Multiply Your Facility Management Marketing Success with These 2 Key Objectives

As a facility management marketing expert I track all sorts of metrics and KPIs for all of our marketing strategies.

Yes, they are a ton of numbers to track. But, these numbers allow us to understand if we need to add more fuel to a strategy that is crushing it for us, while also placing a hold and pivot on other areas.

However, with all these metrics we track – there are only 2 objectives that your CEO is going to care about. This podcast episode will share them with you.

Transcript

So, you're probably asking yourself how to successfully grow a facility management company in today's digital age while still remaining profitable. You know that marketing should probably be in the mix, but you may not know the best approach, the newest strategies, or which digital platforms to market on. So, how do you use marketing to grow your effort business today? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers.

My name is Javier Lozano Jr., and welcome to the Facility Management Marketing Podcast. What's going on, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Facility Management Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Javier.

So, today what we're going to be covering is that marketing leaders in the facility property management space, you should only be measured on two metrics, and that's it. And you're like, wait, wait, wait, what? Yes, you should only be measured on two metrics, okay? And it sounds a little controversial, and you're like, well, what about these other focuses that you gave me before?

What about this, and what? All that stuff builds into this. Two metrics. So, number one, I'm going to go into this, this is probably going to be a short podcast, but that's all right.

Number one is going to be influenced revenue. So you've been hearing me say this a lot in my different episodes, that a marketing leader should be tied to revenue as much as possible. You should be having, you should be as close as possible to revenue as you can, okay? Because with the technology that we have today, and how we can measure attribution, and how we can measure different channels, and all those successes, this is the best way for you to determine if what you're doing is really working.

And honestly, if you want to be a CMO or a VP of marketing, and you're afraid to be measured by revenue, then maybe this is not the role for you, okay? And I don't mean that in a rude way, but that's how you measure the success of all that. At the end of the day, the SVP of sales, or the VP of sales, they're measured on revenue. And you're like, well, it's not the same, Javier.

I know it's not the same, which is why I said you should be measured on influenced revenue. It's a big difference. What leads did you bring in, and did those leads turn into business? And if those leads turned into business, then how much money did it generate?

So you brought in 10,000 leads, excellent. Of those 10,000 leads, how many of them were SQOs? 2,000, cool. Of those 2,000 SQOs, how many became customers?

200, great. Of those 200 customers, what did it generate? $5 million? Then that's what you get measured on.

Do you see what I'm saying? So you get measured on the revenue you got influenced. So when these metrics are tracked correctly, revenue always is going to be increasing. It should be, at least.

If it's not increasing, then you need to start changing the strategy that you've been putting together. When you're putting all this stuff together, you might have a goal of what you're trying to grow, and then you're going to have a strategy to help that. But if you're not increasing revenue, then your strategies might need to be shifted a little bit. You might have to reevaluate, you might have to pivot, you might have to change.

But these metrics are going to help you, essentially, start tracking revenue a lot better. The sales teams, they have to record their sales calls, how many sales they make in a week or in a month, or how many opportunities they have. The sales team is doing all these things, so marketing should be measured along the same way. I can tell you right now, I am.

I'm measured along those same things. This is also going to help with the CEO can start attributing how marketing influences revenue for the sales team, or for the overall organization. The CEO can easily say, cool, we've got this CMO, we're paying him six figures, and he's put in these strategies, and these strategies have generated this many leads, and we've become more efficient in these areas, and we're closing more business because of this, this, and this. That's good.

Then the CEO is going to start seeing how marketing has influenced revenue. This is really critical that you understand this. I've got reports on my HubSpot dashboard that I watch a lot. One of the big reports I created is called MQL, SQO, and Customer.

I see all of our MQLs. That's going to be our top level leads that is not garbage, like test.test.com, or a phone number that's like 1-2-3-4-5-6-8-9-10, like that. Those are going to be instant. If it has at least a real email or a real phone number, we would then consider that as a lead, or as an MQL, a marketing qualified lead.

I look at that, and I'm not saying that I measure marketing success by MQLs. I'm not implying that. I use that metric to see if we're sitting at a strong, like, hey, we're generating roughly 22% of our traffic turns into leads. That is a baseline that we keep and we track.

That is just an internal thing that we track. Our MQLs is roughly 22%. Out of every 100 people that visit our website, 22 people will convert to become some sort of lead. From there, I then evaluate all of those leads and see what percentage becomes an SQO, a sales qualified opportunity.

That means that sales got on the phone with these MQLs and started talking to them and started saying, hey, yes, we're interested in doing this, this, and this. Excellent. You're an SQO. From there, we then look at the next level, which is what converted into customers.

They might have come into the channel from a paid social media back in, say, May, and then they became a customer finally in September. We would then track acquisition of not just how they entered, but when they actually closed. It doesn't have to necessarily mean that they came in and closed the same month. It just means that they closed on a given month and they were labeled a life cycle stage of customer.

Where I'm coming from is that I see this journey of these leads and I can start making all these projections. I can start telling my CEO, I'm like, hey, Chris, whenever we have SQOs, we're converting SQOs at roughly 28%. If we have 3,000 SQOs, we can basically say 28% of that's going to be possibly customers because that's our going rate. We want to see how you influence revenue.

The sales team doesn't care. What I want to make this very clear too is that the sales team doesn't care where a lead is going to come from so long as the lead closes. Nobody cares where the lead comes from because then that basically tells us, hey, you know what? This channel that we're tracking here, this has given us some really good leads.

We're not getting a lot, but what if we put some more effort into this? This whole social media channel is doing some really cool stuff. We should be putting some more effort into this. Putting more money into Facebook ads has really been helping our business quite a bit and grow.

Whenever we focus on search and we go after these specific keywords, we get more business leads from this. Interesting. Do you see what's going on here? What I'm getting to is that sales doesn't care where it comes from as long as it closes, but you as marketing, you want to know this data so that you can give sales better leads that they can close.

That's what we're doing internally. We segment our leads between commercial customers and personal customers, basically B2B and B2C. We tend to close B2B at a higher rate than we do B2C. The other thing here is on why on the influence revenue, why you want to be measured by influence revenue is that marketing leaders always want to be as close as possible to revenue.

I've already been saying this a lot. I'm going to just reiterate it. You have to be tied to that. It's very important.

Future CEOs and future CROs are going to be coming out of marketing. I guarantee that because of how close they are to data. Future CEOs and future CROs are coming from the marketing department because of how this is working, but that only happens if you tie yourself to revenue. If you want to be a future CEO or CRO, you have the right to be that.

Just get tied as much as possible to revenue so that you are influencing revenue a lot. That's number one. One key metric you should be measured on is influence revenue. That's how I'm measured at work.

Number two is pipeline. This is interesting. Leads are great, but leads don't really make money. I've already told you this, an MQL metric is like a vanity metric.

A marketing qualified lead is a vanity metric, but it should be measured to a degree so you have a baseline of how many leads you're getting per month and what your website is converting at so that you can start building new things in the pipeline as well too. An MQL is an important metric to track, but it's not going to determine the success or the future growth of pipeline. What I suggest is that you understand the conversion of MQL to SQO, which is going to help you determine if the audience is better. If you're able to convert MQLs, marketing qualified leads, into an SQO, sales qualified opportunity, or other people call it sales qualified lead, which is fine too.

If you're able to increase that conversion, then that means that your baseline of marketing qualified leads are better leads, which is giving you higher sales qualified opportunities. This means that sales is now going to start working those leads accordingly because these are good leads to work. Once you start doing that, they're going to start working the SQOs correctly to where they become customers. If the MQL to SQO conversion increases, naturally your SQO to customer should also improve as well too.

This is where you can start actually projecting pipeline. This is what I mean. Let's say you generate 1,000 leads. Let's just use that.

You generate 1,000 MQLs, 1,000 marketing qualified leads. Of those 1,000, 300 of them became SQOs, 300, and I'm just going to be using round numbers here. Let's just say that you convert at 10% SQO to customer. That basically means that 30 of your SQOs are going to be customers.

Let's just say that your average transaction is going to be, let's just say like, I don't know. So, you're going to want to know $50,000. That's your average transaction for facility management. So you're going to time that by 30.

So that's $1.5 million in the pipeline that you can start kind of like, hey, based on our trends, you know, this is how it works. So like we generate a thousand leads. We typically get roughly 30 percent of those MQLs and the SQOs and we typically convert SQOs into customers by 10 percent and, you know, our average sale is $50,000. That is $1.5 million in the pipeline.

And then all of a sudden you can start making bets off of your stats. And that's where we're moving into for WrapMaid, for ourselves. So you as a property management company or facility management company, like that is the goal, is that you want to start filling pipeline and so you start getting better at creating better MQLs. You start writing better emails and helping with sales operations and improving on certain pieces of the sales piece because marketing has an influence in that area.

So they get higher SQOs. And then sales goes in and starts doing their thing and then you can start making bets against what you are projecting, okay? So this is going to help you get better at your ad targeting. So your ads are going to be better because you're going to have better leads coming in.

In essence, it's going to give you a better ROAS, a better return on ad spend. And so you want to be measuring this all on a campaign level. So look at each different campaigns that you're running. And then you're going to be getting better CAC, a customer acquisition cost, at a campaign level is what you might want to consider.

Or just go like channels. So like social media channel for paid, search channel for paid, organic, there's not really I mean, but there's some in there, but not really, but you get what I'm saying. And so you can start kind of measuring the CAC. And then these levers are all pulled and will improve pipeline.

So when you get better at your MQLs and then converting them to SQOs and then sales know how to close these like on a regular basis, you start making bets against that. You start having better top of funnel leads based on these certain channels that you're actually running ads in. You start measuring campaigns and saying, hey, these leads are closing at a higher rate. So we're going to start having these kind of campaigns, more money into this one.

And we're getting better customer acquisition costs in these campaigns. And so we want to start kind of focusing on this and it's going to be cheaper if we run ads like this. And that's how you fill the pipeline where we can make bets against the things that we're kind of already paying for. And that's it.

Those are the two things that in my opinion, a marketing leader should be measured on. Number one, influenced revenue and the number two, pipeline. If you can do those two things for your company, I guarantee you, your CEO will love you. And those things are hard.

Now these two things that I just talked about, this didn't happen overnight for our company. It took me like almost eight months to get there. And we're still working on some of this stuff. We introduced pipeline to our CEO or I'm sorry, I introduced pipeline to my CEO and he's like, this is interesting Javier.

And I go, I know, which is why it's important that we get all these numbers like dialed in so that I can make projections. I can start saying, hey, we expect to be closing this many leads and it's going to be bringing X amount of revenue. And then all of a sudden like we can start projecting, we can say, hey, by increasing our ad spend by this much, this is what we get over here. This is what happens here.

And revenue goes up by here. And this is what we're going to be projected on this. You see what's going on. And it becomes like a fucking video game.

It is so much fucking fun. So that's it. That is a two metrics that market leaders should be measured on is influence revenue and pipeline. You get those two things dialed in and you know how to do it correctly.

Now, you're going to screw up. Like we've screwed up. I've screwed up. All right.

I've gone after things that just didn't make sense, but I'm trying to use data to influence my knowledge. And a lot of people say like, well, my gut says this, no, your gut is probably like, you know, you're gassy or something because the data says this and this is what we're going to go after. So as soon as I start showing data, things start changing, you know, and that's how you start positioning yourself in a different realm. This is, this is how, this is how marketing leaders get a seat at the table in the facility and property management industry.

You can do this and like 12 months or less, you will get a seat at the table and you deserve it. You, you know, you know, marketing manager at, you know, whatever facility management company or whatever, you deserve a seat at the table, but you got to do these two things. You got to influence revenue and you got to project pipeline. You do those two things.

You get a seat at the table. Okay. You deserve it. And this is why I'm doing these podcasts is because I'm documenting what I'm going through and I know this stuff works like, cause I'm doing it.

I'm showing proof and you're like, well, it's not directly in the facility management space. Guys, all I need is like a handful of people to hire me as a fractional CMO and I'll prove my point in this. But I've already kind of proven my point because the space I'm currently in is essentially the same fucking space as facility management. But it's just like, it's just, we're doing vehicle wraps versus facility management.

It's the same thing. Trust me on this antiquated fragmented industry. Okay. I'm not kidding when I say this, this will work and this is being used in the SAS space.

This is being used in the B2C space. This is being used in a direct to consumer space. This kind of stuff is being used, influence revenue pipeline. All marketing leaders that are working in bigger type industries are being measured on these things on a daily basis or not daily, probably like monthly.

Okay. So if, if you want to have a seat at the table and you deserve it and you're, and you're a future marketing leader in the facility property management company, get really good at these two things and figure it out. Okay. If you, if you're basically like a COO or CEO listening to this podcast, you're like, holy shit.

And you need a fractional CMO, then we need to talk because I'm all ears. I'm happy to have, you know, to work with you as a, as, as one of my customers as a fractional CMO because you will be helping me prove my point. But on top of that, you'll be making more revenue. You will know where you're spending your ad dollars and if it makes sense, you will have a better marketing strategy than you've ever had before.

You will actually be able to act, you know, attribute marketing influenced revenue by doing X, Y, and Z. It's that simple. Okay. It takes time and it can be done.

All right. So this is not like a pitch fest for me to, to pitch myself, but I'm just going to do it really quick. Like for organizations out there that are looking to hire a fractional CMO, you know, and the reason you want to hire one is because you don't have the, uh, the revenue to pay them full time, you know, like, cause a CMO, you're paying them six figures, probably like 150 to 200, depending on what size company you are. Okay.

Maybe 250, maybe more. All right. And you probably can't afford that and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that.

So hire them in a fractional basis, hire them for 10 hours a week. Okay. Instead of paying them 200 a year, you pay them 50 a year and they give you almost the same results. And then you have teams that are going to be helping with all the other, all the other things.

Okay. So understand that, that like, those are things that I can help with and I'm happy to be helping you with that. So if you're interested in that, connect with me on LinkedIn and let's talk. Okay.

I'm not going to be sharing my phone number on here. You can find me on LinkedIn, linkedin.com slash in slash Javier Lozano Jr. You will know it's me because my banner has my podcast information, but just know that. Okay.

So a couple of things or three things before I leave, number one, rate our podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Number two, connect with me on LinkedIn, send me any kind of messages, questions, that sort of stuff, comments, what other podcast episodes you'd love to hear. And then number three, share this podcast with somebody else, DM into somebody or, or, or, you know, just send a text message to them, but like, please do that because my goal of this podcast is to improve the facility and property management industry. I want marketing to be one of the key positions in this, like in a facility company, like, like operations and like finances or like sales is marketing should also be a part of that conversation.

I think marketing could do so much more in this industry. Like after my time spending two and a half years in a facility management company, probably longer now because I've been doing, you know, stuff on the side, you know, with other side projects and customers that I've been working with, like I've seen growth opportunities that no true marketing leader is leveraging. Okay. And so this is kind of what I'm trying to get to.

So if you're interested in talking to me about this, I'm happy to take on the conversation. There's no guarantees that I will be taken on the job though, because it all depends on what you're looking for and if it fits with what I want to work with. Okay. Because I'm not going to be working with anybody in the, in the, in the FM or PM space.

Okay. I know my value, my value is like, it's very high. My time is super important. So it basically has to make sense for me, for us to work together.

So if you're interested, then yeah, we can talk for sure. Okay. At the very least, we can have a conversation and see where it goes, but other than that, do those two things and you'll improve, right? All right.

Have a wonderful day. All right, guys. Thanks for taking a listen to our facility management marketing podcast secrets. This is your host, Javier Lozano Jr.

One other ask I've got for you guys is to subscribe to our email list. You can go to bouldermediasolutions.com slash email, and that way you can get updates on some marketing trends that I'm seeing, some strategies that I'm executing, and more importantly, I'll be actually launching some webinars and training that's going to help your company use marketing strategies to essentially grow your business. We'll be doing some training, offering some courses, that sort of stuff. So you can always unsubscribe to that email list.

It's no big deal. It's not going to hurt my feelings. This is more for facility managers, I'm sorry, facility management companies that want to grow their business by using marketing. All right, guys.

Thanks a lot. Have a great one.