17 Aug |
Broad based demand vs. tiering: which to choose? |
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Revenue and sales volume should determine your marketing strategy Should your business target broad based demand or focus on a tiered marketing structure? In other words, should you put all your eggs in one basket or have a finger in every pie! The answer requires a careful analysis of the demand for your product/service and the role each market segment plays in your revenue. As a service provider, for example, where does a larger share of your revenue come from – the general public (the broadest category), enterprise (the next largest) or strategic accounts (the smallest group)? It is true that unless yours is a very niche market, you can’t ignore any group. This means that your sales and marketing efforts should be tier-based. Simply put… time, effort and resources are allocated based on revenue share and sales volume. Remember, the bigger the base, the larger the number of resources required, higher the competition, more fickle the customer (because of the choices available), and a smaller market share. The smallest group on the other hand may yield a large percentage of your revenue as well as offset the cost of your modest broad-based efforts. Your marketing
Read more...10 Aug |
Teleprospecting: An Effective Lead Generation and Qualification Vehicle |
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Teleprospecting qualifies hot leads to help you take action before your competitors do Phone hang-ups and door slams are the most dreaded situations for sales people anywhere. Ever considered teleprospecting to help your team? While many haven’t heard of teleprospecting and some confuse it with telemarketing, there are a few forward-thinking businesses that taken advantage of its ability to qualify hot leads and jump ahead of their competitors. Is it for you? B2B teleprospecting is an effective lead generation and qualification vehicle that helps companies cut to the chase and get down to the business of selling. Rather than have a large database of potential customers that may or may not pan out, teleprospecting sniffs out the clients who are really interested and increases your chances of success. Good teleprospectors are trained and qualified. They have experience dealing with high-level company executives and are skilled at drawing out pain-points to identify clients who are seriously considering using your product or services. It’s far more cost-effective to let a teleprospecting company sift out genuine prospects than have your sales people spend time and effort on
Read more...03 Aug |
Connecting the dots between lead generation, sales and CRM |
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Integrate lead generation, sales and CRM to gain higher returns For certain, I’m not a crystal gazer; but looking into the past? Sure, I’ve done that. Don’t we all from time to time? Actually, in business, everyone stands to gain from a periodic retrospective – review, analyze and soldier on! From a collective business world standpoint, a review of B2B sales and marketing in the past decade reveals a shift in business strategy. An interesting observation is the conscious effort to align sales and marketing objectives and functions for better results. Even if you have a Strategic Marketing Services company that’s taking care of B2B lead generation and management, your sales team should work closely with them in lead follow-up, functional visibility and performance analysis. Business effectiveness and success depends on open communication and collective efforts towards common goals. If organizations are committed to increasing momentum they must be willing to restructure and reorganize. Lead generation, sales and CRM can no longer work in isolation. It would be like having your fingers trying to accomplish tasks individually. So how do lead generation, sales and CRM all
Read more...27 Jul |
Inside Sales Versus Outside Lead Qualification in B2B Marketing: A Needless Conflict |
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In a world where technology has made it possible to transact business remotely, many companies have found that a well managed inside tele-sales operation can boost profits by increasing coverage, serving customers faster, and selling low-margin products that outside sales people don’t want to bother with. However, many businesses, having made this investment, believe that inside sales teams can also be used to qualify and nurture sales leads. After all, telemarketing is telemarketing, right? Why pay money to an outside firm when it can be done in-house at no extra cost? However, trying to marry inside sales with lead qualification under the same department is a huge mistake. Two very different disciplines In order to generate maximum profit and customer satisfaction, inside sales departments must conduct business as efficiently as possible. Asking them to also qualify prospects and nurture them into sales leads means less time serving established customers and ringing up orders. Inside sales and lead qualification, although both are typically conducted via telephone contact, are also two very different animals. Lead qualifiers are trained to question, probe, identify critical
Read more...19 Jul |
Connecting the Dots Between Lead Generation, Sales and CRM |
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Integrate lead generation, sales and CRM to gain higher returns For certain, I’m not a crystal gazer; but looking into the past? Sure, I’ve done that. Don’t we all from time to time? Actually, in business, everyone stands to gain from a periodic retrospective – review, analyze and soldier on! From a collective business world standpoint, a review of B2B sales and marketing in the past decade reveals a shift in business strategy. An interesting observation is the conscious effort to align sales and marketing objectives and functions for better results. Even if you have a Strategic Marketing Services company that’s taking care of B2B lead generation and management, your sales team should work closely with them in lead follow-up, functional visibility and performance analysis. Business effectiveness and success depends on open communication and collective efforts towards common goals. If organizations are committed to increasing momentum they must be willing to restructure and reorganize. Lead generation, sales and CRM can no longer work in isolation. It would be like having your fingers trying to accomplish tasks individually. So how do lead generation, sales and CRM all
Read more...12 Jul |
Uniting Sales and Marketing Under One Umbrella |
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Sales and marketing must work together to convert lead generation activities into a loyal customer base Almost everyone’s complaining that business is tough. But a closer analysis of the low sales volume experienced by many businesses today shows a strong disconnect between their sales and marketing initiatives. The gap between B2B lead generation, conversion and CRM occurs because sales and marketing departments function as independent units (often at odds with each other). Instead, they should be working together to close the deal and cement the relationship. Companies that have aligned marketing and sales goals are the ones that get results. There is no definite point at which marketing stops and sales begins. Simply stated, sales and marketing must work hand-in-hand from end-to-end! How do you get sales and marketing to join forces? Integrated marketing: This involves integrating all marketing and sales tools, activities and resources to convert leads into customers. Online or offline marketing and sales efforts must convey the same message and level of intensity in order to be effective. In other words, lead generation, sales promotion and lead management must share
Read more...08 Jun |
Make Sales Leads a Privilege, Not a Right |
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Want to significantly increase your B2B lead conversion rates and get your salespeople to provide near 100 percent feedback on lead status? Then stop sending them sales leads— seriously! Instead, set up an online lead distribution system that requires them to request each and every lead. This simple change can have a profound effect on your conversion rates. Why? It starts with human nature: all of us value something more if we have to pay for it or request it. When something is given to us for free or without consideration, we tend to value it less. Similarly, sales leads that are “pushed” out to the field tend to receive less attention by salespeople. Second, leads that are requested are more likely to be followed up immediately. And, as everybody knows, the faster a lead receives follow-up, the more likely it is to convert. Independent research has shown that, on average, the likelihood of a lead converting to a sale decreases by as much as two percent each day that it languishes. Third, sales people are much more likely to provide feedback on lead quality and status since they requested it in the first place. This will enable you to fine-tune your lead generation
Read more...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
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