The Funnelholic

This Sunday, I got my usual email from Technology Evaluation Centers. That’s right, on a Sunday. These guys are really creative when it comes to email marketing. And I like it.

First of all, I think they emailed me on Christmas Eve. BTW, it was the only email I received that day, so I opened it. Secondly, these dudes hit me on Saturdays and Sundays, and I read them. So much for conventional wisdom.

The Internet has given marketers “best practices” – which essentially means everyone is doing the same thing. I have blogged on this before. Given what we know, breaking best practices may mean that you will stand out. And how do you know what will work or not work? YOU DON’T. Thus the bottom-line best practice is TEST, TEST, TEST.

Clearly TEC has figured out that emails can convert on weekends. They certainly do not rely on best practice data. Most says to avoid the weekends. This eROI report says that the order of preference for email delivery is Wednesday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday. So, everyone gets this report, herd mentality sets in, and your inbox is barraged during the week. How about the weekend when I got that one email I actually opened?

The moral of the story is best practices data is a way to create a baseline, but to put your marketing program over the top, think outside the box.

Sunday “hit” from TEC:

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
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I just spent some time with one of my favorite customers who will remain nameless. Our contact there, who is a 25 year old wunderkind, has set up a rock solid lead development process and organization. Let me just give you a number of the elements:

1. Hyper aggressive, focused lead development team. This is a team of Sales Development Reps whose job it is to get every lead on the phone and pass the qualified ones directly to the field. Now, every industry is different, but this is an SMB focused on-demand product. Their SDRS pass 20 QUALIFIED LEADS a day

2. Lead Scoring. All leads as they enter the queue are scored. Scores dictate the type and amount of action taken by the Sales Development Team.

3. Email is controlled by marketing and is constantly analyzed and optimized for effectiveness. Effectiveness meaning being able to qualify leads faster and more efficiently.

4. Reporting and optimization. Metrics help guide changes in messaging and process.

Here is what I have seen: High conversion rates and ROI against ALL lead sources. Lead sources that I have heard the worst things about, they are turning into sales opportunities. It is truly amazing and the way things should be done. Without a doubt, there are lead sources that will not work for you. On the other hand, there are many factors that affect the success of lead sources and thus my title, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” It is like clock-work, organizations who don’t work with 1 lead source don’t work with ANY. Does that make sense? Companies that can convert lead sources, can convert a large number of them. If your organization keeps throwing lead sources out and can’t settle on one, look in the mirror. Oh and by the way, Google adwords and leads that go to your website don’t count, I am talking about your ability to go our and buy leads online or offline.

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
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In honor of the retirement of basketball coaching great Robert (Bobby, Bob) Knight, I bring to you one of this famous quotes: Put yourself in position to be in position”. He was of course talking about being proactive on defense. While people were watching the defender on the ball, Bobby was worried about all the guys away from the ball to see if they were anticipating and staying one step ahead.

When you ask a sales person about lead timeframe, they always say they want leads with a person with a budget, near-term close, no competitive situations, etc. They want you as a marketer to put them in position. But for an organization, specifically a marketing organization to be successful, you want to be in position to be in position. You will fail by putting up a google ad that says: All people buying CRM solutions tomorrow fiill out this form so a vendor you have never heard of can call you. I mean come on. Marketing organization want/need to capture the right person with the right interest as early as possible in their consideration process and then start to market to them strategically over time with results coming much later over time. (DRIP/NURTUR¦hello, are you listening?). Here is your tip: to be in position to be in position”, capture âright person, right interest always and often, then DRIP, my friend, DRIP.

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
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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.

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
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