Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen

Can Your B2B Appointment Setting Team Stand the Heat?

So, for a few days last week in Boston and her surrounding suburbs, it was extremely hot.  I'm not talking "spring time" hot, like in the upper 70's. I'm talking about temps in the 90's! 

I'm a big guy, and I can tell you this -- I can't stand the heat.  I hate it.  Some days I think the only reason I stick around the Northeast is for the sports, and there are days when they make me cringe, too.  There are days when I think,"Boy, the Eskimos sure have it nice."  Okay, maybe that's a little too far, but it got me thinking -- what's the temperature like for my appointment setting team?  Are they hot, cold, or lukewarm?  If they're hot, great, but how do you keep them there?  If they're cold or lukewarm, what can you do increase the temperature?

Let's talk about what you can do if your team is cold.  Surprisingly enough, this isn't the worst place they can be; that would be lukewarm, but we'll get to that in a bit.  If your team is cold and they're not producing like you'd like them to, here are couple of things you can do right now to heat things up:

1. Competitions -- I don't care if it's number of appointments set in a day or in a week, or number of conversations with prospects, but build competitions into your reps' workday.  You'd be amazed at what people will compete for.  Put a prize in front of it and watch your productivity climb.  Movie tickets, cash, a DVD, it doesn't matter, because the very nature of the competition will heat things back up in your bullpen.
   
   
2. Evaluate -- Are the right people doing the right job?  Did you build the team too fast?  Are some of them better suited for other roles?  Take some time to evaluate and move folks around if you have to.  You may find that the right person is doing the wrong job, and the right job for that person is just begging to have some added support.  Good people are hard to find, so put them in  positions that suit them.
   

If your team is lukewarm, I'd say you've got bigger problems.  You know what lukewarm says to me?  It says, "Meh."  It says, "Eh, okay."  It says you've got a team that doesn't really care about what they're doing.  They're just a bit better than cold, and nowhere's near hot, and harder to tell the differences  If your team is lukewarm, here are couple of ways to get them on fire:

1. Clean House -- Yup, you read that right.  Chances are, there is someone on that lukewarm team who is ready to move on to the next part of their sales career, and they're begging you (sometimes without even knowing) to let them go.  Take a look at your team and see who that person is.  I think the term to coin here is "addition through subtraction." Removing a lukewarm player may be just what the rest of your team needs to heat themselves back upm especially if that person is a negative drag on everyone else.  You know who I'm talking about.
   
   
2. Management? -- If your team is just so-so and lukewarm, maybe it's how they're being managed and motivated.  Take some time and really evaluate yourself as manager here.  Are you doing everything you can from a leadership perspective to help your team?  Is there anything you could be doing better to help your team increase their production?  If there is, get on it, and fast, before someone above you decides to "add" by "subtracting' you.
   

If your appointment setting team is hot, and they're on fire, keep it up.  "Keep what up?" you may ask.  Whatever it is you're doing to help them stay hot -- but don't leave without sharing how you're doing it with the rest of us!

Demand Gen's State of The Union Address - If Obama Were a Marketing/Sales Exec

Last night I heard a few sound bites in Obama's State of the Union Address that brought to mind what I hear from sales and marketing folks daily.  So here are a few interpretations had the president been talking about Demand Gen.

"We do not give up. We do not quit. We do not allow fear or division to break our spirit."

This is about Sales and Marketing Alignment.  Without constant attention to this challenge, marketers will continue to struggle.  Don't just live with division of goals; create a contract with what both parties expect from one another -- a formal Service Level Agreement (SLA).  Tie incentives to it.  Measure it.

"For every success story, there are other stories, of men and women who wake up with the anguish of not knowing where their next paycheck will come from"

Have your lead gen teams wake up and understand that pay-for-performance is what their jobs are about.  One hundred fifty years ago in this great country, factory workers were paid for the parts they manufactured.  Today, in demand gen, we need to get paid on the leads generated and appointments set.  Let's go back to basics and get paid for performance.

"But remember this: I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone."

Times have changed in the world of outbound marketing.  Prospects pick up their phones less.   They use email more.  They sometimes don't even have a desk phone.  As demand gen experts, we have to change.  Use the tools available to us.  Use the numerous online data sources at your disposal (Jigsaw, Netprospex, Google, LinkedIn, Inbound Lists!). Dial more strategically.  Specific times per day are important.  Don't just bang the phone like a stamping machine. Work the prime time with tools like autodialers and ConnectAndSell.

"... after two years of recession, the economy is growing again."

I hear "woe is me" time and time again, but if it's any indicator that things are changing, our business tripled in 2009.  Since our business is all about growing the top line, the future of companies' bottom lines looks promising.  We hear fewer  objections that "the economy has us on budget hold." If you get one, turn it around with "I understand, but it really is turning.  Most of the prospects I talk with are actually in rebound mode and researching new ideas for when the budgets free up again."  Frankly, this is most likely a brushoff anyway.  Overcome it.

"We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are."

Don't get fat and happy in the areas you've been successful in.  Keep them healthy and growing, but get creative and look for other expansion areas.  A client of mine,  very successful selling to software developers at the enterprise level, got a surprise order last year from a device manufacturer and realized its tools were just as applicable to an iPhone software developer and a medical device manufacturer as it was to a Salesforce.com developer.  The client opened up the market with an aggressive appointment setting campaign and and an inbound lead gen effort of whitepapers, blogs and webinars. Now it is forecasting that 30% of its revenues this year will come from that sector.  Listen to the market, and listen to your frontline eyes and ears ... the inside and outside sales team and your outsourced demand gen teams.  They hear it all day.  

Sales or Marketing, we all have the same goals -- lead gen, pipeline, and revenue.  Let's get unified, both inbound and outbound, and close some business.

Hear any quotes that resonated with you?

Lead Gen Tips from Yogi Berra

Yesterday I was using ConnectAndSell as a training tool and had one of our BDRs (Business Development Reps) live and working a list and three others listening in and critiquing.  (This, btw, is one of the many benefits of ConnectAndSell.  You can train with 5-10 pitches in an hour versus 1 or 2.  You can see the Smashmouth ConnectAndSell product review here.)

During the session, we connected with the Chief Information Security Officer of an extremely large pharmaceutical company.  He was the perfect target for the client we were working on, but he was reluctant to keep the conversation going.  He had objection after objection.  "Not interested," "Send me a datasheet," "We already do that."  You name it, he tried to bail out, but my rep was relentless in a completely calming way.  He would agree and acknowledge the objection, then segue to another topic or solution. He kept him talking.  Then after 5 minutes or so, the prospect accepted the meeting and offered to bring two of his direct reports.  

I closed the training session with a quote from Yogi Berra; "It ain't over 'til it's over."  We've all heard it, and this conversation proved it.  I would say a majority of insides sales reps may have bailed on this call after the second objection.

Anyway, it got me thinking.  Was Yogi Berra hip to outbound marketing?  Did he have other words of wisdom we should listen to?

"All pitchers are liars or crybabies:"  Don't pitch, have a conversation.  If you pitch, you aren't conveying sincerity ... you aren't having a conversation.  Bring value.

"If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer:"  Believe me, this has value.  Don't provide sales drivel in a conversation.  If you don't know, tell a prospect you don't know.  What better reason to keep the conversation alive than "actually, I may not be the perfect person to answer that. Can I line up a conversation between you and Mr. Sales Guy?"

"It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much:"  How true is this?  Just stop selling and listen to your prospects.  Ask open ended questions -- leading questions. Get them to keep talking and pay attention to where they are going.  The more they talk, the less you can get in trouble.

"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else:" What is your goal of your lead gen activity?  Are you appointment setting?  Are you trying to gather intelligence?  Are you trying to do qualified lead gen? Know the purpose of every email, every dial, every conversation, and then stick to your purpose.  If you are setting meetings, make that your goal. 

What is your goal?  What other quotes can you tie to lead gen tips?

Lead Gen Call Center In The Cloud - Virtual Hybrid

When we started Green Leads we set out to build the perfect Virtual Call Center.  We accomplished it, and other than not seeing people face-to-face, the way we work is identical to a traditional call center.  We can see people's dials, what CRM records they modify, listen in for training, etc.  Of the many benefits, here are but a few:

• Working from home
• Distributed resources for disaster recovery (this happened with last year's ice storm)
• Flexible hours, allowing for a better work/life balance  
• Reduced overhead of an office
• No commute adding an hour or two to people's personal lives
• All the environmental beneifts -- no new computers, no commute, less waste 

There were some issues, though.  We lost two employees who wanted more of a team community.  We lost another because he and his wife were unable to be home all day in the same house.  We lost some borderline employees who we may have been able to save with better coaching and training.  All that said, we grew 4X over three years.  Things are booming.  But we wanted to resolve these negatives.

The solution: a Virtual Hybrid.  We built out an office with the "hotel" concept.  We still use all the same cloud technologies, but if you want to call a desk home for a day, the office is available and it's got all the comforts of home.

Each person has a box to store personal belongings in (see photo).  A picture of the family, a coffee mug, a special mousepad ... we even have someone storing his own flavored coffee creamer. 

What has worked better than expected is the impact on new hire training.  They can stay in-office for all the coaching and training we can give them.  We can even use the work-at-home goal as an incentive to ramp up to speed.  On the other hand, we've asked our veterans to schedule regular "in-office" days a couple times a month for project meetings and mentoring.

The benefits:

• Increased team community
• Faster training and ramp-up
• Continued virtual benefits
• Reduced overhead cost (facilities, and use of virtual technologies)
• A place to meet visitors
• Centralized location for the management team, who require more interraction

Ultimately, just during month one -- a holiday month to boot -- December's weeks have seen the highest appointment setting rates of the year.  Linda and I drive a hybrid car...now we work in one.

How do you work?

Lead Generation Tips - Make your Social Media Presence Known

A while back, I read an article by Chris Brogan that discussed 19 chores we could each do daily to help us maintain an online presence. I was already doing a majority of the list, but then it got me thinking. What if I had my browser setup so when I wake up in the AM all my daily tasks for maintaining my social media prowess were just lined up waiting for me to get my coffee? Here's my Lead Generation Tip for today.

I've never been one to clutter up toolbars in a browser, but this seemed like a great reason to do it. So I bookmarked the following links and turned on the bookmarks toolbar. This allows me to wake up, sip my Greenest Bean coffee (organic, locally roasted), and make my presence known. I come back to it during the day when I need a break and hit them again.

• HootSuite - been using this since I uninstalled tweetdeck for locking up my system every day. I've got it all decked out with columns, tabs, subjects, friends, you name it
  
• Google Reader - still the easiest RSS reader going. Read up, schedule the best for tweets on HootSuite with Send Later. Comment on a few relevant articles
  
• Hubspot Dashboard - finds daily chores for me to do around blogging, keywords, search rankings, etc.
  
• LinkedIn Q&A - to maintain my top Lead Gen Expert status and to accept invites and other LinkedIn goodness
  
• Personal Facebook - post some drivel
  
• Company Facebook Fan Page - post some value
  
• Fast Company Blog - share an article
  
• Smashmouth Marketing Blog - write an article
  
• FriendFeed - check out friends thoughts
• SocialOomph - vet my new twitter followers
  

During the process, I usually digg or stumble a few articles as well.

ps. Look at the other top experts in the Lead Generation section of LinkedIn. I'm in good company!

What other daily tasks do you do to keep yourself in the frontlines? Leave a comment

Outbound Marketing Hits Hubspot and Fast Company

Smashmouth Marketing has two guest post blog articles this week, writing about Outbound Marketing, Inbound Marketing and Tony Soprano. 

Hubspot: Outbound Marketing and Inbound Marketing Can Learn From Each Other

Fast Company: Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing, by Tony Soprano

Just gonna keep spreading the Outbound Marketing goodness!

 

B2B Marketing Thought Leaders Curry Poll ;)

Whenever I interview B2B Marketing Thought Leaders, I ask what their favorite curry is. It's become sort of an informal survey.

It started one night with Craig Rosenberg of The Funnelholic as we ate Thai food and imbibed several hoppy beers in San Francisco. As a matter of fact, it was the night before the first Sales 2.0 conference, so maybe it was meant to be.

"So last question...what is your preference, green, red or yellow curry?"

The B2B Thought Leader Interviews & Results:
Craig Rosenberg, The Funnelholic--Green
Mike Damphousse, Green Leads--Green
Trish Bertuzzi, The Bridge Group --Red
Pam O'niel, BreakingPoint--Red
Gerhard Gschwandtner, Selling Power--Yellow
David Thompson, Genius.com--Yellow
Anneke Seley, Phoneworks --other
Joe Galvin, Sirius Decisions--other

Hubspot - Smashmouth Preview

Karen Rubin and Mike Volpe Hosting Hubspot TV's 1 Year Anniversary

Yesterday was the start of my evaluation of Hubspot. There will be a Smashmouth Product Review coming shortly, but I just had to comment on how it got started. After a one hour detailed demo from Bonnie and Chris, and an interrogation by me, Linda and I got to join the Hubspot team and local twitterati for the 1 year anniversary of Hubspot TV. It doesn't impact the review, but it definitely impacts my impression of the company and people. They were all energetic, fun, welcoming, marketing-savants -- great to be around.

We loved every minute of it. Thanks to Dan Tyre and Mike Volpe for hosting us.

As far as the review... I've spent about 3 hours with the product (not counting the time Bonnie and Chris put in), and I've been able to use most of the basic functions without a hitch. I was trying to upload a video and couldn't quite figure out how to upload/host it. For now I had to opt for a slideshare version of our video What Does Sales Want? I'm sure I can get a few pointers from support and put a checkmark next to that issue.

My highest level of excitement though is the fact that SEO and Inbound Marketing written all over it. I can hear "you've got mail" already.

More detail in the official review.

5 Things You Can Do On Vacation If You Can't Get Work Out Of Your Mind

My vacation read was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - an incredibly told story of Dracula from both an historical perspective, a thriller, and a biographical twist. It was a great book and I recommend it highly, but after a couple hours per day, some rain and relaxation, my mind still wandered back to work. Not much, mind you, but enough so that I wondered if I should pay attention to it.

After talking with my wife and Green Leads business partner, Linda (who had no problem forgetting work), I stumbled upon the thought of doing those creative projects that I never have time for. I'm stimulated by creative work such as writing a fun blog article or doing a souped up graphic that is needed for a presentation, creative work for me is relaxing.

So these are the 5 things I did on vacation that were work, but were not mentally taxing in a work sort of way. I came back refreshed, despite the three days of rain:

• Write a couple blog articles - not the tough, fact filled kind, but the light ones that come easily. (I banged out 4 that I'll use for fillers in the future)
• Catch up on RSS feeds - peruse all those brilliant bloggers out there that you never have time to read
• Paint a picture - I've had a diagram that I've wanted to do for a presentation that has been lingering in my mind for months. Drawing stimulates a different part of the brain
• Comment - We all know that blog comments help with organic search results, cross linking, etc. We also know that we all have opinions. So go leave a few. Don't forget though, learn how to use HREF tags so you can link your brilliant comments back to your blog or to other relevant links -- otherwise, you're just typing
• Teach - Sharing what you know is typically a feel good, especially if it is voluntary. Find someone within vacation ear shot that could benefit by learning about twitter, or social media, or anything valuable, and share

Social Media is no Punk - Know Your Rights!

One of the blogs I read is Web Ink Now by David Meerman Scott (@dmscott). Love the insight and tone, and the fact that he rarely lets me down. This week, David posted a great video (below) that he found through Trevor Young (@trevoryoung), that he found from Ross Monaghan (@themediapod) (boy, this twitter RT credit can get lengthy), that was produced by Engage | ORM and besides being a great short production, it too is insightful.

The video compares the rebellious, outspoken, revolutionary aspects of the Punk Rock movement to what we see today with Social Media -- the revolution not quite being politics, sex and drugs, but a revolution in how people communicate, share and propagate ideas. I follow it completely, but I'll add to it in a way that seems to extend or complete the analogy (for me at least).

Punk was Rebellion. Punk was Revolution. Punk was a Protest.

Communities and communications in Social Media are less about a Protest, and more about Sharing. I think that Punk burned out because it was never seen by the masses as acceptable and mainstream behavior. Social Media, on the other hand is. Generations of families are connected on Facebook. Competitors are having open discussions on twitter and even re-tweeting each other. Non profits and causes are thriving due to social media. Professional networks are reaching beyond the Kiwanis club and the golf course with LinkedIn.

Social Media is so much more than Punk. It has survived the early adopters, and it has broken through the mainstream barrier. Just as television and radio communications sparked changes in race relations, sexuality, politics and the balance of world power (different blog post), the new, "Social Media", will bring changes that we can't yet predict. What we can do is participate. Post updates, speak our mind, compare and contrast ideas, and connect with others.

The Clash got it 180° from where Social Media is today:

You have the right to free
Speech as long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it.

Clash, Know Your Rights

Engage | ORM's video: