Prior to a successful acquisition by Trendline Interactive in 2021, LeadMD was the #1 performance marketing consultancy leveraging technology to make company visions actionable and outcomes measurable. Breaking down the typical siloes of technology and strategy, LeadMD collaborated with clients to make their vision of excellence happen. They helped more than 3,500 high-growth companies succeed by building revenue engines that scale using the top marketing and sales technology. Today, they continue to operate under the Shift Paradigm brand.
LeadMD performed ongoing campaigns designed to generate awareness and interest in its consulting services. It typically identified one major concept per quarter and created tentpole content on that concept and a number of smaller, snackable items in its wake. For Q4 2019, LeadMD decided to perform thought leadership research into the state of alignment between sales and marketing teams and to develop a thought leadership report providing benchmarking and insights around this topic.
After considering a number of top-tier industry analyst and market research firms, as well as leading academic institutions, LeadMD chose to work with Callan Consulting based on a combination of its research expertise and contribution of best practices in thought leadership projects.
Callan Consulting recommended a “quali-quant” methodology for this customer insights research, starting with focus groups with sales leaders and marketing leaders to understand their high-level assessment of alignment, validate research hypotheses, and probe on areas of interest. Callan Consulting conducted one set of groups with marketing executives and one with sales executives, which identified a number of disconnects and challenges.
Callan Consulting followed the groups with an online survey of 350 US sales and marketing executives across multiple industries and company sizes. The survey quantified and explored alignment between sales and marketing objectives and outcomes and how organizations build sales and marketing alignment.
After the survey was complete, Callan Consulting worked with LeadMD to build a maturity index that characterized each organization’s level of alignment based both on performance (revenue, wins, lead quality) and pipeline (growth and sustainability in predictable revenue). This allowed us to compare alignment “leaders” with “laggards,” identify characteristics of leaders, and quantify improved business outcomes associated with being a leader. Among other things, the study found that self-reported alignment does not correspond to performance.
Callan Consulting delivered this thought leadership research project on time, on budget, and exactly according to plan. LeadMD was so pleased with both the process and the thought partnership of the Callan Consulting team that it committed to using Callan Consulting for a follow-on series of research over the next several years.
“Callan Consulting came through for us on this critical project when literally every major analyst and research firm balked at its complexity and depth. The result was a uniquely powerful content piece that has caused the sales and marketing world to stand up and take notice.”
Justin Gray, CEO
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