Sales Engine

JUNE 28, 2016

Next, agree on a process. According to Gleanster research, “8% to 10% of ‘not yet ready to buy’ leads will probably convert to a sale; others will be lost to the competition or, for whatever reason, decide not to make a purchase. For a start, you can agree on key performance indicators (KPIs). What is a marketing-qualified lead (MQL)?

Marketing Qualified Leads 136

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads MQL 136

Sales Engine

JUNE 7, 2016

Now think about how you interact with them, aside from consuming their main products (reading, purchasing, and eating, respectively). What is their buying process? You should have resources at the ready to help them at each stage of this process. You should have resources at the ready to help them at each stage of this process.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Demand Generation Agencies Barriers 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Buyers are going to diagnose their own pain, map out their own process, and create their own road map to solve their problems—and no matter how many emails you send them, they’re not going to do anything until you hit a nerve. Obviously, I’m drawing a correlation to today’s buyer journey.

Acquisitions 149

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Buyers are going to diagnose their own pain, map out their own process, and create their own road map to solve their problems—and no matter how many emails you send them, they’re not going to do anything until you hit a nerve. Obviously, I’m drawing a correlation to today’s buyer journey.

Acquisitions 120

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

MAY 11, 2016

One viable solution to this dilemma is content , but it’s important to have a strategy in place first, before purchasing any technology, adding staff, or deciding what to outsource. It’s no small task when you consider all of the technology and process changes in both sales and marketing that need to occur. What can you do about it?

Webinar Metrics 149

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

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Several years ago, we made some significant investments in marketing after we’d purchased a marketing automation system, and the idea was to gain as much market traction as possible. We were able to achieve over 15,000 hits to our website, and we were being featured in some big national publications.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 23, 2016

They realize that engaging with prospects through the internet is a process and not a series of projects—and marketing’s job is to generate leads that create actionable sales intelligence. We may not have liked talking to salespeople, but it’s how we got the information we needed in order to evaluate a purchase.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 8, 2015

They realize that engaging with prospects through the internet is a process and not a series of projects—and marketing’s job is to generate leads that create actionable sales intelligence. We may not have liked talking to salespeople, but it’s how we got the information we needed in order to evaluate a purchase.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 3, 2016

This is why it’s important to have great content available that supports every stage of the buying process in a complex sale. All of these conversion rates are pretty good, which tells us that the marketing is going in the right direction, they have a fair number of qualified suspects in their database, and their sales process is sound.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Purchase 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 3, 2016

This is why it’s important to have great content available that supports every stage of the buying process in a complex sale. All of these conversion rates are pretty good, which tells us that the marketing is going in the right direction, they have a fair number of qualified suspects in their database, and their sales process is sound.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Purchase 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 7, 2016

If that describes your company’s current sales and marketing process, then yes, alignment is just a buzzword. Alignment means that sales and marketing are truly working together to generate revenue, and that requires a change in behavior and process on both sides. Here’s what the whole process should look like: 1.

Lead Ranking 136

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads MQL 136

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 4, 2017

Control Over the Sales Process Has Shifted The sales game has changed, and many companies have failed to adapt. Simply put, salespeople no longer control the sales process from start to finish. The net result is that your prospects don’t need your salespeople to get the information necessary to make an informed purchase decision.

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency Trade Show Content Urgency Marketing 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 20, 2016

The B2B sales process has changed. When making a large purchase decision, companies usually focus on a few vendors that they prefer to inform them of what's going on in the marketplace. The important thing to remember is that this is the buyer’s process, not your sales process.

Lead Ranking 218

Lead Ranking Lead Gen Lead Scoring Leads 218

Sales Engine

JULY 20, 2016

Control Over the Sales Process Has Shifted The sales game has changed, and many companies have failed to adapt. Simply put, salespeople no longer control the sales process from start to finish. The net result is that your prospects don’t need your salespeople to get the information necessary to make an informed purchase decision.

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency Trade Show Content Urgency Marketing 120

Sales Engine

JULY 20, 2016

Control Over the Sales Process Has Shifted The sales game has changed, and many companies have failed to adapt. Simply put, salespeople no longer control the sales process from start to finish. The net result is that your prospects don’t need your salespeople to get the information necessary to make an informed purchase decision.

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency Trade Show Content Urgency Marketing 120

Sales Engine

MAY 31, 2016

Demand generation is about creating a presence in the minds of your prospective buyers, connecting them with your brand as a solution for specific problems, and ultimately about being on their short list when they’re ready to purchase.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Resources Demand 120

Sales Engine

MAY 12, 2016

Back then, buyers needed sales to stay informed and make a purchase, and sales needed buyers to stay employed. They go online to do their own research, compare prices and features, and make purchases. Strong branding, which would announce a company as a player, is what made this partnership possible.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Brand Identity Branding Budget Programs 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 15, 2017

And, ultimately, it’s about being on those buyers’ short list when they’re ready to purchase. As long as you have one strong manager type who understands the process from end to end and can ensure rigor in execution, you will be able to run a demand gen program with a relatively small team.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Resources Demand 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

Today, however, demand generation begins online, and the buying process is directed by the buyer. In a survey of B2B buyers, 64% reported that content had a "significant impact" on their decision to purchase, and 34% said that the sellers they chose provided a diverse mix of nurturing content.2

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Generation Demand Generation Agencies 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 19, 2015

Many companies try to solve this problem by purchasing marketing automation systems and retrofitting their marketing departments to generate demand. But as marketers we must use this standard definition of MQL to make adjustments to our process. Salespeople need leads, and it’s marketing’s job to generate them. How did they find us?

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads MQL Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

Then the process would reverse itself. If you are making a small purchase from the vendor, you likely have lower expectations of what you want from them and making a decision. But, if you are making a large purchase, she will likely take many more things into consideration and therefore be much more likely to consume content.

Top of Funnel 120

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

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

Then the process would reverse itself. If you are making a small purchase from the vendor, you likely have lower expectations of what you want from them and making a decision. But, if you are making a large purchase, she will likely take many more things into consideration and therefore be much more likely to consume content.

Top of Funnel 120

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

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 24, 2015

But you can create individual content assets that address them individually to nurture them down the purchase path. So maybe the appropriate piece of content for someone in middle of the funnel would be an infographic that serves as a buying guide that helps them navigate the purchase process.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy Content Marketing 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

Most B2B companies have stuck a toe in the content marketing water by shifting some of their resources to generate white papers, thought-leadership articles, infographics, and video— primarily for use in the marketing automation systems that they’ve purchased.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content Blogger 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 3, 2015

Most B2B companies have stuck a toe in the content marketing water by shifting some of their resources to generate white papers, thought-leadership articles, infographics, and video— primarily for use in the marketing automation systems that they’ve purchased.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content Blogger 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 14, 2015

(Effectively is defined as over 50 percent of your total sales pipeline coming from this process.). Many companies start by purchasing expensive marketing automation tools, and then see what marketing skills they have in-house that they can now task with demand generation. For example, will you need: Writers?

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Demand Generation Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. This process varies by individual, and unfortunately there’s not a neat and predictable way that you can map out the process in a flow chart, which is why it’s important that you publish content in a format that easy for them to navigate on their own. Not really.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. This process varies by individual, and unfortunately there’s not a neat and predictable way that you can map out the process in a flow chart, which is why it’s important that you publish content in a format that easy for them to navigate on their own. Not really.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120