The Point

FEBRUARY 6, 2015

But there’s another side of Shark Tank that I appreciate, and that is: it’s great sales training. The entrepreneurs who appear on the show are all pitching a product, a service, the Next Big Thing. Here are the top 5 sales tips my kids have learned from those outbursts: 1. One is sales (revenue). inside sales Sales 2.0

Tips 100

Tips Telemarketing Class Training 100

The Point

MARCH 20, 2012

Unfortunately, many tech marketers use Webinar invitations as simply a vehicle to preach the virtues of their product, whilst the actual offer (the Webinar) is an afterthought. Now, let’s face it: it’s understood by all but the most naïve reader that any Webinar invitation is designed to introduce you to a company’s product or solution.

Webinar Metrics 100

Webinar Metrics Product Marketing Management Transparency 100

The Point

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

We have a debate between our marketing and sales teams on whether the best approach is marketing emails, sales outreach, or something else. More times than not, however, the best approach is a segmented strategy that combines targeted sales outreach complemented by marketing support. Curious as to your opinion?”.

Purchase 162

Purchase Paid Search Agency Paid Social Agency Outreach 162

The Point

APRIL 1, 2014

Recent studies tell us while the adoption of marketing automation technology continues to gain momentum, fewer than 20 percent of marketing executives say that they are fully integrating the technology into their current sales and marketing initiatives.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

The Point

JUNE 18, 2013

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Daniel Chalef, CEO of KnowledgeTree , developers of an intriguing new solution, built for both Salesforce.com and mobile (iOS), that enables sales teams to instantly find, surface, and present the ideal content in any selling situation. HS) What problem does KnowledgeTree solve? (DC)

Salesforce.com 100

Salesforce.com Work Management Marketing Management Content 100

The Point

OCTOBER 29, 2021

Here are just some of the more creative ways we’re seeing clients use chatbots to increase sales engagement, shorten sales cycles, and drive revenue: 1. Successfully converting free trials and (self-serve) demos requires that the user engage with the product early, frequently, and in a manner that drives home perceived value.

Account Based Marketing 350

Account Based Marketing B2B Marketing Automation Services Demand Generation Agencies 350

The Point

APRIL 19, 2023

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) programs are especially prone to unscientific methods of target account selection, as in: “these are the accounts that sales says they want to go after.” Each individual exegraphic is composed of different attributes that can determine if a company is a good fit for the products or services you offer.

Ideal Customer Profiles 130

Ideal Customer Profiles Marketing AI Marketing Analytics Tools B2B Marketing 130

The Point

MAY 19, 2020

Immediate, quick-fire response to new leads (ex: 2-3 emails over 7 days) to complement BDR follow-up and increase sales engagement, potentially leveraging AI technology like Conversica to optimize lead qualification via automated, two-way conversations. 18 Common Features of a Best-in-Class Lead Nurture Program #leadnurturing Click To Tweet.

Lead Nurturing 299

Lead Nurturing Class Budget Programs Lead Scoring 299

The Point

MAY 17, 2021

And this much is true: late-stage offers are more likely to attract prospects who are genuinely in the market for a particular product or solution. Many B2B companies have a tendency to over-rely on late-stage offers (demos, in particular) in their search campaigns, on the assumption that search lead automatically wants to evaluate a product.

Marketing Management 207

Marketing Management Paid Search Agency Buying Cycle Demand Generation Agencies 207

The Point

JUNE 24, 2022

Key Finding 2: Buyers leverage sales reps for information less (and later) than ever. Buyers are not only contacting sales reps less often (in this year’s survey, they dropped out of the top five most commonly used resources), but sales engagement is also being pushed later and later down the funnel.

Top of Funnel 130

Top of Funnel Cold Calling B2B Demand Generation 130

The Point

MARCH 12, 2012

Here are some highlights from the original report: “The chances of reaching a new sales lead drop over 10x if you wait longer than the first hour of shown interest, and the odds of qualifying that lead decrease 6x after the first 60 minutes”. It’s a win-win for both sales AND marketing. Big mistake. What’s the solution?

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Bandwidth Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Automation 100

The Point

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

On a recent conference call with a prospective client, the Vice President of Sales chimed in with a question: “How many touches do you think it takes before someone becomes a lead?”. In fairness to my VP friend, he won’t be the last to ask the question (or its close cousin, “How many touches does it take to make a sale?”)

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Validation Demand Generation Rules 100

The Point

JANUARY 23, 2018

Technology changes rapidly, and tech companies often have windows of opportunity to realize revenue from products or services before they become obsolete. Here’s why: * Many tech products are first of breed solutions and/or of a complexity that demands a more long-term, consultative selling process. Look, I get it.

Sales Management 253

Sales Management Sales Qualified Leads Demand Generation Agencies Lead Scoring 253

The Point

OCTOBER 22, 2020

My response: We typically design nurture programs for inbound leads like content syndication in 2 stages, as follows: 1) quickly determining if the person has an immediate need or otherwise merits sales follow-up; and then. Note: the goal of this initial phase is not to convert, per se. When Should I Stop Nurturing a Lead?

Sales Qualified Leads 227

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Leads 227

The Point

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

I only recently came across the results of research published late last year by Leads360 , a leading provider of hosted (SaaS) solutions for managing sales leads. And to the extent you rely on telemarketing exclusively, your lead management will be less effective and your sales productivity will suffer.

Leads360 100

Leads360 Sales Leads Telemarketing Leads 100

The Point

DECEMBER 5, 2023

However, remember that the threshold may also include bulk sends from sales tools like SalesLoft or Outreach. Next, it’s important to recognize that the use of purchased lists doesn’t equate necessarily or solely to mass emailing that list. Basic, token-based personalization (e.g. “Hi

Deliverability 162

Deliverability Rules Purchase Marketing Automation Services 162

The Point

APRIL 22, 2009

If part of your lead generation or lead nurturing strategy involves outbound sales calls, then you already know one of the key metrics critical to sales productivity is connection rate – i.e. the percentage of dials that result in live conversations. inside sales b2b lead generation lead generation telemarketing telesales.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management Efficiency Telemarketing Cold Calling 100

The Point

MARCH 29, 2017

Earlier this year, I talked to a CMO at a B2B tech company whose sales counterpart was lobbying strongly for the company to adopt Account-Based Marketing (ABM) as part of their demand generation strategy. If your sales reps aren’t getting enough qualified leads, I’d wager that one or more of the following five reasons is to blame.

Sales Qualified Leads 50

Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel High Quality Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 50

The Point

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

In uncertain economic times, Market Development Funds (MDF) can be a precious resource for channel partners (resellers, distributors, ISVs) looking for budget to fund sales and marketing activity. Depending on your audience, product category, and level of brand awareness, maybe what you really need is a search campaign. Be realistic.

Demand Generation Agencies 147

Demand Generation Agencies Advertising Agencies CMS Development Work Management 147

The Point

JANUARY 17, 2019

Some years ago, our firm conducted a lead management audit for a technology client who was struggling to convert raw, inbound inquiries into sales qualified leads. But I would argue that both points are also a business case for the integration of automated lead nurturing and sales enablement campaigns into the SDR process.

Sales Qualified Leads 168

Sales Qualified Leads Tips Lead Nurturing Multi-Channel 168

The Point

MARCH 18, 2020

Here’s a summary of what we’re telling them: * If you’re putting any kind of marketing messages in market, it’s critical to avoid – at any cost – the appearance of promoting your service or product as a quick solution to current problems. Provide (as many are) free versions of your product, or premium features, or extended licenses.

Demand 243

Demand Demand Generation Agencies Top of Funnel Account Based Marketing 243

The Point

APRIL 16, 2019

Add in the fact that B2B sales cycles are typically long and complex (meaning that advertisers may not see ROI for weeks or months), and it becomes clear that thriving in today’s SEM landscape requires getting a lot of things right. Is the offer appropriate for the likely sales stage of the prospect? Failure to Nurture Leads Correctly.

Cost per Acquisition 235

Cost per Acquisition Paid Search Agency Campaigns Cost Per Click 235

The Point

APRIL 22, 2020

However, as much as it has a reputation as a way to generate “guaranteed” leads, content syndication is not a cure-all, and indeed, more than most demand generation channels, is likely to generate sales leads that gravitate towards the early stages of the buying cycle. Set appropriate thresholds for sales follow-up.

Lead Scoring 162

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking CPL Cost per Lead 162

The Point

JUNE 23, 2020

Indeed, those who announce that anything is “dead,” marketing-wise, typically have an agenda in mind, most often selling you a product or solution to facilitate whatever replaces the (allegedly) departed. For those demand marketers promoting complex solutions, with long sales cycles, into large organizations, this is a must read.

Lead Ranking 264

Lead Ranking Enterprise Management Marketing Qualified Leads Account Based Marketing 264

The Point

DECEMBER 6, 2022

Your number will depend on your business model and sales cycle, amongst other factors. It goes without saying that these formulas and the underlying assumptions are subject to your specific sales model, tech stack, staffing model, product category, target audience, and marketing preferences.

Budget Programs 162

Budget Programs Lead Ranking Demand Marketing Qualified Leads 162

The Point

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

It’s a large corporation where you’ll learn the difference between product marketing, field marketing, and corporate marketing, between branding and demand generation. Spend time with sales. My first four years out of college were in sales – door to door, no less. Take a sales training class if your company offers one.

Demand Generation Agencies 165

Demand Generation Agencies Paid Search Agency Advertising Agencies Work Management 165

The Point

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Sometimes great people, a great product, or pure market demand can cover up all sorts of marketing sins, but more often the clients who succeed consistently at demand generation are those who have their act together. Create a content map – one that maps existing content by audience sector and sales stage (early, mid, late).

Demand Generation Agencies 182

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation 182

The Point

MAY 16, 2018

Their flagship product is being end-of-lifed. No matter how much someone might hate their current product/solution/vendor, bringing in a replacement can be a painful process, particularly for anything involving technology. But telling the customer that he/she bought the wrong product will almost always backfire. Big mistake.

Campaigns 191

Campaigns Tips Demand Generation Agencies Lead Scoring 191

The Point

MARCH 22, 2019

I say this based, anecdotally, on the number of B2B marketers I talk to who either 1) don’t use lead scoring at all, or 2) have a lead scoring system that clearly doesn’t work (or is completely ignored by the sales team) and have no apparent motivation to fix it. Faster lead velocity means shorter sales cycles. How did we get here?

Lead Ranking 113

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads Account Based Marketing 113

The Point

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

On LinkedIn recently, one sales executive opined that anecdotal evidence (i.e. Remember: to be effective, demand generation content should appeal to, and generate engagement from, a prospective customer looking to solve a pain, problem, or issue that your company, product or solution can address. Think about that for a moment.

Paper 193

Paper Demand Generation Agencies Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 193

The Point

APRIL 19, 2017

Does the topic help to qualify the prospect as someone suffering from a problem or pain point your product/service can solve? Does that same issue translate inherently into someone who could ultimately use your product, whether or not he/she realizes it yet? What’s the problem or challenge that your content purports to help address?

Top of Funnel 214

Top of Funnel Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Paper 214

The Point

AUGUST 25, 2015

It’s important to recognize that content syndication leads are not like most sales leads. When someone registers to download a white paper or podcast or case study about the business challenge that your product solves, he or she is expressing an interest in that topic, not necessarily in your product.

Autoresponders 100

Autoresponders Leads Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 100

The Point

JULY 17, 2017

IMPACT : It may feel self-serving or even disingenuous to create content that explicitly provides a business case for buying your product. IMPACT : Leverage marketing automation (through autoresponders, sales alerts, and other functionality) to ensure that all buyer inquiries are responded to promptly and systematically.

Paid Search Agency 241

Paid Search Agency Demand Marketing Automation Services Peer-to-peer 241

The Point

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Is ABM a fit for our company, our product, and our audience? In later stages, the measuring stick is more likely to be Sales Qualified Accounts, Meetings, or Pipeline. Failing to get sales sufficiently involved (planning, engagement). The hype around ABM has subsided. Thinking that ABM is a 60-day initiative.

Account Based Marketing 157

Account Based Marketing ABM Ideal Customer Profiles Enterprise Management 157

The Point

MAY 9, 2017

Earlier this year, he launched The B2B Content Agency to provide clients with buyer research, message strategy and insight-lead sales narratives. There are three core message elements that they need to align before they can expect to engage individual accounts: brand strategy, value propositions, and sales talking points.

Account Based Marketing 206

Account Based Marketing ABM Marketing Automation Services Lead Scoring 206

The Point

JULY 27, 2018

. * a consultation or meeting is a high bar offer (not only due to the time required but, like a demo or free trial, it requires that the prospect be at a stage in the sales process or otherwise is feeling enough “pain” where he/she is ready to meet with sales.).

Account Based Marketing 100

Account Based Marketing Campaigns Multi-Channel Demand Generation Agencies 100

The Point

JUNE 5, 2018

However, what’s often overlooked is that buyers don’t stop being self-directed digital consumers when they buy a product or service. HJS: You report that only 41% of companies reported marketing and sales working from a common strategy and plan. Why do you think sales and marketing alignment is a persistent issue?

Lead Ranking 194

Lead Ranking Forrester Lead Scoring Paid Search Agency 194