Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

Many B2B marketing leaders have resisted Facebook and other social media platforms, believing that they can’t be successful in getting leads there. So the question is not whether we should use Facebook, it’s: How do we use it to actually get results for both content distribution and lead conversion? Well, that’s changed too.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Facebook Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

2 The majority of B2B marketers have caught onto their leads' hunger for content. 93% of these marketers use content marketing, and of those that do, 74% cite lead generation as their top content marketing goal.3 3 Because content consumption is voluntary and buyer-directed, it is a superb method for vetting and qualifying leads.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Generation Demand Generation Agencies 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 22, 2016

Because of the complexities of today’s buyer’s journey, and the ever-changing role of sales in this process, marketing must be involved more than ever before: More than branding and awareness More than demand generation More than just lead conversion Because each sales process has become unique. Enter the lead nurturer.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

MAY 19, 2016

In the context of digital marketing and demand generation, lead intelligence is the sales rep’s ability to predict high probability pain points that a prospect may have before trying to establish contact so that they may have a more fruitful consultative conversation. How can sales use lead intelligence used to get in front of prospects?

Sales Qualified Leads 159

Sales Qualified Leads B2B Marketing Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy 159

Sales Engine

APRIL 24, 2018

3 Reasons to add pay-per-lead white paper syndication to your digital marketing plan There are three challenges every B2B marketer faces as they try to build a lead generating engine to feed their sales team: 1. Content Syndication on a pay-per-lead basis can address all of these issues. NOT ANY MORE!

Paper 159

Paper Planning Marketing Plans Marketing Automation Services 159

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

That’s actually good news for small and midsize companies who could never afford to compete with the huge sales teams of market leaders, but the key to making content marketing work as a prospecting tool is that it must lead to sales conversations. Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. Not really.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

That’s actually good news for small and midsize companies who could never afford to compete with the huge sales teams of market leaders, but the key to making content marketing work as a prospecting tool is that it must lead to sales conversations. Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. Not really.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Since it’s become more difficult for sales people to get in front of prospects, many B2B companies are relying heavily on content marketing to supply top-of-the-funnel leads that can be converted into closed business. But how do they know if those marketing efforts are having impact on the bottom line?

Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking MQL Top of Funnel 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

Since it’s become more difficult for sales people to get in front of prospects, many B2B companies are relying heavily on content marketing to supply top-of-the-funnel leads that can be converted into closed business. But how do they know if those marketing efforts are having impact on the bottom line?

Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking MQL Top of Funnel 120

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

That’s what a lead generation strategy is really all about. So what are the building blocks of a lead generation strategy? Sure, you can start writing some blogs and you might get some inbound traffic, but the leads will be substandard and it won’t help you hit growth numbers of 20% or more.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

That’s what a lead generation strategy is really all about. So what are the building blocks of a lead generation strategy? Sure, you can start writing some blogs and you might get some inbound traffic, but the leads will be substandard and it won’t help you hit growth numbers of 20% or more.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

JULY 29, 2016

Sales reps need leads, and it’s marketing’s job to get at least some of them—a majority would be nice. As much as I hate the term “lead generation,” I don’t know a better one, so let’s start by defining what it is not. (If you still have your head in the sand about this, it’s time to face reality.)

Buyer Personas 120

Buyer Personas Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel Leads 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 5, 2016

Sales reps need leads, and it’s marketing’s job to get at least some of them—a majority would be nice. As much as I hate the term “ lead generation ,” I don’t know a better one, so let’s start by defining what it is not. (If you still have your head in the sand about this, it’s time to face reality.)

Buyer Personas 120

Buyer Personas Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel Leads 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2016

If you expect Marketing to produce 50% of a $10M Sales goal (a reasonable goal in 2016 by the way), and the average deal size is $50,000, the Marketing department will need to generate 100 qualified leads. That's 25 leads per quarter. A shortfall of 25 leads x $50k/lead = missing your sales goal by $1,250,000.

Planning 179

Planning Sales Cycle Sales Qualified Leads Paid Search Agency 179

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 27, 2015

What’s the right way to follow up on content to turn leads into sales conversations? Before we get into best practices on content marketing follow-up, Marketing and Sales must be on the same page regarding their lead definitions. Once a conversation has been agreed to, you have a Sales Accepted Lead (SAL).

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Buy 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

But how much of that exposure translated into leads and sales? The first key to making this work is hiring a marketing leader that has his/her effectiveness ratings tied to lead generation and revenue growth— similar to a commissioned sales person. Less is more if there are more qualified leads for salespeople to follow up on.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

When marketing provided “air cover”, sales reps used to be able to generate their own leads. I think that an awful lot of us growing up in sales probably just thought we were awesome at prospecting, but in reality it was the buyers who needed information from us and that was the real reason we were successful generating our own leads.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Digital Marketing Funnels 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2015

That’s what we mean by actionable sales intelligence , and it’s created over time by using your content to collect information on your prospects and tie it to their lead record in the CRM. Conversions into marketing qualified leads (MQLs). But the first step is converting them into a marketing qualified lead.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads B2B Marketing Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 3, 2017

They need marketing-qualified leads today and sales-ready buyers tomorrow. Did it translate into a lead? Did the lead become a sale? Of those who consumed a piece of your content, how many downloads turned into leads? How many leads turned into sales? This is where demand generation can complement branding.

Brand Identity 149

Brand Identity Branding Budget Programs Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

APRIL 7, 2016

Sure, marketing may be generating leads , but because most of them aren’t “sales ready,” they’ll be declared DOA (dead on arrival for those of you that don’t watch detective shows). Most misalignment starts with different definitions of what a qualified lead actually is. They might love their current vendor.

Lead Ranking 136

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads MQL 136

Sales Engine

JULY 5, 2016

These aggressive approaches to traditional lead-generation tactics are not as effective anymore because buyer behavior has changed, and therefore, breaking through plateaus requires changing your overall customer acquisition strategy. Sales reps used to be the only source of leads. High Customer-Acquisition Costs.

Work Management 149

Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Budget Programs 149

Sales Engine

MAY 11, 2016

B2B lead generation is all about conversions. All of your web traffic increases are great, but if we can’t lead the qualified prospects to some sort of conversion asset to help lead them through their own buyer’s journey, it’s just branding and awareness—and that’s not enough for feeding today’s outside sales person with qualified leads.

Webinar Metrics 149

Webinar Metrics Sales Qualified Leads Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 9, 2015

When it comes to B2B marketing—whether it be social media, email marketing, blogs, white papers or attending trade shows—it has to be about lead generation. That’s what we mean by lead conversion, and it only happens with good meaningful content that is gated such as a white paper, infographic or webinar registration.

Demand 120

Demand B2B Marketing B2B Trade Show 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 17, 2016

Content marketing done correctly opens the door for salespeople not because of the brand recognition, but because the content piques some sort of curiosity with prospects or touches a nerve that leads a sales conversation. Of those who consumed a piece of your content: How many downloads turned into leads? Did it translate into a lead?

Budget Programs 168

Budget Programs Content Marketing Brand Identity Branding 168

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2016

If you expect Marketing to produce 50% of a $10M Sales goal (a reasonable goal in 2016 by the way), and the average deal size is $50,000, the Marketing department will need to generate 100 qualified leads. That's 25 leads per quarter. A shortfall of 25 leads x $50k/lead = missing your sales goal by $1,250,000.

Planning 120

Planning Sales Cycle Sales Qualified Leads Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 2, 2015

If the sales team has a cycle time of 90 days from opportunity create date to close, then they'd better be getting leads from marketing TODAY to impact Q1 of 2016. If you haven’t restructured your marketing into lead generators for sales, you’re behind. Marketing’s new role is to generate leads for salespeople.

B2B Sales 120

B2B Sales Paper Fulfillment B2B Marketing 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 6, 2016

Most B2B companies are realizing that, to hit their growth goals, they need to shift the focus of their marketing from branding and awareness to lead generation. 5 Sales is not set up to convert marketing qualified leads into opportunities Many companies still have the age old disconnect: “The leads my marketing department provides suck!” (And

Demand Generation Agencies 168

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Paid Search Agency Demand 168

Sales Engine

JUNE 28, 2016

Marketing, on the other hand, often has a different definition of a qualified lead. In fact, according to Gleanster , 30 to 50 percent of leads in a pipeline are not ready to buy. What is a marketing-qualified lead (MQL)? What is a sales-accepted lead (SAL)? What is a sales-qualified lead (SQL)?

Marketing Qualified Leads 136

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads MQL 136

Sales Engine

AUGUST 13, 2015

In this episode Paul went over modern marketing, lead generation, and how important storytelling is for the buyer's journey. It's up to marketing to produce the marketing qualified leads to get turned over to sales. Spend your money upstream, right up the sales pipeline, generate demand, nurture business leads.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Storytelling Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 11, 2017

As a marketing leader, have you been tasked with building a demand generation program designed to funnel leads to salespeople? The sales team is not set up to qualify and nurture leads, and management isn’t committed to supplying the time and money it takes to get it up and running. We call this a “sales accepted lead” or “SAL.”)

Demand Generation Agencies 136

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Budget Programs Demand 136

Sales Engine

JUNE 14, 2018

But there are two major problems with that model today: Quota-carrying, outside sales reps are an expensive resource to be putting on the phones to follow up on marketing qualified leads. A middle reliever is needed to connect the marketing produced lead and the sales closer. (If

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Paid Search Agency Content Marketing 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

As a marketer, you’re no doubt familiar with this ubiquitous image: contacts fall into the top and by some kind of magic become leads, then qualified leads, then sales-ready leads, and eventually, (you hope) closed sales. Content is the soul of lead nurturing; it is the fodder of the conversation that drives conversion.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

As a marketer, you’re no doubt familiar with this ubiquitous image: contacts fall into the top and by some kind of magic become leads, then qualified leads, then sales-ready leads, and eventually, (you hope) closed sales. Content is the soul of lead nurturing; it is the fodder of the conversation that drives conversion.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 30, 2016

This is how many leads marketing is going to produce , this is how much time sales has to follow up, this is how we’ll code these things) and they walk out thinking that they’re aligned. There’s more of a fundamental shift in the way that sales organizations need to look at how they are going to pursue the marketing qualified lead.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads Allocation Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 13, 2016

Just because B2B companies are investing heavily in content marketing doesn’t mean that they’re successful at generating the leads they need for business growth. Additionally, 85% of the companies surveyed indicate that lead generation and sales growth was their primary objective for greater investments. But it doesn’t stop there.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Lead Ranking Digital Marketing Funnels 136

Sales Engine

JULY 14, 2016

Even a year ago, I was espousing the need to build a greater library of content that continues to produce leads in accordance with the Hubspot and Moz studies on post volumes conducted around that time. You could take a single topic like lead scoring. I need to choose. Who am I really marketing to?

Lead Scoring 120

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Content Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JULY 14, 2016

Even a year ago, I was espousing the need to build a greater library of content that continues to produce leads in accordance with the Hubspot and Moz studies on post volumes conducted around that time. You could take a single topic like lead scoring. I need to choose. Who am I really marketing to?

Lead Scoring 120

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Content Sales Qualified Leads 120