02 Jun |
Overcoming Lengthening B2B Sales Cycles |
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Recent research from a number of sources confirms what all of us in demand generation have suspected for some time now: (1) In spite of the proliferation of new marketing communications tools like social media, companies report that generating qualified sales leads continues to be their biggest challenge and (2) The sales cycle, especially for technology marketers, is getting longer. What significance do these findings have for B2B marketers? Companies (and especially their field sales forces, dealers, and resellers) have always wanted more qualified leads, not more leads, so this isn’t a big surprise. However, the lengthening sales cycle is a relatively new trend that is increasingly frustrating salespeople. Organizations need an effective way to deal with this phenomenon. Lead nurturing now as critical as lead qualifying In this environment, more and more prospects will score as “B” level leads— meaning that they may be qualified to buy your product but are not yet ready to make a purchase decision. Turning these prospects into “A” leads requires a systematic lead nurturing system that: Makes regular recontact— to continually reassess prospect status and keep
Read more...25 May |
The Missing Link in Lead Qualification Systems: Sales |
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Demand generation marketers often spend countless hours designing and fine-tuning their lead handling systems. Complicated flow charts are created, lead questionnaire content is debated endlessly, forms are designed, and telemarketing and email scripts are reviewed ad nauseam. Yet, many of these sophisticated marketers overlook the single, most crucial element of a successful lead qualification system. What is it? Field buy-in is crucial For some reason, the sales force is often left “out of the loop” when it comes to lead planning. This only adds to the age-old distrust and outright enmity between marketing and sales organizations in so many companies. No matter how sophisticated your lead handling and qualifications systems are, they won’t achieve optimum results unless your sales force is empowered to take ownership of the process. To make this happen, good demand generation marketers need to follow these simple guidelines: Explain your objective upfront— Make it clear that your lead handling system is being designed to make the sales force’s job easier, not so marketing can “look over their shoulder” or take the credit for their success. Solicit input, accept
Read more...19 May |
Social Media Success Won’t Fix a Broken Sales Funnel |
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If you are a B2B marketer looking to use social media as a way to generate more sales leads, by all means test and experiment with it. However, first be sure that your CRM and lead handling systems are working properly. Otherwise, you will only make a bad situation worse. All leads should be qualified and nurtured A lot of social media gurus are telling us that, since social media is different, its success should be measured differently. This is complete nonsense. Whether you generate inquiries from social or “conventional” media, they should all be treated the same way and measured with the same metric. In practice, this means: Qualify every lead— before you pass it on to your sales people for follow-up, no matter where the lead came from. Leads that aren’t ready for follow-up should be nurtured until they are. Track and source conversions accurately— This is especially important when using social media, because its “free” nature can make any leads it generates look far less expensive than inquiries generated from “paid” sources. However, this can be especially misleading with social media because you can’t always control where and to whom your message
Read more...26 Apr |
Social Media for Demand Generation: Silver Bullet or Snake Oil? |
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Social media sites like FaceBook and Twitter are revolutionizing the way companies market their products and services— or, at least, that’s what the internet marketing consultants, evangelists, gurus, and camp followers have been preaching to us for about two years now. What’s the reality behind the hype? Should social media be an integral part of your demand generation campaigns? Is it producing significant, measurable ROI for anybody out there? Let me know your real-world experiences at lfoong [at] thealeagroup.com. Debunking the Famous Dell Case Study Yes, like you, I’ve read the much-circulated Dell case study where they used Twitter to generate $3 million in sales by offering exclusive discounts to the 11,844 people who follow @DellOutlet. As an experienced (and skeptical) demand generation practitioner, I have two problems with this: 1) it’s literally a drop in the bucket of Dell’s $51 billion annual sales volume (about 0.005%). 2) Dell isn’t necessarily generating new business here. In fact, you can argue that they are cannibalizing direct sales (and profits) with the extra discounts. To be fair, let’s admit that social media is new and evolving.
Read more...19 Apr |
Effective B2B demand generation should not be complicated |
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Resurrecting the KISS Rule for Successful Demand Generation Richard Branson certainly doesn’t need more publicity, but when I read this Q&A article in Time Magazine, one of his answers really caught my eye: Q. Has your dyslexia hindered you in the business world? —Skye O’Brien, Dartmouth, Mass. A. Strangely, I think my dyslexia has helped. When I launch a new company, I need to understand the advertising. If I can understand it, then I believe anybody can. Virgin speaks in normal language instead of using phrases that nobody understands, like “financial-service industry.” Although Sir Richard (yes, he’s been knighted) was speaking mostly about the message, that old military acronym, “keep it simple stupid” (or KISS) applies equally to the demand generation (DG) process as well. Unfortunately, with the advent of sophisticated CRM and sales automation tools, we are seeing a tendency to over-think and over-complicate the DG process or to rely too heavily on technology as a “silver bullet.” With marketing staffs stretched painfully thin in an era of limited resources, this is understandable. In this environment, people will naturally look
Read more...24 Mar |
Why Most “Spike” Marketing Campaigns Fail |
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Understanding 10-60-30 Rule of Demand Generation Companies often initiate tactical “spike” marketing campaigns to overcome a quarterly sales or lead shortfall. “Spike” programs are a series of “one offs” that may yield short term numbers. However, they are largely a self-perpetuating, wasteful mistake that can be avoided if you understand the 10-60-30 rule. Anytime you initiate a demand generation campaign that includes outbound telemarketing, you will discover that the prospects you contact will always fall into three categories: 10% are right time, right place audience, i.e. prospects that are ready, willing, and able to engage now. Turning them into true “sales leads” requires confirming a need and motivating them to request a sales call. Technology marketers often refer to these prospects as “low-hanging fruit.” This category explains why conversion rate is low for “spike” marketers as their true universe is only 10% on every program that is being implemented. 60% of your target audience are in the ‘N” phase i.e. the nurture phase. They may be interested in (and need) your product but for a myriad of reasons – timing, budget, or other
Read more...16 Mar |
ALEA’s Universal Definition of A Lead |
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When Does a Lead Become a True “Sales Lead?” Your demand generation campaigns are bound to generate responses. But are these all leads, worthy of follow-up by your sales reps? Even inexperienced marketers know that the majority of responses are simply inquiries: people seeking more information or responding to a promotional offer. Distributing raw inquiries to your sales reps without at least some basic qualification mechanism to categorize the ones that are true sales leads can be a suicidal experience. So, the real question is: how do you identify a legitimate “sales lead?” Today, with the plethora of CRM and sales automation tools available to marketers, there is a tendency for marketing committees and consultants to overcomplicate the process and devise ever-changing formulas, scoring mechanisms, and rules to make this determination. At ALEA, we have found that, regardless of our clients’ business, a sales lead can ALWAYS be defined by five simple criteria: 1. Right company or demographic- They fit the profile of the organizations or people that are already your best customers. 2. Right person- A person who is a decision maker, champion, influencer or at least a
Read more...10 Mar |
Break Your Lead “Pusher” Habit for More Sales |
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“Pushing” sales leads out to field reps and resellers is a traditional industry habit for most B2B marketers that is terribly inefficient. Sales people, like all human beings, simply don’t value something as much if it is given to them without cost or condition. As a result, leads that are “pushed” to the field are often not followed up in a timely manner, resulting in poor conversion rates and lost sales opportunities. Implementing a “pull” lead management system, on the other hand, can produce dramatically better results. Because the lead has been specifically requested by the rep, it is much more likely to receive immediate follow-up. In addition, with a “pull” lead system, reps are far more apt to provide timely feedback on the status of the lead, enabling B2B marketers to accurately track conversion rates from different lead sources. This, in turn, gives them the opportunity to refine the message, offer, and audience targeting, which will further improve lead quality. Today, with the advent of secure, web-based tools, a “pull” lead management system is far easier to implement than it used to be. Are you still addicted to a “push” lead system?
Read more...05 Feb |
Lead Generation….Clarity of purpose |
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One of the issues surrounding lead generation is the lack of clarity around what constitutes a lead. In our practice, we hear people refer to leads as a purchased list, a tracked visit to their site, tradeshow “leads”, response to an email and or direct campaign etc. This lack of clarity will cause a whole series of challenges down the road. A company should categorize their funnel in different buckets or levels and only the most qualified leads should ever make it to sales. There should be a migration path from bucket to bucket and a consistent process to build organizational history in your process. Anything less, you become a “Spike” marketer which will yield only short term results. “Spike” marketing will not create a lead funnel that is predictable and sustainable. I will cover in my next post ALEA’s definition of what a lead should be.
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