Parting Thoughts on Establishing an Effective Field Marketing Organization

• Don’t separate demand generation from dead management
• Don’t hire inexperienced people as leaders
• Don’t have a lead mentality and measure things as cost per lead (CPL) – cost of customer acquisition is what matters
• Resist the temptation to rank individual programs to whack the poor performers.  Whacking things is fine if viewed in the context of an integrated multi-touch intitiative
• Understand that Field Marketing, regardless of whether it sits in Sales or Marketing, is part of the Sales process
• Have a seat, a respected seat, at the Sales planning table at the area or regional level
• Take responsibility to work with product groups to package (not build) products into compelling solutions (this can be solely with internal products and services or with external partners)
• Have skin in the game—variable compensation for a Field Marketer has to be 25%-50% of the total compensation package and has to be tied to the geographies that are supported
• Automate systems for accountability
• Establish, learn and iterate processes so that they support the business and do not become sales inhibitors