B2B Lead Generation Blog

Lead Nurturing is Walking the Buying Path with Your Customers

A recent study of B-to-B buyers shows that sales people who become trusted advisors and understand the needs of economic buyers are 69% more likely to come away with a sale! That’s why forming a plan for lead nurturing is such an integral part of your lead generation process.

I wrote an full article that outlines the basic steps to help you get started down the path of lead nurturing success, but here’s a quick synopsis:

1. Walk IN your potential customers’ shoes.This means thinking like your customer and considering the questions they will have for you and your company.Consider the questions that customers have in mind before they make a buying decision:

    * How will this product/service help my company?
    * We’re doing okay, why do we need it?
    * Is there another company out there that is better?
    * Will their solution really work? Can they prove it?
    * Is the company credible?
    * Can we afford it? 

Help prospects find the answers to these questions, and you’ll remind them of the benefits of working with you. You’re creating value by giving them useful information in digestible, bite sized chunks.

2. Plan your path. Figure out which methods of answering these questions work best for your company. They’ll have to be timely and relevant.

3. Now, walk the path WITH your customer. Think of yourself as a tour guide. You’ll need to keep your prospect company along the way, all the while building trust through an honest relationship. Most economic buyers subscribe to the notion that how you sell me indicates how you will serve me.

4. Keep marching. Make sure you put on some comfy shoes, because complex sales require a long-term commitment and lots of walking. Companies that make plans with this fact in mind are tremendously more successful than companies who are set on taking shortcuts.

Read the full article "Lead Nurturing is Walking the Buying Path with Your Customers"

Free inbound marketing training program to help you get ahead

If you are a marketing professional looking to gain new skills in this competitive workforce or a marketer between jobs check out the Inbound Marketing University’s marketing retraining program. All classes will be taught by industry experts with years of hands-on experience in the topics they will be discussing.

I will discuss Inbound Lead Nurturing. This class will be based on my 14 years of experience creating and executing lead nurturing programs for InTouch. Other classes focus on effective blogging, SEO tactics, uses for Facebook and LinkedIn, and landing page best practices.

You can check out all the classes at: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university

Other professors leading courses include: Chris Brogan from New Marketing Labs, Mack Collier and Ann Handley both from MarketingProfs, Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz, Eric Groves  from Constant Contact, Jeanne Hopkins  from MarketingExperiments, Lee Odden  from Top Rank Online Marketing, David Meerman Scott, author of New Rules of Marketing & PR and Marshall Sponder from Monster.com.

B2B Lead Generation Roundtable Group on LinkedIn

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called 5 steps for using LinkedIn as a lead generation tool and step number five was ‘create your own LinkedIn group and share relevant content.’

Well, last Thursday I launched the B2B Lead Gen Roundtable Group on LinkedIn. I wanted to create a group to discuss and share ideas that focus on the many aspects of B2B lead generation such as lead nurturing, lead management, teleprospecting and more.
 
I’m jazzed at how fast the group is growing and even more excited about the discussions that are already taking place.

My first question to the group was if lead distribution should be fair or optimized? What do you do? Do you invest your hard won leads on your top performers or do you try to help your weaker sales people? In this economy should we take a Darwinian view of lead generation and focus on helping the strong sales people get stronger?

What’s your take on lead distribution? I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Join the B2B Lead Gen Roundtable group and let me know your thoughts.

Using Kaizen to improve your lead generation results in 90 days or less

B2B companies need a systematic approach to lead generation, yet, I’m constantly surprised to find that most do not have one. Michael Webb, President of Sales Performance Consultants, and I met a few years back when I began writing my book and he was working on his.

Over time, we came to realize that our approaches to designing and implementing lead generation process were complimentary. Michael uses the Kaizen approach, which is a method of driving improvements based on evidence and data, and for establishing a system that continuously improves results.

I was recently interviewed by Michael for an article: “Using Kaizen to Improve Your Lead Generation Results in 90 Days or Less.” In the article, Michael and I look at the problems with lead generation and share research conducted that addresses these challenges along with the following topics:

• Collaboration: lead generation and sales Kaizen
• Creating information offers to generate leads
• Developing content for lead generation campaigns
• How to organize a fast attack on lead generation problems
• Five steps to lead generation success

Read Using Kaizen to Improve Your Lead Generation Results in 90 Days or Less