• by Laura Patterson , October 10, 2011

Today's customers are no longer passive recipients or sidelined spectators in the buying process; they are active particpants. Today we leverage a mix of vehicles from search engines to customer generated blogs and reviews, from online communities to social networks, and from broadcast to personalization designed to create engagement and enhance experience. This makes the traditional approach to the pipeline -- Awareness, Interest, Demand, Action -- or the more modified version of this pipeline -- Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Purchase -- outdated. Therefore, how we approach, define and leverage the pipeline must also change.

One of the best ways to change our thinking is to change the language we use to define and describe the customer buying pipeline. Here are six revised key measurable stages to take into account when developing, implementing and measuring Marketing's contribution to the opportunity pipeline that reflect today's environment:

1. Contact: Prospects may be aware of your company and its products and services but until they demonstrate some degree of interest, you may be wasting time and money. Making contact means you need more than a vague idea of the market or customer set, you must have actual contact information. Key metrics in this stage include the number of people who gave you their contact information and permission to contact them, the "freshness" of each contact, the entire database, the cost to acquire, the cost to maintain the contact, the conversion number and the rate of contacts to connects.

2. Connect: What is the difference between a contact and a connection? Another Texas reference sums it up: "We've said howdy but we ain't shook." A contact is an observable signal of hello from a person; it doesn't mean they are eager to get to know you better. A connection suggests at least the virtual exchange of a handshake and the establishment of some type of rapport. You can approach measuring marketing's impact on creating connections in much the same way as we measured contacts: the number of connections made, the cost to acquire and maintain, and the rate of conversion from connection to conversation. We'll be able to use a version of these metrics for each step.

3. Conversation: Just because the connection has been made, doesn't mean you have a customer or even someone who is inclined to engage in a conversation beyond the casual and polite visit. In the conversation stage there's a flow of information back and forth between prospects/customers and you. Engagement is an important metric in this stage. Engagement is critical to acquire that requires a considered purchase.

4. Consideration: The difference between a conversation and consideration is qualification. A qualified opportunity is one that is seriously considering purchasing from you. Consideration involves customers/prospects applying careful thought to your offer and company and weighing their options. This is the stage where you can determine whether you have a sales ready opportunity worthy of sharing with sales. Time is money so in addition to measuring the time it has taken to move a contact to this stage you can begin to quantify the value of the opportunity as well. At this stage we can truly begin to measure Marketing's financial contribution to the pipeline.

5. Consumption: Even though the opportunity has now moved to the domain of Sales, Marketing still plays a role in converting the opportunity from consideration to a contract to consume or an actual consumption of the product or service. Upon consumption, Marketing can measure the overall conversion rate, and time, the cost from contact to customer, the cost to acquire, and Marketing's "win" rate (how many of the Marketing opportunities closed and how this rate compare to the win rate of non--Marketing generated deals).

6. Community: It would be a shame to stop investing in a relationship that has just begun. A customer is your most important asset and also your most important advocates. In the world of customer generated content, blogs, social networks, and product reviews, marketing organizations need to focus on developing their customer community, the final C in the pipeline. There are numerous ways to build this community, such as using Facebook and LinkedIn or other social networks to create a means for your customers to engage with you and each other. Sentiment, loyalty as measured by growing share of wallet, and referrals are all valuable metrics during this stage.

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