Revenue Disruption: Game-Changing Sales and Marketing Strategies to Accelerate Growth

Chapter 21

Never Forget the Creative Side of Revenue Creation

The past six chapters have been all about process, analytics, and technology. But I feel compelled to conclude this part of the book with an important reminder: No amount of technology or business process transformation alone can unlock the full potential for growth that Revenue Performance Management affords. Even a well-executed, high-tech, precision campaign to market an ugly lump of coal will not yield great results.

Leading revenue consultant and author Kristin Zhivago has been widely quoted for her observation that “Marketing has shifted from 80 percent creative and 20 percent logistics to 80 percent logistics and 20 percent creative.” That idea has gone viral among thought leaders in the area of marketing and sales, because she has a point. There is no doubt the job of the revenue professional, in both marketing and sales, has changed forever. Digital technologies pervade every aspect of buying today, forcing revenue professionals to adopt advanced technology approaches to the marketing and selling experience as well. They are using those technologies to find, nurture, and prioritize leads, and their impact extends all the way to the salesperson reeling in the live ones.

As a result, board members and senior executives have developed heightened expectations of accountability in marketing budgets, a change that in turn has transformed the CMO’s job from one focused on brand and message, to one that must also embrace ...