B2B Lead Generation Blog

Best Books of the Decade for Marketing and Selling Services

Rain Today, a great resource for those who market and sell services, selected their Best Books of the Decade for marketing and selling professional services. I was humbled to see that they picked my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale for their list.

They write, "Brian Carroll’s book is chock-full of information to help you identify ideal leads, align sales and marketing, build a strong pipeline, and effectively use lead-generation tactics."

If you market or sell professional services or have a complex sale be sure to put these “best of the decade” on your reading list.

• Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
• Guerilla Marketing for Consultants by Jay Conrad Levinson and Michael W. McLaughlin
• Writing White Papers by Michael Stelzner
• Winning the Professional Services Sale by Michael W. McLaughlin
• Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss
• Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
• Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi 
• New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
• Professional Services Marketing by Michael Schultz & John Doerr 
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• Rain Making: Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field by Ford Harding 
• Strategy and the Fat Smoker by David Maister 
• The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford

RainToday: Best of the Decade: Marketing & Selling Professional Services, 2000-2009

Announcing a new family member

I seldom write personal posts but I'm making an exception to share my joy. Lydia Faith Carroll was born on 7/8/09. She is 7lbs 6oz and 19 inches long. Mindy and Lydia are doing great!

Lydia getting some rest : )

Our first family photo with Lydia as a happy family of five! I feel very grateful and blessed.

The 20 Best CRM Blogs of 2008

Inside CRM ranked the top CRM blogs based on their insights, readability and frequency of posting. I'm honored to have been included on the list.

As I read over the list (which includes 20 blogs) I discovered some new ones worth reading along with bloggers already follow like Jim Berkowitz, who writes the CRM Mastery Blog; John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing Blog and Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba who write the Church of the Customer Blog. I feel honored to be included in such great company.

Read Inside CRM's complete list "The Best CRM Blogs of 2008"

Lead nurturing putting the human touch into action with video and email

I had a great time doing my webinar on putting the human touch into lead generation sponsored by Citrix Online and we had almost 1600 people register. Wow!

In my presentation I emphasized how lead nurturing is about timing, consistency and relevance.

Today (which happens to be my 38th birthday) I got this email with a personal video from Gary Anderson, CEO of NetBriefings. I wanted to share this with you because I think it is a great example of lead nurturing by combining the human touch and timing in a personal way that connected with their business value proposition.

Brian, I heard it was your Birthday today! Here is my personal Birthday Video Greeting!

http://proclaim.netbriefings.com/flv/nb/nsux9/nbnsux9101573/   

Have a Great Day!!!!  You deserve it!!

Gary W. Anderson

The video is 29 seconds but it made my day and I must confess that it caused me to think about his company (which is the point). Please note: it's not a polished or pretty video but he put in some effort to be personal and that's what made it stand out. That said, I don't think this would work for everybody.  Let me know what you think.

Webinar on Putting the Human Touch into Lead Generation

There are numerous tactics for generating leads these days — everything from the traditional email or phone call to the explosively popular social media craze. However, the real challenge is not necessarily in generating leads, but more in truly connecting with them. It doesn’t matter how many leads you generate if they aren’t willing to listen to what you have to say next.

You need to develop and then engage in memorable and relevant conversations with prospects. You need to position your company as a thought leader and solution provider that understands your prospect’s needs. You need that “human touch.”

During this one-hour, live webinar you will learn how to:

• Engage your prospects with memorable and relevant conversations
• Build and maintain quality relationships with potential clients
• Develop a lead-nurturing process that really works
• Recapture lost leads and opportunities

I’m teaming up with Citrix Online to bring this webinar to marketers of all levels. Whether you are a VP of Marketing, a VP or Director of Sales, or a Sales or Marketing Consultant, you’ll learn how to connect by sharing your expertise.

Watch the archived webinar on demand

The 2008 Top of the Funnel List

Craig Rosenberg recently created a list of the most influential people in B2B Demand Generation, and I’m honored to have been included. Many know Craig through his blog, Funnelholic, or through his company Tippit. Funnelholic is a very insightful and original B2B marketing blog written for those marketers who live and work at the top of the B2B funnel.

Others bloggers named to Craig’s 2008 Top of the Funnel List include Jon Miller, the author of Modern B2B Marketing blog, and Michael Stelzner, the author of Writing White Papers Blog and many other great resources. I feel privileged to be in such great company. Thanks Craig. Check out the Craig's 2008 Top of the Funnel List

Coming on September 22: Email vs. Phone vs. In-Person Meeting? Four Viewpoints

To what extent can you substitute emails for telephone calls and face-to-face meetings when maintaining and developing relationships with clients and other key market contacts? The answer to this frequently-asked-question affects how you spend your precious business development time and money.  Getting it right will improve your sales effectiveness.  No wonder it’s so frequently asked.  But what is the answer?

On September 22, four bloggers will post their answers simultaneously.  They are:

1. Ford Harding, student of selling professional services.
2. Tom Kane, specialist on marketing and selling legal services.
3. Mark Buckshon, prodigious blogger and specialist on marketing and selling design and construction services.
4. Yours Truly.

We hope this attention to the issue generates conversation on the subject with all of our readers.

Fear not! Think like a savvy investor with lead generation

This morning I was talking to a marketing leader about his 2008 strategy and he brought up some concerns he had about the economy and its potential impact on him and others. Can you blame him?

In years past, marketing has been favorite target for cuts by CFOs and CEOs as they look to conserve cash and reinforce their balance sheets for tough times.

I’m less concerned about budget cuts and more interested in opportunities for him and other B2B marketers who choose to bring focus to their marketing efforts. We have to remember that regardless of the economy, sales people are still expected to perform. I seldom find sales quotas are lowered to fit the news headlines.

If you want to flourish regardless of the economic conditions, you need to look for ways to help your sales team execute and improve performance.

I’m convinced that one of the best ways to do that is to focus on lead generation. Yesterday, I read a Kate Maddox's article in BtoB Magazine, "IDC: Tougher times for tech marketing," which supports that other B2B marketers are doing just that.

Much like a savvy investor who buys when the market is down, smart marketers can capitalize on this opportunity (and beat competitors), by bringing focus and attention to their lead generation efforts.

Where's the passion in B2B marketing?

I spoke yesterday at MarketingSherpa's Demand Generation Summit and I felt led to go off topic for a bit to address why I do, what I do. Personally, I've been pondering the idea of passion and what role it plays in our careers as marketers or leaders.

Read Mike Volpe's summary of my presentation at the the Small Business Hub Blog.

In my short aside, I ended up talking about things we marketers often don't talk about. Our heart. What drives us? What role does the heart play in our job as marketers?

How do we create relevance for ourselves, our colleagues, and those future customers we hope to reach and influence?

Can you market something without passion and still be successful? If so, why would you want to?

I've wondered how we can be passionate advocates to others outside our companies if we don't have close relationships and trust inside our companies?

To me, disharmony is the enemy of execution. I liked something Seth wrote a while back, "...just about every successful venture is based on an unoriginal idea, beautifully executed." I agree.

In this age of automation, depersonalization, scoring and measurement, I'm not seeing the "human touch" in B2B marketing. So how can we humanize the process and actually build relationships?

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.