ANNUITAS

MAY 26, 2016

And while this is true, and has been mentioned more than several times here on the ANNUITAS blog, I see very little being written or spoken about the role of B2B sales and how their roles have changed. These mistakes must be corrected if B2B sales organizations are going to have any measure of success. They Measure The Wrong Things.

B2B Sales 113

B2B Sales Demand Generation Agencies B2B Work Management 113

ANNUITAS

DECEMBER 4, 2020

Live chat is a growing medium that many companies are turning to as a means to connect with prospects sooner and faster. It does double duty, educating prospects while accelerating sales, and so the tool has grown in popularity over recent years. Customer Support vs. Sales: Live chat strategy should be prepared to handle both.

Demand 130

Demand Enterprise Management Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy 130

ANNUITAS

APRIL 10, 2014

Each of these often operates independently of each other or at the bequest of various sales teams eliminating the continuity in dialogue with their buyer. If the goal is for marketing to operate in isolation, and in doing so, deliver no strategic value to the company, they would be right. This is a red flag.

Paid Search Agency 100

Paid Search Agency Enterprise Management Marketing Management Automation 100

ANNUITAS

AUGUST 21, 2023

All too often, this leads to organizations engaging in random acts of sales and marketing — in an attempt to shore up tactical gaps and with an insufficient perspective on customer critical path — instead of building sustainable go-to-market programs. DX covers the journeys and interactions that CX misses. CX is not DX.

Marketing Analytics Tools 130

Marketing Analytics Tools Demand Optimization Work Management 130

ANNUITAS

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

Does indecision have you committing a repeated string of ‘ random acts of sales and marketing ,’ or are you taking advantage of this moment to bring cohesion, orchestration and repeatability to your sales and marketing mix across your customer journey? Said differently: Are you sticking your head in the sand, or are you innovating?

Lead Ranking 130

Lead Ranking Peer-to-peer Paid Search Agency Terms and Conditions 130

ANNUITAS

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Several years ago I was on-site with a client discussing their desire to develop and implement a lead management process.    This company had invested in sound technology platforms, but in the words of the marketing manager, “they just weren’t working.”. A Process-Based Approach to Lead Management.

Work Management 100

Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management De-duplication 100

ANNUITAS

JUNE 10, 2020

Here is a modern, functional definition for Demand Marketing: Demand Marketing is the discipline through which companies 1) orchestrate customer engagement and 2) provide lift to pipelines. Managing go-to-market processes, technology systems and data. Optimizing demand investments against sales outcomes.

Demand 162

Demand Work Management Marketing Management Peer-to-peer 162

ANNUITAS

APRIL 10, 2023

In short, when companies treat their sales model as a linear journey, they fail to consider their customers’ engagement with the company over a lifetime. A simple four step funnel, though helpful for visualization purposes, is far from the reality of what most B2B sales processes are like.

Ideal Customer Profiles 130

Ideal Customer Profiles Top of Funnel B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking 130

ANNUITAS

AUGUST 30, 2018

As we were going through a refresh of our targeted personas, we noticed an increase in engagement with leadership roles that have revenue responsibility (sales leaders, business unit leaders, and even CEOs). Why is marketing’s story so different than sales? Lack of Trust in the CMO.

CMO 197

CMO Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Top of Funnel 197

ANNUITAS

MAY 13, 2021

Too often MAPs are associated with tactical email nurturing and simple lead qualification — tactical use cases that dominate immature platform deployments. Achieving this requires operationalizing every element of go-to-market, across all sales and marketing interactions, around customer journey.

Enterprise Management 130

Enterprise Management Marketing Automation Services Analysis Work Management 130

ANNUITAS

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Seventy-six percent (76%) of buyers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations before ever getting on the phone. There is a massive divide between what buyers want to discuss with sales vs. what sales wants to discuss with buyers. But that’s rarely what happens. But that’s only half the battle.

Conversion 234

Conversion Sales Qualified Leads Ideal Customer Profiles Opinions 234

ANNUITAS

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

This is part two of our 2-part series on how the C-Suite can help affect marketing and sales for the better. (c Yet marketing and sales need budget so they can adapt to the changing buyer, move them faster through the buying cycle, and ultimately drive revenue. Use common objectives and measurements between marketing and sales.

Positioning 100

Positioning Work Management Planning Marketing Management 100

ANNUITAS

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Seventy-six percent (76%) of buyers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations before ever getting on the phone. There is a massive divide between what buyers want to discuss with sales vs. what sales wants to discuss with buyers. But that’s rarely what happens. But that’s only half the battle.

Sales Qualified Leads 228

Sales Qualified Leads Ideal Customer Profiles Opinions Work Management 228

ANNUITAS

AUGUST 27, 2020

A Progressive Profiling Model should guide data intake sequencing in your lead management by asking for small bits of information from a buyer in digestible increments. The information you collect should be the information that marketing and sales need to be able to qualify a lead. What Information to Collect.

Ideal Customer Profiles 147

Ideal Customer Profiles Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads Budget Programs 147

ANNUITAS

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Yet budget is what is going to enable marketing and sales to adapt to the changing buyer, move them faster through the buying cycle, and ultimately drive revenue. Earlier in my career, I was asked to begin developing a lead management process for my employer, a $1 billion software company. Where are we with sales?”.

Positioning 100

Positioning Planning Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 100

ANNUITAS

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

I once was on the phone with a client who was describing his sales organization to me and he said something that caught my attention: “My people have gotten robotic. We’ve all heard them, and most companies have their own version of the following acronyms: CHAMP, BANT , FAINT, ANUM. Where we are today.

Peer-to-peer 173

Peer-to-peer Work Management Marketing Management Sales Qualified Leads 173

ANNUITAS

SEPTEMBER 21, 2010

I’ve recently been involved in an ongoing online discussion regarding marketing automation, lead generation, and lead management (including lead nurturing). Should it be on lead generation, or lead management? The Lead Management Framework TM. The Lead Management Framework TM.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Gartner Forrester Lead Nurturing 100

ANNUITAS

OCTOBER 17, 2010

Gaffney: I think there has been a fundamental shift—from start-ups to large companies—where marketing is now expected to have an active role in the revenue generation process. This requires new discipline in lead management, which many B2B marketers are still getting their arms around. Most of data comes from the marketing side.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Demand Marketing Management Web 2.0 100

ANNUITAS

JANUARY 10, 2011

As the founder of 28Marketing, he’s worked with a number of B2B technology and cloud computing companies. I see more and more marketers adopting good lead management approaches, driven by the number of high quality consultants and educators out there to ensure that organizations chart their course efficiently.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management 100

ANNUITAS

AUGUST 30, 2011

To have a successful marketing automation implementation start with this question and this question alone: “What does our lead management process look like and how can we automate it?” If you don’t have a solid lead management process in place than a marketing automation platform (MAP) will only automate a broken process.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Buy Automation 100

ANNUITAS

OCTOBER 23, 2014

I have personally run pay-per-click (PPC) programs for the companies I have worked for, and I have worked with agencies that specialize in PPC claiming to have proven track records in B2B. PPC is always challenging in B2B, and is clearly a different animal than the more transactional sale that PPC was clearly designed for.

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Paid Search Agency PPC Marketing Automation Services 100

ANNUITAS

JULY 7, 2011

USA Financial recognized by DemandGen Report in 2011 Sales & Marketing Alignment Awards. USA Financial was one of 10 companies recognized for deploying marketing automation tools and re-engineering internal processes in order to drive new revenue growth, produce quality leads and improve campaign results. “We

Conversion 100

Conversion Marketing Automation Services Work Management Demand Generation Agencies 100

ANNUITAS

MARCH 10, 2011

To the contrary, marketing automation is a highly sophisticated set of rules and processes for lead scoring, nurturing and management that move prospects through the various stages of the marketing-sales funnel. He asked: “ What’s the difference between demand generation, lead management and marketing automation?”

Work Management 100

Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Lead Qualification 100

ANNUITAS

AUGUST 30, 2011

Relationship expands end-to-end demand generation and lead management service offerings for clients. Grand Rapids, MI – August 30, 2011 – The Annuitas Group, an expert provider of lead management process services, today announced that it has formalized an alliance with Harte-Hanks, Inc. About Harte-Hanks ®.

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Management Demand Generation Marketing Automation Services 100

ANNUITAS

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

Based in the firm’s Houston location, Harmel has over 20 years of experience driving strategy and integrated demand programs for B2B companies. Her client experience ranges from Fortune 500 companies to governmental agencies to small start-ups. Follow Harmel on Twitter at @JenniferHarmel2. About ANNUITAS.

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Advertising Agencies Demand Generation Enterprise Management 100

ANNUITAS

AUGUST 23, 2011

Over the last week Demand Gen Report & Televerde published reports which reviewed the performance of B2B marketing and sales teams. The results are far from attractive and show that many companies are still lagging far behind. 61% of the respondents recognize lead leakage as a problem within their organizations.

Lead Scoring 100

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Work Management Lead Qualification 100

ANNUITAS

OCTOBER 28, 2010

In this book, I (along with 13 other B2B marketing experts) was asked to contribute my thoughts on how to best approach the Lead Funnel, and provide insights on how it relates to sales pipeline. I’m looking forward to the ongoing dialogue around lead management that this project will generate.

Planning 100

Planning Process Lead Qualification Top of Funnel 100

ANNUITAS

DECEMBER 6, 2010

Over the years we have come to know many of the people behind the company on a professional and personal level. For the last 5 years we have worked with our customers to deliver a full-cycle Lead Management Framework TM that greatly improves the return on their marketing and sales investments.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management Vendors 100

ANNUITAS

APRIL 4, 2012

The standard sales funnel for most organizations is linear with several stages: Inquiry. Depending on how your lead qualification process is developed, this contact (assuming it is) is somewhere between an inquiry and MQL which begs the question, just what is it? What do you call the leads that are in this “funnel purgatory”?

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Top of Funnel Marketing Qualified Leads MQL 100

ANNUITAS

JULY 7, 2016

I work with large businesses that sell to other businesses to help them figure out how to generate awareness, turn the awareness into sales opportunities, and ultimately drive revenue from their marketing and sales efforts. We do this using buyer research, technology, content, data and lead management best practices.

Demand Generation 100

Demand Generation Consulting Demand Generation 100

ANNUITAS

MAY 5, 2016

In order for the company to see a change and align the people, process, content and technology with [their] buyers, [they] needed a plan, and the process would be more complex than replicating an existing strategy.” Indeed, any company moving toward transforming demand generation must take all of these elements into account.

Demand Generation 100

Demand Generation Demand Generation Forrester 100

ANNUITAS

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

Not Syncing with Sales: Being an administrator for your company’s marketing automation platform means that you hold the ability to impact your company’s web traffic, brand image and reputation, and most importantly, revenue via the communications you send. Things couldn’t be better.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Demand Generation Agencies 100

ANNUITAS

OCTOBER 6, 2010

This is done by creating an ideal buyer profile for your company’s product(s) or service(s). For most companies, one buyer profile is not enough. Developing various profiles that match the multiple buyer personas will enable your company to better engage with each one through your nurturing program.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking De-duping Work Management Lead Qualification 100

ANNUITAS

FEBRUARY 1, 2011

This view of data underscores how valuable clean and relevant data is to marketing and sales success. A few years ago we conducted a discovery exercise with a client to determine the gaps in their lead management process. Will you allow sales to delete, or create a record? It requires a process and constant attention.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management Data Hygiene Ideal Customer Profiles Marketing Automation Services 100

ANNUITAS

MAY 24, 2011

In Marketo’s popular blog, Modern B2B Marketing , he explores everything from lead nurturing and social media to marketing ROI and revenue performance management (RPM). Jon was also named a Top 10 CMO for companies under $250 million revenue by The CMO Institute. For example, how does your organization define a “lead”?

Marketo 100

Marketo Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management 100

ANNUITAS

NOVEMBER 10, 2010

Steve is a thought leader in the world of marketing automation and lead management and is also a prolific writer on topics related to demand generation and the current transitions within the marketing profession. To dig into this a bit further, it’s first worth exploring what we mean by a marketing qualified lead.

Lead Ranking 100

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads 100

ANNUITAS

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011

This was my fourth Dreamforce, and I’d like to offer some observations from the perspective of someone who lives in the B2B marketing & sales space. I believe this will continue to be the focus of the company in the foreseeable future. Oh yeah, there were a ton of user sessions too. Instead of asking “What do we need to do?”,

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Salesforce.com Marketing Management B2B Thought Leadership 100