This ITAC Marketing and Sales Executive Think Tank was hosted at Oracle by Michael McCarthy, Account Manager, Oracle Advanced Customer Service. Bob Becker, Principal of SMA moderated the discussion.  

1. Using technology tools to evaluate ROI.
2. Aligning sales and marketing to get results.

What we learned

• Less is more. Use technology to capture quality information, not quantity
• Marketing and Sales continue to be silos; ROI will come with more collaboration from both
• Social media is still new and challenging.  More work needs to be done to explore its value and how to measure it 

What has your experience been with the requirement for ROI tracking in your career? 

• Front-end metrics need to be well-defined for proper ROI measurement
• Disconnect between Sales and Marketing creates problems; both have different perceptions about defining and measuring ROI
• Marketing needs to seek buy-in and best practices from Sales
• A close loop program is effective in ensuring all parties are accountable for ROI
• Various types of programs generate different ROI; certain elements are easier to measure, such as number of clicks, number of calls, number of appointments

What is the biggest challenge that Marketing people have with Sales people around using technology to track ROI?  

• Obtaining buy-in from Sales, then making it easy for Sales to use ROI technology
• Launching focused activites – 10 programs versus 100
• Getting Sales to assist in identifying market challenges
• Getting Marketing team actively involved in Sales field challenges
• Inviting Marketing to Sales for client perspective; find out what’s working
• Building Marketing/Sales one-to-one relationship.  Networking is crucial; it’s not just about a checkmark in a system

What is the biggest challenge Sales has with Marketing people around using technology to track ROI?  Does Sales really care or even believe the data from ROI tracking tools?

• Too many unqualified leads creates negativity in Sales and “get off my plate” attitude
• Technology now helps with end-to-end tracking
• Clients are more educated and the purchase process is more complex
• Multiple partners have their own CRM systems, which adds to the complexity of tracking
• Today’s ROI tools are sophisticated yet complex with many layers
• Leads need to provide over 14+ pieces of information for accurate tracking, but social media only requires an email address

ROI Tools – poll of attendees

• 1 out of 9 uses Salesforce.com
• 1 out of 9 uses Excel
• 1 out of 9 uses Salesforce.com with Eloqua
• 2 out of 9 use Salesforce.com with Excel
• 2 out of 9 use CRM
• 2 out of 9 use other tools like Siebel, Unica, Eloqua, SAS 

When it comes to ROI, what is your greatest challenge and how are you addressing it?

• Getting Sales to use ROI tool and helping them understand the value of ROI information
• Lead nurturing; use third party to nurture leads
• Ensuring data is valid – clean and current
• Determining what stage of Marketing/Sales process to start tracking ROI and how to progressively obtain more prospect information
• More activities = less substance.  It’s better to micro-manage just one or two business partner programs
• Manage ROI when dealing with multiple business partners

How do you track ROI related to social media?

• Add query string to track where the information was accessed
• Push information via the social media environment
• Link ROI directly to and from events
• Immediate response to information assists with obtaining immediate ROI results
• Social media tracking can be expensive; slowly building, currently at metric stage 

Attendees:

• Paul McDevitt, Director Marketing Operations, Cisco Systems Canada Co.
• Colleen Raymond, Manager, Web and Database Marketing, ESRI Canada
• Nancy Clark, Demand Programs, Canada IMT, IBM Canada Ltd.
• Robert Eckersley, Regional Manager, Information Builders Canada
• Chub Letenyei, Senior Field Marketing Specialist, Resources Americas, OpenText
• Deborah Brown, Director of Communications, Lumen Dynamics
• Michael McCarthy, Account Manager, Oracle Advanced Customer Service, Oracle
• Clare Atkinson, Sales, SAS Canada Inc.
• Anu Vijh, Channel Marketing Manager, Canada, Symantec
• Jennifer Salvador, Field Partner Marketing Manager, Canada, VMware