Note the perspective in this blog bite assumes the following: Lead generation is about delivering high quality targeted opportunities to sales to accelerate revenue.

I have spent several years people complain about the following:
Sales: Marketing does not know what they are doing, their leads are bad
Marketing: Sales is not smart enough to follow-up on our leads

The crux of the problem, in my view is the definition of a lead and metrics that are used to measure marketing success. My opinion 2 things you should consider:

1. Get WRITTEN down buy-in from sales on definition of a lead
2. Compensate marketing not on generating volume of leads but the number of leads that sales “accepts” – based on #1 (compensation tied to revenue is ALSO key)

So what is a lead?
I like this framework- one to start with then adapt for your business:

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Marketing Profs ran a great article yesterday by Russell Kern entitled “How to Solve Direct Marketing’s Five Biggest Problems” that struck a nerve with me as a B2B direct marketer. He writes “Salespeople love to receive a nice steady flow of leads that keeps them busy, but not too busy. When that’s not what you’re giving them, they tend to become, well, verbal. So what does Sales do? It cherry-picks the best leads, letting the surplus responses fall to the floor to rot. Within 45 days, they’re yelling for “fresh” leads.”

Wow, does that ever sum up the universal B2B Direct Marketer’s challenge! It’s either too many or too few. We can never win. ReachForce’s superbly targeted B2B Marketing Oh Crap day addressed this challenge brilliantly. I know we can all relate to the effect that the holidays has on our lead flow.

If you are struggling with too many leads or too few fresh/high quality leads, then Kern advises:

• One of the fastest and least expensive methods to improve your results is to eliminate poor targets and increase the number of look-alike suspects.
• Here is a simple exercise to perform when putting together a lead generation mailing: Have your data-processing vendor run a count, by title, of your mailing list. At the same time, run a count of your customer titles.
• Now, compare the results. How many of the titles in your suspect mailing list are not in your customer file? How many titles like “administrator,” “consultant,” and, yes, even “inmate” have somehow slipped into your mailing list—people who will respond for the sake of it, but never, ever buy your product?

Once you’ve taken the important step to better target your campaigns, you should also consider a great automated scoring and lead scoring and nurturing program as we wrote about in The B2B Lead and our ebook on the topic Funnelnomics. If you have some time to sit down and study up on database marketing fundamentals this holiday season, I encourage you to take a moment to download the book and put a few of the lessons into action in 2008.

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I spoke at the Eloqua Marketing Effectiveness Summit last week up in Dallas (http://summit.eloqua.com/) – strangely enough as I write this I am back in Dallas on a trip to the east coast and my flight is cancelled (another blog, another story) and since I am here for 3 unplanned hours, how better to spend my time then to blog!

As the session started and the discussion leaders engaged the attendees (lead generation folks from companies like National Instruments, Vignette, FuelQuest, Paymetrics, etc.), I felt like the session was going to be a support group with 2 major glaring issues:

1. Sales and Marketing Relationship/Rules of engagement
2. Data Issues – New data (lists. Leads) sourcing, working with internal data (house lists, customer data, support data, cross selling, up selling).

On number 1 above I believe (and did pontificate at the session) that marketing and sales have to co-exist in harmony or the business loses. I also recommend a formal legally binding (not really) contract between marking and sales on the definition of a lead. As one marketer said, working with sales or empowering them with information to market to their customer base was “like giving the devil a soul” – lady calm down, maybe you need to talk this one through. Hey Psychiatrists out there, there is a new form of couples therapy needed on the planet – B2B marketing and sales.

In terms of data issues, I have been frustrated for the last 10 years on the poor quality of lists and also the lack of analytics available to marketers (and hence we launched ReachForce) but did not realize the gravity of the problems/issues and ongoing struggles. Some interesting points of note were:

• We are all stuck in a B2C world of thinking and need to think about B2B marketing differently – it is different and more complicated from a sales process perspective
• Internal company data is suspect at best – how do you define rules of engagement between sales and marketing on when or when not to touch a prospect / customer
• How do you keep internal data (in the CRM system) refreshed/updated as it’s touched by different people at different stages of a sales (and post sales cycle) – who is the MASTER owner of the data and defines the different roles of people by stage of marketing sales/cycle
• Data visibility – how do you think about direct visibility of service and support data (the instance was a support ticket) associated with a customer as a flag to marketing and sales before that person/company is touched/messaged next
• And on and on … enough that I think we will start B2B Marketing support group in Austin as a start in 2008!

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I’ve just begun working on Part II of the Funnelnomics book I co-wrote with ReachForce CEO, Suaad Sait. The new section is on B2B market micro-segmentation. Specifically, I want to detail the possibilities and a process for using automated pipeline analysis to slice your target market into smaller and smaller markets with common interests/needs. Then use marketing automation to deliver more relevant messages to those markets to drive Marketing ROI. Sort of like Chris Anderson’s Long Tail (http://www.longtail.com/) for B2B Marketing. (Still not totally sure this analogy applies, but you get the point, I hope.)

In a recent post on The B2B Lead (Get Real-time Insight into Your Marketing and Sales Funnel) I wrote about how I am using ReachForce’s new salesforce.com add-on to get real-time insight into my funnel or pipeline. Initially, I used it to spot our top vertical markets and then identify other companies that met our target market criteria. Now, I’m experimenting with using it to conduct some experiments in micro-segmentation. So, I want to see how I can use it to…

1. See which campaigns are producing high velocity leads—those leads that move through the funnel fastest and invest more marketing dollars in those campaigns.
2. Drill into the pipeline to identify trends in certain geographies and then identify additional opportunities within those geographies.
3. Identify bottlenecks—stages of the funnel where leads from a particular campaign are stuck so that I can move those leads along with tailored communications or timed offers.
4. And, last—perhaps—but not least, I recently realized that I can now spot gaps or “problem spots” in the funnel so I can actually tell Sales reps in a particular territory that they don’t have enough leads to meet their revenue number. Imagine that! Marketing telling Sales that they don’t have enough leads.

I’m absolutely fascinated by the possibilities of using automation to deliver more targeted/relevant campaigns to smaller and smaller markets. This would improve your response rates since the message and the offer would be more relevant to the market. It should also enable you to dramatically improve the efficiency and velocity of the funnel (ie. my funnelnomics). You could conceivably manage your funnel almost like a manufacturing process squeezing out inefficiencies as they became obvious. Plus, the reduced costs required to deliver more targeted messages—instead of spraying them to a broad audience—should ensure Marketing ROI will be higher.

So, these immediate rewards are pretty obvious. But what about the longer term effects of smarter, more relevant Marketing techniques on the practice of Marketing as a whole? Is it possible that this approach will take some of the heat off of today’s B2B Marketers who are criticized for being self-important Spammers who spray their messages out to target markets without bothering to understand what is appropriate for the buyer? I mean this video (B2B Marketing WTF: The Breakup) says it all, doesn’t it?

It remains to be seen if taking this type of approach can help Marketers penetrate the Teflon-like resistance of most buyers toward traditional marketing efforts. But Facebook, for one, is already unveiling its own version. Should be a good barometer to watch to see how actual users are reacting to this newly introduct ad targeting concept http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/22/facebook-experiments-with-ads-targeting-peoples-interests/.

It seems to me that if the content B2B Marketers deliver is truly relevant, it could become welcome content. However, if the ad platform enforces a sort of intimacy—yet the “content” still resembles advertising—it puts everyone in a very uncomfortable position.
Esther Dyson made a great point about this at the Defrag conference when she proposed that Marketers give users disclosure messages that are personalized http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=6892 . She said that she wasn’t sure about personal rights, just that individuals have the right to demand to be made happy by whatever service they use.

Will micro-targeting make users happy? Will Facebook’s ad platform actually add value? Those are the real questions for Marketers to figure out. But I, for one, am excited by the possibilities. Stay tuned for more developments on the subject. Or, better yet, share your 2 cents.

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You know you have to have metrics to show value in marketing programs but are you tracking the right metrics? Can you track value added to top line revenue? Check out this article from Customer Think about aligning sales and marketing metrics.

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The folks at ReachForce have produced some terrific white papers and an ebook on the importance of Marketing and Sales funnel analysis. Now, the company is moving beyond just “talk” with a  new software-as-a-service product that helps B2B Marketers analyze Sales wins to identify top market segments and target their campaigns at those segments. They are calling it ReachForce Insight, because it integrates with Salesforce.com to provide Marketers, like myself, with instant insight into the flow of “deals” through the Marketing and Sales funnel or pipeline.      

In the interests of full disclosure, I am an advisor for the company, in addition to being a long-term customer. One of the perks associated with this role is that I get early access and input into new products. I’ve been beta testing the product for about a month now and (as I said in the quote included in the press release) I’ve found this product to be an important tool for aligning my Marketing programs with Sales.

I  used it initially to identify the vertical markets in which Sales is closing the most deals, and then to build a list of other companies in those markets who are not currently my customers. I then selected the “Add Contacts” button in the product to initiate a contact discovery project to cleanse and augment that list. Less than a week later, I had my list and am using it for a very targeted multi-modal campaign.

The jury is still out on whether these leads and this campaign will perform better than other types of campaigns. Both our Sales and Marketing groups are keeping a close eye on them as we hope to use ReachForce to keep a steady lead flow in the pipeline, to ramp up new territories quickly, and to replace some other  more costly, less-effective campaigns.

And, kudos to ReachForce. It’s nice to see a company walk the walk, instead of talking the talk.
 

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OK readers of The B2B Lead, we know you all have one of these stories so send ‘em my way. There’s nothing we enjoy more than a good laugh at bad Marketing ideas submitted by Sales. Just to be fair, we’d also like to hear how Marketers have derailed Sales Deals with poorly timed promotions.

This just in from a colleague: Brace yourself–I got an email from Sales asking for a campaign to promote the “visibility” our product using get this: if you aren’t using Product X you’re “legally blind.” Maybe we could include a pair of dark sunglasses? WTF!!?!!!

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Accountability is the new black for B2B Marketers these days. And, there’s nothing more powerful than a Web-based dashboard with gauges that are “in the green” and trend lines that are “up and to the right” to give you instant credibility. It certainly helps you secure approval for that $30,000 t-shirt order.

For the small to mid-sized company with tight budgets and resources, however, Marketing performance measurement presents unique challenges. Unlike larger enterprises, these organizations often lack the budget and resources to conduct sophisticated analysis and tracking. Yet, with a proven roadmap and Software as a Service offerings such as Salesforce.com, it is possible for Marketing and Sales to work together to produce impressive dashboards to monitor key performance indicators including the efficiency and velocity of leads as they move through the Marketing and Sales funnel.

As part of a CMO Council Marketing Performance Measurement certification course, I documented a multi-phased approach to building an effective Marketing Dashboard. Here’s an example of Phase 1:

Establishing Marketing Campaign KPI:

1. Development of timeline and project plan.
2. Marketing department meetings to determine goals and define measures of success. This includes both top KPI for real-time reporting and other metrics for detailed Campaign analysis and twice yearly reporting.
3. Meetings with CRM business analyst to determine availability of data that was needed to determine measure of success and capabilities of CRM system for displaying this data.
4. Interviews with functional stakeholders to ensure agreement and buy-in for top Marketing Campaign KPI. These stakeholders were from the Sales and Marketing department as well as executive management including:

• Vice President/Director of Marketing
• Vice President of Sales
• Director of Inside Sales
• Product Marketing
• Business Analysts
• Marketing Communications Department

We will discuss more on Phase 2 of this project later. But first, what are we missing here? Do you have an example of how you secured agreement on core Marketing Dashboard elements and KPI that improved Marketing Performance Measurement for your organization?

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Submitted by Ron S. La Vine
President of Accelerated Sales Training, Inc.

DO match and mirror the speed, tone and volume of the other person’s voice.
DON’T speak in a monotone.

DO call for a specific reason such as to provide some information of value.
DON’T call just to check in.

DO go the prospect’s web site first to see if they fit your ideal prospect profile.
DON’T randomly send out expensive (your time, material costs and postage) literature.

DO tell the truth even if you do not have the answer to a question at that moment.
DON’T try to fake like you know the answer to a question you don’t.

DO ask for the business.
DON’T assume you have it until the paperwork is signed.

DO use good manners.
DON’T assume an air of familiarity.

DO speak clearly and slowly when leaving a message.
DON’T mumble your message.

DO leave your name, company name, area code and phone number twice in a row.
DON’T leave your name and phone number only once.

DO get the person’s name right before speaking with them or leaving a voice mail.
DON’T mispronounce their name.

DO use direct questions or statements such as “Maybe you can help me.”
DON’T use wishy-washy phrases such as “Might you possibly please tell me some information?”

DO write down an assistant’s name if they provide it to you.
DON’T ask for their name and put them on the defensive since they might think you are going to get them in trouble.

DO develop different forms of marketing materials such as a one page Key Benefits fax cover sheet.
DON’T rely solely upon printed literature.

DO leave a voice mail for of “What’s In It for Them” compelling benefits.
DON’T leave a voice mail to see “if they might be interested in what you have.”

DO listen to and concentrate on what’s being said.
DON’T let your mind wander.

DO identify all the buyers and influencers.
DON’T rely solely upon one person who may leave for another job.

DO be polite yet respectfully persistent.
DON’T give up after one or two calls.

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ReachForce customer, Linda Roach of PlanView, writes to The B2B Lead Blog with a few tips for transforming your B2B Marketing Organization from “the group that generates the leads” to a performance-driven demand generation organization.

1. Organize your staff around integrated Marketing programs. Each member should have responsibilities for managing integrated Marketing Programs. That means each team member works together to stretch beyond their tactical focus to orchestrate multi-touch, multi-media programs designed to deliver messages to the customer in the right way at the right time.
2. Shelve low-yield marketing techniques. As you reorganize your team around integrated marketing programs, all of a sudden your Marketing Program managers are no longer willing to accept 2 to 3 percent response rates. The more you target your audience, the better your response rates will be and the greater yield you can expect from Marketing programs. Funnel the budget that you’ve allocated for list rentals or email blasts toward a more cost-effective and targeted contact discovery campaign instead.
3. Integrate your communications with the Customer Buy Cycle. Are you communicating with customers and prospects at the right time with the right approach? Or, are you generating leads through a barrage of emails and handing them off to Sales? Marketers today must realize that some prospects that respond to programs are not always ready to talk to Sales. They may be in the Education phase and simply looking for resources. So, why waste the time of your valuable Sales resources and risk turning off your prospects with a premature Sales call? Make sure you are nurturing buyers with multi touch programs designed to programmatically usher them through the funnel.

Share your tips with readers of The B2B Lead Blog.

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