To Phone or Not to Phone, There Is No Question

The “pounce controversy” lives on! I noticed one thing about the commentary on the article; I’m not sure we’re thinking about the role of the phone in the right way. Let’s be clear: the single most effective conversion method to date is the phone. Period.

Look, everyone knows I am as much into lead nurturing and sales 2.0 as anyone else. I believe there is a completely fresh narrative underway for how we engage customers – but you can’t forget one thing: everything you’re doing (marketing automation, nurturing, email, value-added research) is aiming to accomplish one thing: get the right people to TALK to you. I agree that the lead nurturing movement makes us smarter and more efficient, but in all the posts out there on the Web today, there is little if any mention of the phone’s continued role in the conversion process. If you can get the right contact on the phone, you do it, because all your goals (buyer-vendor relationships, conversion, etc.) are still met by phone today.

So I ask the question:  When you consider conversion, are you thinking of how your programs increased “phone connects?”

When it comes to the pounce controversy, there is a nice use case. A prospect responds to a relevant offer and hits your Web site. That is the perfect opportunity to connect. Of course you can use chat, email, etc. to pounce, but for the sake of this article I just want to walk through the pluses and minuses of calling that person right away. Keep in mind why I think getting to the prospect right away is critical: the person is currently on your Web site, thus, technically already engaged with you and your likelihood to connect is high (yes, you can actually call with your company name appearing on caller ID). That’s good. Ask your lead follow-up team how many darn calls it takes to get a buyer engaged, if ever.

Now, here are your possible outcomes:

1. They are ready to talk and work with sales: win.
2. They have a great conversation with you where you actually frame your value prop and send them some value-added information. A lasting first impression is made. They aren’t ready to work with you so you put them in the nurture campaign: win.
3. They tell you to go to hell. They would have told you that anyway: lose.

The downside is not that painful considering the upside.

Please remember:

1. The phone still works.
2. For it to work, we need to get our phone resources connected with the right people (NOTE: if you sent an email to someone, I hope you sent it to a targeted list).
3. New technologies should increase our connect rates, NOT keep us from talking to people.
4. The phone is your best weapon in the lead-conversion rate war.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

To Pounce or Not to Pounce, That Is the Question

I know it’s dorky, but I can’t help it: I get excited about great blog posts. My boy Mike Damphousse (@damhpoux) wrote a post yesterday: “Webleads: Pounce, pause, nurture or wait?” The post addressed the question of what the best step to take is after a prospect responds to an email or blog post and hits your Web site. Mike is tracking this activity with a product called Leadlander.

He posed this question to 7 experts and categorized their answers as follows:

  • Pounce: Call immediately.
  • Pause: Give it 15-30 minutes, then call.
  • Nurture: Let visitors keep educating themselves, and educate them softly if you can identify them.
  • Wait: Wait a day or two, then casually call.

Out of the seven people who answered, I was the only one to vote for the “pounce” approach. Now that is interesting! I guess I’m a rebel. Let me explain where I’m coming from. First, let me take a quote from Jill Konrath (@jillkonrath): “I hate being pounced upon … (but) … I know there is research that supports getting in touch with a person immediately after they visit your site. Strike when they’re hot. The key to success is in the how.”

So Jill is basically saying, I hate being pounced on, but technically the right thing to do is pounce. And she’s right — the key to success is “how.”

Why pounce?

The numbers tell you to. The sales and marketing blogosphere is obsessed with nurturing (and I am one of those bloggers). But remember, our goal in life is to CONVERT. And conversion implies connecting — one of the hardest things to control in the overall conversion process.

Here are some Funnel points to consider about the pounce approach:

1. You got them where you want them. Mike’s case works here: He sent prospects an email or wrote a blog post which lead the person to start cruising his company’s Web site. If you contact the prospect immediately, you have them with their browser open and YOUR site up. Attention is HIGH.

2. Don’t kid yourself — they won’t come back for awhile. Nurturing rules, but it takes time. You’ll have to send leads emails or other means of contact for the next couple months to get them back. No bueno.

3. “Who are you again?” See 1 and 2 for more on this. Prospects are on your site NOW and will not have to go back to their busy lives for the next 10 minutes. Contact them when you know they’ll recognize your name and brand.

4. Connect and you will convert. I am being redundant here, but ConnectAndSell is one of the hottest businesses out there and its ultimate goal is to have you pay the company to help you connect. Your connect rates are highest on impact.

5. Messaging is the key to life. I love it — people who teach people how to cold call are voting against “pouncing.” You’d rather cold-call? Forget it.

Take Jill’s quote: “The key to success is how.” What you say is always half the battle. If you call prospects to mention that you see them on your site and start qualifying them, you will fail. Instead, add value on the call. You know they clicked through an offer or post, leverage that knowledge to offer them research or data that follows their information trail. Go even softer and invite them to a Webinar, I don’t care. So pounce, but pounce with class.

6. Your biggest conversion rate “hit.” You get the most “bang for your buck” within the first 24 hours of receiving a lead. Nurturing helps those numbers over time, but your biggest day is the first. See chart below. The y axis is time and the x axis is your likelihood to convert.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Warning: Sending Unqualified Leads to Sales Is Bad for Your Health

As you may have noticed, I have become slightly addicted to Thought Leadership interviews. In the meantime, I have been jotting down ideas for posts and have come up with some great stuff. Nevertheless, my Funnelholic posts are driven by what’s happening in my life and as such, I have to revisit a topic I have written and talked about a million times: sending raw leads directly to sales.

The Funnelholic tip of the day, or even the century, is: Don’t do it.

There is so much written about this, you have to know sending unqualified leads to sales is unwise. Yet there are some people that continue to tempt fate.

As a lead vendor, if I know what a client has in place I can predict two things:

1. Their reaction to the leads.
2. The leads’ potential conversion rates.

The Funnelholic meter below can help you predict how you might react:

OK, let me start from the top:

1. Lead nurturing hopefully mixed with telequalification: I immediately know a couple  things when I get a customer with a robust lead nurturing methodology, which typically includes a marketing automation system AND telequalification: These leads will convert and sales loves them. Period. Yes these programs take money and investment, but the closer you get to this ideal, the better off your marketing and lead generation campaigns will be. As you can see, the conversion rates (lead to opportunity) are exponentially higher and despite your increased spending, your cost per opportunity can actually go DOWN.

2. Lead Qual (telequalification): If companies have telequalification properly set up, they convert leads. The lead nurturing aspect means they are still missing opportunities, as telequalification teams typically are most effective in the first three weeks of a lead’s life. The buyer’s timing does not always match yours – he or she may not be ready to talk right away – which thus generates the need for the nurturing component.  But I don’t want to discount how important it is for organizations to have this function in place because it is far better than …

3. No lead nurturing: This category essentially represents organizations that send raw leads directly to sales. This just doesn’t work as the numbers bear out and let me guess, sales is complaining about the leads or just as appalling, not following up on them.

The morale of the story is:  Passing leads directly to sales is bad for your organization’s health.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Open for Business: Focus.com

I am really excited about the launch of Focus.com. Yes, it is owned and operated by my company, Tippit. But no, this is not a gratuitous plug.  I believe in what Focus.com is trying to achieve and how it will change the business Internet.

But first, a couple things :

1. I ask all my readers to check out the site, sign up for a profile and explore the content and collaborative features.

2.  I also ask that you send me honest feedback. You can DM on me Twitter (@funnelholic), comment below or send me an email at craig@funnelholic.com.

Focus is:

  • Where business makes decisions
  • A business destination where business professionals can help each other with their purchase and other business decisions by accessing research and peer expertise, as well as sharing their expertise with others
  • An open service – meaning high quality information is freely available, easily accessible and community-powered
  • A breakthrough, plain and simple
  • Just launched, so your feedback is important

In addition, you can find more background about Focus on the site itself.

For a quick summary of the site, see  www.focus.com/about/learn-more/.
For a more detailed summary of the site, see www.focus.com/about/.
For Focus FAQs, see www.focus.com/about/faq/.
For an explanation of Focus Research, see www.focus.com/about/research-approach/.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Triggering More Revenue: Thought Leadership Interview #23 with Craig Elias from SHIFT Selling

I told you I would incorporate more sales centric content … well, here you have it.  I thought my interview with Craig Elias, the creator of Trigger Event Selling, would be a good post considering the importance of understanding trigger events in both marketing and sales. The Funnelholic isn’t the original report on Trigger Events as Elias has seen coverage on NBC news, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Sales and Marketing magazine. Not to mention his last business was chosen by Dow Jones as one of the 50 most promising companies in North America.

Here’s what he had to say:

1. What are the three trends you see emerging in 2009?

  • A focus on the specific Trigger Events that shift a decision makers priorities and get them to buy right now — NOT next month or next year.
  • Analyzing the sales that are won so you can identify the Trigger Events that created the buyer’s desire to take action on solving this problem now — what I call a Won Sales Analysis — so these won sales can be replicated. This differs from what most people do — a lost sales analysis, which was based on an organizations belief that if they lose the business, they need to make sure they don’t lose the lesson.
  • A willingness to make a smaller initial sale with those who experienced a Trigger Event so new customers can be acquired faster, revenues can be generated sooner and further business obtained when other Trigger Events in the same account create additional, often larger, opportunities.

2. What are the biggest challenges for 2009?

  • Identifying EXACTLY when those who are buying are going to buy.
  • Getting to these highly motivated decision makers before the competition.
  • Getting recently motivated prospects as far down the path of buying from you as possible to minimize the likelihood, and the impact, of prospects shopping your solution to your competitors.

3. What are three metrics that B2B marketers should care about and why?

The main thing is to get to revenues as soon as possible, so for me the three metrics I teach my customers to follow are:

  • What Trigger Events caused prospects to become customers? These are the people who are most likely to buy in the near future.
  • Which messages and visuals do the best job of capturing the attention of those who recently experienced a Trigger Event? These messages do the best job of letting your marketing resources generate the greatest return. See below for information on “selective perception.”
  • Which mediums result in the shortest sales cycles by reaching recently motivated decision makers closest to the time when they experience a Trigger Event? These mediums allow you to capture the attention of recently motivated decision makers sooner and result in the highest close ratios.

4. What are the top oversights marketers are making regarding lead generation?

NOT keeping track of the newsletter subscriber email addresses that bounce or direct mail that gets returned. Every time this happens it creates a minimum of three opportunities for a sales team.

  • Where did the original contact go?
  • Who took his or her place?
  • Where did the new contact come from?

Unfortunately most organizations miss the biggest single opportunity to create new customers and generate additional revenue from existing customers by taking these people off their marketing or email newsletter lists.

5. What will you prescribe to marketers to carry out effective lead generation?

Harnessing the power of selective perception. Let me give you an example:

Have you ever noticed that as soon as you buy a new car you see it all over the road? When women get pregnant, suddenly they start seeing other pregnant women everywhere. When couples give birth to their first child, they stop noticing pregnant women and now start seeing babies around every corner. This is called selective perception. We tend to see the things that reinforce what we believe, or the things we can relate to. The rest we usually disregard.
The Trigger Events we experience change what we see. Every time we experience a Trigger Event a new version of selective perception is created. We begin to notice things that were always there. We did not just “see” them.

Why is this important? By focusing on those who recently experienced a Trigger Event you can use the words, visuals or scenarios, that are highly likely to resonate with them. In sales, that means saying the words that will capture your prospects’ attention. In marketing, that means using the words or visuals that will make your advertising jump out of the page and get noticed by those readers who recently experience a Trigger Event and are most likely to become your customers.

The next time you are crafting a message, focus on the audience that recently experienced a Trigger Event. Focus on shaping your message so that when they see it, they will take that most important step to becoming your customer — phoning you.

6. What three Web 2.0 applications, cutting-edge technologies or lead generation sources do marketers HAVE to consider to be successful?

For me the answer to this question is related to what creates a highly motivated buyer and how to turn these highly motivated buyers into customers.

The tools I like the most are:

1. Trigger Event information services like Dow Jones’ SalesWorks and Factiva.com. They do a phenomenal job of giving you first-mover advantage with highly motivated buyers who are highly likely to make a buying decision in the very near future.

2. Marketing automation systems like ActiveConversion.com that get you the contact information of those who visit your Web site and let you know when they have visited more than once.

3. Systems like EchoQuote.com that empower a recently motivated buyer to get pricing information while at the same time helping a salesperson follow up before the competition learns of the opportunity. Nothing turns highly motivated decision makers off and causes them to visit the competition’s Web site more than not having access to the pricing information they want EXACTLY when they want it.

7. What do you hope for in B2B sales and marketing for the new year?

Stronger relationships between sales and marketing, so organizations can align and harness the aspirations of both sides of their revenue generating team.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Thought Leadership Interview #22: Get the 411 from Tom Blue, Founder of Lead 411

This is the second time in two weeks we have interviewed a leader of a new type of sales or marketing service. Today’s interview is with Tom Blue, the founder of Lead411.

Here is his interview:

1. What are the three trends you see emerging in 2009?

  • Direct marketing: Direct marketing efforts increase during recessions. Many of the channels that were producing plenty of leads in 2007 aren’t doing the same today. That means more people go back to cold-calling and direct marketing. We have noticed this in our business. While we lost some customers due to users’ losing their jobs, we have seen an increase in new interest in our offering.
  • Increased target email marketing: More and more people are doing one to one email marketing.  This has to do with the trend I mentioned above, as well as the realization that it can be quite an effective and inexpensive model to depend on.  In addition, more and more executives are increasingly more tolerant of email messages coming in their inbox (as long as they are targeted)
  • Social media networking: This trend will continue in 2009 and 2010.  It is important for sales and marketing people to be in front of as many people as possible. The more sites, networks, etc. you and your company belong to, the more people will be able to find you and will talk about you on these mediums.

2. What are the biggest challenges for 2009?

Fear: Our prospects that aren’t being closed are people that have a lot of fear. They are unsure of how much revenue they are going to have in the next few months so they are very hesitant on purchasing additional services. Even if they need it. The fear isn’t nearly as bad as the end of last year. Things have improved since then, but some fear still lingers.

3. What are three metrics that B2B marketers should care about and why?

I think this varies per company so I am going to refer to my personal experience.

Referring site information: It is important to know where your traffic is coming from. For example, a click from an advertisement usually doesn’t do as well as a keyword from a Google search. If you are like most sites, you are getting referrals from over 100 places a month. They could be ads, partners, search engines, etc. You need to know how valuable each one of these is so you can increase in that area (if needed).

Signup/Lead/Trial Conversion per new visitor: This is very important because this will tell you how good your sales/marketing copy is.  If you make wording changes to one of your entry pages you want to know if that increased interest in your prospect.  Did you get more trials/signups/leads from it?

Percentage of close/sale: From the lead that comes in you want to know how well your salesperson does with that lead. You can match up each salesperson to see who is doing the best and be able to figure out what would be a good quota, etc.

4. What are the top oversights marketers are making regarding lead generation?

Social Media, PR marketing and news: Larger corporations seem to be missing the boat on the newer Internet marketing methods. Twitter and the like are great ways to stay in touch with Joe Customer and to curb any dissent on your product/service.  I also believe that these services could bring in other leads that they aren’t getting.  It is also a good PR move for them to be “hip” and cutting edge.

As for general PR, it isn’t just getting a mention in the newspaper anymore. You want every blogger and online site mentioning your company. You want your press releases blasted everywhere. Not only will this increase awareness, but this will increase your authority ranking on Google (Page Rank). This really increases your search engine marketing efforts.

Finally, it is important to follow news in your territory. You can find many leads by looking at companies that are growing, opening new offices or have gotten new large customers in your area. This is extremely beneficial to salespeople.

5. What will you prescribe to marketers to carry out effective lead generation?

In my opinion, the most important marketing focuses are: SEO (search engine optimization), CPC advertising, social media public relations, individual sales rep networking and territory news tracking.

6. What three Web 2.0 applications, cutting-edge technologies or lead generation sources do marketers HAVE to consider to be successful?

Twitter, LinkedIn and some type of news alert system.  E.G. Buzzgain, Google Alerts or a site like mine will provide you alerts about companies in your area in which there is a good lead opportunity.

7. What do you hope for in B2B sales and marketing for the new year?

Positivity.  I feel things have stabilized and we should focus on getting back to work instead of worrying about the future.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Sales and Marketing Alignment: The 10 Sales Blogs I Read Last Week

I wrote a well-received post awhile back on how marketers can and should take the time to learn as much as possible about their organization’s sales process and their individual sales reps’ pains, pitches and needs, entitled “Eating Nails for Breakfast.”

The sales and marketing alignment movement is on. Everyone talks about it in the blogosphere and at conferences.  One of the keys to this sales and marketing “glasnost” is for both sides to understand as much as they can about not only what each other does in the organization but general best practices for each specialty.  But, I know you’re thinking, “Where do you find the time?” There is never enough time. If you clock in at 9, eat an hour-long lunch and leave when the clock strikes 5,  you’re right: you have no time and I can’t help you. (Who still does that by the way?) This post is for people who want to be the best at their job.

This post article is intended to expose marketers to some of my favorite sales blogs, but it’s also aiming at something more. The concept of learning from each other  is a two-way street. Sales should learn from marketing. We just ran a Webinar on lead nurturing with Tony Jaros; 35 to 40 percent of the attendees were in sales.  If sales and marketing alignment is key, sales needs to understand what marketing is trying to achieve on the lead nurturing side.  It’s interesting – I am known as a demand gen/marketing guy, but recently I got named to the BTS411 list of top 15 sales bloggers and twitter users. What’s my point? Sales managers and individual contributors ARE taking the time to read and understand demand generation and marketing.

Marketers, please hear my out:   After my “Eating Nails for Breakfast” post, I decided to “eat my own dog food” and became addicted to reading sales blogs and watching sales training videos. At the recent Sirius Decisions show in Scottsdale, I learned as much from the sales-centric presentations as I did the marketing ones.  Sales 2.0 means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but to me what is most important is that sales, like marketing, is realizing they are “not in Kansas anymore” and that there are new ways of selling that involve technology, science and an understanding of today’s busy buyer. What that means is that there is some great content out there on the sales topic. Furthermore, I love reading about raw cold-calling techniques and basic blocking and tackling posts. In sum, the sales blogosphere has helped me think about my marketing practice in the right way, whether it’s lead nurturing, marketing programs, messaging, sales hand-off, etc. in the right way.

I’m going to start integrating more of my sales learning into The Funnelholic.  We’ll all win from this.

In the meantime, here are some of the blogs I have been reading lately (and yes, some will make this year’s Top of the Funnel awards):

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

Thought Leadership Interview #21: David Anderson Showing You the “Way”

One of the benefits of running a blog is being introduced to new solutions as they come to market.  Sales 2.0, the lead nurturing/marketing automation  movement, social media and the rise in visibility for demand generation has spurred investment and innovation.  In other words, (for a guy like me) we’re living in exciting times.

Today’s interview is with David Anderson, founder and CEO, MyWay Interactive.  MyWay Interactive has created a new way for sales and marketing departments to trade leads online and track the leads activities on Twitter (hello social media).  It’s an exciting new solution and worth checking out. David’s been around for awhile,  having  served previously as the founder and CEO of Silicon Valley Networks, and was on the founding teams of three multibillion dollar public companies (Mercury Interactive, Pure-Atria and Valid Logic) where he ran sales and marketing.

Enjoy the read!

1.  What are the three trends you see emerging in 2009?

I believe that 2009 has a lot in store for the sales community as social networks expand and CRM systems become “social CRM” systems.

Salespeople utilizing social networks for lead generation: It used to be that leads were mass produced and unqualified. Salespeople would spend most of their time sifting through these leads by cold calling. Today, with the Internet and social networking growing at an astounding rate, sales people can easily generate qualified leads with a few keystrokes.

Interconnected CRM systems: Social networks and CRM are beginning to merge. More importantly will be how their convergence is utilized in the sales community. Companies will soon be able to exchange information between business silos to leverage cross-selling opportunities and transfer contacts to channel partners for collaborative closing.

Increased contact profiling: Originally, a sales call began with the salesperson knowing little more than the name of the business. At the onset of the Internet age, it became easy to learn the buyer’s name, email address and direct phone number. Now, with the rise of social media, sales people can learn more about their prospects than ever before without even having to pick up a phone. This information will be stored in the CRM system. Watch as the sales community adopts social media information as important part of contact relationship management.

2.  What are the biggest challenges for 2009?

The biggest challenge in 2009 is growth. The sales professional needs two things, a competitive product, and more importantly, a steady flow of qualified leads. Qualified leads make a sales department efficient. This efficiency is directly returned as increased revenue and lower operating cost to the corporation.

3.  What are the three metrics that B2B marketers should care about and why?

Quantity of qualified leads generated directly by the sales force: Qualified leads are of utmost importance to any business. Companies will depend on their sales forces to generate their own leads to compliment marketing programs.

Number of qualified leads generated through social networks: Social media has proven to be more than a fad. Businesses and consumers are both flocking to these social networks and are openly broadcasting on them. This information is beginning to prove invaluable in driving new business opportunities.

Closing ratio: The closing ratio is directly related to how qualified a lead is. Lead generation programs need to be evaluated based on the percentage of new leads that close as well as time required to close a new lead.

4.  What are the top oversights marketers are making regarding lead generation?

Not enabling cross-selling opportunities within the company: Businesses often overlook the hidden assets within their company. Information is not shared across business silos. The most qualified leads can come from other salespeople within the company. Marketing needs to enable the systems to easily support information and opportunity transfer.

Salespeople only like qualified leads: It’s no secret that most salespeople don’t like cold calling or spending their time sorting through lists of unqualified prospects. Give the sales team qualified leads that will close; not just a name they can call.

Building lead generation networks: Form partnerships with other companies and channel partners to combine leads and expand your market. Develop systems that can transfer and manage the lead flow in real time.

5.  What will you prescribe to marketers to carry out effective lead generation?

Empower their sales force: Provide the tools necessary for the sales team to directly generate new qualified leads.

Integrate CRM and social networks: Build a lead generating and referral strategy using business social networks. Expand the CRM system to include contact profiles gathered form social networks, Twitter and Web services. Maintain, track and close these leads within the CRM system.

Build internal social networks or collaboration sites: The sales team needs access to their co-workers’ network of contacts. Expand the sales base of contacts by networking internally.

6. What three Web 2.0 applications, cutting-edge technologies or lead generation sources do marketers HAVE to consider to be successful?

Blogs: Bloggers have a way of getting the inside scoop on individuals, companies and products. They are also some of the best networkers around. They provide the information about the latest Web 2.0 applications, cutting-edge technologies, and lead generation sources. Fact: If it’s new to you, it’s already old to bloggers.

Twitter: Twitter is a very powerful tool for sales and marketing. You can establish your brand, follow trends and find your next deal. Slowly, but surely, Twitter is becoming a very effective business tool.

Reach: I saved the best for last: MyWay Interactive’s Reach. Reach generates qualified leads from trusted sources for free, in real time. Reach is a contact manager, integrated with Twitter, that is connected to a business social and collaboration network. Salespeople use Reach to quickly find the right lead to break into new accounts.

7. What do you hope for in B2B sales and marketing for the new year?

A convergence of CRM and social networking for qualified lead generation, and driving corporate growth.

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter