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Beyond the Tick-Box
Publication Date: 2009-10-13 04:33:17
It's a great point that as a buyer one must dig in beyond flashy demos and sales claims. That I definitley agree with (I'm with Eloqua, a marketing automation vendor). The other area to dig into, however, is how the concepts being discussed will actually change your business, and what else is necessary for success, as that is where there are significant differences between vendors.As an example, if you look at lead scoring, as you mention in the post, being able to score leads is definitely important, but only if one is able to use those scores to truly align marketing with your sales team. To do this, you need to take the concept "beyond the tickbox" that all vendors claim "yes we have lead scoring".
This means a variety of capabilities are needed - being able to create leads and tasks for sales, being able to claw back leads that are not followed up, distribution rules for a broad sales team, overlays for named account structures, etc.
The best approach is to find the areas that are important to you in the world of marketing automation, and spend some time learning about how that area evolves, based on actual client experiences. Then, you have the right questions to ask each marketing automation vendor when you are getting them to show you how their solution would drive success in your business.