Which B2B Lead Generation Tactic works best?

Here's an interesting image just released by Marketing Profs.

What works best for getting leads, it's not twitter or video or even blogging!

It's either picking up the phone or an executive from a prospect coming to one of your events!

I know, I know, this could be 1984, or 1964 or even 1934!

So, what are you doing to drive outbound prospecting in your business?

If you're frustrated then take a look at the event in the column to the left of this.

Join me in London on January 24th.

Predictable Lead Generation leads to Predictable Revenue.

Can you predict, not forecast your revenue for 2104?

Your best B2B Lead Generation is having a conversation with a prospect.

I can show you how!

Join me in London on January 24th.

What happens when Sales Reps don't make quota?

As a sales rep, if you don’t do your numbers, make you quota, hit target, then you’re in trouble.

Similarly, if you’re VP of Sales and you don’t produce your forecast, expect to lose credibility with and the confidence of your CEO.

Nothing new then, but how common is this?

At the Eloqua/Oracle Road to Revenue Tour in London yesterday, most of the delegates zigged to the Eloqua marketing track. So, I zagged and went to the Oracle sales Track.

You’re probably thinking, Sloane, you’re just a road warrior. Yes I do remember the Cavalier sri !

So, I was mixing with cream of Oracle, OK, just those who can make it to the London Borough of Southwark on a cold Tuesday in December. When Neil Pridham a CX Director from Oracle states that 40% of B2B sales reps missed their quota last year. 40%, does that sound like a high figure to you?

What’s it like where you work, do 40% of the reps/account managers not make their numbers?

What is the significance of that?

Is that their fault?

Or Yours?

Should you ship out the underperforming and hire some fresh faces? Could be an expensive decision with no guarantees of better results?

Or just blame those lousy leads that marketing gives you?

Maybe it’s time that you took responsibility for hitting your team’s quota in 2014.

If these make sense then you’ll want to come along to “How to Get Started with Predictable Revenue “ on Thursday 24th Jan at the O2 TCR

Sneak Preview: Aaron Ross's opening comments at How to Get Started with Predictable Revenue

Join us on Thursday November 21st.

Aaron Ross previews How to Get Started with Predictable Revenue in London, November 2013

How to Get Started with Predictable Revenue

 

 

Join me in London on November 21st for How to Get Started with Predictable Revenue

 

Free Workshop

 

Register here

Help Sales Understand Marketing

In the recently (December 2012) Aberdeeen Report "Sales Performance Management 2012" , author Peter Ostrow has two recommendations to improve your sales performance.

Why bother?

Improved Sales Performance leads to more of your reps making quota, shorter sales cycles and bigger average deals. Sounds good to me.

Ostrow's first recommendation is to base sales compensation on team activities , the second is to

"Cross train sellers into other customer facing roles such as Marketing"

So what are your plans to help sales better understand Marketing?

My suggestion would be continue your work on jointly agreements on Culture, Language and People.

How about running more joint meetings, now if you need an external speaker why not ask....

Is your Marketing killing your Revenue?

You've read how the new buyers journey is impacting on their decision making process.

Often suspects will research and validate what they need to know before approaching potential suppliers. Before approaching you!

Marketing's response to this new paradigm is content, more content, lots of content. A never ending avalanche of content.

And, you hold off giving that lead to sales and feed that baby more content.

The problem is your content is probably no better and just the same as your competitors.

Your webinars, white papers, seminars look the same.

Too much content will deluge your prospects.

Marketing think better content makes the difference,

Revenue focussed sales people know that better conversations make the difference.

Let your sales team off the leash.

Give them information to have better conversations, not more content.

Marketing Directors: Do you have access to the Sales Forecast?

Can you tell me how the company revenue targets are doing YTD?

How many of the sales guys made quota last month?

How many will make their numbers this quarter?

Do you know these numbers? Do you have access?

In their Latest July 2011 Report on Sales Forecasting, Aberdeen Group state that 89% of Best In Class Companies share the sales forecast across the company. Less than 6 out of 10 of Laggard companies do.

So what, you might say.

The same report details a 17% year over year increase in Best In Class Companies team attainment of sales quota, Laggards are showing a decrease of 6.9%!

Get access to the sales forecast!

Demand access

Help your sales guys make their numbers.

What my Blog really looks like?

The Wordle Cloud from the last six months entry.

What am I talking about?

'Taster' Seminar, London 21st June, Sales and Marketing Alignment Seminar

On June 21st I will be delivering another 'taster' workshop on Sales and Marketing Alignment.

Why should you bother spending a morning with me?

Well, if you want to improve the customer buying experience, understand your buyer's journey and be able to understand when they are moving to their next stage, then please join me in Ealing on Tuesday June 21st.

More information here

This is an exclusive event for Sales and Marketing Directors only.

The Movie Intro...

Who needs a Special Relationship when you can have something far more powerful: Alignment.

Dateline London.

I am writing this during President Obama's state visit to the UK. Lots of pomp and circumstance, 41 gun salutes and posh banquets. Both the Queen and the President have used that term “Special Relationship" to describe something that's supposed to exist. Of course it's tosh, something just to appeal to the vanity in the Old Country. Earlier in the day the Prime Minister and the President had referred to an essential relationship, better, but still sugar coating.

What we have here is a failure to be realistic.

When the USA and UK's interests are the same then it makes sense to be aligned, not essential and certainly not special.

So it is in business when sales and marketing share the same interests and goals they will naturally be more aligned. Try telling one of your sales reps that you think she is special. Maybe not.

Alignment means no finger pointing when things go wrong. Working on your Culture, Language and People.

Alignment means common ownership of the pipeline and forecast. Goodbye to silos, hello to openness.

The end result meaning that you can improve the customer buying experience and generate more profitable revenue, more predictably.

Who needs a Special Relationship when you can have something far more powerful: Alignment.

Do You Need a Budget to Qualify as Lead?

Should a prospect have a real budget for your services to be considered a lead/opportunity qualified to unleash your sales attack dogs, sorry I meant 'trusted advisors', of course.

Well, according to this Marketing Sherpa chart, 77% of marketers seem to pass leads to markerting that don't have a budget.

No frigging budget, dude!

Makes you wonder what qualifies for a lead in 2011?

How to Grab Attention

Join me in London on Tuesday April 12th

I am delivering a two hour morning seminar 'taster' on
Sales and Marketing Alignment in London on April 12th.

This complementary seminar is for Sales and Marketing Directors only.

We will look at the issues of:

> Increasing marketing's contribution to the sales pipeline

> Not delivering enough organic revenue growth

> Doing more with less

> Lack of respect between sales and marketing

If you want to know how to resolve these challenges,
then Reserve Your Place Now!

How do you know if your Marketing People are doing a good job?

Can you tell?

It’s easy to tell if a sales person or account manager is doing a good job, you simply ask… are they making their numbers.

It’s easy to tell if a business development manager is effective, are they building a pipeline of quality opportunities.

So what about marketing? How do you if a marketing manager is doing a good job?

If you ask them to organise events and brochures without any day to day contact with business development and sales, I am going to suggest that it is virtually impossible. Is that a big claim?

Recently, I was talking to a Marketing Manager of a global software company. He had responsibilities for events, big global events. Any opportunities were then scooped up by sales and BD. If the business was won, then it was down to the brilliance of sales. If no sales were made then obviously marketing had put on a lousy event.

There was no communication between sales and marketing.
No Alignment. Not so much Mind The Gap as Grow the Gap.

Now, when I asked this Marketing Manager, who wanted to contribute to the Company’s overall success, how he was judged on whether he was doing an effective job, he said nothing. He just shrugged his shoulders. Sad, isn’t?

Now, I am not looking to point any fingers. If companies choose not to align their sales and marketing, not only are they missing out on opportunities and revenue but they are probably misallocating their scarce marketing resources. And the most expensive resource they are wasting is the talent of their marketing staff.
Shame!

Get Aligned!

Is there a Sales and Marketing Alignment Problem?

What do your colleagues feel about the how well your Sales and Marketing teams work together?

Want a rough defintion of Sales and Marketing Alignment?

How about:

“A state of agreement or cooperation among Sales and Marketing, with a common cause or viewpoint.”

So is there coperation with a common cause, something like Revenue or not?

Tim Reisterer and Diane Emo wrote in "Customer Message Managment" a little section on "Is there a Problem". Tim and Diane suggest that you ask the following:

Is there a Sales and Marketing Alignment Problem?

My Role is:

I think that we have a Sales and Marketing Alignment problem because:

The challenges that could prevent us from correcting this problem are:

The company goals or projects that will suffer most if we don’t correct the problem are:


Could you answer those questions?

More importantly, could they be answered acrosss your company?

Would there be some agreement between Sales and Marketing on the answers?

Hey, you don't need any consultants to do this.

Why not give it a go?

If you want a nice Word Document or pdf with these questions , just drop me a line Rod Sloane.

Is there a Sales and Marketing Alignment Problem?

Interview with John Watton CMO of ShipServ

My interview with John Watton


John has 20 years’ marketing leadership experience in the IT and telecommunications industry, spanning software, managed services and outsourcing. Before joining ShipServ, John was Director of Global Marketing for telecoms software pioneer Cramer Systems, where he was responsible for marketing communications and demand generation worldwide. In 2006 Cramer was acquired by Amdocs in one of the biggest ever deals involving a European software business.

Previously, John held marketing management positions at Microsoft, Ariba, SAP and Oracle.

John has received many awards in recognition of his marketing leadership and in 2009 was named Marketer of the Year by B2B Marketing Magazine. He has a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Manchester.

Grey is the enemy of successful Sales and Marketing Alignment.

You won’t achieve long lasting Sales and Marketing Alignment by fudging it, by compromising or by being fluffy!

Look at the CMO’s who have achieved successful new working practises such as Christine Crandell. You have to take a straightforward black and white approach. Know what you want, Know what you cab achieve and just do that.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you take outlandish risks or bet the farm on this. Your responsibility is not to change the world; it’s just to get a few sales and marketing people working closer together.

Why not start with those who are open to your ideas of collaboration and cooperation?

Remember don’t shoot the collaborators, instead praise them.

Keep it simple

Keep it black and white.

Ditch the grey!

Are you going to the 2010 Marketing and Sales Alignment Executive Forum?

I am, it looks an excellent event that Corporate Visions have put together with some good speakers.
Particularly looking forward to the Case Study presentations.

If you are going, please say hello to this Englishman.

I've never been to Lake Tahoe or even Nevada before.

I bet that weather at Lake Tahoe is warmer than London, in October.
Now that is something you can bet on!

http://corpv.com/conference/index.html