August 28th, 2012 by Laura Monn Ginsburg

A great discussion that came out of our smarketing alignment workshop the other week was one centered on semantics, specifically around the term “lead” which we all agreed is quite possibly the most over- and mis-used term in B2B demand generation.  “Lead” has become the default term for someone who is interested in buying from you. There are a myriad of vendors and services that Read More

October 4th, 2010 by Mark Galloway

Given that we are in the business of generating and nurturing B2B leads for our clients, we get the opportunity to discuss the value of a lead quite frequently.  The scrutiny of marketing spend ever increasing, I thought I would share three common mistakes that marketers (and their bosses) often make in evaluating the ROI of their lead generation tactics. 1. The credit for a Read More

August 17th, 2010 by Mark Galloway

CSO Insights invests a great deal of time surveying the sales profession across a wide range of organizations globally.  One of the areas they drill down on is Lead Generation.  Their latest 2010 Lead Generation Study finds: Over 49% of marketers report that 25% or less of the deals closed resulted from marketing-generated leads. 49% of marketers said that sales would say the quality of Read More

August 4th, 2010 by Laura Monn Ginsburg

According to the “2010 Lead Generation Optimization Key Trends Analysis” from CSO Insights, more than 91% of companies worldwide reported increasing new customer acquisition was one of their top strategic marketing objectives for 2010. Sure sounds like rounding a corner to me. However, expectations and outcomes from lead management programs are changing. Based on the quantity and quality of leads generated, companies said email was Read More

January 22nd, 2010 by Mark Galloway

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…

January 17th, 2010 by Mark Galloway

I am always intrigued when I meet with new customers to hear their definition of what a “lead” is.  For most, let me generalize and sum it up this way; “a lead is a prospective customer who is in the market for what it is that we are selling.”  The thing of it is, a prospective customer who “is in the market for what it Read More

December 30th, 2009 by Laura Monn Ginsburg

It is interesting out there in the marketplace … People want to buy a marketing automation tool and the leads will come. One factor often lost in the shuffle is the expertise and experience with the tool itself. This can either be built over time with in house staff (often though the time and intensity required doesn’t deliver the desired sophistication or results) or with Read More

December 24th, 2009 by Mark Galloway

Wow, we woke up this morning to some serious white stuff – it will no doubt be a very white Christmas in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.  I had two choices this morning, fire up the snow blower or grab a cup of coffee and catch up on my favorite blogs.  The choice was obvious. One of my favorite blogs is Garth’s World the co-founder Read More

December 4th, 2009 by Laura Monn Ginsburg

What I love about traveling is the chance to spend time in a culture different than your own and getting to know people with a different experience and point of view. It is also interesting to guess and discuss what others do for a living. I was recently traveling in Prague in the Czech Republic, a city with a deep history and heritage hundreds of Read More

October 8th, 2009 by Mark Galloway

I recently had a chance to ride in the car with a colleague “up north” where we passed the drive time solving most of the world’s problems and then some.  One of the interesting problems we discussed was how often sales people will rush to complain about marketing’s lead generation efforts.  It usually starts with the typical sales pipeline review between sales rep and sales Read More