Web 2.0 Marketing Strategies

The One-Armed Basketball Player

2009-07-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, we used to play basketball all the time. Every day, after school we would be out there, playing until well after sun-down. There was a kid named Robert who was a few years younger than us. He was pretty fast and you could tell he was going to be a great athlete when he got older. Of course, us older kids beat him up pretty good under the hoop. Robert was fast, but he could only go to his right. After a while, we figured out that if we pressed him left, he couldn't do anything, thereby neutralizing his speed. One day, Robert was out goofing around with some of his friends and broke his right arm. For two weeks, we didn't see Robert at all. Then one day, his Mom dragged him down to the court and told him she was tired of him hanging around the house. "Please get out here and play with your friends." Robert was tenuous for the next week, just sitting on the sideline and moping. Finally, he couldn't resist getting in the game. Now, he only had a left hand. At first, we took it easy on him, because we knew he was right-handed. We would usually wrap up around 8:30-9, but Robert was still there, shooting. The next day we came back and he was always there first. Robert was determined to strengthen his left hand, something he never used. After about a month, Robert could move left pretty well. After another 2 weeks, he was shooting better with his left hand then he ever did with his right. Then the cast came off. Now, Robert was dangerous. He could move left or right with equal speed and power. He developed a sweet cross-over dribble that left you hanging onto your shorts. In time, Robert was starting for the school basketball team and ended up being one of the best athletes the school had ever seen.

What does this have to do with marketing? EVERYTHING. We use one channel too much. We rely too heavily on email at the expense of social media, text, RSS, direct mail, offline. As marketers, if we can develop left and right channels, we can be more effective. One channel is too predictable and ineffective. Multiple channels will help you win many times over.

Creating an Unfair Advantage

2009-07-02T10:42:00.000-07:00

Don’t you just love that phrase? I do. For me, it represents the real opportunity before all demand generation marketers today.

As I reflect on that phrase, it is clear that we now have a whole new genre of tools at our disposal that cross both marketing and sales and that use the power of the web to help us make better pursuit decisions – from the very top of the lead funnel all the way deep into the sales funnel. For example, if I’m a demand generation marketer or a sales person, I want to know the minute my top prospects are responding to my emails, visiting key pages on my website or tweeting about my offerings. Insight to this kind of on-line behavior helps me make better decisions that result in more business for my company. AND, I can respond manually or automatically to this behavior.

I bought my first marketing automation system 5 years ago when I was looking for a way to produce high quality leads for our sales team that would have a measurable impact on revenue. I’ll never forget the first time I saw a marketing automation demo. I sat in my chair amazed at how it worked and thinking furiously how this was going to dramatically change not only how we created leads but also how we sold. This was beyond gaining a competitive advantage, this was going to give us an unfair advantage – and it did.

Yet, the market has been slow in the uptake with only about 2,000 companies currently using the more sophisticated marketing automation systems with sales extensions. But we are seeing phenomenal growth in this category in 2009.

Fast forward to 2009. “Gaining an unfair advantage” is a phrase that popped up last week while interviewing Jon Miller of Marketo for our iGNITE Demand Generation Series. We were discussing Marketo’s new Sales Insight solution and I had asked Jon how their customers were responding to it. He said one of his customers said that Sales Insight gave his team an “unfair advantage.” I got goose bumps! Who doesn’t want an unfair advantage in this challenging and hyper-competitive market?

My contention is that the current genre of marketing automation tools and sales extensions can provide a company with an unfair advantage. “Gaining an unfair advantage” needs to be the rallying cry for all demand generation marketers in 2009 and beyond. You have access to tools, processes and best practices that can create this “unfair advantage” for your company. Use them!

What have you seen?

Sneak Peak - Debbie's Session at Boston OMS May 2009

2009-06-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Pedowitz Group has taken the OMS Tour by storm! Aaron Kahlow sneaks into Debbie's Demand Generation Essentials session at the Boston Summit in May. See Debbie's thoughts about the Boston conference here. You can also check out Aaron's entire vlog of the Boston OMS Tour on this Channel.

What DG Marketers Can Learn From Charlie Chaplin

2009-05-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

We can learn a few things about how to appropriately staff for demand generation from Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times."

As a factory worker on the line, he was over-worked in a highly manual process. The result? Poor product and a very frustrated worker. Now I know that you aren't going to go out and tear down your existing lead generation factory, but imagine if the character had had the benefit of a great automated system. How would his job change? What would happen to the result? And, how would he feel about his new role?

As marketers take on marketing automation systems in order to produce high quality lead generation, they are discovering that a new set of skills is required to support new automated techniques. Just this morning I had a conversation with one of our clients around how to properly staff for demand/lead generation. Here are the 4 key roles I outlined for her. For this blog, I thought I would continue to use Mr. Chaplin's manufacturing analogy. After all, you are in the Lead Production business!

1. A System Power User - Someone who will be the Power User of the marketing automation system. This person is responsible for building the emails, landing pages, forms, list segmentation and lay-out of campaigns. They are also responsible for building the work flow of the campaign and for suggesting ways to improve the overall campaign structure.

A good analogy for this role is the person responsible for the line in a manufacturing facility. They use all the machines and technology to ensure the production run produces as envisioned and designed.

2. Analytics - someone on the team needs to be responsible for analytics for 2 reasons:

A. You don't know what you don't know when you get started. With that as a premise, you will have to do a lot of experimentation, testing and tweaking to get to the point of producing high quality leads for sales on a scalable and predictable basis.

B. You will begin tracking and reporting on metrics that are new. As you do this, you will be looking for ways to show the impact of marketing on revenue and this means tracking your impact into the sales cycle. This takes a new way of thinking, working with systems and analysis.
In a manufacturing setting, this role is analogous to the QA person who is always looking at key measures and ways to improve key measures - with the ultimate goal of producing defect free leads - this means sales accepts and closes all of the leads you produce!

3. Digital World Communicator - This is a communications role for the digital world. As you write copy in emails, landing pages, forms, etc, being brief, to the point and following the stream of consciousness is critical. If a prospect clicks on a Google Ad based on a topic, the landing page they go to needs to continue that topic, that stream of consciousness. It's all about behavior and setting up a digital dialog to elicit behavior.

In the manufacturing world, this role is analogous to the Plant Manager - the person responsible for understanding the business requirements and translating that to production.

4. Strategist and Change Agent - No one really wants to hear this one but it is the most important role of all. EVERY client we work with is surprised at the amount of change demand generation with a marketing automation system invites. Some are ready for the change and can make it happen quickly. Others, need a bit more time. This senior executive is responsible for not just getting campaigns out the door but for impacting revenue for the company. If you think about the Life of a Lead from marketing inception through the hand-off to sales to opportunity and close, demand generation can impact ALL of these areas.

This role is the executive (the suit) who is in charge of surveying the market and their constituents and determining how best to use the production resources to meet the needs of the company. It is a powerful position and carries a lot of responsibility for the bottom line.

Enjoy watching the clip of Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times" and consider how introducing a powerful marketing automation system changes key processes and roles in your company.

This is just a high level of overview. What have you seen? Have you seen these roles as separate roles or are you seeing these roles being combined? Would love to hear your comments!

DG and Peanuts

2009-05-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I went to my family's 41st reunion in Blakely, GA. If you need a map to look it up, that's OK! It's a small town in southwest Georgia and a staple of the economy is peanut farming. As a matter of fact, it is one of the richest peanut growing regions in the world! On a trip to the Piggly Wiggly to get fruit to make a gigantic fruit salad (got to feed about 200 people), I noticed that the small town was really touting their peanut-driven economy with these banners flying around the town square. They wanted to make sure that everyone was fully aware of their intense focus as a community on peanuts.

As I thought about this PR move, it occurred to me that as B2B companies look to implement a demand generation (lead generation) program, they are actually finding new ways to fuel their own economy - the economy of leads that get passed to sales and get closed. And, like peanuts in southwest Georgia, a little PR can go a long way.

Just this past week I was at a client location and part of what we talked about was how to "promote" marketing's new demand generation program to senior management, sales and other groups who might need to understand this new focus. I asked them a simple question, "Do you have a PR firm?" The answer was Yes and I simply explained they need to develop their own internal PR for demand generation and to consider both formal and informal means of communication. It's a PR calendar for demand generation which serves the same purpose of any PR effort - educate and get on board key constituents.

While you might not need to put up red banners all around the office, finding a way to provide this key education on a new focus for marketing is a brilliant move. Maybe Demand Generation Proud?

What have you seen that works?

Debbie Qaqish Interviewed By HubSpot

2009-05-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

My partner Debbie was just interviewed by HubSpot on her viewpoints on Demand Generation: http://tinyurl.com/r2l9ps

Boston OMS is a WOW!

2009-05-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

We kicked off a 16 city speaking tour with the Online Marketing Summit in Boston - our topic - what else but demand generation! I was a little worried that our session might not be that well attended as so much attention was being paid to the social media elements of the tour. Was I ever wrong! With 100 people in attendance at the Boston event and 3 consecutive sessions being run, our session on Demand Generation Essentials drew over 50 attendees! Part of the reason may be that OMS is now offering a certification for demand generation and our course helped "students" earn credit. Kudos to Aaron Kahlow and team for bringing this much needed certification to market via the Online Marketing Institute.

My big take-away - anything to do with lead generation is still hot and getting hotter and education is the key!

What are you seeing??

$15,000 in Free Services for Eloqua Implementation

2009-04-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

This week, we issued a press release about offering up to $15,000 in free services to support an Eloqua implementation. Our goal is to help marketers get quicker time to value and focus on selecting the most appropriate platform for their needs. It has been the subject of much debate. We believe we can help marketers of all backgrounds be more effective and drive more revenue for their company. True process change takes time in any organization, but with today's SAAS offerings, there is no reason why marketing and sales can't achieve quick returns with the low hanging fruit while they continue to make more measured changes over time.

Making a Decision for Marketing Automation

2009-03-23T19:38:00.001-07:00

As I talk to marketers about their goals and objectives for 2009, many are looking at marketing automation systems. While I applaud their forward thinking, I also find that they are making decisions without iron clad ROI and/or a true understanding of what a marketing automation system can do for them.

We highly recommend building out a series of Use Cases which will:
- Show specifically what the investment will return for you and by when
- Provide a clear vision to how the solution will be used
- Engage and align all key areas of the company – sales, marketing and senior management in the process thereby producing buy-in, collaboration and a common vision
- Create your “Go To Market” campaign schedule with agreement from all parties
- Provide your training case around your solution

How did you approach this important spend?

An Interview with Kelly Scott

2009-03-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

Today we interviewed Kelly Scott about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue.

TPG: 1. What are some of your most effective lead generation programs?

Kelly : We've had lots of success with webinars, "lumpy package" direct mail campaigns, and live product demo events.

TPG: 2. How do you measure your marketing performance? What are some of the key metrics you use?

Kelly : Our #1 metric is the % of leads that convert into 1st appointments for our sales team.

TPG: 3. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation?

Kelly : Not nearly enough.

TPG: 4. How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization?

Kelly : Blunt force... just kidding! We constantly communicate back and forth to make sure everyone's on the same page.

TPG: 5. How do you define a qualified lead?

Kelly : A qualified lead for us is someone who is in the market for a new phone system.

TPG: 6. What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts?

Kelly : It plays a major role. As a technology firm, we have to make sure we stay on the cutting edge.

TPG: 7. How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand?

Kelly : We have a company blog, our CEO twits (or is is tweets?), and we're also on FaceBook.

TPG: 8. What are your three top priorities for this year?

Kelly : 1. Increase Revenue 2. Increase Revenue 3. Increase Revenue Oh, and I think we're trying to increase revenue.

TPG: 9. What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation?

Kelly : Don't be afraid to try something new. Just remember to test and retest. You never know when you'll stumble across something that works.

TPG: 10. How do you see the role of marketing changing?

Kelly : I see marketing becoming less and less "theoretical" and more metrics and results driven, especially with the new technology that's available to give marketers more access to data.

2009-03-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Email and Beyond!

After attending the Marketing Sherpa Email marketing conference, I can tell you, we have a LONG way to go for marketers to fully understand, embrace and leverage the incredible new processes and tools available on the market today. This in no way diminishes the focus of the conference – it enhances it! I saw an incredible thirst for education around all elements of using the web to improve lead flow and lead quality to sales. The rooms were packed, great questions were asked and marketers were very engaged. Learning these basics is incredibly important and these marketers were out to get all they could! Education, certification and training for marketers will continue to be a major theme in 2009 and 2010.

At the same time, my life everyday is about working with marketers who have a huge need to move well past email marketing as a singular solution and squarely into the land of demand generation. We define demand generation as the revenue focused activities from both sales and marketing that get quality leads into the top of the funnel and help pull opportunities through the sales funnel faster and more effectively. Demand generation is based on the notion of building unique one-on-one relationships, automatically, with your prospects based on their “digital body language.” It’s the other half of the discussion that sales and marketing is missing.

I frequently hear that the percent of demand generation marketers is small, maybe as high as 4% of all marketers. Consider this statistic. If you add up all the customers held by the marketing automation companies like Eloqua, Marketo, VTrenz, etc, the number is probably around 1500, tops! What are all the other marketers doing?

They are getting up to speed. Where are you?

What are your thoughts?

Thinking Like Your Prospect, And Why You Need to Do It!

2009-03-16T15:55:00.000-07:00

Last week I had the opportunity to work with a large, well-known education brand to develop a demand generation strategy. One area of deep exploration was who do they sell to and how do these people buy. I think every marketer would agree that this is fundamental to any effective lead generation program. Yet, because marketing is at least one step removed from the actual prospect/customer and because thinking about online behavior is new, this is a challenging exercise to work through.

Here is what we did to help this company begin to sort this out. Please feel free to share how you have addressed this issue!

1. Develop a Persona Profile – this is not your typical marketing profile. We were looking for who they are, where do they go to get information, how they think, who do they talk to. The idea behind the persona is to understand them well enough so we can get them into the sales process WHEN THEY ARE READY. This is not about collecting marketing data.
Execution Idea: Have the cross-functional team (sales and marketing) who is creating the persona present their findings in ROLE of the persona. It’s fun and even more importantly, it’s easy to remember and associate!
Execution Idea: Do Not let a single word or phrase be anything but the prospect perspective. NO corporate language allowed.

2. Map the Decision Making Process – how does this persona make decisions, who do they talk to, where do they go? Based on where they are in their process, what kind of information helps them take a step closer to your solutions?
Execution Idea: Have the cross-functional team (sales and marketing) who is mapping the Decision Making Process use flip charts and think in big buckets of stages such as Realization (I realize I have a problem), Education (what kind of solutions are out there), etc.
Execution Idea: Stay in role!

3. Map the Life of a Lead in your company – this is the process of walking through all the steps you take a lead through from first contact to a piece of closed business to life cycle of the lead
Execution Idea: Make someone in the group “a lead” and have them walk through what happens to them from the first contact to being a closed piece of business – this is your “As Is” state

4. Define the Gaps between how the prospect makes a decision and how you process them from lead to close
Execution Idea: Use your flip charts from Steps 2 and 3

5. Develop the New Life of a Lead – this is your “To Be” state
Execution Idea: Re-write Step 3.

Working with very clear personas in Step 1, helped this process be successful. Otherwise, it would have been all over the map!

What have you seen that works?

Why Email Deliverability is Like Moving to a New Neighborhood

2009-02-27T09:41:00.000-08:00

I was trying to explain to a client the various aspects of email deliverability, IP warming, reputation etc. We ended up discussing the analogy of moving to a new neighborhood.

Today, you are really popular. Your kids get invited to all the parties and you play tennis and know everyone at the club. Things couldn't be better - you are welcomed and accepted. Then you move and everything changes. No one knows who you are, and you have to start all over again making friends and reintroducing yourself to the community, even though as a family you haven't changed at all.

As it relates to email, when you move your domain from one carrier to another, you have to 'start over' and work on your relationship all over again and it takes time. There are things you can do like move over your spf records, but the fact remains is that you have to reearn your reputation and build trust again. Over time, you will (hopefully) be just as popular in your new neighborhood as in the old one.

An Interview with Cathy Johnson

2009-02-24T05:46:00.001-08:00

Today we interviewed Cathy Johnson about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue.

TPG: 1. What are some of your most effective lead generation programs?

Cathy : Executive to Executive interviews

TPG: 2. How do you measure your marketing performance? What are some of the key metrics you use?

Cathy : Number of leads passed to sales; dollars closed by sales from marketing generated leads

TPG: 3. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation?

Cathy : 50%

TPG: 4. How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization?

Cathy : Marketing participates in the weekly sales meetings; processes are put in writing and agreed upon by both sales and marketing.

TPG: 5. How do you define a qualified lead?

Cathy : Identified decision maker(s), budget and timeline

TPG: 6. What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts?

Cathy : We use Salesforce.com; we're looking into marketing automation

TPG: 7. How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand?

Cathy : We're not

TPG: 8. What are your three top priorities for this year?

Cathy : 1. Revenue 2. Revenue 3. Revenue

TPG: 9. What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation?

Cathy : Get sales and marketing working together first and implement lead definitions and lead processes that both agree upon.

TPG: 10. How do you see the role of marketing changing?

Cathy : Marketing is increasingly more responsible for helping to build the pipeline.

An Interview with Debbie Qaqish

2009-02-24T05:36:00.001-08:00

Today we interviewed Debbie Qaqish about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue.

TPG: 1. What are some of your most effective lead generation programs?

Debbie Qaqish: Thought leadership with patience. So often, people think one email = one lead. That's not so for most businesses. Having a great thought leadership series with directed messaging around client pains and issues is one of the most successful campaig

TPG: 2. How do you measure your marketing performance? What are some of the key metrics you use?

Debbie Qaqish: Number of leads created Number of leads accepted by sales % of leads converted to opps % of leads that close to business

TPG: 3. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation?

Debbie Qaqish: 75%

TPG: 4. How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization?

Debbie Qaqish: Many ways. See my BLOG posts for February.

TPG: 5. How do you define a qualified lead?

Debbie Qaqish: A qualified lead is a jointly defined definition between sales and marketing which says - this lead is ready to be called by sales.

TPG: 6. What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts?

Debbie Qaqish: Enormous! I spoke to someone last week who is still doing COLD CALLING. I couldn't believe it. With the plethoria of tools with varying levels of sophistication and price points, NO ONE should ever be making cold calls.

TPG: 7. How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand?

Debbie Qaqish: Lots of experimentation to get to something that is scalable.

TPG: 8. What are your three top priorities for this year?

Debbie Qaqish : 1. Lead quality 2. Use of social media 3. New solutions

TPG: 9. What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation?

Debbie Qaqish: Align yourself with sales. You cannot do this on your own.

TPG: 10. How do you see the role of marketing changing?

Debbie Qaqish: A lot! Marketers are now running lead generation businesses for the company and are making measurable contributions to revenue. This is not your Daddy's Oldsmobile!

The Elephant on the Conference Room Table

2009-02-24T04:52:00.000-08:00

It's the Monday morning senior management team meeting. It starts with the VP of Sales giving an update on the sales pipeline and revenue and then it's your turn, Mr/s Marketer to give an update on the lead funnel and the impact you are making on revenue. Your report focuses on all the leads you are turning over to sales, how qualified they are and how you don't think they are being followed up on (is that correct English?) Sales volleys back that what they are getting is not qualified and so goes another Monday morning senior management team meeting.

People there is an elephant sitting on that conference room table that no one is acknowledging and it's called lead management. This has been a topic of my last few blogs because I think it deserves a lot of attention in 2009. My friend Eric Blumthal of Count5 just responded in our LASER Lead Generation Group on this topic and here is a synopsis of the problem.

1. Sales and marketing don't have a common set of lead definitions
2. Sales isn't classically trained to work the very top of the sales funnel - nor are they compensated for this work (in a sense)
3. Marketing is not trained in selling at all - they don't know what they don't know
4. No one is responsible for working these leads they way they need to be
5. There is no "lead management process" in place with assigned roles, accountability, tools and time lines

Here is an example. Marketing works hard to get a lead - as defined by marketing. How often does marketing take it upon themselves to have their own definition of a lead and never invite sales to this discussion? VERY often. Sales gets LOTS of leads from marketing and based on prior experiences, sales will cherry pick through these leads and call them when they get some free time or the pressure to get more opportunities into the sales funnel gets high. Big mistake as the shelf life of a lead is 72 hours max and in some industries, several hours. Does all of this sound familiar?

Here is a sample outline of a joint sales and marketing workshop I have facilitated many times that will help address that elephant on the conference room table.

1. Do a survey - have sales comment on lead production from marketing and have marketing comment on lead followup from sales. Discuss the results.
2. Create a common set of lead definitions, given the tools available to marketing today. "I, Marketing, will pass a lead to sales when it meets this set of criteria..."
3. Create an SLA with sales - "I Sales, will follow up on qualified leads from Marketing within 24 hours of receiving the lead."
4. Jointly develop campaign ideas. Sales is your best resource for what potential leads will respond to..ask them!

Of course, this is all very simplistic but you would be amazed how often these basics are not in place. Why? Because this represents a process and role change for marketing - it's hard for marketing to do and it's hard for sales to accept. It is the elephant sitting on the conference room table that everyone is hoping will go away. It won't and you will have to address these process issues around lead management.

How have you addressed this issue in your company?

An Interview with Neal Bush

2009-02-23T14:55:00.001-08:00

Today we interviewed Neal Bush about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue.

TPG: 1. What are some of your most effective lead generation programs?

Neal : search engine marketing, SEO and email

TPG: 2. How do you measure your marketing performance? What are some of the key metrics you use?

Neal : number of new qualified sales opporunties per month, new

TPG: 3. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation?

Neal : 10%

TPG: 4. How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization?

Neal : weekly meetings with sales management, sales advisory council with Marketing and Sales

TPG: 5. How do you define a qualified lead?

Neal : one that has completed a form and sat through a demonstration

TPG: 6. What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts?

Neal : tremendous amount, we utilize technology and automated triggers to move people in and out and between campaigns

TPG: 7. How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand?

Neal : we are just dabbling in it at this point, creating groups on Facebook and Linked In, we blog a lot

TPG: 8. What are your three top priorities for this year?

Neal : get more with less, upsell existing customers into new projects and products

TPG: 9. What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation?

Neal : take your time, be careful and baseline and measure everything

TPG: 10. How do you see the role of marketing changing?

Neal : a marketer needs to not only be more analytical today but also much more in touch with technology and how to use it.

Web 2.0 Selling...It's Here, Now!

2009-02-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

This blog is inspired by reflection on what has changed in selling - the answer is EVERYTHING. My background includes being a VP of Sales for many years, working for one of the world's most renowned sales training companies and now working in the lead generation space. This mix has given me a forward thinking perspective on what is Web 2.0 Selling and here it is.

First, the Buying Process. By now, you've heard everybody and their brother talk about this yet FEW companies have a documented Buying Process - how their customers buy, how they go through their decision making cycle, who is involved, what kind of information are they looking for and when. But, boy can they tell you about how they Sell! How customers buy is THE game changer for sales. No longer do they need to pull in a rep to get education - they get it online and actually use information gleaned from online to go deep into their buying cycle and YOUR sales cycle.

So, what has happened? MARKETING, not sales, is now using powerful "lead management" systems that help them look at, track and automatically respond to online behavior. They get a lead qualified, pass it to sales who now has a lead to follow up on - IN THE TRADITIONAL WAY. Most sales groups have no further insight into online behavior! Did I miss something here? Why is this insight only in the hands of marketing. As a sales person, I would want to have access to ALL information around what an opportunity is thinking, doing to help me shape better pursuit decisions.

I predict this will change dramatically in 2009.
1. As marketing gets more educated and comfortable with these tools and begin to work more with sales in bringing this capability into the SALES process, we will wind up with a group of sales people who will find they cannot live without this invaluable digital behavior.
2. The lead management companies are coming to market with additional solutions that are just for sales people to use as they pursue opportunities
3. This entire market is maturing rapidly

It is going to be a lot of fun to introduce digital insight and behavior into the sales process and see how it all changes in 2009. And, at the end of the day, this is a response to how our prospects and customers have changed.

How do you think sales will change in 2009 with these new tools and behaviors?

"The Year of the Lead"

2009-02-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

It seems like demand generation has exploded onto the marketing scene in 2009. Call it lead generation, lead management or demand generation, the appetite for leads has grown exponentially between this year and last. The business is coming from very focused and motivated marketing teams who understand this is "The Year of the Lead." The pressure from their companies to produce revenue in this type of atmosphere has opened up exploration of new ways to impact and create revenue. The spotlight is now squarely on demand generation solutions.

You see this in several ways:
1. The marketing automation companies and consulting groups are seeing rapid growth in this environment
2. Even in companies where marketing budget and/or teams have been cut, the focus on lead generation continues and we see many companies who are now "outsourcing" their lead generation function. A recent study from DemandGen Report showed that the budgets for lead generation are holding steady in 2009 (after big increases in 2008) and in some cases are increasing.
3. Participation of marketers in professional events focused on demand generation is growing and the fact that we now have events focused in this area is growing

Along with that appetite has also come a much broader knowledge of the exciting marketing category. I had a conversation yesterday with a marketer just beginning to look at lead management systems and how to improve leads in his company. He was WELL educated. He had spoken at length with a peer in another company and he had great ideas for what he wanted from a demand generation program. This is strikingly different from even a year ago. At that time a typical conversation would have been me doing ALL the educating.

The net? If your CEO or VP has asked you for more leads, better quality leads or ways that marketing can impact revenue...they are serious. It is "The Year of the Lead."

Tell me your opinion! What are you seeing?

10 Best Practices for Sales & Marketing Alignment

2009-02-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

This week I was working with a new client and we were conducting the lead management kick-off meeting. This client had just purchased a lead management system and was preparing to soar into the world of Web 2.0 marketing. In attendance were the marketing staff and a significant number of sales people. The ratio of sales to marketing in this meeting was 3:1.

The purpose of the kick-off was to:

Begin building a collaborative lead management relationship between sales and marketing

Begin building a jointly constructed lead management process

Introduce the team to the capabilities and possibilities of their chosen lead management system

Build a set of Use Cases (highly customized lead management scenarios for the company with priority)

The entire team fully participated, shared and respected each other’s opinions and ideas during the session. The result of the day was a sales and marketing team that was fully charged and excited about Web 2.0 lead management in their company.

I share this story as a way to set up how every company needs to better align sales and marketing around ALL lead generation efforts. In a study we conducted last summer, we asked leading marketers what one piece of advice they would give to a new lead generation marketer – the answer was a loud and resounding – “Get aligned with sales.” We see this as such a critical success factor that in our newly published LASER Approach, we outline beginning the lead management dialog with sales even before your company invests in a lead management system

The case above is finally beginning to become the norm yet I still see companies in which marketing does not or can’t engage with sales in building and improving lead management. Here are a few ways you can improve your own alignment with sales and your lead generation efforts. These are not rocket science, but they are Best Practices that will ensure you lead generation success. What have you seen that works?

Work with sales to:

Build a language of leads
This is the most BASIC step yet EVERY company we work with has an issue of not using a common language of leads
Build a common lead management process
When is a lead handed over, how is it handed over, what is the responsibility of sales when it is handed over, how does sales hand it back to marketing if not yet sales ready?
Create a lead scoring program
You cannot create a lead scoring program without sales. Time and time again, when we facilitate a lead scoring exercise with sales and marketing, marketing is amazed at what they learn
Build Sales Champions for the lead management program
Identify and work with a few sales people to ensure they have high quality leads and access to the prospect digital behavior so they can make better pursuit decisions. They will never go back to selling with this and it will win over the rest of the sales team.
Build a priority of campaigns
Nobody knows what is hotter in the market than a quota carrying rep. Ask them what kind of program or message will produce “Hot Leads.”
Create a regular communication cycle
This includes the campaign calendar which gives them time to order their priorities to follow up right after a campaign. It also includes communicating on how programs are doing and the impact marketing qualified leads are making on the funnel and the revenue picture for the company
Create a feedback loop
You will need to get feedback on the quality of the leads so you can make adjustments for future programs
Service Level Agreements Marketing is working hard to produce leads that fit the requirements of sales. Sales should have specific duties and responsibilities when it comes to lead follow up and disposition
Guiding Principles
As marketing spends more and more time in the lead management part of their business, their role changes and you need to re-set expectations. Creating 5 – 7 Guiding Principles will help everyone understand the new role of marketing and reduce potential friction.
Finally, if you don’t know how sales works in your company, learn!

What have you seen that works?

Fail Fast and Fail Forward!

2009-02-11T07:02:00.000-08:00

"Fail fast and fail forward!"

This is advice I recently heard from a veteran sales & marketing professional when asked what advice would he give to the fledgling demand generation marketer. While this is not something you expect to hear, it makes perfect sense given the unknown territory the demand generation marketer is responsible for. The statement sums up an approach which uses an hypothesis for all elements of an untested demand generation strategy, test it, analyze it, if it fails, move on to the next option.

However, what I see every day are marketers who believe they need to get it right the first time! So let's debunk the idea that is has to be perfect every time. The use of a hypothesis, testing and improving through cycles is not new in a business setting. Entire industries such as manufacturing and software development were built on this concept. To help you ratchet up your level of professionalism as you work in your organization to improve demand generation, let’s borrow a model that is known and accepted around the globe in every industry – the Deming Cycle.

Developed by Edward Deming in the 1930’s to improve the manufacturing process (and demand generation IS a process), the idea is that perfect quality was not possible in the first iteration of a manufacturing process. Deming outlined a simple, yet highly effective 4 step process that tests and builds in quality over numerous cycles. It’s called PDCA or Plan-Do-Check-Act (also known as the Deming Cycle, Shewhart Cycle, Deming Wheel, or Plan-Do-Study-Act.)

PLAN
Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the specifications.

DO
Implement the processes.

CHECK
Monitor and evaluate the processes and results against objectives and Specifications and report the outcome.

ACT
Apply actions to the outcome for necessary improvement. This means reviewing all steps (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and modifying the process to improve it before its next implementation.

Without using this specific language, the most successful marketers in demand generation use this kind of process. They take the approach of planning the best they can given what they know today and given the data and systems they have at hand. They are not afraid to approach this as a series of experiments. They begin with a hypothesis, run the experiment, see what happens and adjust the next cycle as needed.

Here is a recent example of Plan-Do-Check-Act for Demand Generation. Last week we launched a "test" campaign for one of our customers. We tested two different elements: the subject line and text versus graphics in the body of the email. We had 4 different emails that we tested. As usual, the CLEAR winner with a 45% click-through to form completion ratio, was not the one we expected! We were convinced going into the test that this would not be the winner. In fact, the one we liked had horrible performance. So, later this week our client will now confidently launch the broad campaign knowing he has chosen the best option and should expect a very good result.

So as you look at your demand generation efforts, don't be afraid to test, test, test! It will make you a more successful marketer.

Social Media Begins with The Buying Process

2009-02-09T04:20:00.000-08:00

This past week-end I attended SoCon ‘09, a social media conference held here in Atlanta. We had over 300 attendees and we covered a lot of topics. I facilitated one of the break-out sessions - "Using Social Media to generate leads for a B2B company - and it was well attended with about 40 participants. I had, of course, spent some time prepping for the break-out session, but based on everything I had earlier that day, I scrapped my approach (and my PPT) and decided to really get back to basics (and used a white board.) It struck me as I was listening to all the dialog (while I was twittering my impressions of the conference) that this crowd was very focused on the "pretty-shiny widgets" of social media and this crowd was also very passionate about social media and what could be done with it. I heard people say things like "I've been trying to get my company to blog for 3 years now!" or "If my company would just listen to me about social media."

While your company does need to listen, I think the more fundamental approach to social media for a B2B company is - Where are your customers? Do they go on-line and if they do, where do they go and why?

So to answer this question, in our break-out group, we:
1. Created a basic Customer Buying Process
2. Generated a list of social media tools
3. Identified the boulders - stuff we couldn't do anything about
4. Used 4 different buying scenarios - A transactions buying cycle with a buyer who has some knowledge and use of social media, a transactions buying cycle with a buyer who is a big user of social media, a complex buying cycle with a buyer who has some knowledge of social media and a complex buying cycle with a buyer who is a big user of social media.

I gave the 4 teams 30 minutes to talk through their scenarios and to identify which social media tactics and strategies they would use and why. The result? The RIGHT kind of conversation around if and how you need a social media strategy.
Ah-ha"s included:
- Wow, never thought about a buy cycle (Well think about it now! The power is now in the hands of the buyer!)
- Wow, my brain is bleeding (Yes! Thinking about how and why your prospects act on-line and with what tools is brain bleeding work but necessary.)
- We can use a lot of the same tools all along the buy cycle, we just will use them a bit differently - We can see that LISTENING is key in the early days of social media for lead generation

Lesson learned is that technology is still just technology. This stuff is beyond cool and we all need to be playing with it, learning it, and thinking about it. However, it is the smart application of that technology to drive a business result that creates new relationships and new business. With that said, we are still early days in understanding social media and the impact it will have on all of us. So for many, setting up social media as an experiment and as a way to listen is Step 1. Some people are getting "leads" through social media, but not in an automated fashion. We'll have to see about Step 2 in which we will find a way to "monetize" the chatter through automation.

Social Media and Lead Generation

2009-02-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

This weekend I am attending and chairing a break-out session at SoCon 09 - a social media conference being held here in Atlanta. I am very excited to be going and I am most looking forward to talking to my peers about what they are doing with social media. Social media is all the buzz right now and I frequently have clients asking me - "How should I be using social media?" In the B2B world of lead generation (my world) this is still the trillion dollar question. My first response to this question is "What are your prospects doing on-line, where are they?" I recently had this conversation with a very conservative, 100 year old printing company in the mid-west. When we began to explore who their buyers and buying influencers were, we hit upon a particular profile of a "packaging engineer" and discovered that these guys (gals) live on the web. So, we are creating a social media strategy - very low key - something like Bob's Blog - that will create an interaction among this group sponsored by the client. And, the important thing about this strategy will be to LISTEN to what these engineers have to say! It is an experiment and we do not have a set of lead generation metrics tied to it. We are going to play and see what happens.

This brings up my second comment about social media. For all of us of a more "mature" age, if you really want to understand social media - look at your kids. We now have an entire generation of kids who have grown up in the digital age and it is simply a part of their DNA. I am an "informal" mentor in the GA Tech MBA program and from time to time, they will ask me to talk to one of their students about the big bad world of Web 2.0 marketing. I met with one of these students last November and as a 22 year old, she had done an internship for a major insurance company, suggested a social media strategy for them, they adopted it and offered her a job! When I asked her how this happened, she replied "It was just obvious!"

As this group of kids become the managers and leaders, social media will zoom! I am taking my 22 year old with me to SoCon and she will probably know more than me! Maybe she should run the break-out session!

Finally, I am working on my own learning and experiences with social media. I personally blog, facebook, linkedin and twitter and am a proponent of all things Web 2.0, find myself still fully in the exploration stages. I am currently working on "creating a work flow" for how I interact with all of my social media. Here is what I do: - When I fire up my laptop early in the AM (yes, I am an early bird) I: - check my blog - and take the time to respond or write one (love, love, love to blog) - set up my IM - I am connected to my entire team all day as we work on client projects - set up TWIRL - a little app that helps me twitter (this is on all day). I use Twitter all day for my brainstoming comments and quite frankly for social media ideas - check my LinkedIn Groups (I use this a lot for finding people, creating new relationships and communicating with professional groups) - check my Facebook (I use this a lot for current relationships) I will frequently re-visit many of these late in the day as well.

In closing, we live in a very exciting time to be a marketer. It's a time to explore new ideas and new technologies so education is key. Keep communicating on line, going to conferences and seeing what people are actually doing. I look forward to a great dialog on this post!!

5 Ways to Pay for Demand Generation

2009-02-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

There are many marketers that value the role lead and demand generation play in their organization, but often times, coming up with budget to pay for the platform is often an issue. Value in an organization is placed on traditional things like PR, Direct Mail, Tradeshows, etc. The trouble is, these channels are difficult to truly measure in terms of the revenue impact they have.

The average Marketing Automation System runs about $60,000 per year. Companies can run these platforms internally and typically allocate 1/2 to 3 FTE to use the technology as part of their lead generation efforts. An average marketing technologist will make about $75,000 loaded. Other companies choose to outsource their demand generation efforts, and these fees can range from $5,000 to $25,000+ per month depending upon the services and scope required. So let's say, internal will run approximately $135,000 per year and external will run approximately $120,000 per year. Where do you get this money, and what kind of return should you expect?

1. Reallocate your PR budget. The average B2B company is spending $10,000 per month on retainer, and usually gets 1-2 speaking engagements, a by-line article, and a press release. Shift 50% of that and you just about have the software paid for. In return, you will be able to run unlimited outbound and nurturing campaigns, score and profile your leads, integrate with your CRM, and see a 3X increase on average in lead production. Assuming you have a 30 to 1 lead to close ratio at an average sale of $50,000, and you sell 1 new person per month, marketing automation will get you an additional $1,200,000 per year against the same spend you have now. That's a 10 to 1 return on investment for no additional budget.

2. Do one less tradeshow. The average tradeshow costs $30,000, and you are lucky if you get 2-3 good leads. You will have to run 3-4 tradeshows to get one customer, costing you $120,000 to gain $50,000. Hardly a worthwhile investment. $30,000 is 1/2 a year of a license. Using the math in step one, you will have produced $600,000 in the first 6 months with additional revenue, giving you more than enough to pay for the rest of the year and beyond.

3. Eliminate one direct mail campaign. Assuming you send out 10,000 pieces at a total cost of $1.50/piece, including design, print and postage, then you can save $15,000 and pay for 3 months of marketing automation. That 3 months will net you $150,000 and pay for the license for 2 years.

4. Reduce Google Adwords Spending. The average B2B company is spending at least $30,000 per month on pay per click. Trimming just $5,000 per month will pay for the license, generate an additional $1,200,000 in sales and allow you to double your Google Adwords Budget next year.

5. Reduce your Agency spending. A typical Agency gets at least $10,000 per month on retainer for creative services, but typically is not helping you with demand generation. Refocus that money on marketing automation. These platforms will repurpose existing content, drive additional traffic and convert more leads to sales. Shift your content strategy from agency created to user generated. This is much more cost effective and significantly more valuable in conversion.

There are probably a number of ways you can shift your budget around, but these 5 will be more than enough to get you started.

When good technology goes bad!

2009-02-04T05:12:00.000-08:00

As marketers, we've all been there. We've planned for our webinar, spent countless hours making sure our content was beneficial to the participants, worked on our campaigns to invite people and then 30 minute before hand, tested everything. Then the curtain goes up and what was just tested 30 minutes ago...freezes up! What do you do? How do you handle this?

The answer is with honesty and transparency. This happened to me yesterday and as the speaker AND a veteran of many, many webinars, I can tell you it was highly embarrassing. You don't want to waste people's time while you are "trying to get up and running" and you certainly don't want to give people the idea that your "Web 2.0 skills are sub-par". Yet, this is what can and did happen.

My apology email is going out this morning. I don't want to make this conversation about "what system to use" ...I've heard stories of all of them "freezing up" at one time or another. I want to make this about just being honest and saying...thank you to the participants who did hang in until the end and for the ones who dropped off early, I can't blame you.

We will continue to run webinars (with a different provider) and I hope that all of you will return for our next one. We have fabulous content, insight and experience to share with the industry and I hope to see you all there!

Keep your fingers crossed, lightening doesn't strike the same place twice, does it?