I’m pleased to bring you a series of interviews with thought leaders in B2B Sales and Marketing. This time we interviewed the marketing leader for one of the fastest growing software firms in the world, Marketo.  Jon Miller sat down with the Fearless Competitor for a short and hard-hitting interview.

If you like what Jon has to say, all of his contact information is included.  I wish to thank Jon for his contributions to Fearless Competitor.

Many more thought leaders are coming soon, so stay tuned. We’re on a mission to bring our readers the very best.

Question 1: CSO Insights recently found that quota achievement was at its lowest rate ever, lead generation budgets were flat or cut, and quotas were being raised.  Jim Dickie sees this as the Perfect Storm. Jim said it is like raising the high jump bar, when we could not clear the last height.  As a marketing expert, Jon, what are you observing in B2B sales?

52% of sales reps did not make quota last year.  Last year was the single biggest drop in revenue in the 16 years that CSO Insights has been tracking results (according to IDC overall revenue in the tech industry fell by 4.5%).   This is no surprise in a year that marketing budgets were reduced an average of 8.3%.   In today’s revenue cycles, investing in marketing is a much more efficient way to scale revenue than investing in sales.  As investment in B2B marketing bounces back in 2010, I predict we’ll see a good return to revenue growth.

Question 2: The economic challenges of today are a major problem for B2B sellers.  Blogs and content sharing are critical elements like websites and Marketo has a very popular blog. How can a robust online presence help generate leads? Can you share the lessons you’ve learned with our readers?

In a world where buyers use online and social resources to research purchases long before they engage with a direct sales rep, an online social presence is essential.  The key is to focus on generating real sales-ready leads.  All too often, a robust online presence will generate a lot of names, but they’ll be too early in the sales cycle to be really called leads.  That’s why lead nurturing and lead scoring are so important along with your investments in social media and content.

Question 3: Changing of the status quo is a major impediment to progress.  How can marketing and sales leaders implement change without incurring undue risk?

This is easy: Think Big, Start Small, Move Quickly.   Have a vision for where you want to go, but don’t wait until it’s perfect and don’t try to build everything at once.  Get started with sometime small, and then continually evolve and iterate towards the big vision.  Not only will you get quicker results with less risk, but by incorporating our learnings and adjusting your vision along the way, you’ll also likely end up in a better place than if you just built to the original vision.

Question 4: Today it’s more critical than ever that markers can measure the impact of options.  They need to know what’s working, what’s not, and what to change.  What do you recommend they do?

The most important thing a B2B marketer should do is understand the true revenue impact of their marketing programs.  It’s not sufficient to measure your marketing ROI based on the number of clicks, conversions, or raw leads.  You need to develop a strong understanding of how those leads move through the revenue cycle, and then to use that understanding to measure and forecast the true impact of opportunities, pipeline, and revenue of your various programs.

Question 5: If a CMO were to ask you today – What are the 3 most important take-aways that I need to know? What would they be?

First, you can never have too much content; drop your two worst performing tradeshows and use that money to hire writers.  Second, protect your credibility with a vengeance; always use rigorous metrics like pipeline and revenue to discuss marketing results; and third (and yes, this is a bit promotional but also true), invest in marketing automation to make sure you can scale your processes to deliver on all these ideas.

Jon leads strategy and execution for all aspects of corporate communications, demand generation, brand, and product for Marketo (where he eats his own dog food and practices what he preaches). Jon explores best practices in demand generation, lead management, and online marketing in his popular blog,Modern B2B Marketing, and is a frequent columnist and speaker at industry events. Before co-founding Marketo, Jon was a vice president at Epiphany, a CRM strategist at Exchange Partners, and a strategic consultant for Gemini Consulting. Jon graduated Magna Cum Laude in Physics from Harvard College and has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Jon can be reached at 650.376.2300 or jon at marketo.com.

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Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple.” He’s also the author of two highly acclaimed white papers, How to Find New Customers and Definitive Guide to Making Quota, as well the ebook, Prospect Driven Marketing (and he’s about to start on his third white paper) and holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame.

Find New Customers helps business develop and implement programs to improve the way they find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation.