Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen

3 Great B2B Demand Gen Articles from Last Week

It's amazing that there's so much great content out there surrounding demand generation and B2B sales and marketing! Here are a few that stand out to the Smashmouth crowd from last week:

Are Your Inside Sales Reps Good Detectives? A guest post on AG Salesworks' Sales Prospecting Perspectives blog provided an interesting comparison to inside sales reps and detectives.  The author likens his approach to that of  Columbo and collects as much detail from his prospects as he can.

"I find that people are willing to share one more thing with me in order to get me off the phone.  This one thing may turn into a longer conversation that could bring out more pains and needs from the prospect and in time, turning this ‘not interested’ person into an opportunity for our clients."

Whatever You Do, Don't Do This During a Sales Meeting. Jill Konrath, sales strategist and author of SNAP Selling, has an article on ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom blog about limiting the amount of time you speak during a sales call and keeping quiet during that most critical meeting -- replacing your competitor!

"Top sellers realize that replacing an incumbent is a slow, deliberate process. They understand it takes time to demonstrate value and develop strong relationships. Knowing this, they put together a one-step-at-a-time account-entry strategy that advances the sales process much faster than if they tried to do everything in a single call."

7 Fluff-Free Reasons Your Online Content Isn't Spreading. David Siteman Garland, author and entrepreneur from The Rise to the Top website, wrote a guest post over at inbound marketing evangelist HubSpot's blog.  Garland shares some great thoughts as to why your content may not be as aflame as you'd like it to be.

"Normally there isn’t just one answer and it isn’t black-and-white. Some things directly matter and others go a little bit deeper with more abstract, yet equally important ideas like trust and authority. But, everything adds up."

Like I said, there's a lot of great information out there; what would you have added from the week?

Photo Credit:  steve.wilde via Flickr

Inside Sales Trends: Then and Now...What's Your Big Idea?

This week I presented at the AA-ISP Leadership Summit in Minneapolis.  It kicked off two days of great sessions, discussion and networking.  Thanks to everyone who attended and supported the effort.  It was great to meet everyone and share our Big Ideas.

Special thanks to Bob Perkins, Larry Reeves and others at AA-ISP for having me.

The other piece I enjoyed was meeting folks from a competing company.  Being one of just a few By Appointment Only competitors is always a challenge.  Linda and I got our demand gen start at BAO, and they are a class act with good people -- competing with them on a daily basis keeps us honest.  Henry Glickel, BAO's top recruiter, presented on best practices for Inside Sales Recruiting.  Hiring and creating good talent was a common theme during the event, and Henry's take on it ensures steady and talented inside sales professionals.

There were also the guys from Vorsight. Having read their Sales Tips Blog for quite some time, it was very informative to listen to co-founder Steve Richard present his tips on how to become a power cold calling machine.

Nothing like Co-Opetition.

Below is my keynote address: Inside Sales Trends, Then and Now...What's Your Big Idea?

 

 

 

@chrisbrogan's New Marketing Experience, aka Inbound Marketing Summit: 5 Tips

Next week I'll be speaking at Chris Brogan's New Marketing Experience in San Francisco.  In a recent post, @chrisbrogan talks about the event:

"One thing that’s different with my events than with other events: Every sponsor and exhibitor and speaker is someone we think has something to offer you .... We appreciate their voice in our experiences. Thus, time spent with them is also time spent learning new marketing the way we see it ... it’s a 1-day event. There’s no fluff. It’s packed with info. We can hang out."

My highlight of the week is the Hang Out part.  That's all the discussion, debate, learning and putting faces to all the "social" B2B marketing community faces I've met online -- as well as meeting new ones.

Some recommendations to those of you attending, and even to those that aren't, on how to get the most out of a live event:

• Announce that you are attending.  Post it on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and any other place your status resides.
• Live tweet or live blog from the event and include the Hashtag in all posts.  Share your take-aways.
• Mingle, mix, get to know some new tweeps.  Don't spend the breaks in the lobby on your cell phone.
  
• Collect business cards.  If you get one without a Twitter address on it, ask for it and write it down.  When you get home, or during quiet time at the event, send LinkedIn invites.
• Don't cluster.  You already know the people you know.  Unless you are using the connection to get an introduction to someone new, move on.  Meet new people.
  

Bonus:

• Be there virtually.  If you aren't at the event, follow it on Twitter and the live blogs (links will be on Twitter).  Follow the hashtag.  Or better yet, make a last minute decision and REGISTER HERE with a 50% Discount Code GREEN50.

@damphoux: So a shout out to all the attendees next week -- find my icon in the crowd and come say "hello".

 

Speakers List on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#/list/damphoux/ims-speakers

Webinar: 10 Tips for Improving Your B2B Demand Gen Program with Inbound & Outbound Marketing

We've recently started working closely with NetProspex as a list provider to augment the work we do.  Once we started working together, the folks there realized that I always have an opinion, especially as it pertains to Demand Gen. Most of my recent discussion has been about Unified Demand Gen(sm) -- the philosophy of blending inbound marketing and outbound marketing to maximize your lead generation activity.

Join us for a webinar Thursday at 2:00 ET, 10 Tips for Improving Your B2B Demand Gen Program with Inbound & Outbound Marketing. 

Hope to see you there.

B2B Marketing Predictions for 2010 - Reflections

I recently was asked to participate in Ambal Balakrishnan's (@ambal) ebook, to be published at year'd end and then available from her blog, Connect the Docs.  She asked a bunch of B2B marketing experts for their predictions for 2010.  Being one of those tweeps who always barks by mid-January that "if I see one more predictions blog article, I'll puke," I chuckled as I sat down to write.

For the full text, you'll have to check back with Ambal, and I'll promote it as well.  Until then, I give you more thoughts to ponder than predictions:

• Are marketing's goals aligned with sales?  Do your bonuses share quota?
• Are you shoring up those marketing techniques that are tried and true?
• Are you adapting to new areas that need adapting, such as Social Media?
• Are you measuring everyting?  Cost per lead?  Cost per opportunity?  Leads per marketing event (blogs, tweets, whitepapers)?
• Are you combining inbound marketing and outbound marketing and maximizing unified demand gen techniques?
• Are you going to take time to reflect on what's working, what's failing and make changes?

I'm sure there are some "marketing gurus" out there who still are investing 70% of their marketing spend on Google Adwords and the rest on PR. Too bad ... old-school mix.  So reflect on 2009.  Hit the ground running in 2010.

What are you going to think about or adjust?

Hubspot Product Review: Inbound Marketing Methodology, Not Just a Product

About 18 months ago, Green Leads embarked on an aggressive plan to increase our inbound marketing activity.  We focused first on content and blogging and then decided to dig deeper into SEO best practices.  Along the way we started drinking some Orange Kool-Aid in the form of Hubspot's inbound marketing educational materials.  We weren't looking for a content management system at the time, but they had so many valuable pieces of content on their site that we soon became Hubspot junkies without even being a client.  Eventually, we jumped in headfirst and signed up.

We were able to get the site migrated and up and running in less than a month.  The first lead came in during the first six hours of going live.  Here's the process we went through; I recommend you pay attention to the "homework" parts:

• Pre-Project Education -- We went through all sorts of webinars, videos and documents on Hubspot's site.  Knowing the basics was key to the planning of the project:  Understand SEO.  Understand the value of Content.  Understand the basics of online lead gen.  Know how moving forward will impact your site and resources.
• Migration -- Hubspot's conversion team takes your existing site and migrates it to their platform.  I recommend that you don't peek at the work in progress until it gets a good deal of the way there.  You'll want to tweak things and until the team is complete, you'll probably throw wrenches in the works.
• Expert -- In parallel to the migration, your Hubspot Inbound Marketing Consultant will book some sessions to go over best practices.  Be religious about doing the sessions and doing your homework between sessions.  Hubspot is about education more than it is CMS.  If you educate yourself and you implement their methodologies and best practices, you will be successful.  (our expert, @kylejames, rocked!)
• Content -- At every trade show I've attended in the past year the mantra "content is king" was heard over and over again.  If you want to be successful with SEO, you have to have people visiting and people linking to you.  The only way to do that is through content.  Make a commitment to yourself that this is a top priority and an ongoing effort.  Don't start/stop.  Budget time and resources to create content constantly.
• Conversion -- In the end, it's all about capturing the visitors and converting them to leads.  Don't lose sight of that.  When you are laying out your pages, spend as much time on calls to action as you do content.  Make them click on those compelling offers.  Then make your landing pages convert.
• Go Live -- I almost made the mistake of holding off my go-live date until I perfected every page.  Huge mistake.  After a few weeks of tweaking and working on content, Kyle said "Go live, man!" I just turned off the public view of the pages that weren't ready yet and made the switchover.  Six hours later the first lead came in.  Within a week, the fact that it was live forced us to fix the loose ends.  It was up and running.
• Focus -- Once you're live, it's time to start working on your keywords, rankings, content, and ultimately ... leads.  However, you can lose sight of the short-term successes by going too wide.  Example: Green Leads' obvious keyword that we want to own is "appointment setting."  But there are already tons of people ranking high on that one, so we put our initial focus on some other keywords that were easier to own.  It worked.  In just one month, we had five major keywords that are now on the top of Google's search results. We're still focusing on "appointment setting", but it's not the holy grail.
• Action -- Don't just watch the leads pile up.  If the call to action was appropriate for a sales follow-up, then take it.  If they did multiple visits or multiple page views (Hubspot tracks this), increase the lead score and contact them.  Treat inbound leads as the ultimate prospect lists.  Just because they raised their hands doesn't mean they want to buy.  You still have to reach out to them and ask for the introductory appointment or the presentation. That lead produced by inbound marketing now turns into an outbound marketing pursuit.  Dial the phone.  Send the emails.  Close the loop.  Engage with that prospect, then get the sale.

Net-Net.  Don't just drink the orange Kool-Aid, savor it.  Buy into the methodology, not just the license fee.  Invest the time and effort to implement the program exactly the way Hubspot teaches you to.  You will be handsomely rewarded.

A more detailed product review coming that will focus on some key features and benefits.  Stay tuned.

Pay For Performance Demand Generation, Appointment Setting & Leads: Got Green Leads?

Produced this presentation for LinkedIn/Slideshare.  Green Leads 101.

 

15 Demand Gen Thoughts - Make Your Q4 Numbers

We had a prospect ask this past month to give her 10 reasons to work with Green Leads.  It was an interesting request, but we took it on with a twist.  We delivered not 10 reasons, but 15 thoughts to ponder.  Thought I'd share it.

My favorite: social media techniques augment cold calling - warm calling converts more of your prospects into qualified opportunities

Unified Demand Gen

You heard it here first on October 3, 2009. Green Leads' new service offering:

• Unified Demand Gen^SM - noun (yōō'nə-fī'd·di-mand·jen): 1. The efficient use of inbound marketing and outbound marketing techniques to maximize lead generation. 2. Essential b2b lead generation best practices.

Inbound Mafia, Outbound Mafia...we're all one family. How many analysts do I have to work with to get it to be a buzzword? More later.

Inside Sales, SiriusDecisions Sees Increased Acceptance of Inside Sales

This past week Joe Galvin of SiriusDecisions released a study titled "The Rapid Rise of Inside Sales." It shows that Inside Sales teams are overcoming the stigma of a support team and becoming more of a front-line, quota-bearing piece of critical sales strategies.

Although buyers are used to traditional relationships with a field rep, the study says, "Some customers initially perceived the coverage change to an inside rep as being relegated to a lesser status. However, after exposure to inside sales reps for the variety of products/solutions they use, many of these customers have come to realize the benefits of having someone readily available with access to and knowledge of all pertinent internal resources and information systems."

Operating in the world of phone prospecting and sales activity, we've seen three things in the market that support this trend:

• The experience of the average inside rep is far more than it was even 5 years ago
  
• Companies are investing in the line item of inside sales/telemarketing as more of a strategy than a support activity
  
• Accountability for performance, be it quota or deliverables, is the measure of performance; not dials or talk time (old school)

Joe says to expect more about inside sales' increasingly critical involvement in demand gen and contributions to the sales pipeline.

As buyers become savvier and inbound marketing demands increase, he said, "We see our clients' outbound demand generation initiatives augmenting the process to provide sales with intelligent leads that fully meet the criteria for direct sales involvement."

This combination of the increased activity of inbound marketing incrementally impacting outbound efforts is a growing dynamic. As we observed in our recent article on inbound marketing becoming the uber list to be used for outbound prospecting, these leads come with a higher value and are further along in the buying process.

What are your thoughts regarding increased investment in inside sales? The impact on demand gen?