SalesVPI

Lead Nurturing and the Inside Sales / Telesales Role

We are working with several clients to help them improve their lead nurturing program to deliver a higher volume and quality of sales ready leads to the outside sales team.

We have found a tendency on the part of Inside Sales to conduct their work from what I would term a traditional mindset. In many cases they are actively prospecting for new leads from an unqualified list. They may be qualifying, using a BANT process, opportunities that have been created through marketing programs -- something one of my partners refers to as "waterboarding to BANT." Or, they are actively trying to set appointments for sales reps.

Telemarketing Study Results

This assessment was verified in a recent article about a study of the top objectives and budget areas for telemarketing organizations.

"The most popular objective for telemarketing, according to the research, is 'generating new leads', selected by 76 per cent of respondents, followed closely by 'booking sales appointments', selected by 72 per cent. 'Lead qualification' was third most popular, cited by 67 per cent. These findings confirm that the primary role of telemarketing is in the so-called demand generation arena."

Maybe it's assumed that nurturing is part of "lead qualification." But I've found that clear language distinctions are critical in setting the right mindset and expectations for any operations role. We call this the "come from."

The "come from" for lead qualification (and certainly appointment setting) is primarily a vendor perspective -- when will you be ready to talk with a sales rep? I think the "come from" for lead nurturing is very different. It takes the buyer's perspective, based upon what is interesting to them.

I posted this question in the Focus Sales website:

“What are the key elements for a lead nurturing function with an inside sales organization?”

I received an excellent, thoughtful response from Craig Rosenberg who makes several excellent observations, especially about the limitation of an automated only process for lead nurturing.

"There are a couple ways to think about Inside Sales in the lead nurturing process. The most important factor everyone must know is that you cannot downplay the critical function that inside sales plays in the lead management process. So when you ask for specific elements that inside sales provides in the lead nurturing process, the lead qualification function is the most important thing. It just is. The inside lead qualification function is the last mile of lead nurturing. They ensure that all your lead nurturing efforts are a fit for sales and queue them up so sales is more likely to follow up on them. Your lead management plan will not reach it's full potential if the plan is to use automation to nurture, score leads, and then flip them to quota-carrying reps. Inside sales, the age-old lead qualification function, is still the bridge between marketing efforts and sales."

He then goes on to suggest how important the phone is as a nurturing and cultivation channel, a way to score leads with greater accuracy and refinement, and a way to deliver more relevant content.

In our work with customers, we're seeing generally weak nurturing due mainly to a poor "come from" and lack of a good supporting program. We are NOT a telesales operations or consulting company. We're just trying to improve the handling of leads we help generate and nurture with automated methods. We also want inside sales to do a better job using the content we create, to nurture.

Telesales Nurturing Program

To correct this, we have recommended and implemented the following practices which we organize in the following categories:

• Stage definitions
• Objectives for each stage
• Come from
• Approach
• Specific techniques
• Next steps

We have documented our program far beyond what I have space and time for here. To receive the full program to support telesales nurturing click here (small registration required).

Stage Definitions

Three stages of the buyer and the relationship with the inside sales professional" -- and primary objectives by stage

• Engage to establish a trusted relationship
• Educate and Nurture to create and accelerate opportunities
• Learn, Qualify and Document the details of the opportunity pre-sales

Examples below are for Stage One -- Engage

Come-from
The "come from" is changed from a traditional, sales oriented "I'm calling to see where you are as a potential buyer and what I have to do to get you to speak with one of my sales reps" to a buyer relevant "I'm here to serve and help you personally and professionally by providing valuable information, saving time, sharing insights, to make you successful."

Approach
Approach is the tact the professional takes that creates a visceral feeling on the part of the buyer relative to the intent. Something like, be curious to be helpful, think from the buyer's perspective in your conversations with them and, ask "Buying Facilitation (R)" questions (nod to Sharon Drew Morgen).

Specific Techniques
Specific techniques for the Engage stage include:

• Using tools we provide from our Content Frameworks that guide purpose and messaging in customer conversations
• Ask open ended, thought-provoking questions
• Ask "buying facilitation" questions
• Listen for … (problem symptoms, triggger points, pain, confusion, possible opportunity,)
• Use and share content

Next Steps
Next steps include:

• Gain commitment
• Send content
• Setup next conversation

Effective lead nurturing won't happen naturally. It requires a program that creates the right expectations, structure, tools, mindset, reviews, measures, training and support.

I completely agree with Craig, the effectiveness of the personal touch of a phone conversation goes far beyond automated lead nurturing. Without an effective lead nurturing function, along with lead generation and qualification, an organization risks missing key opportunities, handing over premature opportunities, or even being late in turning over important leads to sales.

What do you think, is lead nurturing an important distinction from lead qualifying that makes a difference, or does it happen automatically? What have been your experiences?

Sharing a customer's story

I'm just back from a client review meeting. We assist our customer with lead management and content. This week they started a campaign, here is their story.

As a result of our customer's ability to track and score buyer consumption of content, initially delivered through an outbound campaign, and supported by a content microsite, our customer identified several people whose content consumption behavior indicated heightened interest.

This triggered a move of this "lead" in their (Marketo) lead management system from the initial "inquiry" status to "marketing qualified lead" (MQL). The lead scoring algorithm also triggered their inside sales person to conduct an immediate phone follow up. All of this was communicated automatically within their Salesforce.com system, virtually in real time.

The "buyer" turned out not to be the actual buyer at all, but the administrative assistant for the President of the company. She indicated they found the content so valuable they were very interested in conducting a conversation and evaluation of the proposed services. The content addressed the customer's situation and avoided vendor oriented "chest pounding." The lead was handed off to sales along with the notes of all consumed content and the phone conversation.

This simple story is being repeated regularly within companies that have deployed an automated lead management program.

Of course, "it's not about the bike!" Software is an enabler. Content is the fuel that makes this work. Quality lists are critical. The right strategies and discipline to consistently conduct customer education oriented campaigns is essential.

But the ability to see in real time exactly who is consuming content within all online vehicles, and to determine probable levels of interest, is too considerable to be neglected.

Many people conduct email campaigns with good content. What's too often missing is the ability to capture the results of buyer behavior, to manage relationships with large volumes of individuals with different interests and issues, at different stages of their decision process, and to measure and report with timely, actionable information.

Timing, indeed, is everything. The combination of regular, problem solving, content oriented campaigns increases timing odds.

Automated lead management is an essential enabler of an organization's revenue engine. Early and effective deployments still provide some level of competitive advantage. But there is a learning curve. Playing catch up will be painful and expensive.

10 Reasons Virtual Shows Fall Short

I'm a big fan of virtual shows. Right now, the experience falls far short for vendors and participants.

Here are 10 reasons I think they fall far short of their potential:

1. They're really uber webcasts. On a continuum between a webcast on the low end of user and vendor experience, and a trade show on the high end, the virtual show experience is much closer to a webcast.
2. Still a static experience -- so what is the difference between a webcast, Twitter, and accessing content on a microsite -- something most people do regularly -- and a virtual show?
3. Overly focused on push messaging. Webcasts and access to content are the predominant communications most participants experience. The booth experience is mostly a joke. Look at the various chat windows in your next show, the conversations are ridiculous.
4. No vendor strategy and training to capitalize on the new medium. The uber webcast mindset carries over. I regularly ask vendors how their strategy for virtual shows differs from webcasts, how they prepare and train booth attendees for the show. Most have their hands full getting set up, providing content and learning operational basics. These activities are relegated to the operational staff, not strategic management.
5. Coordinated primarily by publishing and event producers, in collaboration with platform vendors. Publishers are interested in driving their revenue by leveraging their brand and lists. Virtual shows are a replacement for their dwindling live event revenue.
6. Applied using an old paradigm -- the live event. To paraphrase a famous aphorism (given I have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail) -- given our event and technology business models, here's how we can use this "new" medium. When are we going to capitalize on the real potential of the internet for location (virtual) AND time shifts? Does conducting a "virtual show" for one, maybe two days, between 11:30AM eastern and 6:30PM really make sense? Or, is it just convenient for sponsors and presenters.
7. Doesn't accommodate the reality of how people interact online. For live shows in a physical location, we have little option but to carve out a day or two for the event. Online, we interact intermittently. We expect content on demand. We would like to interact the same way. On Twitter, I tweet when it's convenient, and in short spurts.
8. Redundant investments in virtual show platforms. This relates to the paradigm observation. Why do we need a traveling "show" online? Why wouldn't an industry group establish a permanent, online, 24x7 environment where interested participants could regularly and periodically attend webinars, engage vendors online, and network with people investigating similar issues?
9. They don't capture people's imagination, there's no buzz. Virtual shows have been around for years. I regularly encounter people -- yesterday a marketing person for a vendor sponsor, and the person managing their participation -- who have never attended (or heard of) a show.
10. Does a poor job of facilitating conversations and interactions on a one-to-one basis. Business-to-business selling has moved online. But vendors haven't figured out how to do a much better job than to host and present content. This might be ok to fill the front of the funnel, but we've got a long way to go to realize the full potential.

What have been your experiences with virtual shows? What do you think show organizers and vendor sponsors can do to realize better outcomes?

A Content Engine Drives Lead Management

I was walking my dog past the school playground recently and watched a dad with a young child playing on the monkey bars. The boy could barely jump up and reach the rungs, but seemed paralyzed at the distance between the rungs to begin his navigation.

Then I heard him command his father: "swing me, Dad, swing me." The father gave the boy a gentle push and, using the momentum created by the swinging, the boy navigated his way across the remaining bars.

However, whenever he ceased his momentum and stopped on a rung, he was unable to restart. He dropped to the ground to return to his father for a lift and a swing.

This got me thinking about lead management. We know that initial inquiries begin to go cold within hours. But too often our follow up connections are "one and done:" a phone call, landing page, white paper, webinar or some other content touch.

Without an automated lead management program with a well prepared nurturing plan, prospects, like the boy, can easily lose momentum, become stuck at a stage, and have to drop off. And restarting prospects is a lot harder than lifting a boy and providing a gently push.

It takes a lot of effort to acquire new and initial relationships. Before deploying that whitepaper, conducting that webinar, or attending that trade show, it only makes sense to plan out the downstream nurturing activities that will maintain prospect momentum as they navigate their buying process with the aide of your content.

This takes real effort. If it's not part of well defined content publishing plan and program -- we're calling it a content engine -- the urgency of immediate activities will overwhelm activities that are critical to achieve desired outcomes.

It has to become baked into the process, the "this is how we do this." Left to individual discretion, it will seldom occur, and will not happen with the required quality and consistency of a best practice.

Sales Guy Gets Lead Management

Over the last year I've realized a personal epiphany about lead management using marketing automation for companies of all sizes, even smaller companies.

As a long time seller I've always felt confident of my ability to sell my way to business success.

In the last few years the world has moved from the rhetoric of the internet to the reality of the internet.

Let's look at three changes this new web reality and the availability of marketing automation impacts:

• Selling Scope
• Buyer Behavior
• Competitive Realities

Selling Scope

The web has expanded target markets, even for smaller companies. The reach provided by phone and web communications makes it practical for businesses to expand targets beyond a regional focus previously served by in person meetings as a primary selling method, to national and even international markets.

Along with geographical expansion comes vertical market expansion. This means businesses are now communicating with more and different buyers than ever before.

Buyer Behavior

With this has come a shift in how B2B customers buy. The internet provides access to most of the information buyers need to start their buying process. This means they often operate in stealth mode from vendors far into their buying process.

This raises a significant challenge of finding appropriate prospects, or even being found by new buyers investigating solutions to new business problems.

Previously, buyers viewed sales reps as the access to important ideas and buying information. Today, that is much less the perception. How often do we hear, "I'm not ready to talk to a sales person yet," translated, "I'm not yet ready to buy, to give you an order."

Competitive Realities

While only about 10% of business-to-business sellers have implemented marketing automation to support defined lead management programs, it is clear to those following the results of these initiatives that this is a real game changer.

Lead management programs, supported by good content and marketing automation, fill the top end of the selling funnel more effectively and efficiently than ever before.

Ultimately, they will enable the complete shift of the B2B sales professional from "hunter" to trusted advisor, by providing the time and interested prospects for sales people to engage and support.

Said negatively, those who fail to embrace and effectively implement lead management programs will miss opportunities, discover potential opportunities too late, experience diminished brand, and realize in-efficient selling that will put them at a significant competitive disadvantage.

Marketing Sherpa Demand Generation Conference in Boston

Lead generation: for a product sale or solution sale?

Marketing is evolving so quickly these days, and Marketing Sherpa and their community are definitely on the forefront of thinking about and executing new ideas.

As I sat with 220+ people in Boston and listend to the tight, 30 minute presentations, I realized I was listening with what I would describe as "ears of the complex, solution selling organization." Although I got great ideas and it was a terrific conference, not all that I heard made sense in this context.

It became clear that these conversations must make a distinction between a (rather traditional) product oriented sale, and the marketing and selling programs that support it; and a solution and (often) target account sales process, and the way marketing must support that.

Demand gen for the product sale is about a "sales qualified lead" for a (relatively) volume sales model. The often disparaging comments about sales people expecting leads that are ready to sign the order, while funny and at the extreme, belies the business reality if you get in the shoes of someone with a significant montly quota. The selling model doesn't allow much for opportunity development. Looking for a "hot" lead is essential to sales productivity, meeting quota and keeping a job (feeding a family). I wish I had heard greater appreciation of that from speakers and audience alike.

While presenters did come from companies with a longer, complex sale, the distinction of how this impacted their lead gen programs wasn't clear. How does a "sales qualified lead" differ in these organizations?

Unisys and EMC both presented campaigns targeted at relatively few accounts -- 100 for the former, 24 for the later -- where marketing and sales actually collaborated to collect information from and about key stakeholders in accounts, and to execute lead generation campaigns that were highly successful. A good start. Next challenge is to figure out how to make this scaleable.

What I did hear at the conference is an appreciation for building content -- presumably you have to figure out the right messages first -- for the diffeent stages of the customer's buying process, as well as for buyer roles (stakeholders). But the recent Marketing Sherpa survy indicated 63% of the companies surveyed don't do this. This is still an opportunity to create a competitive advantage for those companies who do.