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B2B Lead Generation Articles on demand generation
- Lead Management and Football
Anything Goes Marketing | Jul 28, 2010 | Permalink
In one of my meetings these past few weeks I was thinking of an analogy where I could break down the lead management process into much simpler terms so everyone could understand their roles - this is where football comes in. Why football? Well, if I compared it to hockey no one outside of Canada would care. I'm going to introduce the players and coaches below and then summarize how the different parts fit together to create a Super Bowl caliber lead management process. Are you ready for some football?The Players and Coaches Take the FieldQuarterback: The marketing team is the QB. If you're a marketer, you're saying "I don't get paid like a quarterback". No one does - let's assume that salaries don't apply here. If you're in sales you may also disagree as QBs typically get more of the gl...
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- B2B Marketing Trends From Eloqua Experience 09 Via Twitter
Anything Goes Marketing | Jul 28, 2010 | Permalink
Earlier this month I left my newborn and poor wife at home for an unforgettable week at Eloqua Experience in San Francisco. This sold out event brought together some of smartest marketers from all over the world. While there were a few keynote speakers, the conference focused on having the Eloqua community share their experiences so we could all learn from each other.The main difference this year from last year was that we not only shared our knowledge and insights with each other but with the power of Twitter, we could share these with the rest of the globe. This made the event even more exciting as tweeters could listen to speakers, engage other tweeters, tweet their experiences, and see what others were tweeting about all at the same time! To better understand, how Eloqua pulled this...
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- BtoB Leading Edge Virtual Event: 3 Key Marketing Takeaways
Marketo | Jun 25, 2010 | Permalink
Top three takeaways from the BtoB Demand Generation Leading Edge Virtual Event.
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- Managing B2B Leads for Sales Success – 30 minute, on-demand webinar
Sales Lead Insights | Jun 13, 2010 | Permalink
Join us for a conversation with Gord Hotchkiss (author of The BuyerSphere Project) and B2B marketing and sales lead expert, Mac McIntosh, on the current realities of B2B demand generation. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.
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- Managing B2B Leads for Sales Success – 30 minute webinar on June 10 at 11:0...
Sales Lead Insights | Jun 09, 2010 | Permalink
Join us for a conversation with Gord Hotchkiss (author of The BuyerSphere Project) and B2B marketing and sales lead expert, Mac McIntosh, on the current realities of B2B demand generation. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.
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- Are you investing enough in Sales Research?
ReadyContacts | Jun 02, 2010 | Permalink
B2B demand generation is getting tougher than ever before. Mass marketing is dead. Direct marketing is ignored. Email marketing has turned into a spray and pray tactic. But sales quotes have remained the same and are growing. In this situation, its imperative for every marketer to think outside the box – I know everyone says [...]
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- Marketo's Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing
Build A Sales Machine | Mar 02, 2010 | Permalink
(Want expert help - based off of salesforce.com's $1 billion best practices - in building your B2B Sales Machine? See Build Your Sales Machine)I'm a big fan of Marketo, mostly because of the people there like Jon Miller, Kelly Abner and now Maria Pergolino. Marketo's application and the team's knowledge and practical experience around demand generation and lead nurturing is A+!So when they shared their new "Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing" with me, I knew it'd be something worth sharing with you, dear readers :) Below is an excerpt from their post about it, and get the full post and guide here.And now...Marketo's Definitive Guide To Lead NurturingInformative and practical, The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing offers useful, qualitative insight from today’s marketing thought le...
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- Lead Scoring Made Easy
Sales X Marketing | Feb 24, 2010 | Permalink
I am at the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, and I spoke on the Demand Generation & Sales 2.0 Panel yesterday. It was a great conversation, with great questions from the room -- people are definitely engaged in how...
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- Announcing Aventi’s Vector for Channels
Pacifica Group | Feb 06, 2010 | Permalink
I’m very pleased to announce a new Aventi Group’s offering masterminded by our very own Bill Reed. Aventi’s Vector for Channels is a deliverable made up of methods, tools, templates and even a bit of software aimed at helping technology clients optimize channel sales. Specifically, Vector for Channels is intended to help the VP of Sales/Marketing drive higher response rates from demand generation programs for the channel, increase channel sales rep effectiveness with sharper honed needs-based messaging, and to dynamically prioritized channel sales pipelines using and powerful, lead scoring system. We encourage you to attend Bill’s webinar on Wednesday, August 19th at 8:00am PT. Click here to register for the event, and looking forward to having you join us.
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- 10 B2B Demand Generation Strategies for 2010
Demandbase | Dec 02, 2009 | Permalink
I did a dry run of our Wednesday (12/2/2009) webinar with Howard Sewell from Connect Direct this morning, and I have to tell you that he has put together some outstanding recommendations and tips for BtoB companies in 2010. A recording will be made available if you can't join us live, but as the Q&A at the end of the webinar could be the best part of the discussion you should join us if you can..
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- Get Hitched; Not Ditched! Improve Your Marketing Effectiveness.
Sales X Marketing | Aug 12, 2009 | Permalink
My company, Genoo, released a new series today, called "Get Hitched; Not Ditched". These are practical guides that walk you through actual steps you can take to improve your online marketing effectiveness -- from demand generation through lead nurturing. Subjects...
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- Pushing Prospects through the Pipeline
Accelerating IT Sales | Jun 10, 2009 | Permalink
A recent Marketing Sherpa report addresses lead nurturing best practices, and is a helpful update on how to best reach prospects once they've engaged with your content, but not independently returned to your site. By applying the practices outlined in Lead Nurturing Best Practices: New Data, Charts, Tips to Put More Punch in Your Cultivation Tactics, you can align your lead nurturing program with what's shown to be working industry-wide. In compiling this report, Marketing Sherpa partnered with Eloqua (a lead management & demand generation powerhouse) and On24 (a leader in the virtual event and webinar space), to survey over 1000 marketing professionals to learn about their lead nurturing methods. According to the report, lead generation isn't what's difficult - with the general t...
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- Lead Management and Football
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Lead Generation Topics
 and B2B marketing and sales lead expert, Mac McIntosh, on the current realities of B2B demand generation.<p/><table cellspacing='0' border='1' cellpadding='15'>
<tbody><tr><td><a href='http://sales-lead-insights.com/'><img src='http://www.sales-lead-insights.com/site/wp-content/themes/sales-lead-insights-4/images/logo-130.jpg' alt='Sales Lead Insights Logo'/></a></td>
<td>If you'd like to learn more, please use my <a href='http://www.sales-lead-insights.com/contact' target='_BLANK'>Contact Form</a>, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the <a href='http://www.sales-lead-experts.com/consulting/' target='_BLANK'>marketing consulting</a> or <a href='http://www.sales-lead-experts.com/speaking/' target='_BLANK'>speaking and training</a> pages on my website.
</td>
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</tbody></table><p/>){kind=logo}
 and B2B marketing and sales lead expert, Mac McIntosh, on the current realities of B2B demand generation.<p/><table cellspacing='0' border='1' cellpadding='15'>
<tbody><tr><td><a href='http://sales-lead-insights.com/'><img src='http://www.sales-lead-insights.com/site/wp-content/themes/sales-lead-insights-4/images/logo-130.jpg' alt='Sales Lead Insights Logo'/></a></td>
<td>If you'd like to learn more, please use my <a href='http://www.sales-lead-insights.com/contact' target='_BLANK'>Contact Form</a>, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the <a href='http://www.sales-lead-experts.com/consulting/' target='_BLANK'>marketing consulting</a> or <a href='http://www.sales-lead-experts.com/speaking/' target='_BLANK'>speaking and training</a> pages on my website.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table><p/>){kind=logo}
 and <a href='http://www.on24.com/'>On24</a> (a leader in the virtual event and webinar space), to survey over 1000 marketing professionals to learn about their lead nurturing methods. </p>
<p><img src='http://www.acceleratingitsales.com/pipeline_revised_2.jpg' height='249' alt='pipeline_revised_2.jpg' align='right' width='165'/></p>
<p>According to the report, lead generation isn't what's difficult - with the general thinking being that most lead generating companies already have plenty of leads, they just don't have plenty of sales ready leads. In order to deliver high-quality, sales-ready prospects to your sales team, you need to put your energies into nurturing your existing leads over the long term, and expect that it will take up to 24 months for some of your leads to turn into sales. To effectively nurture leads over the long term, your lead nurturing programs need to be elevated within your organization, and given the same kind of time and energy that's put into generating leads.</p>
<p>The Marketing Sherpa report touches on a few key concepts that I've examined and explained in further detail below:<br/>
<strong><br/>
Best Practice #1. Use multi-media touches to nurture leads </strong></p>
<p>In order to effectively reach your prospects, you need to use more than email newsletters or triggered email messages to move leads through your sales pipeline. While email marketing is a tried-and-true method of nurturing leads, you need to do more. According to the report, a combination of email messages, direct mail, and telemarketing efforts works best when trying to segment your leads. </p>
<p>If you really want to reach people where it counts, you can look to telemarketing as a tool to help increase your brand awareness, determine where in the buying cycle prospects are, and offer educational materials to help further their awareness of your company, products and services. Direct mail is a great way to invite people to virtual and face-to-face events, and remind users of new content or marketing materials they might want to check out on your site. Email marketing is a good tool for drip-nurturing, and can be employed when you have a group of prospects that are actively involved in researching solutions, and want to nudged along with new content or new information related to your offerings. <br/>
<strong><br/>
Best Practice #2. Quick response to Web leads can maximize conversions </strong></p>
<p>With our always-on world, it's no longer good enough to wait 24-hours before making contact with a new prospect. With so many competitors vying for the same sets of eyes, it's crucial that you cement your relationship with new leads inside of an hour (!). And according to the Marketing Sherpa data, "calls placed within five minutes of receiving a Web lead have the highest likelihood of making contact." </p>
<p>To achieve this kind of real-time responsiveness, you need to move toward automating your lead generation and reporting processes, so that leads land in your CRM system as soon as they're generated. And while moving from weekly lead reports to automated reporting processes might require an overhaul of your entire lead management practices, doing so may also significantly improve your overall sales. </p>
<p><strong>Best Practice #3. Use a lead scoring system </strong></p>
<p>Lead scoring is a great way to segment your leads and determine how best each prospect should be nurtured through the pipeline. By rating leads based on a series of filters, such as their location, their time frame for implementing a solution, or their role in the IT decision making process, you can place your leads in separate silos, and nurture each group according to their specific needs. </p>
<p>Scoring is also an effective way to separate the "wheat from the chaff," and figure out how long any given lead should require nurturing before they reach sales readiness. While some leads may enter your sales pipeline with low scores, you can develop strategies for nurturing those prospects and keep your pipeline full as each group of leads receives your messages and moves through the buying process. </p>
<p>By scoring leads, automating reporting so that leads are contacted immediately upon entering your CRM system, and nurturing your scored and segmented prospects with a variety of tools, you should be able to accelerate your sales as you continuously move leads through the pipeline. </p>
<p>You can learn more about Lead Nurturing by listening to this podcast from <a href='http://www.theinnovativemarketer.com/'>The Innovative Marketer</a>, <a href='http://media.eloqua.com/audio/TIM22.mp3'>What is lead nurturing and why should you care?</a></p><img src='http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/AcceleratingItSales/~4/sCBFB5JiLFc' height='1' width='1'/>)