Archive for the ‘Lead Generation’ Category

7 Steps to Align Sales and Marketing

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

My colleague, Shepherd Smith posted awhile ago about the importance of aligning sales and Marketing’s definition of “what is a lead”.  I agree that too often these definitions have diverged without the other team realizing that each are using different definitions. Of course this can really heighten the divide that commonly exists between Sales and Marketing. Companies that are using a Marketing Automation platform know that aligning marketing and sales is a necessary first step to ensure that the pipeline is generating what everyone agrees are “better leads”.

MarketingSherpa gave a great summary of how to best achieve this alignment and ultimately generate and close more leads:

    1. Get commitment from the top. The marketing and sales teams need to communicate, and it needs to start from the CMO and CSO. Says Fernandez. “The VP of Sales and VP of Marketing should go get a beer together.”
    2. Model the marketing/sales funnel. An integrated revenue funnel helps each team understand what the other team is doing, and how their actions impact revenue.
    3. Develop a common vocabulary. A common marketing/sales funnel also provides common language and metrics, which is especially important for defining when a lead is qualified and/or ready to be handed over to sales.
    4. Look for operational disconnects. Make sure that goals, initiatives, and promotions are aligned by developing plans jointly and meeting monthly or at least quarterly.
    5. Test key metrics to track. Trying to tackle all sales-marketing alignment issues at once is too daunting, so start by tracking two important metrics, such as lead volume and lead quality. This is a great way to start the dialog.
    6. Create a closed-loop reporting process. Make sure marketing has a way to follow-up with sales to see how well leads are performing. This can help tune lead gen efforts, and is an important way to take qualified prospects that are not yet sales ready and recycle them back into marketing.
    7. Share accountability between the teams. Marketing is a very measurable process, but the results are head to measure; it’s easy to measure Sales outcomes but Sales activity is hard to measure. As a result, compensation and rewards tend to be very different, which creates further problems. The better your marketing accountability and ability to measure marketing’s impact on the bottom line, the easier it is to bridge this gap

      Tags: , , ,
      Posted in Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Sales and Marketing Alignment, lead definition | No Comments »

      Struggling to Attract Executive Level Prospects?

      Thursday, January 14th, 2010

      With so many disruptive, addictive technologies such as Email, IM, RSS and Cell Phones prospects are distracted like never before—and chances are, so are you!

      So what can you do?

      Key Tip: If you provide something of value to prospects, they will give you their respect, loyalty, time AND ultimately their business.

      Consider the facts. Studies show that execs value Business Briefings (aka White Papers) most—more than case studies, product literature, articles from industry journalists, analyst reports, company websites, webcasts, blogs, online video and podcasts.

      One thing is for sure – senior-most executives hate to be sold.  They want to be in control and make their own decisions to buy.  They view themselves as thought leaders and and love to have a “trusted advisor” (like you) nearby that they can count. So if you give away some of that proprietary, hard-earned insight in the form of a business briefing or ebook, you actually can propel yourself to a position of thought leader/trusted advisor and attract opportunity.  This may seem counterintuitive but it works.

      Of course there is a right way and a wrong way to do this…  What’s the right way?  Give your readers plenty of sample content before they are asked to trade their personal contact information for access.  So many web sites ask for detailed information and lose valuable leads.  Make this an interactive, engaging process that gives more value than you get and they will come in droves.

      This idea comes from the video game market. Remember playing video game demos that provided you access to the first two levels?  The same strategy can be applied to free business briefings.  When your registration form finally appears, this is the prime opportunity to ask readers if they want to join your email opt-in list, in addition to receiving the briefing.  Try it and you’ll see.

      Tags: , ,
      Posted in Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Sales Enablement, Sales and Marketing Alignment, appointment setting, lead definition | 2 Comments »

      How Can You Improve Sales Potential?

      Monday, January 4th, 2010

      Its a safe bet that many companies have made New Year’s resolutions to increase revenue streams as so many companies, large and small were hard hit in 2009. While becoming leaner and meaner as some companies have done can help reduce expenses, there are other strategies that can be employed. Namely being smarter when it comes to sales.

      If you’ve been asking yourself  “what can I do to get leads flowing again? Here are five areas where businesses can look to improve their sales potential:

      1. Poor Lead Stewardship. The number one reason sales are lost is that they are forgotten. Many companies have poor systems, or no systems in place for tracking leads from the moment they are aware of them to the time a customer deal closes. Take a hard look at the “lead leakage” in your business, adopt or modify your existing process, and you’ll see sales climb quickly.

      2. Are you Listening?  Any successful salesperson knows that “Sales is a transfer of enthusiasm.” You must be enthusiastic about what you are selling, but you have to also keep your focus on the customer’s needs. Make sure you are asking focused questions about their business process, their sales needs, what’s working, what isn’t and how you can help them achieve their goals. Be relentless, less ”selling” and more listening! IMHO, buyers will choose the company that they feel hears and understands their pain points and has a solution that seems designed just for them! (After all, each of us want to be heard; this simple shift can bring some profoundly positive results.)

      3. Lack of Urgency.  Hand in hand with the previous point, is how well you are managing urgency. You’ve probably heard many times: The most important question in sales is not “Why should I buy your product or service?” but “Why should I buy your product or service NOW?”  Buyers are more cautious than ever, so coming up with compelling reasons why they shouldn’t delay making a commitment to your products/services is very important for success. 

      4. Craft a new elevator pitch. The beginning of any dialogue often starts with: “So, what is it that you do?” Even experienced, savvy sales people may use a list of bullet points to explain what they do. What they’re not getting is that your prospects don’t care about what you can do. They really only care what you can do for them to solve their problems. Tell them why you are the best one to provide this solution. Its time well spent to understand exactly what your core value is to your customers and develop the strongest focused messaging to communicate this effectively.

      5. Pay for Performance Marketing. Shameless plug : True Influence has developed LeadPacs to help companies who don’t have the time, resources or money for in-house multichannel marketing campaigns but need more warm leads for Sales. Pay-for-performance leads mean you get exactly who you want, leads scored on the behavior you specify. Once you provide the content to us, we launch a campaign on your behalf and immediately deliver the results to your Sales Team!

      Wishing everyone a Happy and PROSPEROUS New Year!

      Posted in Campaign Planning, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Sales Enablement, True Influence, customer driven marketing campaigns | No Comments »

      Is it Time to Turn Up the Heat?

      Friday, January 1st, 2010

      I saw this today and thought it was inspiring for all of us to view as we start a new year.

      The concept is that at 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils. And with boiling water, comes steam. And steam can power a locomotive. Its that 1 degree that makes the difference in 2010. Kudos to www.simpletruths.com for making this available.

       

      Tags: , , ,
      Posted in Lead Generation, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Sales and Marketing Alignment, True Influence, Uncategorized, Welcome, appointment setting, customer driven marketing campaigns | No Comments »

      Is Website Tracking Relevant for Marketing and Sales?

      Saturday, November 28th, 2009

      Products like Alexa (owned by Amazon.com) Google Analytics or Compete are interesting tools for high-level marketing metrics. They measure basics like web visits, page views etc. and do a fairly good “arial” view of what’s happening on a web site. But are these tools relevant to sales?

      We’ve found a deeper view is needed to make this information relevant to sales. The web pages your prospects visit, how they got there, and how often they come back tell you a great deal about their interests and when they may be ready to make a purchase. By augmenting your web analytics with lead tracking capabilities, you can identify individual prospects by name, (even before they fill out a form) and see what pages they visit. You can track their relevant behavior, assign a score to it and pass the information to sales real-time.

      Sales insights such as these allow you to build much richer, deeper prospect profiles. Now your sales team has a reason to call their prospects and they are able to more minutely tailor their pitch to meet each prospect’s individual needs based on what pages they visited.

      Tags: , , , , ,
      Posted in Campaign Automation, Campaign Management, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Scoring, Website Optimization, appointment setting | 2 Comments »

      What IS Lead Nurturing? And What IS IT NOT?

      Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

      Lead nurturing is a really misunderstood topic in marketing today. In fact, most marketers don’t understand what it IS and what it IS NOT at all.  So, here we go. Some thoughts on what it IS and what is IS NOT for you.

      It IS NOT Lead Nurturing When:

      • You  send the same old stuff (white papers, case studies etc.) over and over again to the same old prospect list and expect a different result.  Sound like the definition of insanity?
      • Your sales team calls prospects that are in the early stages of the buying process every month just to “stay in touch” with them.
      • You offer brochures or data sheets to early in the sales process about your product or service and expect a prospect to read them.

      It IS Lead Nurturing When:

      • You send an automated series of targeted emails that include content based on the prospects’ interest, role or location.  The purpose is to answer a question or offer more information – automatically.  Lead nurturing is sending information that is relevant to their problem or tries to help them do their job better without asking for anything in return.
      • Your sales team makes calls based on marketing “touches” that adds value to the interaction. This gives them a valid business reason for each call.
      • You focus on sharing content that’s relevant to them even if they never buy from you.  Getting them to remember you by not “selling” them through external offers but by creating internal pressure for them to buy from you.

      Just like you,  your audience is well educated and does not want to be sold. But they do want to buy and are hungry to be educated so you can take advantage of that. And,  in the end, real Lead Nurturing will create a sales pipeline that is very predictable and more reliable for your marketing and sales management efforts.

      Tags: , ,
      Posted in Campaign Automation, Campaign Management, Contact Management, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Multi-Channel Communications, Nurturing Campaigns, True Influence, appointment setting | 5 Comments »

      What is Lead Scoring?

      Saturday, November 14th, 2009

      It seems that conversion rates suffer when experienced salespeople chase bad leads.  It happens every day. That’s because, in most marketing and sales teams , it’s impossible to know when lead information is promising and when it’s a waste of time and money.  That’s where automatic “Lead Scoring” can help.  In fact, with Lead Scoring you can instantly identify, verify and qualify lead information at the very moment prospects are interacting with you.

      With True Influence Lead Scoring, marketing and sales can have insight on prospect information — the instant it arrives. First, we verify the contact information against your data, ensuring that lead information is actionable.  In the same fraction of a second, we score the lead based on custom-tailored user behaviors and prospect information.  With this, Lead Scoring enables you to increase your conversion rate by directing the best quality leads to the best equipped sales people. Then you can personalize your sales scripts to deliver the most compelling message, offer, price or discount. And this insight flows just as easily into your follow-up communications to your new lead, which you can personalize based on their scores. With Lead Scoring, you’ll produce more relevant communications and speed up your sales cycle.

      Tags: , ,
      Posted in Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Scoring | 1 Comment »

      Does “Pay-for-Performance” Lead Generation Really Work?

      Monday, November 2nd, 2009

      Pay-for-performance lead generation, on the surface, is an appealing notion. The idea of selecting an outsourced agency to do your telemarketing for you—and only pay them for the appointments they actually provide. They assume all the risk, right? How can you beat that? But, in the real-world, business-to-business appointment setting is a very risky model.

      No B2B lead generation program (no matter how well planned) produces overnight returns. There’s always a period of planning, testing, execution and measurement. With that reality, it takes some upfront training and management to get results. And with telemarketing personnel turnover so high and training so expensive, does this model really make sense? Particularly if the pay-for-performance telemarketing agent does not get immediate results, they are motivated to push unqualified appointments into the funnel to reach their quota commitment. This is why telemarketing leaves most B2B marketing and sales departments empty-handed and eventually causes a jaded feeling about pay-for-performance lead generation overall. The fact is that the model isn’t broken. But, it has changed and the market needs to change with it for a better result to occur.

      Some things to think about before you pay-for-performance

      • Look at the process first and make sure to invest time to figure out the ROI.
      • Don’t rely on people only. Invest in scalable and automatic lead generation that will occur overtime, not overnight because if demand gen does work, you’ll be hiring more sales people and they in turn will need more and more leads.
      • Measure everything. The great thing about modern demand generation is the “digits are meant to measured”.  Today I can launch a program and see everything that happens in real-time, based on the prospects behavior. Now that’s real demand being created!
      • Experience matters. This type of modern, digital lead generation is fairly new. Not everyone understands how to do it correctly, so do some due diligence and hire a team of marketers that are experienced and have shown real ROI results for other B2B companies.

      Here, at True Influence, we’ve launched a new program called LeadPAC’s that deals with pay-for performance very nicely. To make this work we’ve partnered with the best-of-class data provider Jigsaw to create an almost limitless flow of sales-ready leads for our customers. For companies that sell to SMB and have a recurring need for higher quality lead flow, this is a great solution.

      Tags: , , ,
      Posted in Lead Generation, Pay for performance, Sales Enablement, appointment setting | 4 Comments »

      Tips for Lead Generation

      Monday, October 19th, 2009

      Everyone is talking about Lead Gen, Marketing Automation and the like. What’s all the hubbub about? Well, stated simply, its because all businesses need to capture leads to keep the funnel to sales full and many are searching for the right lead generation software to help them accomplish this goal.

      Common questions I hear from customers relate to acquiring and saving contact information so they can market to those leads later. Ones I hear the most:

      • “How do I convince someone to give me their information?”
      • “How much information do I need to collect?”
      • “Should I ask for all that I want upfront or ease them into pipeline more slowly?”

      These are the right questions to be asking. Simply put, people don’t WANT to be marketed to. They’re busy, inundated with their own priorities and they don’t have time for you and your promotions. So, to part with their contact information, your prospect is going to expect something good in return.

      As you might expect, the more you give them, the more they’ll give you. And the value of what you’re offering and the relevancy of that content to your target audience absolutely affect how easily they will give up that information.

      For example, if you offer a free report or white paper on your website, you might get a name and email address. Don’t expect the prospect to send you their address, phone number or any other critical information. The white paper is not worth anymore than that to them.

      However…if you were to hold a drawing for a free trip or a popular electronic gadget, you might get name, email, phone, and address. Suddenly your marketing is more powerful and targeted than it was before.

      This doesn’t mean you need to give away a trip to get contact information. The important point is that asking for too much information may cause a prospect to run screaming in the other direction or in web parlance, “skate” away from your website/email. Ask only for what you know you’ll get, after all it takes time to develop trust with prospective customers. (It is called “nurturing” for a reason!)  Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to effectively nurturing those leads and keeping that pipeline full.

      Tags:
      Posted in Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing | 8 Comments »