CRM

Two blog posts I enjoyed so much I had to immortalize them on my blog

March 25, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 7 Comments

Content flys across our screen and then “poof” – it disappears. That is why I am in love with my Tweets of the Week posts. Those posts get decent traffic but the real reason I love doing it is to just keep this great content somewhere. Social media gives you 5 minutes to catch everyone’s attention with your content and then you are out of the picture. So, I try to save things…Today, I am sharing a couple posts that have been sitting in my instapaper because I thought they were great. Enjoy, I did.

Salesforce’s Disruptor Won’t be a CRM Company
The first great post was from Tomasz Tunguz from Redpoint Ventures. I have been working with Lattice Engines and Radius Intelligence so I have been become more and more intrigued by big data and sales. Five minutes ago, we just provided sales with a list of names to call. Now and in the future, we will provide sales data on who to call, when to call, why to call, and what to say. From Tomasz: [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, CRM, SocialCRM, Uncategorized

The sales technology revolution is being driven from the ground up

December 10, 2012 by Craig Rosenberg Leave a Comment

Warning: I am breaking my own rules and “pontification” blogging. I love breaking my own rules especially when I am contradicting my last post…

Sales technology is hot as “all-get-up” right now. I outlined a number of reasons why I believe this is true in a post for SocialSellingU. The point I’d like to pontificate on is the “consumerization of sales technology” and it’s role in the rise of sales technology. Bottom line: You can buy most sales technology solutions with a credit card.

1. The BYOD revolution has hit sales and marketing technology — I got this quote from my buddy Miles Austin who can talk for hours on the topic: “Years ago, CIOs said there was no way they would support IPhones and IPads and now look. It’s the same thing in sales, smart sales people don’t ask – If they think a sales tool help them sell better, they plop down their credit card and buy it.” In other words, this is a true revolution by the people and for the people. Executives can’t hope to stop it, they can only jump on board. My buddy and business partner Lars Nilsson implemented tons of sales technology solutions at ArcSight which was bought by HP. It seems like he would have to spend his time researching technology to keep up, but he always talks about how the majority of solutions they implemented were initially brought to him by individuals in his organization.

2. Sales people are officially technologically self-empowered –. If you are a sales rep who still says: “My organization gives us no support, we don’t even have…”, then fix it because you can. An individual rep can buy their own CRM, create email and nurturing programs, buy their own lists, gather their own sales intelligence, automate contracts and quotes, etc, etc. Today’s products are so easy to use, you can get up and running yourself. Per-user costs are so reasonable, you aren’t breaking the bank.

As a marketer in the sales technology space, you have a real opportunity to triangulate on your target accounts. When you sell and market to sales, anyone on the team is an influencer. Your new lead definition is: “they are in sales”. If you can get a couple people in the organization using and getting value from your product, then you can take that use-case and success metrics to decision makers for a bigger deal. And that ladies and gentleman, is a good thing for everyone.

Oh and I forget to add, sales technology is fun. There are so many amazing things happening in the space. I have just been having a ball preparing for my webinar Thursday with Koka Sexton, Matt Heinz, Miles Austin, Nancy Nardin, and Brian Vellmure entitled: 31 Must-Have Sales Tools in 2013. When you start to look into all the different options, you want to start going on them immediately.

XOXO

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

Filed Under: b2b Sales, Business Musings, CRM, Inside Sales and Tele-selling, sales, Social Selling, SocialCRM

14 Easy Social Selling “To-Dos” You Can Implement Right Now

July 25, 2011 by Craig Rosenberg 5 Comments

July 25 through July 29 is Social Business week on Focus.com. If you’ve read my blog, you know that I’m a fan of the Social CRM movement, but I am not an expert – so I’m leaving that to the pros. I am sticking to my expertise, hosting a couple of events about social and sales and marketing. I am hosting a webinar with the master of content/inbound/social media marketing, Mike Volpe, on Friday, July 29, at 1 pm PT. Before that, I am hosting a social selling roundtable at 11 am PT with Nigel Edelshain, Miles Austin and Koka Sexton. It’s fun trading ideas for using social for a lot of things. Sales is definitely a favorite of mine.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from folks is not having enough time for social endeavors. I usually tell people I wouldn’t recommend it if it’s a time-suck. So I’ve compiled a list of easy things that salespeople can do, none of which seems too scary or daunting – and it can all be done right away. Let me know what you would add to the following list.

Create a LinkedIn profile.
Fill it out completely, including a picture.
Upgrade your account.
Watch every day from your upgraded LinkedIn account to see who clicked on your profile.
Connect with as many of your business and personal contacts as you can.
Move beyond business cards – get in the habit of connecting with people immediately after you meet them.
Spend some time seeing if your prospects are connected to any of your contacts and ask for a referral.
Join LinkedIn groups relevant to your industry. Not just so you can see the conversations happening in your space, but so you can join the same “clubs” that your prospects are in.
Figure out where your prospects are on the Internet (with only a few cases, everyone is). Is it Twitter, LinkedIn, focus.com, etc.? It could even be a message board somewhere.
Watch them. Remember the title of this post is “easy.” Don’t worry about doing much; you can just watch. You will gain insight into your prospects that you’ve never had before.
Recognize their good works. If they write an insightful blog post or answer a question really well, send them a note.
Find the top influencers in your space (they will be on Twitter or Google if they are influencers) and follow them.
Create a social relationship with the influencers. This is akin to being friends with the cool kids at school.
Before a sales call, look up your prospect’s or customer’s recent social “works” – posts, tweets, Q&A. Mention it to them; they will love it.

There – was that hard? Let’s just start with that. There’s more…but you gotta start somewhere.

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

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Business Musings, CRM, Lead Development, Lead management, sales, Social Networking, Social Selling, Thought Leadership Tagged With: Focus, Koka Sexton, linkedin, Mike Volpe, Miles Austin, Nigel Edelshain, roundtable, Social Business Week, Social CRM, social selling, twitter, webinar

World’s Most Incomplete List of Social CRM Experts

May 17, 2011 by Craig Rosenberg 6 Comments

Social CRM is my new hobby. When I originally heard the term, I mocked it because I didn’t understand it. Sorry about that. Now I am listening, and I am starting to get it. Here is how I got here:

1. Ignorance: I ignored social CRM and when asked, I mocked it. Again, sorry.

2. Enlightenment: Salesforce.com bought Radian6, and I moderated a roundtable with some of the top social CRM experts in the business: Mike Fauscette, Brian Vellmure, Mitch Lieberman, Steve Woods and Esteban Kolsky. I realized that these are smart guys and I needed to figure out social CRM.

3. Education: I asked some people whom I should follow then started following them on Twitter. I started to read what I could (when I could). Brian Vellmure is now one of my boys, and is a resource for me on the topic.

Here are my observations on social CRM:

I have stopped reading regular “social media” experts. What I like about the social CRM crowd is they don’t talk about “how to set up your Facebook” page. Instead they are focused on tying social back to the organization.
Warning: It can be hard trying to distinguish the thought-leaders from the wannabes. From the looks of it, there are CRM analysts who added the word “social” to the front of their expertise. There are social wonks who have tacked “CRM” onto the back of their expertise. You have to be careful in determining who’s who.
If you want to know the definition of social CRM, I found a good one here on Focus.com.
The list at the end of this post might be wrong. I have thrown this out here to get reactions and am prepared to refine the list. Here is what I did: 1) Asked my respected friends whom to follow; 2) Added some of my favorite CRM guys (shout-out to Chris Bucholtz) even though I am not sure they all claim to be on the social CRM bandwagon. If they don’t now, they will soon enough.

How about this for a big, hairy goal that should prove to you I am beginning to understand the market: I hope Esteban Kolsky reads this and rips me. Then I know I have arrived. Seriously, if I am wrong, let me know, I am cool with that. But please don’t insult anyone.

So, here it is — the 70 (OK, 71 and now 72) people I follow on the topic of social CRM (in random order):

Interested observer:

71. Michael Krigsman

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

Filed Under: CRM, Social Networking, Thought Leadership, Uncategorized Tagged With: salesforce, Social CRM, Social media

Why did Salesforce.com buy Radian6?

March 31, 2011 by Craig Rosenberg 1 Comment

I have resisted for the longest time becoming a news organization. I typically write what I feel. Guess what: I missed out. With the Focus.com platform, I can tackle topical issues particularly when I’m not sure I know the answer. (: For instance, I MUST not know enough because everyone tells me that Benioff could care less about marketing then he runs off and does THIS. I need to understand it. Here is what we have done, we reached out and got some of the most respected experts (All Focus Experts thank you) in the space to tell all of us what this all means.

I have 6 fundamental questions:

Why did Salesforce.com buy Radian6?
What is your analysis of the move?
What is Marc Benioff’s plan? Where is Marc Benioff going from here?
What does it mean to the crm/social crm space
What does it mean for the social media monitoring space?
Bonus: What does this mean for the marketing automation space? (I invited Steve Woods from Eloqua purposely for this)

And I’m getting them answered in tomorrow’s roundtable teleconference: What the Salesforce.com/ Radian 6 Deal Really Means

I haven’t been this excited about an event in a long time. Here are the details:

WHEN
Friday, April 1, 2011, 10:00 a.m. PT/ 1:00 p.m. ET

WHERE
Toll-free Dial-In Number: (866) 951-1151
International Dial-In Number: (201) 590-2255
Conference Number: 4999006

Here is the crew (How big is this!)

Brian Vellmure is the principal and founder of Initium LLC, a strategic consulting firm specializing in increasing corporate value through customer focused business design. For more than a decade, Brian has been helping companies increase profitability through customer focused initiatives. He is an accomplished business leader, management consultant, and award winning and syndicated blogger. He is often referred to as a thought leader and pioneer in the emerging discipline of Social CRM.

Esteban Kolsky is the Principal and Founder of ThinkJar, an advisory and research think-tank focused on Customer Strategies. He has over 22 years of experience in customer service and CRM consulting, research and advisory services, and is currently advising vendors and organization how to extend customer interactions from the CRM niche to the entire organization in their efforts to become Social Businesses.

Steve Woods is the CTO at Eloqua and author of the book “Digital Body Language” which focuses on the transformation under way in our buyers and how we as marketers can respond. Steve is also deeply involved with the Eloqua user community, with whom he regularly interacts through the discussions on his Eloqua Artisan blog.

Michael Fauscette leads IDC’s Software Business Solutions Group which includes research and consulting in enterprise software applications, collaboration and social applications, software partner and alliances, open source, software vendor business models, cloud computing and software pricing and licensing. He also provides thought leadership in the area of social applications and the transition to the social business.

Mitch Lieberman is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Comity Technology Advisors, and has 15 years of experience in CRM domain. He has the social business expertise to offer analysis and strategic advice to companies of all sizes, helping them leverage social technology to better manage their relationships with individual consumers and their business customers.

This one’s gonna be a blockbuster. You should be there.

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

Filed Under: CRM, Internet, Marketing Automation, Social Networking, SocialCRM, webinar

Mid-Life Crisis Averted: The Funnelholic Is Here to Stay

February 18, 2011 by Craig Rosenberg 1 Comment

What an amazing couple of weeks it’s been since I wrote my midlife crisis post, “Should I Stay or Should I Go ,” and asked the question, “What should I do with my industry-specific blog now that I want to create different content?” on the Internet love of my life, Focus.com. Besides blog comments from friends and strangers, my angst went global (I got email from Sweden – Daniel Wood, who is a great sales and motivation blogger). I spoke to people at length. Just yesterday, I was talking on the phone about my midlife crisis with Gary S. Hart, who is a sales blogger as well. The consensus is to keep The Funnelholic brand. Whether you delivered the message via phone or Web, thanks to everyone who gave your input.

Here is what I decided: The Funnelholic stays, and I will write about whatever floats my boat. The entire process became a real awakening for me about why I blog. It’s because I love it. If I lose some readers, I have to live with it. If I started writing about things I don’t care about, then The Funnelholic would fail anyway.

Here’s what I’ve learned from the whole episode:

If you have no passion, then your blog will suck. It was cool to discover that people really like reading The Funnelholic. I have loved creating content for this blog, and I continue to love writing on it. That may be the most important thing I learned: people can feel your passion.
If you have no passion, your “social-media” presence will suck. The comment above is also true about your social media bearing. As Focus.com builds, you can see people who love what they are doing answering questions with gusto. If it pains you to write or talk about it, find a new career path. You’ve lost your passion.
Writing helps you solidify your ideology. I have all this stuff in my head about business, marketing, sales and so forth. Writing about it – on The Funnelholic, as a guest blogger elsewhere, on Focus.com – helps me coalesce my thoughts and properly organize my beliefs.
The personal online brand revolution is on. I built a brand, and the brand has a following. That was cool – and it’s something I shouldn’t start again from square one. Steve Woods and I talked about this idea years ago. He said: “There will be a new type of talent, an Internet free-agent superstar. In some cases, companies may hire because they want that person associated with their brand.” Interesting. I am not Chris Brogan, but I’ve got something.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and thoughtful advice.

I remain (and will continue to remain) yours sincerely,

The Funnelholic

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

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, CRM, Funnels, Management, Random-ness, sales, Social Networking, Thought Leadership Tagged With: blogging, branding, customer service, future, general business, human resources, The Funnelholic

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

February 3, 2011 by Craig Rosenberg 6 Comments

Is it time to close (or perhaps rename) this blog? This question has been in the back of my mind for the past few weeks. I tried to create a provocative title for this post, but the real question is: What should I do with The Funnelholic? The issue at hand is that I believe I have a lot to offer beyond just the sales and marketing funnel. Here is an example: I have learned a lot about the startup business from helping build Tippit and now Focus – I want to share these tips. Moreover, with my new role at Focus, I have been reading a ton of customer service, HR, and business-building content that I want to discuss and share. Is The Funnelholic capable of expanding beyond the funnel?

Here is another scenario I thought of: What if, for my next job, I want to be hired as a CEO (for example). Would being The Funnelholic help me or hurt me?

Just so everyone knows, I have written about how I came to the name this blog on the Annuitas Blog awhile back. In a nutshell, my CEO Scott Albro came up with the name. I had wanted “Funnelnomics,” but it was taken by my friend Suaad Sait . Scott said, “You need something that represents you, more fun and loose, it should be something like ‘The Funnelholic.’ I bought the domain name that day, started blogging, and it was on.

It was a great name: totally memorable and well-suited for my personality (irreverent, a bit edgy). Just the other night, I went to the Content Rules awards dinner, hosted by Eloqua at Foreign Cinema, and met Ann Handley for the first time. I said, “I’m Craig Rosenberg.” No reaction, no recognition. Then I said, “The Funnelholic.” “Ooooh!” she said. Like it or not, The Funnelholic is my brand.

But is it my brand, or have I typecast myself? I feel like a television star trying to break out of his medium to make it in the movies. What do I do now that I want to talk about more? I want to talk about business, not just demand generation and marketing automation. This whole “soul-searching” process has led me to these questions:

1. What should I do with The Funnelholic? Now that you know what you know, what is your recommendation? Should it stay or should it go? At the Content Rules dinner, I asked my table-mates the same question. My table had PR people (but primarily knowledgeable social media-ites) Mandy Mladenoff, Abigail Snyder, Jesse Noyes, Tyler Willis, and Lisa Loeffler. They thought I was crazy (literally). Their vote was that the brand stays and the writing can evolve. What do you think? Please submit your opinion.

2. What is the best practice for naming a blog? Should you use your name, or should you give the blog its own unique name? Could I have avoided typecasting had I gone with my name? Give me your input.

The real question is: Now what?

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

Filed Under: Business Musings, CRM, Funnels, Management, Random-ness, sales, Social Networking, Thought Leadership Tagged With: blogging, branding, customer service, future, general business, human resources, The Funnelholic

The Marketing Hipster Dictionary, Part II: 53 Definitions Every Marketer Should Know

January 28, 2010 by Craig Rosenberg 1 Comment

Here we are again. If you missed Part I, make sure to read it first. Once again, before we begin, I need to introduce the members of the band:

On the guitar, Tom Scearce (@TLOTL), and on the electric keyboard, Chris Jablonski (@cjablonski).

I can say this, we had a lot of fun. Check out numbers 37-49. @TLOTL has some great ones.

25. Cold calling: I really have no idea why I put this on here. It’s pretty simple: You pick up the phone and call someone who has no idea you are calling. In today’s day and age, this is best left to professionals — a.k.a., outsourced.

26. Contacts: Just names. The contact movement has been brought upon us by breakthrough companies such as Jigsaw, demandbase and NetProspex. These are not leads, even if these companies market them as such. Contact purchasing is a critical component to push marketing (see below).

27. Leads: A lead is a person who has opted in for an offer (see below). As mentioned above, a contact is not a lead.

28. Offer: An offer can be defined as “something” someone has opted-in for. These can be discrete offers such as white papers, webinars and podcasts. They can also be an appointment with a sales person.

29. Lead generation: Activities designed to create leads.

30. Demand generation: All the activities designed to create demand. Not just lead generation, which is part of it. Everything — including things like PR, speaking engagements, advertising, discounts or special offers and so on and so on. BTW, this is an interesting point of conversation — check out some of the answers to this on Focus.com.

31. Lead nurturing: A process that uses content (offers, tools, white papers, etc.) and distribution tactics (email, phone, Web, etc.) to market to leads over time until they are measurably ready to engage. This one was hard. I got some terrific definitions from experts on Focus.com.

32. Remarkable content: You need to develop this every day, and you know it’s remarkable if people can apply it right away. You need to deliver on three characteristics: 1) value: create substantive, meaningful and high-quality content and 2) efficiency: package for simplicity and ease of consumption; 3) relevance: target buyers and address their specific challenges. (@cjablonski)

33. Push marketing: “Knocking on someone’s door.” In other words, using outbound marketing tactics such as email, phone and direct mail to market to contacts in order to create leads. Examples are outsourced appointment setting and email campaigns to a list.

34. Pull marketing: As opposed to push marketing, “getting people to walk into your store.” Pull means you are using SEO, paid search, etc. to attract people who are searching for something you offer. It also includes getting people to look at your products in other stores through online media and white paper syndication, for example. Because not all buyers are walking into your store, you need to make sure you are represented in other stores that attract your type of buyer.

35. Landing page: A Web page with a call-to-action to download an offer, such as a webinar, a white paper, and so on. In order to download the offer, the user has to fill out a form. (@cjablonski)

36. Direct mail: The act of sending a marketing offer via the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, and so on. This is a dying lead-generation tool. NOTE: there are marketers who believe direct mail still works despite the cost and low conversion rates. My suggestion is that, if you don’t do it now, don’t start.

37. Return on contribution: Anyone who takes the time and energy to create remarkable content needs to also invest time in managing return on contribution. This can mean several things: 1) crowd-sourcing the content to leverage the friends and followers of the contributors for added distribution; 2) syndicating your content through targeted media properties; 3) engaging in online conversations where your content can be delivered in a relevant context ; and 4) leveraging your content across multiple campaigns, including lead-nurturing programs. (@TLOTL)

38. Micro-marketed content: The opposite of mass-marketed content. An unmediated, free-flowing discussion among genuine experts in a niche category (e.g., this discussion on Focus.com) is often more relevant and helpful to buyers than a banner ad or an industry trade publication. (@TLOTL)

39. “Multi-channel, multi-touch”: The mantra of any successful pipeline/revenue generation program. Email, Web and phone are all integrated and response-measured (scored) using marketing automation services. (@TLOTL)

40. The “three legged stool”: In direct marketing, results are usually, ultimately, a function of the:

List (or audience)
Offer
Creative

Underperform in any one of these areas and the stool falls over. (@TLOTL)

41. The revenue/sausage factory: A useful metaphor for helping the uninitiated understand how the marketing and sales team work together to drive the top line. The factory can include “upstream” suppliers like Google, direct mail programs or demand-gen agencies. And it can also encompass post-sales “revenue recognition” functions like professional services and account management. (@TLOTL)

42. Pipeline erosion rate: Your sales team converts your leads into pipeline deals. They win some, they lose some. Some deals roll into next month/quarter. Some don’t. The erosion rate measures the lost pipeline value that must be replaced through incremental demand-gen efforts and budget. (@TLOTL)

43. Rotting lead rate: The percentage of leads that go untouched by sales (no email, call or voicemail) before they start to “rot.” Keep in mind that the goal is not necessarily a 0% “rot-rate.” In some cases, it’s totally ok for sales to let leads “rot.” If sales has warmer leads to work, marketing can take back the leads that would otherwise rot and nurture them until they are ready. (@TLOTL)

44. Funnel jockey: The demand-generation expert in every successful marketing department who understands his or her funnel well enough to hard-wire the entire revenue manufacturing process, from marketing spend, to lead gen, to pipeline creation and booked revenue. This person is one of the Excel users in the marketing department who is most likely to have a working command of functions like VLOOKUP, GETPIVOTDATA, SUMPRODUCT, and RAND. (@TLOTL)

45. Campaign Sorcerer: Describes a marketer who can quickly articulate and illustrate campaign concepts with a unique and integrated skill set that includes design aesthetics, copywriting/storyboarding, program logistics, and schedule visualization. A Powerpoint/Keynote Magic User proficient in spell-casting with SnagIt and Photoshop. (@TLOTL)

46. Market whisperer: The agency-side marketer who can, in 30 minutes or less, figure out the essence of a client’s marketing and sales challenges, with minimal to no briefing from said client, consulting only Twitter, Google, WordPress and Michael Porter’s Five Forces model. This marketer is more likely than his or her peers to get away with wearing ironic tee shirts or quirky, comment-worthy eyewear/accessories. (@TLOTL)

47. Tweeps: Twitter + Peeps = Tweeps. (@TLOTL)

48. Product myopia: Outdated marketing thinking still practiced by many who engage with prospects and clients through the lens of their own solutions. (@cjablonski)

49. Trapping the chicken in the courtyard: A semi-obscure “Rocky II” reference/metaphor describing the relentless and often frustrating pursuit of repeatable marketing and sales success. “I feel like a Kentucky Fried idiot.” — Rocky Balboa (@TLOTL)

50. Buyer engagement: Your goal anytime a buyer comes into contact with you. To get their full attention and immerse them into a brand experience, make sure everything you do is valuable and differentiated. (@cjablonski)

Below are SiriusDecisions definitions I have included because they have done an amazing job of getting marketers to use their methodology and lingo. This is for the other marketers who aren’t Sirius trained and want to talk the talk (I chose the three most used terms)

51. MQL (Marketing qualified lead): Prospects defined by your marketing and sales organization as someone ready to pass to sales. They’re instrumental in calculating lead gen metrics, such as marketing qualified lead rate (# of MQLs/# of total marketing contacts).

52. SAL (Sales accepted lead): A lead that has met the basic tenets of qualification and that sales has agreed to engage. (@cjablonski)

53. SQL (Sales qualified lead): A prospect confirmed by sales as a true revenue opportunity and entered into the pipeline. (@cjablonski)

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

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, Business Musings, CRM, Direct Marketing, DRIP and Lead Nurturing, Funnels, Lead Development, Lead Qualification, Lead/Inquiry Generation, Marketing Automation, Social Networking Tagged With: b2b Marketing, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Development, Lead generation, lead nurturing, Lead Qualification, Marketing Automation, SEO, webinar, White paper

210 B2B Marketing Tips for 2010

January 14, 2010 by Craig Rosenberg 1 Comment

Drumroll please … I present the 210 B2B marketing tips for 2010. Let me tell you, this was quite an adventure, one that I will certainly do differently in the future.

Basically, the sequence of events went like this:

Decide on topic: 210 tips for 2010
Start writing them off the top of my head
Get to 65
Still determined, decide to ask for help
@scottalbro, @cjablonski, @tlotl, @mschmier and @damphoux come to the rescue

Much of what you see below is attributed. Some, however, like the input from @scottalbro, were fed to me conversationally through stream of consciousness, so I didn’t attribute them. He is a great writer and would not be crazy about my translation.

So, without further ado, here they are. I hope you enjoy them.

Contribute to the conversation (@tlotl)
Create remarkable content (lots of it) (@tlotl)
Distribute remarkable content (@tlotl)
Evolve beyond managing CPL (@tlotl)
Bring data to Sales management (@tlotl)
Talk to in-market prospects (@tlotl)
Close the buyer loop (@tlotl)
Talk to people who have bought/customers (@tlotl)
Talk to people who chose a competitor (@tlotl)
Sit in on a sales call once a week
Sit in on a prospecting call
Create a lead scoring system
Implement a lead scoring system
BTW, if you are just starting on scoring, don’t get too extreme. Scoring means deciding which leads are better than others.
Implement a lead nurturing program
Judge lead nurturing progress via the conversion rate after 1 month metrics
Buy a marketing automation platform
Implement a marketing automation platform (no shelf-ware)
Create a unified lead definition
Get the unified lead definition signed off by sales
Don’t agree to restrictive BANT criteria without considering all the people you won’t have sales talk to (if you think about it, they probably do)
And if you are in a hyper-targeted market (e.g., are focused on managed service providers only), your unified lead definition should be only: the right person with interest. Anything more restrictive means one lead a month, and your organization in trouble
Meet with sales weekly/bi-weekly for anecdotal closed loop feedback
Make a decision based on metrics
Make lots of decisions based on metrics
Over-rule a metrics-driven decision with a decision made from the gut
Basically: Balance metrics with intuition
Oh, and track everything you can
Oh, and yes, the numbers will never be perfect, but they should be enough to help you make decisions
Follow the top marketing mavens on twitter
Read content from top marketing mavens on twitter
Ask a question you want answered on Focus.com (OK, you can ask it on LinkedIn, too)
Create a lead management plan that starts from the top (lead generation) to a passed lead (P.S., based on your unified lead definition)
Read your competitors marketing materials
Fill out a lead form on your competitors site and see how they qualify, convert and nurture you
Do a at least one webinar a month
Make the webinar focused on business pains and issues, NOT a demo for your product
Leverage experts and thought leaders in your industry to speak
P.S., have those same experts create white papers, blog posts, etc. for you
Think of webinars for ALL aspects: quantifiable lead generation, lead nurturing, education, thought leadership
Create a lead qualification organization (dedicated phone-based team focused on following up on leads)
Optimize your lead qualification organization
Read scripts, emails etc.
Send an email to your clients that doesn’t sell them anything but instead helps them do their job
Then send these helpful emails monthly
Then use the marketing automation system you bought to track efficiency
Don’t forget your current customers, or to put it another way, market and foster goodwill with your customers
Update your social media profiles for completeness and marketability even if you aren’t looking for a job (LinkedIn, Focus.com, Facebook)
Start a blog
Update your blog weekly minimum
Don’t write about yourself, your company, etc. on the blog, except once in awhile
Put marketing, lead generation blogs into your Google reader
Allot 22 minutes a day to reading industry-related content
Respect every single lead (@cjablonski)
“Systems design” your programs (@cjablonski)
Make calculated risks routinely (@cjablonski)
Delight the most loyal (@cjablonski)
Surprise your customers (@cjablonski)
Be your target audience (@cjablonski)
Rip and replace your strategies (@cjablonski)
Manage your brand symbols (@cjablonski)
Nurture as if you meant it (@cjablonski)
Cleanse your sales pipeline (@cjablonski)
Be authoritative
Track your metrics based on opportunities created and opportunities
Get everyone on CRM (seriously — Its 2010)
Get a sales 2.0 tool
Increasing connects increases conversion
Don’t complain about what sales is doing with your leads
Don’t complain about sales in general
Urgency. Just be urgent
Call your lead generation vendors and optimize the program with real data
Post your content on third-party Web sites to capture traffic not going to your Web site
Get tweetdeck, hootsuite or something to manage your twitter content
Re-evaluate your Web site. Chances are it sucks
Clearly define what your product is and the use case it solves for in buyer language on your Web site, in materials, etc. — how many Web sites do you go do and you can’t figure out what the f*** the vendor does?) (@mschmier)
Optimize your landing pages for conversion
Considering pulling fields OFF your landing pages to get more people to download
Go to one of the following trade shows: Marketing Sherpa or Sirius Decisions.
Stop going to industry trade shows that don’t work
However, don’t think about immediate conversion, judge the show by important meetings had (could be with customers) and the “right” people. If you are looking at short-term conversion rates, you will cancel them all.
Test a new lead generation source whenever you can (or you’ll never know what works)
Not sure what to do about Facebook — if you can get business there, write me back for next year
Read the book: eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale by Ardath Albee
Read the book: Digital Body Language by Steven Woods
Buying a list is not a lead generation strategy
Buying leads is not a lead generation strategy
Instead, figure how to convert leads, then buy leads or lists — if you know how to convert, you can buy till the cows come home
Remember: white paper leads are the start of a conversation, not the end of the conversation
Try new things, always (I think I already said that)
Channel partners are terrible at following up on leads; if you pass them leads, run them through a lead qual team first or buy appointments
Replace “always be closing” with “always be helping”
Map and understand how your buyers make decisions
Re-evaluate your target buyer persona.
Confirm the target buyer persona and tell everyone in your organization till they tell you to shut up (it’s that important that they know)
Make your written content one page. Buyers are busy
Consider simplifying your message — bring back “simple as 1-2-3” messaging
Buyers love lists, they just do. Lists are easy to read and set an expectation with the reader that it will only be “X” number of points in the offer
Create a diverse mix of content (webinars, white papers, podcasts)
When following up on leads, combine phone and email
Optimize everything about the phone and email process: scripts, emails, sequencing
Meet with sales leadership and get them on board. Act like a sales person. They will barf on you at first, but don’t quit — get buyoff
Spend some time and money, and you WILL make more money
Metrics aren’t just cool, use them to make you better (and look better!)
Warning on all this: Sales will always be from Mars, and marketing will always be from Venus
Consider all the touch points in a campaign not just the messaging — message, landing page, follow-up, etc.
When considering, draw a process map to represent the various touch points
Create metrics for each touch point
But pick three overall metrics you will look at every day
Did I mention social media? Have a twitter strategy, use LinkedIn too
Do things on social media, but if you move money away from pure demand generation for social media, that is bad, because …
Social media is not a “down the funnel” lead generation strategy, measure social media buy link-backs and traffic, not people ready to buy tomorrow
Oh yeah, and if you’re judged only by finding people ready to buy tomorrow, warm up the resume
Run a VITO campaign. They still work if you combine phone follow-up with the marketing portion
Throw your hands in the air and wave them like you just don’t care.
Talk to your CEO more than the VP of Sales does
Talk to your prospects using case studies
Peers are the most trusted source of information for other buyers — leverage your customer network via webcasts and references to re-enforce your value proposition (@mschmier)
Online vs. offline is very 2009 (@scottalbro)
Online AND offline is very 2010 (@scottalbro)
Create a list of 210 tips for your target buyer
Do email campaigns — they still work.
I know I mentioned podcasts earlier, but don’t do them. They don’t work
Choose someone in your company who will be your voice online
Stop advertising in trade magazines
If you are fortunate to sponsor a big sporting event, make sure you get tickets as well because you should at least get personal ROI
Make sure you provide a demo. The self-service buyer craves it (this falls under “down the funnel” content)
Understand your competition and give sales real competitive language, not high-level outdated, irrelevant stuff (everyone considers more)
Where are your users online? Figure out where your users are online and create a strategy as appropriate. Hint, most SMB buyers probably aren’t tweeting all day. (@mschmier)
The phone is still the most important tool for conversion to opportunity.
Go to sales training — if you can sell, you can market
Read a sales book, see above
Try emails using the exact opposite of best practices
Oh, and send an email on Sunday morning. People will open it
Social media is not a panacea (@cjablonski)
Improve field-to-headquarters information flow (@cjablonski)
Research your industry buying cycles (@cjablonski)
Deliver on your intent, daily (@cjablonski)
If you don’t believe in your value proposition, rewrite it (@cjablonski)
If the average person can’t understand your value prop, rewrite it
Social media is WOM on steroids (@cjablonski)
Keep emerging submarkets on your radar (@cjablonski)
If you pay for impressions, then you will get impressions(@cjablonski)
Give away your best content for free (@cjablonski)
Learn your company’s elevator pitch (@tlotl)
Write your personal elevator pitch (@tlotl)
Claim your area of unique expertise (@tlotl)
Challenge any assumption more than 9 months old (@tlotl)
Learn how to (effectively) explain social media to executive management (@tlotl)
Don’t let the bastards drag you down (@tlotl)
Don’t get defensive
Append your house list. Why wouldn’t you?
Be the first to develop a Google Wave marketing strategy (@cjablonski)
Throw your hands in the air and Google Wave them like you just don’t care
If you spend more money on promotional items like t-shirts and pens than you did on demand gen, then shame on you
Facilitate conversations between experts (@tlotl)
Create content for every buyer persona you create (business users want something different than technical)
Consumer marketers are light years ahead of B2B marketers. If you want to know what’s cutting edge, it’s them.
Don’t overvalue title filters with content syndication; identifying organizational interest is the goal.
P.S., Directors and VPs don’t download white papers online.
Keep voicemails under 30 seconds
In voicemails, don’t sell the product, sell the next step (e.g., just ask them to read your email), because …
You should send an email after you leave a voicemail. You will get an exponentially higher open rate.
Speaking of which, in lead gen and marketing, you should sell the meeting, demo, or next step not the product
If you throw a party , invite the neighborhood — don’t filter webinars
Keep marketing and generating demand in December, or you’ll end up with no pipeline in January.
Understand common prospect objections and help attack them in your collateral.
Assess the ROI of your fixation on ROI (@cjablonski)
Elevate your marketing database hygiene (@cjablonski)
Shoot for viral when you have the talent (@cjablonski)
Make a contingency plan for your guerilla marketing idea (@cjablonski)
Don’t write off direct mail (@cjablonski)
Work with “frenemies” to serve the community (@cjablonski)
Don’t hire someone to write your blog (@cjablonski)
Be interesting by being interested (@cjablonski)
Help make sales people be trusted expert advisers(@cjablonski)
Don’t begin a survey with demographic questions (@cjablonski)
Have conversations not sales pitches (@cjablonski)
Create versatile content: Can you use this content in a white paper, webinar, blog post, etc.?
Marketing is either a critical advantage against your competitors or nothing at all (obsolete, ineffective, etc.). Think like sales when you build your marketing strategy — build it to compete
When considering everything you can do in 2010, remember you will be judged by pipeline created for sales
Knowing the above, when trying to figure out whether to put money into lead gen or branding and you can’t afford to do both, I think you know the answer now
Repurpose old content (@damphoux)
Measure CPO (Cost per Opportunity) (@damphoux)
It’s not a sales process, it’s a buying process (@damphoux)
Interview candidates from competition (@damphoux)
Ask prospects which competitor you lost a deal to (@damphoux)
Ask them why (@damphoux)
Pounce on a Web lead if they abandoned their visit on the Contact Us page (@damphoux)
Make the goal of the first sales call to get a second (@damphoux)
Different sales reps at the same company can benefit by different leads (introductory appointments for one, qualified leads for others) (@damphoux)
Not all sales people know what’s right for them — think of them as teens and give them what you think is right for them (@damphoux)
Log into your webinar platform an hour early and get all presenters set up early (@damphoux)
Do demand gen programs targeting your existing and past clients (@damphoux)
Never pay a lead gen team by the hour, pay for results (@damphoux)
Spend a day with your lead gen team or vendor (@damphoux)
Teach your sales team the best practices of handling the leads you worked so hard to generate (@damphoux)
Learn how to use a tweet scheduler, but still be personal most of the time (@damphoux)
Your most important landing page is your home page (@damphoux)
One of the highest converting forms is the Subscribe to Blog by Email form (@damphoux)
Selling doesn’t start until sales is talking with a prospect. Set introductory appointments for them (@damphoux)
Do AB testing with a simple 3 line email, instead of a formal email marketing piece (@damphoux)
Read the Pounce, Pause, Nurture or Wait debate (@damphoux)
You spend thousands, if not millions of dollars building your contact database, so invest a little bit to maintain it with dedupes and validation (@damphoux)
Attend a tweetup (@damphoux)
Create a simple slideshare presentation and make every marketing and sales member of your team loads it into their LinkedIn profiles. Stagger them so they continually go live (@damphoux)
Favorite, Like, Retweet people promoting your offering (@damphoux)
Build a twitter “List” (@damphoux)
If you see business cards lying on a sales rep’s desk, get them entered into a spreadsheet/CSV for free (@damphoux)
Never try to do a list over 10 by yourself (especially 210)

Thanks, @scottalbro, @cjablonski, @tlotl, @mschmier, @damphoux.

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

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Business Musings, CRM, Direct Marketing, DRIP and Lead Nurturing, Internet, Lead Development, Lead Qualification, Lead/Inquiry Generation, Management, Marketing Automation, sales, Social Networking Tagged With: b2b Marketing, Blog, Brand, Business Musings, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Facebook, Go-to-Market Strategies, Lead Development, Lead generation, Lead Qualification, linkedin, Marketing Automation, sales, webinar, White paper

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