B2B Lead Generation Blog

B2B Marketing: Playbook for sales and marketing alignment

Be honest. How does Sales perceive the leads Marketing produces?

1. They love them – couldn’t be happier!
2. They complain about lead quality.
3. They complain about lead volume.
4. The say leads, what leads? Marketing gives us leads?

If you chose answer number #1, the first thing I would say is, “Well done.” The second thing I would say is, “When is the last time you’ve talked with your sales team?” 

The lack of synergy between Sales and Marketing on lead generation is so common as to risk cliché. To help sales and marketing teams address this issue, on September 15th in San Jose, CA I’ll be presenting “Playbook for Marketing and Sales Alignment: How to Collaborate to Optimize Lead Generation Programs” at Frost & Sullivan’s GIL (Growth, Innovation, Leadership) 2010: Silicon Valley.

Frost & Sullivan refers to GIL as “The Global Community of Growth, Innovation and Leadership.” I’m looking forward to attending to share new ideas about BtoB marketing with CMOs and VPs and Directors of Marketing.

I’m presenting during the GIL 2010 University interactive workshop on the last day of GIL which focuses on BtoB marketing, but GIL is an interdisciplinary event that covers innovations in everything from industry-specific supplier partnerships to global CEO’s perspectives on developing an opportunity pipeline.

So if you chose answer #2, #3 or #4 to the above question, I’d love to see you in San Jose to hear about your challenges and help you learn how to address this proverbial “black hole” between your company's sales and marketing efforts. You'll learn from you peers during this session. 

As a speaker, I’m able to pass along this special registration offer:
Register for the GIL and the BtoB Marketing Workshop and save $400 (discount code MecLabs 400)
Register for the BtoB Marketing Workshop only (WS2) and save $150 (discount code MecLabs 150)
*Note: enter PARTICIPANT for the registration code

How to Generate Leads Using Search and Social Media webinar

Join me for a complimentary live webinar with MarketingSherpa's Todd Lebo and Jen Doyle on “How to Generate Leads Using Search and Social Media” 

Here's a chart of how Marketers are currently using Social Media. 

You're probably hearing the words "inbound marketing" more and more these days. The idea is simple - your sales team's pipeline magically fills as prospects seek your company out. Of course, it's easier said than done. To help generate revenue using search engines and social media sites you'll learn the following: 

• How to effectively deploy a search and social media campaign 
• Top 5 practices for integrating search and social for lead generation 
• How to optimize for search innovations 
• And much more... 

Get the slides (no registration required)

If you're looking for more resources around lead generation, MarketingSherpa's 7th annual B2B Summit is happening in October. If you're interested in attending, click here to save $500 (offer ends August 31).

P.S. If you have questions on generating leads using search and/or social media, post them in the comments section we'll discuss them during the webinar.

B2B Marketing: What are your biggest challenges and opportunities in the year ahead?

B2B marketers have been hit hard in recent years and have faced enormous challenges. One of the greatest challenges marketers continue to face is converting leads to pipeline revenue which could actually be the result of a bigger problem — marketers not generating high-quality leads in the first place.

This week, MarketingSherpa launched their 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey and they’re looking for B2B Marketers to provide their data and insights via this short survey. It’s your opportunity to give your opinion on best practices, tactics and results in the key areas of marketing automation, lead nurturing, lead scoring and managing the complex sale. As a thank you, all participants will receive an offer for a complimentary copy of the Executive Summary of the 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.

Take MarketingSherpa's 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey here

Learn the New Rules for Selling to Crazy-Busy Prospects

For those of us in marketing and sales, our jobs are even tougher thanks to the busy lives of the decision makers we're trying to reach. Overwhelmed, impossible deadlines, crazy busy - these are just some of the words today's decision makers are using to describe their lives at work - and probably outside of work as well.

The biggest hurdle we need to overcome is cutting through the clutter to show the decision makers information that is relevant and that will help them make their lives easier.

That’s why I’ve invited Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and her excellent new book SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business with Today's Frazzled Customers (May 2010) to help us address these issues.

During this webinar, you'll learn:

• How being super-busy impacts your prospect's thinking and their expectations of you.
• What factors your prospects use to determine if they'll continue the conversation or send you to the dreaded "D-Zone" where you're deleted, delayed or dismissed.
• The four new SNAP Rules for selling as applied to your prospect's First Decision.
• How to leverage the "mind meld" to increase your success rate significantly.

Watch recorded webinar on demand (no registration required)
Get the slides (no registration required)

BtoB 2010 Lead Generation Guide just published

BtoB Magazine just published their 2010 Lead Generation Guide. The guide contains information about trends, expert columns, market statistics and vendor lists.

Here's a few of the articles that I found relevant in the guide:

• Social media tips for demand generation
• Maximizing online content to fuel conversations, conversions
• Creating e-mails that generate leads
• Finding new ways to maximize your list
• Telemarketing can still ring up sales
• 7 tips on using e-mail to drive webinar attendance
• Reach customers throughout sales cycle and beyond
• Data and Charts

I recommend you check it out.

5 Steps To Creating A Lead Gen Machine & The Predictable Revenue That CEOs Love

In a recent post I talked about the most important B2B marketing metrics to CEO’s or what I believe CEO’s should be measuring. All too often Marketing is measuring one thing while the CEO’s are asking a question those measurements don’t answer. 

The biggest challenge for marketers is the quality vs. quantity tug-of-war. I think most realize quality leads are what sales wants (and the ones that will close) but the quantity of leads always seems to be top of mind with CEO’s which force marketers switch focus and bring in lots of leads instead of quality leads. What happens next? The CEO doesn’t see revenue (lots of leads don’t equal good leads) and then gets frustrated that marketing isn’t providing any ROI.

So, how do you build a lead generation program that generates quality leads, creates revenue, and meets your CEO's goals? To answer this question I’ve invited Aaron Ross, CEO of PebbleStorm and the author of "PREDICTABLE REVENUE: Lessons Learned From Growing Salesforce.com’s $1 Billion Sales Machine."

During the webinar you’ll learn: 

• How to build a lead generation machine that will predictably generate leads month-after-month
• How to ensure sales follows up on every lead
• The two things CEOs care MOST about that you must understand
• A simple 6-step call agenda to help salespeople convert new leads into qualified opportunities

Get the slides (no registration required)

100 Tips for Trade Show Lead Generation

Lead generation remains the top reason most companies exhibit at events and tradeshows. And B2B marketers are constantly looking for ideas they can use to drive more ROI from their events budget.

I came across this helpful post by Mike Thimmesch on 100 Trade Show Lead Generation Ideas that's worth checking out. The following is a sampling of Thimmesch's tips that I though were useful:

4. Go to fewer trade shows, but put more effort into booth staff preparation and promotions for each remaining show.
6. Track leads to determine and expand in the shows with the best ROI
9. Get a booth space closer to the hub of traffic, or by a bigger competitor
28. Have your sales people invite their prospects to visit your booth and set up meetings in advance
29. Send an email invitation to the show’s pre-registered attendee list for this year, and the registered attendee list from last year
30. Use social media to reach more attendees
32. Post your trade show schedule on your website with a link to sign up for appointments
45. Giveaway something useful to your target audience
46. Have a contest for attendees in your booth

After reading the list of 100, here’s a few more tips I would add:

1. Follow-up quickly after the event. Think about your follow-up process before the event happens not afterwards.
2. Create event follow-up content pieces, talking points and email templates for your sales team to use to add value and continue the conversation in a relevant way rather than "pitching" everybody.
3. Develop a nurturing track that for event attendees connects with the theme or the content of the event. Try to do this at least for a few months at minimum.
4. See the event as a conversation (or conversation starter) not a acampaign. Don't stop the dialog. Brainstorm ways you can keep the dialog going.

What other tips would you add to this list?

Related posts:
Lead Generation tips for Tradeshows Conferences

LinkedIn B2B Lead Generation Roundtable Group Turns One

Last year, I launched the B2B Lead Gen Roundtable Group on LinkedIn. It started with a simple goal: 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, social media and more.

We didn’t start the group to become the biggest; we just wanted it to be the best.

Amazingly, in less than a year, the group has grown to over 5,062 members with hundreds of discussions and thousands of helpful comments. With a such big community, It takes time to manage the spam and to keep the group focused but Brooke Bower (our fearless group manager at InTouch) is doing a great job. In fact, Brooke was written about in this post Go for Brooke by Michael Benidt and Sheryl Kay.

Thanks to all of the members whose contributions make this group a success. I can’t wait to see what another year will bring.

Join the B2B Lead Gen Roundtable on LinkedIn

Lead Generation 2.0 Critical Success Factor #9 Effectiveness

I recently wrote about the 8 critical success factors for lead generation 2.0. Then #9 came to mind – effectiveness. Simply put, make the most of what you have. Its too easy to fall into the trap of selling everything to everybody, or deluding yourself that the reason for more leads isn’t access to endless resources.

Check out the MarketingExperiments Quarterly Research Journal. It's a 112-page publication is full great ideas to help you boost your lead generation, website, email, social media and make your overall marketing more effective. I contributed some research in the report on lead nurturing too.

Also, I think you'll find this post, "On Effectiveness: Think more, and do less" relevant too. It gives tips on how to become a "strategic quitter" so can focus you energy where you'll make the biggest difference with your marketing and lead generation and marketing.

Related Resources
2010 Online Marketing ROI Tour - boost your online marketing effectiveness

8 Critical Success Factors for Lead Generation 2.0

The single biggest issue for B2B marketers is effective lead generation. I wrote an eight part series on building an effective lead generation program a while back. To help readers who missed the series, I pulled all the posts together in order.

In this series, you'll read the following posts:

1: The Right Mindset: Conversations, not campaigns
2: Sales and Marketing - One Team
3: Develop and intensify your Ideal Customer Profile 
4: Clear and Universal Lead Definition
5: Treat your marketing database as a valued asset
6: A Multi-modal lead generation portfolio approach
7: Effective lead management
8: Lead nurturing for lead development

You may also find this ebook that connects with the series relevant.

Ebook: Start With a Lead: Eight CRITICAL Success Factors for Lead Generation

View more presentations from Brian Carroll.

Can you think of other critical success factors I’m missing?