Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines

What happens when you run behind…

This week I’m behind with last week’s newsletter.  Moving is the focus at the moment. In between different tasks though, I started researching various topics. This post therefore has some random marketing thoughts that crossed my mind while packing boxes and readings in between.

Lifecycle Revenue Marketing and Agile

Forrester published blog posts last week on Lifecycle Revenue Marketing and being customer obsessed. They started with the question “Are you a generalist or specialist?”

(Source) 

Revenue Lifecycle Management (RLM) is defined as “...a business model that brings together the strategies, processes, and tools necessary to maximize revenue potential and drive predictable revenue growth.” (Source). Dealhub.io goes on to describe that ”RLM encompasses multiple disciplines, including marketing, sales, finance, analytics, operations, and customer service”.

Whether we use the term Journey or Lifecycle, in essence, when it comes to the customer, the stages (and variations thereof) remain the same:

Awareness, Consideration, Conversion, Acquisition and Advocacy

It has also never crossed my mind that marketing would not be customer obsessed (or driven). At the end of the day, there is always someone at the end of an email, seeing that banner ad, reading that story, attending the event. 

For me, the message both Forrester and Dealhub.io are conveying is more about not working in silos. This does not only pertain to large organizations. It can also easily happen in a startup.

Generalist or Specialist

In a conversation with a peer this week on metrics and KPI’s, we ended up talking about sub segmentation of segments. This made me wonder how many of us are getting stuck in the details and think again on Forrester’s question, “Are you a generalist or specialist?”. 

Looking at various definitions both can have positive or negative connotations depending on the perspective. My question is why does this even matter? If the goal is to generate revenue and accompany the customer throughout the journey (or lifecycle), is not collaboration key? If I am a generalist, why should I not be able to rely on the specialists to bring their expertise to the table and vice versa?

One of the things I love about agile is the ongoing collaboration between cross functional teams. In a customer obsessed world this enables a multidisciplinary team to be adaptable and flexible to the customer’s changing needs. How better to build a trusted relationship for successful Revenue Lifecycle Management.