B2B Conversations Now

Could you sell your product or service with just ONE picture or slide?

It’s harder than you think.

We provide a lead capturing service to B2B companies called EchoQuote. I rarely get the chance to actually sit down with a potential customer at their location but, when possible, I never waste it by showing a power point slide show.

Since my potential customers are senior level Sales and Marketing folks, I know their time is precious and limited. I also know that presenting a barrage of power point slides is a waste of face time, so I take a different tack.

I use only ONE slide, printed on paper. That’s right. No PC, no projector, just one printed slide to make my point. I make several copies of it to hand out, but there is only ONE.

Here it is, click on it to see a larger image:

Now, whether you agree with our approach to b2b lead generation is not the question. What matters is, can you tell your story with a single picture? It’s easy to show an endless stream of slides, but brevity is the soul of genius (and wit).

Feel free to comment and link to your post with your ONE picture of what your company does. It’s harder than you think!

PS: If you must exceed the one slide then please don’t exceed the 10-20-30 power point rule by Guy Kawasaki. He’s seen a few presentations in his day and his advice is dead on.

Tags: B2B Marketing // 1 Comment »

I attended a fantastic Focus.com presentation on June 29, 2010 as part of Focus’ interactive summit “Mastering Lead Management“. For those of you who might have missed it, it is worth checking out.

One of the presenters was Ardath Albee who continues to create value for her followers (I’m one of them) and clients by generating great content, non-stop. She is obviously a deep thinker about all things marketing and one of her slides stopped me in my tracks.

I believe this is one of the figures from her book, “eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale” and I hope she doesn’t mind that I reference it. It virtually sums up in one picture what I believe to be a significant shift in sales vs. marketing responsibility for selling products. I wrote a lengthy post about this titled “How Marketing Became Responsible for Everything, and How to Fix it“. Ardath sums it up nicely in one picture.

The dark blue dashed line indicates how far Marketing has moved down the buying funnel time-line. According to this diagram, Sales doesn’t even get involved in the selling process until the prospect is well past the research phase and into the options phase. I think Ardath hit the nail on the head that this is the reality for many B2B marketers and sales people today.

It may be reality, but it means the Marketing group is now selling.

Here’s why. To win large, complex deals that span months, if not years, a company must engage early and help set the narrative. After all, who understands the potential solution set better than a company that spends 100% of their time dedicated to solving the customer’s problem? But, again referencing the diagram, Marketing is delivering the narrative, not Sales.

If Sales is not involved before the prospect begins the option selection process, then Marketing runs the risk of experiencing the most tragic failure of modern marketing; a customer who contacted you a year ago buys your competition’s product when yours was a better fit. I think that is why there is so much emphasis from Marketing to have Sales define what a “lead” is, so they don’t get blamed for this situation. It’s a real issue with no real solution.

It’s not Marketing’s fault.

Internet technology and innovation have both contributed to this phenomenon. In the late 90’s the corporate website was nothing more than an electronic brochure and naturally fell under Marketing’s responsibility. Marketing embraced the web, Sales ignored it.

Today the website has taken center stage in the B2B marketing and sales arena. Virtually all marketing materials direct prospects to the company website where rich content awaits. Modern Marketers, wanting to promote the company’s products and services, are now publishing sales material disguised as marketing material. Whitepapers, sales presentations (called Webinars) and customer references (called Case Studies) are all published directly to the web. Even offers of free trials and evaluations are now an internet marketing function. The net result is that marketing now owns sales functions for the company without ever having asked for it.

What’s next?

So where does this trend lead us? If the diagram continues in this direction then it’s likely that marketing functions will continue to eat up traditional sales processes. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I do believe that the conventional separation between sales and marketing will blur. I recently commented on one of Ardath’s blog entries that we may soon hear of organizations that have completely merged the two groups. Maybe the new category could be called the “Customer Success” group?

Any other good names for a combined sales and marketing group?

Tags: B2B Marketing // Add Comment »

It’s been an extremely hot summer here in Maryland with many days exceeding the 100 degree mark. While most people get excited talking about their vacation destinations, there is no rest for the folks that have to manage all that time off for large companies. They are the unsung heroes of summer.

I’ve worked for large companies in the past, and I never realized the effort that goes into balancing associate time off with company objectives…until I talked with Terry Schilling at Tugboat Software.

Tugboat Software specializes in Labor Scheduling and Vacation Scheduling Software for medium to large companies. To properly set up their EchoQuote instance, I needed to understand as much as possible about Labor and Vacation Scheduling Software, and how customers purchase it.

Labor Scheduling Software

The variables in Labor Scheduling are endless. For typical labor scheduling, one company has a requirement to move employees from job to job on an hourly basis; it reduces worker boredom and improves cross training. The software must handle that.

Vacation Scheduling Software

For Vacation Scheduling, organizational priorities must be blended with employee self-service functions. For example, the organization may designate some vacation blocks as “first-come-first-served” with instant approval. Other requests must be reviewed and approved by management based on seniority, vacation credits or other criteria. “Key staff” roles further complicates scheduling.

Of course, Tugboat’s Vacation Scheduling Software is built to handle a variety of requirements. The difficult part, according to Terry, is the upfront definition of the rules that govern time off. This is where Tugboat’s years of experience pays off.

So, before you leave on vacation, thank the person whose job it is to schedule your time. Remember that while we’re vacationing, it is their *busy* season. Even though your time off is well deserved, it must balanced with an endless set of rules and objectives to keep the organization on solid ground. The schedulers make it look easy, especially if they are using Tugboat software.

Is it Fall yet?

Tags: B2B Marketing, Podcasts // Add Comment »

As sales people we are always looking for ways to be more effective. Without realizing it we have gradually adopted more and more sales tools that help us improve efficiency and results.

But how does a busy B2B sales person sort through the tools that are out there without wasting valuable time? The answer comes from two of our own; Josiane Feigon (Inside Sales Training) and Nancy Nardin (Smart Selling Tools). They have taken the time to research, filter and organize some of the best sales tools out there in easy to understand categories.

There are 10 categories and you can download the free eBook here (no registration required J). Here are the 6 that I found most useful:

Anyone that has taken the time to provide a quality eBook understands the time commitment these two made to help us all.

Tags: B2B Marketing, B2B Sales, Lead Conversion, Lead Generation // Add Comment »

I found this cartoon and immediately thought of the fun side of social media marketing, you know, the part that is enjoyable as long as you’re not trying to catch any customers.

Giving away valuable content can lead to the same result - lots of fish around the boat but nothing to eat.

If you utilize a blog as part of your social media marketing strategy then you may want to consider adding a call to action other than “sign up for our newsletter”. What you use for your offer depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

Do you just want to establish yourself as a thought leader or are you trying to surface potential customers for your company?

For professional speakers and consultants, the goal of being a thought leader may mean that you have a simple offer like Work With Me leading to a contact page. You can build your business by reputation and referrals.

For those whose goal is B2B lead generation, however, may need to use stronger offers and calls to action to connect. But where do you place them and doesn’t that violate some of the non-selling rules of social media?

In Gary Vaynurchuk’s book “Crush It” he advocates trying to engage potential customers in 2 specific spots. Your primary website and your blog.

While most marketers understand the need for calls to action on their corporate site they often do not put offers on their blogs because of the perception that it should be a sales-free zone. This can be a costly mistake and short circuit all of the *fish* activity you are generating.

To prove the point we have one client that generates 60% of their leads via the offer and call to action on their blog.

If you goal is to catch fish, drop your hook where they gather for your great content….your blog.

Tags: B2B Marketing, B2B Sales, Lead Conversion, Lead Generation // Add Comment »

Are you a B2B marketer that uses Free Trials to try and motivate website visitors to engage? I am but it rarely works. Why?

First, I think using Free Trials for B2B Lead Generation is a good idea, especially for on-demand software companies, because most people want to try something before they pay for it. However, the idea is so saturated that the offers are bordering on desperation. Marketers find themselves almost screaming “Just try it….PLEASE“.

So why don’t Free Trials generate the kind of buzz and conversion rates they used too? I’ve already mentioned what I think is the number one reason, overuse, but there are others.

Time

Trials take a potential customer’s time and effort. Time is money. Effort is lots of money. Figure out a way to make your trial compelling by focusing on results the client will achieve during the trial.

Possible Solution

How about this: you can try our XYZ product for 30 days *and* until you generate N results. If they customer has used the product for 30 days but has not achieved the desired results, the trial continues. This limits the customer’s resistance to entering into the trial because if they expect to be busy for the next couple of weeks they will opt out.

Future Cost

This one still amazes me for high-tech companies that sell products in the high dollar price range (ten thousand and up). Ask yourself this, would you start a free trial for an enterprise class piece of equipment without having an idea of the future cost? I doubt it.

Unlike consumer products where pricing and perceived value are understood, B2B buyers don’t always have a feel for estimated cost of a product. They don’t need firm pricing, just an idea that it fits in a budget range.

Possible Solution

Try using a Price Paper to help potential customers understand your offer so they will feel more comfortable about proceeding with a trial.

Have you created a successful Free Trial offer (non-consumer only)? Let us know.

Tags: B2B Marketing // Add Comment »

What does the CEO of a $60 Billion company with 100,000 employees think about on a daily basis? Now you can find out.

@MichaelDell is on Twitter.

What’s interesting is that I’ve had an indirect link with Dell (the company, not the man) via a VAR business for the last 2 years since Dell bought a company called EqualLogic. Many EqualLogic channel partners were rightfully anxious and weren’t sure if they could trust a company the size of Dell. It turns out the company could be trusted. They communicated often and did exactly what they said they were going to do. The result? The partner channel is flourishing.

But having Michael himself on Twitter changes my perspective about the company even more. It feels more personal. Although I’ve never met Michael, I’m getting a better sense of who he is. For those of you that have read Crush It by @garyvee I would say that he lives by Gary V’s “Best Marketing Strategy Ever” - he CARES.

Michael has always been surprisingly available via email but now takes his access to the next level. It’s easy to understand why Dell continues to adapt to the ebb and flow of a fast changing business landscape - Michael Dell listens.

Tags: B2B Marketing, B2B Sales // Add Comment »

Want to accelerate the quantity and quality of lead conversions on your B2B site? If so, you may be looking for a “fast lane” lead conversion strategy.

B2B lead conversion is a critical first step in a solid lead nurturing process. Paul Dunay (Buzz Marketing for Technology) and I discuss how to augment a lead nurturing system by creating a fast lane conversion process to capture sales ready leads.

While we discuss one specific way to implement it using EchoQuote, it is certainly not the only way and there are no silver bullets. Choose what fits for your organization and target customers.

The key to implementing a successful Fast Lane Conversion strategy boils down to the strength and value of the *offer*.

A strong B2B offer:

• … has high-value for your target prospects
• … appeals to serious prospects more than casual ones, regardless of their buying time frame
• … appeals to prospects early in their buying cycle, when their decision criteria can be influenced the most
• …. is scarce and is available only from your website to eliminate search abandonment
• … is easy to act on by a serious prospect with minimal friction to avoid abandonment

Thoughts?

Thanks again to Paul for providing this platform. I just picked up his Facebook Marketing book and it is fantastic.

Tags: B2B Marketing, Lead Conversion, Lead Generation, Podcasts // Add Comment »

I enjoy working with the folks over at MarketingSage; they are what you call deep thinkers and the results they get for their clients reflect it. They just posted a short (2 page) but powerful paper on Defining and Ranking Sales Leads. Here’s an excerpt:

“Marketingsage’s straightforward definition of a sales lead enables the meaningful ranking of opportunities as they enter the organization. In turn, the ranking allows both the sales and marketing teams to simultaneously apply different policies for sales lead management.”

The chart below gives you a basic idea of how they approach it. Note that the highest ranking request after an Order is a Price request. Since B2B companies generally do not facilitate ordering directly from a website, Price requests are considered the highest ranking.

The Price request category does not necessarily mean you must use a B2B lead conversion tool like EchoQuote, it can be a generic form as long as it attracts and converts potential customers.

Some interesting points in this paper include the idea that opportunities, especially for complex products and services, may span months, or even years. Lead ranking must allow for gaps in long sales cycles and aggregate all touch events as a single opportunity.

You can download the PDF here: Defining and Ranking Sales Leads

Enjoy!

Tags: B2B Marketing, B2B Sales, Lead Conversion, Lead Generation // Add Comment »

Have you ever had a person fill out a contact form on your B2B site and put in the comments “DO NOT CALL ME!”? We periodically review EchoQuote requests for our newer clients and we sometimes get these. But why so angry?

I think web users are finally sick and tired of sneaky ways being used to get their information so a sales person can “help” them. Guess what? They don’t need help or at least not the kind you’re offering.

If you really want to help a prospective customer and you promise them something on your website, make sure you deliver on that promise before engaging them and even then you should probably use an email, not a call.

Clients that use EchoQuote to help their website visitors learn very quickly that when you get a request for budgetary pricing you need to approve that request before you engage them, period.

Here’s a sequence that works for our clients:

1. A quote is requested from their website via EchoQuote
2. The request is routed to the appropriate person/group for approval
3. The marketing/sales person quickly analyzes whether it is a friend or foe
4. If a foe, the request is denied and the quote is not sent
5. If a friend, the request is approved AND the quote is sent (no calls before the quote is sent)

Ten or fifteen minutes later a courtesy email is sent with the following message:

“Hello, my name is Mr. King and I’m with XYZ Corp. We approved your quote request and this is a follow-up to make sure you received it. If you have not, please check your spam filter.

My only question is: Have you defined the requirements for your project yet, or no?

We have gathered broad requirements from many customers and put them into a bulleted list. If you would like a copy please let us know.”

It’s understandable how skeptical potential customers are these days about requesting anything on a website. Too many companies pounce on incoming leads and simply scare them off. If you promise something in return for their contact information, make sure you deliver before you engage.

By the way, feel free to call me :).

Tags: B2B Marketing, B2B Sales, EchoQuote Tips, Lead Conversion // Add Comment »