As B2B Marketers, we are focused on putting a growing number of qualified leads into our Marketing and Sales funnel to support Inside Sales or Sales in setting appointments and closing deals. And, generally speaking, we would like to see the trend line on lead growth slope up and to the right. Unfortunately, it is difficult to control the results of online advertising and impossible to ensure you will always have a tradeshow to bolster leads.

After growing frustrated with my inability to control the flow of leads by relying on online advertising and events, I’ve recently transitioned a large portion of my online ad dollars (all except for Google AdWords, of course) to Contact Discovery. This was a scary proposition, as Contact Discovery did not tap into traditional Marketing creative talents and required that I effectively profile my buyers and their responsibilities. But, the use of the ReachForce Insight product and the results of MarketingSherpa’s recent “Business Technology Benchmark Guide 2007-08” report gave me the confidence to make the leap. The report states that over 50% of technology buyers have short listed a vendor after receiving a well-timed call. So, I decided it made sense to make sure my company was on that list when the time was right.