B2B Lead Generation Blog

The One Piece Of Advice You Can't Generate Leads Without

The staff at Raintoday approached a group of B2B lead generation experts with the following question: "What is the one piece of advice you simply cannot generate leads without?"

The result was a special 36-page report with 10 all-new articles (mine included) aptly named "The One Piece Of Advice You Can't Generate Leads Without." I think you'll find it valuable.

Download your copy 

The expert authors and advice includes:

1. Trash Talk And Delete Buttons: A Candid Letter From Your Prospective Client
   Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies
2. More Is Not Better If You Don't Know How To Nurture
   Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch Inc and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale
3. Find Out What Your Sales Team Considers A Lead
   Stefan Tornquist, Research Director & Sean Donahue, Senior Reporter, MarketingSherpa
4. If You Can't Measure It, Don't Do It
   Suzanne Lowe, President of Expertise Marketing and author of Marketplace Masters
5. Automate Lead Nurturing To Increase Lead Generation Effectiveness
   Laura Ramos, Vice President of Forrester's Marketing Strategy and Technology Team
6. Generating Leads By Finding Buyers In Trouble
   Larry Bodine, Owner-Operator of LawMarketing Portal and Larry Bodine Marketing
7. Tales To Keep Them Talking
   Ardath Albee, B2B Marketing Strategist, Marketing Interactions 
8. Promising Prospect - Or Dead End? Start By Defining A Lead
   Roy Young, President with Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
9. All Sound And Fury, Signifying Nothing: Executing Your Lead Generation Plan
   Mike Schultz, Publisher, RainToday.com and Principal, Wellesley Hills Group
10. B2B Sales Lead Success Checklist
    M.H. (Mac) McIntosh, B2B Marketing Consultant, The B2B Sales Lead Experts

B2B Marketing and lead generation via Social networking

Have you dipped your toe in the water of social networking yet? And if not, should you start? That's a question I know a lot of very busy B2B marketers ask themselves which is why I found Tessa Wegert's ClickZ article on "Facebook as a B2B Marketing Tool" interesting.

In the article, Wegert highlights how some marketers are experimenting with using the Facebook site for proactive marketing and build targeted niche networks and B2B communities.

I've been using LinkedIn for several years because it's geared more for business people. But I’ve heard the audience demographic of the Facebook is now moving from being focused on college kids to becoming a place for adults.

Overall, social networking sites are proving to be great tools for job seekers and recruiting. But I still wonder about the value of social networking tools for lead generation and business development that Wegert's article brings up.

In B2B, I think our reputation matters as much as our brand. Like traditional networks, online social networks must be built on trust and value to be effective. In either case, you can't replace credibility lost, if you fail to use them correctly.

I have a few hundred people in my online social network and more in my off line network. But I've found it takes just as much effort to use social networking tools to nurture relationships online as it does to nurture relationships off line. So in the end, I end up connecting more with my network offline or using old standbys like the phone or email.

Here's my question…

If you use social networking tools, I'd love to get your input. Do you think a typical marketer or sales person (who isn't a good “networker” already) can build relationships and generate sales leads for their company from a social networking tool? Why or why not?

Closed Loop Marketing Isn't Software

I recently spoke with a reader who was struggling with his closed loop marketing process. I'm sharing part of our conversation so that other readers may benefit.

He explained that his company had invested "big dollars" to install a new marketing automation software system. It promised to deliver better ROI measurement for their marketing campaigns. I could hear his frustration when he said, "But we are still unable to close-the-loop and measure ROI on most of the sales leads we pass to sales." 

I asked him where he thought the breakdown was happening and he said, "my sales team... They don't update the CRM so I can't get the reports I need." I told him this is a challenge that a lot of marketers face.

I then sent him a link to a post titled why don't sales people update the CRM and what can be done about it. It has some great ideas and comments from other readers.

Overall, I agree with the idea of software and systems for better ROI measurement and accountability. And I do believe the CRM Database should be the hub of all communication between sales and marketing. But closed-loop marketing isn't software.

Personally, I've never seen closed-loop feedback suddenly erupt as a result of software. It just doesn't happen. Good collaboration and a well documented process (that works manually) must exist first.

We need to realize that marketers and sales people often have very different ideas on what data is valuable. Unless this is understood, our attempts to measure results after the fact simply won't work. And that's where I've found "lead generation huddles" help get that ironed out.

I also passed along this recent article "Closed Loop Marketing" by Greg Anderson. I think Anderson does a nice job explaining some of different ways that closed loop marketing adds value and contributes to sales and marketing teamwork. 

Off topic: Response to meme - 8 Random Things About Me

Ardath Albee, over at Marketing Interactions, tagged me for a meme "8 random things about me." Let me see... random…

Okay this is off the top of my head:

1. I’m the oldest of three
2. I disliked writing until I started blogging (nearly 5 years ago)
3. Seriously thought about being a musician / song writer
4. I love books and I'm a voracious reader
5. My "too read" pile of books is still 3 feet high!
6. I love road biking with my wife (want to bike across Europe)
7. I’m going to write another book... but when?
8. I’ve visited 49 out of 50 states (Alaska some day…)

Well that's about as random as I could get. Ardath, thanks for the tag.

To spread the joy, I'm going to tag the following 5 people:

Michael Stelzner - White paper marketing guru
David Meerman Scott - Thought leadership and viral marketing wiz
Harry Joiner - Marketing headhunter extraordinaire
John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing fame
Tom Pick - PR and viral marketing

Be sure to check out their blogs some time, I read all of them regularly.

Content ideas for lead nurturing and tactics to use

When it comes to lead nurturing, I find that many marketers get stuck because they lack enough good content to do it consistently. My advice (if you plan to do it) is to start accumulating content and building your lead nurturing library ASAP.

How do you build your library of relevant lead nurturing content?

A lead nurturing program can leverage existing investments that you have made in other marketing tactics such as events, white papers, contributed articles, or any other thought leading content. Third-party resources and content can also be effectively utilized to bring you an aspect of credibility through the the halo effect.

Begin by developing a catalog (think library) of all of your lead nurturing content. Unfortunately, if you have a lot of content this can be tedious process. But trust me it's worth it. To help you get started, I’ve put together a simple spreadsheet (with example data).  Download Lead-Nurturing-Content-Catalog-Sample.xls

Next, start digging around for good content in places such as your website, shared network folders and other content management systems that you have access too and collect that data in your spreadsheet. I advise starting with the most recent content first and then working your way back in time. And once you're done, be sure to keep your lead nurturing library catalog updated.

Here are some tactics you can use to leverage your lead nurturing content:

What can you send via direct mail?
The workhorse of business-to-business direct mail is still the one-page, personalized letter sent in a #10 envelope. Here are some direct mail content ideas: personal letters, dimensional mailers, books, newsletters, press releases, white papers, event invitations, research reports, case studies, success stories, article reprints and third-party articles.

What can you send via email?
Send personalized one-to-one emails with links to: by-lined articles, blog posts, relevant third party articles, case studies, press releases, white papers, e-newsletters, event invitations, archived events, research reports, blogs, success stories, case studies, videos, podcasts, and website content.

How can you leverage events?
Invite people to attend events such as: trade shows, live seminars, webinars, webcasts, executive briefings, workshops, conferences, road shows, speaking engagements and on demand events. Leverage past archived and recorded (archived) events with email links.

What can you do online?
Be sure to give your audience a way to subscribe to get updates either via RSS or via email. Here are some online examples such as: blog posts, podcasts, vidcasts, webinars, e-books, personalized microsites, wikis, and other multimedia.

What can you do via the phone?
Share new ideas, develop relationships, confirm correct contacts, get internal referrals, be sure to always get opt-in email addresses, personal invitations to events, reengage aged opportunities and identify sales ready leads.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of ideas but it should get you started. You might also find value in my recent webinar on lead nurturing relevant.

Do you have any other lead nurturing content ideas that you'd like to share?

Webcast: Closed-Loop Lead Generation & Management

Join me for a complimentary webinar on how to "Achieve a Closed-Loop System for Lead Generation and Management."

In this webcast, you'll learn how to:

• Identify and overcome the 5 barriers to closing the loop
• Get feedback on all leads to “close the loop” 100% of the time
• Qualify leads and hand them off with out "dropping the baton"
• Identify your lead generation tactics that drive the most leads
• Make sure that all qualified leads are fully pursued by sales 
• Develop a measurable marketing pipeline that drives the sales 
• Connect your tactics together for better ROI measurement

Update: the event went really well. And I've got a lot of great feedback and questions.

You can now watch the recorded archive

Thank you to ON24 for sponsoring and to the AMA for hosting the event.

7 Tips to Improve Sales Follow-up & Close More Leads

If you are like most B2B marketers, lead generation is at top of your priority list. But as you may already know, generating tons of “leads” doesn’t guarantee sales will follow.

Does the sales team either ignore your hard-won leads or complain about their quality? Do you ever wonder was the lead even contacted? If so, what’s the status?  Could you have helped move it along by going deeper in the sales cycle?

This chronic lack of visibility has a snowball effect of making it challenging for marketers to measure their effectiveness and understand their return on marketing investment (ROMI). So what can be done about it? 

Here's 7 Tips to Improve Sales Follow-up

1. Get buy in from sales team on your "sales ready" lead definition
2. Provide qualification information for each sales lead
3. Qualify and Distribute sales ready leads immediately
4. Communicate hand off to sales person
5. Measure sales pursuit - If lead not followed up it will be pulled / reassigned
6. Regularly close the loop -what gets measured gets done
7. Sales management must also audit and track rep follow-up

How often do you close the loop? I’ve found the most powerful way to improve sales follow-up on marketing generated leads is doing more frequent sales and marketing huddles.

Read Collaboration Huddles and 35 Other Ways to Improve Sales and Marketing Teamwork

Finally, if you’re using these tips already and still feel that your marketing and sales teams are working against each other instead of being on the same team, you could have some challenges with office politics read on.

MarketingSherpa just published an interview with Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez from a marketing view point and Barry Trailer, Co-Founder, CSO Insights who brings a sales perspective. Together Phil and Barry share seven other strategies to get both sides talking including how to:

• Model the sales/marketing funnel
• Develop a common vocabulary
• Create a closed-loop reporting process

MarketingSherpa: Overcoming Office Politics - 7 Strategies to Generate & Close More Leads.

Related posts:

Closed Loop Feedback: The Missing Lead Generation Huddle
Closed-Loop Marketers More Likely to Reach ROMI Goals
Podcast: Using Closed Loop Feedback to Boost Lead Generation ROI