B2B Lead Generation Blog

Lead Generation via Search: Comparing Quantity and Quality

Have you wondered about where you should put your online lead generation budget into search engine optimization or paid search?  Check out this new chart by MarketingSherpa, "Comparing the Quantity and Quality of B2B Search-Generated Leads":

(click chart to expand) According to Sherpa, "While paid search gives marketers more control, natural search page rankings driven higher by search engine optimization tactics generate as many high-quality leads as all paid search sources combined."

What do you think? Do these findings match up with your experience with using search for lead generation?

Related Posts:

Tracking ROI From Web Generated Leads
Website Landing Pages impact Lead Generation results
Optimizing webforms to generate more leads through your website
Why Most B2B Sites Fail to Convert Sales Leads

8 Lead Nurturing Thoughts to Share

Here's few thoughts that I've had on lead nurturing that I'd like to share and get your input on:

• Lead nurturing supports the conversation of the customer before, during and after their buying process.
• Sowing + Nurturing = Reaping. As you sow, so shall you reap. A relationship properly sown, tended to, and helped along should reap a long and bountiful harvest.
• Lead Nurturing is about building relationships through relevant conversations, not campaigns.
• If your sales team is following up on nurtured leads, give them relevant/related talking points to use. The first impression matters.  So does the second.  So does every single touch after that. 
• Consistency and relevancy is key. Don't let up. Be consistent. No matter how busy you are make time to do lead nurturing activities.
• Treat "leads" like "future customers" because that's what they are.
• "Tell-and-sell" is a thing of the past. Become a trusted advisor by adding value with each interaction and sharing relevant information.What IS and ISN’T Lead Nurturing.
• Nurture your existing customers. Don't just emphasize new account acquisition nurturing. From this point forward you should look to nurture your current customers with the same energy and optimism as you do with leads and you’ll be amazed with the results.

Share your your thoughts on lead nurturing in the comments.

The Best 20 CRM Blogs of 2009

Forecasting Clouds ranked the top 20 CRM blogs based on their content, readability and frequency of posting.As I read over the list of blogs, I discovered some new ones worth reading along with a number of others I already follow like John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing Blog; Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba who write the Church of the Customer; and David Raab, Customer Experience Matrix. I'm honored to have been included on the list and be included in such great company.

Here's a partial list of the 20 CRM blogs on their list:

• PGreenblog and CRM: The Conversation – Paul Greenberg
• Beagle Consulting Blog – Denis Pombriant
• Brent’s Social CRM Blog - Brent Leary
• Think Customers: the 1 to 1 Media Blog – Ginger Conlon, Mila D’Antonio, Elizabeth Glagowski and Jeremy Nedelka
• The Social Customer Manifesto - Chris Carfi
  
• The Forrester Blog for Business Process and Application Professionals – Bill Band
  
• Destination CRM Blog – Christopher Musico, Lauren McKay, Jessica Tsai, Joshua Weinberger
• Michael Maoz’ Gartner Blog - Michael Maoz
  
• Customer Insider - Graham Hill
  
• B2B Lead Generation Blog – Brian Carroll

See the big list here - Forecasting Clouds' Top 20 CRM Blogs of 2009

LinkedIn for lead generation - Are You the Missing Link?

It takes time and commitment, but LinkedIn has become ideal venue to nurture relationships and generate new leads, especially for sales people involved in a complex sale.

On that topic, I wrote an guest article for MarketingProfs, titled "10 Tips for Using LinkedIn to Generate Leads." MarketingProfs decided to make it a "premium article" so it's available only to paid subscribers.

You can read some of the ideas I shared in this summary article published by MarketingProfs.

Here's just a few of the ideas I share:

1. Create a polished and personally branded profile on LinkedIn.
2. Join LinkedIn groups where your clients/customers gather and participate.
3. Target groups by activity level (relevance), not just by size
4. Post relevant content on groups.
5. Answer questions posted on LinkedIn.
6. Create your own LinkedIn group and share relevant content.

Read Are You the Missing Link?

Related Posts:

Lessons on Using LinkedIn for Lead Generation 
5 steps for using LinkedIn as lead generation tool

Also, if you're interested in connecting on lead generation topics and use LinkedIn, consider joining me and  the 4,200 members of the LinkedIn B2B Lead Generation Roundtable Group.

Targeting for better Lead Generation results and ROI

Effective lead generation really depends on how much you know about your target audience and how well you use that information to tailor a relevant messages and conversations.

I thought this post by Carolyn Goodman for Target Marketing Magazine was a good reminder of how we can improve our lead-gen results by being more targeted with our messages.

I know this is a basic idea and many of you do this this already but knowing something and actually doing it are two different things. This article prompted me to make really make sure I'm doing this consistently. Hopefully, it will prompt you too.

Here's a quick summary of Goodman's 6 steps: 

1. Do Your Homework.
2. Find Prospects That Look Like Your Target.
3. Determine Your Target's Pain Points.
4. Gather Sales Support Assets.
5. Create a Destination of Information.

Read Target Your B-to-B Lead-Gen Efforts by Vertical and Job Title

I wouldn't stop at targeting by vertical and job title. There's many additional ways you can can segment and target messages including; Stage in the buying process, Company size, job function, trigger events, role in buying process and more. 

Related Posts:
5 Lead nurturing tips to create relevant and engaging emails
Develop and intensify your Ideal Customer Profile

Lead Generation tips for Tradeshows Conferences

Tradeshows and events are still being used consistently by B2B marketers for lead generation. With that in mind, Roger Lewis has some useful tips on how to improve your lead management strategy with from tradeshows. Lewis emphasizes how vital lead capture is to the lead management process.

He writes:

Without the continuity of using one lead management solution across all your yearly events, your company is often left with:

• Inconsistent data fields that are difficult to import into CRM systems;
• Unnecessary or missing data;
• Different formats that need to be painstakingly modified;
• No ability to capture lead qualification survey data; and most importantly,
• Missed sales opportunities because the sales group is forced to cull through a list of unqualified contacts.

I agree. I believe a key aspect is developing a process that emphasizes lead quality over lead quantity. Well meaning marketers can ruin their lead generation results by rushing an unqualified list of tradeshow attendees to their sales team.  Early stage leads - those who are not ready to speak to a sales person yet - are great candidates for an effective lead nurturing program.

After doing numerous lead qualification programs at InTouch, we have found only 5% to 10% of trade show inquiries are truly sales ready leads; so don't pass marketing driven inquiries to your sales people until they're more rigorously qualified as sales ready leads. 

We must realize that the extreme time pressure salespeople face—especially those with a complex sale—requires them to ignore what is not immediately relevant and highly likely to produce revenue. Why? They are not paid to do anything else. And that makes quality more important than quantity to them. 

Related posts:

Clear and Universal Lead Definition
Podcast on Tradeshow and Event Marketing with Ruth Stevens

Lead re-engagement is lead nurturing to rejuvenate old leads

The January sales push well on it's way and most B2B marketers I know are looking more ways to generate leads faster. But here's a question to ponder...

Do you have a process have a process for handing leads (from sales) back to marketing when they are not sales ready? If not, I recommend you consider at re-engaging the leads you already have in your database and pay special attention to the leads your sales team didn't convert last year.

I'd like to share what we learned from a lead re-engagement test we just completed for a large communications company. We tested a lead nurturing program to re-engage the following types of "old" leads:

1. Leads that were "open" but not touched by a sales person in 90+ days
2. Leads worked by sales but marked as "closed - lost" meaning they didn't buy

We started with a simple multi-touch lead nurturing program that included: a 3 touch email track, the emails connected to educational articles, and our teleprospecting team made follow-up calls (based on email engagement replies, clicks and opens).

Best Books of the Decade for Marketing and Selling Services

Rain Today, a great resource for those who market and sell services, selected their Best Books of the Decade for marketing and selling professional services. I was humbled to see that they picked my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale for their list.

They write, "Brian Carroll’s book is chock-full of information to help you identify ideal leads, align sales and marketing, build a strong pipeline, and effectively use lead-generation tactics."

If you market or sell professional services or have a complex sale be sure to put these “best of the decade” on your reading list.

• Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
• Guerilla Marketing for Consultants by Jay Conrad Levinson and Michael W. McLaughlin
• Writing White Papers by Michael Stelzner
• Winning the Professional Services Sale by Michael W. McLaughlin
• Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss
• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi 
• New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
• Professional Services Marketing by Michael Schultz & John Doerr 
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Rain Making: Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field by Ford Harding 
• Strategy and the Fat Smoker by David Maister 
• The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford

RainToday: Best of the Decade: Marketing & Selling Professional Services, 2000-2009

Lead Generation Check list – Part 8: Lead nurturing for lead development

To help you start the New Year, I’d like to wrap up my Lead Generation Checklist Series with the secret to successful lead generation – and, for that matter, marketing in today’s B2B space: lead nurturing. 

At it's core, B2B lead generation is about building relationships. In today’s commoditized business climate, the one thing that sets apart companies with a complex sale is how well they build and nurture long-term leads.

Throughout this series, I’ve discussed many aspects of lead generation and emphasized how organizations can optimize the process. I’ve talked about creating the right mindset, and how to repair the rift between sales and marketing; I’ve discussed how to create the ideal customer profile (and the un-ideal customer profile as well) and how a universal lead definition that fits your company’s goals and culture can help organizations zone in on their sweet spot as well as the importance of a well maintained database; I’ve outlined a multi modal approach and emphasized its role in effective lead generation, as well as the aspects of an effective lead management process. Today, I’d like to talk about the part of the process that fundamentally stops viable leads from leaking out of your marketing funnel. Lead nurturing: It’s the one thing that will make all your hard work come together – or the one thing that could make your whole process fall apart….

While lead generation initiates and perpetuates dialogue with the right people in the right companies in the quest for opportunities that are relatively imminent, lead nurturing keeps the conversation going over time, building solid relationships. It allows the creation of interest in products and services while bringing the leads to sales-ready states when the buying opportunity presents itself.

To ensure successful lead nurturing you must:

• Have a lead development process in place to cultivate marketing leads into sales ready leads.
• Employ methods to motivate sales people for consistent contact with prospects who may not yet be ready to buy.
• Have a process for ensuring that your Sales team hands back inactive leads for further nurturing by marketing. That centralized database that I keep emphasizing will come in handy now. Sales can make notes as to why they are not going to use the leads and give feedback to Marketing at this point.
• Capture future opportunities that are being currently missed and nurture them into viable sales. This is where Marketing can take many opportunities that are being ignored and keep them warm for Sales.
• Leverage content to position sales people as trusted advisors. A carefully crafted lead nurturing program anticipates the prospect’s questions and responds with timely answers. This inspires awareness that you are creating value by providing useful information. Relevancy is the key.
• Aid in positioning sales people as trusted advisors. By consistently offering relevant content in the context of lead nurturing, the potential customer’s inner dialogue should be: something like this: “You and I have been talking for quite a while, and I feel that you understand me, my company and my industry. You have given me useful and pertinent ideas on this issue, and you have helped me sell the idea to my colleagues and they understand and accept it. It’s a challenging project, but I think you can do it. Let’s get going.”

MarketingSherpa's Email Summit

Here's the summary from MarketingSherpa Email Summit event:

Following MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Email Marketing Summit last week, we sat down with copious notes to pick out the most important themes from three days of workshops, panel discussions and presentations.

Read on for our seven major takeaways that can help all email marketers improve their email strategy. Topics include:
o Integrating email and social media
o Focusing on customer retention
o Crafting *valuable* email messages
o Growing lists the right way

Summit Wrap-Up Report: 7 Takeaways to Improve your Email Marketing in 2010

Lead Generation Check list – Part 7: Effective lead management

My checklist for optimizing the lead generation process so far has included six steps: the mindset of not pushing; repairing the rift between sales and marketing; creating the ideal customer profile (and the un-ideal customer profile as well); agreeing upon a universal lead definition that fits your company’s goals and culture; importance of a well maintained database; and, in step 6, I outlined a multi-modal approach and discussed its importance in the lead gen process. Today I’d like to discuss the aspects of an effective lead management process.

I’m not sure why many organizations think it’s acceptable to only get a return on about 20% of their leads when an optimized lead management process can tremendously help to convert more of those hard earned leads in the sales pipeline.

The role of effective lead management is to watch and direct the conversion of sales leads into customers, and to track milestones and touch points. Some will describe lead management as the process of going from "first contact to close.” 

Lead management is the bridge between sales and marketing that connects the beginning and middle of the customer acquisition process. (Download the marketing sales funnel graphic as a PDF)

How to improve lead generation with prospecting 2.0

Cold calling. Feel a shiver move up your spine?

Too bad. It’s a shame that you, like many others, choose to dismiss cold calling as a lead generation tool (there’s that shiver again). I’m not saying that its reputation hasn’t been earned.  I just think everybody is going about it all wrong.

I love this analogy from Mike Schultz, Publisher of RainToday.com:

Fail at something enough, and it's easy to dismiss the whole tactic. (No matter how many times I try, I just can't hit a Jonathan Papelbon fastball. Swinging a bat at a baseball must not work!)

Cold calling works…you’ve probably just never been shown the right way to do it.

If you’re interested in exploring how you can improve your teleprospecting, or if you just aren’t convinced it can work for you, check out B2B Lead Gen Roundtable’s next complimentary webinar featuring Josiane Feignon. She’s author of Smart Selling on the Phone and Online as well as the founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications.  Josiane provides consulting and coaching for Fortune 1000 companies, and she knows what it takes to find the power buyers.

Join us for this live webinar on “How to Improve Lead Generation with Prospecting 2.0." Josiane is going to show you her latest ideas on prospecting 2.0 including email and voice mail trends and how to outline a winning qualification criteria and more. As a bonus, Josiane will be giving away copies of Smart Selling on the Phone Online to three attendees. I hope you can join us!

View recorded webinar now and download the slides here

You may just warm up to the idea of cold calling when you understand how to use it properly.

Thoughts on how to follow-up on website leads when you use marketing automation

A few months ago, at the MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing summit in Boston, I was asked on how best to follow-up on leads generated via the web by Richard Hill. Richard writes over at the Idea Exchange blog on marketing automation related topics.

Marketing automation tools are useful because they can give us a ton of visibility into the visitors to our website, what they looked at, etc., and when visitors fill out form, we can link their contact information to their other offline marketing touch points.

The question is how do we use this information? Should we wait? Should we pounce right away and call them? What's the best way to do this that helps us best identify leads? Here's my thoughts to this question via a short interview I did with Richard Hill on, "To pounce or not to pounce?"

Here's some tips Richard captured on how to better engage web leads:

1. Marketing and sales should jointly develop a website visitor engagement strategy.
2. Develop follow-up materials and content that your sales team can use to bring extra value to enhance their follow-up interactions that extend beyond the content future customers can get via your website. 
3. Create a call guide to help your sales team to be a resource first before they try "qualifying" the sales opportunity. What questions are must have verses nice to have?
4. If you're using marketing automation, coach your team doing follow-up calls not to directly mention your marketing automation tracking capabilities (that can be 'creepy') think instead of how you can tailor a relevant conversation based on the content consumed being the topic your sales team starts with.

Also, I would add if you are generating a good volume of leads online consider creating or outsourcing a specialized lead engagement and qualification team.

Related Posts:
On Lead generation: Insist on lead quality over quantity
Social media's impact on web forms and landing pages
Optimizing webforms to generate more leads through your website
Why Most B2B Sites Fail to Convert Sales Leads

How to Get the Twitter Username You've Always Wanted (even if it's taken)

Don't forget to secure your Twitter name! I signed up for twitter a year an half ago but that wasn’t soon enough to get my hands on my company's Twitter name of choice of @intouch.

So if you were late to the party (like me) I'm happy to say there still might be hope. I found this blog post How to Snap Up that Twitter Username You’ve Always Wanted posted by @zee

I followed Zee's process and I'm pleased to say it worked for us! Maybe it will work for you too. 

Here's what we did

1. Emailed username@twitter.com with the following information:
   

   • The username you want
   • Your existing username, if you have one
   • Whether you want to change your username, or start a new account with the username you’re requesting

2. I received confirmation the email had been received a few minutes later, then another email asking me to reply with the above information (if I hadn’t already provided it).
3. Literally, 3 weeks later, I had my account switched from @intouch5 (BTW intouch1-4 were already taken!) to @intouch.

Why did it work?

The person who took my company's name was inactive. Twitter has a policy that if a profile has been "inactive" for a period of time they release the name. In my case @intouch was never updated by the previous user so we were lucky. I hope this helps and I wish you success!

How to Design Lead Nurturing Programs that Drive Sales webinar with Ardath Albee

You’ve probably seen a lot of discussions regarding lead nurturing lately. People want to know: How can I create enough content with my organization’s limited resources? How can we develop a nurturing program that actually builds our pipeline? What measurements will help us consistently create great outcomes?

To help marketers answer these questions, I have invited Ardath Albee to join me for the next B2B Lead Generation Roundtable webinar. According to Ardath, the buying process is changing and marketers need to adapt their lead nurturing programs to match.

Ardath is perfect for this discussion. She is a B2B marketing strategist and expert at creating contagious content and e-marketing strategies that engage prospects until they are ready to buy. Ardath and I often do work together at InTouch and I really like her Marketing Interactions blog. She's written a great new book called eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale (Disclosure: I wrote the forweword). I think it's perfect compliment to my book Lead Generation for the Complex Sale and Amazon.com must think so as well because they're selling our books as a bundle : )

Join me for this complimentary webinar, "How to Design Lead Nurturing Programs that Drive Sales." During this event, Ardath will show you how to create a nurturing program that will work in parallel with the way your prospects move through their buying processes. She’ll demonstrate how to get to know your buyers better and develop a content plan to engage them at each stage of a purchase decision. You’ll learn how to create a framework for execution and how to measure the results.

View recorded webinar ondemand and get the free "Lead Nurturing Guide" 

50 Most Influential People in Lead Management

The Sales Lead Management Association posted their list of the 50 most influential people in lead management. I was humbled to see that I was included on the list along with a lot of of people I really like and respect.

You can check out the full list here.

Lead Generation Check list – Part 6: A Multi-modal lead generation approach

This is the sixth in an eight-part series I’m calling the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.' I wanted to provide a checklist that helps organizations optimize their lead generation process.  My first post was on the mindset we should have – one that involves “pulling” not pushing; in the second installment, was on how to drive sales and marketing as one time; thirdly, I outlined steps for creating an ideal customer profile in addition to an un-Ideal customer profile. We should be smart with our time and learn to recognize the signs that tell us when not to pursue a lead. In my fourth installment I outlined how create a universal lead definition that drive sales. My fifth step was on treating your marketing database as a valued asset. Now for the sixth step on developing a multi-modal lead generation portfolio. 

To be successful at generating leads for a complex sale, marketers can't rely on one specific tactic but rather they need to leverage a portfolio of channels. To illustrate, I created a mind map of what multi-modal lead generation looks like (click image to enlarge).

It begins with a mindset that sees lead generation as an ongoing conversation - with human beings - that's both multi-modal and iterative. This isn't about doing random acts of marketing hoping something sticks.

Here are a few tips for creating a multi-modal lead generation approach that will positively affect your bottom line:

View your Lead Generation Program as you would your financial portfolio. If you can’t measure channels or programs in terms of return on investment to the organization (leads generated, business closed, opportunities in the funnel) then the company should not be expected to invest in them. Maintain an assortment of researched and/or proven best-fit channels that can be drawn upon whenever needed.

Steps for creating a true lead nurturing program

Sometimes in an attempt to vamp up lead nurturing efforts, misguided and well-meaning organizations simply start sending out more emails. When email is misused in this manner, companies are really just training prospects to ignore or delete their messages. 

See What IS and ISN'T Lead Nurturing

If your organization lacks a well-defined process for nurturing early-stage leads and building relationships before the buying process, you are missing out on opportunities. True lead nurturing involves creating and maintaining relevant and consistent dialog with viable potential customers - regardless of their timing to buy. Your content should help you become a resource to prospects.

A true lead nurturing program will always include:

• A relationship building mindset
• A multi-modal approach
• The human touch continue a relevant dialog and make appropriate offers based on behavior and engagement.
• Lead nurturing automation tools that will support, personalization, lower volume and ad hoc delivery while tracking all touch points such as phone, email, online efforts and personal contact.

The measurement of nurturing results such as:

• Depths of contacts in sphere of influence
• Contacts that “opt-in” for nurturing
• Contacts that become “sales ready” leads

This can seem like a complicated ordeal. It’s easy to see why organizations get overwhelmed by the time and planning required for developing an effective program, so I’ve broken down the process into eight steps.

1. Define the Ideal Customer Profile: Make sure you are nurturing relationships with the right people and organizations.
2. Define the Universal Lead Definition: Higher standards on qualifying inquiries to actual leads positively impacts conversion with lead to pipeline and lead to sale.
3. Lead qualification: Marketers have a tendency to require too much information from their inquiries at the first touch in an effort to qualify someone right away. The process can be broken down into steps that balance out the process.
4. Understand and Capture Audience: You need to understand who’s involved in the buying process so you can build a database based on your prospect’s role. The goal isn’t to build the biggest database, but to build one that is going to be most relevant.
5. Message Development: Message mapping is a great way for organizations to tie in what they are selling with what the buyer’s key issues are.
6. Build Lead Nurturing Library: Gather content that you can use to set yourself and your company up as thought leaders.
7. Develop Lead Nurturing Tracks: Map out tactics for sharing your content. Remember to start out slow and build your program slowly.
8. Executing Multi-Modal Lead Nurturing: Track all touch points (email, web, phone, social media etc.)

A multi-modal approach to lead nurturing

To be successful at lead nurturing marketers can't rely on one specific channel but rather they need to leverage a multi-modal portfolio of channels especially when you have a complex sale. 

Why? The goal of lead nurturing is to maintain a relevant and consistent dialog with viable future customers - regardless of their timing to buy. In short, it’s about relationships.

To help illustrate, I created a mind map of what multi-modal lead nurturing looks like (click image to enlarge).

Are there any lead nurturing channels/modalities that I'm missing?

Download Multi-Modal_Lead_Nurturing

If you keep the idea about that nurturing is about building relationships top of mind, the way you nurture leads will naturally go beyond a single channel like e-mail. You’ll start thinking about how you and your sales people can be a relevant resource. When you do that, you don’t have to sell to people. They will come to you first when they are ready.

Related posts:
What IS and ISN’T Lead Nurturing
How lead nurturing improves lead generation ROI
5 Lead nurturing tips to create relevant and engaging emails

Seven prospecting rules that produce leads

The phone is still a powerful and effective lead generation tool. It is inarguably the human touch of a lead nurturing program.  

That’s why every opportunity - including cold calling -  should be treated with great respect. Each time you pick up the phone, whether it’s the first or third call, it's important you create value in that touch. Your goal with each call should be to give your prospects something useful in a digestible, bite-size chunk.

That being said, the phone must be used as a part of a holistic lead generation strategy. Whether you create a specialized sales development team within the Sales or Marketing groups or hire a firm that specializes in teleprospecting, your cold calling plan must be aligned with all your other ongoing marketing and reputation-building activities.

A while back, I was asked to write a guest blog post for the ZoomInfo Sales and Marketing Blog that I titled "7 prospecting rules that produce leads." That little post was so popular that the ZoomInfo folks asked if I would consider teaching a webinar. I did and in case you missed it there are two convenient ways you can review it on demand:

Watch the Presentation

Read the Executive Summary here

Effective Lead Management: converting more leads into sales

We had a great turn out for our recent B2B Lead Generation Rountable Webinar “Effective Lead Management: Learn How to Convert Marketing Leads into Sales Pipeline.” In case you missed the live presentation, there are still two ways you can review it:

• Watch the Presentation recording (no registration)
• Read the Effective Lead Management Executive Summary

I discussed steps for overcoming one of the biggest challenges organizations face today: converting leads to sales pipeline revenue. For most organizations, these problems stem from perception and communication issues between Marketing and Sales and a lack of process. 

While I emphasize sales and marketing being on the same page is key to a well-optimized lead generation process, the solution involves more than just generating more high quality leads. Marketing and Sales need to use a robust qualification and nurturing process to optimize the leads already in the pipeline.

I taught a ‘playbook’ for effective lead management that helps optimize the lead generation process to produce major ROI gains. The ‘playbook’ included five steps:

1. refine the universal lead definition of “sales ready”
2. qualify leads based on the universal lead definition
3. nurture early leads until they were “sales ready”
4. define a clear process from Marketing to Sales
5. close the loop via Sales and Marketing “huddles”

View recorded webinar and read executive summary

Lead generation metrics should emphasize opportunities not just leads

I was asked to write a response to this question, "In what ways have metrics evolved with the increase in digital B2B marketing? Suggest one ROI metric that you have found to be very effective."

Read ClickInsights: What ROI metric should B2B marketers use in this digital marketing era?

Here's my response....

The use of the Internet, mobile and other interactive channels has certainly increased the number of leads marketers receive today. Many organizations spend thousands of dollars each month on search marketing to take advantage of this increase.  

This increase, however, causes many marketers to focus on the wrong metrics. In order to generate leads marketers have to know how to use the analytics. Many marketers focus on conversion rates of specific phrases or banners and are ignoring other valuable information. While conversion rate is one way to measure the effectiveness of a search phrase, for instance, it can be extremely misleading. 

If marketers are spending a lot on search marketing and not capturing visiting organizations (both those that convert and the many more that don't), they are making decisions based only on half-truths. And they are probably routing dollars toward phrases and ad creative that appear to perform better but in reality are really just clogging the marketing database and sales pipeline.

The metrics of digital marketing is starting to slowly evolve. Marketers are starting to realize that sales people care very little about the cost of the leads we generate. What they really care about is how many of those leads will actually become viable sales opportunities in their sales pipeline.

Podcast: Why sellers don’t have the right tools to help buyers buy

A recent lead generation poll showed that converting leads to pipeline revenue (accelerating sales) was the biggest challenge for marketers.

What are we doing as sellers that keeps us from closing sales?

It’s a tough question, and it’s one that gets a lot of feathers ruffled. However, this is one question that Sharon Drew Morgen isn’t afraid to tackle. I spoke with Morgen recently to ask her about her take on the question and her new book Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it.

I wanted to speak with Morgen because I was intrigued with the advice she lends to help with B2B’s major dilemma: How can we successfully work with people from the time they express interest until they decide to buy? Basically: How do we convert leads to sales? Morgen has some great suggestions.

If you want to hear what Morgen had to say, listen to my interview “Why sellers don’t have the right tools to help buyers buy." During this interview, Morgen discusses how she sold a “dead account” by simply applying her Buying Facilitation model to the situation. I think you’ll find Morgen’s insight helpful and her book more than a little tempting.

Listen to podcast now (21 minutes)

Webinar on Effective Lead Management: How to Convert Marketing Leads into Sales Pipeline

Research shows that about 80% of leads marketers generate end up getting lost, ignored or discarded. So, instead of continually struggling to find new leads for Sales, marketers should begin focusing on developing effective lead management processes for converting more leads into sales pipeline.

In fact, in a recent lead generation poll I conducted through my LinkedIn group, I found that converting leads to pipeline revenue was the biggest challenge for marketers. The key is to look back at your past marketing activities to find the gold that’s been lost in the Sales and Marketing pipelines.

Although I don’t usually highlight what my company does in my blog; however, I’d like to share a great example of how an organization can improve their lead gen process by tweaking the process.

Our client was a mid-sized technology company with about $80 million in annual revenue, and their organization’s number of leads was growing fast; however, their conversions to sales were not keeping up at a similar pace. When we spoke with Marketing we discovered that they felt as though the leads they passed on to Sales were disappearing into a “black hole.” Sales provided little or no feedback on all the leads. Ultimately, we found that the lead-to-sale pipeline conversation rate was less than two percent.

To help this organization, we focused on a “playbook” which basically consisted of five steps. As a result, they increased sales ready leads by 375% by re-engaging leads that were ignored or discarded with their sales team while adding $6 million to their sales pipeline within 12 months with no additional budget.

View recorded webinar and read executive summary

Lead Generation Check list – Part 5: Treat your marketing database as a valued asset

This is the fifth installment in an eight-part series, the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.’ The goal of this series is to provide a checklist that will help organizations optimize their lead generation process. In my first post a few weeks back, I discussed correcting our mindsets so that we are engaging and helpful; in the second installment, I offered tips for repairing the rift between sales and marketing; thirdly, I outlined steps for creating an ideal customer profile in addition to an Un-Ideal customer profile - helpful for deciding when not to pursue a lead; and finally, I discussed how to create a universal lead definition that fits your company’s goals and culture. Now for part 5...

There’s no doubt that maintaining a clean, updated database is tedious work, making it a struggle for many organizations.The never-ending vigilance required for identifying and removing duplications and redundancies can be daunting. And, unfortunately, that means a lot of databases don’t get the attention they deserve. 

Treat your marketing marketing database as a valued asset. I cannot overstate the importance of your marketing database. The quality the marketing database can influence your lead generation or nurturing program’s success by a factor of 50 percent.

Improve your Lead Generation: Takeaways from MarketingSherpa's B2B Marketing Summit

I was a speaker at MarketingSherpa's B2B Summit in San Francisco and Boston. I had a great time learning and connecting with fellow attendees. For me, the most valuable part of attending was hearing what other marketers are doing to drive results in their companies. 

If you didn't get a chance to attend here's a summary by the Sherpa team on 8 things you can focus on to improve your lead generation results. 

You can also read the Twitter conversations at #sherpaB2B09

Read: 8 Takeaways from the B2B Marketing Summit 

Read: Sherpa B2B Summit Kickoff: 5 Ways to Increase Lead Gen Performance

Lead Generation Check list – Part 4: Clear and Universal Lead Definition

This is the fourth installment in an eight-part series I’m calling the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.’ With each post, I’m addressing a step that in my experience helps improve lead generation efforts. For the first post, I focused changing your mindset to focus on conversations not campaigns. In Step Two, I discussed how to align sales and marketing as one team. In Step Three, I discussed how to develop and intensify your Ideal Customer Profile - which is all too necessary when determining how to reach your target market. 

Step Four: Create your very own version of the universal lead definition, apply it to every lead, and leave room for the definition to go through rapid iterations as you close the loop with your sales team.

Inquiries are not leads. In fact, I’ve found that as little as 5 to 15 percent of all inquiries are truly sales-ready. It’s no wonder a lot of salespeople struggle with the issue of inconsistency. Some opportunities are given too much focus while others are simply ignored.

One of the best things I can do for my clients is to guide them through the creation of a universal lead definition. This definition acts as the standard for rating leads. Believe me, nothing fancy is required. A good definition is basic and intuitive. And, it should be something that goes beyond marketing so that everyone agrees on the same definition.

A truly useful definition will be applied to all leads regardless of source – whether it’s teleprospecting, inbound calls, direct mail, webinars, etc. Combine it with the ideal customer profile and you’ll get a consistency that always yields higher-qualified leads.

Cold calling and the Complex Sale: observations you can learn from (thanks to my daughter)

I was somewhat shocked to find out that my 14-year-old daughter had searched YouTube recently for any mention of her dear old dad. She stumbled across a video that included a recent mention of my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. (Isn’t it just amazing how easy it is in today’s world for our children to get the goods on their parents? It’s something that my generation will never quite adjust to.) But, excuse me, I’m digressing.

The video turned out to be pretty interesting. It was produced by ASG Group, an European company that helps their clients improve their sales processes. The video features the company’s principal, John Gorman, making some really nice points about teleprospecting. Of course, I’m thrilled that he mentioned my book, but I was also happy to see that he really understands the philosophy we built InTouch around. 

I was impressed by Gorman's first observation: He says that while sales activity seems to be up for a lot of folks, he has to wonder if it’s just because they are cold calling more people. His concern is that this old fashioned cold calling isn’t a part of a systematic, sophisticated approach to sales.

His point is that we need to start thinking like our buyers.

Lead Generation Poll shows converting leads-to-sales pipeline is biggest frustration

I recently hosted a poll to ask fellow marketers which aspect of the B2B lead generation frustrated them the most.

Overall, 34% of the 94 participants replied that converting leads to pipeline revenue is the biggest issue for them. According to the comments, most folks weren’t surprised.  View poll data here 

When poll responses are broken down by company size, we found that converting leads falls slightly below closing the loop for enterprises. And, for 50% of the large companies closing the loop was the biggest frustration. If you look at the results by Job function, you’ll see that converting leads is the biggest issue for consultants, PR professionals, marketers and business developers alike.

Podcast: Unconventional strategies to reach more clients

So, you've put a lot of effort into your lead generation process, and you have a great lead in your hand. Now, what can you do to improve your probability of making a profitable sale from it?

Michael McLaughlin, addresses this issue in his new book, "Winning the Professional Services Sale." And, it’s the subtitle that got my attention: "Unconventional Strategies to Reach More Clients, Land Profitable Work, and Maintain Your Sanity."

What I really like about Michael is that he gets the marketing perspective as well as the sales process. And I had the opportunity to interview Michael recently to discuss his new book. Michael's new book focuses on ways to make the most of those meetings and appointments in order to improve your chances of making a profitable sale.

During this interview, Michael and I discuss:

• Why we need to do a better job of preparing for that first meeting with prospects. We’re spending too much time prepping the wrong kind of presentations and focusing too much on the company and its background.
• How we can conduct a masterful client interview that will help build enduring client relationships. We're not prepping right for the analytical part of the interview.
• When to walk away from a lead. We’re not always using our time and resources wisely.

Listen to podcast now (14 minutes)

Lead Generation Check list – Part 3: Develop and intensify your Ideal Customer Profile

I’ve started an eight-part series I’m calling the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.’ Each post in the series addresses a step that in my experience helps improve lead generation efforts. The first installment discussed changing your mindset to focus on conversations not campaigns. In Step Two, I discussed how to align sales and marketing as one team. I’ve received a lot of great comments from these posts, and I hope you will refer back to them so you can benefit from the nuggets of wisdom by your fellow readers.

Now, for step three... Develop and intensify your ideal customer profile now.

When it comes to customers, it's essential to understand that there may be a wide range of people you could potentially appeal to. But the customer group your business will profit and benefit the most from is the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). And, by prescreening potential customers based on the unique attributes of your prime customers you can determine the set of criteria that will serve as the basis of your conversations.

Here’s the best ways to develop and intensify your ideal customer profile: 

1. Get to know your Current Customers.
Your ideal customers are right in front your nose: your current customers.

Separate your good customers from your bad. Make a list of your top ten - the ones in your sweet spot. What are their attributes and demographics? Make notes about the characteristics they have in common.

Get on the phone to find out what these top customers viewed as the trigger points for choosing you. Ask how you have helped them. Use this information to refine your message to gain more leads just like them.
Review the trigger events or attributes that led them to working with you.
Once you understand your clients and why they have picked you, you can tailor your message around that.

7 prospecting rules that produce leads

Need to improve your teleprospecting efforts? Check out my guest post for ZoomInfo, a blog that offers advice on all aspects of sales and marketing.  The site features industry news, analysis, and surveys. And, from time to time they let folks like me put in my two cents worth. I was happy to contribute with “7 prospecting rules that produce leads.”

I agreed to contribute to ZoomInfo with this topic because I believe very strongly in the power of the phone. The phone is the human touch of a lead nurturing program. Here are a few pointers to think about as you read the article:

• Every opportunity – including cold calling or lead follow-up – should be treated with great respect. Whether it’s the first or third call, it’s important to create value by giving your prospects useful info in bite-size chunks.
• It’s imperative that cold calling become part of a holistic multi-channel lead generation strategy. Create a specialized sales development team within the sales or marketing group or hire a firm that specializes in teleprospecting. Your cold calling plan must be aligned with other outbound and inbound marketing and reputation-building activities.
• Your teleprospectors must be smart, articulate, engaging and organized. Their training should focus on making them productive and sustainable extension of the selling effort.

Here’s the link to “7 prospecting rules that produce leads.” I look forward to reading your comments.

Lead Generation Checklist - Part 2: Sales and Marketing – One Team

I’ve started an eight-part series I’m calling the ‘Lead Generation Checklist.’ Each post in the series addresses a step that will help to make your lead generation campaigns work like a well-oiled machine.

In the first installment, I discussed tackling your organization’s lead generation mindset. Your touches should be conversations not just campaigns. Your “marketing” approach should be more consultative. The post received a lot of great comments. Ardath Ablee was fascinated by one and wrote about it in her blog. I think you’ll find “How to Use Existing Content in B2B Demand Generation Programs” helpful. Thanks Ardath.

Now for Step Two. I want to focus on dissolving the discord that inevitably exists between your sales and marketing teams. 

How long has it been since your marketing and sales teams got together for a really productive meeting? In reality, the best mindset, strategy and tactics – and the most astute sales and marketing individuals – are for naught without the collaboration of everyone involved. It can be tough to meld inherently diverse viewpoints, but it is a critical and often overlooked step in the lead generation process.

There is a direct correlation between lead generation ROI and the frequency that sales and marketing productively meet to collaborate.

Here are a few guidelines that in my experience really help to ensure that marketing and sales connect together as one team: 

1. The departments should document the sales process as a team from first contact to close. Your organization’s way of selling and marketing must confirm to the customer’s buying process, driven by a clear understanding of both the needs and the impact of those needs on both the company and your customers. Keep in mind that each customer will have a slightly different buying process.
2. The activities of both groups should be measured and coordinated with shared goals. Be sure to create value for the customer throughout the process. Ensure that marketing is giving sales something to work with. Sales should be privy to invaluable information that will help them in their selling process. Map tools, skills, and performance metrics along with the process.
3. If you haven’t already, get marketing and sales together to create a formal, concise summation of the value proposition via message map. If you already have a statement, make sure both teams are working off the same version. Wish-washy and unfounded statements about the benefits customers get from working with your organization can be the cause of lead generation problems. For prospective customers, a value proposition essentially answers the questions of how you can help their business, what difference you can make and why your solution is the one they should count on. Your value proposition should be specific, right down to numbers or percentages.
4. Marketing and sales should have regular huddles. Marketing should solicit, study, and act upon feedback from sales. Sales should never ignore a lead and must send it back if it is not sales-ready. Communicate what works and what doesn’t. On-going close-loop huddles will keep you on the same page and offer ways for continuous improvement in your new process. If you do communicate are you doing if often enough? I would suggest meeting once a week. Are your meetings as efficient as possible? Are you really communicating or just pointing fingers?

If you’ve found success in getting your marketing and sales team on the same page drop me a note. I’d love to pass along your advice. Next in the series, I’ll discuss how to clearly define your target market.

Related articles and posts:

Huddles and 35 other way to improve sales and marketing teamwork
Why CEOs Must Be Actively Involved in Lead Generation
Ebook: What sales really needs from marketing
Sales and marketing alignment: tips to getting it right with lead generation

101 actionable tips from 50 business bloggers

I was recently asked for some of my best tips on lead generation to include in “101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers.” The blog appeared in Open Forum’s Idea Hub, a virtual ‘trading post’ of ideas and insights from industry experts and business owners. The response was so overwhelming I wanted to share it with you. 

Let me just mention a few names that you’ll get tips from: Seth Godin from Seth’s Blog, Chuck Frey of Innovation Tools, Mark Cuban of Blog Maverick and Rosalind Resnick of Entrepreneur.com.  They covered the gamut with some actionable tips on everything from the small business advantage to marketing and social media to financial planning and – believe me – everything in between.

It was a pleasure to be able to share, and I appreciate the opportunity. Check it out and then share the wealth:  “101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers”.

What IS and ISN’T Lead Nurturing

While chatting with a client recently, she told me that she had just met with her third new boss this year to explain the company’s new lead nurturing process. The problem was that her boss felt their current integrated marketing campaigns qualified as lead nurturing. We discussed the challenges of communicating what IS and ISN’T lead nurturing.

A lot of marketers say they are “nurturing” their prospects when in reality all they are doing is sending out nice brochures or marketing copy focused on product releases or company announcements.

Look up the definition of “nurture.” Here’s what a quick search of the web will tell you: foster, help develop, or help grow; the act of nourishing or nursing; tender care; education; training; that which nourishes; food; diet; sustenance; the environmental influences that contribute to the development of an individual.

Starting to get my point? Pretty, well-designed fluff is not going to “feed” your prospects. Creating a nice lay-out and clarifying your value statement isn’t going to contribute to the development of your client or your relationship with them.

Don’t just take my word for it. Recently ClickInsights asked six B2B Marketing experts – including myself - what the biggest mistakes in B2B content marketing were. All of our answers differed, but each of us agreed that content focusing more on the consumer and less on the company is far more effective.

Let me break it down even further by giving a few examples of What IS and What ISN’T Leading Nurturing:

Is NOT Lead Nurturing: Sending the same tired company case study over and over again to your list.
What IS Lead Nurturing: Sending a very targeted email that includes content based on the recipient’s role in the company. Sending content based on timing or interest or industry. Sending content based on a previous conversation. Answering a question or offering more information. Sending information that is relevant to their problem.

Is NOT Lead Nurturing: Calling leads that are in the early stages of the buying process every month just to “touch base.”  Calling to basically ask if they are ready to buy yet.
What IS Lead Nurturing: Making calls based on touch point data that adds value to the interaction. Having a valid business reason and goal in mind for each call.

Is NOT Lead Nurturing: Offering brochures and white papers that in essence just pitch your product or service.
What IS Lead Nurturing: Sharing content that's relevant and valuable even if they never buy from you. Giving them information that sticks with them. Giving them information that helps them grow as an individual or company.

Your audience is more savvy than ever. They are also more hungry than ever for some real sustenance. Take advantage of that. Content that IS lead nurturing, will render more qualified leads and more sales opportunities. Content that IS lead nurturing will create a sales pipeline that is more viable and predictable and, ultimately, more profitable.

Think about: when’s the last time you received a marketing email that you actually benefited from? Feel free to share it with me. I think most of us are “hungry” for some real lead nurturing.

Lead Generation Checklist - Part 1: The Mindset: Conversations, not campaigns

Building an effective lead generation program is kind of like baking a cake. There are certain ingredients that are absolutely necessary. You can tweak the recipe a little here and there adding your own special touches as long as you include the main components.

Over the next few months, I want to offer you a ‘recipe’ for building an effective lead gen program. It’s an eight-step checklist. Any one of the eight steps is as important as the others. Fold all eight ingredients into your plan, and you’ll be on your way to getting the kind of results you really want.

First item on the checklist is tackling your mindset. Instead of trying to sell someone, try helping someone buy. Take a more consultative approach. It is an approach to selling in which customer needs are used as the basis for the sales dialogue.

Lead generation should be a series of conversations, not campaigns. Make sure that relevance drives the on-going dialogue which could take place over a rather long period of time.

You have one chance to make a first impression. Your prospects are thinking how you’re selling me, is how you’re going to serve me. And, believe me, your prospects will read you pretty fast.  If your focus is on winning the sale and not on how you can help, you are going to get tuned out. Do your homework and show your prospects that you understand their industry as well as their challenges, and that you aren’t treating them as one and done. Provide detailed instructions or advice on which solution best meets their needs. Make sure the prospect receives value from the interaction.

You’ll become a trusted advisor rather than just the salesperson from the next trendy company. Prospects are going to turn to someone they trust when they need a solution. Having a past based on relevant, informative conversations will build trust and put you in a position to help them buy.

Once you’ve got your mindset right, you’ll need to get your sales and marketing departments on the same team. I’ll discuss tips to get them on track in the next installment.

In the meantime, tell me what challenges you have faced  (or will face) when trying to change the mindset of your company. I look forward to hearing from you.

Poll on lead generation process challenges

Which aspect of your lead generation process is the most challenging?

• Getting a volume of names
• Figuring out which names are valuable
• Passing leads to sales
• Converting leads to pipeline revenue
• Closing the loop on every lead

Take the poll here
Results published next week.

When leads lie, what should you measure?

Thanks to Jim Berkowitz and his CRM Mastery E-Journal for pointing me to CIO article by David Tabor, "When Leads Lie." Check both resources out they are well worth a read.

Here's a few excerpts from Tabor's article: 

Why do leads lie? Leads lie because we think they’re saying something that they aren’t. A lead is not ready to buy. They’re typically not even ready to talk with one of your sales reps. A lead is merely somebody who indicated “tell me a little more,” by clicking on a link, responding to an email, or registering on a site.

Until the leads are cultivated, nurtured, qualified, and converted to contacts, there is no sales cycle.

So when you look at your revenue pipeline, most of the deals won't refer back to leads. It'll make your lead gen look less important than it really is. This goes double if you use the Named Account model of selling.

The bottom line: by focusing on sales-cycle starts (opportunity-creates) rather than leads (visibility events), you’ll be able to measure something that’s meaningful to the business and provide a solid basis for collaboration among marketing, pre-sales, and sales teams. And that’s the whole point of CRM.

Great tips: I agree with much of what Tabor has to say. He emphasizes the most important measurement to for marketers to measure is "sales cycles started" which is what I call lead-to-opportunity conversion rate. The point is your lead generation must connect with your revenue pipeline. If you're not doing that, you're missing a huge opportunity to improve.

Related posts:
Going beyond the sales lead - to help sales sell
Why cost-per-lead budgets fail and fewer leads are better
Moving Marketing Leads to Sales Pipeline best practices data

8 Tips for generating high quality leads that sales people love

Ask most executives and marketers what sales people need to sell in this economy and they will say, "more leads." So their marketing and lead generation focuses on getting MORE leads to their sales team.

But do you know how many of your leads are actually impacting the sales pipeline? We've done numerous lead qualification programs that have shown as little as 5 to 15 percent of all marketing inquiries turn out to be truly sales-ready opportunities.

This is why sales people don't want MORE leads. Sales people want is MORE effective selling time with BETTER leads that have high odds of converting into pipeline opportunities and customers.

According to MarketingSherpa's data, generating “high-quality leads” is the B2B marketer’s number one challenge. Developing high-quality leads requires work but it's worth it.

Here's 8 tips I use at InTouch that you can implement to drive higher quality leads now:

1. Develop a Universal Lead Definition (ULD) with sales and marketing together
2. Co-develop lead generation programs with your sales team's input
3. Get input from sales on target companies and contacts
4. Rigorously qualify ALL leads against your ULD and pass only qualified leads to your sales team
5. Leverage effective lead management practices
6. Close the loop with sales on leads via feedback huddles
7. Connect sales and marketing data in CRM especially to measure conversion
8. Start lead nurturing now!

Things a B2B company can do to be more social now

I think the hardest part in participating in social media is defining a clear strategy on WHY you're doing it. Then the execution (actually doing it) becomes much easier.

That said, if you're looking for some simple ideas for incorporating social media I came across this great list of ideas by Amanda O'Brien over at the Social Media B2B site. The post has some great tips that I think most B2B marketers can incorporate quickly.

Check out: 10 Things a B2B Company Can Do to be Social Now