The Funnelholic

Glossary: “C-Suite” — Defined on the funnelholic as any C-level executive but implies more than one. My buddy at SAP gave me this term and I have been using it ever since.

Assault refers to everyone’s continual quest to get into the C-Suite. It was brought up to me once again once I released my Optimize to Connect post…that alot of common techniques do not work when we are talking about C-level executives.

Let make one thing crystal clear: Getting into the C-Suite from mid-sized business and up is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT.

• If you work at one of the tech giants (IBM, ORCL, SAP, MSFT, CISCO, etc), you SHOULD be dealing with the C-Suite and by virtue of who you work for, this is more realiistice
• C-level executives DO NOT DOWNLOAD whitepapers on the internet. They don’t.
• Per the above point, you may have to leverage a direct report to get to him and THAT IS OKAY
• This is especially true when you are at an emerging technology organization
• I know that the CFO signs off on technology, but he is not going to respond to a it infrastructure vendors “Save money, roi, etc” VITO letter
• Rolodex works here (too obvious) but if you can use it do it.

So, what to do? I don’t know how many times I have been asked to build a lead development organization to get meetings on the C-level or as an internet lead generation organization to develop C-level leads.

Funnelholic tips:

• Sales:
• Be-friend the admin. There is so much written about this, that I don’t need to do more. But this lady is tough as nails but is human and will help you somewhat.
• First of all, if you have a well-written email, ask her to print it and put it on her bosses’ chair
• Talk to her when things are not hectic, late in the day, and just be up-front on what you are trying to achieve
• Seriously, its ok, to talk to a direct report or the person in-charge of the area you are selling to (example: if you are selling supply chain, the person in charge of supply chain management is ok.
• Try calling before 9AM and after 5PM when the admin is gone and your contact is just sitting at their desk
• Using automation
• Tools like Eloqua, Genius.com, etc DO work here and they work great. The earlier point of getting c-level guys when their day of meetings is done can be executed using Connect Automation. Send them an email at 5:45 pm and when they open it and start cruising around — call them OR if you can’t reach them send them another email right then. This technique is one of the reasons for Connect Automation.
• One guy I spoke with sends 10 emails at 6PM and if he gets a hit. He calls first in hopes that he can reach the contact (gatekeeper gone). If that doesn’t work, he gets bold and sends an email.
• Using online Lead Generation services
• You won’t get C-level downloads from companies of any substantial size. That does not mean you should fire your online lead sources. Look it doesn’t take a dummy to know that if people from that company are researching what you are selling that you have a shot at getting to the top. Triangulate around your contact knowing what they are looking into and what their pains are and you can create targeted compelling messaging for your C-level target.

Two reasons for the title:

1. Buy registrations — My colleagues have started to harass me for not talking more about how to deal with online B2B lead generation

2. “Cook em in a pot like Gumbo,” I had to get a line from an old Ice Cube song into my blog

Back to business, I realized that my experience in the front of the funnel is not limited to the role of the Lead Qualification/Inside Sales teams nor is it limited to Linkedin posts, but rather I created the blog to discuss all aspects of B2b lead generation. I have a lot to say.

The current online B2B lead generation market is dominated by registration-collection: whitepaper downloads, co-reg, webinar registrations, etc. Sales Reps are not really enamored by the majority of these leads and as a marketer, you hear their clamoring. The truth is, in most cases, the Sales Reps are right, the vast majority of these leads are for the marketing funnel, not the sales funnel. I realize sales want leads they can work on NOW and that will always be our fight, but that does not mean that online registrations are not of value. You just have to know how to use them.

Some of the best marketers today but as many online registrations they can afford. They put these leads in their marketing database and go to work on them. You have to weed out the typical competitors, John Doe, and students. (By the way, you should have your online vendor do that for you,don’t pay for those). The nurture game is one of the most important facets of today’s marketing organization. Your marketing campaign to an individual lead or contact starts with some declaration of interest on the part of the prospect. They may have downloaded a third-party research report, your whitepaper, attended a webinar. Whatever it may be, you now know that it is time to spend some money on them.

Here is what I suggest:

1. Buy Online Leads (from relevant sources. Just make sure that the site you are buying them from or the offer that you are using drives the RIGHT person)

2. Run them through some type of Lead Qualification Process preferably a team

a. The most telling metric of the sales-readiness of the leads you are buying should be leads-to-opportunities or simple sales acceptance (sales saying that was worth their time). Don’t get caught in trying to get immediate close rates off leads

b. ROI, plead, lobby, etc to get everyone to understand that lead ROI should be over the course of time.

3. Send the Sales Ready leads to sales and put the rest in the Marketing Pipeline, and by the way, do this gladly, do NOT be ashamed

4. Nurture the rest back to the top.

I just want anyone who has not done a blog to know that the kind of vile spam your email spam protector shields you from can be found in the comments section of your blogs. i am installed a widget today, but I have received so much spam into my comments field its amazing. Then there are some that I am not sure are spam like:

“I pooped in my pants” - thats either a friend or a nefarious spammer

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