Marketing automation tools tout the power of lead scoring through their software. It is powerful to be sure – no doubt about it. There is a critical reason why these scoring methodologies are not enough for true lead nurturing – they only take into account marketing’s view of the lead and account. Sales is on the sidelines. With the proper process and technology (beyond the Marketing Automation tool – we’re getting into CRM land here), one can add scoring methodologies based on sales’ actual interaction with the prospect. Critical factors like did a conversation occur, was a next step set, and was it a positive, neutral or negative outcome drive scores up or down. After all, would sales be excited about a new high scoring lead from marketing where they had a conversation with someone in the account a week ago and found there truly was no opportunity? Probably, nay, definitely not. The bottom line is to include sales!
Good selling.
Implict and Explicit Scoring Lead Scoring – Why It Is Not Enough For Nurturing
June 9th, 2010
Scott Stano
Oppsource.com
First – Do No Harm
May 12th, 2010
Mark Galloway
Oppsource.com
Saw this today in a post that Jill Konrath made… It is SO TRUE!!
“…The Hippocratic Oath of a physician – “First do no harm” – is at the heart of the thinking of the most successful sales professionals. They believe that their success will come from making their customers successful.
They approach their customer thinking, “How can I help them succeed?” rather than “What can I sell them?” They think like a business person, rather than a salesperson. They see it as a process done “with” the customer rather than “to” the customer…” – Jeff Thull,
How To Measure The Marketing Funnel
May 6th, 2010 Mark Galloway
Oppsource.com
Our team here at OppSource has been doing a lot of thinking lately about the Marketing Funnel. Specifically, the valuation of the marketing funnel. It dawned on me the other day that most CEOs know in detail how to size and measure key value points of their business value chain. Things like inventory, sales pipeline, cash flow, employee productivity, etc. Why don’t they know how to value their marketing funnel?
There are probably lots of reasons, not the least of which is the mystical shroud that hovers over marketing. For most businesses, the marketing funnel is the lifeblood of business two quarters from now. Marketing activity today or the lack there of will show up in the business results downstream. It is clearly a part of the value chain in each and every business no matter how large or small.
Most CEOs think about valuation of anything in 3 ways; volume, value, and velocity. Tracking the volume is important because it speaks to capacity and scale. Tracking value is important because it speaks to the relative investment involved. Tracking velocity is important because it speaks to the timing of business results.
We’ll have more on this concept in coming posts. For now, I simply urge you to start thinking about the MFV within your organization. Below are some simple ideas for establishing a valuation of your marketing funnel.
Volume = the number of leads x the lead score
Value = the lead volume x average order value
Velocity = leads converted to sales pipeline / new leads added to marketing funnel
What Should B2B Marketers Be Measuring
April 20th, 2010 Mark Galloway
Oppsource.com
In this economically challenged time, every boss wants to know what they are getting for the marketing dollars invested. It has become a routine to try and justify the tactics by any means of activity available. This hurts a B2B marketer’s reputation with their sales colleagues and with their boss. The most egregious stretch in justifying marketing tactics is the “Cost per Lead” metric. When a “lead” is defined as any response and is passed on to sales, you are really hurting marketing’s reputation and you are hurting your sales’ teams productivity. STOP. Work together with your sales colleagues to narrow the definition of what a ‘lead’ is. For too many B2B marketers, whoever “raises their hand” is a lead. As 
Megan Heuer at Sirius Decisions points out in her latest blog post, this approach for measuring ROI on lead gen way over simplifies your reality and costs you credibility with your management team and sales. Most prospective B2B buyers become your customer after several marketing touches with you. Our experience shows that the first touch is only the beginning and that it takes several interactions across a wide range of tactics (both digital and personal/telephone) to convince a prospect to become a customer. If you are struggling for a way to measure your marketing ROI, stop and do some diagnosis on the number of touches some of your latest customers had with you on their journey from first interaction to contract signing.
Response is Not a Lead
March 9th, 2010 Mark Galloway
Oppsource.com
I saw this in a recent Sirius Decisions Blog post and thought it was worthy of posting on our blog.
“…Too many marketers still treat a “response” like it’s a lead. The simple act of responding to a marketing offer is just that: a response. An inquiry. In and of itself, the act of responding does not signal readiness to move into an active buying process. It never has. If you’re still sending raw inquiries to sales and partners, make 2010 the year you fix that. Our benchmark data proves you will be happy you did…”
What Brought You In Today?
March 5th, 2010 Scott Stano
Oppsource.com
It seems so simple. How many times have you been in, say, an electronics store where an employee approaches you and asks, “Can I help you?”. No. Yes. There is no other answer. Most of the time I bet you say no. What if they would have waited until you spent a good long time in one section and asked, “What brought you in today?” Your only out is “just browsing” without disclosing why you are there (and perhaps ready to buy that $1,000 big screen!). It is no different in business to business environments. Sales people can’t help themselves – they want to qualify on budget (do you have $1,000 for this sir?), authority (has your wife said you can buy this?), timing (are you looking to leave with this today?) and need (do you have a TV today?). Think about how intrusive these questions would be in a retail environment — so why do we automatically try to do this in a business environment as well?
With marketing automation and the related analytics, it is much easier to stand back and wait until a customer is really browsing for solutions and then ask why they are doing it, rather than going right for the jugular. Sure, it will slow things down sometimes, but it will also speed things up greatly in other instances. Consider a truthful answer to the above retail analogy: “I am looking for a 50″ plasma TV.” Now the sales person can go almost any direction – “Why not an LCD? What type of room would it be in? What will you be watching the most?” Boom — The prospect is qualifying themselves and you didn’t have to coax it out of them. “By the way, we have this one on sale today…”
Good selling.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: Digital Lead Nurturing Creates More Sales Converts
February 12th, 2010 Scott Stano
Oppsource.com
We recently did a deep dive analysis of conversation convert rates to qualified sales opportunities, comparing pure cold calling versus calling prospects on the back end of Digital Lead Nurturing. The first striking element was that it is no easier to get the prospect on the phone no matter what other marketing you have done – you still have to make the needed dials to connect and the success ratios here were not dramatically different between cold calling and lead nurturing follow-up.
The astounding statistic was the convert ratio on nurtured leads to sales opportunities versus cold calling. On average 6% of cold call conversations converted to a sales opportunity (after doing all that work to get in touch with them). Conversations with those that have been nurtured converted to sales opportunities as many as 35.29% of the time (in one month in Q1) and 25% of the time throughout the quarter on average. This is as high as 583% efficiency gain and 416% on average.
I know the demand creation process I would choose!
Good selling.
Keep It Simple…
January 22nd, 2010 Scott Stano
Oppsource.com
A lot of marketers today try to over-complicate their messages, cramming too many offers, value statements or content into one piece. Think of most corporate web sites – you can go anywhere and everywhere with no specific messages. Often companies copy this approach into email marketing. Not only can simpler messages be more effective, but lead to less confusion and more qualified contacts when the prospect responds. When thinking about your offer and messaging approach, remember the following story about the Space Race between the USA and USSR. Both realized they needed a way for Astronauts and Cosmonaughts to take notes on experiments in space. The United States embarked on a program to develop a pressurized ink pen that could write in zero gravity. It cost about a million dollars and worked very well….
The Soviets used a pencil.
Sometimes simpler is more cost effective and leads to the same or better results.
Disclaimer: I am not a fan of the Soviet Union.
Good selling!
Why Lead Nurturing
January 22nd, 2010 Mark Galloway
Oppsource.com
For B2B marketers who resolve to implement lead nurturing, the results are significant:
- 20% more sales opportunities, according to Demand Gen
- 2x increase in bid-win ratio, according to Aberdeen Group
- 47% higher average order values, according to Aberdeen Group
- 150% increase in contact-to-lead conversion rate, according to ShipServ
Nuff Said…
Social Media and Sales
January 18th, 2010 Scott Stano
Oppsource.com
There is a lot of information about how companies and executives should use social media to get more sales. Some large companies are confused as to how to use tools like Twitter to drive revenue – after all, will someone buy $100K in software because you are Tweeting? Probably not. The real value in social networking is to identify and connect with the people who have the problems you can solve or to engage with others in the community to understand new pressures and issues. This one to one marketing approach, in conjunction with excellent lead nurturing is the real way to get more business. Social media can show you where the people are hanging out – you still have to proactively hang with them.
