If you are in the world of marketing and love spending time on LinkedIn, then there is a good chance that you have come across the term ‘field marketing’ quite a few times. Maybe there’s a high chance that you came across field marketing before really knowing what it was, and you may have well been doing that, primarily if you operate in the B2B SaaS world.
Now, field marketing is viewed differently by different people :
- A section of marketers see field marketers as the folks who do events, nothing more and nothing less.
- Another section believes that field marketers play a much larger role, i.e., almost working like a regional CMO that is closely knit with the sales team and enables revenue.
I think it’s vital to be revenue-driven as a field marketer because, if you think about it, you’re the face of marketing to the sales team, or at least you should be anything that the sales team has questions about. They should be coming to you, and you should be directing them to any other function within marketing to help them get that answer. And it just kind of streamlines things so that you don’t have to worry about who’s talking to whom, or if there is a gap between what’s needed and the information provided, etc.
How can you leverage field marketing for revenue?
As the name suggests, field marketing is all about the field (precisely where the sales teams play). So if you look at it, field marketing and sales have a natural synergy. But it extends beyond sales. It is probably one of the only functions that interacts with every piece of the rest of the marketing organization and deals with almost every role within the company. I mean, they’re dealing with the sales team, they’re dealing with customer success, with finance to make sure things get paid on time, etc. You can think of field marketing as the glue or a project manager that kind of pulls it all together.
For instance, sales teams don’t care about MQLs (marketing qualified leads) and contribute to the pipeline or revenue. So, if you are a field marketer, you become the bridge between sales and marketing, where sales teams are your customers. You will enable every single salesperson you work with to crush their quotas, make a club, or whatever it is that helps make them more money for the organization at the end of the day.
Where does field marketing fit into the organization?
One of the most significant pieces of the solution that field marketers bring in is communication. They tend to make sales and marketing communication a two-way street. For instance, if you get into field marketing, you may be joining sales calls, QBRs, presentations, etc. And then you facilitate the vice versa as well. The point overall is, you ensure constant communication, like at least once a week or more.
Another piece they contribute to is coming up with metrics that both sales and marketing have agreed on. You could see that in several companies, marketing tends to come up with their metrics and base the numbers on what they want. And then sales have their metrics, which are entirely different. But imagine if you have your CRO or a VP of sales, basically working with their counterpart on the marketing side to say, okay, our SQL goal for this quarter is going to be ‘X’ and both align on what the goals actually are, it helps to close the gap between sales and marketing and improve the alignment.
Everything that is pipeline-driven for the most part, usually funnels through a field marketer at some point.
Lastly, throw in the ABM piece here as well. Field marketing teams tend to help develop the target account list with sales counterparts and share it with the marketing team so that they can go after those accounts with their campaigns, content, etc. You don’t want both teams to work on different accounts. Thus it avoids the scenario where marketing works on a set of accounts, and then sales comes in to say that they don’t care about half of those accounts. Thus, field marketers play a role in ensuring the effectiveness of ABM campaigns.
Here are a couple of examples of what you often see field marketing executives do:
Virtual events and demos:
Ever since COVID broke in, the role of field marketing has undergone some transformation. It has not only increased its focus on virtual events but has also become more aligned to revenue than ever. Therefore, you can expect field marketing executives to conduct webinars, virtual conferences, targeted online demos, giveaway contests, etc.
Direct Selling:
In a typical SaaS setup, the direct sales activities include making an offer after a product demo, engaging an interested prospect via live chat, triggering coupons based on a prospect’s product-usage, etc.
If you are talking of the pre-COVID days, you could also include branded roadshows as an example. For example, Marketo does its branded roadshows really well. They usually do it in London, Chicago, and Boston, and it’s called ‘Marketing Nation Roadshows’. It’s not just product focused but they also bring in industry leaders like Seth Godin to share the latest insights with its target audience. The idea of such events is to provide opportunities for their prospects and customers to network with their peers, partners and the community.
Measuring outcomes
Though field marketers starters upping the ante on virtual events over the last few months, what they measure in terms of outcomes is what has made things more meaningful. It’s no more about the number of registrations or attendees. It is:
Influenced pipeline:
It refers to the pipeline contribution to sales. It enables sales to push a prospect over the line, convert a free user into paid or bring in a net new customer from their campaigns/virtual events.
ABM target account attendees:
Bringing in decision-makers or influencers from target accounts as attendees helps sales stay on top of the target accounts’ minds and engage them actively.
Sales enablement using content:
It refers to the case studies they were able to gather by aligning with the customer success team and the blogs or videos they created, which all can, in turn, act as value-add content to push targeted accounts over the line.
Equipping your field marketing team
While we saw the role of field marketing in the overall scheme of things, it’s crucial to equip them with the right ammo and set the right expectations. Though it may appear like a no-brainer, field marketing in several organizations is either not planned or equipped to handle the market in a COVID-affected scenario.
If you are into field marketing right now, you need to be ready with:
- Content that will help create awareness in your target group.
- Pitch points that you can support your sales team with (to convert/close a deal)
- An alternative to demand generation from events
Remember that field marketing operates outside the field, too, and is part of the omnichannel experience. So, ensure that you are as much data-driven as you operate on the field, thereby enabling a seamless brand experience.
Parting words…
If you are still reading this, I hope you truly enjoyed it and could come away with some tangible takeaways that you can implement right now in your business. We are at a weird time, and no one knows what the future will be like, but I think it’s up to us, as field marketers, to pave the path forward and determine what that looks like. If you ever want to chat field marketing, pick my brain, or just talk about life, then feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, and I’ll make sure to get back to you. Thanks for reading! I am truly grateful.
