem to their solution
Capturing Value Messaging and relevant
proof points and delivering INSIGHT
in a way that disrupts status-quo
thinking is differentiating market-leading
companies.
Differentiation
Only 1% of companies can respond to a lead inside 5 minutes
RESPONSIVENESS is a huge differentiator. If you can respond to inbound leads inside 5 minutes, you will initiate 20 times more
conversations than your competitors who wait an hour to respond. If you do nothing else, this will grow your business. Responsiveness also
means getting your email in the buyer’s inbox inside 5 minutes of your call if you want to get it read and acted on.
15. /Creating a Messaging
Architecture
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C H A P T E R
16. A Messaging
Architecture anchors
a unified content
strategy
Win-Themes are
content “objects” that
are reused across a
number of different
“information
products”
Creating a Messaging Architecture
Value Messaging
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Without strong value
messaging and reusable
messaging components,
sales, marketing and
support groups revert to
“product speak”; talking
about product features
instead of engaging
buyers around their
issues and how your
products could be used
to create value.
A MESSAGING
ARCHITECTURE has
at its center Value
Messaging as it relates
to how buyers use your
products and services.
It starts with a
Marketing Messaging
• Role-based Web Pages
persona
discussing buyers
goals, problems and
the status-quo.
• Win-Themes connect
capabilities to buyer
goals/needs.
• We abstract
Positioning Pillars
and Big Idea from
the underlying Win-
Themes.
Value Messaging
Barriers to Success
Implications
Status-quo/ Constraints
Blogs / Emails Campaigns
Big Idea
Positioning Pillars
Win-Themes /Capabilities
Buyer Persona
Content Creation
Template
Market
Buyer Role | Buyer Goal
Win-Themes
Solution Summary
Who-I’ve-Helped-Story
Keyword
17. Creating a Messaging Architecture
Marketing Messaging
Value Messaging
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Content Creation
templates reuse the
buyer persona and
Win-Themes to create
templates.
Marketing Messaging
Web Pages
Barriers to Success
Implications
Status-quo/ Constraints
Blogs / Emails Campaigns
Big Idea
Positioning Pillars
Win-Themes /Capabilities
Buyer Persona
Content Creation
Template
Market
Buyer Role | Buyer Goal
Win-Themes
Solution Summary
Who-I’ve-Helped-Story
Keyword
WittyParrot founders have created more than 2000 blog
articles and understand the challenge of creating thought
leading content.
Creating thought
leading content is a
non-trivial task requiring
structured messaging.
Content Creation
templates help
writers to create
great MARKETING
MESSAGING copy for
blogs, web pages and
email that is relevant to
buyers needs and on
message.
18. Creating a Messaging Architecture
Brand Messaging
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How do you generate
BRAND MESSAGING
without a clear value
messaging? The answer
is - It’s very difficult.
We’ve all been in lengthy
brainstorming sessions
to develop messaging
that in the cold light of
the next day doesn’t hang
together.
Marketing Messaging
Web Pages
Barriers to Success
Implications
Status-quo/ Constraints
Blogs / Emails Campaigns
Big Idea
Positioning Pillars
Win-Themes / Capabilities
Mission Statement
Positioning
Statement
Corporate
Presentation
Value Messaging
Buyer Persona
Brand Messaging
Content Creation
Template
Market
Buyer Role | Buyer Goal
Win-Themes
Solution Summary
Who-I’ve-Helped-Story
Keyword
Effective brand messaging connects value creation in the customer’s context and
positions it in the marketplace. Mission and vision add depth and direction.
19. A Messaging Architecture
Sales Ready Messaging
A Messaging Architecture for Content Capture & Re-use
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Creating Sales-Ready
content that is on-message,
relevant
to buyer needs and
customizable is an
ongoing challenge.
Marketing Messaging
Web Pages
Barriers to Success
Implications
Status-quo/ Constraints
Blogs / Emails Campaigns
Big Idea
Positioning Pillars
Win-Themes / Capabilities
Mission Statement
Positioning
Statement
Corporate
Presentation
Corporate
Presentation
Proof
Points
Value Messaging
Buyer Persona
Brand Messaging
Sales - Ready Messaging
Stories , Scripts , Presentations,
Emails , Letters , Proposals
Content Creation
Template
Market
Buyer Role | Buyer Goal
Win-Themes
Solution Summary
Who-I’ve-Helped-Story
Keyword
“Who-I’ve-Helped-
Stories”, sales scripts,
proposals, customer
correspondence need to
be created. Sales-Ready
content must leverage
the core value messaging
and enable salespeople
to easily customize it and
personalize it.
20. /Sales and Marketing
Messaging Alignment
Methodology
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C H A P T E R
21. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 21
Methodology
Brainstorming workshop
HOW to begin?
The Messaging process starts with
a BRAINSTORM. 4-7 people is an
ideal group consisting of thought
leaders, marketers, and 1 or 2 top
sales people.
Create wits with the answers to all
of the questions in the widget.
Instant Access
WittyParrot gives
marketers, salespeople
and customer support
professionals instant
access to sales messaging,
positioning and field
enablement insights over
any device, whether online
or offline.
22. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 22
Methodology
Role-based Buyer Persona
Role & Goals Competition
Barriers
Implications
Status-quo
Online Behaviour
Industry Issues
Trends
Next, we develop Role-based
Buyer profiles for key players in the
organization who are likely to be
involved in the decision to purchase,
implement, finance and use our
solution.
With an understanding of the buyer’s
role, goals, pressures and constraints
they are under, we can approach
buyers with some insight and can
potentially relate how we can help
them to create value.
Drag and Drop
WittyParrot helps sales
people find, drag and
drop the right information
from a desktop widget,
share it and track it, to
save time and sell more.
23. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 23
Methodology
Match Capabilities to Goals
Next, we map product Win-Themes
to buyer Goals. At the intersection
of needs and capabilities we have
solutions… and a story.
A Win-Theme is a well formed
messaging component that describes:
• what the product or service is,
• what it does for the buyer when
used,
• what that means in terms of value.
Context
WittyParrot in
conjunction
with inbound
marketing and
marketing
automation
intelligence
provides
contextually
relevant content
for responsive
telephone
engagement
and follow-up
communication.
Solutions
Buyer Goals
Capabilities/
Win-themes
Solution
Buyer Goals
Capabilities /
Win-Themes
24. Content reuse
Win-Theme
shown in the
wit editor
Win-Themes
appear as
wits under the
appropriate
positioning
pillar
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 24
Methodology
Messaging Architecture Creation
Marketing
messaging to
be shared is
developed in
Company
workspace
Intelligent Hub
WittyParrot is an intelligent communication hub that enables salespeople to access best practices and the latest content and collateral
from original sources over a cloud-based service when it is needed.
25. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 25
Methodology
Content Creation Templates
A content creation template is an information
product that describes the complete product
usage scenario of a target buyer in a target
market, for one specific buyer goal. It can be a
combo wit or word template.
The content creation template is
designed to be used by marketers and
salespeople to understand the product
usage scenario of target buyers and to
create content that will resonate with
target buyers.
Content Creation Template
Market
Buyer
Buyer Persona
Goal
Barriers (What prevents them
from achieving goal?)
Implications
Constraints/Complications
Win-Themes (What it is, what it
does, what it means)
Solution Summary
Who l’ve helped story
(Situation, complication, turning
point, resolution)
Keywords
26. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 26
By converting long form case
studies into 150 words “Who-
I’ve-Helped-Stories”, we
unlock the potential value of
customer success stories.
“Who-I’ve-Helped-Stories”
help salespeople to share
stories to open sales calls
and to relate how others have
implemented solutions.
This prevents premature
elaboration and accelerates
trust and credibility.
Single Version Of Truth
WittyParrot enables
marketing managers
to create messaging
chunks or building
blocks and to combine
them into compound
documents which update
automatically when the
underlying message
chunk changes to create
and maintain a single
version of the truth
and improve marketing
efficiency and brand
protection.
Methodology
Who I’ve Helped Stories
(“Who-I’ve-Helped-Stories” * Mike Bosworth
Leadership, Story Seekers methodology)
27. A Messaging Architecture for Content Capture & Re-use
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A Messaging Architecture
has at its core, Value
Messaging components
(Win-Themes). These
Win-Theme components
are re-used in the brand
message, marketing
messaging and in sales
ready messaging. Value
Messaging components
are managed, updated and
shared by marketing for use
throughout the company
and with partners.
Marketing Messaging
Web Pages
Barriers to Success
Implications
Status-quo/ Constraints
Blogs / Emails Campaigns
Big Idea
Positioning Pillars
Win-Themes / Capabilities
Mission Statement
Positioning
Statement
Corporate
Presentation
Corporate
Presentation
Proof
Points
Value Messaging
Buyer Persona
Brand Messaging
Sales - Ready Messaging
Stories , Scripts , Presentations,
Emails , Letters , Proposals
Content Creation
Template
Market
Buyer Role | Buyer Goal
Win-Themes
Solution Summary
Who-I’ve-Helped-Story
Keyword
Methodology
Summary
A Messaging Architecture amplifies brand values and enables everyone in the company to speak with one voice.
28. Manage
Component CMS
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WittyParrot is a disruptive
content distribution
platform with potential to
change the way marketing
and sales people work,
manage information and
interact with clients.
Share
Enrich
Track
Usage, Relevance, Productivity
Create
Messaging Architecture
Pillars
Big Idea
Win-Themes
Sales Marketing
Alignment
Marketing
Buyer Need
Sales
One Voice
Messaging Alignment and Content Reuse
Content Freshness
WittyParrot enables
marketers and
enablement professionals
to publish and maintain
a master version of
information for sharing
and reuse across the
enterprise and business
partners to ensure
freshness of information.
29. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 29
Sharing Messaging
As project creator,
or owner, when you
are ready to deploy a
messaging project,
click on the gear and
select share.
Apply permissions
to individuals or to
groups. Salespeople will
typically be read-only.
Other marketers can
comment.
Manageability
WittyParrot enables
users to create,
organize, share
and track multiple
content types and
rank and use content
based on name, size,
publication date,
frequency, favorite, or
most frequently used
to easily manage
volumes of content
from diverse sources.
30. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 30
Analytics Dashboard
Wit Analytics
and Analytics
Dashboard
WittyParrot
captures usage
statistics at
individual wit
and document
level, and
also provides
analytics
dashboard that
allows sales
enablement
professionals
to track most
used shared
content over
time and to
rank content
effectiveness,
i.e. utilization
frequency, time
saved, storage
used, top
users.
31. /Messaging
Deployment in
WittyParrot
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C H A P T E R
32. Responsive Sales Enablement
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The graphic is a screenshot
of the WittyParrot Widget
being used to create on-the-fly
custom email response.
This enables salespeople
to instantly access relevant
information to support buyer-seller
conversations in real
time. With the custom field
completed, sales people drag
and drop this information
into an email or CRM tool to
immediately follow-up the
call with a written meeting
summary, including links to
resources and confirming next
steps.
33. Deployment on Tablets and Smartphones
Any Device
WittyParrot
helps marketing
professionals to
create and distribute
sales & marketing
collateral and make
it available at the
point of use and
moment of need over
any device whether
online or offline to
ensure sales people
get what they need,
when they need it
without having to dig
for it.
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 33
34. /Summary & Take
Aways
A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 34
C H A P T E R
35. Top Sales Effectiveness Initiatives for 2013
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In summary, the WittyParrot
technology platform
provides out-of-the-box
functionality to:-
1. Physically align sales and
marketing messaging to
drive content creation
that resonates with
buyers.
2. Facilitate “on-message”
written communication
with customers and
prospects, so that
everyone speaks with
one voice.
3. Enable instant information
access, for sales,
channels, pre-sales and
support professionals,
to become more
responsive.
4. Facilitate useful team
communication and
collaboration.
5. Provides tools that sales
people will actually
use to improve sales
performance.
6. Enable marketing,
operations and
enablement professionals
to track content usage,
productivity and
performance to improve
effectiveness.
Enhancing lead generation
Aligning sales and Marketing
Improving rep to access key information
Revising sales process
Enhancing team comunications
Analyzing costumer’s buying process
Revising sales tool
Revising sales team structure
Revising channel strategy
Revising compensation
New CRM tools
Revising hiring strategy
48.9%
38.3%
36.8%
33.4%
30.4%
27.2%
26.6%
25.3%
24.5%
24%
21.7%
15.3%
Summary And Take-Aways
36. A Guide to Sales & Marketing Messaging Alignment with WittyParrot // 36
TALK TO US
For Companies:
If you are interested in learning more about Sales and Marketing Messaging Alignment using WittyParrot
methodology, please either email me at
mark@wittyparrot.com
or compete the form below.
http://www.wittyparrot.com/contact-us
For Potential Partners:
Join our growing list of partners and become part of our family.
1 Become an OEM partner and deliver a solution on top of WittyParrot.
2 Become an Integrator: Become an implementation partner and support the implementation of WittyParrot
enterprise accounts.
You can learn more about our partnership programs here:
http://www.wittyparrot.com/partner-inquiry