ViewPoint

MAY 23, 2017

I’ve read and heard (from a well-known industry analyst firm) that best-in-class companies close 30% of sales qualified leads while average companies close 20%. One of the biggest software companies in the world has a division that spends over $200,000 per year on leads that sales refuses to follow-up on.

Sales Qualified Leads 192

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Top of Funnel Work Management 192

ViewPoint

AUGUST 17, 2018

Sounds simple, yes, but most B2B companies are doing just the opposite. Often sales and marketing haven’t collaborated on such fundamental issues as who their audiences are, how to best reach them and once they do, what to say. Without this agreement a company is wasting time and money—and relying on luck to close deals.

Sales Qualified Leads 136

Sales Qualified Leads Optimization Marketing Management High Quality Lead 136

ViewPoint

AUGUST 29, 2017

Abraham Harold Maslow (April 1, 1908 – June 8, 1970) was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization. Improve a product or service. Save lives. Recognition.

Buy 240

Buy Forecasting Fulfillment Lead Ranking 240

ViewPoint

APRIL 16, 2018

While marketing does need to enable a field sales team to focus on what they do best—which is close deals—they can’t do that if the leads they’re sending over are not qualified and nurtured.

Top of Funnel 180

Top of Funnel PointClear Work Management Sales Qualified Leads 180

ViewPoint

MARCH 3, 2016

Outbound still supplies a majority of leads for your company (from Aberdeen Research). This is a model you can adjust to fit your company; so multiply, add zeros, adjust percentages or make whatever other changes you feel will shed light on your lead generation situation. Comprehensive Lead/Revenue Calculator for 2016.

Lead Ranking 180

Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads ROI Lead Scoring 180

ViewPoint

AUGUST 20, 2018

Far too many companies evaluate marketing’s success by the number of leads they hand over to sales. Many of the same companies fail to hold sales accountable for closing the good leads and for reporting back results that feed the marketing and sales model. Marketing is paid, in fact rewarded for, lead quantity and not quality.

Sales Qualified Leads 149

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Leads Lead 149

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 13, 2018

Maybe managers do this because they like the person or maybe they need them, but the bottom line is the best thing that you can do when you have somebody that's not a fit for the job is release them to do something that they will be good at. He ran a company called UST. He's the best salesperson I've ever met.

PointClear 149

PointClear Ethics Budget Programs Business 149

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

In part one, Matt reveals what CMOs can do to earn their company’s trust and three essential roles that round out a solid marketing dream team. In part two, we’ll talk about the “12 th man” of the marketing team, Smarketing, and what company culture actually is. Some of those reasons stem from a lack of positive company culture.

CMO 149

CMO Planning Ad Building Work Management 149

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 26, 2016

In order to mind the revenue gap, companies need to be designing a comprehensive “allbound” marketing approach that embraces inbound marketing, lead nurturing or prospect development, and outbound marketing tactics to optimize revenue growth. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why some head executives don’t hit their revenue goals.

Inbound Marketing 149

Inbound Marketing Enterprise Management Trade Show Lead Nurturing 149

ViewPoint

APRIL 24, 2018

In the best-case scenario, you will be invited in too late and become column fodder. As an example, for one IT security company, consumers of up to five pieces of content were much better prospects than those individuals who consumed six or more pieces of content. In most companies, leads are sent to the sales force too soon.

Validation 168

Validation Marketing Automation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 168

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

. : "Where I’m from, it’s the chief executive’s job to determine and articulate the company’s strategy. If the CEO does his or her job, there will be a common definition of a lead and clear market definitions… these are missing in most companies today. Do you find companies thinking that that's all it takes? But it isn’t.

Lead Ranking 149

Lead Ranking Demand Generation Agencies Account Based Marketing Paid Search Agency 149

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Because the chances are pretty low—probably 3% to 4% at best—that any of these names are bonafide opportunities if you are a B2B company with a complex sales process. If Sales has to make 100 phone calls to determine which 3 are worth something, they won’t invest the time, and it’s not smart for your company to ask them to.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads Forecasting PointClear Enterprise Management 120

ViewPoint

MAY 20, 2016

The net-net is, when marketing keeps its focus on sourcing leads, using tools and best-practice processes that continually measure results, marketing is able to prove its value to the organization, keep budgets growing and get the credit for revenue contribution that it deserves. Hence the 35% used in this example.

Enterprise Management 159

Enterprise Management SMB Sales Qualified Leads Allocation 159

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 20, 2017

Usually that objection has to do with the belief that only their own employees can represent their company. Best practices that make it possible for each member of our team of seasoned sales prospecting associates to make an average of 80 dials a day. That is such a huge difference it seems almost unbelievable, so how can it be?

Sales Qualified Leads 149

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Generation Sales Leads Lead Scoring 149

ViewPoint

JANUARY 22, 2016

This is the third in a series of three blogs about what experts feel companies did well in 2015 and what they would do better in 2016. What B2B Companies Did Well in 2015? Smart company leaders will look for ways to remove the process, technology and fluff that keep their company from growing.

Top of Funnel 149

Top of Funnel Work Management PointClear B2B Thought Leadership 149

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 14, 2017

Best case you get a call back that turns into an angry prospect because of your approach. What challenge or pain are they likely to be dealing with that you have helped a similar company solve? Here are some tips on leaving quality messages: Keep it simple. How will the prospect benefit from calling you back? Don’t be tricky.

Generation 195

Generation Contacts Course Video Marketing 195

ViewPoint

JANUARY 5, 2017

Are you like most companies, achieving just average results and not knowing why? Read on and learn how you can get better ROI on marketing, how you can let your sales people focus on what they do best, and how you can close significantly more deals than you did before. Are you mired in chaos, spending lots of time getting little done?

B2B Sales 136

B2B Sales B2B Marketing Tips Account Based Marketing 136

ViewPoint

JUNE 5, 2015

In the first 2 parts of this series we discussed the role of executives and best practices for planning and preparation when outsourcing your lead generation program. If a company promises more, chances are the quality of those so-called leads will fall short of what you’re looking for. The close rate is more likely to be 6 – 30%.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Generation PointClear Lead Qualification 120

ViewPoint

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

In addition, prospect databases usually lack critical opportunity information including the following: Current "pain" or challenges at the company. The question is, "How can I best clean them and mine them for value?" Segment the databases and lists into small homogeneous cubes or layers of similar companies.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Database Marketing Budget Programs 120

ViewPoint

APRIL 6, 2017

we give growing companies an unfair advantage to beat revenue goals. Here’s the problem: most fast growing companies hire as many sales people as possible to solve for scale, missing a more efficient strategy—where we come in. Most companies in our industry don’t. Any interest in a short chat? The bad news is that lists suck.

Lead Generation 192

Lead Generation B2B Sales Sales Qualified Leads Sales Leads 192

ViewPoint

NOVEMBER 29, 2016

I just love the simplicity of it; not to mention that it absolutely captures what is wrong with marketing in many if not most companies today. One of the reasons that we are in the pickle we are in is because, in my opinion, CEO’s are not doing the best job they can leading their companies. Dollars are squandered. Simplified.”

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Cost per Lead 120

ViewPoint

MAY 28, 2015

As an outsourced lead generation company, one of the ways we can best serve our clients is to offer insight on what they can do to maximize the results from their program. Recently, my COO reminded me that I gave her this list on her first day with the company and said she still refers to it today. After all … we’ve seen it all.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation PointClear Generation Leads 120

ViewPoint

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Marketing is evaluated on the quality of the leads delivered to sales and the sales reps are evaluated on their efficient use of company assets, in this case, leads. In my experience, I've seen that the average sales force closes nearly 20 percent of sales-accepted leads while best-in-class organizations close closer to 30 percent.

Cold Calling 149

Cold Calling Sales Qualified Leads ROMI High Quality Lead 149

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 5, 2018

The CMO of a Fortune 500 company offered the CRO the following options regarding spending $100,000 on a marketing campaign. 100,000 companies with up to three executive contacts in the right companies (no email addresses). 117 appointments with people in the right companies but may or may not have any need or authority to buy.

Sales Qualified Leads 136

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Generation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 136

ViewPoint

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

There isn't a senior executive at any company across the globe that doesn't want more sales. The trouble is, not every company truly understands what it takes to generate that additional revenue. Account profiling: Give sales a leg up by profiling target companies as the first step in utilizing Account Based Marketing processes.

Lead Scoring 120

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Lead Qualification Validation 120

ViewPoint

MAY 23, 2018

And to think that most companies end a program—and start a new one—without working the original 1,000 targets to completion. There are three executives within the company who should be proponents: Marketing leaders interested in delivering strong marketing ROI and making a measurable contribution to revenue. See more …”.

Sales Qualified Leads 149

Sales Qualified Leads ROI Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 149

ViewPoint

MAY 24, 2016

Even experienced marketing leaders often believe that a company in the correct industry, at the correct size with perhaps one other criteria met (such as “North America”) is sufficient to send to sales as a lead. Let me give you a real-life example of this—one that is repeated over and over again in most companies.

Sales Qualified Leads 174

Sales Qualified Leads Cost Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads 174

ViewPoint

JULY 24, 2017

A competitor in the teleprospecting business recently published a list of B2B companies based on how easy or hard they were to work from a lead-generation standpoint. At the bottom of the list were what they called “uncloseables,” meaning these were companies that this competitor was not able to generated leads from. No testing.

Sales Qualified Leads 149

Sales Qualified Leads PointClear Lead Qualification High Quality Lead 149

ViewPoint

APRIL 14, 2017

The CEO (or in larger companies the SVP of Sales & Marketing) must ensure that there is a shared definition of a lead AND that a judicial branch is put in place to enforce marketing’s compliance with that definition AND that sales effectively executes lead follow up on leads that meet the definition. What is the solution?

Lead Generation 176

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Sales Leads Generation 176

ViewPoint

JUNE 24, 2016

We met and worked together at a software company many years ago, and our paths through the continuously evolving world of B2B sales and sales performance have crossed many times. PMI), an industry-leading sales best practices consulting firm, and Dave is the founder of the independent advisory firm ES Research Group, Inc.

RFP 159

RFP B2B Sales Work Management Cross-Selling 159

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 1, 2015

That’s what I set out to find when I presented this question to fellow industry experts: According to a report by SiriusDecisions, 2015 State of Account-Based Marketing (ABM), more than 60 percent of companies plan to invest in technology for ABM to better align sales and marketing over the next twelve months. You have to bear hug sales.

Account Based Marketing 120

Account Based Marketing Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Automation Services 120

ViewPoint

AUGUST 25, 2016

Sales is not as productive as they need to be to meet quota, marketing is wasting its budget generating leads that don’t get followed up, and the company as a whole is not likely to meet revenue goals. So, what’s the best way to rid the funnel of fool’s gold (leads that may look good at first blush, but are actually not worth much)?

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads Budget Programs B2B Sales 120

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

to be selected a Top Sales Expert at Top Sales World , the international online community dedicated exclusively to sharing sales best practices. The Top Sales Expert team includes best-selling authors, builders of large global consultancies, and sales professionals within the Fortune 500 arena.

PointClear 120

PointClear Work Management Communities B2B Sales 120

ViewPoint

APRIL 28, 2015

Kizer stated after the game: “Say, that Hail Mary is the best play we’ve got.”. The best known examples are Staubach to Person in 1975 and Flutie to Phelan in 1984. And when you engage with them they certainly expect you to know their company, their market and the competitive landscape. 3) Execution.

Lead Scoring 120

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads Sales Leads 120

ViewPoint

MARCH 1, 2016

Total revenue goals for the current year should include an estimate of the percent of revenue that will be retained from the previous year (this is important because many companies don’t set retention goals.) Companies frequently overestimate the percentage of revenue that will come from inbound sources.

ROI 159

ROI Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads MQL 159

ViewPoint

AUGUST 17, 2011

Sales Deployment Most companies deploy reps in traditional ways. Small and mid-sized companies typically assign by geographic territories. Ideal deployment puts the best rep with the best prospect at the best time. If Joe is your top salesperson, should he work Company A just because it’s in his territory?

Work Management 120

Work Management Training Verticals Sales Qualified Leads 120

ViewPoint

APRIL 2, 2013

LinkedIn's network of groups is one of the best tools for business-to-business marketers looking to contribute to conversations related to their industry and establish themselves as thought leaders, according to WSJ’s Kate Mitchell. The B2B Marketing Advantage of LinkedIn. PR Giant to Set Up New Content Marketing Unit.

B2B Marketing 120

B2B Marketing Linkedin PointClear Marketing Automation Services 120