The Problem with Kids: How Your Products and Services are Truly Perceived

Posted by Jeff Ogden on October 3, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | Why your products and services are like your kids

Want to crank up sales and profits in your company? Then stop talking about your kids.

I adore my kids. Three boys - 18, 15, and 12. Great kids. Want to watch my videos or flip through our family photos?

Of course not. You don’t know them and you’re happy for me, but you could not care less.

Welcome to the real world of Business to Business sales and marketing. No one cares. If you are looking to do B2B lead generation, stop thinking like a parent.

Comparing kids to a company’s products and services works. When David Meerman Scott said to his boss at Thompson, “No one cares about our products and services.” what his boss actually heard is “Your kids are ugly.” David was fired.

No one likes to be told his kids are ugly. But David was right.

Herein lies the conundrum for business to business companies. They’re proud of their fine products and services. But no one wants to watch the videos or view the photo albums of their “kids” - products and services. Unfortunately, that is what 98% feature on their websites. “We’re the leading provider of ……………” “A multi award-winning search marketing firm.”

No one cares.

Look at it from the point of view of the buyer.

Let’s say I’m going on vacation and I need our lawn mowed. Your kids might be perfect, but I’m not looking for a kid - I’m looking for lawn mowing services.

This is why Ideal Customer Profiles, Buyer Personas and Mapping Content to the Buyer Variables (Title, Buying Stage, Industry) and Content Marketing are critical in business to business marketing today. Focus on what buyers need and not what you have to sell.

That’s the BEST way to do b2b lead generation.

You must take time to carefully plan your approach for success today.

Want a free comprehensive guide to this new world? Download the highly acclaimed and free white paper, How to Find New Customers by clicking the underlined words or the image.

How to Find New Customers

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is the President of the B2B lead generation consultancy Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the way they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

5 Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages for Better Conversions

Posted by Jeff Ogden on September 26, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | 5 Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages

Great post at the Content Marketing Institute by Rachel Foster. I summarize Rachel’s post below, but you can read the full post at 5 Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages for Better Conversions.

Her bio appears below. Thank you, Rachel.

_______

As a content marketer, you put a lot of effort into getting your target audience to visit your website and opt in for your white papers, videos and reports. However, if your landing pages don’t entice people to request your content, a lot of your hard work will be lost.

That’s why I wanted to provide advice on how to improve your landing pages. For this article, I’m focusing on tips that will get people to download your free content, as the techniques for selling premium content can be different.
Here are 5 ways to increase your landing pages’ conversion rates:

Keep your most important content above the fold.
That’s where the eyes go.

Limit your visitors’ options.
Keep it simple, stupid.

Show the benefits.
Give me a good reason to fill out your form.

Create a sense of urgency.
Why should I fill out your form? Give me a reason.

Appeal to skimmers.
Short paragraphs, bullets, etc.

Also, be sure to test your landing pages to determine which copy and graphics give you the best results.
For instance:

Try running an A/B split test where you create two versions of your landing page and split your traffic between both pages.
Experiment with different headlines, calls to action and other elements until you learn which page brings you the highest conversion rate.

What about you? What techniques do you use to make your landing pages more effective? Feel free to share your thoughts below.

Author: Rachel Foster

Rachel Foster is an award-winning B2B copywriter who helps technology marketers create content that drives action. She works with clients to increase their online conversion rates, shorten their sales cycles and fill their events. Register for her upcoming free webinar Breakthroughs in B2B Marketing: 3 Hot Trends that Will Help You Generate High-Quality Leads and Increase Your Revenue at www.copywritertoronto.com/b2btrends. You can follow her on Twitter @CopywriterTO.

Why don’t you check out the B2B Lead Generation Assessment Service from Find New Customers?

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“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

Buying software is easy. Fixing Lead Generation is hard.

Posted by Jeff Ogden on September 24, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | Buying stuff is easy - fixing problems is hard.

If you want to make sales quota in 2012, get started today! Right now! Immediately!

SaaS marketing automation products like Marketo, Hubspot, Eloqua and the like are very, very easy to buy. Give them a credit card, they give you a login. Done. The transaction can be completed in minutes.

It’s actually way too easy, I believe. Too many companies believe purchasing software fixes B2B lead generation. It does not.

Fixing your B2B lead generation challenges is a lot like losing weight. Most everyone wants to do it but promises don’t match reality.

Look at this image. “Scientists discover rare weight loss ‘Wonder Herb.‘” That sounds like the sales pitch of software vendors, promising all that ROI the comes from their software. (That ROI is possible - just like weight loss is possible - if done right.)

I’m sure you don’t buy that. You know full well that there’s no “Wonder Herb” in dieting. Dieting is hard and arduous. Watch “The Biggest Loser” to see how hard it is.

Unfortunately, there’s no “Wonder Herb” in B2B lead generation and marketing either.

Want to hear what it’s really like to buy marketing automation? Read an actual user story in Marketing automation—lower your expectations.

The author, Liz McCellan writes “Don’t get me wrong. I think marketing automation is a smart tool to invest in, but I want to give some candid advice about setting the right expectations.” She goes to compare marketing automation to becoming a parent - everyone congratulates you, but you are in for hard work. One recommendation: She urges you to set realistic dates - and then add at least 6 more months.

Liz makes a great point in her article. What does your software purchase do toward fixing your company’s problems with generating quality sales leads? Absolutely nothing! (This is not a knock on products from companies such as Marketo, Eloqua, Silverpop, Neolane, Aprimo, and Pardot. They are all fine products from solid companies.)

The only way to REALLY fix your lead generation challenges is to do a LOT of hard work - the diet and exercise, if you will - which we summarize in these 10 steps.

Are you ready to do what it takes? Then complete these ten steps.

Craft deep buyer personas - a deep understanding of prospective buyers and concerns.
Define your keywords - the words buyers use to search for solutions.
Agree on the common definition of a lead and identify key trigger events which drive decisions. (So sales will get fewer, better leads.)
Map content to the buyer personas and buyer variables (using keywords) (So you can take buyers on a journey and you do well in search)
Fill in the gaps with new content (using keywords) (No gaps in the journey.)
Optimize the website, blog and social media based on keywords (so you rank well in search.)
Design lead nurturing campaigns in a Problem to Solution story-telling format using your content. (Earn trust till they are ready to buy.)
Using the agreed lead definition, agree on the behaviors and demographics that indicate buying propensity (lead scoring). (Remember, we need fewer and better leads for sales.)
Create metrics to measure the effectiveness of your programs. (So we can refine it over time.)
Deploy everything in your new marketing automation software.

Notice that the real use for the software you bought first appears in Step 10?

Unless you are ready to invest in those 10 steps using internal and/or resources like Find New Customers, you will never really fix your problem with sales lead quality.

We invite you to check out the Lead Nurturing and Scoring service from Find New Customers.

What do you think? Is buying software a panacea for fixing real problems in most companies? We love your comments and sharing.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

2 Take-Aways from a MarketingSherpa Case Study

Posted by Jeff Ogden on September 21, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | Lessons from a MarketingSherpa case study

We wish to share our thoughts on this MarketingSherpa case study, because we believe they missed one very important take-away.

Arrows Missing Target

Centerbeam, a company that delivers technology infrastructure support for mid-sizedbusinesses, was the subject of a case study by MarketingSherpa recently. You can read the case study at Lead Generation: How ignoring 16,896 companies helped improve Sales-Marketing alignment.

We wish to share our thoughts on this case study with our fans.

Please note that Pointclear helped this company with this project. Want to know why reaching out to Pointclear was so critical to their success? Read our post Doctor, Heal Thyself to learn why companies are unable to diagnose their own demand generation challenges.

Moving Lead Generation over to Sales. Does it work?

To save money, the VP of Sales decided to have his direct salespeople handle lead generation, rather than Marketing. This meant that sales handled all:

o Sending outbound email

o Conducting all telephone follow-ups

o Securing all of their own appointments

o Conducting lead nurturing

o Engaging in database acquisition

It was a spectacular failure. The sales pipeline shrank and shrank quickly. They quickly moved those functions back to Marketing. (For more evidence that lead generation belongs in Marketing, read Four Steps to Convince CEOs that Demand Generation Should be a Marketing, Not a Sales, Function)

I believe the title MarketingSherpa used, while a great headline, misses a key point - the failure of Sales to generate quality leads.

The two key take-aways are these:

Lead Generation done by Sales is a mistake.
In the case study, the funnel shrank quickly when Sales did it. The lesson: If your salespeople are smiling and dialing, you’re not prospering. Keep it in Marketing - but tightly align it with Sales. (Such as agreeing on lead definitions.) (For more evidence that lead generation belongs in Marketing, read Four Steps to Convince CEOs that Demand Generation Should be a Marketing, Not a Sales, Function)
Careful targeting is one of the most important activities you can take.
Centerbeam removed government and education from their target market. They decided to focus on lead quality rather than quantity. Hence the comment about ignoring almost 17,000 companies.

In my opinion, far too many companies are relying on Sales for B2B lead generation. Hey guys, it doesn’t work. And as the article showed, companies stink at diagnosing their own needs. This is why companies should reach out to experts like PointClear, Bluebird Strategies, NuSpark Marketing or even Find New Customers.

What do you think? We love comments and those who share.

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“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

Why Sales needs Content Marketing and Marketing Automation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on September 20, 2011

B2B Demand Generation | The Benefit to Sales

If you’re in BtoB Sales, you may be thinking that this great content stuff and demand generation talk belongs in marketing. After all, you need to close deals! “This mumbo-jumbo’s not for me. I need to be out there talking to prospective customers.”

I think the problem is us. We’ve been talking about the marketing point of view for a long time. Now let’s talk about your world in Sales.

Let’s examine a Sales scenario to illustrate the power of content marketing and marketing automation software. The point we want to make clear is this:

The primary beneficiary of content marketing and marketing automation is Sales.

Sales Scenario 1: Without content marketing and marketing automation

Sally Smith, a Sales rep for us, calls target customer and leaves a message. Sally waits a few days and leaves another voice-mail message. Sally sends an email. After a few weeks, after more voice-mails and e-mails - with no response, Sally gives up.

Sales Scenario 2: With content marketing and marketing automation

Sally calls prospect and leaves a message. Prospect visits website and checks out the company. Though he did not fill out a form, Sally knows who it is and edits the anonymous visitor record with the contact name and company.

Seeing what the prospect did, Sally calls again and leaves a personalized message. Prospect visits again and downloads a white paper - completing a form. (And since she edited the record, both visits are captured. The prospect is automatically added into lead nurturing - and valuable information is shared over time. Because we’ve implemented lead scoring we’re able us to see exactly when they are sales-ready - ready to talk to Sales.

45 days later, Sally is notified that she has a new lead. She calls the prospect and the prospect answers. “Sally, great to hear from you. I’ve been getting so much great information from your company and I’m convinced you can help me. I look forward to meeting you.”

I hope you can now see how content marketing and marketing automation actually benefits Sales.

If you’re in B2B Sales and you feel you’re not getting the quality leads you really need, please share this post with your Vice President of Sales.

What do you think? We love comments and those who share. And we’re proud to be syndicated by many services like CustomerCollective, B2C, and many others.

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“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

The Importance of Lead Nurturing (Radio Show)

Posted by Jeff Ogden on September 15, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | The Importance of Lead Nurturing

This radio interview I did back on B2B lead nurturing back on 9/17/2009 for SalesBuzz Radio is a classic.

If you missed it then, (Or just wish to revisit it) we want to give you a chance to listen in now.

It was a very popular show. (See CMO quote below.) Enjoy and thank you, Kent!

The Importance of Lead Nurturing

Kent Huffman said:

Great podcast! As a CMO and 30-year marketing veteran, I really appreciate Jeff Ogden’s focus on a formalized process for managing and nurturing leads. Even more significant are his comments about the need to develop real relationships with your customers through a coordinated sales/marketing effort. That’s the only way to achieve significant results that are truly measurable and repeatable over time. Looking forward to the next podcast with Jeff!

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Find New Customers helps companies (with between 150 and 5,000 employees who sell complex products to businesses) to implement world-class lead generation programs. As companies struggle to create quality sales opportunities, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

Why’s B2B Marketing So Boring?

Posted by Jeff Ogden on September 14, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | Why are you all so boring?

Does everyone sound alike to you too? Name any product or service and then try to explain what makes one different from the other. Good luck.

With the vast majority of companies unable to create quality sales leads for salespeople, it is a real problem. In fact, more than 3 out of 4 companies say that the lack of quality sales leads is their biggest problem. So companies are trying to figure out lead generation programs.

http://www.findnewcustomers.com/personality

If you want do business to business lead generation, you need to attract sales leads. Lead generation programs depend on clear differentiation. In fact, when I was the featured guest on HubSpotTV recently, the show closed with my marketing takeaway:

Think Different

In a recently study by MarketingProfs and Junta42, it was found that the biggest challenge faced by marketers with their content in their lead generation programs was making it ENGAGING for prospective buyers. Over 1 out of 3 - 36%, said their single biggest problem was:

a Lack of Engaging Content

In plain English, that means when they receive your content, their reaction is “Ho hum.” A big yawn.

In my mind, there’s no excuse. Engaging lead generation content comes down to basic human nature.

People enjoy three things:

Things that make them laugh or cry
A great story
A chance to learn the unexpected

Understand your buyers and make it fun. Make them laugh or make them cry, tell them a story or surprise them with insights. They will respond, engage with you and turn into the quality sales leads your salespeople so badly need.

Let me share a good Business to Business example of good lead generation programs:

Kinaxis is a software company whose offerings compete with giant software companies SAP and Oracle. So how do they compete? Quite well, thank you.

Check out the very funny episode from Suitemates below.

Suitemates might have been their most ambitious project, but they’ve got a lot more humor - such as

Late, Late Supply Chain Show
Married to the Job, and
Uncle Jay Explains

All light, funny and entertaining. And the 21st Century Supply Chain is their thought leadership blog, so they share surprising insights too. And one of the thinks I really love about Kinaxis is this - check out all the photos of smiling, happy people!

As you see, B2B marketing, even technology, does not have to be boring. If you want to do a great job in B2B lead generation, loosen up! It’s time to, as I like to say “Let Your Freak Flag Fly!“

What do you think? We love comments and sharing. We even give you simple buttons for sharing, so please use them.

By the way, Sandhill.com invited us to write a feature article on this for them. It will run early in October.

What do you think? We love comments and people who share.
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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the ways they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or by sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com. Or set a meeting with Jeff by clicking Set a Meeting.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

Buyer Personas are the foundation of great b2b Lead Generation Programs

Posted by Jeff Ogden on August 31, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | The Power of Buyer Personas

Buyer personas are the foundation of great b2b demand generation programs for one simple reason:

The better you know your buyer, the more effectively you can market to them.

As a service to our fans, we wish to share an announcement:

Find New Customers has partnered with The Buyer Persona Institute to demonstrate how you can create great buyer personas. We plan to record a series of training videos and deliver them to you for free.

Stay tuned. We’ll have much more information soon.

Please forgive us, but we had to add CAPTCHA to some forms at Find New Customers. We were getting deluged with SPAM.
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“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.”

Laugh and Learn with Find New Customers | Episode 41 - Old Spice Blend

Posted by Jeff Ogden on August 26, 2011

Welcome to this week’s episode of our famed weekly show - Laugh and Learn with Find New Customers. This show runs every Friday at 11am ET.

Before we talk about this week’s show, we urge you to check out last week’s show (click on those words). It was a classic and perfectly sums up the mantra of Find New Customers “Always Be Helping.”

In this week’s show, we bring back a classic “Will It Blend?” along with a special guest you will recognize. And as always, Jeff Ogden of the B2B lead generation company Find New Customers shares the key marketing take-away of the week.

Don’t give up on this blog just because the weekend is coming. We have great posts coming on Saturday and Sunday too.

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is a popular speaker and presenter who is the President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the ways they attract and earn the trust of prospective customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.

How Fearless Competitor differs from other B2B Marketing blogs

Posted by Jeff Ogden on August 24, 2011

B2B Lead Generation | How does Fearless Competitor differ?

Want to understand Find New Customers? Then watch Friday’s Laugh and Learn show> Great show! It’s a must-watch!
Our Lead Nurturing and Scoring Service goes up from $24,995 to $29,995 on September 1, so book today!

There are lots of great b2b marketing blogs out there, including MarketingInteractions by Ardath Albee, ConvinceandConvert by Jay Baer, and Ann Handley’s MarketingProfs.com. I’m a fan of each of them.

The writers of those blogs are brilliant marketers and experts in content marketing. They are very popular blogs - for good reason.

But we know the B2B lead generation blog Fearless Competitor can’t compete on content, so we don’t even try. Instead of competing head to head - our focus is on innovation - to give our readers unique reasons to come back.

Here are a few of the creative things you’ll find at Fearless Competitor and nowhere else.

This is the only place you find our Laugh and Learn with Find New Customers video every Friday.
This is the only place where you find a Fan of the Month - each and every month.
This is the only place where on Sundays you find magic, learn how to tie your shoes better or learn the keys to enchanting others or expand your mind like a TED video that shares Where Great Ideas Come From.
This is the only B2B marketing blog that publishes 7 days a week.

Keep reading those great B2B marketing blogs, but for a taste of something different, come on over to Fearless Competitor.

What do you think? We love our readers and those who share our content on social networks. We also love subscribers.

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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies dramatically improve revenue results by transforming the ways they attract and earn the trust of prospective customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or sending an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com.

“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.