Lead nurturing is about building lasting relationships with prospects until they are ready to purchase. One way to help strengthen the relationship is through timely and relevant content. Something that will speak to prospects at exactly the right time, addressing any ‘pain’ they are looking to relieve.

Change it up – No one wants to read the same information over and over again, so don’t let your communication with prospects become stale. While it’s perfectly acceptable to recycle old content in the lead nurturing process, be sure to do so while adding a new twist or point of view. Whatever you do, be sure to change it up a bit to include webinars, links to YouTube, anything that can help you become memorable to your prospects.

Measure, Rinse and Repeat – Find out which communications are bringing your organization the largest amount of responses in lead nurturing. Perhaps you are finding that your business sees a higher click through rate when discussing certain topics. Maybe some subject lines work better than others. By measuring your results, you can specify/dig deeper and determine which topics your prospects are interested in and build content talking to those subjects.

Ready, Aim, Fire – Take a targeted approach to content development in lead nurturing. According to MarketingSherpa¹:

• 82% of prospects say content targeted to their specific industry is more valuable

• 67% say content targeted to their job function is more valuable

• 49% say content targeted to their company size is more valuable

• 29% prefer content targeted to their geography

How do you determine what is relevant content in your organization’s lead nurturing campaigns? What best practices can you share about what has worked and what didn’t?

¹Marketo. “The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing.” Accessed Jan 2012. http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-resources/best-practices/lead-nurturing/the-definitive-guide-to-lead-nurturing.php

1) Talent(less) Pool – When running a lead generation campaign, companies must ensure that the employees making the sales calls have the appropriate background and skill sets. Typically a college education, two years of selling experience and familiarity with the client, product or service is a good start.

2) Lack of Lead Definition – How will sales reps know when they have a lead if they don’t know what a lead looks like in the first place? What does the sales and marketing alignment look like and who has the sales pipeline responsibilities? Businesses can qualify a lead by company size or revenue, and advance the prospect to a closed sale by confirming more advanced information like budget, authority and timeframe.

3) Poor Messaging – A message that does not resonate with prospects, or that is difficult to understand, or one that is difficult for sales to deliver is going to hinder any lead generation campaign. Organizations must have clear and concise messaging that speaks to the needs or pains of the prospect to generate the greatest results.

4) Wrong target – This can be created from not properly building or acquiring a list of prospects or by focusing too much on the influencer and not the decision makers. The prospects could also be out of the scope in terms of the size of the organization or where they are located.

5) Poor Lead Handoff – Sometimes this may mean a lead that is not properly qualified, or leads that are sent to the field late – well after the prospect has forgotten about the conversation with the lead generation team. Proper lead definition and warm lead hand off can help businesses avoid both of these situations.

Share with us your thoughts. What has worked in your organization in lead generation and what are mistakes you have learned from in the past?

Determining what buying stage a prospect is in during lead nurturing will help businesses decide what content needs to be sent. To simplify, we can break down prospect buying behaviors into three lead nurturing stages.

Know there’s a problem – At this point in the buying cycle what is most beneficial to receive as a prospect is educational information. Prospects are looking to uncover who your company is and what services you provide. Perhaps deliver customer testimonials and examples of other organizations that your business helped to find success. Again, nothing too hard hitting at this point, just general content that helps your organization stand out from your competitors.

Want to find a solution – Prospects have a general idea of what solutions exist, but are not certain which business to choose or which route to take. This is where a more targeted lead nurturing approach comes into play. It may be beneficial to invite prospects to view a webinar that you are hosting, attend an event in which you are presenting, or check out links on your website to read informative white papers. Prospects are starting to pay close attention to which organizations will be able to provide them with a solution and the content that is sent to them at this stage must match their needs.

Deciding on a solution – At this stage in lead nurturing, prospects are ready to make a purchasing decision. They have obtained a plethora of information from multiple organizations and are narrowing their focus to just one solution. Prospects in this stage of the buying cycle are looking for answers – what is it that your organization can do for them and how is your organization going to do it better than your competitors.

What other suggestions can you offer regarding lead nurturing stages? Have you ever sent out communication too soon and it backfired?

By: Kelley Robertson

Sales Lie #1: “I could reach my quota if my company lowered their prices.”

If I had a nickel for every time I heard this…

If you rely solely on price to close deals then you condition your customers to constantly push you for a larger discount or a better price.

Sales Lie #2: “I’ve got this deal in the bag.”

I think this is one of the most common lies sales people tell themselves. In fact, I hate to admit that I’ve been guilty of this from time-to-time.

It’s easy to think that because someone says, “This looks good, let me get back to you in a couple of days” that they are seriously interested in your product or service. I’ve heard prospects say, “This is great, what do we do next?” only to balk at making a final decision.

No deal is guaranteed until the other person signs the agreement, gives you confirmation, or places the order.

Sales Lie #3: “The competition is always offering better prices.”

While some competitors will consistently beat you on price, the reality is that most companies are competitively priced. It’s a rare situation when a competitor will out-price you on everything you sell unless the products are different.

Sales Lie: #4: “My territory is too big (or too small).”

In the 16-plus years I have worked with sales people I have never heard anyone say, “I have the perfect number of accounts. In an ideal world, you would be able to see or meet with every account or customer in a perfect cycle.

However, the reality of today’s sales world is that companies are struggling to do more with less which less which means most sales people have to manage a big sales territory. The key is to manage your accounts more effectively.

Invest the bulk of your time managing your best and most profitable accounts (top 20%) and customers that have good potential to grow (next 20-30%). Wean yourself from responding ultra-fast to your high-maintenance, low-profit customers (bottom 20%).

Sales Lie: #5: “If I don’t set a sales target I won’t be disappointed.”

First of all, let me say that I’m surprised how many sales-based organizations don’t require their sales team to establish sales targets and goals. After all, how can you monitor performance if you aren’t tracking results?

Okay, now that I have that off my chest, let’s take a closer look at the lie.

In my eyes, people who don’t set sales targets are essentially saying, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do this year and I don’t want to work harder than I have to.”

Top performing sales reps always set high, ambitious goals and their targets are usually higher than those set by their company. They use these goals to inspire and motivate themselves to achieve more.

Sales Lie: #6: “No one is buying.”

I recently spoke to someone who sells cars, an industry that has been particularly hard-hit in the last few years. However, his sales continue to increase even though many people in the same business complain of declining sales.

Regardless of the economy, people still make buying decisions. They still make purchases. Companies still need products and services.

Stop wasting time thinking about the people who aren’t buying and find the people and companies who are buying!

Sales Lie #7: “I don’t need to practice my sales presentation.”

Yeah, and professional athletes don’t need to practice because they are at the top of their game. The best sales people seldom take their sales appointments and meetings for granted. They rehearse the questions they need to ask.

They run through their presentation to make sure they have included the necessary details and that their presentation flows in a logical manner and that it addresses their prospect’s situation and/or needs.

As painful and difficult as it can be you are better off telling yourself the truth instead of lying to yourself (and perhaps your boss, too!). Avoid telling yourself these sales lies because they limit your ability to increase your sales and fully achieving what you are capable of accomplishing.

© MMXII Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved.

Kelley helps people master their sales conversations so they can win more business and increase their sales. He does this by conducting sales training workshops and delivering keynote speeches at conferences, sales meetings and other events. Book Kelley to speak at your next sales event: 905-633-7750 or Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com.

DIAGNOSE NEED

Chances are you recognized the need for an automated marketing solution after reading a variety of blog posts and attending trade
shows that convinced you it’s an essential element to successful marketing for your company now and well into the future. Awesome. Congratulations! You’re officially in a better spot than the 76% of B2B marketers who do not have a marketing automation solution. Now what?

DEVELOP STRATEGY

Ok, so now you’re convinced you need lead scoring. You gush to your sales counterparts about all the demographic elements you can score, but beyond that all the activities Marketo can track and score. You can track web activity (or inactivity), email opens and clicks, form submissions, social activity and so much more. By the time a lead gets to sales, the sales rep can be confident the person has explicit interest.

Sounds great, everyone’s excited; everyone’s bought in. But, before you can get all these sales-ready leads to the sales department, you need a plan.

Step 1.  Define your buyer personas

Step 2.  Assess what demographic criterion identifies these buyers

Step 3.  Assess what actions these buyers will take to indicate a readiness to purchase or acquire more information

Step 4.  Decide how many points each of these demographic aspects and actions are worth

Step 5.  Set thresholds to define cold, warm and hot lead status

IMPLEMENT

You have your strategy documented. You know what elements you want to score, what score each of these elements is worth and finally what point totals leads will need to reach before being passed over to sales. Now, roll up your sleeves and build out your campaign.

TEST

You finally got sales on the same page as you, everything is built perfectly, leads are syncing to your customer relationship management software seamlessly, but there’s a problem. Turns out your “qualified” leads aren’t so qualified. Luckily, changing the scoring is easy.

As previously stated, there isn’t a right or wrong way to do lead scoring. Implement, test, track, repeat for a rich, full, beautiful lead scoring program.

Content developed by LeadMD, Inc. 2011

As you read these tips, we’d like you to think about what you can begin doing as a leader. Included with the tips are real-world examples (many of which are taken from Bob Nelson’s 1001 Ways to Reward Employees and 1001 Ways to Energize Employees). Think about how you can adapt the ideas to your workplace.

1. Treat Each and Every Employee with Respect. Show that You Care about Each Employee as a Person, Not Just as a Worker.

2. Praise Accomplishments…and Attempts.

3. Clearly Communicate Goals, Responsibilities, and Expectations. Never Criticize in Public—Redirect in Private.

4. Recognize Performance Appropriately and Consistently.

5. Involve Employees in Plans and Decisions, Especially those that Affect them. Solicit Employees’ Ideas and Opinions. Encourage Initiative.

6. Create Opportunities for Employees to Learn and Grow. Link the Goals of the Organization with the Goals of Each individual in it.

7. Actively Listen to Employees’ Concerns—Both Work-Related and Personal.

8. Share Information—Promptly, Openly, and Clearly. Tell the Truth…with Compassion.

9. Celebrate Successes and Milestones Reached—Both Organizational and Personal. Create an Organizational Culture that is Open, Trusting, and Fun.

by David Kirkpatrick, Reporter

SUMMARY: To wrap up another year of B2B marketing, we’ve reached out to seven marketers and industry experts to offer you six tactics based on marketing lessons learned in 2011.

Read on to find out what our expert sources said about lead generation, lead scoring and lead nurturing; inbound SEO; letting your customer tell you how to market to them; and making that personal touch truly personal.

Lead Nurturing: Reengaging prospects with video

• Generate a lead nurturing campaign made of repurposed content offering educational material. Then put the repurposed materials in a variety of formats, including video to liven it up a bit. Be sure to include a call to action in the videos to generate greater success.

Lead Scoring: Create multiple scores for each prospect

• Create a ‘fit’ and ‘interest’ score for each prospect based on a variety of characteristics and prospect behaviors. Fit scores would include demographics, BANT, and other data points. Interest scores are largely based on behavioral patterns of the prospect while they are on your company website.

Lead Generation: Take advantage of social media

• Forrester Research showing that 81% of U.S. adults online use social media. Most likely, at least some of your customers, and competitors for that matter, fall into that overwhelming majority.

Marketing Research: Listen to your customer

• What better way to learn more about each of your customers, than by interviewing them? Prior to the interview be sure to develop relevant and impactful questions and utilize the feedback to make any necessary changes.

Inbound Marketing: Boost organic traffic with keyword campaigns

• The inbound tactic of search engine optimization contains one key word — optimization. Yes, strong SEO will lead to increased organic, otherwise known as “free,” traffic. It’s just the process itself isn’t that simple. Getting the full effect of SEO takes more than unleashing a website with some metatags and content that pushes the keywords you are interested in.

Utilize a personal touch

• Look for opportunities to communicate something authentic and of value to your customer. It could be a thank you note, special gift, personalized letter, or just something fun or new.
• Determine the best way to be memorable. From hand-made elements, unique sizes, tactile papers and textures, interesting printing techniques, or even hand-applied stamps, business communications can communicate a level of intimacy and special attention your customers crave.
• Consider the best option for delivery of the communication. How you communicate can be just as important as what you communicate.

To learn more about this topic, visit http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=32082.

By: M. H. “Mac” McIntosh

To Insource or Outsource Telemarketing

Telemarketing can be a cost-effective method for identifying and qualifying leads and then moving these prospects along the sales cycle. When companies are considering implementing telemarketing for leads, frequently the first two questions that come up are: “Should we set up a telemarketing team in-house or outsource it?” and “If we outsource telemarketing, how do we find the right company?”

Can we do it ourselves?

“Doing it yourself,” that is, insourcing telemarketing versus outsourcing telemarketing, offers a number of benefits. Your call team is 100% dedicated to your project. Call reps are down the hall, rather than across town or across the country, and are behind the “firewall,” making it easy to access business systems like order history and inventory programs. In-house telemarketing teams also make it easier to leverage your existing training programs and personnel.

Should we outsource telemarketing?

When should you outsource your telemarketing function? The scenarios can vary from company to company but in general, it makes sense to outsource telemarketing for the following reasons:

• Adding head count is not an option.
• You’re already stretched too thin and cannot manage another team.
• You have peaks and valleys in terms of when leads come in (i.e.: during trade show season).
• You need to get up and running quickly.
• You want to test new programs without negatively impacting your existing operations.

Depending on your specific telemarketing needs and resources, you may decide it’s better to outsource telemarketing to a third-party provider instead.

The bottom line: Whether done in-house or outsourced, business-to-business telemarketing can be an effective tactic for generating, nurturing and qualifying sales leads.

To learn more about insourcing and outsourcing telemarketing view Insourcing vs. Outsourcing Telemarketing: What to
consider when implementing a telemarketing program to generate, nurture, and qualify sales leads on our website.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is considered by many to be one of America’s leading business-to-business sales and marketing consultants and an expert on the subject of outsourced marketing services. He can be reached by e-mail at mcintosh@salesleadexperts.com.

Telemarketing is still a good way to sell goods and services and generate leads. Yet, what works well for companies selling to consumers isn’t going to work as well for companies selling complex products and services to businesses. Why? Because the buying processes for B-to-B and B-to-C Sales Lead Generation are completely different.

Why B-to-B sales lead generation is different.

B-to-B sales lead generation is complex. Not only do you have to consider selling to multiple decision makers, you must also take into account your prospects’ industry trends and forecasts, budgetary constraints, a sales cycle that can take up to a year or more, and a host of other issues.

• Good leads start with in-depth research. To sell effectively, you must know the competitive dynamics of your prospects industry and have the insight on how those dynamics influence purchasing decisions.

• Identify all decision makers and influencers. Unlike consumer products, which are usually purchased by an individual, high-tech products and services come with buying groups or teams made up of diverse individuals – all of whom have their own unique interests, needs and preferences. To close more sales, you must identify all decision makers, influencers and end-users of your product or service and then speak each person’s “language.”

• Conduct “peer-to-peer” conversations. If you outsource your lead generation function, this element is crucial. You must ensure call center representatives are highly skilled and highly trained. Your prospects, who may be CEOs, EVPs, IT managers and the like, expect to talk with people who know their industry, their company, and their products. Don’t let poorly paid TSRs (Telemarketing Sales Reps), who are under the gun to make 200 or more calls a day, represent your business.

• Nurture long-term prospects. In B-to-B, buying cycle can be long – sometimes up to a year or more. Sales people, who are naturally focused on prospects ready to buy, tend to neglect not-so-hot prospects, essentially leaving the door open for your competitors. To avoid this danger, develop strategies for long-term nurturing using the phone, direct mail and other methods.

• B-to-B lead generation is a complex process. Strategies that are effectively being used to increase sales for B-to-C don’t necessarily transfer over to B-to-B.

Learn more about the differences between B2B and B2C lead generation from our article, The Difference Between B-to-B and B-to-C Sales Lead Generation on our website. Also be sure to check out the other great information that is posted there as well.

By: Sharon Daniels

If you’re in a contemplative sort of mood, you might find interest in the idea that when you look inside, you can find great strength. It’s a fascinating idea on the personal level, that if we are self-reflective, we can awaken our consciousness on many levels.

Of added interest is the fact that this idea also works for the sales organization. If you think of an organization’s sales goals, it makes sense that outside salespeople who meet face-to-face with customers are the traditionally accepted source of revenue. Outside salespeople are, perhaps, an obvious way to actualize sales goals. But when an organization also considers the inside sales force as a way to complement the efforts of the outside sales representatives, then this truly awakens the sales process, making sales goals more reachable.

In our recent report on the role of inside sales in winning business, we found that more and more organizations are counting on their inside sales teams to draw on, and build upon, commitments from new and existing customers. Just look at these trends:

• Inside sales is anticipated to grow at 15 times the rate of outside sales.
• Since 2007, the average size of inside sales groups has almost tripled.

When you look at the reasons behind the trend, it makes complete sense. For example, it’s estimated that inside salespeople average two hundred outbound calls and e-mails per week. That’s a tremendous opportunity when it comes to reaching prospects and existing customers.

So while it is true that face-to-face selling still has unmatched value, it’s the wise organization that deploys or awakens the remarkable power of the inside sales team in its efforts to reach its sales goals.

Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida