The Funnelholic

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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Want to connect directly? Email me at craig AT funnelholic.com<

This is soo random, but I am reading one of our employees blogs and she has the great post about dealing with admins. She had a bad day with the admins as you can tell….but anyway. I liked it.
I personally enjoyed this one:

Don’t get pissed at me because that communications degree from that 2 year you attended didnt get you that PR dream job in LA you wanted. Do me a favor and fake a smile and press *227 and transfer me, okay?

Anyway, good read click here for Erikakali

It brings up a good point: The ADMIN and her (rarely, but some

One of the main reasons for this Venture Capitalist/Silicon Valley gold rush towards marketing automation ultimately stems from B2B’s inability to create a fully automated, reliable closed loop process. Neither Salesforce.com nor Sugar CRM are very good at it though they can be gerry-rigged to get close. Again, the recent success on the internet with B2C pay-for-performance advertising is leading the charge and as usual B2C is ahead of the B2B game. The B2C companies do a great job of following lead to sale because they have to and they can. Vonage pays publishers and ad networks $30-100 per sale you bring in. From the reg page to the close, their system keeps a closed loop tab on your lead.

B2B lead generation are typically more complex sales that don’t lend themselves as easily to clean closed loop process. And furthermore, if the marketing department is doing their job, future customers are coming to their site via webinars, email campaigns, etc…that is, they are getting touched more than just once. These multiple touches make things tricky.

So does the reliance on the Sales Team to correct track and update leads in your CRM.

So does the subjectivity of the Sales Team against even the “tightest” lead definition.

This is our life.

Some beginning steps:
1. A unified lead definition is vital and a great first step.

2. The next step is to get your automation to best support your process. More on this in future posts.

3. The anecdotal Closed Loop Meeting between Sales and Marketing. See Elusive Closed Process Part II.

Amendment #1; the first two blog posts are the hardest. Anyway, I want to continue to answer the question “Why the Funnelholic”. There is a major movement going on in Lead Generation/Marketing Optimization. Venture Capitalists are giving money to new startups coming up in this genre. I am not sure exactly what spurred this as I have been in this business for awhile now. There are many theories such as Google adwords which has given life to a new world of remote controlled lead generation and some fairly solid reporting tools to go with it. Adwords has made the position of lead generation hip once again.

Overall, many of us we have been around the world of lead generation are starting to get excited with some of the new tools at our disposal. Trade shows, print media, and to a large extent cold calling are still part of the repertorie but are fast showing the least ROI. Don’t get me wrong, you have to do it.

• Trade Shows — great for business development, channel development, and for major industry announcements. For lead generation, ask any sales rep — trade shows just don’t do it for leads.
• Print Media — Advertisements in off-line magazines will die off soon. I have talked to alot of marketing managers who say today they but off-line ads in just so their bosses can see them working. (In other words, he/she reads it not prospects) On the other hand, I talked to someone the other day who said their ad in Southwest Airlines Magazine was one of their highest converting lead types.
• Cold Calling — I am not against cold calling. I think there is a place for it, especially in strategic account selling and in sales with long sales cycles. It doesn’t scale as your only source of leads….it does get you pretty good quality leads if (a.) done right (both process and messaging) (b.) backed up by marketing via email blasts, webinar invites, activity tracking of the lead. Again, cold-calling cannot be the only source of leads.

The Funnelholic is extremely relevant as we enter a new era of “hotness”. Its very exciting for those of us in the unglamorous world of lead generation.