B2B Lead Generation Blog

Web Analytics for B2B Lead Generation

In the complex sale, the length of the buying cycle makes the connection between on-the-web activity and the off-line decision to purchase much more difficult to trace. So the challenge is connecting our website data (analytics), with marketing data (inquiries and leads) with the sales process and revenue (closing the loop). 

I came across Manoj Jasra post, "B2B Web Analytics: Deeper Dive - Web Analytics World" and thought it was relevant to share.   

Jasra writes, "in order to be successful in a B2B world, marketers require a strong understanding in regards to their potential customers. Things such as lead qualification, targeting in the sales cycle, and testing content/collateral are all areas where analysts can push the envelope in order to provide more insight for their marketing team."

Jasra's post outlines four key analytic areas which include: quality of leads, sales cycle, optimizing your content (for SEO and conversion) and conversion rates and funnels.

Here are some posts that give more suggestions on analytics.

Related posts:

Tracking ROI From Web Generated Leads
Improve your online lead generation measurement

I still think there is a lot of improvement that needs to be made in this area. Are you satisfied with your ability to track your online lead generation ROI? If so, what's been working for you?

Why cost-per-lead budgets fail and fewer leads are better

A reader asked me to explain why fewer leads are better and why “cost-per-lead” budgets fail. These are two great questions that have the same fundamental answer: quality first then quantity.

The truth is that sales people care very little about the cost of the leads we generate. What they really care about is how many of those leads will actually become viable sales opportunities.

For this reason, I think cost-per-lead measurements are irrelevant unless we can answer another fundamental question first, “What is our rate of lead acceptance (a.k.a. sales pursuit) into the sales pipeline” and then “What is the cost per opportunity?”

Sadly, I find that a lot of marketers tend focus on cost-per-lead because they really don’t know what happens to their leads after they hand them off to their sales team. This is why closed loop feedback and lead management are so important.

B2B Marketers must start measuring cost-per-opportunity now! Why? It’s the one metric that can help you understand how well your sales team accepts and pursues leads.  Ultimately, it shows if your leads are actually helping our sales team sell and if we’re positively contributing to their pipeline.

Lead acceptance into pipeline is primarily a function of lead quality.  There are other influences such as sales training and refining the lead handoff process, but lead quality stands out as the single largest factor driving the real ROI of our lead generation programs. 

In a cost-per-lead model there is a tendency to drive down the cost of each lead by generating more leads, which is good if the quality does not suffer.  However, this is rarely the case since there are a finite number of high quality sales ready leads in your target market at any given time.

The real question is, “Are these leads helping our sales team sell more and will these leads become profitable customers?” 

In most cases in order to get more leads to sales (as they demand more leads now!), marketing is forced to send early stage leads, often at the inquiry stage in order to meet quota or cost per lead requirements. Of course, the need for more leads does not come with a commensurate budget increase!

Simply sending more leads over the fence to sales will only result in more early stage leads being lost, ignored or discarded.  And if your early stage leads are not being cultivated with lead nurturing and given the attention they need, they will go to waste. Unfortunately in a cost-per-lead scenario this waste will not be measured, rather only your lead production costs.

There is no doubt that a cost focused mindset is a lot different than a value driven mindset.  The cost focused mindset often drives decisions that are arbitrary to the objectives of a lead generation program. The most valuable leads are those that your sales team can convert to viable sales opportunities, not just leads that drive more activity.

Pushing more leads and creating more activity can give marketers a false sense of security in the short term, but in the long term the cycle of failed campaigns will continue as past failures are dismissed, overlooked or as fingers are pointed.  To break the cycle, we must close the loop with sales and start measuring opportunities.

The following are real-world metrics that every marketer should track in their lead generation program:

• # of inquiries? 
• # of leads? (qualified as "sales-ready")
• # of opportunities (leads in moved into sales pipeline)? 
• # of closed deals from marketing leads?

If you know those metrics you can start to track the following key performance indicators:

• Inquiry to lead ratio
• Lead to opportunity
• Lead to proposal ratio
• Lead to sale (win) ratio

A value driven mindset requires leaders and marketers to plan and budget for the long term and to take a more holistic view that goes beyond cost-per-lead budgets. Cost-per-lead budgets are irrelevant unless you can first measure cost-per-opportunity or cost-per-lead-pursued and lead quality is a key driver in insuring that those leads are pursued.

What do you think about cost-per-lead budgets or sending fewer high quality leads to sales people? 

B2B Lead management is far from an easy task

Companies that adopt effective lead management processes generate more revenue from their lead generation investment and have overall higher close rates on marketing generated leads than those that do not. But I've encountered very few companies that really do lead management.

What is lead management? Lead management is a multistage process that manages the conversion of sales leads to customers. Some people say it's the process of going from "first contact to close."

In Christopher Hosford’s BtoB Magazine article, he highlights some of the reasons why "Lead management far from easy task."

The article mainly highlight’s "lead scoring and automation," but that’s only part of the solution. Lead scoring and automation support a process of lead qualification, but I would argue that there are more fundamental aspects of lead management that often get overlooked.

Take a moment and think about your lead management efforts... do you see it as process? 

Imagine that your lead management process is a manufacturing operation and your leads are your product. Now imagine that 80% of your product coming off the manufacturing line were defective. In the manufacturing world, where concepts like six sigma are accepted, that kind of defect rate would a blinding sign of a problem (or multiple ones) in the process. Yet, for some reason, in sales and marketing that kind of defect rate is often accepted as normal or acceptable. 

There are numerous business process improvement methodologies that have seeped into companies large and small, but for some reason they are not yet as prevalent in the field of sales and marketing.

This may be because much of selling and buying occurs outside a controlled environment making tracking difficult, however a process can be implemented to track milestones and touch points. Lead management provides a framework for controlling and driving that process.   

Here are the 6 major stages of an effective lead management:

1. Lead Generation (generating inquiries)
2. Lead Qualification (are they a fit? Are they sales ready?)
3. Lead Nurturing (cultivating early stage leads)
4. Lead Distribution (hand off from marketing to sales)
5. Lead Pursuit (sales process and pipeline)
6. Lead Tracking and reporting (closed the loop between sales and marketing)

Do you have your process for each of these steps documented and understood by key stakeholders? If not, start now. You won't regret it.

To give you a hand, I've updated a figure from Lead Generation for the Complex Sale on lead management. (Click above Image to enlarge or Download PDF)

I believe there are two funnels - a marketing funnel and a sales funnel. The marketing pipeline is managing the customer interactions from first contact through to a viable sales opportunity (aka sales ready lead). The success of your marketing funnel directly impacts that of the sales funnel. The bigger and better your marketing funnel, the bigger and better your sales funnel.

Within the marketing funnel, I find that most marketers need to put more attention on the processes of lead qualification and nurturing.

Here are the top three issues:

1. Inquiries are improperly handed off to sales without being qualified.
2. A lead nurturing program has not been implemented.
3. Sales has not been given the means to hand unsuccessful leads back to marketing for further work or nurturing on their behalf.

Like other business process improvement initiatives, lead management must start with the proper mindset. Lead management is a process that can be documented, measured and refined. 

It’s certainly is not easy, so start with the mindset that lead management is a process and make that process as simple a possible. Don’t forget that software does NOT create collaboration. Make sure everyone on in the process has “bought in” and understands their role. Only then will you have the foundation that will support a more complex lead management practices.

Related information:

Here's an in-depth article on lead qualification I wrote for Target Marketing: What’s a Lead?

My recent webinar on multi-touch lead nurturing 

On Alignment between Marketing and Finance

Many marketers are quickly approaching their favorite time of year.  Okay, not really. I'm of course talking about budget time.

When I see the challenge that marketers face when it comes to getting their budgets approved, I wonder why it has to be so hard?

Last year, I highlighted a report  by MarketingSherpa which concludes that marketers need to do a better job capturing and communicating their value.  According the MarketingSherpa research, "...only 17% of B-to-B marketers we queried were sure their CFOs understood the value of lead generation programs."

Last week, I read a short BtoB article by Carol Krol that shows that this continues to be a challenge. Her article summarizes some new research by the Association of National Advertisers in conjunction with Marketing Management Analytics.

Krol writes, "The study found that a relationship between marketing and finance is often lacking. Sixty-one percent of marketers surveyed for the study said there is “some” cooperation between the two departments when establishing metrics and methodologies for measuring marketing ROI, while only 22% said there was “full” cooperation."

Each discipline is vital to the success of the company and they must work together as team. But I believe that most of our colleagues in finance don’t fully understand marketing. It’s not a surprise that financial executives still view marketing as an expense, a.k.a. cost center, rather than viewing it as an asset that creates revenue.

As marketers we need to do more to educate our peers on the value of marketing. We need to act as one team and seek to understand each other better and learn each other’s language. Bottom line: it's the numbers.  So why not begin with that? 

I think the late Dale Carnegie has a great quote in his perennial best seller, How to Win Friends and Influence People that summarizes my point.

He writes, “I go fishing up in Maine every summer. Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream; but I find that for some strange reason fish prefer worms. So when I go fishing, I don’t think about what I want. I think about what they want. I don’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangle a worm or a grasshopper in front of the fish and say: “Wouldn’t you like to have that?” Why not use the same common sense when fishing for people?”

Related post: Budget Wars: Sales & Finance vs Marketing

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. 

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

Early Stage Leads are too important for Sales People Alone

The management of sales leads is critical to generating Return on Marketing Investment.  Sadly, sales leads often land on the scrap heap because marketers throw leads over the wall and then expect sales people to catch them.

Last year, I linked to a David Meerman Scott's post, Sales Leads Are Too Valuable For Sales People Alone. He just wrote (round two) and I think it's worth checking out.

David writes, "...Salespeople may argue with me, but I think it is better at the early stages of the buying process NOT to pass names to sales unless the buyer is absolutely ready to move forward..."

I agree. The key is to match readiness of the buyer with expectations of your sales team. Otherwise you'll have a serious disconnect. You need to examine each lead ask if they are "sales ready" meaning they are ready to speak to a sales person.

Often when prospects have an identified need, they can spend months researching and seeking information on solutions that may satisfy that need. They are seeking education and information but would rather not talk to a sales person yet. This is why I think marketers should hold back and nurture early stage leads (with a human touch) on behalf of their sales team.

The goal of lead nurturing is to maintain a relevant and consistent dialog with viable leads - regardless of their timing to purchase - until they are sales ready. A key aspect of lead nurturing is the ability to provide valuable education and information to prospects up front, so that you become more than an expert; you become a trusted advisor.

Lead nurturing is a multi-touch process. Without lead nurturing program in place, I've found that early stage leads receive just 1 or maybe 2 touches before they are handed off to sales people. And that's not enough, especially if you have a complex sale. At InTouch, we’ve found early stage leads may require 8 to 12 (or more) meaningful nurturing touches before they are truly sales ready.

In cases where your experience tells you that a lead is sales-ready, or would best be in the hands of a salesperson, you should create an exception code or status. I recommend asking the following question, “Can marketing continue to nurture this opportunity until they are more sales-ready or is this a situation best handled by a salesperson?” This is why communication and cooperation between sales and marketing is so important.

Podcast: Interview with MarketingSherpa's Anne Holland

Would you like some inspiration or some fresh ideas for your marketing and lead generation strategy?

If so, MarketingSherpa just released their “Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007-08” and I had the privilege to interview Anne Holland about this year's findings. Very useful stuff. Download the Executive Summary

During our in-depth interview, Anne shares some terrific insights and helpful data on numerous marketing and lead generation tactics.

Three data points that I found particularity interesting:

1. Teleprospecting works. As we all know, tech buyers are a notoriously tough crowd to cold call. Sherpa's findings contradict the "calling doesn't work" line we've heard for years. Their data shows that over 50% of tech buyers admitted to short listing a vendor after receiving a well timed and relevant phone call.

2. Sherpa's data shows that more decision makers (not just influencers) are attending webinars and watching archived events. This indicates the importance of relevant educational events and online content for lead generation.

3. Companies who provided fewer but higher quality "sales ready" leads to their sale people have better sales conversion rates than those that send lots of early stage leads and that creating a "cost per lead" culture just does not work.

Listen to podcast now (31 min MP3)

Show Agenda  

• Benchmark data that B2B all marketers must know
• Fresh ideas and best practices for lead qualification
• Why you should capture and track all web inquiries in your CRM
• How many buyers/influencers in the typical F500 buying process (hint: it's big!)
• Sherpa's unexpected data on B2B telemarketing (teleprospecting)
• Useful data on lead management and lead nurturing
• How webinars are reaching more decision makers than you would expect
• Common email mistakes (and why mobile devices matter more than you think)
• How and why high quality content is important and influential to buyers
• Why fewer leads is better (the CEOs role) and why "cost per lead" budgets fail
• Distinguishing characteristics of top performing marketers
• Unconventional research that will improve your corporate website homepage

The Business Technology Benchmark Marketing Guide features data on numerous marketing and lead generation tactics especially valuable. They also have practical data on search, email, PR, direct mail, lead generation, trade shows, podcasting, telemarketing, budgeting and more. They interviewed over 1000 marketers, plus this year they gathered in-depth research from 4,658 actual business technology buyers.

If you are a marketer for a company that sells technology, I encourage you to get a copy of this report. It will definitely help you better budget, forecast, and benchmark your marketing results.

MarketingSherpa: Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007-08

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

I just got back from speaking at the New Marketing Summit and it was great. But it seems that I can’t attend a marketing conference with out hearing marketers swap complaints about their sales teams.

I don’t know about you but I’m fed up with the same old story.  Companies continue to waste millions of dollars because of poor teamwork and collaboration between marketing and sales.

Even the very best lead generation program cannot compensate for poor teamwork and collaboration, but unfortunately we continue hear about it time and again.

Sales and marketing often believe they are working together but collaboration takes more than annual or even quarterly planning meetings. Teamwork is something that must exist in a very real way each day.

I’ve found the most powerful way to foster teamwork and collaboration is to do more frequent and effective meetings. At InTouch we call them “huddles." We have short huddles daily and weekly between the marketing and sales team. 

In our huddles we do three things: Talk. Understand. Execute. (Repeat again) Talk. Understand. Execute. (Repeat again) Talk. Understand. Execute. Okay got it? (Repeat again).

In addition to huddles, there are other ways that sales and marketing can and should collaborate together.  This is just one list of 35 possibilities that we’ve tackled in our huddles and I hope you’ll add your own too.

During huddles, you can brainstorm, go over marketing and sales programs, and accomplish or think about any or all of the things on the list below:

1. Get feedback from the sales team – look at the conversion process and have regular face-to-face meetings or conference calls. Where is your sales team getting stuck?
2. Seek to understand if the sales team is at capacity.  Don’t generate more leads if they are focused on closing deals. Support them with nurturing.
3. Encourage sales people to follow-up on leads and hold them accountable, while still treating them like customers…ask them what they need. 
4. Develop a strategic lead generation and growth plan between sales and marketing.
5. Marketing and sales can work together on standardizing and documenting their lead generation and sales process so that what is happening can be easily tracked and measured.
6. Develop a marketing program that helps the sales team sell at a personal level.
7. Train your sales people on how to optimize your lead generation investment and give your feedback. 
8. Centralize the lead qualification process.
9. Use your huddles to introduce new sales people to the marketing team. 
10. Share lead generation best practices amongst the sales team.
11. Assign revenue goals to your joint sales and marketing plan.
12. Be flexible in your planning, so that you can adapt to changing requirements.
13. Lead generation must be promoted from the top down and bottom up.
14. Develop a culture that values leads by creating a universal lead definition.
15. Get the marketing team out in the field with the sales team regularly.
16. Arrange your compensation so there’s a shared accountability around lead generation.
17. Remember what Steven Covey say’s, “seek first to understand.  Then be understood.”
18. Close-the-loop on each sales lead being generated.
19. See that marketing takes over as many of the non-selling tasks as possible.
20. Integrate sales and marketing activity by using the same database or CRM system. 
21. Define and map out the responsibilities shared by both sales and marketing.
22. Share details about upcoming, events, articles, and press coverage.
23. Go over the upcoming lead generation program strategy and what the outcomes of that strategy are expected to be.
24. Mutually share new insights gained from customer feedback.
25. Share effectiveness measurements from recent lead generation activities.
26. Jointly develop message map and value proposition for you lead generation program.
27. Ask, what have you learned from the leads? Are there changes in hot topics for your target audience?
28. Discuss common concerns raised by potential customers and how the sales team is addressing them and develop solutions together.
29. Do your lead generation messaging align with your target audiences needs?
30. Analyze competitive information, and develop a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
31. Improve relevance of sales tools and marketing materials with sales input.
32. Map out your customer’s decision and buying process and then map out your value proposition for each role involved in the buying process.
33. Determine an answer to the question: What is the life cycle of a lead?
34. Strategic accounts: Can you develop content and lead generation events with your existing customers as references (ambassadors) to your audience? 
35. Define your expertise: how can you demonstrate your ability to solve business problems and share new ideas?

I’m wondering what you do in your company to foster better sales and marketing collaboration? Please share your thoughts and comments. Who knows? Your comments could be included in my next book.

The Difference Between ROI and Marketing Accountability

What's the difference difference between ROI and marketing accountability? My post a few weeks ago, "On B2B Demand Generation tools and Lead Generation Dashboards," started an email exchange between me and Jeffrey Eisenberg on the subject. Our exchange spawned an article by Bryan Eisenberg over at ClickZ.

Bryan writes, "Measuring the ROI of lead generation isn't the same thing as full accountability. If marketing is a profitable activity, it still doesn't mean that what it is communicating to the universe of buyers is building the business. I've seen lots of marketers sacrifice early and middle stage buyers because they had to show an immediate ROI on each campaign they ran. Who is accountable for all the potential business they lose by saying the wrong the thing to the right people at the wrong time?"

I agree with Jeffrey. I think our "instant gratification" culture is the main culprit. We're a Fast Food Nation, and this mindset has permeated into how we do business.

For example, most CEOs feel that they aren't getting enough activity at the top of the sales funnel. Marketers are constantly reminded that more leads are needed...now!

So here's the challenge that most marketers face...they want to think long term but keep getting sucked in by the more immediate and pressing issue of a not having enough high quality sales leads.

We all want our ROI, and we want it now! So who's to blame? The CEOs who cower to the will of their investors, boards, analysts and media? The investors who applaud short-term returns in their portfolio? The analysts who predict the future success of a company and then punish them for falling short? The media who criticize leaders for thinking long-term?

In addition, we can't ignore research showing the average tenure of a CEO is six years. But for a marketing leader, it's less than 24 months. So I think fear plays a role, too.

Bryan replies, "So many companies are still scraping the bottom end of their sales funnel while many potential prospects are left unsold. The soution?"

Continue reading at ClickZ:The Difference Between ROI and Marketing Accountability.

How Lead Nurturing Improves Lead Generation ROI

I know there's a lot of emphasis on lead generation (that's a good thing) but, getting a ton of leads doesn't guarantee that increased sales will follow. In a complex sale, my experience is, most of the selling actually happens when the sales person isn't there.

Startling as it may seem, recent research (and even studies from ten years ago) shows that longer-term leads (future opportunities), often ignored by salespeople, represent almost 80% of potential sales. You can increase your odds success by adding a lead nurturing program.

What’s lead nurturing? Lead nurturing is all about having consistent and meaningful communication with viable prospects (those that are “a fit” for your solution) regardless of their timing to buy. It’s not “following-up” every few months to find out if a prospect is “ready to buy yet?” Lead nurturing about building trusted relationships with the right people.

Continue Reading at the INSPIRE SmartMarketers.com Blog (a new blog I'm contributing to monthly) presented by Netline.

On June 6th, I’m doing a webcast on a multimodal approach to lead nurturing as part of ON24's Wednesday Webcast with Experts Series. I hope you can make it. Register here.

On B2B Demand Generation tools and Lead Generation Dashboards

CEOs continue to demand better ROI measurement and accountability from marketers.

As a result there’s been a surge of interest in software and tools to manage the process of lead management, lead nurturing and lead generation with a greater emphasis on measurability. 

In 2005, I wrote a post predicting that lead generation dashboards would become a hot topic and according to the CMO Council's 2007 Outlook Report the time for marketing performance dashboards is now.

The report states, "Seventy-five percent of respondents from companies with revenues of more than $500 million plan to deploy a marketing performance measurement dashboard this year, almost twice the number who will invest in the next highest category of system deployment, which is lead generation and qualification. Marketers from smaller companies said lead generation and qualification and email campaign management would be their two top areas of system or service deployment."

Additionally a MarketingProfs article from last week, “B2B Demand Generation in the Age of Accountability, Measurability, and Automation” by Mike Zavershnik of Eloqua emphasizes how, “new marketing automation systems delivered as a service enable marketers to quickly scale their most successful campaigns to drive a larger flow of qualified leads.”

With that said, I think it is important to remember that buying lead management software and dashboards tools is akin to buying a high performance stock car. Without a skilled and knowledgeable driver behind the wheel, you may never get out of first gear no matter how great the car is. 

All to often companies invest in expensive software before they fully understand the fundamental operational processes that it will be supporting. This is a common theme in sales and marketing automation, CRM implementation being another good example.
To develop a world class demand generation and lead management operation you’ll need three things:

• Enough of the right people to support the process
• A well thought out process to support the people
• And finally, the right tools and systems to help people manage the process

I think that most sales and marketing professionals recognize that software will not spontaneously generate results, but the allure of easy execution and fast results are difficult to resist. It’s also easy to forget that these systems require a great deal of hands on input and maintenance to be fully appreciated. 

Yes, lead management software and dashboard tools are hot now because pressure for more measurable ROI is greater that ever and these tools can help you, but make sure you take a more holistic approach. 

Start by understanding your lead generation requirements and design a suitable process to support it and insert the software into the process where it will be most effective and actually used. Most importantly, don’t under estimate the need for a dedicated team of people that will drive the process and make the inputs into the system.

If we continue to follow this line of thought it's logical then to ask yourself if the metrics you are getting back out of the system are telling you that you’re getting better?

This morning I talked with Jim Berkowitz, who writes the CRM Mastery E-Journal. When I told him about this post he replied, “With dashboards, nobody ever seems to talk about having the right metrics that help you measure if you’re improving…” I agree.

Most marketing metrics are like driving a car by looking in the rear view mirror (yes, another car analogy!). They tell you where you've been but they can't tell you where you’re going. Ouch! So are you using metrics that actually help you look forward?

I think companies will continue to buy the promise of these tools even though they lack the resources to actually leverage them. What do you think?

Closed-Loop Marketers More Likely to Reach ROMI Goals

As I've written before, I'm a big proponent of using closed loop feedback to improve marketing and lead generation ROI.  I came across a recent report by Aberdeen Group entitled, "Creating a Customer-Centric Marketing Organization," that reinforces the point with broader empirical data.

Aberdeen found, "Companies that adopt closed-loop marketing processes are more than three times as likely to report a greater than 50% return on marketing investment (ROMI) than those that do not.”

Closed loop feedback is often touted in CRM software and often relied on to be the single source of sales and marketing collaboration. However, collaboration does not spontaneously erupt from software. Aberdeen concludes: “Lagging and average companies are not ill-equipped with technology products, rather they lack the integration and sophistication to realize higher results.”

Simply put, it’s not about the tools it’s about the process and the people. To develop an effective closed-loop-process you need to start with your people first.

I can usually predict a marketing team’s ability to measure ROI based on one question...

I ask, “How frequently do you huddle up and close the loop with your sales team?”

If I hear answers such as, "occassionaly", "not very often" or "rarely", I know that they are in trouble. On the other hand if I hear answers like, "weekly" or "bi-weekly" I know they are probably doing okay.

For example, one InTouch client doubled their lead generation ROI by simply implementing regular and frequent closed loop feedback huddles. 

They began with the mindset that their sales team is their internal customer. By viewing the sales team as their customer it felt more natural to seek feedback just like they were already doing with their external customers.

The marketing team began conducting weekly conference calls (huddles) with their entire field sales force to close-the-loop, which they have continued to do to this today.

During each meeting, they briefly touch on each sales ready lead that was handed over to sales.  They talk about bottlenecks in the process, possible tweaks to the lead criteria (universal lead definition), and specific sales opportunities that sales needs additional support on.

Because of the shared learning everyone benefits from the group format. Everyone can walk away form the meeting on the same page. It should be noted that desktop collaboration tools are a viable alternative to in person meetings if your teams are not at the same location.

By having all team members participate, there’s a built-in accountability through positive peer pressure. For example, when struggling sales people hear about their colleagues positive results with marketing generated leads, they realize they need to clean up their act and raise the bar. 

Why bother?  Because it is a simple process improvement that delivers tangible ROI. By implementing closed-loop-feedback huddles, I’ve watched clients increase revenue from marketing leads, improve lead conversion and help more sales people meet quota. Not to mention they actually know the real value of their marketing and sales pipeline.

Webcast: How to Precisely Define a "Lead" Before Marketing Begins

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 department either ignore your hard-won leads or complain about their quality? Your problem is partly solved if you can get company-wide approval for a clear definition of what a qualified lead is prior to launching your campaign.

Watch my complimentary webcast on, "How to Precisely Define a Lead Before Marketing Begins."

In this session you'll learn:

• What works to develop an ideal customer profile
• How to handle the politics around lead definition
• What's a reasonable definition for a "hot" lead
• How to create a lead profile with useful details far beyond "whoever will buy our stuff"
• What must done to ensure your lead definition remains on target
• 9 Proven ways to get sales team to follow-up

Watch the recorded archive

See my other upcoming events here.

Thank you to ON24 Inc. a for sponsoring this event as part of their new Wednesday Webcast with Experts series.

Podcast: Tradeshow and Event Marketing with Ruth Stevens

Are you finding that trade shows or events are a “waste of time” for lead generation? You may want to think again. I interviewed Ruth Stevens, author of Trade Show and Event Marketing, to get her views on what marketing and sales can do to increase the effectiveness of their event marketing and she gave some helpful insights.

Show Agenda

• Why did you write Tradeshow and Event Marketing and what were you hoping to address?
• What are the critical success factors in effective event marketing?
• What are the issues that marketers are facing in event marketing?
• What are some tips to improve event marketing?

Listen to podcast now (MP3 24 min 5.51 MB)

Podcast: Marketing and Sales for Big Complex Selling (Pt 1)

I had a great time chatting with Todd at 800-CEO-READ on lead generation. This is the first of three podcasts 800-CEO-Read is doing on B2B sales and marketing.

Here's what Todd says about it:
"In this podcast, I talk with Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Next week, I interview Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies. In week three, I bring Jill and Brian together to talk about the interface between marketing and sales."

Like many of Todd's podcasts; this one is a high-level discussion geared for business leaders and those who support sales people. While you're there, I encourage you to take some time to visit 800-CEO-READ's other websites. They are a super resource for anyone who reads business books.

Listen to podcast now (MP3 43:47 min 30.1 MB)

Speaking at MarketingSherpa's B-to-B Demand Generation Summit 2006

I'm speaking at MarketingSherpa's Demand Generation Summit being held in Boston and SF this fall.  I've worked out a special promotion with MarketingSherpa -- you’ll get a complimentary autographed copy of my book and a $300 discount on the Summit if you register by August 31st.

This should be just in time to inspire you during your fall budget and planning season. Meet experts; mingle with your peers; and discover new data, strategies, and tactics (includes search, podcasting, email & microsites). 

Please note, you must click on this link to register so you can get the discount and free book (that's the only way our good friends at MarketingSherpa can identify you as qualifying for the complimentary, autographed book offer).

Webinar: Lead Generation Strategies for the Complex Sale

Join me for a complimentary webinar this Thursday, August 17, 2006 at 1pm EDT.  This action-oriented session will provide tips and best practices that you can put into practice immediately.

When you leave this session you will:

• Learn 3 proven lead generation strategies that deliver results
• The most effective ways to get sales and marketing alignment
• See the most effective tactics used for an integrated marketing program
• Know how to identify and prioritize your best prospects
• Hear what's working to develop a dialog with executive level buyers

Register here

This event is sponsored and hosted by WebEx Communications, the worldwide leader in online meeting applications.

New complimentary e-book - Start with a Lead: Eight critical success factors for lead generation results

My latest project is ready! I just published a complimentary new e-book titled Start with a Lead: Eight critical success factors for lead generation. Please download it and pass it on.

According to studies, the single biggest challenge for contemporary B2B marketers is effective lead generation. Conversely, it has been pointed out that 80 percent of marketing expenditures on lead generation are wasted because the leads are lost, ignored or discarded by sales people.

Marketers today are constantly reminded that the company needs more sales leads...now. Unfortunately, that immediacy is quite often at the direct expense of quality. Instead, marketers should adopt and tailor lead generation programs that will increase the odds of creating better sales leads and relationships that will ultimately result in long-term, happy and profitable customers.

In this e-book, you will learn how to develop high-volume, high-quality lead generation programs for your company. It was written for business leaders, managers and marketers who want to help their sales team sell with highly qualified business opportunities, because sales people should only be brought in when a lead has been qualified as “sales ready.” 

Download Start With a Lead: Eight critical success factors for lead generation

Sales Leads Are Too Valuable For Sales People Alone

David Meerman Scott's blog post, "Sales Leads Are too Valuable for Sales People," is worth a read. He shows the folly of marketers who throw sales leads over the wall and expect sales people to catch them. This is an ongoing pattern for lead generation failure. 

I've written that consistent, patient, long-term contact with sales prospects results in better ROI. The reality is that early-stage leads, which are often lost, ignored or discarded by sales people, represent between 40 and 70 percent of missed sales!

Because the sales team is responsible for much of the customer’s perception of the company, concerted care must go into developing the ongoing, relevant communications that the sales team will employ as it builds relationships with customers.

Marketing should nurture leads via a relevant and consistent dialog with prospects, regardless of their timing to buy.  A key aspect of lead nurturing is the ability to provide valuable education and information to prospects up front, so that you become more than an expert; you become a trusted advisor. 

Kate Maddox's article in BtoB Magazine, "Integration Key to Lead Generation," emphasizes the need for close sales and marketing integration. The article is based on a recent white paper, as well as research by CSO Insights. 

Podcast: Interview on the Cullinane & Green Report

I was interviewed by podcasting experts Joe Cullinane and Roger Green on the Cullinane & Green Report. I encourage you to check out their other interviews with Mike Bosworth, author of Solution Selling and co-author of CustomerCentric Selling and Jackie Huba co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists too.

During this podcast, I share my thoughts on how to use technology tools like podcasts, blogs and RSS for new business development and lead generation. 

Listen to podcast now (36:26 minutes)

Podcast: Duct Tape meets Lead Generation for the Complex Sale

I'm a guest on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast today hosted by John Jantsch.  John's Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and was twice named "Best Small Business Marketing Blog" by the readers of Marketing Sherpa. While you're visiting John's blog, be sure to subscribe to his newsletter. It's terrific. 

Listen to podcast now

Sales and Marketing as a Team: Five Tips to Improve Performance

The best mindset, strategy and tactics – and the most astute sales and marketing individuals – are for naught without the collaboration of everyone involved. The unrealized potential can be likened to the batteries in a flashlight. If the batteries aren’t inserted in the right direction or are otherwise out of proper contact, their latent power is unusable.

Likewise, the harmonious interaction of sales and marketing is crucial. If they are askew and going in dissimilar directions, sales and marketing will not empower a successful complex sale or sales lead strategy. Bottom-line sales performance reflects just how well sales and marketing are working together.

I liked the collaboration tips in Sherri Leopard's article, "Five Steps to Connect Marketing to Sales, and Sales to Financial Results" in MarketingProfs.com.

I've summarized Leopard’s tips with my thoughts below:

1. Sales and Marketing must collaborate on defining leads and marketing objectives.
2. What gets measured gets done. Connect sales and marketing metrics together.
3. Focus on the data points you REALLY need to measure in your CRM.
4. Is your value proposition clear? Does your sales team have sales-ready messaging? 
5. Create content that's relevant for each stage of the buying cycle.

Simply put, what matters most is having everyone on the same page, integrated and respecting one another. If you can't do that, your brilliant lead generation plans and tactics won't matter.

New Book: Lead Generation for the Complex Sale is officially released

The wait is over! My book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, was released this morning. You can read the press release or listen to my podcast about it. 

I liked what Bryan Eisenberg, New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Call To Action and the new book Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? had to say: 

"The lead generation game has changed in the age of the Internet. If you don't have this new playbook your competitors will. Brian Carroll closes the loop on lead generation, taking you from defining a lead, thinking like your prospects, tactics to increase lead generation, passing leads from marketing to sales, measuring the results, and nurturing the leads for increased revenue. If you don't read and then apply lessons from Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, then let me know how things work out for you."

Read the book announcement press release

Listen to the book release podcast (7:43 min 7.12 MB)

Download a free chapter

For the real thing, order on Amazon. You can find the book at your local Borders or Barnes & Noble and other bookstores. For multiple copies, order on 800-CEO-Read (Call Meg at 800-236-7323 ext. 206 CST.)  For the buzz on the book, read reviews and news. More about the author.

Update:  The book made its debut in Amazon's top 100 (sales and marketing books) today.  Debbie Weil author of The Corporate Blogging Book calls my book launch an example of Book Launch 2.0. 

Lead Generation for the Complex Sale on wsRadio.com

I just did a 40-minute live interview on the Online Marketing show with RSS Ray broadcast by WS Radio.com, the world wide leader in internet talk radio.  A podcast version of the show is available via iTunes or the host website RSSRay.com.

During the interview, I share new ideas for generating B2B customers and talk about my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, that's being released next week.

Click here to listen to the recording. 

Book Cover and Advanced Praise for Lead Generation for the Complex Sale

We're quickly approaching the official release of my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale : Boost the Quality and Quantity of Leads to Increase Your ROI.  Also, my book got a new cover!  (click image to enlarge) 

I'm humbled by the incredible endorsements that I've received for the book so far. You can read the advanced endorsements here, more here, and via my new book website before they're posted on the major on-line bookseller websites. 

For those who pre-ordered the book, it will arrive with the new cover in June.  I just got my first shipment of author copies and they look great!  Thanks again! 

Webcast: 8 Critical Success Factors for B2B Lead Generation

Join me for a complimentary webcast on Thursday, March 16th at 2pm EST.  I'm speaking on the "8 Critical Success Factors for B2B Lead Generation Success" along with Mark Organ, CEO of Eloqua.   

Watch the recorded webcast archive now

During this webcast, I will share the most critical – and often overlooked - factors in successful lead generation including:

• How to combine sales and marketing to optimize the number of leads
• Preventing lulls in your sales cycle
• Developing Universal Lead Definition (ULD) and ideal customer profile (ICP)
• Building, maintaining and growing your database
• Multi-modal lead nurturing - a crash course
• Ready yourself for what's next - new and promising tactics
• and more...

Register for this webcast registration is closed. Watch the recorded webcast now

Sponsored by Eloqua, provider of the leading integrated demand generation platform for executing, automating and measuring highly effective B2B marketing programs.

Generating Real Sales Leads from Tradeshow/Conferences

Aaron Ross over at "Building The "Sales Machine"  shares some great tips on trade show lead generation.  Ross writes, "You need a process that emphasizes quality of leads over quantity of names." 

I agree.  Well meaning marketers can ruin their lead generation results by rushing an unqualified list of tradeshow attendees to their sales team.  After doing numerous lead qualification programs, we have found 5% to 15% of trade show inquiries are truly sales ready leads. 

So don't pass marketing driven inquiries to your sales people until they're more rigorously qualified as sales ready leads.  Early stage leads - those who are not ready to speak to a sales person yet - can be developed further with an effective lead nurturing program. 

Link: Building The "Sales Machine": How to Generate Real Leads from Trade show/Conferences.

Marketing Spend Shifting to Below-the-line

This article is a little hard to read if you aren't up on buzzwords. However, it points to the fact that marketers are realizing that using traditional brand focused media isn't enought to move the sales needle thus companies are spending more on lead generation.  Link: Marketing Spend Shifting to Below-the-line.

Improve your online sales lead tracking

I liked the lead tracking tips provided in Michael Ortner's article, "Eight Ways to Improve your Online Lead Tracking," on MarketingProfs.com. 

Here's a summary of Michael Ortner's eight points:

1. Understand the significance of your Web site.
2. Use a Web analytics tool to monitor your Web visitors.
3. Use tagged URLs.
4. Determine which visitors become leads.
5. Centralize your contact information.
6. Highlight your Contact Us page.
7. Know how your prospects find you.
8. Cultivate your leads.

Thanks to Jim Berkowitz's CRM Mastery E-Journal for pointing me to it.  Also, if you’re a B2B marketer with a complex sale, check out Tracking ROI From Web Generated Leads for additional ideas on this topic. 

Top Six Lead Generation Challenges for the Complex Sale in 2006

Based on our research, I think companies with complex sale will face the following six lead generation challenges in 2006:   

1. Fewer sales opportunities unless your top of mind: Although the deal value of each sale is high, there will be simply fewer opportunities as compared to more transactional selling environments. More attention therefore must be paid to proactively identifying those relatively few and valuable opportunities and nurturing them early.

2. Commoditization will continue and will be more difficult to overcome: Marketers must work much more diligently and creatively to differentiate their organizations against increasing competition. Exposure is not enough; there must be a value proposition that resonates with prospects.

3. Increased selling at the executive level: There must be a more intelligent and varied approach to reaching and converting executives who are more often the economic buyers for complex solutions. 

4. More outreach required to the sphere of influence: Buying processes frequently involve a team approach. Enlisting the support of one decision maker is rarely enough. The sphere of influence must be identified and a targeted multipronged approach taken to reach as many as possible.

5. Less selling time: Because of longer sales cycles (and they'll get longer), sales people cannot afford to spend time on unqualified leads. They must focus attention on opportunities that have the greatest likelihood of closing.  Marketing must fill the void and nurture early stage opportunities. 

6. Return on investment measurement difficulty: Direct return from lead generation activity takes time to surface. A solid plan for reporting and measuring reliable indicators must be in place to justify continued investment.