Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Neil Edwards, a chartered marketer and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He has worked on a number of well-known brands in the UK and the U.S. during a varied career with The Royal Bank of Scotland Group and now with his own business, The Marketing Eye.

Neil offers a pragmatic, entrepreneurial, and intelligent approach to marketing, and I'm sure you’ll learn a lot from his responses to our questions. Enjoy.

1.) What strategy have you seen work the best for connecting sales and marketing teams?
Sales and marketing teams need to communicate often and earn mutual respect. By engaging with sales and drawing on its knowledge of what customers want and respond to, marketing can develop buyer-centric campaigns that sales will want to support. Similarly, sales can learn to accept the strategic direction set by marketing in terms of key messages and target markets.

In sales-led organisations, I have always focused on developing a rigid process that gives sales a set period of notice before a campaign goes out. The objectives of the campaign, the key messages and the creative are all communicated, the prospects that are being contacted are circulated, and the database carved up and allocated for follow-up. Once the campaign has landed, the sales function identifies a day to dedicate itself to making 1:1 contact with the prospects that have been targeted. Results are collated afterwards and success is celebrated together.

Sales and marketing need to combine to form a powerful business development unit that works as one to nurture a prospect from target name through to customer.

2.) What metrics have you seen work best for tracking and measuring the ROI of lead-management programs?
Ultimately, the only true measure of success is sales conversions, but ROI, as measured by sales income, is too blunt a measure of success in the short term. We have to recognise that in B2B, it is rare to convert a business from prospect to customer in one hit: There are several steps along the way, and it is necessary to set goals for the degrees of engagement. In the first instance, these goals can be: opening rates on email campaigns, click-throughs on links and downloads of product information. Further along the line it is the results of targeted follow-up of the names that have shown the first signs of interest—perhaps agreement to a meeting or a product demonstration.

Lead-scoring and lead-nurturing mechanisms are in their early days, but it is exciting to see businesses like Silverpop and The Annuitas Group working toward systems that work.

Continue reading "B2B Thought Leadership with Neil Edwards" »

Posted by at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Dennis Head, a consultant for eDemand Leads Consulting LLC.

Dennis has a unique perspective from both sales and marketing regarding lead generation. He has over thirty years of executive sales leadership experience with companies like Xerox, IBM, ROLM, Octel and Lucent coupled with over 8 years in marketing as Avaya’s Director of Lead Generation where his “lead refinery process” generated more than $1.6 billion in sales qualified leads. I'm sure you'll want to hear what he has to say.

1.) What strategy have you seen work the best for connecting sales and marketing teams?
Things tend to work best when the two teams understand their roles. Sales is marketing's client. And sales can't cold call its way to success. After this, the two teams must align their thoughts around what lead quality is.

Marketing automation solutions make it easier to hold each team accountable for their responsibilities. It's easy to find out if sales isn't working the qualified opportunities it receives from marketing. The teams may need to meet again and readjust their quality levels.

2.) What metrics have you seen work best for tracking and measuring the ROI of lead-management programs?
The conversion rates from marketing-qualified leads to sales-qualified leads. Once you have a consistent qualification process, you can then work your ROI backwards and ask yourself: "What are my different lead sources?" This will help you figure out what percentage of those lead sources became qualified. What's the cost of the initial inquiry? You can then figure out what your average cost per lead is, and that's when your ROI comes back to tell you where you spent your money.

3.) If you were going to do only one thing, what part of a B2B lead-management program would you implement (demand generation, lead scoring, lead nurturing, ROI measurement)?
I'd use lead scoring and lead nurturing to ensure the sales team receives quality leads. If you don't have quality, you won't have credibility with the sales team. Fewer but higher quality leads are far better than a high quantity of poor-quality leads.

4.) Which business practices are working best in B2B lead generation today, and which would you like to disappear?
Closed-loop processes are working best. I'd like to see marketers stop measuring the wrong things. Measuring the total number of leads is ridiculous. So what if you deliver 1,000 leads to your salespeople if they aren't working them?

5.) What's your advice to marketers working with execs who view marketing as a discretionary budget item during a recession?
You have to prove to the C-Suite that what you're doing is impacting revenue, and you can do that with metrics. With a fine-tooth comb, you must analyze what you put into the marketplace. For example, if you spend $20K on a trade show booth, you really need to make sure you get something out of it besides a pocket full of business cards. You need to close deal.

Posted by at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Malcolm Friedberg, principal at Left Brain Marketing. He has more than 20 years of marketing, sales and business development experience in a broad range of B2B industries.

Malcolm has built several national brands and staffed marketing departments from the ground up. His marketing consulting firm specializes in designing and implementing customized marketing automation solutions for B2B companies. We thank Malcolm for taking time out of his busy schedule to respond to our questions. From his responses, you'll learn what he thinks is the best strategy for connecting sales and marketing plus much more. Enjoy!

1.) Are you a left or right brainer?

We have a test on our website that allows people to get a sense of which brain hemisphere dominates. According to the test, I lean to the left, which means that I am more analytical than intuitive. This view accords with my wife's perspective that my male intuition, or lack thereof, makes me horrible at understanding what makes her happy.

And do you determine which your client is before working with them?
No, we don't have a litmus test for clients. I was a CMO before I became a consultant, and I know that most of us marketers are right-brained. Branding, events, traditional advertising tend to be more creative and right-brain focused. A big reason why I got into marketing automation is that I know most marketers need assistance in this area.

And how does it affect the way you build a campaign?
The way in which my analytical skills manifest in our client engagements is in building business processes. Marketing generally doesn't have a lot of business processes, and so the exercise of creating a well-conceived process is new. However, marketing automation requires that you map out steps to various workflows. As an example, the ability to route leads to sales and then get the untouched ones back for nurturing forces you to think through a variety of issues: what's the criteria for moving leads, how long should they sit, what triggers a transfer, which technology you use, etc. If you've never worked through these issues, creating an effective business process can be challenging.

2.) What strategy have you seen work the best for connecting sales and marketing teams?

There are both historical and structural reasons for the disconnect that exists between marketing and sales organizations. The historical component largely has to do with quality of leads and sales' perception that it could do as well if not better (a broad generalization, but one that I believe is accurate). The structural element is that they often exist in different business silos, independently reporting to a CEO. These are significant hurdles to overcome. One of the things I particularly like about marketing automation is that it provides a legitimate opportunity for marketing to reach out to sales and begin a dialogue about how it can better support sales. The "I'm here to help, but I need your involvement" approach seems to be the best way to make headway.

3.) What metrics have you seen work best for tracking and measuring the ROI of lead-management programs?

In my mind, this is another way of asking, "How does a CMO/VP Marketing sell his or her CEO on the investment?" The simplest way to do this is to calculate your cost per lead (e.g. acquisition through sale) and then illustrate how marketing automation can improve on that by reducing costs (e.g. less spend on traditional advertising, better conversion based on targeting, etc.). At the beginning of the process, you're going to be making assumptions, so your best bet is to grab some industry metrics. Once you're up and running you'll be able to focus more specifically on the metrics that you either have or that are most meaningful in the context of your specific business.

4.) If you were going to do only one thing, what part of a B2B lead-management program would you implement (demand generation, lead scoring, lead nurturing, ROI measurement)?

I don't think that you can focus on just one area, because you need all the parts to build a quality marketing program. It would be like fielding a baseball team with only a good pitcher, but lousy fielders. But assuming we're not all the Yankees (for you non-baseball fans, they have the biggest payroll in baseball), the biggest bang for the buck is nurturing. Chances are that you have a good number of leads coming to your site (if not, obviously demand gen would be your focus), and a few good nurturing programs will drastically help your conversion efforts.

5.) Which business practices are working best in B2B lead generation today, and which would you like to disappear?

One B2B practice that is critical to success is segmentation, because that's the foundation to relevant communication with your audience. The days of sending the same message to everyone without taking into account a buyer's product interest, role, knowledge, etc. are gone. If you're still doing that, it's time to evolve because that's the one practice that, in my humble opinion, should disappear.

6.) What's your advice to marketers working with execs who view marketing as a discretionary budget item during a recession?

Get a new job was my first thought, but that's usually not an option. The question describes a very challenging situation that is a reality for a huge number of marketers. I think that, as a whole, marketing is in transition. The need for marketing to be accountable is more real now than ever. Consequently, I think that marketers need to demonstrate their contribution to revenue (e.g. tracking the closed deals that originated with marketing). Using data to support additional investment in marketing is the way to go.

Posted by at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. If you're not already familiar with her, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Debbie Qaqish, principal, The Pedowitz Group. She has more than 30 years of sales and marketing experience, leading multiple B2B companies to sustained revenue growth and profitability. Enjoy!

1.) Do you think silos still exist between marketing and sales teams?

Absolutely. Every study still shows this gap, and certainly every client we work with still struggles with this chasm. It's evident in the lack of common definition of a lead between sales and marketing. I would estimate that approximately 80 percent of all companies lack this common definition. It's also evident in the way a lead is passed to sales and how that lead is worked--or not worked. Sirius Decisions notes that approximately 70 percent of all leads passed to sales are not worked, and a large majority of those non-worked leads actually go on to make a purchase. Marketing automation and demand generation as tools and processes are finally bringing to the table a way for this alignment to take place.

2.) What strategy have you seen work the best for connecting sales and marketing teams?

As simple as it sounds, it's communication. I was recently talking to Ed Thompson at Brainshark, and we were talking about this exact topic. Here are three best practices we discussed:
1. You should run email campaigns from corporate, but you should also run campaigns specifically for:
a. A major accounts program--what better way to get a sales rep aligned with marketing than to help them prospect what they're responsible for delivering?
b. Territory account reps
2. Develop lead scoring WITH sales
a. Sales knows the questions to ask to qualify. The net of this exercise is you get a great lead-scoring program and because sales helped build it, they feel ownership to help make it work
3. Work with sales to create a common set of lead definitions and ways to pass and handle the lead

3.) What metrics have you seen work best for tracking and measuring the ROI of lead management programs?

How many campaigns you launch and how many opens and click-throughs you get is important. However, what your CEO cares about is how many marketing-qualified leads got passed to sales and what percent converted to opportunities and then to closed business? It's this focus on revenue-generating activities and metrics that's the key to success. We recently published a white paper--"Metrics That Matter" that includes a chart of the most commonly tracked metrics.

4.) If you were going to do only one thing, what part of a B2B lead management program would you implement (demand generation, lead scoring, lead nurturing, ROI measurement)?

You need to include all of these elements to be successful. At the same time, we see demand generation marketers implementing these competencies in phases. What's important is to have this mapped out. Implementing a marketing automation system including tracking and email is often Phase I. Adding lead scoring and CRM integration is often Phase II, and adding lead nurturing is often Phase III. Metrics vary across the phases depending on the capabilities.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my previous post, I listed seven key lessons I've learned in preparing for a Webinar. In this post, I'll look at 10 more tips to consider during and after your Webinar presentation.
Lessons Learned: During and after the Webinar

8. Anticipate and address the routine questions. If 500 people register, 200 people will show up for the Webinar, but about half of those will call in 1-15 minutes after you've started. Because so many people show up late, they miss the opening announcements - audio instructions, when you'll send out the presentation afterward, etc.

Have a team member respond directly to these questions. Ask the presenter to remind people occasionally about these basics throughout the Webinar. Also consider inserting a slide a few times throughout the presentation that covers these points.

9. The easiest part is your presentation. Talking to a bunch of slides on a topic you are knowledgeable about is usually the simplest part of your Webinar. Being engaging and exceeding attendee expectations, however, is quite a bit harder. Style and delivery points count.

10. For good or bad, your speaking style is accentuated. When in an in-person conversation, your "ums," "ahs," throat clearings and other audible distractions tend to be less noticeable because there are other senses being used.

On a Webinar, these habits are greatly accentuated because it is just your voice and some slides between you and the attendee. The first step is to just be aware of the things you do with your voice - listen to your recorded Webinars once in awhile, if you can bear it. Step two is to start working to minimize any annoying habits.

Secondly, a monotone voice, with little variance in tone and pitch can be very bothersome to many listeners. If possible, work to use a comforting, TV broadcaster-style voice - but that also incorporates the excitement and story-telling of a baseball announcer.

Continue reading "Webinar Tips: 17 Lessons Learned from More Than 30 Webinars (Part 2-During/After the Webinar)" »

Posted by Loren McDonald at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. If you're not familiar with him already, it is my pleasure to introduce you to M. H. (Mac) McIntosh. He is considered to be one of North America's top experts on the subject of B2B sales leads.

For more information about Mac and the services he provides, or to request a free subscription to Sales lead Report, please visit his website at www.sales-lead-experts.com or e-mail him at mcintosh@sales-lead-experts.com. Enjoy!

1. How did you get your start in B2B marketing?

I was happily working in the B2C marketing industry when I was recruited to be VP of sales and marketing for the largest lead-management firm in the country at the time. We were providing inbound lead handling, outbound lead generation, lead nurturing and qualification services. We used database-driven direct marketing, and we provided sophisticated reporting on sales lead-program activity, results and ROI.

Research we did showed a clear need for consulting about optimizing B2B sales lead programs. I decided to start my own sales lead-consulting company and have been successfully consulting with B2B companies ever since, helping them to generate more qualified sales leads, turn more of those leads into sales, track and measure results, and prove to senior management that sales lead investments are paying off.

2. What strategies have you seen work the best for connecting sales and marketing teams?

I recommend that every marketer listen in on sales calls or ride along on a couple of sales visits each month, to better understand sales' issues and needs. I also recommend that sales, marketing and lead-generation teams meet weekly to align goals, discuss progress and resolve issues.

A recent research study we did, the 2009 B2B Lead Generation Benchmark study, showed that companies where marketing, lead generation and sales teams met more often converted more leads to sales and got better sales results overall.

I also believe that marketers need to have their own compensation tied at least partially to sales revenue goals. Reward them for helping sales meet quota, and they will focus more of their marketing investments and resources on helping sales sell.

3. If you were going to do only one thing, what part of a B2B lead-management program would you implement (demand generation, lead scoring, lead nurturing, ROI measurement)?

The best answer is "all of the above." However, if I were forced to focus on one thing, it would be lead nurturing. Why? Because research shows that three out of four sales come from the longer-term leads that are not yet sales-ready. In other words, nurturing your leads can result in up to 300 percent more sales-ready opportunities for your salespeople or channel partners to turn into sales.

4. Which business practices are working best in B2B lead generation today?

What's working best falls into two general categories: 1) direct marketing, including email, telemarketing and, yes, direct mail, especially for those whom you can't reach by email, and 2) Web sites that are optimized for search AND optimized for the people who visit your site. Marketers who want ideas on how to accomplish this should help themselves to my free B2B Web Site Checklist.

5. What's your advice to marketers working with execs who view marketing as a discretionary budget item during a recession?

Marketers need to start marketing marketing! There is plenty of research out there proving that when companies continue to market during a recession, they get more sales both now and later.

Marketers need to spoon-feed this kind of information to those who control their budgets, keeping the message "marketing = sales" in front of them until they believe it.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The buzz around social media is everywhere. Unless you're living under a rock in the far corners of Siberia (and who knows, Twitter might be alive and well there on the frigid ice fields as well), you're faced with social media outlets every day in both your personal and professional lives.

Recently, Silverpop has been involved with the Online Marketing Summit, crisscrossing the country as part of a multistate road show tour. If you're an online marketer, I highly recommend looking for a show in your area.

The topic of social media and its application in marketing has been a prevailing theme on the tour. One particular question really stood out to me and has been in my head ever since I heard it, so I'm looking to the larger Silverpop audience to hear your thoughts.

An audience participant stated, "I struggle with whether or not I should have both a corporate and a private persona in the social media space or if it's OK to have one that applies to both."

I struggled with this same question myself. My Facebook profile existed purely for personal purposes. But then the lines started to blur when my professional contacts began to send Friend requests to my Facebook account. I really had to pause for a moment. It's not like I had incriminating keg stand photos in my profile pictures, but did I really want my co-workers and professional connections to read a status update about a moment with my family?

The result (for those who are burning to know) is that I concluded it was OK to blur the lines to a degree. For me personally, considering how heavily embraced social media is with the majority of my professional network, it was an opportunity to really humanize and bring personality into the work equation. For others this might not be the right approach. I did take steps to create separate Friend lists that can only see certain aspects of my profile, but for the most part I opted to stay transparent.

So as social media increasingly plays into the everyday moments of today's B2B marketers, I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Strictly separate professional and personal, or is there opportunity to bring the two together?

Posted by Sarah Lander at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. Recently, Rick Kean, managing partner of the Business Marketing Institute and former executive director of the Business Marketing Association, responded to our questions. From his responses you'll learn what strategies he has seen work the best for connecting sales and marketing teams and what business practices he'd like to see disappear. Enjoy.

1. What's the main goal of the Business Marketing Institute?

To educate and train B2B marketers in the knowledge and skills necessary to execute marketing programs. B2B marketing people are rarely professionally educated or trained for their jobs. Imagine that occurring in accounting, engineering or even sales.

2. What strategy have you seen work the best for connecting sales and marketing teams?

CRM, because it holds both marketing and sales accountable. The powerful collaborative planning, execution and analysis tools in CRM systems promote transparency in the marketing and sales process. That makes it easier to not only track, measure and assess the progress and status of every marketing program, but the subsequent sales productivity as well.

3. What kind of results have you seen from marketing teams that are required to report directly to sales? And would you like to see this practice radiate to more B2B companies?

There's a lot of noise these days about how marketing staffs have to defend their turf in companies, and how marketing managers need to justify their function - for example, by measuring the ROI of their marketing efforts. I see desperate marketers grasping for these straws whenever the marketing manager has separated him/herself from their obligation to serve their company's sales team. And the fact that this is such a popular topic tells me there's a lot of ineffective marketing going on out there. When their ads and mailings are pulling good sales leads, I never see marketing managers thinking they have to justify their roles or quantify their marketing programs. I only see it when sales departments are grumbling that their company's expensive, fluffy advertising program isn't generating any actionable sales response in the form of qualified sales leads and inquiries. When a marketing manager is working with sales to develop ads, mailings and other deliverables that effectively sell their company's product, and these marketing activities are keeping the company's sales team supplied with a steady stream of high-quality leads, and the marketing manager is out front, looking for ways to open new business opportunities in the marketing program, the marketing department is never asked to justify itself.

4. What are the most beneficial business trends you've seen emerge in the last year?

A trend back to where we came from: sales support. B2B marketing exists for the same reason it always has - to generate sales response in the form of inquiries, sales leads, orders and new business for your company's sales team. Sales leads are the currency we have to deal with.

The first step in developing marketing programs that generate sales response is clear, effective presentation of your company's products' or services' most compelling benefits. And this clear salesman-like presentation, when used in copy and layout for all marketing projects and combined with strong offers and a call to action, tells the reader:
-What you're selling
-What's so good about it
-Why you need it
-And what they need to do next to buy it

5. What business practices would you like to disappear?

All the people infected with jargon that continually try to make our business more complicated than it is. You'll find them everywhere. They're at both B2B marketing companies and on the agency side. They're the "experts" who will tell you that "you need to re-contextualize your business model," by "maximizing the brand experience," to "mobilize the user clickpath," so that you'll be "acquiring mindshare," when what you really need to do is figure out how to get your marketing program back on track and get your sales up next month. If you're a young person in B2B marketing, my best advice is to tune out every expert you meet and do your best to unlearn most of what you were taught in your college marketing classes, if you actually ever had a college marketing class.

6. What's your advice to company officials who view marketing as a discretionary budget item during a recession?

CEOs tend to be left-brain thinkers. They believe that profitability is a direct result of something they do - like speeding up production or cutting costs. And like their peers they were, in the recent past, obsessively devoting themselves to managing the supply side of their businesses, property, plants and equipment. All that mattered was managing these industrial-age assets to earn higher financial returns.

It's hard for them to acknowledge that profitability is a product of what customers think and do. Where does all of our revenue come from? From products? From brands? From our loyalty programs? No, all of our revenue comes from customers. And finding customers for the products and services we have available is what the business is all about and what marketers are supposed to be doing. When marketing becomes less about "top line" revenue and more about "brand" or "awareness," linkage to the sales teams and their needs to actually drive revenue breaks down. In many cases, a huge inefficiency actually starts to occur as sales, left without any real support on the preference and purchase phases, creates their own marketing services organization, frequently called field marketing. Marketing should serve a two-pronged role in B2B: It is both the staff service function to sales in the here and now, and the advance new business-building function for the company. We need to make management understand that.

7. What business book would you recommend to B2B marketers?

"Tested Advertising Methods" by John Caples, a classical master of ad copywriting in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. His principles were that plain words and basic appeals sell products. And, by staying focused on reality in your advertising copy, you can make simple, plain and direct ad sales approaches that beat creative "impactful" or emotional appeals every time. Times may change, but people and their motivations don't. Any marketing program can be made more effective by using the same basic appeals, updated of course with modern production values. The hottest ticket in marketing today is Google AdWords-type keyword and search engine marketing programs, where advertisers write short, text-only ads designed to draw clicks from targeted keyword searches relating to specialized products. And where do you think the top copywriters who write these tight, compelling, must-sell-it headlines and one-line copy tags go for copywriting ideas and advice? Yep, they've studied and copied the techniques of John Caples and others that were used more than 50 years ago.

8. What makes you happy about going to work every day?

It's our turn. Companies need marketing...again. The end of the supply economy and the beginning of the demand economy demands growth, and particularly organic growth. That's the big agenda item today. Companies have made tremendous improvements in quality and productivity by working and re-working the tangible parts of their business, like manufacturing, pricing and distribution, but the opportunities to drive incremental growth are drying up. And in the quest for organic growth, marketing has become the change agent, transforming companies from the classic, industrial-age "selling what we make" organizations into customer-centric value providers.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. Recently, I had the opportunity to correspond with Dan Kersh, head of online, The Curious Group, from the UK, and Silverpop's latest strategic partnership. From his responses, you'll learn how he got started in digital marketing and what impact he thinks the current economic crisis has had on the European B2B marketing industry.

1. How did you get started in online marketing?

Having actually studied graphic design and typography in the early 90's, falling into marketing was in part by chance. Being a designer sometimes gave me the opportunity to sit in front of clients and listen to the wider business issues. Perhaps it was this listening and my untrained marketing eye that helped me see past the ways marketing has always been run, and with this I could offer a different point of view.

It was, however, my foray into digital that fully landed me in the world of marketing. Having set up a digital business just over 5 years ago I had to think on my feet, and there was certainly no time to ponder over pixels. I had to be able to convince clients why they should spend their budgets with Curious, and back then why digital would be an important player in the marketing mix.

2. What do you view as the biggest challenge facing marketers for the remainder of 2009?

For 2009 and beyond, the biggest challenge will be the expansion of technology and what technology creates. Keeping up with what is new and hedging your bets on the best thing out there is tough. Boundaries are constantly changing, while our time to think becomes less. The worry is that with so much information to consume, marketers may end up only using headlines rather than be able to delve into the details. This won't be for the want of trying, but it will simply be due to the fact that there is too much information to digest. With the evolution of technology growing at such a pace, how can digesting all this information that it produces happen?

3. The Curious Group works with companies from many different industries. What's a common challenge your clients experience in their global marketing efforts?

Well, one that springs to mind is pulling content together. Many clients have a loose idea of what they want to say in their head, but when it comes down to putting the content on paper, be that words or imagery, they really struggle. Pretty much every client we have worked with finds this a challenge, and this is probably because pinning down the people with the knowledge is hard to do. You tend to find that you need to go on a treasure hunt, as it's often the case that even in global organizations, very few people have the real key knowledge. It never ceases to amaze me that solutions or products inside these large organizations are only truly understood by a few select individuals and that marketing never bothered to engage with these early doers in any given project. With this in mind, we always tend to highlight this as a risk factor at the beginning of a project.

4. What's the biggest impact the current economic crisis has had on the online industry?

Curious has so far been fortunate not to see much change in marketing spend, and after speaking with many industry peers it seems that if you're in the digital environment you can see some reward in such a crisis. The demand for measuring campaigns and seeking ROI means digital has an advantage over traditional forms of media. My only concern is that the traditional houses will (some already are) look to piggy back on the digital bandwagon and profess they're digital experts. This obviously has implications if client-side marketers are not that savvy on digital, and we have to be wary of such implications.

Perhaps it is the pressure for online to deliver (as everyone now looks to digital as the frontrunner) may prove to be the biggest challenge ahead.

5. What are some of the newest ideas that you and your clients are now exploring?

Well, one idea is something we've created in house for clients to use. As a design and marketing agency, we were often at the mercy of the client when it came to passing on content. This held us up at the build stage when it came to the creation of the solution.

So around 18 months ago we took it upon ourselves to create a design and build tool for global clients. Quite simply, it's an email build tool that can import any piece of content and create emails and landing pages on the fly. We then can hand over that content to the good people at Silverpop to send the mail out. The build can be exported in html-friendly formats and imported into the sending tool. The fact that it handles every major global language has helped our client base build marketing campaigns on the fly, essentially cutting down the full process from circa 25 days to circa three days. If you have time, take a look at the site at www.iamconstruct.com.

6. Will email continue to be an effective channel for B2B marketing? How will it evolve?

Undoubtedly—email is already providing a worthwhile channel within B2B, and one could suggest it's far more effective than consumer, perhaps because the relevance and targeting is more refined. I tend to find that you come across more nuggets within the B2B mailings than site search itself.

As for how it will evolve, I think it's all about how we deliver content and in what format. The inbox can take on many a different guise; it need not only be Outlook. We can read via RSS, handheld and so on. With this in mind, it will be the evolution of technology that will ultimately dictate the future of email. As long as we understand it, B2B will remain effective.

7. What business book would you recommend for B2B marketers?

Well, I'm currently reading The 80 Minute MBA (kind of fits with my life) by Richard Reeves and John Knell. Looking back, one book that influenced me (even beyond business) and probably millions of others was Stephen R. Covey's 7 Habits...
I enjoy philosophy and was keen to make a mark in the industry, and this book was a great place to start.

8. What's the best advice you ever received, and where did it come from?

"If you get up in the morning, you have chances."
Great words of wisdom from my grandfather.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently received an email from a company whose product we happen to use within our organization. The message was pretty enticing (kudos on this point), so I downloaded the white paper the company was offering.

Not five minutes later my phone rang, and low and behold, who should it be but the same unnamed company whose white paper I had downloaded.

The conversation went something like this:

Unnamed Company: "Hi, this is Chris, I'm calling from X Company. I noticed that you downloaded our white paper and wanted to talk to you more about our product."

Me: "Hi Chris, I appreciate you calling, but we actually already use your product."

Unnamed Company: "Oh, oops, sorry to take up your time. Have a nice day."

[End of conversation]

When I hung up the phone I realized I had lied--I didn't appreciate him calling me. I found myself looking over my shoulder to find the big eye-in-the-sky camera, because surely Big Brother was watching me from somewhere. I also didn't appreciate that company X apparently had no idea we were current customers.

Now here's what I would have appreciated:

• An email that contained additional white papers related to the topic that was interesting to me
• A conversation, if company X felt compelled to pick up the phone, that acknowledged we were existing customers (maybe a thank you in there somewhere), and a question about what other types of information I might find useful

In my particular example, company X needs a refresher on smart marketing practices. The lesson to be learned? Don't let technology be a replacement for smart marketing practices--technology is a complement and catalyst to improved processes and efficiencies. The two go hand-in-hand. Set your best practices and then leverage your technology in conjunction with them to perform tasks like identifying a prospect versus an existing client. Technology such as marketing automation is the key to making sure you don't send your poor salespeople into an awkward situation. Send them out armed with knowledge, make them valuable to the person they're calling ... and don't let them be another annoyance.

Posted by Sarah Lander at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers. Recently, Bret Starr, partner, Starr Tincup, responded to our questions. You'll learn what he views as marketing's biggest challenge and why he thinks marketing should never be seen as a discretionary medium.

1. How did you get your start in marketing?

Armed with a degree in American literature, I had absolutely no formal training in marketing. But I did understand that marketing professionals were spending tons of money on immeasurable activities. Therefore, I developed a pragmatic, unique approach that included branding but with accountability through the use of metrics.

My first marketing job was with Data Junction Solutions, now Pervasive, a high technology software company, in the 90s. From there, I went from start up to start up, and have been highly sought after for my ability to build marketing infrastructures from the ground up in a pragmatic way. I recognized early on that the typical B2B sales cycle, which is 18-24 months long, could be shortened if marketers applied relevant marketing and sales processes.

2. What marketing challenges do you foresee in 2009 and what's your victory strategy?

Unrelated to the economy, the biggest marketing challenge I've seen for the last 3-5 years at least is marketers who only use traditional media. Traditional media only has the ability to tap a small percentage of any market. The solution is for B2B marketers to gain access to a much more engaged audience, which can be done through social networks. People who join social networking groups are there because they want to present their challenges or offer solutions to other people's problems. They are usually open to communication as long as it's done in a respected way.

3. What's a common problem that businesses seek Starr Tincup out to solve?

Starr Tincup is a marketing firm for companies who sell human capital solutions. What we've found is that marketers in this space have way too many options to focus their attention and budget on. That leads them to making decisions about which avenue to pursue before they fully understand all of the pro's and con's that are associated. We help harried marketers of human capital solutions with marketing strategy, marketing execution, media sourcing and staffing services. Unlike general agencies, Starr Tincup is all about human capital - we've worked with hundreds of companies in the space.

4. Your Web site doesn't have a strong "business" look and feel to it. How did that come about?

Largely, we focus on a small market niche, and we're the most recognized brand in our space. Our business is 95% referral driven. Therefore, the business is not reliant on branding and awareness. For us, it's about community, so we've created a place where everyone - clients and prospects - can connect and feel comfortable.

5. What advice do you have for marketers who want to implement an effective lead generation campaign, but don't know where to start?

The first thing B2B marketers need to do is define their lead generation goals. Many marketers jump in head first without knowing what they want to accomplish from their lead generation activities.

Secondly, know your marketplace. You have to know what exists in your target space. This is important because your lead generation goals must be in sync with your marketplace. Do a "reality check (research)" to make sure the market can sustain your goal.

Most important, you must have the right infrastructure in place. Generating leads is fairly easy. Responding to them in a timely manner is more difficult. When someone registers for something on your site, you only have a short amount of time to respond before they are lost. The basis of a good infrastructure is a three point integration system—your marketing automation solution, your sales force and your Website.

6. What would you say to someone who says the current economic crisis makes marketing a discretionary medium?

If they're in business, I'd tell them to consider becoming an artist or a forest ranger. With an attitude like that, they shouldn't be in business. And probably won't be for very long.

Warren Buffet says it best: "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful."

The time to develop relationships and nurture leads is right now. If you don't, someone else will. And the best way for marketers to stay connected to their audiences is through marketing automation solutions. Marketing is as discretionary for this economic downturn as fuel is for cars.

7. What business book would you recommend to B2B marketers?

The best book I've read in the past five years is "Mastering The Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm," by Verne Harnish. The concept is a pragmatic plan to make sure things get done. It provides a solid framework for a marketing plan.

8. What's the best advice you ever received and where did it come from?

My dad gave me the best advice I ever received. He was not an entrepreneur. He was a "roughneck." He told me: "There is no such thing as 'it's just business.'"

At the beginning and end of the day, people are humans, and they should be treated with the same courtesy and respect I demand for myself. This lesson has served me well over the years.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top B2B marketers. Recently, Craig Rosenberg, author of the very popular and sometimes, irreverent, B2B sales and marketing blog, The Funnelholic, and vice president, products and services at Tippit, Inc., responded to our questions. Tippit is the fastest-growing online business media company with more than 80 brand leading clients in B2B industries who rely on Tippit to capture new revenue and optimize their sales and marketing effectiveness. You can follow Craig on Twitter.

1. How did you get started in the lead management industry?

I would have to say my real entry into the lead management business was in 2001, when I began working for SalesRamp. SalesRamp is a boutique sales and marketing consultancy that assists venture-backed startups in building their demand generation, inside sales, or sales processes and teams. While there I was tasked with going into a startup, understanding their business, building a plan, executing the plan, and handing over a full-fledged team and process—all within 4 months. Previously, I spent years in inside sales and lead generation roles, but it was not until I joined SalesRamp that I really started to grasp lead management. At SalesRamp, I helped build 24 or so lead management teams, and the rest is history.

2. What section of the lead management pipeline would you say has the most holes in it?

Well, the biggest hole right now is that not enough organizations have set up sufficient lead management processes. You have to build the lead management pipeline before you can even try to find the holes. Too many organizations have yet to take that first step. There are still too many organizations passing leads directly to sales. This continues to be a growing market and one of the most critical movements in recessionary 2009. And the most important thing we can focus on in the industry is to get as many organizations focused on creating lead management processes. By the way, even a little goes along way. Just having some form of lead management will positively affect ROI by ensuring that you are sending sales only sales-ready leads.

3. Where does your passion for the B2B lead management industry come from?

I have seen the light. The B2B lead management process today is completely broken, and I have seen how to fix it. That is really enlightening and exciting. I think that's really the main reason I am so passionate about it. There aren't many times in your life where you actually believe you have access to knowledge that can truly affect a person or an organization. On a personal level, that is exciting. I talk about it or write about it on my Funnelholic blog all the time.

As far as the lead management industry itself, it is really exciting right now. The market is starting to hit its stride with a number of great companies competing in this space and making a big difference in the marketing world.

4. What kind of impact have you seen the current state of the economy have on B2B marketers and Sales professionals?

One thing: opportunity. The economic crisis will be the compelling event that drives lead management and marketing automation from a "nice idea" to reality. Avoiding waste, generating ROI and being as efficient as humanly possible are the most important themes of 2009 - all themes marketing has been traditionally bad at. There is so much information out there now. Marketers need to stay up all night and get a lead management plan on board not so they can impress their boss but so they can save their jobs - or more importantly, save their companies.

5. What should B2B marketers and Sales professionals do to survive this down economy and be well-positioned for an upswing?

Work together, communicate and optimize.

Right now, organizations can afford to continue to have sales and marketing fighting their holy war. What I saw in 2001 is that increased pressure of a recession causes the fighting to get worse. The lead management process is not just a "way" to process leads but a bridge to integrate marketing and sales processes in a positive way. The first thing to do is agree on a sales-ready lead definition - what is a lead that should be passed to the sales team? Now this may change in the recession (please keep this in mind), but it is the most critical step to building any reasonable conversation between the two organizations. Once marketing knows what a sales-ready lead is, sales can't complain and vice-versa. The biggest fights come from the "gray area," that is, what is a lead or what is not a lead. The unified sales-ready lead definition helps eliminate the gray area and brings the two groups together.

Then, work together. Meet every week for anecdotal process and continue to tweak the process. Don't let the data do all the talking—have the data so you can have meaningful conversations, but don't diminish the value of real conversations when optimizing a program.

6. Why do you think silos exist between marketing and sales, and which team do you think is more amenable to working with the other?

Like any disagreement, both sides have been fighting for so long, I am not sure they know why they are still fighting. But communication and process has damaged this relationship for years. When I think of sales I think of two sayings:

Time is the enemy
You are either part of the solution or part of the problem.
Unfortunately, non-sales-ready leads break the two commandments above for sales people and, as a result, they either complain about marketing or ignore it.

For marketing, they want to please, but to them sales can never be pleased - "These are leads that need selling, why can't sales understand that."

I promise that effective lead management helps solve this problem. Who is more amenable? I am not sure either is more amenable, but I can tell you how to get to a better place. Marketing should build their lead management plan and go to sales with their new value prop: "Marketing will only pass you sales-ready leads." Sales will listen, they need leads and want leads, but they just don't want the ones you used to send. Then, come to the table and agree on a "treaty" with sales-ready lead definition and process.

7. What has been the biggest challenge in your professional career?

Wow, now this is a question. I have lived and breathed the startup world for 10 years, and every day is a challenge. Combine that with being in demand generation/lead management, and I would say my work life is one big challenge.

8. What business book have you recently read that you'd recommend?

"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. I read that every once in a while and learn something every time. If you are in business, it's a must-read.

9. What's the best advice you ever received and who or where did it come from?

As we enter uncertain times, I think we all need to focus on what we can control. This is certainly not a new saying but really resonating right now.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers. Recently, Jonathan Salem Baskin, a veteran BtoC and BtoB marketer with more than 20 years of experience and author of the book, Branding Only Works on Cattle: The New Way to Get Known (and drive your competitors crazy), responded to our questions. You'll learn why he thinks BtoB marketers have had it right all along. Also, he'll share some key insights into his career and offer solutions to many of the challenges facing BtoB marketers today.

1. How did you get started in the world of marketing?

I'd wanted to work in advertising since I was in college, as it seemed like the coolest combination of creativity and cultural relevance. So while my contemporaries were waiting tables during the summers, I interned at ad and PR firms. After graduation, I packed up and moved to NYC in search of a job, and found one four months later as an account exec at a PR firm called Edelman. My first client --a spin-off of Continental Grain called ContiCommodity-- was in the BtoB space. 

2. Why do you think this current economic crisis heralds a renaissance for BtoB marketers?

The web has transformed every company into a service provider, as end-users of everything from automobiles to MP3 players expect to be supported and engaged, not just by their individual purchases, but consistently over time. Cars need GPS devices. Music players need songs. Often, the differentiator between branded offerings will be how creatively or well they partner with other businesses to provide said services. Sourcing itself is also emerging as a competitive differentiator, whether due to concerns about economic or environmental justice, or simply of quality. 

The current economic crisis just accentuates the requirement that companies differentiate themselves in more compelling, substantive ways. BtoB marketers will find themselves competing for these new services partnerships, as well as displacing one another for sourcing contracts. It's the context for vibrant, creative competition of the likes that BtoB marketers haven't seen in a very long time.

3. You've been quoted stating that BtoB marketers are better positioned, better prepared and better armed to weather the downturn than BtoC marketers. Why is that?

First, because they've lived the business strategies we call "Web 2.0" since before the trend had a catchy label. BtoB marketing is based on principles of customer relationships, selling relevance to price and utility, and "designing in" input from customers for new products. These habits are all revelations for most BtoC marketers, and they're struggling with how to incorporate them into their top-down, brand-driven marketing strategies. The best BtoB marketers already know what works and how to deliver it.

Second, even if it's sometimes been uneasy, BtoB marketers have had close working relationships with sales. That means the metrics for much of that marketing are simple—sales and profits—instead of the made-up measures that BtoC marketers use to substantiate their efforts. BtoB marketers speak the financial language that the rest of the company uses, so it should be far easier to explain and defend budgets. Not easy, mind you, but just more effective. I think many of the BtoC folks and their mushy metrics of awareness and intent are in for a world of pain.

4. What was the inspiration behind "Branding Only Works for Cattle: The New Way to Get Known (And Drive Your Competitors Crazy)"? 

Most people in the branding world spend their lives feeling misunderstood and unappreciated. Otherwise smart, capable execs just can't seem to get the importance of branding and are always in need of being educated (as the brand trades regularly declare). Brand and marketing are the first budgets to get cut in a downturn, which is the clearest evidence of this ongoing disconnect.

After 26 years fighting that good fight, it occurred to me that maybe all those operational execs weren't stupid; maybe it was we marketers who had the wrong idea about brands.

So I set out to come up with a model for what branding might be if it were the outcome of real, objective behaviors, and not the subjective mental states that are the exclusive domain of marketing. And I discovered a rich vein of thought that raises marvelous questions about how, what, where, when, and why organizations influence purchases.

5. You often say a tough market requires every corporate department to get involved in selling. How can this happen?

It already happens all the time. Customers don't follow orders, and there's no limit to the ways, media, contexts and reasons why and how they can make decisions that lead to purchase (or, conversely, to abandonment). Information sharing doesn't end with the work day and isn't limited to the channels chosen by your marketing department. And the content that factors into those decisions are often, if not mostly, outside of the purview of marketing and instead originate in other departments (sourcing, vendor relationships, prices, service and support, employee-relations issues, environmental practices). 

Marketing can often put the patina of order on this chaos, but it's fleeting. Instead, these factors—all the result of behaviors of one sort or another—emerge within and from every department in your company. The substance of those behaviors is thus far more important to your brand than anything the marketers could create. Again, this impacts your selling right now, whether you're aware of it or not. 

Getting proactive with this involvement requires a new starting point for the conversation: it's not about applying the branding to the departments, but rather allowing their actions themselves to be understood as drivers of the brand. 

6. Other than your own, what business book would you recommend to BtoB marketers?

I really enjoyed "Ogilvy On Advertising," by David Ogilvy.  It's been out for a long time, but Ogilvy understood the humanity inherent in purchase decisions, and that ultimately the business consumer is still a consumer. I think a lot of the distinctions we draw between the BtoB and BtoC practices are artificial and sometimes not even true. Getting people to buy things is a universal; it's only in the details that differences emerge. 

7. What's the best advice you ever received, and or where did it come from?

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from my father when I was in high school. We had agreed to play golf together on a Sunday morning, but the Saturday prior I stayed at a friend's house and forgot the appointment. When I got home, far too late in the morning to make tee time, my Dad calmly explained to me that the worst thing I could do to another person is squander or waste their time. That has stuck with me personally and professionally, and it's an important adage for marketers to remember: be relevant, or be quiet.

8. What has been the biggest challenge in your professional career?

I'm living it right now: talking to marketers about truly changing the marketing paradigm. 

For all the talk about new media and experimentation, most communications follow traditions and conceits that are decades old. Many smart, well-intentioned people are hell-bent on proving that the outdated concepts of branding—telling consumers what to think, believing we could ever know what they're thinking anyway, and even if we were able to, thinking that those ideas would be casually relevant to their purchase behavior—are still valid, only they're not. It would be easier if they were, but it's simply not the case.

Lots of marketers are so accustomed to talking about brands as these all-encompassing things, describable mostly by metaphor, that they have real trouble opening their minds to another possibility. So the challenge is to engage them in this discussion about brands as something more—as behavior—and work with them to redirect their creativity and initiative.

It's the biggest challenge I've faced, but also the most rewarding. 

For more of Jonathan's news and updates, visit his blog at Dim Bulb.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 9:22 AM | Permalink

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers. Recently, brothers Jay and Carlos Hidalgo, founders of The Annuitas Group, responded to our questions. You'll learn about the challenges facing today's BtoB marketers and the Hidalgo brother’s insights for moving beyond them.

1. How did you and your brother, Carlos, get started in the lead management industry?
We actually got started in the mid-90s. I was working at a firm, developing lead generation programs for clients. The programs often generated significant numbers of leads, which we would turn over to the clients' sales force. But because our clients didn't have the processes necessary to properly follow up on leads, we became the "scapegoat" for less than desired sales outcomes. "These leads are no good" we often heard. So, we developed lead follow-up processes and services to maximize the value of those leads. Carlos also started down this road about the same time, as he was managing large scale lead generation programs for some of the biggest IT companies in the world. He also noticed that while his company was generating the leads, the companies were not taking the necessary steps to ensure proper follow-up.

2. When did you realize that companies which only generate leads and fail to manage how they're handled in any consistent way were missing the mark?
Almost immediately. Once in a while, we'd have the chance to prove it by measurement. I remember one client who told us that the 300-plus leads we had generated over a 6 week period were no good. We implemented a "post campaign" research project, and identified that more than half of the leads never received any kind of follow up. Of those, 90% ended up buying from our client's competitors within a 90-day period. It's hard to argue with statistics.

3. Why do you think many BtoB marketers fail to understand the impact of comprehensive lead management programs or to incorporate them into their marketing efforts? 
Our experience indicates that marketers fall into two categories: Those who refuse to acknowledge the impact of not having lead management processes, and those who just don't understand they have a lead management problem. For the first group, it's difficult to convince them otherwise. Myopic thinking or the fear of getting "exposed" often keeps them from doing anything to improve. For the second group, convincing them on the benefits of a comprehensive lead management happens relatively quickly. But understanding that there's a problem, and knowing how to fix it are two different things. And that's where we see the biggest frustration. Marketers know they have a problem, but don't know where to start to fix it.

4. What kind of impact have you seen the current state of the economy have on BtoB marketers and Sales professionals? 
Right now, it's mixed. For some, cutting costs has become the priority, and marketing is looked at as a cost. For others, especially those that understand that marketing is an integral part to growth, the approach has been to figure out ways to be more efficient. In our world, we've seen an increased interest in developing lead management processes, because they lead to greater efficiency.

5. What should BtoB marketers and Sales professionals do to survive a down economy and be well positioned for an upswing?A few things come to mind…
• Don't panic. 
• Spend time and effort on what you know works. Save the "let's try this" items for when things are a little more stable. 
• Assess both marketing and sales processes. Assess where there is inefficiency and waste; fix it and maintain. 

6. Why do you think silos exist between marketing and sales, and which team do you think is more amenable to working with the other?  
Traditionally, marketing considers their job completed when a lead is generated and passed on to sales. When they hear that sales is complaining about lead quality, they get defensive. Sales, historically, gets frustrated because they spend much wasted time trying to sort through all the leads from marketing so they can find the "good" ones. They begin to resent marketing because this "sorting" reduces their selling time and ultimately commissions. Unfortunately, it's too common a dynamic.

I don't believe either "side" is more amenable than the other. For the most part, both want to be successful. Both want revenue to increase.  Both want to close more sales. The key is finding what's important to each role. When both roles come together asking, "What do you need?" instead of saying to the other, "This is what I want," it's amazing how quickly things can come together.

7. What business book have you recently read that you'd recommend?
"Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable About Destroying the Barriers That Turn Colleagues Into Competitors" by Pat Lencioni. It's a great "fable" about the barriers that are created in organizations and how to destroy them so that teams work together. This is a helpful read to anyone who needs assistance integrating marketing and sales.

8. What's the best advice you ever received and who or where did it come from? 
Dr. David Beighley told me, "Ask yourself 'What's the NEXT right thing to do?' Then go do it."

9. What has been the biggest challenge in your professional career? 
Leaving established company's to start The Annuitas Group. There are so many unknowns when you finally take the leap, the biggest being whether or not you'll make it. We've been blessed with great clients, great partners and with the ability to provide a service that solves a problem most companies have. We thank God everyday for what we've been able to do.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 9:49 AM | Permalink

Through these special blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers.  Recently, John Coe, president and founder of the Sales & Markeitng Institute and author of the book, "The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing" responded to our questions. You'll learn about today's challenges and his advice for overcoming them.

1. How do you think the current state of the economy will affect the way BtoB marketers and Sales professionals do their jobs, and what advice do you have for them?
Ironically, the current downturn in the market has exacerbated the need for marketing and sales groups to better integrate to drive increases in overall sales productivity. That's the headline today. Unless this is accomplished, many marketing and sales people will be looking for jobs, as companies are now highly focused on this last great frontier of productivity improvement, and will cut costs and people unless convinced otherwise. In fact, it has already begun.

2. What do you see as the biggest challenge for marketing and sales?
It's not lead generation and qualification, as that has been focused on quite a bit over the last 10-15 years. What is now facing companies is the inability of field sales to cost effectively grow and keep the customer base. Frankly, customers don't want to see sales people, and particularly when they don't see the benefit of the meeting. Seth Godin used the term "disruptive marketing" in his first book, "Permission Marketing" to describe how we try to interrupt people with our marketing messages, and that's one of the reasons advertising is loosing its effectiveness. 

Well, guess what? We have the same situation today in sales, because sales people want to see customers on their time schedule and need rather than on the customer's, and are practicing "disruptive sales." Now with the internet, sales people no longer hold the keys to information and knowledge, so the primary reason customers would accept a face-to-face sales call has mostly disappeared. In addition, many more buyers are involved in the decision process now, and this further complicates the sales person's job.

This is where database direct marketing can ride to the rescue. Developing a new blended sales coverage model using the tool sets of database/direct marketing in close cooperation with field sales is the biggest challenge and opportunity in B2B today.

3. It's recognized that sales and marketing need to work closer together. What two tips can you give for developing a closed-loop process between these important departments?
Closing the feedback loop between marketing and sales seems to be the never-ending problem. I am continually asked about this at every seminar. Frankly, sales people are busy and could care less to tell marketing anything, as they are focused on making their numbers and not doing marketing's job. So I have two basic suggestions.

First, unless marketing clearly identifies and convinces sales that there are benefits for feedback (to sales not marketing), there will only be sporadic feedback. So the first job is to detail and continually communicate the benefits to sales for closing the feedback loop – keeping your job is not one, as no sales person who is meeting their numbers will ever be fired for not giving marketing feedback on leads.

Secondly, and specific to the first suggestion, the major benefit is the delivery of higher quality (not quantity) sales leads. Unless marketing communicates the benefits to sales, little or no feedback will be the result. A flow of poor quality leads will lead (pun intended) to no follow-up by sales, as they know it is a waste of their time, but also they will not admit to not doing the follow-up and disguise this by not closing the feedback loop! Make sense? You bet it does.

4. What piece of information would you recommend to marketing professionals having a tough time proving their worth to C-Suite executives?
If marketing wants to prove their worth to the C-suite today, they have to move up the "measurement ladder" to value and results, and leave activity measurements behind. No senior executive wants or cares about how many responses, clicks or attendees to events that marketing has caused. What they always were interested in, and are on a war path now to measure, is what value and results marketing has generated and can actually demonstrate. No news here, and in B2B this can be a vexing problem, as the sales cycle can be long and no feedback (sound familiar) of actual sales can be attributed to specific campaigns and activities. This is a complicated subject, and I have written a white paper on Converting Inquiries to Qualified Leads that will help define how to do this. In the end, you need to climb the measurement ladder to save the budget and even your job.

5. What were some hits and misses in your career, and what do you think could have made the processes easier?
The best story I have is actually one that happened to me when I was in sales many years ago. It's a tale in two parts about why qualification of inquiries is important. When I was in chemical sales we received copies of magazine inquiries only containing information on the company and person who inquired and what product they inquired about. No other information or qualification was present.

The first one I followed up was for a flammable solvent used in PVC pipe cement, and once I finally found the company (have you ever driven in Pittsburgh?) I realized that it was a garage next to a railroad track, and certainly not worth my time and effort. This was a miss.

Several months later I followed up on another inquiry for a urethane ingredient. After phoning the company (the best method of qualification) I flew up to Hibbing, MN in the winter – stupid or brave – who knows? Six months later we had a $250,000 account, and also beat DuPont to the sale much to the delight of my boss. This was a hit.

So what's my point? Sales people should not be following up and/or qualifying inquiries – marketing should. At $500-$700 for each sales call today, sales people should spend their time on more valuable activities. This story never fails to make that point to B2B companies that are still sending inquiries to sales groups, and believe it or not, there are many who still do.

6. What's the best advice you ever received and who or where did it come from?
The best advice I ever received was from a mentor (I was lucky to have one at Quaker Oats, Chemical Division), when he said: "John, don't desire the next job, act like you already have it!" What he was really saying is "think up" to what your boss is facing and needs if you want to get promoted. I took his advice to heart and less than a year later was promoted to National Sales Manager –I guess it worked!

7. What makes you happy about going to work everyday?
The thing that drives me today is that we are in the midst of a true revolution in B2B marketing and sales, as the old traditional model is not working. We are in the midst of inventing this new "go-to-market" strategy and model and that's very exciting. It's quite a trip for an old road warrior like me to be on!

Posted by Will Schnabel at 2:24 PM | Permalink

Through these  special  blog postings, our goal is to offer advice and insights from top BtoB marketers.  Recently, I had a conversation with Russell Kern, president of The Kern Organization and author of S.U.R.E.-Fire Direct Response Marketing: Managing Business-to-Business Sales Leads for Bottom-Line Success. We talked about the usual -  the  economy, marketing and life. I truly hope you learn as much from Russell as I did.

1. The Kern Organization has grown quite a bit from its humble days as a five-person boutique shop. Tell us how your company has achieved a growth rate of 400 percent and landed at number 962 on Inc.'s 5000  Fastest Growing Private Companies in America?
The key was a combination of clearly defining our mission, formalizing our operating processes and procedures, putting in place measurement systems and providing rewards to the staff for behavior consistent with the values and goals of the organization.

It turns out these steps are the fundamentals for any business to succeed. In the case of most entrepreneurial firms, including TKO, it takes years for the business to gain momentum, and then to go back and re-engineer the processes to take the business to the next level.

We were fortunate to have a solid value proposition, excellent creative and strategic services, a strong sales organization and an outstanding implementation team. Together we were able to sustain rapid growth because the foundation and framework were in place.

2. What do you see as the biggest challenge for BtoB marketers and what is the solution?
The biggest challenge for BtoB marketers is creating valuable, exclusive content that can be used as an offer and bringing prospective buyers into the sales funnel. Original content that meets the needs of your target audience is difficult to create because it requires a deep understanding of your customer needs. Most marketers, especially BtoB marketers, are so busy just getting the work done, that there is very little time to do the market research and planning required to generate offers that will help leapfrog the business forward.

The solution is to commit to the future, today. If you don’t spend the time to invent new and innovative materials that attract the right audience today, your marketing efforts are eventually going to decline and you'll pay for the deferred investment tomorrow. No free lunches, even in marketing.

3. Do you think BtoB marketers are more inclined to want to work with sales now, or do you still see silos existing?
This depends on the organization and the culture of the organization. I know BtoB marketers want to work with sales. However, sometimes it's just not their jurisdiction. If the head of marketing and sales are not in sync, their organizations won't be, either. The marketing organization mirrors the action of its leaders.

Thus silos are common, but in general BtoB marketers understand it's their job to generate qualified leads. The bigger issues are to work with sales to determine the definition of a qualified lead and to set the business rules on when leads are to be passed to sales.

4. What steps should marketers take to create alignment with sales?
Have quarterly meetings to review leads. They should review a large sampling of leads and discuss the quality of the leads, the sales treatment for a qualified and non-qualified lead, the sales disposition of both types of leads and what refinements are required to make each organization more successful.

The VPs of each unit must be at these meetings and spearhead this initiative to effect the change required.

5. Marketers often find their toughest challenge is proving the ROI of their efforts. What advice can you give on accomplishing that task?
Don't give up. Use "Did you buy' surveys," OBTM (outbound telemarketing) tele-surveys on close leads, match-backs of leads against PO at 3, 6, 9 and 12-month intervals.

This is the single most important step to prove the value marketing brings to the sales organization, as well as the company. The ROI measures don't have to be 100 percent perfect, so sample sets of data can be used to get indications, but all measures to prove marketing ROI must be taken.

It is slow and painful work, but exceptionally rewarding in the end.

6. What is your advice for a BtoB marketer frustrated by the economy?
Now is the time to sell like crazy. Recessions will come and go. However, I know those companies that market during a recession, gain greater market share as the economy recovers. This is what TKO did in early 2000.

Use this time to focus on the value your product brings to companies. Realize the sales cycle will slow, however now prospective buyers are in a heavy information-gathering mode. It's a great time to do lead generation and then drop your respondents into a cohesive lead nurturing process over a 6-12 month time frame.

7. What business book have you recently read that you'd recommend?
I have recently attended Omnicom University, where we studied over 15 Harvard Business School cases. I can't recommend the Harvard Business Review enough to any business leader. I especially recommend its compendium of articles, "Leadership Insights: 15 Unique Perspectives on Effective Leadership." What I have become passionate about is understanding the critical difference between management and leadership. Further, embracing how difficult it is to be a great leader.

8. What's the best advice you ever received, and who or where did it come from?
The best advice I ever got was from my summer camp director on the first day of camp. He told every camper age 7 to 13, these words about camp, which translate into life: You get out of camp, what you put into it. Meaning, if you participate, if you get in the game, if you volunteer, sign up and actively engage, your experiences will be rich, rewarding and memorable.

9. What makes you happy about going to work every day?
I love trying to solve difficult problems. I love working with smart people and smart clients. I love making our services generate sales for our clients. It’s hard as heck, but hugely rewarding when it all comes together.

Posted by Will Schnabel at 9:18 AM | Permalink