10 Things Your CEO Needs to Know Now about B2B Demand Generation

b2b demand generation

10 Things Your CEO Needs to Know Now b2b demand generationabout B2B Demand Generation

I love salespeople.  Are you one?

I feel for your suffering and want to help you. But to help you, you have to help me set proper expectations with your company’s leaders. That’s the theme of this post.

Why do I feel for struggling salespeople? First and foremost, I carried a bag for over two decades, so I know how your feel. I carried a quota. I was you.

Recent experience bears it out too. A beleaguered salesperson recently reached out to me and said “I’ve called EVERYONE in our Salesforce.com database and I have zero prospects!  What can I do? My prospects are hiding under rocks!” He begged me for advice, which I gave for free.

This man badly needs the help of a marketing leader well versed in B2B demand generation, who can  create a program to fill sales funnels with warm leads. However, setting proper expectations is important, because warm leads don’t simply appear – it’s a lot of work and it takes considerable time.  This is why you need support from your leadership – otherwise he expects too much too soon.

I hope this post helps you get that support and I’ll even offer to send a free book for your CEO below.

Here are Jeff Ogden, the award-winning President of Find New Customers shares his list of 10 Things Your CEO Need to Know Now about B2B demand generation.

Why don’t you share this post with your CEO?

Read it, print it and put in on his desk.

Here are 10 things your CEO needs to know about B2B demand generation.

  1. There ain’t no magic
    No doubt your CEO would like results right away. But there’s no magic formula. Sales lead generation is hard work done over time that delivers results. B2B demand generation is like the big merry-go-round pictured here. merry_go_roundLet’s assume the power goes out and you have to push it.  It’s really heavy, so it’s hard to push, but if you keep pushing, it starts to turn – slowly, and then faster and faster. It may take a long time, but eventually the speed gets faster and faster.  B2B demand generation works the same way. It startes slowly and momentum builds over time.  Ensure he or she gives you at least 18 months.
  2. It’s not free – in fact, it’s quite expensive
    You need software, content, programs and new processes. That’s not free. Get ready to spend some real money on people, software, consultants (like Find New Customers) and more. For instance, Marketo invested over a quarter of a million dollars in a social media testing program. In the Eloqua/Kapost ebook (click link to get the ebook)  they estimated monthly spend on personnel, content and tools to be just under $12,000 per month for a medium sized firm and almost $33,000 a month for a larger firm – that’s $144,000 a year in a small firm and almost $400,000 per year in a larger firm. Your CEO needs to budget for this spend.
  3. It’s going to take a LONG time to get good results
    In a study of content marketing vs. PPC ads by Kapost recently, the break-even point was 18 months out – where content marketing outperformed Pay Per Click ads (PPC). The cost per lead dropped by 80% in five months, but you need to wait for five months to see real results and 18 months just to break even. (Please note: 18 months and beyond is nirvana! Content marketing kills PPC!) Spending at the start is high – especially the first 90 days. You need a two year horizon to deliver results and most of those results come in the final 6 months.
  4. Software won’t fix everything
    Vendors of marketing software will promise you the moon, but the simple fact is the act of licensing software will not change your business one iota.  Contact one of those revenue performance management companies and give them a credit card number. Done. You have software.  But did your business improve? No. It takes a LOT more than software to deliver a world class B2B demand generation program. It takes planning,  processes, people, content, metrics and more.
  5. The more you plan ahead, the better the results
    The more time you spend building the foundation, the better your results. Buyer personas, universal lead definitions, ideal customer profiles, mapping content to buyer roles, aligning Sales and Marketing and buying process – those are things you simply must do BEFORE you start B2B demand generation. The more planning you do, the better the downsteam results.
  6. Start small and build over time
    Let’s say you want to set up a lead nurturing program.(Click to download our free 7 Keys to Successful Lead Nurturing)  Do you need a 15 step program with content and Calls to Action? No!  Start with 3 or 4 lead nurturing steps and build over time.
  7. You need to measure things
    One of the things that differentiates best in class marketers is their determination to measure and define key metrics which drive business results. We recommend VisionEdge Marketing to help with this. In addition, The Lenskold Group is terrific too – and Jim Lenskold just appeared on Marketing Made Simple TV too – publishing soon.
  8. Content marketing is a good idea, but….
    It’s not going to be easy. How can you create bite-sized content mapped to buyer personas, stage of buying process, product interest, etc? The top problem marketers say they have is creating engaging content.  As Joe Pulizzi of The Content Marketing Institute says “Content fuels everything in marketing today – lead nurturing, pay per click ads, email campaigns, etc. We recommend you talk to Avitage for this.
  9. You need a sense of humor
    Everyone sounds alike in B2B marketing today. Dry, boring product content. You need to Let Your Freak Flag Fly and have fun.  Want to see a good example of having fun with content? Check out the Suitemates series by Kinaxis – a real tongue-in-cheek send up of enterprise software firms.
  10. Setting proper expectations delivers job security
    Think of all the things you need  - money, time, creativity, software and more. Unless you set those expectations properly and get the support of the leadership of the company, you won’t be long in that job.

I suggest you print this list and leave it on your CEO’s desk. And I’m happy to send your CEO a copy of Dan McDade’s book, The Truth About Leads if you wish. Just send a note to sales at findnewcustomers.com to request a book.

What do you think? Do you have anything to add or suggest anything I got wrong? We love to read your comments and appreciate those who share our blog posts on social media.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers, and he’s a two-time winner of the prestigious award Top 50 Influencer in Sales Lead Management by the Sales Lead Management Association. He’s also the creator of the very popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TV.

News: In just two days, Marketing Made Simple TV will do a LIVE show with @hubspot Social Media Scientist Dan Zarrella. You can watch and ask your questions on the Marketing Made Simple TV Facebook page. This show premiers at 2:00pm ET/11am PT on May 22nd.

You can also sign up for free bi-weekly market tips here

SLMA winner

 

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How ITSMA is Leveraging Marketing Made Simple TV to promote their offerings

HotGuests

Research based membership firm uses innovative approach using Marketing Made Simple TV to promote their offerings

By the way, this award-winning blog is powered by WPEngine – the best and fastest hosting available. Want to supercharge your WordPress blog? Check out this to learn more and you’ll find a great offer for you.

In 2012, the Revenue Performance Management Software firm Eloqua (Now part of Oracle) became a sponsor of Marketing Made Simple TV – the TV on the Web show created and hosted by Jeff Ogden. But they didn’t do much at all with it. They simply used their Calls to Action and tracked how many leads they got from people clicking the Call to Action in the show. They told us they want to test how well we generate leads.

With minimal support, the test did not generate the number of leads they hoped and the trial ended.  We were disappointed, not that it ended, but that Eloqua had done so little to make it successful.

There HAD to be a better way to get more from sponsorships. As the host of the show, I’ve invested a lot of thinking about it. Let’s share what my team and I have come up with:

We believe to get optimal results from sponsoring Marketing Made Simple TV, you need to invest in two things:

  1. Paid marketing campaign, like Google Adwords and/or Facebook ads
  2. Smart leveraging of the content created by Marketing Made Simple TV in your own content marketing programs.

Fortunately, a recent show guest did something remarkable – something we can share with you.

A Marketing Made Simple TV success story – smart leveraging of the show

We recently did a show with Jeff Sands of ITSMA, who runs their Account Based Marketing program. As always, we promoted it extensively across our syndication network – Marketing Made Simple TV, Social Media Club, FearlessCompetitor.com, Social Media Today, Business2Community, CustomerThink, B2B Marketing Zone, Alltop, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.  This is how we expose the show to over 2.5 million people each week.  ITSMA was thrilled!

Jeff Sands

Jeff Sands

Who is ITSMA?

Note from DaveITSMA helps B2B companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We are a research-based membership organization that works with the world’s leading professional services, technology, and communications providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA’s current members include business leaders such as AT&T, Capgemini, Cisco, Cognizant, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Siemens, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our custom research, consulting, and training cover topics such as Account Based Marketing, Brand Positioning, Thought Leadership Marketing, Loyalty and Net Promoter, Sales Enablement, Social Media, and Solutions Marketing.ITSMA

To see how ITSMA is leveraging Marketing Made Simple TV visit:

Growing the Business with Account Based Marketing

That is the landing page for their Account Based Marketing Program  Notice how they posted the show on the lower left of the page. But they’re not stopping there.

In addition to this great landing page, they are distributing the show to all of their members this week. Think about that – a highly selective group of marketers at large technology and services firms will get Marketing Made Simple TV in their email.

This is frankly, how sponsors should leverage Marketing Made Simple TV for best results!

What do you think? We love comments and those who share on posts on social media.

Jeff Ogden is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the digital marketing company Find New Customers, as well has the creator and host of the popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TVSign up for free bi-weekly marketing tips here.

The Awesome Power of Guest Posts in Content Marketing

Guest Posts

content marketing guest postGuest posts not only bring links, they bring an audience for your content marketing.

Brian Clark, aka @copyblogger, says that guest posts are one of the best ways to build your business with content. Not only do you get links pointing to you, but some of the audience comes along too. So if you want to promote a business like the sales lead generation company, Find New Customers, start writing guest posts!

Here are a list of benefits compiled by Brian Clark on guest blogging. in his recent book. He dedicates an entire chapter to guest posts! It is one of the best ways to build an audience. Here are four reason why guest posts are so powerful.

  1. Guest Blogging Enhances Your Authority
    Placing posts on other blog help your potential audience to associate your name with high quality information. Boy does it ever!
  2. Guest Blogging Brings in an Audience, Not Just Traffic
    Anyone can buy traffic with PPC, but it is just traffic.  Traffic from a guest post is already an audience. And when you write a post for a very popular blog like Marketo, you get tons of audience.
  3. Guest Blogging Builds Your Publisher Network
    How do little content publishers grow up to be big publishers? They make connections. They develop a healthy network of publishers who help them get the word out. (Contribute regularly to the same blogs.)
  4. Guest Blogging is Superb for Natural SEO
    Building high-quality linked is one of the trickiest (and most important) elements of effective SEO. Guest posting allows you to get a relevant, natural link, using the anchor text of your choice, on a site that that has excellent search engine authority.

As an award-winning marketing expert, Jeff Ogden, is an experienced and talented blogger, and he’s been developing a lot of guest posts for other blogs, including some with outstanding search engine authority.

Here are some examples of Jeff Ogden’s recent guest posts:

  1. Guest post for Docusign: Stop Chasing Contracts and Get Back to Generating Sales Leads 
  2. Guest post for Marketo: Igniting Word of Mouth – How WOM Reduced Teen Smoking in South Carolina (722 social media shares already!)
  3. Guest post for SellingPower: Who Should be Responsible for Sales Enablement Content – Sales or Marketing?
  4. Podcast for OpenViewLabs: Labcast: Newsjacking as a B2B Marketing Tactic with David Meerman Scott and Jeff Ogden

In addition, Jeff Ogden has been invited onto SalesOp TV by Gerhard Gschwandtner. Recently we did a video with my good friend, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Celebrity CMO, Cowboy and guest contributor on Bloomberg TV and David Raab, marketing automation expert. You can watch this fun show here:

I’d love to hear what you think? Do you write guest posts? What was your experience with it? Did you see results? We love comments and those who share on social media. Also, based on a recommendation from Dan Zarrella, Hubspot’s Social Media Scientist (special LIVE show on Wednesday, May 22nd at 2:00pm ET), we are now publishing very early in the am.  What do you think of that?

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers. He’s also the creator of the very popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TV.

You can also sign up for free bi-weekly market tips from Find New Customers here

How to Get More Sales Leads – SalesOpTV with marketing experts @erikluhrs, @iannarino, @fearlesscomp and @gerhard20

chief marketing officer

In this fun and engaging video show, four sales and marketing experts share their best ideas for

  1. Generating Sales Leads
  2. Lead Nurturing
  3. Improving leads with social and business intelligence
  4. Qualifying leads and lead scoring
  5. Lead distribution
  6. Marketing automation

Follow these thought leaders Erik Luhrs @erikluhrs, Jeff Ogden @fearlesscomp,Gerhard Geshwandter @gerhard20, Anthony Iannario @iannarino

We invite sales leaders and sales operations managers to joinhttp://www.salesopshop.com to collaborate with us and help improve salespeople, sales processes and technology.

What do you think? We love to read your comments and appreciate those who share on social media.

Jeff Ogden is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the digital marketing company Find New Customers, as well has the creator and host of the popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TVSign up for free bi-weekly marketing tips here.

sales lead generation

 

Marketing Strategy to Revenues and Social with three top marketing experts

marketing strategy

LATEST VIDEO: FROM MARKETING STRATEGY TO REVENUES THROUGH AUTOMATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Two quick video clips kick off a conversation between four sales and marketing experts.

One clip features Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo and the second clip shows Steve Jobs as he shares his vision for Apple’s new marketing strategy. The video with the late Steve Jobs is a classic!

The marketing strategy expert panelists for this rousing discussion of marketing strategy include:

  1. Jeff Hayzlett, CEO, The Hayzlett Group (and featured contributor on Bloomberg TV)
  2. Jeff Ogden, TV Host, Marketing Made Simple TV and award-winning marketing expert
  3. David Raab, Principal, Raab Associates – marketing automation expert
  4. and they’re hosted by Gerhard Gschwandtner of SalesOpShop.

SalesOpShop TV description

Two quick video clips kick off a conversation between four sales and marketing experts. One clip features Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo the second clip shows Steve Jobs as he shares his vision for Apple’s new marketing strategy.

Selling Power CEO Gerhard Gschwandtner moderates the panel discussion with Jeff Hayzlett, CEO The Hayzlett Group, Jeff Ogden, TV Host, Marketing Made Simple and David Raab, Principal, Raab Associats,

To watch the full videos of the clips discussed in this show go to these URL’s

We invite sales leaders and sales operations managers to joinhttp://www.salesopshop.com to collaborate with us and help improve salespeople, sales processes and technology.

What did you think of this show? We love comments and those who share on social media. And at the recommendation of Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientist at Hubspot (a future guest on Marketing Made Simple TV, by the way), we are now publishing very early. What do you think of that?

Did you know that BuyerZone named this blog The Best B2B Blog of 2012?BestofBuyerZone-132x138 - Copy

Jeff Ogden is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the digital marketing company Find New Customers, as well has the creator and host of the popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TVSign up for free bi-weekly marketing tips here.

Want to write a guest post for Fearless Competitor? Can you pull cars to the curb?

guest blog

Fearless Competitor, the top B2B marketing blog of 2012, according to BuyerZone, is happy to accept guest posts. However, we have a Rule of Thumb – Can you pull cars to the curb?

Scott Stratten of Unmarketing, a guest on my Marketing Made Simple TV show, tells the story of a blogger.

There is a blogger who writes infrequently, but his posts are so good that, which I’m driving and see a new post on my smartphone, I pull over immediately to read it.

guest blogThe posts are so good that he cannot even wait to get home.

Great posts require great writing, clean organization, easy to read formatting and highly relevant images. Do you write posts like that?

If you write posts that pull cars to the side of the road, you can write for us anytime.  Reach Jeff Ogden at jeff dot ogden at findnewcustomers.com.

Jeff Ogden is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the digital marketing company Find New Customers, as well has the creator and host of the popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TVSign up for free bi-weekly marketing tips here.

A Find New Customers client story – Why it didn’t work

chief marketing officer

“You can’t help someone who does not want to change.” – Adele Revella, the Buyer Persona Institute

Recently, I was contacted by a CEO of a software firm in New Jersey via LinkedIn, after he checked out Jeff Ogden‘s portfolio on LinkedIn. (Feel free to see what he saw, Jeff Ogden on LinkedIn) He wanted to crank up marketing, create a sales lead generation program, and drive more sales leads. I met with him, showed him Find New Customers SCORE demand generation program, and a deal was quickly inked. But the deal did not last long.

Comodo

Let’s look at why it failed.

This software firm’s idea of marketing was to continually email sales pitches to their marketing database. Pitch A, Pitch B, Pitch C. As their Director of Marketing told me, unsubscribes were very high.  I was also told they had marketing automation software, but it was a bastardized and labor-intensive in-house abortion. (Nothing at all like Marketo, Eloqua or Act-On Software) It was quickly clear that major challenges were facing me. (But they were also a one product company – so very simple.)

I tried my best to talk to the CEO. I worked very closely with his right hand man – carefully following his advice – like not discussing the need for commercial revenue management software. But nothing I could do would budge that CEO.  This man was determined to do things his way. For instance, he had his Director of Marketing create comprehensive process flows, with no software to implement them. It was “make work” – no more and no less.  It was like digging a hole and then putting the dirt back – it did nothing at all for the business.

Determined to open his eyes, in our marketing meeting I tried to share the complexity of modern marketing by explaining a Sirius Decisions Waterfall diagram (below), but he stopped me immediately and said “Wait and show that to my Director of Marketing, Jeff.” Uh-oh!

I’m sorry, but if the business leader is unable and unwilling to address marketing best practices, the deal is doomed.  The agreement was terminated.

I shared this story with my good friend, Adele Revella of the Buyer Persona Institute. She said ”You cannot help someone who does not want to be helped. I’ve had a hard time embracing that.”

Adele is right.  Make sure your client has the right mindset to be helped. This CEO clearly was not looking for help. Find New Customers next client will have the right mindset.

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

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers. He’s also the creator of the very popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TVYou can also sign up for free bi-weekly market tips here.

Did you also know that both the B2BMarketingZone and All-Top syndicate this blog? Both are extremely popular sites.

 

Why Using a Telemarketing Call Center is a Great Idea

telemarketing

Summary – Imagine a sales force that never calls in sick or misses a day because of bad weather. Now imagine a sales force that is there where and when your customers want them and need them. You’ve just imagined a telemarketing call center.

(Editor’s note: We are pleased to offer this guest post today. Hope you like it.)

There is the real estate adage that says when you are looking for a place to set up your business there are only three things that matter, Location, Location, and Location! The reason is simple, in order for a business to succeed it has to be where its customers are. For many businesses that is just not possible. If you don’t have a location that customer can easily get to the next best solution is to go where the customers are.

Many people find calls from teleman-mobile-phonemarketers a bother but companies continue to employ them on both an outbound and inbound basis because they a very effective means of reaching and keeping the attention of existing and potential customers. Companies that perform telemarketing activities do so for a variety of reasons, including; customer service, market research, improving awareness and sales.

Telemarketing works precisely because location matters. Customers crave convenience, in fact studies have shown that people will often pay a premium for convenience and few things are more convenient than having the sales force come to you. For business owners and managers the benefits of telemarketing are reflected on the bottom line in very real terms because there is no wasted time and expense in a salesperson traveling from customer to customer.

Telemarketing benefits both the marketer and customer in terms of response time and order fulfillment because the results are immediately actionable on both sides of the transaction. Delays of hours days or even weeks for orders to be processed are eliminated and results can be measured and offers and tactics revised in real time.

One of telemarketing’s advantages is its versatility. Telemarketing, as a business resource is available every day all year long, regardless of weather, traffic, construction or any other factor that might interfere with a salesman’s ability to visit customers. Companies can be available when customers are ready to take orders, answer questions and resolve problems. Telemarketing allows all of this with the added benefit of better tracking of results.

An effective sales program is a numbers game. Volume matters, because if the best salesman in your company closes 50% of his visits with a sale and can only make 10 visits a week that’s 5 sales. If you can get close to the same closing percentage but double, triple, or quadruple the number of calls made your number of closed sales will go through the roof.

Unlike a salesman an outsourced telemarketing program to a top quality call center never calls in sick or has car trouble and in addition to the greater number of calls when all things are equal a call center is always there and ready to conduct business on your behalf. Telemarketing does not promise success for every business in every situation. You still have to have a quality product or service that customers will be interested in purchasing but if you do than telemarketing will prove itself to be the cost effective solution you have been searching for to grow your business.

Paul is a freelance writer for Ansafone Contact Centers that provide call center outsourcing services. For more information about how call center service outsourcing services can help your business visit the Ansafone website.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers. He’s also the creator of the very popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TVYou can also sign up for free bi-weekly market tips here

We also write a lot of guest posts for SellingPower.com, Marketo, and Brandtelling.com. Guest posts are a great way to gain publicity, according to content marketing expert Brian Clark of Copyblogger. In fact, the number one source of traffic for this blog is search engines, so we are ranking well.

Sales and Marketing Co-Creation – The Power of a Cold Beer

marketing strategy

At the recent Sales and Marketing 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, Gerhard Gschwandtner, CEO of Selling Power told the attendees “How can you build bridges between sales and marketing? Buy them a cold beer!”  Gerhard said to me “The audience LOVED it.”

Gerhard Gschwandtner

Gerhard Gschwandtner

In this really fun and exciting show, you’ll learn why deep understanding buyers is so critical and why companies need to create buyer personas.  Why these insights are so critical in your sales efforts so that you can “fish where the fish are.”

You will also learn why your salespeople need fewer leads and why sending sales into battle with a pocket-k’nife is a really bad idea.  In fact, you’ll hear an interesting story of how a salesperson can answer a buyer question on an iPad. Don’t miss it!

Gerhard says that marketers flock together, but sales are eagles and fly alone.  What can we do about that? You will also learn why sales enablement does not belong in Sales or Marketing – it belongs in both. Finally, learn why every company needs a best-practices sales lead generation program.

And the big take-away from the show is this:. How to align sales and marketing? It’s simple. Take the other to lunch, have a frank conversation, and down a few cold ones. It’s all about people. Yes, beer works.

What do you think of this show? We love to read comments and appreciate those who share our updates on social media.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is an award-winning marketing expert and President of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers. He’s also the creator of the very popular TV on the Web show, Marketing Made Simple TVYou can also sign up for free bi-weekly market tips heresales lead generation

Who is the Hero of our Story? You are!

sales lead generation

With so many businesses struggling to create enough qualified sales leads, who’s the hero of our story?

Answer: Beleaguered sales people. YOU!

sales lead generation

You don’t deserve to suffer. Your voice-mail messages go unanswered and your emails go unopened. It’s harder and harder to meet with a real decision maker. We feel your pain.

Your employer’s to blame, because they have not invested fully in a best-practices sales lead generation program. They have not purchased marketing automation like Marketo or Eloqua.  They have not fully invested in content marketing either – especially in relevant, engaging content that move buyers down the buying journey.

This is why we champion those salespeople. You are the true heroes of our story. We are rooting for you!

Over the next few weeks, we will share examples of salespeople and try to help them with their challenges. We are Obi Wan Kenobi to your Luke Skywalker.

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

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor is an award-winning marketer and President of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers. Contact Jeff at 516-495-9350 or send an email to sales at findnewcustomers.com. Sign up for free bi-weekly marketing tips here.