Category Archives: Trust

Trust and the Big Lie of Lead Generation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

B2B Lead Generation: Capturing Accurate Information on Forms

Last Friday, someone filled out this form to download content. It’s exactly the theme of this post. People lie.

(By the way, we no longer deliver the content after the form is completed, we email a link to the content. This ensures they use a valid email address.)

First Name : zxzx
Last Name : zxzx
Email (valid corporate email address is required) : [email protected]
Job Title : Sales Leader
Phone # : sdsd
Web Site URL : dsds

Vince Giorgi writes the blog TouchPoint City and he recently wrote a very

Pinocchio

provocative post called The Big Lie of Lead Generation.

I wish to comment about it there.

The big lie Vince cites is this.

People put fictitious information on registration forms on your landing pages. Why? They don’t want to opt in to your telemarketing and email campaigns.

More than 1/2 admit to faking phone numbers. When asked why they put in fake information, almost 3 out of 4 cited “Avoid follow-up sales calls or marketing contacts.”

Even IBM screws up. In a recent CMO study, they ask for not only name and email, but phone number, company size, street address and phone number.

I abandoned it and I bet a lot of other people did too. Really dumb move by IBM - asking WAY too much.

What’s the marketing take-away here?

Earn trust and use progressive profiling.

It’s not enough to capture information - a people who don’t trust your company don’t provide accurate information. Your brand is important, people must trust it.

This is why you need a good, frequently updated blog (this blog posts 7 days a week) and to be active on social media - listening and sharing.

Becoming a thought leader and establishing a trusted company, like Find New Customers, (who’s motto is “Always be helping”) is key in getting accurate information.

What do you think? We love comments and our subscribers.

How many leads will you need to make your quota? Use our free calculator.

Please note that our wonderful free “cheat sheet” on lead nurturing “The 7 Keys to Lead Nurturing Success” is a small taste of what you get in our terrific white paper, How to Find New Customers.

Jeff Ogden is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. Find New Customers helps companies rapidly grow revenue by transforming how they attract, engage and win new customers. Contact Find New Customers by calling (516) 495-9350 or by emailing sales at findnewcustomers.com.

Panel Discussion: B2B Content Marketing for Marketing Automation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

B2B Demand Generation | Content Marketing for Marketing Automation

Join me on this webinar at 8am ET tomorrow. The link to sign up is below.

I’m the first to admit I get WAY too many webinar invitations. I ignore 98% of them at least. But when three good friends and people you respect host a webinar, I take notice. I signed up and I hope you will join me.

Why is this important? If you bought marketing automation - e.g. Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop, Pardot, Act-On, etc. you find it has an insatiable appetite for content. (like the guy in the photo.) Lead nurturing requires a continual flow of compelling (to the recipient) content.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation's ravenous appetite for content

Here are the blue ribbon experts and good friends of Find New Customers. (all based in the UK, by the way)

  • Bob Apollo, Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners
  • John Sweeney, DemandGen
  • Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners and author of B2B Content Marketing Workbook. (A transplanted Yankee in London by the way.)

Sign up for the panel discussion on B2B Content for Marketing Automation.

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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.

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.

Panel Discussion: B2B Content Marketing for Marketing Automation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

B2B Demand Generation | Content Marketing for Marketing Automation

I’m the first to admit I get WAY too many webinar invitations. I ignore 95% of them at least. But when three good friends and people you respect have a webinar, I take notice. I’m signed up and I hope you will join me.

Why is this important? If you bought marketing automation - e.g. Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop, Pardot, Act-On, etc. you find it has an insatiable appetite for content. Lead nurturing requires a continual flow of compelling (to the recipient) content.

Marketing automation

Marketing automation's ravenous appetite for content

Here are the blue ribbon experts and good friends of Find New Customers. (all based in the UK, by the way)

  • Bob Apollo, Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners
  • John Sweeney, DemandGen
  • Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners and author of B2B Content Marketing Workbook. (A transplanted Yankee in London by the way.)

Sign up for the panel discussion on B2B Content for Marketing Automation.

Read my blog on Kindle

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.

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.

How to Enchant Employees

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

I read the great book Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki). It’s terrific and highly recommended. But since I’ve worked for all types of bosses, and I’ve been a boss, I really enjoyed this part on how to enchant your employees.

I suggest you clip this post and hand it to your boss.

Chapter 10 - How to Enchant Employees

Here are some specific recommendations Guy makes for businesses to enchant their employees.

  1. Provide a MAP
    Mastery - Help people improve their skills
    Autonomy - Don’t tell people what to do
    Purpose - Give people meaning
  2. Empower them to do the right thing
    “Your best employees want to serve and delight your customers. “One easy way to enchant your employees is to empower them to do the right thing for customers.”(An Eastern Region VP at a large BI software company after I told him of a call from a very upset IT manager who said she was about to be fired, said “It’s not your problem. Go sell another client.”  Is that enchantment?)
    She was not fired - her boss was.Years later I tracked down the fired executive and apologized on behalf of my stupid management. This former VP was thrilled!
  3. Address your (the boss’s) shortcomings first
    Enchanted employees are inspired and not scared. Look at yourself before you look at employees. How many performance reviews have you ever had where your boss started by saying ‘I think I could have provided you with better management.‘(A UK search marketing firm owner believed in threatening the job security of employees - terrifying them - regardless of performance. Is this enchantment?)
  4. Don’t Ask Employees to do Things You Would Not Do
    Are you willing to fly across the globe in coach? Answer ALL of your email? Come in early and stay late? Empty the trash? Make photocopies? If not, you’re not enchanting.
  5. Celebrate success - the right way.
    Winning binds the team and overcomes many failures. So you should celebrate team wins. But don’t be extravagant and awesome, but fun and cool. Touring on a bus to visit customers is cool and enchanting. Having a small software company book Jimmy Buffet to perform for a company party is extravagant. (A product content software company after an IPO)
  6. Find a Devil’s Advocate
    Someone whose role is to argue against company decisions can be a powerful check and protection. It helps a company avoid mistakes and gives employees a sounding board. It’s a great way to enchant.

What do you think? Do you have other examples of enchanting bosses? Or examples of non-enchanting bosses? We love comments and people who share.

Read my blog on Kindle

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers and is determined to make his company Enchanting.

To learn about Jeff, please click Who is the Fearless Competitor?

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.

“Find New Customers can certainly help your business dramatically improve the flow of sales-ready leads to salespeople.” Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology.

Daniel Pink talks about the science of motivation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

B2B Demand Generation | The Surprising Mind of Daniel Pink

I love Daniel Pink. He takes things we take for granted - and blows them up! He is a great

Daniel Pink

speaker and has shocking ideas. Like why so many bonuses back-fire. Higher rewards lead to worse results. He also very funny.

If you are a business owner, you MUST watch it!

It is time to rethink how we motivate people. He explains how and why.

For instance, Microsoft spent hundreds of millions on Encarta, only to have it crushed by Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s budget - zero! Volunteers built Wikipedia, on their own time.

Watch it today!

Coming up tomorrow…How to Tie Your Shoes.

Read my blog on Kindle

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. He presented “How to Build an Awesome Personal Brand” at the 140 Social Media Conference and appeared to discuss B2B lead generation on Sales Lead Management Radio.

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.

Forrester finds b2b marketers lagging with demand generation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

B2B Demand Generation | Companies are struggling with demand generation today

From BtoB Magazine Marketers Lagging in Demand Generation

“I find it sad how badly most companies are doing in B2B demand generation today. Instead of complaining about the poor economy, if more invested in quality demand generation programs, they’d put up vastly better results.” Jeff Ogden, President, Find New Customers.

Jeff Ernst, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Cambridge, Mass.—B2B marketers are doing a poor job with demand- and lead-generation programs, according to a new study from Forrester Research.

The report, “The State of B2B Demand Generation: Disjointed,”was based on an online survey of 266 marketing and sales executives conducted in May 2011.

It found that 44% of marketers said prospects view communications from their companies as “disjointed” or “hit and miss.”

(Editor’s note: Almost 1/2 cannot create customer-focused content.)

Also, only 3% of marketers think they “wow” prospects by knowing what information customers need and giving it to them.

(Editors Note: If 97% admit they cannot wow prospects, we have BIG problems!)

The study also found that only 23% of companies have a defined lead management process, and only 5% of companies follow a streamlined lead-nurturing process in which every customer contact is orchestrated.

(Editors note: Less than one in four have defined how they handle a lead and only 1 in 20 nurture those leads.)

Perhaps more of these companies should take advantage of the free Education section at Find New Customers.

What do you think? We’d love to hear from you. Please enter your comment below.

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“In my recent Dun and Bradstreet post, I shared some unexpected finds.  Jeff Ogden’s How to Find New Customers white paper is excellent!

FastCompany blogger

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. He presented “How to Build an Awesome Personal Brand” at the 140 Social Media Conference and appeared to discuss B2B lead generation on Sales Lead Management Radio.
To learn more about Jeff, please click on Who is the Fearless Competitor?

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 for sales teams, they turn to lead generation companies like Find New Customers.

“Find New Customers, can certainly help your business dramatically improve the flow of sales-ready leads to salespeople.” Paul Dunay, Buzz Marketing for Technology.

New Content Marketing Service from Find New Customers Helps Business Executives Reach Bigger Audience with Their Vision and Ideas

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

As company leaders struggle to expose vision/ideas to a broad audience, well-connected social media expert, Jeff Ogden, rises to challenge, introduces monthly blog and eBook creation service to give a “voice” to CEOs they never had before.

BETHPAGE, NY, June 15, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ — CEOs and presidents are paid to set strategy and company vision. But how many people are really listening?

Company leaders often create press releases and videos for customers and the media, but that is as far as it goes.

That’s why the social media and blogging experts at Find New Customers, a B2B lead generation consultancy, has developed the Executive Communication Service, a solution designed specifically to give a “voice” to CEO’s they never had before.

Find New Customers will interview busy executives on a monthly basis and for a small recurring fee in order to create blog articles and eBooks which will help them build credibility, support lead generation and inbound marketing efforts, and provide them a platform for networking with top experts in their industries.

More information about Find New Customers and its Executive Communications Service are available at http://www.findnewcustomers.com/howwehelp/Executive_Communications_Services.

Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers, said, “As I watch company leaders struggle to get word out, I am struck by the fact that few other service providers have the talent and network we offer. We believe we can provide great for business leaders with Find New Customers’ content creation, content marketing and social media capabilities.“

Ogden, a sales and marketing veteran and highly-respected social media consultant, employs best practices in lead generation to help companies acquire customers and crush competitors via lead generation programs. His proven track record of exceeding targets speaks to his fearless competitor attitude and results-oriented nature. Ogden’s recent works include popular white papers and eBooks including “How to Find New Customers” on demand generation and “Definitive Guide to Making Quota” on B2B sales, as well as the new white paper “Moving from Transactional to Conversational Email Marketing” on email marketing http://www.findnewcustomers.net/getcustomers [B2B marketing white papers].

About Find New Customers LLC
Find New Customers helps businesses (150 to 5,000 employees with complex products) implement programs and processes to acquire new customers. Sales needs quality sales leads to make quota.

Company president, Jeff Ogden, is also author of the highly regarded B2B lead generation white paper, http://www.findnewcustomers.com [How to Find New Customers]. In addition, he writes a popular blog on sales lead generation and marketing, http://www.fearlesscompetitor.net [Fearless Competitor].

Media Contact
Jeff Ogden
(516) 495-9350
jeff(dot)ogden(at)findnewcustomers(dot)com

For more information on the Executive Communications Service, please visit http://www.findnewcustomers.com/howwehelp/Executive_Communications_Services.

The Sad Death of the Truth

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

(We changed our template in this blog. Hope you like our new one. We lost our company logo on the header image, but the stock images look good, don’t you think?)

Every day I’m bombarded with lies, misrepresentations and half truths. It’s really sad. Why can’t people simply tell the truth?

Anthony Weiner, Congressman says his Twitter account was hacked and lewd pictures were doctored. A lie!

Here are some examples:

  • LI firm sued for fake news sites selling supplement

  • Fraud suits jam LI copier firm

  • Tests Reveal Mis-labeling of Fish

  • LI copier company sued for fraud

It’s not just cooking the books. Some people post lies online. They forge signatures. They post fake pictures online. They try to sell you a cheap species of fish by deceiving you.

See this very attractive blond young lady - who’s an executive for OutBound Excellence? One small problem - she does not exist (Click underlined words to see the person who outed him.)

The owner of that tiny one person company (a middle-aged man by the way) just removed this image from the Linkedin profile. (But he added another young lady’s picture.)

It’s clear that honesty is in short supply today.

I’m sick of it. What about you?
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Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is the honest and trustworthy President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. He presented “How to Build a Great Personal Brand” at the 140 Social Media Conference on Long Island on May 26th and will appear on Sales Lead Management Radio on June 9th.

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.

Trust and Advertising

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

TrustFile this under interesting statistics on what people trust. Insights from Forrester and the Edelman Trust Factor.

Observation 1:

People don’t trust self-serving information:

  • Only 1 out of 5 people trust advertisements - or conversely, 4 out of 5 don’t trust ads.
  • Conclusion: Most TV and radio advertising is a waste of money.

Observation 2:

People do trust those with no axe to grind:

  • Almost 8 out of 10 trust information from people they know
  • 6 out of 10 trust product reviews

The clear message here is Objectivity. People trust information they believe to be from an objective , unbiased source - whether it be from someone they know or not.

Makes you wonder why so many companies continue to fill airwaves and print with advertising, when very, very few people trust it.

A far smarter approach would be to get customer endorsements and advocates on social media. Share unbiased reviews. Get your fans to promote your products - That is called “crowd-sourcing.” (This Friday, check out Laugh and Learn featuring @fearlesscomp - our weekly B2B marketing show entitled “How to Sell Soap.”)

What do you think? We love your comments and sharing.

Read my blog on Kindle

Jeff Ogden (@fearlesscomp) is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers - a website filled with great free content on B2B lead generation and marketing.
He presented “How to Build a Great Personal Brand”  at the 140 Social Media Conference on Long Island and will appear on Sales Lead Management Radio on June 9th.

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.

Trust and the Big Lie of Lead Generation

Posted by Jeff Ogden on

B2B Lead Generation: Capturing Accurate Information on Forms

Last Friday, someone filled out this form to download content. It’s exactly the theme of this post.

(By the way, we no longer deliver the content after the form is completed, we email a link to the content. This ensures they use a valid email address.)

First Name : zxzx
Last Name : zxzx
Email (valid corporate email address is required) : [email protected]
Job Title : Sales Leader
Phone # : sdsd
Web Site URL : dsds

Vince Giorgi writes the blog TouchPoint City and he recently wrote a very

Pinocchio

provocative post called The Big Lie of Lead Generation.

I wish to comment about it there.

The big lie Vince cites is this.

People put fictitious information on registration forms on your landing pages. Why? They don’t want to opt in to your telemarketing and email campaigns.

More than 1/2 admit to faking phone numbers. When asked why they put in fake information, almost 3 out of 4 cited “Avoid follow-up sales calls or marketing contacts.”

What’s the marketing take-away here?

It’s not enough to capture information - a people who don’t trust your company don’t provide accurate information. Your brand is important, people must trust it.

This is why you need a good, frequently updated blog (this blog posts 7 days a week) and to be active on social media - listening and sharing.

Becoming a thought leader and establishing a trusted company, like Find New Customers, (who’s motto is “Always be helping”) is key in getting accurate information.

What do you think? We love comments and our subscribers.

Here’s one of our guest posts, for the Post Click Marketing blog - Marketing to the Connected Consumer in a B2B World by @fearlesscomphttp://t.co/Ju3xq7N #cro #leadgen

How many leads will you need to make your quota? Use our free calculator.

Please note that our wonderful free “cheat sheet” on lead nurturing “The 7 Keys to Lead Nurturing Success” is a small taste of what you get in our terrific white paper, How to Find New Customers.

Jeff Ogden is President of the B2B lead generation consultancy, Find New Customers. We help 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.