Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen

Have you seen the latest viral craze on YouTube -- the Harlem Shake?  It's been around a while, but there is a new resurgence of interest in it.  Our Green Leads London office decided to fire up the video yesterday and make a contribution to the Harlem Shake movement.  

Have you created a video that contributes to your demand gen, social media and branding programs?  Do one today!

ps.  Can you say "Elaine from Seinfeld"?

 

Ladies and gentlemen, the sales automation revolution is upon us. SFA/CRM? Old School, table stakes. The highly optimized sales organizations of today has a collection of sales automation application that work on top of their CRM. As I declared in a previous blog post: The Seller has Changed Forever. It's exciting times for sales people -- marketing is becoming more sophisticated in their lead generation efforts (more leads is always great) and sales organizations are making the lives of their sales people better with automation.

On December 13 at 11AM Pacific, I will be joined by Matt Heinz, Brian Vellmure, Nancy Nardin, Koka Sexton, and Miles Austin in a free webinar: 31 Must-have sales tools for 2013. I have had a lot of fun learning about the tools everyone is going to discuss. In today's post, I present three tools to you. Join us for the 28 others.... I had a lot to choose from so I decided to keep it simple and highlight the three sponsors. Keep in mind, that we chose sponsors based on technology we wanted represented. We didn't find sponsors and then decide whether they should make the list.

1. DocuSign -- I just started using DocuSign last year. DocuSign is one of the vendors in the fast-growing e-signature space. In layman's terms: Get contracts, paperwork, etc signed electronically instead of printing paper and faxing. It's a god-send. There is nothing sales and everybody else for that matter hates worse than paperwork. It holds up the sales process and is the most painful part of one of the best parts of the sales process: the last mile. Let me give you an example: Last year, I decided for some reason to do a face-to-face sales call at the end of the quarter. (Don't ask). My rep calls me: "I can get this deal if you can sign off on the SOW". My reply:"Can't I'm in my car and won't be back in the office for an hour". Rep: "Dude, pull over to a Starbucks and 'Docusign' it on your Ipad". Boom. Signed, deal closed. E-signatures are a "why wouldn't you?" product.

2. InsideView (client) -- Sales intelligence, use it to sell better. How's that slogan? If I told a sales person 20 years ago that in 2012 prospects would use the internet and especially social media to update you on what they care about, what they do, and what they are doing, they would say "I want some of that". The best sales people are always researching, preparing, and seeking opportunities. The internet has changed the research game forever. Information about your prospects has never been more available yet finding and tracking that data can be cumbersome. Sales people want it easy and in front of their face. InsideView gives sales people a single interface to view your the accounts and their latest news. You can also set up triggers to be kept abreast on the latest happenings at your target accounts.

3. Kred for CRM -- One feature I love with Kred for CRM is the one that allows you to figure out "who" in your organization is connected to and interacting with your key influencers or prospects on a particular deal. Here is an example: You are selling to an account and you go in and find out that one of the key influencers is connected to someone in your organization. Not only that, they have tweeted to each other in the last 60 days. You are able to leverage that internal relationship to further solidify your relationship with the prospect. I just talked to a buddy who did this with Linkedin a few weeks ago. He was going into a scary client meeting and realized that a product marketing guy was a business connection of his contact. His friend reached out before the meeting and they walked in knowing each other. Meeting went great. Now imagine doing that with Twitter. Also, you can measure the social influence of your customers and prospects. You can use this data to decide how to handle them in the selling process. All great data to have in this brave new world.

Talking about sales automation is fun. I think its because selling has been so hard and so lonely all these years. Now people are making technology just for us and our lives are better for it. Join us to learn about all 31 must-have sales tools.

 

Craig Rosenberg

phone 650.630.3321

 

My latest post: Content Reflections: A personal and intimate journey into the mind of Craig Rosenberg 

Donations going to : NEADS, an organization that trains dogs for deaf and disabled Americans.

Green Leads today is partnering with HubSpot to host Inside Sales for Charity - NEADS.  Inside Sales for Charity harnesses the power of inside sales teams to raise money for great causes. We are hoping to raise over $10k today.

If you can help, please send an email to info@greenleads.com with your pledge for support and contact info for one of our reps to followup with you.

Thank you for your support!

Mike Damphousse
CEO/CMO
Green Leads, LLC 

On March 6, 2012, Green Leads is teaming up with HubSpot to host a fund raising event powered by New England's inside sales talent pool.  Volunteers from the inside sales community are invited to raise money for NEADS. National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS), also known as Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans.  Volunteer for Inside Sales for Charity now.

NEADS is a non-profit organization that was established in 1976 to provide canine assistance for people who are deaf or have a disability. Since their founding, NEADS has trained over 1,300 assistance dog teams. NEADS does not receive any government funding for the spectacular work they do. They rely on the support of individuals, foundations, corporations and service organizations to keep their incredible work going.

Inside sales is an industry in New England, and we are hoping to tap that industry and harness talent to raise funds for NEADS, harnessing our skills and community raise donations for this wonderful cause.

This charity event will be held on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at our co-sponsor HubSpot’s offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They are located at 25 First Street and are easily accessible by public transportation or by car. There is plenty of available parking nearby. The event will begin at 3:30 pm and run until 6:00 pm and will be followed by a casual reception with dinner and prizes.  Volunteer for Inside Sales for Charity now.

I'm at the AA-ISP conference in Boston today (American Association of Inside Sales Professionals).  There are ideas and tips flowing faster than the coffee and ice water.

Everytime I visit a conference I like to check out the speakers' blogs.  I figured you may find value in a compilation of the speaker blogs from today (or the blog of their company):

Trish Bertuzzi, The Bridge Group, Inside Sales Experts 

Tom Scontras, Glance Networks, The Upside: Killer Sales Tips

Steve Richard, Vorsight, Inside Sales Tips

Gary Ambrosino, TimeTrade, The TimeTrade Blog

Koka Sexton, InsideView, B2B Sales Productivity

Cliff Pollan, VisibleGains, Visible Gains Blog

Dan Hughes, Broadlook Technology, The Official Broadlook Blog

Antarctic Mike, Selling at 90 Below Zero, Antarctic Mike's Blog

Lori Richardson, Score More Sales, Score More Sales

Patrick O'Mally, 617-PATRICK, Social Media Super Blog

Mark Ruthfield, Zoominfo, Zoominfo Blog

Ken Krogue, InsideSales.com, Ken Krogue

John Baker, The Asking Formula, The Asking Formula

Sam Richter, SBR Worldwide, Know More Blog

Todd McCormick, PGI, PGI Blog

Ken Jisser, ConnectAndSell, Sales Singularity Blog 

Mark Roberge, HubSpot, Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

 

  and then shameless self promotion (I am one of the speakers)...

Mike Damphousse, Green Leads, Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turkey and B2B Lead Generation?  What is the gravy that makes your demand gen programs sing?

Even companies such as Green Leads do our own lead gen.  Here's a quick list of what I'm thankful for this year as it pertains to b2b lead generation in hopes that you might find an idea or two that you could implement:

1. Alumni - Our largest source of leads.  After 5 years of 2x plus growth year after year, the tribe is huge.  Nurture your alumni, don't just let them move on. Deliver quality service and stay in touch with your clients.  They will come back if you did a good job. LinkedIn is your tool. 
2. Expand - In one day we acquired a company that overlapped 90% with Green Leads' offerings, delivered the market a one stop shop for Americas/EMEA b2b marketing, and doubled our size again.  We were able to expand many of their European clients to the US and many of our US clients to Europe. Look at your existing client base and ask "how can we expand?"
3. Inbound - Yet again, our inbound leads consistently came in and our SEO was kept fresh by using HubSpot.  Our blog subscriber list doubled, and our rankings improved. The two key elements we find to a successful inbound program is content and social activity. Keep the visitors interacting and coming back and SEO will follow.  
4. SiriusDecisions Summit - By far the best place to be if you are into b2b sales and marketing.  We sponsored both Scottsdale and London and in both cases walked away with tons of valuable information and new network contacts. Always be learning.
5. Technology - No inside sales/outbound lead gen team should be without VoIP, Click to Dial, and some sort of power dialing system (we use 8x8, Skype, Salesforce CTI adapter and ConnectAndSell). Selling doesn't start until a conversation starts with the prospect. Do what you can to have more conversations.

What are you thankful for?  What filled your pipeline this year?

I've always had a theory that cold calling experts operate in one of two modes, Snipers and Machine Gunners.  I was discussing this with Nigel Edelshain at Sales 2.0 and it prompted him to write an article about it, Cold Calling: Sniper or Machine Gunner. 

What tools could be useful for each style of dialer?  Machine Gunners need lists, tons of names.  They strafe the prospects.  Snipers, on the other hand, work smart.  "One shot, one kill," they say. This isn't to say they dial once, but it means they dial smart.  Just like a sniper in the military, they need intelligence to be successful.

A while back we moved into a new building in Andover, the Demand Gen Capital of the World.  On one of the mailboxes downstairs I see the name SalesQuest. I've heard of them...they are the guys that do those dossiers on huge companies called CRUSH Reports.  Small world, we sell to the same people, we are both in the demand gen space, and now we're one floor apart.

Mimi Evans at SalesQuest introduce herself, Linda and I chat them up, and a week later I'm down there getting a demo on all things CRUSH.

If you're an enterprise sales exec and are selling into the biggest companies out there, and your a sniper, CRUSH Reports are your equivalent of an intelligence file on the target company:

• Accurate contacts and org charts
• IT systems landscapes, strategies, major initiatives
• Summaries of active projects and relevant news

Additional to the reports, there is also an online Advanced Search feature.  I have a client trying to identify existing Tivoli users, so we typed in "Tivoli".  Instantly, pages of companies show up.  Behind each company identified is the deep dive CRUSH Report. 

Don't want to miss out on timely updates or news?  The ultimate Trigger Event,  CRUSH Alerts, acts like specialized agent that is always looking out for you.  By monitoring thousands of sources, when CRUSH Alerts  finds information of relevance, it emails you with a notification.  Unlike Google Alerts or other sales trigger tools, it filters out the noise and provides only information a sales exec would want to receive.

The product is priced for companies of all sizes and can be purchased as one-off reports on their estore, or as a corporate license. Compared to sales execs spending hours and days researching their prospects, it's priceless.

It is heavily focused on IT and Technology intelligence, so if you are selling something outside that area, you should review a sample CRUSH Report.  The ancillary info they provide other than the technology data is still extremely valuable.  If you are selling technology with executive decision makers..it's a must have.

Don't forget, once you identify the perfect target company, you can further your time optimization and ROI by having an appointment setting company knock the doors down for you. ;)

Good Selling! 

This past week I attended SiriusDecisions' Boston Executive Roundtable with a focus on Sales & Marketing Planning for 2012. The discussions that were triggered by the fantastic content were the highlight of the event.  Throughout the morning the attendees were sharing ideas openly, to the point where the last agenda item had to be cut short.

Notable points:

• Social Sign On is bringing high submission rates to websites, but how do we manage missing information and is a Social Sign On considered an opt in?
• Establishing solid SLAs between Sales and Marketing is critical to any successful demand generation strategy
• Pipeline efficiencies are greatly improved with Quality leads vs. Quantity of leads

If you've used an outsourced lead gen company before, you have most likely been asked "What titles within the target companies do you want us to target?" What they are most likely asking, and should ask more clearly, is "What ROLE within the target companies do you want us to identify and target?"

Not all titles explicitly tell you what a job function is. So tasks such as building lists from data services aren't as easy as searching for titles and then exporting the names. If you are looking for prospects with a specific function, or role, then that is where you should begin.

For example, the most common mistakes occur when targeting IT departments. There are 86,087 results when "director of IT" is searched for in Jigsaw. I just randomly sampled 5 of them in LinkedIn. These were their roles:

1. IT Security
2. Networking
3. Data Warehousing
4. IT Security
5. Desktop Helpdesk

So if you're selling a network security package, who do you target? Obviously, the first, second, and fourth. But you wouldn't have known that by the title alone.

Tips:

• Use LinkedIn to identify roles. Some LinkedIn lead gen tips here.
• If you can't get specific roles up front, power dial the list with the goal of identification and research.
• Consider a role based list development project done internallly or by a third party vendor.