Basic tenets of Fluid Revenue Orchestration
I've been in more than a few organizations, and I've formed an opinion of what makes a strong Revenue Orchestration Architecture. Here's my basic tenets for design:
Good flow of data, right data to flow
READ is powered by data. All the arguments about API-first, Composable, Headless, Gopher protocol take a back seat to identifying what is the right data, and ensuring that data is flowing smoothly. You need to focus on Minimum Viable Data (MVD)
MVD – Minimum Viable Data = Most Valuable Data.
Minimum Viable Data is the core data needed to flow for a Revenue Orchestration Architecture to work. Specifically, it is the data that tells where the person came from, what buy signals, what audience and what activities. Simply put, what is the least data you need to recognize a buyer? This is especially important for <s>data, flow and </s>analytics and privacy.
Active executive sponsorship:
It's not enough for an executive to give a speech and walk away. The sponsoring executive must take an active role, particularly at the beginning stages to ensure that communications are meeting the teams goals once the team gets comfortable working with one another, the executive can take a step back.
Spend money on people before technology
I have had countless clients who wanted to do multitouch attribution and fail. The single place of failure tends to be when the lead is passed from marketing to sales. Sales are goal-driven and any friction between them and a sale will be met with fantastically creative techniques to overcome the administrative bullshit and close the sale. And that means bad data for you. There was only one company that had a perfect system, and that was because compensation was linked to accurate and timely working of a lead.
Plan for revenue recognition before analytics
Analytics are looking in the rearview mirror. It's great for measuring past performance and reporting to the board, but it's the old, stuffy revenue recognition requirements pays the bills. It pays over and over again if you have royalties or renewals, so make sure all of your chain supports revrec. How can your content and processes and automation support sales and smooth that flow? Design it in the early stages, don't leave it until it's blocking a closed-won.
Begin with the end in mind
NASA's Rule 15 states: The seeds of problems are laid down early. Initial planning is the most vital part of a project. The review of most failed projects or problems indicate the disasters were well planned to happen from the start. In other words, fixing project problems in later phases is expensive. Before you start designing, know what your executives are reporting to the Board. Know your MVD—Minimum Viable Data, and know what requirements are needed for revenue recognition.
Know what success looks like
You also need to know when to stop. Having a written description of what a successful task, project or workflow looks like will help you accelerate the implementation process.
Cross-functional conversations are key
This is often extremely uncomfortable for employees, because personalities that are attracted to a particular profession are often at odds with one another. People pleasers tend to avoid goal-driven personalities. They need help communicating and learning to collaborate and understand one another's jobs. This is where active executive sponsorship comes in.
Spend time defining disposition terms
It's said that good fences make good neighbors. Clearly defined, written lead dispositioning terms (accepted, rejected, junk, not ready, etc) ease the ongoing conversation between marketing and sales when it comes to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL). Make sure that your teams know what a good lead looks like, and have clearly defined terms so the teams can collaborate effectively to improve those MQLs.
Use just enough agile
Don't allow agile ceremonies to become a burden, and don't allow meetings to become edge case or solution solutioning sessions.
Tightly control your meetings
You’ll have a wide range of personalities and departments that are designed to be check and balance to one another. This is the time to have tight control over the expectations and management of meetings and outcomes.
Invest heavily and change management and training
Big change is terrifying for people. They’ve spent incredible efforts creating adaptive behaviors to overcome your twisted revenue funnel. They know how to bypass a broken technology to get what they need. If you make this simple, they may lose their job.
Train not just for the operation, but they why of the change. Show the new, more challenging and rewarding opportunities that will come from a strong automation. Show them what they’ll get in return for giving up maladaptive behaviors.
Create a culture of success with ongoing rewards
Compensation and bonus is not just for the project, but should be an integral part of your annual operations budget. Reward for consistency. Reward for improvement. Have strong written guidelines and have the stones to withhold reward if your team isn’t holding up their end.
