News: Watch Your RPM

"In the past you were what you owned. Now you are what you share" [Charles Leadbetter]

What is RPM?

I've never been good with acronyms myself. RPM stands for Revenue Performance Management, and it is a concept -- the future of revenue -- being unveiled by Eloqua today. And it is more than an idea. Ideas are great, of course. When they connect with a particular insight based upon research *and* fill a need in the market, ideas become business.

As the video explains, RPM is a systematic approach to identifying the drivers and impediments to revenue, rigorously measuring them, and then pulling the economic levers that will optimize top line growth. In a conversation with Joe Chernov, Director of Content, Eloqua, he confirmed that:

RPM is right now a concept, a vision. There is no single, end-to-end RPM solution; however, RPM capabilities are the mile markers on our development roadmap. Right now, our goal is to get people talking about the importance of predictable revenue, of marketing owning a quota, of the relationship between marketing and customer acquisition versus brand-driven, "right brain" marketing.

To me marketing -- and any other group and role in business -- need to be accountable. Too many businesses and departments inside organizations are not commercial, don't meet a business outcome with results. Accountability is good. It's good for companies and their Boards -- and it's good for the economy.

I will pick on the second part of the quote because people mistake accountability in marketing for lead generation. For years, I have been on the demand generation side of the business and have been picked on by lead generation colleagues. Some would note even bullied by them.

Creating demand is big business -- and it is accountable, online and off line.

Starting with the end goal

That's how strategy informs a plan. And Eloqua is on the right path in asking marketers for their comments and reactions. If you're not familiar with what the company does, do spend a moment learning about it. We did a big Eloqua implementation in my last job on the corporate side.

Marketers should see a single view of the demand chain -– from first contact to close –- and want to make intelligent, evidence-based decisions about where to allocate resources to stimulate measurable and sustained revenue growth. This is what Eloqua helps them do.

According to Joe Chernov:

Marketers aren't looking to "buy" revenue performance management today as much as they are trying to put themselves on a path to achieve this objective. This is a brand new concept. We are trying to treat it as such.

We are also trying to create some momentum leading up to a major product launch slated for later this fall, and this video will help trigger more conversation about Eloqua and our vision, and those new "followers" we attract through our content marketing will ultimately be new targets for the product we are gearing up to launch. This video doesn't exist in a vacuum.

As a bonus, you get to see how a company leads up to a major product launch with content. I do enjoy looking behind the scenes of what organizations are up to. Having been in so many businesses over the years, I appreciate the applicability of this concept across a fairly broad spectrum of industries and organization-sizes.

What I like

• the visibility it gives me across different customer acquisition phases
• the ability to see what's not working and where, so I can do more of that
• the fact that I get to infer trends from data and get on the same page with sales

What I'd like to see as part of this is the role of other forms of more spontaneous interaction in building the prospect or customer profile. What would you like to see as part of it?

More about this RPM concept - a video from Eloqua CEO / post by CMO.

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[video by JESS3]

Comments

[Jeff Ogden]

Hi Valeria,
I was intrigued by this post because Joe Chernov reached out to me to get the word out about RPM and this approach.

No fan of TLA's myself (Three letter acronyms) but I really like their approach. As I said, they are trying to change the battle from being about software to being a battle of ideas.

It's nice to meet you and I hope to meet you someday in person too. I also hope you will visit Fearless Competitor at some point.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor

[Valeria Maltoni]

Good hearing from you again, Jeff. It's been a couple of months since we met in a brief comment you made here.

As we know, it's all in the execution.

Wish I had more time to visit more blogs. What works is usually a natural outcome of conversations I have with people. I get so many pitches and requests (now to tweet stuff as well) that I have a shut off button to keep the signal coming.