You may have heard about the D3 Methodology, a framework for managing the complexity of high-performance demand generation and building a perpetual revenue engine. Why is this so critical for success in today’s business environment? Because competition is fierce, and people have options.
As consumers increasingly leverage digital channels for purchasing products and services, CMOs and their teams must up-level — and digitize — their demand generation expertise, programs, and systems in order to capitalize on potential demand and beat the competition to the punch. When organizations have strong and effective demand generation programs in place, they can generate engagement from ideal target customers, more easily convert leads to customers, and delight customers to maximize customer lifetime value.
BDO Digital developed the D3 Methodology to enable marketers to define and manage all the components necessary to design and implement demand generation programs that drive and maximize revenue growth. But what is it exactly and how can you put it to work in your organization?
This blog post breaks down the visual metaphor we use to explain the D3 Methodology — the planetary gear system — component by component, to help you understand how all elements of the model work together to up-level your demand generation efforts.
Why the planetary gear system?
At first glance, a visual representation such as the planetary gear system may seem to miss the mark for capturing the intricacies and organic nature of demand generation — but it’s actually a perfect metaphor. It visually depicts all of the key elements — Demand Creation, Demand Management, and Demand Expansion — and the importance of their interconnectivity and integration in keeping a demand generation engine running at peak performance.
Here’s a breakdown of the visual metaphor, piece by piece:
- The inner bracket: The gray bracket in the center of the system connects everything together. This piece represents tight integration necessary for the various components of the demand generation engine to function properly.
- The inner gears: The three blue planetary gears represent each phase of demand generation. The gear labeled Demand Creation represents the process of engaging prospects and creating demand. The gear labeled Demand Management refers to how you continue to engage with prospects until they become customers. And the gear labeled Demand Expansion represents activities aimed at expanding customer lifetime value via onboarding, retention, advocacy, and cross-sell/upsell.
- The central gear: Like the planets revolve around the sun, all elements of demand generation revolve around Revenue Output. That’s why this gear is in the center of the model!
- The outer ring: Your demand generation engine can’t operate in a vacuum — it needs support:
- People with the right skill sets
- A well-integrated, best-of-breed technology stack
- Data that’s complete, accurate, and well-managed
- The ability to analyze and report on campaign attribution, performance, and impact
In other words, your people, technology, data, and analytics are critical to helping everything come together. That’s why it’s represented as the outer ring, encircling all the other components.
As you can see, when you deconstruct it, the visual metaphor of the planetary gear system makes complete sense and illustrates just how critical each gear is to ensuring the demand generation engine runs without a hitch.
Fuel your engine — and your success
Today’s marketing organizations are under intense pressure to continuously generate highly qualified leads for sales in a dynamic, fast-paced, and extremely competitive marketplace. They must continuously prove their worth, as well. The D3 framework provides structure and direction to fuel their efforts and ensure success.
BDO Digital can support you in implementing the D3 framework in your organization, helping you to optimize demand generation, drive brand awareness and value, and become a marketing hero. Download our D3 Methodology eBook for a deeper dive into each gear in the planetary system, and an understanding of the four foundational elements — people, technology, data and analytics — that support it.
The post The D3 Methodology: A Breakdown of the Planetary Gear System Visual Metaphor appeared first on DemandGen.
