ViewPoint

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

About a year ago I wrote a blog about what I call a bubble in the funnel. The following is a quote from that blog: “Companies are making decisions right now that will cause a bubble in the funnel that will last for months, if not all of 2017. You will be playing catch-up in Q1, 2018 rather than hitting the ground running.

Sales Qualified Leads 159

Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel High Quality Lead Sales Cycle 159

ViewPoint

APRIL 28, 2017

Stopping or slowing down lead generation, qualification and nurturing programs creates what I call a “bubble-in-the-funnel.” Shutting down now in anticipation of the “slow summer months” introduces a bubble-in-the-funnel that will take months to recover from. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Top of Funnel 149

Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads Fulfillment Marketing Funnels 149

ViewPoint

AUGUST 11, 2016

Marketing must align its B2B lead generation activities and resources with deeper-in-the-funnel outcomes. Depending on a marketing resource’s role and level, parts of compensation can be tied to performance metrics like overall revenue and deeper-in-the-funnel outcomes. It incorrectly emphasizes cost over ROI value.

Cost per Lead 120

Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Leads Lead Generation Cost 120

ViewPoint

MAY 23, 2018

Speak to prospects from the top of the funnel to the bottom—because they are all constantly moving up and down the funnel—so you're there when they’re ready. See more …”. There are no hard and fast rules regarding what content should be presented to prospects at various stages in the sales cycle—every situation is different.

Sales Qualified Leads 149

Sales Qualified Leads ROI Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 149

ViewPoint

MAY 16, 2017

a scripted "blast them all" approach) let you truly interact with prospects - and progress the funnel. Message: Compelling "silver bullets" (conversational points) about your prospects' specific challenges, problems or concerns (vs. Metrics: Measure your success in a meaningful way that incents quality, value, and seamless conversion.

Sales Leads 202

Sales Leads Process Top of Funnel Lead Scoring 202

ViewPoint

JUNE 2, 2016

The bottom line is that you should be speaking to prospects from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel. Prospects will move up and down in the funnel. See more …”.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120

ViewPoint

MAY 7, 2010

(..)

B to B 120

B to B Top of Funnel 120

ViewPoint

APRIL 16, 2018

SLMA Radio is one of six marketing and sales shows for at-work listeners on the Funnel Radio Channel. Jim Obermayer is the founder of the Sales Lead Management Association , an organization serving 8,000 members and subscribers worldwide, with a website that includes 360-plus articles from 65 industry authors.

Top of Funnel 180

Top of Funnel PointClear Work Management Sales Qualified Leads 180

ViewPoint

JULY 26, 2016

About the Author: James Obermayer is publisher of Funnel Media Group, LLC, which owns the Sales Lead Management Association, and the Funnel Radio Channel for streaming live internet radio programs and podcast replays. Then again, Henry Ford said “Thinking is the hardest thing we do, which is why so few people do it.”.

Budget Management 120

Budget Management Spending Marketing Management Budget Programs 120

ViewPoint

SEPTEMBER 12, 2018

Sales managers need to provide guidance to their reps to be sure prospects continually move through the funnel—and that the pipeline contains the right mix of deal size and decision cycles. That’s why it’s vital that team members prioritize the best opportunities—both near- and long-term.

Top of Funnel 174

Top of Funnel Ad Building Verticals Training 174

ViewPoint

MAY 5, 2017

At the Funnel Media Group we believe that AI is the future of sales and marketing operations. Why it’s Important: “The companies that lag behind in adopting new ways of selling and marketing are slated for the trash heaps of failed businesses.”.

Marketing AI 136

Marketing AI Marketing Analytics Tools Top of Funnel Enterprise Management 136

ViewPoint

MARCH 19, 2018

Obermayer is the founder of the Sales Lead Management Association, publisher of the Funnel Media Group and live Radio/ Podcast Host for SLMA Radio Today and CRM Radio Today. Does Marketing Own the Pipeline? White Paper Review: Marketo's Marketing Metrics Guide - Must Reading. About the Author.

Marketing Management 197

Marketing Management Analytics Budget Programs Marketing Automation Services 197

ViewPoint

JUNE 5, 2017

You need full visibility into how many touches it takes to generate a lead, your lead rate, and your cost per lead at every stage in the funnel. Then deliver it via all media (inbound and outbound), across multiple sales cycles, at just the right frequency. Analyze, analyze, analyze. You need to measure which leads are rejected and why.

Top of Funnel 149

Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads PointClear Cost per Lead 149

ViewPoint

MAY 23, 2017

Those results factor in lead leakage of between 52% to 86% of the marketing qualified leads put into the top of the funnel. 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%.

Sales Qualified Leads 192

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Top of Funnel Work Management 192

ViewPoint

MAY 3, 2012

Leads must be more likely to convert deeper in the funnel. Marketing must align its B2B lead generation activities and resources with deeper-in-the-funnel outcomes like conversions along with overall revenue generation. It is appears too early in the funnel to be meaningful in measuring outcomes.

Cost per Lead 120

Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Lead Generation 120

ViewPoint

JANUARY 22, 2016

Miles Austin – Fill the Funnel, Inc. Kyle Porter – Sales Loft : Account-based approach will have prospectors, inside sales reps, AE’s and top of the funnel demand generation professionals focused on a set of very relevant and highly targeted accounts. The panelists include: Ardath Albee – Marketing Interactions.

Top of Funnel 149

Top of Funnel Work Management PointClear B2B Thought Leadership 149

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 10, 2016

My solution to this is having a lead definition agreed upon by marketing and sales, and the establishment of a judicial branch to evaluate leads that are not accepted and passed back to marketing or dead in the funnel. You can read more about the judicial branch here. closed/won deals per 1,000 inquiries.

Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel 120

ViewPoint

JANUARY 13, 2017

You need full visibility into how many touches it takes to generate a lead, your lead rate, and your cost per lead at every stage in the funnel. Then deliver it via all media (inbound and outbound), across multiple sales cycles, at just the right frequency. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze. You need to measure which leads are rejected and why.

Account Based Marketing 120

Account Based Marketing PointClear ABM Cost per Lead 120

ViewPoint

MARCH 1, 2012

Successful demand generation strategies fill the sales funnel with the right prospects and engage them correctly so they progress from marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to sales accepted leads (SALs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs).

Demand Generation 120

Demand Generation Work Management Marketing Management Lead Management 120

ViewPoint

JULY 12, 2017

Obermayer is the founder of the Sales Lead Management Association, a four-time author, and publisher for the Funnel Media Group. You may like: How to Tell if Your Sales Pipeline is Failing You. Andy Paul – Zero Time Selling.

Top of Funnel 149

Top of Funnel Forecasting Pricing Price 149

ViewPoint

JANUARY 17, 2012

Think of lead generation, lead qualification and lead nurturing as progressive steps in a funnel. Marketing pours raw, unfiltered leads from a variety of sources into the top of the funnel. All too often, no one is managing what happens to leads once they enter the funnel. Reality, unfortunately, rarely matches the ideal.

Lead Qualification 120

Lead Qualification Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads 120

ViewPoint

JANUARY 17, 2012

Think of lead generation, lead qualification and lead nurturing as progressive steps in a funnel. Marketing pours raw, unfiltered leads from a variety of sources into the top of the funnel. All too often, no one is managing what happens to leads once they enter the funnel. Reality, unfortunately, rarely matches the ideal.

Lead Qualification 120

Lead Qualification Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads 120

ViewPoint

MAY 18, 2016

Using follow-up outbound (phone, voicemail, and email) across multiple sales cycles to filter, qualify, and move leads through the funnel can multiply inbound results by 3X. An average of 53.75

Planning 168

Planning Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel Paid Search Agency 168

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 10, 2011

What was once the bastion of sales—the sales funnel from top to bottom—is now shared with marketing. DemandGen Report recently called this “a shared revenue funnel” and in a recent Revenue Marketer Radio interview , Yvonne Anderson at NCM called it “the revenue team. Who doesn’t want this?

CMO 120

CMO Marketing Automation Services Disintermediation Demand Generation Agencies 120

ViewPoint

JANUARY 27, 2017

Since you are assuming that $966K is what you are booking and you have a 10%-win rate, then you need to have top of the funnel inbound revenue of 9.6M. So from my point of view the nurturing line item is confusing, possibly misleading from a pipeline/funnel management POV, and doesn't have a lot of meaning.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120

ViewPoint

JULY 16, 2013

Does your firm have the capacity and expertise to develop targeted content for different buyer personas at different stages of the sales funnel? For more information on qualified leads please download our White Paper— How to Build a Funnel Full of Solid Gold Leads. Budget allocated or process for budgeting documented.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Budget Programs 120

ViewPoint

JULY 25, 2013

The B2B Funnel is still alive, well, and living on the beach in the Bahamas: Madlibs #2 w/ @Funnelholic. Do you know how media fragmentation works and how to engage consumers across multiple channels and devices? These are just a couple of things the latest trends indicate marketers need to be doing in order to maximize value for their brand.

PointClear 120

PointClear B2B Marketing Trends B2B 120

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 30, 2012

Because when they do that they become part of your sales funnel. Step 3: Lure prospects into taking an action that connects to your sales funnel. Inbound leads don't “just happen.”. You’ve got to give prospects a compelling reason to ask for more content. The success formula is quite simple. Create The Honey: Useful Content.

Planning 120

Planning Marketing Plans Top of Funnel Content Marketing 120

ViewPoint

MAY 19, 2015

This function (often the CEO’s) is to inspect leads that are rejected (did they or did they not meet the lead criteria); leads that are ignored (not rejected but not worked); and leads that are accepted but don’t move in the funnel—to assure accountability.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Cold Calling Cost per Lead Funnel Advertising 120

ViewPoint

APRIL 12, 2013

Gershik opines, “In B2B, the idea of a funnel is myopic. Every marketer should take a sales guy to lunch. Steve Gershik of StackMob offers 20 smart and funny B2B marketing adlibs to Craig Rosenberg’s Funnelholic regular feature. CMOs Set to Spend More on New Tech Than CIOs.

PointClear 120

PointClear B2B Marketing CMO Marketing Management 120

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 13, 2011

In our final few years of owning the business, we were managing 275 inside sales reps and they were collectively moving 150,000+ products into the market, booking tons of appointments for sales teams and keeping plenty of sales funnels full. However, you have to keep in mind that they are the experts at filling sales funnels.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Work Management 120

ViewPoint

AUGUST 18, 2015

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to determine if your company is one of them: Does your marketing and sales team have clear direction on managing leads through the funnel and into the pipeline? Have the number of leads you need to keep your sales team active increased over the past three months?

Lead Scoring 120

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Top of Funnel Leads 120

ViewPoint

JANUARY 11, 2011

It will be less important to track what comes in at the top of the funnel (TOFU) and much more important to track what makes it to the middle of the funnel (MOFU). Marketing measurement will become revenue focused as opposed to activity focused. Effective on boarding will finally be recognized as a critical success factor.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Ideal Customer Profiles Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 120

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 4, 2014

Content—the right content—can influence this, in particular at the top of the sales/marketing funnel. Sentiment analysis considers the behavior of prospects in the social sphere rather than on your website. Then there’s optimization techniques that perfect campaigns through multivariate testing.

Multivariate analysis 120

Multivariate analysis Top of Funnel Content Marketing BtoB 120

ViewPoint

FEBRUARY 23, 2012

Shifting marketing metrics from a focus on the number of leads to deeper-in-the-funnel close rates will correctly prioritize lead quality. Right now, the average company is closing 6 - 7% of leads generated and less than 60% of field sales forces make quota. Hugh’s sales and marketing strategy recommendations are right on target.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy Advertising Agencies 120

ViewPoint

APRIL 17, 2014

That’s how we get our sales funnels clogged with cold leads that waste our time and almost never pan out. And they want to learn more about how you can help grow their businesses. It is downright misrepresentation when companies position themselves as lead-generation experts. It sounds so good (so easy), and so we jump.

Inbound Marketing 120

Inbound Marketing Top of Funnel High Quality Lead Sales Qualified Leads 120

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Lead definition and sales funnel stage impact cost-per-lead — there is a lot of lip service going around these days about the lead definition issue, but a Sr. In a review of articles and blogs today I found answers that ranged from $20 - $1,000 plus.

Cost per Lead 120

Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Leads Cost Lead Scoring 120