Demand Generation Best Practices from Vtrenz

The Demand Generation Strategies Blog Has Moved

I welcome you to come with me! If you haven’t heard, Vtrenz is now Engage B2B and my blog, "Demand Generation Strategies” also has a new name and address. The new blog is titled “Silverpop Engage B2B: Demand Generation,” and it now resides at www.silverpop.com. For RSS subscribers, just add this link to your RSS reader and you'll continue to receive my postings. I welcome your feedback about all posts.

It is (Sales) Opportunities that Matter

I'm asked quite often what one metric is the most important in defining marketing's success, and I believe it would have to be the number of opportunities created for the sales organization.  Of course, the number of new leads is important, as well as marketing qualified leads, and we can't forget the pot of gold at the end…sales.  However, the marketing department's #1 customer is sales, which makes providing sales-ready opportunities marketing's #1 goal.  This drives all other work by marketing, and is the best way to prove marketing's worth to the entire organization.

As reiterated by John Coe, founder of the Sales & Marketing Institute in a recent blog post, "the major benefit (of the sales and marketing relationship) is the delivery of higher quality (not quantity) sales leads. Unless marketing communicates the benefit to sales, little or no feedback will be the result."

Outlined below are a few questions that should be answered to help marketing gain a greater understanding of the sales process:
• Begin with the end in mind…how many sales are required, based on average sales price of your products, in order to meet your goals? 
• How many opportunities must be generated in order to meet those sales?
• How many of those opportunities are to be delivered by marketing, versus sales finding them through their own prospecting activities? 

These are the golden numbers broken into months, that you should be targeting.  Simple example:

Revenue Target = £12,000,000
Average Price = £10,000
New Sales Needed = 1,200
Close Rate = 50%
Opportunities Needed = 2,400
Marketing Contribution = 50%
Total Marketing Opportunities to be delivered = 1,200

Opportunities per Month = 100

Now keep in mind, this is not just total leads generated. No, no, no, these are opportunities in the sales pipeline, or as SiriusDecisions describes them, Sales Qualified Leads.

Of course, the next step is to be able to measure the number generated on an ongoing basis so as to track progress.  But with just this goal comes focus.  As well, it will highlight to the sales organization that marketing means business, and that we are willing to put some skin in the game to help achieve their sales targets. 

It even feels like we should have some of our comp tied to these goals.  For those in marketing that are starting to squirm, you should take a hard look at what goals you are trying to accomplish for your organization.  If your activities aren't working toward delivering measurable opportunities for sales, they could quickly be on the chopping block. Remember, CFOs are looking for ways to optimize their expenditures. 

 

Lead Management Is...Here

According to a new study by the DemandGen Report, B2B marketing budgets are shifting to lead generation and lead management solutions in 2009. This is good news, but it isn't exactly new news to me, if that makes sense.

As I now reside in the beautiful, if not somewhat snowy city of London, it's sometimes easy to forget about the critical ills of the U.S. economic downturn. But that all comes to a reflective and introspective pause when I read about company lay-offs, more home foreclosures and the research of financial analysts who predict 2009 will be worse than 2008. Recessionary times require recession-proof marketing approaches. Change is inevitable, and B2B marketers and sales professionals must change with the times.

The days of B2B marketers and sales teams shooting from the hip or using their force-of-will and hard work to close a deal are not over, and I'm not trying to end them. If it works, it works. The point I'm making is sophisticated lead management solutions offer a quantifiable strategy that can be presented to C-suite executives. Today, B2B marketers who don't seek low maintenance, cost effective lead management solutions complete with the proper data and analytics to add measurable value to their business objectives, are missing the mark and are more than likely suffering from rapidly deflating budgets.

As expressed by Craig Rosenberg, vice president, products and services, Tippit Inc., and a lead management industry heavyweight, in a recent blog post: "The economic crisis will be the compelling event that drives lead management and marketing automation from a 'nice idea' to reality. Avoiding waste, generating ROI and being as efficient as humanly possible are the most important themes of 2009 — all themes marketing has been traditionally bad at."

For the remainder of 2009, my goal is to spread the word about the value of lead management.  Lead management has redefined the way B2B marketers engage with their customers and prospects, and its time has come to move from the marketing conference rooms to the board room.

B2B Thought Leadership with Craig Rosenberg

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. Recently, Craig Rosenberg, author of the very popular and sometimes, irreverent, B2B sales and marketing blog, The Funnelholic, and vice president, products and services at Tippit, Inc., responded to our questions. Tippit is the fastest-growing online business media company with more than 80 brand leading clients in B2B industries who rely on Tippit to capture new revenue and optimize their sales and marketing effectiveness. You can follow Craig on Twitter.

1. How did you get started in the lead management industry?

I would have to say my real entrée into the lead management business was in 2001, when I began working for SalesRamp. SalesRamp is a boutique sales and marketing consultancy that assists venture-backed startups in building their demand generation, inside sales, or sales processes and teams. While there I was tasked with going into a startup, understanding their business, building a plan, executing the plan, and handing over a full-fledged team and process — all within 4 months.  Previously, I spent years in inside sales and lead generation roles, but it was not until I joined SalesRamp that I really started to grasp lead management. At SalesRamp, I helped build 24 or so lead management teams, and the rest is history.

2. What section of the lead management pipeline would you say has the most holes in it?

Well, the biggest hole right now is that not enough organizations have set up sufficient lead management processes. You have to build the lead management pipeline before you can even try to find the holes. Too many organizations have yet to take that first step. There are still too many organizations passing leads directly to sales. This continues to be a growing market and one of the most critical movements in recessionary 2009. And the most important thing we can focus on in the industry is to get as many organizations focused on creating lead management processes. By the way, even a little goes along way. Just having some form of lead management will positively affect ROI by ensuring that you are sending sales only sales-ready leads.

3. Where does your passion for the B2B lead management industry come from?

I have seen the light. The B2B lead management process today is completely broken, and I have seen how to fix it. That is really enlightening and exciting. I think that's really the main reason I am so passionate about it. There aren't many times in your life where you actually believe you have access to knowledge that can truly affect a person or an organization. On a personal level, that is exciting. I talk about it or write about it on my Funnelholic blog all the time.

As far as the lead management industry itself, it is really exciting right now. The market is starting to hit its stride with a number of great companies competing in this space and making a big difference in the marketing world.

4. What kind of impact have you seen the current state of the economy have on B2B marketers and Sales professionals?

One thing: opportunity. The economic crisis will be the compelling event that drives lead management and marketing automation from a "nice idea" to reality. Avoiding waste, generating ROI and being as efficient as humanly possible are the most important themes of 2009 — all themes marketing has been traditionally bad at. There is so much information out there now. Marketers need to stay up all night and get a lead management plan on board not so they can impress their boss but so they can save their jobs — or more importantly, save their companies.

5. What should B2B marketers and Sales professionals do to survive this down economy and be well-positioned for an upswing?

Work together, communicate and optimize.

Right now, organizations can afford to continue to have sales and marketing fighting their holy war. What I saw in 2001 is that increased pressure of a recession causes the fighting to get worse. The lead management process is not just a "way" to process leads but a bridge to integrate marketing and sales processes in a positive way. The first thing to do is agree on a sales-ready lead definition — what is a lead that should be passed to the sales team? Now this may change in the recession (please keep this in mind), but it is the most critical step to building any reasonable conversation between the two organizations. Once marketing knows what a sales-ready lead is, sales can't complain and vice-versa. The biggest fights come from the "gray area," that is, what is a lead or what is not a lead. The unified sales-ready lead definition helps eliminate the gray area and brings the two groups together.

Then, work together. Meet every week for anecdotal process and continue to tweak the process. Don't let the data do all the talking — have the data so you can have meaningful conversations, but don't diminish the value of real conversations when optimizing a program.

6. Why do you think silos exist between marketing and sales, and which team do you think is more amenable to working with the other?

Like any disagreement, both sides have been fighting for so long, I am not sure they know why they are still fighting. But communication and process has damaged this relationship for years. When I think of sales I think of two sayings:

• Time is the enemy
• You are either part of the solution or part of the problem.

Unfortunately, non-sales-ready leads break the two commandments above for sales people and, as a result, they either complain about marketing or ignore it.

For marketing, they want to please, but to them sales can never be pleased —"These are leads that need selling, why can't sales understand that."

I promise that effective lead management helps solve this problem. Who is more amenable? I am not sure either is more amenable, but I can tell you how to get to a better place. Marketing should build their lead management plan and go to sales with their new value prop: "Marketing will only pass you sales-ready leads." Sales will listen, they need leads and want leads, but they just don't want the ones you used to send. Then, come to the table and agree on a "treaty" with sales-ready lead definition and process.

7. What has been the biggest challenge in your professional career?

Wow, now this is a question. I have lived and breathed the startup world for 10 years, and every day is a challenge. Combine that with being in demand generation/lead management, and I would say my work life is one big challenge.

8. What business book have you recently read that you'd recommend?

Sun Tzu's Art of War. I read that every once in a while and learn something every time. If you are in business, it's a must-read.

9. What's the best advice you ever received and who or where did it come from?

As we enter uncertain times, I think we all need to focus on what we can control. This is certainly not a new saying but really resonating right now.

B2B Thought Leadership with Jonathan Salem Baskin

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers. Recently, Jonathan Salem Baskin, a veteran BtoC and BtoB marketer with more than 20 years of experience and author of the book, Branding Only Works on Cattle: The New Way to Get Known (and drive your competitors crazy), responded to our questions. You'll learn why he thinks BtoB marketers have had it right all along. Also, he'll share some key insights into his career and offer solutions to many of the challenges facing BtoB marketers today.

1. How did you get started in the world of marketing?

I'd wanted to work in advertising since I was in college, as it seemed like the coolest combination of creativity and cultural relevance. So while my contemporaries were waiting tables during the summers, I interned at ad and PR firms. After graduation, I packed up and moved to NYC in search of a job, and found one four months later as an account exec at a PR firm called Edelman. My first client --a spin-off of Continental Grain called ContiCommodity-- was in the BtoB space. 

2. Why do you think this current economic crisis heralds a renaissance for BtoB marketers?

The web has transformed every company into a service provider, as end-users of everything from automobiles to MP3 players expect to be supported and engaged, not just by their individual purchases, but consistently over time. Cars need GPS devices. Music players need songs. Often, the differentiator between branded offerings will be how creatively or well they partner with other businesses to provide said services. Sourcing itself is also emerging as a competitive differentiator, whether due to concerns about economic or environmental justice, or simply of quality. 

The current economic crisis just accentuates the requirement that companies differentiate themselves in more compelling, substantive ways. BtoB marketers will find themselves competing for these new services partnerships, as well as displacing one another for sourcing contracts. It's the context for vibrant, creative competition of the likes that BtoB marketers haven't seen in a very long time.

3. You've been quoted stating that BtoB marketers are better positioned, better prepared and better armed to weather the downturn than BtoC marketers. Why is that?

First, because they've lived the business strategies we call "Web 2.0" since before the trend had a catchy label. BtoB marketing is based on principles of customer relationships, selling relevance to price and utility, and "designing in" input from customers for new products. These habits are all revelations for most BtoC marketers, and they're struggling with how to incorporate them into their top-down, brand-driven marketing strategies. The best BtoB marketers already know what works and how to deliver it.

Second, even if it's sometimes been uneasy, BtoB marketers have had close working relationships with sales. That means the metrics for much of that marketing are simple—sales and profits—instead of the made-up measures that BtoC marketers use to substantiate their efforts. BtoB marketers speak the financial language that the rest of the company uses, so it should be far easier to explain and defend budgets. Not easy, mind you, but just more effective. I think many of the BtoC folks and their mushy metrics of awareness and intent are in for a world of pain.

4. What was the inspiration behind "Branding Only Works for Cattle: The New Way to Get Known (And Drive Your Competitors Crazy)"? 

Most people in the branding world spend their lives feeling misunderstood and unappreciated. Otherwise smart, capable execs just can't seem to get the importance of branding and are always in need of being educated (as the brand trades regularly declare). Brand and marketing are the first budgets to get cut in a downturn, which is the clearest evidence of this ongoing disconnect.

After 26 years fighting that good fight, it occurred to me that maybe all those operational execs weren't stupid; maybe it was we marketers who had the wrong idea about brands.

So I set out to come up with a model for what branding might be if it were the outcome of real, objective behaviors, and not the subjective mental states that are the exclusive domain of marketing. And I discovered a rich vein of thought that raises marvelous questions about how, what, where, when, and why organizations influence purchases.

5. You often say a tough market requires every corporate department to get involved in selling. How can this happen?

It already happens all the time. Customers don't follow orders, and there's no limit to the ways, media, contexts and reasons why and how they can make decisions that lead to purchase (or, conversely, to abandonment). Information sharing doesn't end with the work day and isn't limited to the channels chosen by your marketing department. And the content that factors into those decisions are often, if not mostly, outside of the purview of marketing and instead originate in other departments (sourcing, vendor relationships, prices, service and support, employee-relations issues, environmental practices). 

Marketing can often put the patina of order on this chaos, but it's fleeting. Instead, these factors—all the result of behaviors of one sort or another—emerge within and from every department in your company. The substance of those behaviors is thus far more important to your brand than anything the marketers could create. Again, this impacts your selling right now, whether you're aware of it or not. 

Getting proactive with this involvement requires a new starting point for the conversation: it's not about applying the branding to the departments, but rather allowing their actions themselves to be understood as drivers of the brand. 

6. Other than your own, what business book would you recommend to BtoB marketers?

I really enjoyed "Ogilvy On Advertising," by David Ogilvy.  It's been out for a long time, but Ogilvy understood the humanity inherent in purchase decisions, and that ultimately the business consumer is still a consumer. I think a lot of the distinctions we draw between the BtoB and BtoC practices are artificial and sometimes not even true. Getting people to buy things is a universal; it's only in the details that differences emerge. 

7. What's the best advice you ever received, and or where did it come from?

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from my father when I was in high school. We had agreed to play golf together on a Sunday morning, but the Saturday prior I stayed at a friend's house and forgot the appointment. When I got home, far too late in the morning to make tee time, my Dad calmly explained to me that the worst thing I could do to another person is squander or waste their time. That has stuck with me personally and professionally, and it's an important adage for marketers to remember: be relevant, or be quiet.

8. What has been the biggest challenge in your professional career?

I'm living it right now: talking to marketers about truly changing the marketing paradigm. 

For all the talk about new media and experimentation, most communications follow traditions and conceits that are decades old. Many smart, well-intentioned people are hell-bent on proving that the outdated concepts of branding—telling consumers what to think, believing we could ever know what they're thinking anyway, and even if we were able to, thinking that those ideas would be casually relevant to their purchase behavior—are still valid, only they're not. It would be easier if they were, but it's simply not the case.

Lots of marketers are so accustomed to talking about brands as these all-encompassing things, describable mostly by metaphor, that they have real trouble opening their minds to another possibility. So the challenge is to engage them in this discussion about brands as something more—as behavior—and work with them to redirect their creativity and initiative.

It's the biggest challenge I've faced, but also the most rewarding. 

For more of Jonathan's news and updates, visit his blog at Dim Bulb.

B2B Marketers Still Marketing

There's rarely any good news on the financial front these days. So I was pleased when I saw a recent article by Direct Magazine's Ken Magill indicating that 79 percent of surveyed executives said their companies will have spent the same or more on marketing in 2008 than 2007. Also, 42% said they don't expect the economy to have an impact on their marketing budgets.

All too often, when the economy begins to dip downward, companies cut back on marketing activities, hoping to simply weather the storm. But some experienced marketers view recessions as opportunities to grow market share and strengthen their business. I'm excited to see BtoB marketers have apparently chosen to invest strategically to keep their existing clients satisfied and their prospects informed.

Also, I'd like to add two tips of my own to help BtoB marketers weather this storm and make wise decisions.

Align Your Definitions of ROI Measurement. I can't say this enough. The term ROI represents different things to different people and is bandied about by many without solid agreement regarding its true meaning as defined inside the company. In fact, Forrester Research found that nearly seven out of 10 marketers (69 percent) have a hard time arriving at an agreed upon definition of ROI.

Tip: Call a meeting with important internal stakeholders and hash out a definition of ROI.

Gather Relevant Information. Reaching out to customers with messages based on behavioral targeting can help boost revenue and improve customer loyalty and brand positioning. Integrating a Web analytics tool with your email marketing solution can give you an invaluable look at customer desires and concerns.

Tip: Identify the data you want to act on and enlist the assistance of your marketing solutions provider or IT department to create the technical integration points. Like you, they are under pressure to do more with less, and should be incented to make the most of the solutions they have in house. Encourage them to automate the process for passing these data key points in order to make them actionable in your email marketing or other messaging-oriented systems without ongoing manual involvement.

Lastly, just keep on marketing.  Putting our company's "head in the sand" at this time will make it that much harder to react when the economy bounces back.  Like investing, we need to buy low and sell high, and in the end, we'll be ahead of the pack.

B2B Thought Leadership with Jay and Carlos Hidalgo of the Annuitas Group

                                                                                                                                                          Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers. Recently, brothers Jay and Carlos Hidalgo, founders of The Annuitas Group, responded to our questions. You'll learn about the challenges facing today's BtoB marketers and the Hidalgo brother’s insights for moving beyond them.

1. How did you and your brother, Carlos, get started in the lead management industry?
We actually got started in the mid-90s. I was working at a firm, developing lead generation programs for clients. The programs often generated significant numbers of leads, which we would turn over to the clients' sales force. But because our clients didn't have the processes necessary to properly follow up on leads, we became the "scapegoat" for less than desired sales outcomes. "These leads are no good" we often heard. So, we developed lead follow-up processes and services to maximize the value of those leads. Carlos also started down this road about the same time, as he was managing large scale lead generation programs for some of the biggest IT companies in the world. He also noticed that while his company was generating the leads, the companies were not taking the necessary steps to ensure proper follow-up.

2. When did you realize that companies which only generate leads and fail to manage how they're handled in any consistent way were missing the mark?
Almost immediately. Once in a while, we'd have the chance to prove it by measurement. I remember one client who told us that the 300-plus leads we had generated over a 6 week period were no good. We implemented a "post campaign" research project, and identified that more than half of the leads never received any kind of follow up. Of those, 90% ended up buying from our client's competitors within a 90-day period. It's hard to argue with statistics.

3. Why do you think many BtoB marketers fail to understand the impact of comprehensive lead management programs or to incorporate them into their marketing efforts? 
Our experience indicates that marketers fall into two categories: Those who refuse to acknowledge the impact of not having lead management processes, and those who just don't understand they have a lead management problem. For the first group, it's difficult to convince them otherwise. Myopic thinking or the fear of getting "exposed" often keeps them from doing anything to improve. For the second group, convincing them on the benefits of a comprehensive lead management happens relatively quickly. But understanding that there's a problem, and knowing how to fix it are two different things. And that's where we see the biggest frustration. Marketers know they have a problem, but don't know where to start to fix it.

4. What kind of impact have you seen the current state of the economy have on BtoB marketers and Sales professionals? 
Right now, it's mixed. For some, cutting costs has become the priority, and marketing is looked at as a cost. For others, especially those that understand that marketing is an integral part to growth, the approach has been to figure out ways to be more efficient. In our world, we've seen an increased interest in developing lead management processes, because they lead to greater efficiency.

5. What should BtoB marketers and Sales professionals do to survive a down economy and be well positioned for an upswing?                                                                                                                                          A few things come to mind…
• Don't panic. 
• Spend time and effort on what you know works. Save the "let's try this" items for when things are a little more stable. 
• Assess both marketing and sales processes. Assess where there is inefficiency and waste; fix it and maintain. 

6. Why do you think silos exist between marketing and sales, and which team do you think is more amenable to working with the other?  
Traditionally, marketing considers their job completed when a lead is generated and passed on to sales. When they hear that sales is complaining about lead quality, they get defensive. Sales, historically, gets frustrated because they spend much wasted time trying to sort through all the leads from marketing so they can find the "good" ones. They begin to resent marketing because this "sorting" reduces their selling time and ultimately commissions. Unfortunately, it's too common a dynamic.

I don't believe either "side" is more amenable than the other. For the most part, both want to be successful. Both want revenue to increase.  Both want to close more sales. The key is finding what's important to each role. When both roles come together asking, "What do you need?" instead of saying to the other, "This is what I want," it's amazing how quickly things can come together.

7. What business book have you recently read that you'd recommend?
"Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors" by Pat Lencioni. It's a great "fable" about the barriers that are created in organizations and how to destroy them so that teams work together. This is a helpful read to anyone who needs assistance integrating marketing and sales.

8. What's the best advice you ever received and who or where did it come from? 
Dr. David Beighley told me, "Ask yourself 'What's the NEXT right thing to do?' Then go do it."

9. What has been the biggest challenge in your professional career? 
Leaving established company's to start The Annuitas Group. There are so many unknowns when you finally take the leap, the biggest being whether or not you'll make it. We've been blessed with great clients, great partners and with the ability to provide a service that solves a problem most companies have. We thank God everyday for what we've been able to do.

B2B Thought Leadership with John Coe, President and Founder, Sales & Marketing Institute

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers.  Recently, John Coe, president and founder of the Sales & Markeitng Institute and author of the book, "The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing" responded to our questions. You'll learn about today's challenges and his advice for overcoming them.

1. How do you think the current state of the economy will affect the way BtoB marketers and Sales professionals do their jobs, and what advice do you have for them?
Ironically, the current downturn in the market has exacerbated the need for marketing and sales groups to better integrate to drive increases in overall sales productivity. That's the headline today. Unless this is accomplished, many marketing and sales people will be looking for jobs, as companies are now highly focused on this last great frontier of productivity improvement, and will cut costs and people unless convinced otherwise. In fact, it has already begun.

2. What do you see as the biggest challenge for marketing and sales?
It's not lead generation and qualification, as that has been focused on quite a bit over the last 10-15 years. What is now facing companies is the inability of field sales to cost effectively grow and keep the customer base. Frankly, customers don't want to see sales people, and particularly when they don't see the benefit of the meeting. Seth Godin used the term "disruptive marketing" in his first book, "Permission Marketing" to describe how we try to interrupt people with our marketing messages, and that's one of the reasons advertising is loosing its effectiveness. 

Well, guess what? We have the same situation today in sales, because sales people want to see customers on their time schedule and need rather than on the customer's, and are practicing "disruptive sales." Now with the internet, sales people no longer hold the keys to information and knowledge, so the primary reason customers would accept a face-to-face sales call has mostly disappeared. In addition, many more buyers are involved in the decision process now, and this further complicates the sales person's job.

This is where database direct marketing can ride to the rescue. Developing a new blended sales coverage model using the tool sets of database/direct marketing in close cooperation with field sales is the biggest challenge and opportunity in B2B today.

3. It's recognized that sales and marketing need to work closer together. What two tips can you give for developing a closed-loop process between these important departments?
Closing the feedback loop between marketing and sales seems to be the never-ending problem. I am continually asked about this at every seminar. Frankly, sales people are busy and could care less to tell marketing anything, as they are focused on making their numbers and not doing marketing's job. So I have two basic suggestions.

First, unless marketing clearly identifies and convinces sales that there are benefits for feedback (to sales not marketing), there will only be sporadic feedback. So the first job is to detail and continually communicate the benefits to sales for closing the feedback loop – keeping your job is not one, as no sales person who is meeting their numbers will ever be fired for not giving marketing feedback on leads.

Secondly, and specific to the first suggestion, the major benefit is the delivery of higher quality (not quantity) sales leads. Unless marketing communicates the benefits to sales, little or no feedback will be the result. A flow of poor quality leads will lead (pun intended) to no follow-up by sales, as they know it is a waste of their time, but also they will not admit to not doing the follow-up and disguise this by not closing the feedback loop! Make sense? You bet it does.

4. What piece of information would you recommend to marketing professionals having a tough time proving their worth to C-Suite executives?
If marketing wants to prove their worth to the C-suite today, they have to move up the "measurement ladder" to value and results, and leave activity measurements behind. No senior executive wants or cares about how many responses, clicks or attendees to events that marketing has caused. What they always were interested in, and are on a war path now to measure, is what value and results marketing has generated and can actually demonstrate. No news here, and in B2B this can be a vexing problem, as the sales cycle can be long and no feedback (sound familiar) of actual sales can be attributed to specific campaigns and activities. This is a complicated subject, and I have written a white paper on Converting Inquiries to Qualified Leads that will help define how to do this. In the end, you need to climb the measurement ladder to save the budget and even your job.

5. What were some hits and misses in your career, and what do you think could have made the processes easier?
The best story I have is actually one that happened to me when I was in sales many years ago. It's a tale in two parts about why qualification of inquiries is important. When I was in chemical sales we received copies of magazine inquiries only containing information on the company and person who inquired and what product they inquired about. No other information or qualification was present.

The first one I followed up was for a flammable solvent used in PVC pipe cement, and once I finally found the company (have you ever driven in Pittsburgh?) I realized that it was a garage next to a railroad track, and certainly not worth my time and effort. This was a miss.

Several months later I followed up on another inquiry for a urethane ingredient. After phoning the company (the best method of qualification) I flew up to Hibbing, MN in the winter – stupid or brave – who knows? Six months later we had a $250,000 account, and also beat DuPont to the sale much to the delight of my boss. This was a hit.

So what's my point? Sales people should not be following up and/or qualifying inquiries – marketing should. At $500-$700 for each sales call today, sales people should spend their time on more valuable activities. This story never fails to make that point to B2B companies that are still sending inquiries to sales groups, and believe it or not, there are many who still do.

6. What's the best advice you ever received and who or where did it come from?
The best advice I ever received was from a mentor (I was lucky to have one at Quaker Oats, Chemical Division), when he said: "John, don't desire the next job, act like you already have it!" What he was really saying is "think up" to what your boss is facing and needs if you want to get promoted. I took his advice to heart and less than a year later was promoted to National Sales Manager –I guess it worked!

7. What makes you happy about going to work everyday?
The thing that drives me today is that we are in the midst of a true revolution in B2B marketing and sales, as the old traditional model is not working. We are in the midst of inventing this new "go-to-market" strategy and model and that's very exciting. It's quite a trip for an old road warrior like me to be on!

 

B2B Thought Leadership with Russell Kern, President, The Kern Organization

Through these  special  blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers.  Recently, I had a conversation with Russell Kern, president of The Kern Organization and author of S.U.R.E.-Fire Direct Response Marketing: Managing Business-to-Business Sales Leads for Bottom-Line Success. We talked about the usual -  the  economy, marketing and life. I truly hope you learn as much from Russell as I did.

1. The Kern Organization has grown quite a bit from its humble days as a five-person boutique shop. Tell us how your company has achieved a growth rate of 400 percent and landed at number 962 on Inc.'s 5000  Fastest Growing Private Companies in America?
The key was a combination of clearly defining our mission, formalizing our operating processes and procedures, putting in place measurement systems and providing rewards to the staff for behavior consistent with the values and goals of the organization.

It turns out these steps are the fundamentals for any business to succeed. In the case of most entrepreneurial firms, including TKO, it takes years for the business to gain momentum, and then to go back and re-engineer the processes to take the business to the next level.

We were fortunate to have a solid value proposition, excellent creative and strategic services, a strong sales organization and an outstanding implementation team. Together we were able to sustain rapid growth because the foundation and framework were in place.

2. What do you see as the biggest challenge for BtoB marketers and what is the solution?
The biggest challenge for BtoB marketers is creating valuable, exclusive content that can be used as an offer and bringing prospective buyers into the sales funnel. Original content that meets the needs of your target audience is difficult to create because it requires a deep understanding of your customer needs. Most marketers, especially BtoB marketers, are so busy just getting the work done, that there is very little time to do the market research and planning required to generate offers that will help leapfrog the business forward.

The solution is to commit to the future, today. If you don’t spend the time to invent new and innovative materials that attract the right audience today, your marketing efforts are eventually going to decline and you'll pay for the deferred investment tomorrow. No free lunches, even in marketing.

3. Do you think BtoB marketers are more inclined to want to work with sales now, or do you still see silos existing?
This depends on the organization and the culture of the organization. I know BtoB marketers want to work with sales. However, sometimes it's just not their jurisdiction. If the head of marketing and sales are not in sync, their organizations won't be, either. The marketing organization mirrors the action of its leaders.

Thus silos are common, but in general BtoB marketers understand it's their job to generate qualified leads. The bigger issues are to work with sales to determine the definition of a qualified lead and to set the business rules on when leads are to be passed to sales.

4. What steps should marketers take to create alignment with sales?
Have quarterly meetings to review leads. They should review a large sampling of leads and discuss the quality of the leads, the sales treatment for a qualified and non-qualified lead, the sales disposition of both types of leads and what refinements are required to make each organization more successful.

The VPs of each unit must be at these meetings and spearhead this initiative to effect the change required.

5. Marketers often find their toughest challenge is proving the ROI of their efforts. What advice can you give on accomplishing that task?
Don't give up. Use "Did you buy' surveys," OBTM (outbound telemarketing) tele-surveys on close leads, match-backs of leads against PO at 3, 6, 9 and 12-month intervals.

This is the single most important step to prove the value marketing brings to the sales organization, as well as the company. The ROI measures don't have to be 100 percent perfect, so sample sets of data can be used to get indications, but all measures to prove marketing ROI must be taken.

It is slow and painful work, but exceptionally rewarding in the end.

6. What is your advice for a BtoB marketer frustrated by the economy?
Now is the time to sell like crazy. Recessions will come and go. However, I know those companies that market during a recession, gain greater market share as the economy recovers. This is what TKO did in early 2000.

Use this time to focus on the value your product brings to companies. Realize the sales cycle will slow, however now prospective buyers are in a heavy information-gathering mode. It's a great time to do lead generation and then drop your respondents into a cohesive lead nurturing process over a 6-12 month time frame.

7. What business book have you recently read that you'd recommend?
I have recently attended Omnicom University, where we studied over 15 Harvard Business School cases. I can't recommend the Harvard Business Review enough to any business leader. I especially recommend its compendium of articles, "Leadership Insights: 15 Unique Perspectives on Effective Leadership." What I have become passionate about is understanding the critical difference between management and leadership. Further, embracing how difficult it is to be a great leader.

8. What's the best advice you ever received, and who or where did it come from?
The best advice I ever got was from my summer camp director on the first day of camp. He told every camper age 7 to 13, these words about camp, which translate into life: You get out of camp, what you put into it. Meaning, if you participate, if you get in the game, if you volunteer, sign up and actively engage, your experiences will be rich, rewarding and memorable.

9. What makes you happy about going to work every day?
I love trying to solve difficult problems. I love working with smart people and smart clients. I love making our services generate sales for our clients. It’s hard as heck, but hugely rewarding when it all comes together.

Bailout Tips for Your Lead Management Efforts By Bryan Brown

The election season is here. Early voting is taking place in most states and the main interest of voters is the economy. Unsurprisingly, the economy is a top concern for BtoB marketers as well. Many marketers are wondering if, when or how much the economy will effect their business and specifically, their marketing efforts.

There is no peeking into the future to safeguard or guarantee your marketing efforts. However, there are ways to ensure your time and energy isn't wasted ushering unqualified leads to your sales team.

Extend the full financial value of your lead management solution, which directly or indirectly impacts your company's bottom line, by doing a checklist to make sure you're maximizing your email marketing, lead scoring and lead nurturing features to the fullest. It' time to bailout your lead management capabilities to improve your ROMI.

• Automate Your Email Messages. Automated email responses are a quick, easy and cost effective way to keep prospects informed about your products/solutions. Use it and get results. Tip: Deliverability is the most important part of your email campaign. To keep from being labeled as spam by your prospects, always send what the recipient expects to receive – what they signed up for. Keep messages relevant and informative.
• Get Better Acquainted with Your Lead Scoring Feature - If you're not using your lead scoring feature to its fullest advantage, you're probably wasting your marketing and sales departments a considerable amount of tactical time. Good lead scoring models incorporate implicit and explicit data to make sure only quality leads are sent to Sales. Tip: Be sure to obtain sales agreement of your scoring methodology. With their buy-in, they're more likely to aggressively work leads identified as hot.
• Nurture Your Leads. In tight economies, sales cycles often lengthen, demanding that you carefully maintain contact with prospects. Lead nurturing is a proven lead-to-sale methodology that can move prospects through the "sales funnel" toward purchasing your product or service. According to the Sales & Marketing Institute, the percentage of inquiries/responses that will become actual sales leads is usually well below 10 percent. Yet, in 18-24 months, two studies have shown that between 20-40 percent of all inquiries will buy the product or service from somebody. Tip: Develop a series of automated, timed communications designed to build trust and keep your company top-of-mind until a prospect has received enough information and is ready to buy.