Most of us have attended a tech tradeshow. Row upon row of nearly identical booths, forced smiles, harsh fluorescent lighting, crazy giveaways, and khaki pants galore. But SiriusDecisions 2019 Technology Exchange was a different experience entirely. Set at the Gaylord Rockies in Colorado, the event was infused with holiday cheer, complete with ice skating, tubing, festive lights everywhere, and a mistletoe village where families decked out in their holiday best could take pics with Santa. There was even a spectacular show featuring Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer and all of his pals from the beloved stop-motion 1960s TV special carved from 2 million pounds of colorful ice.
Of course, SiriusDecisions analysts and guests brought their A-game to a week of B2B marketing and sales presentations primarily focused on Supercharging the Revenue Engine Tech Stack. And, at least for me, it was hard to miss the delightful cross-over between Rudolf and his old pals from the Island of Misfit Toys and a key theme carried across many of the SiriusDecisions educational sessions.
A COLLECTION OF MISMATCHED TECH
The opening keynote session from SiriusDecisions’ experts, Senior Research Director of Technology Strategy John Donlon and Gil Canare, Senior Research Director of Marketing Executive Services, demonstrated just how many organizations struggle to grow revenue with a disjointed tech stack. Without a holistic approach to receiving, processing, interpreting and reacting to buyer signals across channels and functions, they struggle or even fail. John and Gil discussed how easy it is to end up with a collection of mismatched and siloed solutions within your technology stack that can’t support revenue growth or deliver an exceptional buyer or customer experience. Moreover, they underscored a fact that Zift has been shouting from the rooftops for some time: It’s time to shift away from functionally siloed technology management. It’s time for a horizontal cross-functional stack that delivers true Enterprise Channel Management.
With mismatched channel technologies, data is dispersed and can’t serve as an asset or deliver comprehensive business insight. Business decisions are made without the proper information and customer experience gets lost in the shuffle. In addition, singular tech solutions are often mismatched and integrations can be the stuff of nightmares, much like the terrifying Bumble in Rudolf’s adventures — or Frank the ChanTech Monster felled by ZiftONE in 2019.
TRAVERSING A NON-LINEAR BUYING JOURNEY
Event attendees heard this message again and again from analysts and business leaders on the main stage and in breakout sessions. Kerry Cunningham, Senior Research Director of Marketing Operations for SiriusDecisions, and Steve Silver, Service Director, Sales Operations Strategies, emphasized the need to provide a unified technology experience to attract and keep modern B2B buyers, who are traversing a very non-linear buying journey.
“The modern interaction mix should use the latest innovations to attract, engage, qualify and close deals with buying groups; optimize buying groups for conversion, and provide a unified experience across devices and channels for any path buying groups may take on their journey,” said Silver. Zift couldn’t agree more.
In their presentation, “The Ties That Bind: How Connecting to Back-Office Tech Improves the Customer Journey,” Lisa Nakano, SiriusDecisions’ Service Director for Customer Engagement Strategies and Liz Herber, VP, Principal Analyst for Forrester, also stressed that, “Customer engagement, retention, loyalty and advocacy suffer when revenue technology is disconnected from enterprise systems or connected to outdated enterprise systems.”
REV UP REVENUE ENABLEMENT
SiriusDecisions Service Director for Channel Marketing Strategies Maria Chien along with Heather Cole, Service Director for Sales Enablement Strategies, detailed the impact of disjoined tech during one of my favorite presentations, “Maximize Your Torque With the Ultimate Revenue Enablement Tech Stack.” According to Heather and Maria, “Scaling sales enablement to deliver learning, assets, and communications to diverse internal and external teams requires a tech stack that enables real-time delivery of what to know, what to say, what to show and what to do next in every customer interaction. This tall order can only be accomplished with a well-thought-out strategy supported by an integrated tech stack.” Amen.
If your tech stack looks more like an island of mismatched and misfit toys, it’s time to get it together. Learn more about Zift’s vision and winning business philosophy of Enterprise Channel Management — and how you can connect and simplify channel sales, marketing, and operations with just ONE solution: ZiftONE.
