Imagine this: a marketing operations guy went beyond the company API limitations on the final working day of a quarter and froze Salesforce. Salespeople were unable to issue bids, login, or complete sales. This catastrophe required the company to spend many hours messaging their Salesforce representative and filing complaints to extend their limitations temporarily.
Employing API calls, a primary enrichment database with an incorrectly set update call (which repeatedly called Salesforce for every person on an incredibly lengthy list) trimmed through the land like a brand-new remote-controlled mower on the first day of operation.
This was not the primary or the final occasion we had questioned how the marketing department could be so ignorant about the inner workings of the CRM.
It's simple to assume an individual is sluggish or disinterested in generally accepted wisdom. That's seldom the problem, though. The truth is that they are usually too preoccupied with handling their infrastructure to look at services under another person's management, particularly if they aren't granted administrator privileges to those tools.
The primary reason we are excited to see RevOps become an operational unit is the chance to exchange essential expertise. By merging the assistance groups for customer fulfillment, sales, and marketing, we ought to be able to utilize the tools that other departments use fully and become acquainted with them further.
To be frank, things don't always work out like that. Nevertheless, we are giving you a significant indication that (precisely now) is a great time to set up cross-functional/system discussions since we have observed how these structures can perform if built correctly.
The following article will provide an outline for resolving some of the most significant errors of judgment that we have observed occurring among each team and the systems. Let's begin by first briefly addressing why it might be so challenging for a CRM administrator to collaborate with an automated marketing administrator.
There is no such thing as an account or possibility in the industry-leading automated marketing system.
We were astonished to discover this at first. Following years of immersing oneself in the metrics that accounting and sales rely heavily on, it became evident why marketing data frequently diverged from the remainder of the company's reports.
Marketing operations employees must deal with data retrieved from Salesforce on their records in Marketo or Eloqua. As a result, when a deal is Closed Won and the relevant fields are pulled in, it is mirrored on all related individuals who are contacts in the associated account. Therefore, unless they are careful or bring it into another reporting platform, each time they try to build a reservations study, it gets increased by five, ten, or twenty individuals.
HubSpot is not affected by this issue. Still, HubSpot barely distinguishes between contacts and leads. For better or worse—we'd argue "for worse"—Pipedrive, Dynamics, Zoho CRM, and other companies have imitated this Salesforce feature.
The marketing automation administrator cannot discern the type of document to which their private details will be applied, nor can they comprehend why the chance to submit data is not adequately recorded for every employee at IBM (or any other MNC).
Simply put, the marketing team's primary driver of information utilizes a data structure different from that of the remaining departments of the company. All of this is centered on each individual's data. It is also challenging to combine the data because their marketing automation platform and peripheral tools utilize distinct data formats.
To summarise it in one line:
Your metrics will vary, too, if you rely on varied data schemas or formats.
Technologies for automated marketing exist outside of CRMs. They work well collectively but can add fresh data, edit existing data, and remove items.
CRM customers and marketers may become frustrated by the constant struggle that may quickly occur between the platforms.
Keep track of the system linkages you make. Make a spreadsheet that lists the frequently used items and fields and the framework that serves as the "origin of knowledge." These usual areas should be familiar to all go-to-market administrators in your organization since changes made to one database but not the other will almost certainly result in difficulties with integration.
Note: It should be up to your customers to decide what system to use or who administers specific fields. For instance, outdated phone numbers are frequently found in enrichment tools. An enrichment tool should be different from a phone number that a sales rep inputs.
Set a "No Go" period for large-scale configuration adjustments or bulk system upgrades. We advise the week of the quarter's conclusion and the week of the beginning of the next quarter. Still, your staff members should decide on this and mark it on their agendas to avoid significant interruptions that can impede handling deals or producing required statistics.
To enable different system managers to voice concerns such as "That might disrupt our workflow or integration," system managers should hold weekly meetings with a predetermined agenda to discuss the modifications they are implementing to their systems. Topics to discuss have to comprise:
Still, trying to decide what other topics to bring up? Each administrator should have ten minutes to educate the staff on their platform, highlighting a different admin and technology weekly. The meaning of API restrictions, data automation, territorial navigation, enrichment updates, and intent data connections are a few possible topics.
A common goal among B2B executives is to establish CRM as the official record. We can see why: CEOs are concerned with bookings and pipelines, although the latter is highly erratic. If a firm is not sustainable and depends on shareholders, they are worried about what is in the bank's hands, what is being used, and the amount of runway it has.
Regretfully, there are restrictions regarding what and the duration the CRM will monitor. It's designed to absorb only some of the data that marketing creates, and they will be charging you a lot for it.
Although they are costly to operate, marketing automation systems are excellent at monitoring large volumes of transactions. Price levels based on contact volume are frequently available. Additionally, most cannot process web visit data (though a few standout ones do!).
Another significant issue is that salespeople are more concerned with specifics and data than other company members. Furthermore, they need to be aware of what corporate executives desire to view or convey.
For businesses with the abilities and funds to make the most of them, data lakes, data warehouses, and platforms for client data are all excellent options. It's also critical to realize that data analysts who comprehend a department's operations and the tools necessary to do their duties effectively are far more productive.
It is challenging to claim that one system constitutes the sole repository of information. There is no easy answer to that. Departments, however, require more direction and instruction on data transmission and structure in the reference framework. An interdisciplinary group must be included in determining the necessary metrics and data specifications.
There would be fewer blogs on coordinating sales and marketing if more businesses agreed on what constitutes a quality lead or warrants the need for a sales call.
Advertising campaign data is a disaster if you're employing HubSpot as a CRM (it's in all the other platforms, too, but in an entirely distinct format). HubSpot performs a fantastic job of monitoring online interactions, but it could be better at categorizing and recording offline encounters. Additionally, it is selective about the data it exports.
Campaign data from Salesforce may be highly effective, but only if CRM executives know the constraints and possible pitfalls of Salesforce reporting.
In addition to offering advice to customers, our area of expertise is preparing marketing information for later use with attribution systems or other cutting-edge analytics applications (such as an internal data lake with an interactive layer). All too frequently, we observe that campaign data is arranged using campaign hierarchies.
Salesforce's "View Hierarchy" link or button is incredibly deceptive. Marketers find it appealing because it lets users see how their information is arranged across sectors, divisions, geographical areas, and other factors. Sadly, the reports aren't very thorough. Marketers believe they can manipulate the data according to those levels, but they will encounter identical constraints about account structures as the remainder of the company.
The report doesn't export or do repeated joins, which strain every system, and instead highlights one or two layers.
Personalized picklists are an easy way to substitute conventional hierarchies. By employing uniform, single-value picklists, you can use summary and column groupings to provide information on the information buried in structures.
The additional problem we almost always see is the tendency for marketers using Marketo or Eloqua to either build specific campaign types for UTM choices that are rarely utilized effectively or, if they have those choices, construct child campaigns for each UTM parameter that serves as a call to action. Instead, when a new encounter is captured, they overwrite UTM information to the Lead and Contact.
Rather, we advise constantly utilizing flows to feed UTM data to the campaign member. Using the campaign member's fields allows strategists to provide information on the UTM findings they require without hiding the specific actions taken by the customer or lead on the campaign layer (Download a report? Make a Demo Request? Make a phone call request?).
Marketers should be aware that collecting promotional information is not the only purpose of the campaign record; it also informs sales about the actions taken by leads or contacts.
Use uniform, single-select picklists to categorize and arrange information; make your records as simple as feasible by avoiding parent-child connections; and always prioritize the knowledge the sales staff requires to turn a qualified lead into a potential customer.