Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen

The Demand Gen Capital of the World: Andover, MA

Lead Generation is an "industry" in New England, going back to the early days of the Route 128 Technology Highway.  At one point some entrepreneurial soul spun off from one of the big companies, such as Digital or Wang, and there you have it -- an industry was born.

Now there are over 1500 third-party lead gen employees in the area, not to mention all the companies that have based their outbound efforts in the area. 

The following competitors all call New England home.  We know most of our competitors and consider many of them friends:

A Better Call, Inc. AG Salesworks By Appointment Only         Call Center Services Chameleon Group eCoast Sales Good Leads

Green Leads Impole LeadSpark Mansfield Sales Partners Marketing Connections TSL Marketing WhiteSpace Strategy Partners

(If I left one off, leave me a comment and I'll add them to the list)

We were confident at Green Leads that setting up shop in Andover, MA was a good decision.  It's a beautiful town, 20 minutes north of Boston, has a T (rail) station, fantastic reach to the lead gen talent pool ... and Linda and I live here.

Half of these companies are located in the Merrimack Valley, with Andover in the center of the map.  Does that make us the demand gen capital of the world?  It may have been debatable, but now that we've heard rumors that the largest of the appointment setting clan, By Appointment Only, is moving across the street, I guess that may seal the deal. 

Andover is now undisputably the demand gen capital of the world. 

So if you are looking for BAO competitors, just look over your shoulder.  There are plenty in the area, and specifically Green Leads is in the next building, where the parking is better -- and we were here first!

ps. The Shawsheen Luncheonette is our turf

Sales 2.0 Tips: Discussing Outbound Marketing Stats (Video)

Last month was the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston (my comments here).  I connected with friends and colleagues with similar desires to increase sales and marketing production with no holds barred.  

I had the opportunity in Boston to present on the topic of Increasing Productivity Without Increasing Headcount and then participating on a panel discussion on the topic. (video below)

Since my attendance at the first Sales 2.0 Conference, I had discussed with Gerhard that the topics of sales and marketing in a 2.0 world just can't be discussed separately.   So the highlight of my day was when he closed the session by announcing that the next "Sales 2.0 Conference" will be known as the "Sales and Marketing 2.0 Conference". 

Thanks to ConnectAndSell for inviting me to speak.
Video of my presentation:

B2B Lead Generation Can Take The Heat Of Summer

I started penning this piece about summer last week when AG Salesworks published a great article touching on some of the tactical issues of lead gen in the summer.  It got me thinking that there must be some research to support a fact Green Leads is confident about: rather than slowing during the summer, lead generation activities actually heat up. 

For the most part, it's popular opinion that it’s harder to sell during the summer.  It makes some sense, right?  We tend to think of this as a lazy season, one filled with family barbecues, homemade iced tea and hours spent lounging in a hammock. 

Sounds good?  Fewer people working, right?

That’s not necessarily the case.  According to Gretchen Weber, a freelance writer for workforce.com, people are taking less time off.  Regardless of the amount of time off we’re given, or earn, Americans are using less of it.  We may think that because summer is so low-key it’s a good time for us to regroup from the rush of Q1 and to gear up for a big year-end.  Not so, my friends.  The implication for those of us in the B2B lead generation business is crystal clear:  DO NOT SLOW DOWN.  

Here are three reasons why you should not slow down your demand generation efforts this (or any) summer:

1. People are more likely in the office - Just as the article from Weber pointed out, people are using less and less of their time off.  Use that knowledge to engage in your demand gen efforts with great enthusiasm.  Because we’re utilizing less of our vacation time, there is a greater likelihood that we’re going to catch people at their desks, whether we’re emailing them or calling them.  Don’t assume that they’re not there; you know what your middle school teacher taught you about “assuming,” right?  If our prospects are in the office more, so we should be. 
2. Schedules are less hectic - Though the summer typically offers no relief from the heat, it does tend to free up people’s schedules.  For us, this means that people are more likely to be responsive to appointment setting.  That brief break from a busy schedule affords us the opportunity to schedule a time to talk with decision makers and influencers.  If we’re really using fewer vacation days, it stands to reason that we’re not all too comfortable with an “open” calendar.  Use that to your advantage and get yourself time in front of your top prospects.
3. Five years of data proving otherwise - When all else fails to convert the non-believers, pull out data.  At Green Leads, we’ve got five years' worth of data that proves to us that the summer months, specifically July and August, are better than September for setting appointments for our clients.  Yet every year, clients want to slow down for the summer and turn back on in September.  It's counterintuitive, but the summer is prime time.  Lead gen is about pipeline too, and working hard during the summer sets up the fall for success as well.

What do you think?  Is summer a time for relaxing or maximizing your Demand Gen efforts?

Photo Credit:  *Micky via Flickr

B2B Marketing and Sales Books: What's On Your Summer Reading List?

If there's one thing those books have in common for me, it's that they were part of my high school summer reading lists. Remember those? You'd receive a list of books before the end of your school year that you'd have to read in preparation for the next school year.

Maybe you were excited by all of that reading; maybe you weren't. Maybe you cleared your list well before summer's end, or maybe you were running to the local bookstore to find the Cliffs Notes versions of the books on your list (not that I know anything about that). Since we're so close to the beginning of summer, I thought I'd share with you what should be on every good B2B marketing and sales careerist's list this summer. It's a bit more geared to the marketer, but every good sales professional is their own marketer too.

If you're reading this and you've just graduated from college hoping to find yourself in sales and marketing, take heed! This list is the tip of the iceberg for you. If you're like me and you've read these books, take heed and read them again; they're just that good. Note that all of the links are to Amazon, should you choose to purchase them.

	The New Rules of Marketing and PR, 2nd Edition - David Meerman Scott's book on completely changing the way marketing and PR is handled effectively today. David's book is worth reading time and again to be reminded of how the Internet and social media can radically improve your business. This book is a Marketing 401 class in 320 pages.
	Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs - Written by the founders of HubSpot, Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, Inbound Marketing delivers on its promise to get your organization found. Brian and Dharmesh talk about just what "inbound marketing" is, how you can get found by the prospects you want to do business with, and how to convert those prospects into customers.
	SNAP Selling - Jill Konrath's latest book is a must-read. This new book teaches its readers how to better handle prospects who, today, have shrinking budgets and more "to-do's" on their plates than they've ever had before. Oh yeah, and she teaches you how to close them, too. Jill is a master saleswoman, and she artfully delivers a message to improve the sales processes of her readers.
	Ogilvy on Advertising - David Ogilvy's book, now celebrating its 25th year in print, is a classic and one that I revisit time and again. Ogilvy teaches that advertisement is salesmanship, and he couldn't be more right. His lessons on buyer personas (though not necessarily called that) are just as relevant today as they've ever been. In fact, he calls out the lazy marketers who do not go about this process and warns about "skidding about on what my brother Francis called 'the slippery slope of irrelevant brilliance.'"
	eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale - Ardath Albee's book on eMarketing is a great book that teaches its readers how to differentiate themselves from every other organization in their space. Ardath sets a great tone throughout the book, and the lessons in the book aren't just things marketers should be doing but rather things they must be doing. Ardath spends a considerable amount of time discussing what she calls "Contagious Content," and with good reason - she understands the importance of content that spurs the prospect to move from reading to engaging.
	Digital Body Language - Steven Woods' book explores how today's marketers can market better to their target audiences, taking into consideration all of the intricacies of 21st century sales and sales processes. Woods' idea that marketers and sales folks can now "read" a prospect's digital body language (i.e. their web  behavior) is on point and is sure to help shape readers' effectiveness in their chosen professions. Pick this one up.

Obviously there are more books that I could place on the B2B Sales and Marketing summer reading list, but these are my "must reads." What about you? What would you add to the list?

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!

B2B Appointment Setting Experts Getting LOST?

If you're like me, last night you spent over four hours consumed with watching the finale to the television series LOST.  Now I'll give you that it probably wasn't the best use of four hours of my life, but I've enjoyed the show so much over its six seasons that I just wanted to take the final episode in as much as I could, and for Smashmouth, that means inspiring a blog article. 

The finale offered the best of what the show had given its viewers over the last six years -- confusion, excitement, joy and sorrow.  It got me thinking, though -- is there a way that this relates to appointment setting?  Naturally it does.  Our reps feel all of those emotions while they're making dials, right?  So here is my take on how those four emotions that the series LOST gave its audience parlay themselves into appointment setting:

1. Confusion - Our reps feel this all the time, especially when they fail to do the most important part of the job  -- and that is focus.  My reps' No. 1 focus is to schedule an appointment with the prospects of our clients.  When they lose focus of that, naturally they're going to get confused.  Teach your reps to take some time at the beginning of each call session and write down what their main goals are.  Your reps don't like to be confused, and I'm betting your clients don't want them to be, either.  They sell appointments, not software package XYZ.
   
2. Excitement -  Nothing builds momentum in appointment setting and inside sales like "excitement."  What are you doing to raise the level of excitement for your team?  It's important that you get just as excited about your reps' successes as they do!  The rest of the team will glom on to that and ride that wave throughout the rest of their day, so don't lose sight on that.  We SPIFF the reps several times a week.  Fun stuff, from DVDs to lottery tickets, to cash bounties -- and always in a clear competition with others.
   
3. Joy - This one's a little bit different than excitement.  Joy comes from within, so help your reps to be joyful by making sure they understand the importance of their job.  I've often found that when I understand why I do what I do, it makes what I do much more enjoyable.  When your reps enjoy what they do, you're going to have a much more productive team, and a team that produces more tends to do what?  They breed excitement, and you're right back at No. 2 from above.
   
4. Sorrow - Sometimes you're going to have reps who gets bummed out because what they thought were going to be leads for their client turned out not to be so.  Sometimes they can have a bad day, which can lead to a bad week.  That can get frustrating for your reps, so help them through those times by teaching them to remember their successes.  There's very little time to get negative in this job; in fact, I'd argue that there's none.  If you go a day without setting meetings or generating leads, that's a day you'll never get back.  So help your reps get back in the saddle by remembering times of higher achievements.

Is your team LOST?

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?

 

 

 

AA-ISP Inside Sales Leadership Summit: Follow on Twitter #LS10

American Association of Inside Sales Professionals has their national Leadership Summit May 11-12 in Minneapolis.  The speakers include fantastic cast of sales/marketing leaders, with me doing my part.  Topics range from inside sales strategies, increasing performance, compensation models, hiring and managing to Sales 2.0.  If it's Inside Sales related, it's a topic.

For those of you that can't be there live, you can follow the action on twitter with hashtag #ls10.  

If you do attend, and are a follower of @damphoux, track me down and say "Hello".

Lead Gen Experts Need Disaster Recovery Plans - A Flood of Leads!

View of the Shawsheen River at Rt 133 from Green Leads' parking lot

Those of you living in New England know that the past four days have been brutal, with constant rain, the White Mountains melting and all of it heading downhill towards towns like Andover.  The Shawsheen River pours right through Andover into the Merrimack, which backs up with each high tide.  Combined, the rains, the melt and the tides have caused flooding all over the area. 

In Green Leads' case, the Shawsheen River swelled over its banks into our parking lot, seeping through the sandbags, and you can hear the rush of water in the bottom of the elevator shaft. 

Needless to say, late yesterday we raised the disaster plan flag and packed all portable computers, headsets and one of the backup drives out of the building. Thanks to our virtual hybrid model, we were able to get all but one person up and running today.  In fact, the appointment setting run rate for the morning was 10% higher than yesterday.  A flood of leads!

A similar situation occurred last year with the ice storms and power outages in New Hampshire where one of the other lead gen firms went down completely for three days.  In our business, time is money.  For our sales rep clients, lost production from their lead gen partners means lost opportunity.

• Do you have a disaster recovery plan for your Inside Sales or Lead Gen team?
• If your building were to lose power for a week, or the floods poured into the basement, could you keep generating pipeline?
• What about a business disaster?  Could your demand gen efforts survive negative press events (think of Toyota Prius).

Parting shot ... Green Leads' mascot, Louie, taking a sip out of the parking lot.

Demand Gen Experts Should Ask "How's Your Steak?""

Last night we were at my favorite local restaurant for my oversized salad (mandated by my wife and doctor), when I observed each of the servers checking in with their customers within 5 minutes of serving their entrées, "How's your steak cooked?", "Is the salmon to your liking?"

How often do demand gen experts ask their sales team, "How are your leads?", "Are your appointments meeting your expectations?"  Do you ask for feedback in a timely manner?  Do you take the dish back if it's not to sales' liking?

How often are your leads under cooked?

Set your lead gen standards and expectations between sales and marketing, and then formalize them into a Service Level Agreement (SLA).  This formal agreement documenting what makes a good lead and what constitutes qualified, or introductory, etc. will keep you all in line.  Set goals for your sales team too.  They should meet your SLA requirements.  

• Are leads being followed up on in a timely manner?
• Is pipeline activity accurately tracked in your CRM and the lead source maintained?
• Are conversion events being documented properly?
• Are lead rejections being used to refine the process? 

Me, back to my salad...

Join me and Craig Rosenberg, the Funnelholic, Tuesday March 2, at 10AM PST / 1PM EST.  You can register here: The 10 Pillars of an Ideal B2B Demand Gen Platform.