ViewPoint

JUNE 2, 2016

Nurture leads until they’re ready to turn over to sales is the sixth of 7 Truths about Sales and Marketing that CEOs need to know. In the last blog in this series we discussed how to keep leads from being ignored and going into a black hole by using something I call the judicial branch. Prospects will move up and down in the funnel.

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ViewPoint

OCTOBER 10, 2016

The biggest disconnect between marketing and sales is the hand-off of marketing qualified leads (MQL’s) to sales and the acceptance of those leads (SAL’s) by sales. That’s more than 100 percent higher performance for companies that have the rigor of sales acceptance in their lead management process.

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

ViewPoint

JANUARY 17, 2012

Are marketing resources or sales reps the right resources to do lead qualification and lead nurturing in the B2B complex sale? But first, let's take a look at some lead generation challenges. Cahners Research has shown that 45 percent of qualified leads will end up buying a solution from someone within a year.

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Lead Qualification Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads 120

ViewPoint

JANUARY 17, 2012

Are marketing resources or sales reps the right resources to do lead qualification and lead nurturing in the B2B complex sale? But first, let's take a look at some lead generation challenges. Cahners Research has shown that 45 percent of qualified leads will end up buying a solution from someone within a year.

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Lead Qualification Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads 120

ViewPoint

JANUARY 27, 2017

During the last week of December I asked a panel of experts for feedback on our Leads to Revenue Calculator. The above graphic is a sample from our Lead to Revenue Calculator. Most people see nurtured leads as converting to a MQL/SQL--which you are already counting. I was surprised at the level of detailed feedback I received.

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Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120

ViewPoint

MAY 3, 2012

The introductory post in this series addressed the problems and costs of applying the cost-per-lead metric to measure the success of B2B lead generation investments. In the second post, we looked at elements of a complex sale that impact B2B lead generation costs. Leads must offer high potential close value.

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Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Lead Generation 120

ViewPoint

MARCH 1, 2012

Lack of clarity and erroneous assumptions about demand generation, lead management and marketing automation are effectively addressed in two recent Software Advice whiteboard videos by Carlos Hidalgo, CEO, Annuitas Group , and Executive Director, Marketing Automation Institute. Nonexistent lead management processes.

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ViewPoint

JULY 16, 2013

Top performing B2B sales organizations rarely employ just one lead generation tactic. According to recent research, B2B companies are using multiple lead generation tactics including, email marketing, search engine optimization, teleprospecting, inbound marketing, direct mail and trade shows. Lead Quality Drives Increased Revenue.

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Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Budget Programs 120

ViewPoint

JULY 14, 2015

This is the final installment of a three-part series in response to the following question: As we enter the second half of 2015, have companies made the adjustments necessary to utilize lead scoring or is the status quo killing results? Because we care about quality leads. Lead scoring models are: Based on assumptions.

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Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Top of Funnel Leads 120

ViewPoint

AUGUST 18, 2015

Proper alignment is the result of a documented, effective, efficient and measurable process for capturing, engaging, nurturing, managing and converting leads into customers. Increased spending on lead generation. Purchased technology to score and nurture leads. Hired a social media marketer. Hired a social media marketer.

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Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Top of Funnel Leads 120

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Inbound drives organic engagement and attracts leads, while outbound helps you target specific prospects more accurately. These approaches work well in both B2B and consumer marketing, covering the entire length of the lead funnel and the customer journey, respectively.”. “You’ve got it—it’s a healthy combination of both.

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Cold Calling B2B Marketing PointClear B2B 470

ViewPoint

DECEMBER 14, 2010

Conventional wisdom—that something called a “lead” can and should be had at consistently lower price points where it will still deliver value—is at the root of a host of sales and marketing problems and deserves a closer look. Perfection, of course, is that 100% of MQLs become SALs and 100% of SALs become SQLs.

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

ViewPoint

APRIL 24, 2012

As much as marketing and sales best practices—not to mention just plain common sense—dictate that cost-per-lead not play a prominent role in managing and measuring B2B lead generation investments, the metric continues to prevail. The problems and costs of a cost-per-lead approach.

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Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Leads Lead Generation Cost 120

ViewPoint

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

Is ABM the Holy Grail for lead generation or just another black box solution destined to cost a lot of money, distract marketing and end up getting more bad leads to sales faster than ever before? Is Account-Based Marketing the Holy Grail for lead generation or a black box solution?” We need more in the top of the funnel!”.

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ViewPoint

DECEMBER 27, 2016

Lead nurturing triples marketing's ROI, but only if done properly. Nurturing programs increase the overall program leads rate significantly: Standard B2B lead-generation programs produce an average 5% lead rate. You should be speaking to prospects from the top of the funnel to the bottom of the funnel.

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Top of Funnel B2B Sales Account Based Marketing B2B Thought Leadership 189

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 2, 2012

Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of interviewing nineteen influential B2B sales and marketing leaders to discuss their views in areas like traditional and new media strategies, current and future trends, B2B lead generation, and sales lead management. It’s important for you to be further up the funnel.

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ViewPoint

OCTOBER 9, 2012

Twice over the past two years I blogged about the dangers of using cost per lead as a metric to measure marketing. As a foundation, I published three blogs in 2012 in which I outlined three critical elements that impact B2B lead generation costs in the complex sale: 1. The marketing team sees this as a “great source of leads”.

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Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Leads Cost Lead Ranking 120

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 6, 2015

Is ABM the Holy Grail for lead generation or just another black box solution destined to cost a lot of money, distract marketing and end up getting more bad leads to sales faster than ever before? Here's the thing: Account-Based Marketing is not really about lead generation at all. It’s also more than just lead generation.

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Account Based Marketing Lead Generation Lead Ranking Lead Scoring 120

ViewPoint

SEPTEMBER 27, 2017

I am already getting questions from prospects about whether they should start a sales lead generation project now or wait until after the holidays. About a year ago I wrote a blog about what I call a bubble in the funnel. My answer to that question is not based on self-interest. 250 to 300 qualified with no immediate interest.

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

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 13, 2011

If I may be so bold as to paraphrase a line from MasterCard, here is what I have to say about outsourcing in general: “Building your own internal campaigns for lead gen and doing a decent job without losing focus on your core business—fair enough. Can you afford to outsource your lead generation and your appointment setting?

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Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Work Management 120

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.

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Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads Fulfillment Marketing Funnels 149

ViewPoint

JUNE 7, 2011

For the past 11 years, I have been advising organizations on how to plan and execute their b2b lead generation campaigns. B2B lead generation is complex, and there is always work to be done. There are some big reasons why lead generation campaigns fail that must be dealt with at the outset, before sweating the small stuff.

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Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Lead Scoring 120

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%. Those results factor in lead leakage of between 52% to 86% of the marketing qualified leads put into the top of the funnel. None were actually leads.

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Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Top of Funnel Work Management 192

ViewPoint

APRIL 16, 2018

He’s observed that while marketing has made inroads, they are limited—marketing is currently providing sales with only 25% to 30% of the leads needed to meet revenue goals, and sales is still expected to generate 60% or more of their own leads. What are your thoughts on pipeline ownership?

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Top of Funnel PointClear Work Management Sales Qualified Leads 180

ViewPoint

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

About the author: James Obermayer is the founder of the Sales Lead Management Association and the publisher of the Funnel Media Group which produces programming for the Funnel Radio Channel. Can you recognize the program personalities on the Funnel Radio Channel?

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Multi-Channel B2B Thought Leadership Top of Funnel Thought Leadership 159

ViewPoint

JULY 26, 2016

This means that 75% of the marketing dollars spent on lead generation are wasted. If your company is average, you are only following up 10-25% of the leads you give your salespeople which means you are wasting 75% of your lead generation budget!”. Sales Lead Management Association. Why it’s Important. “If

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ViewPoint

JUNE 5, 2017

The status quo--where marketing complains about sales not following up on their leads and sales says the leads are no good--is not the place to be. The situation in many organizations today is characterized by: A low number of leads (just 42% on average) accepted and worked by sales. Marketing ROI is measured and credited.

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Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads PointClear Cost per Lead 149

ViewPoint

MARCH 19, 2018

It’s no longer enough, she realized, to just take the CRM or marketing automation system stats and determine where to spend the company’s growing marketing budget in order to find qualified leads and buyers. She now has a quota for raw inquiries, qualified leads, and revenue by product tied to marketing campaigns and various website stats.

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Marketing Management Analytics Budget Programs Marketing Automation Services 197

ViewPoint

MAY 5, 2017

At the Funnel Media Group we believe that AI is the future of sales and marketing operations. Prior to InsideSales.com, Mike helped drive growth strategies for leading products, such as GoToMeeting and GoToMyPC, as vice president of product marketing, marketing strategy and operations for the $730 million SaaS division at Citrix.

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Marketing AI Marketing Analytics Tools Top of Funnel Enterprise Management 136

ViewPoint

MAY 18, 2016

In the previous blog in the series we discussed the importance of creating a universal lead definition and why that process cannot be delegated to marketing and/or sales. When weighing the benefits of inbound vs. outbound marketing, the RING formula can help you to determine the right way to approach lead generation for your organization.

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Planning Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel Paid Search Agency 168

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. You need to measure which leads are rejected and why. And you need to know at what rate your leads progress. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze.

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Account Based Marketing PointClear ABM Cost per Lead 120

ViewPoint

MAY 19, 2015

And there is still time in 2015 to get them right if you inspect your processes and find that these critical keys are missing: Shared (between marketing and sales) definition of a lead. Hence, marketing defaults to number of leads and cost per lead and sales ignores them for the most part. A judicial branch.

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ViewPoint

JULY 12, 2017

This is one of the 56 reasons companies fail to reach revenue forecasts and what to do about them, which appears in a recently released ebook: How to Turn Around Failing Sales available at the Sales Lead Management Association. You may like: How to Tell if Your Sales Pipeline is Failing You. Andy Paul – Zero Time Selling.

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ViewPoint

JANUARY 22, 2016

Miles Austin – Fill the Funnel, Inc. Companies need to remember the sales manager’s primary job and stop burying them with unimaginable amounts of crap that has nothing to do with leading the team or driving new revenue. The panelists include: Ardath Albee – Marketing Interactions. Jeffrey Hayzlett – The C-Suite Network.

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Top of Funnel Work Management PointClear B2B Thought Leadership 149

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 10, 2011

” However, if you’re leading a marketing organization in a B2B company, this question is directly tied to marketing’s new revenue imperative and it can be a very scary question. What was once the bastion of sales—the sales funnel from top to bottom—is now shared with marketing. Who doesn’t want this?

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CMO Marketing Automation Services Disintermediation Demand Generation Agencies 120

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 30, 2012

I’ve been using LinkedIn and blogging to generate B2B leads and sales very effectively lately. Contrary to what “the experts” say, knowing how to be engaging within LinkedIn groups or telling compelling stories on your blog is not the key to generating leads and sales. Inbound leads don't “just happen.”.

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Planning Marketing Plans Top of Funnel Content Marketing 120

ViewPoint

APRIL 17, 2014

Deal sizes gradually decreasing as inbound leads increase; 2. High-performing reps avoiding inbound lead follow-up; and 3. The percent of sales accepted leads decreasing while lead quotas increase.”. Next up: Kyle Porter , CEO of SalesLoft : "Less qualified leads in the pipeline! But you need both!

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