blogging Archives - Fearless Competitor

Encore: BuyerZone names Fearless Competitor the #1 B2B marketing blog for 2012

March 29, 2013 3 Comments

The blog of the sales lead generation company Find New Customers - Fearless Competitor is Ranked No.1 as the Best B2B Marketing Blog of 2012 by Buyerzone.com

Find New Customers Blog Fearless Competitor Achieves National Recognition as the No. 1 Best B2B Blog on the Web for its Content Freshness and Audience Engagement. Jeff is stunned and humbled. “Wow, BuyerZone, we’re over-whelmed.”

CK Kerley

“What is unique about Jeff Ogden is his laser-focus on providing value to readers through creative formats – both through text and his video shows.” says Mobile marketing expert Christina “CK” Kerley of CKB2B.com. CK was a great guest on Marketing Made Simple TV too.

Waltham, MA (PRWEB) May 25, 2012

Fearless Competitor has been rated No. 1 as the Best B2B blog of 2012 in The Best of BuyerZone series, which highlights great business blogs and sites on the web. BuyerZone, an online small business resource center, ranked Fearless Competitor #1 for its content freshness and audience engagement.

(You should check out all the wonderful blogs on this great list.)

In the article, BuyerZone recognizes blog founder, Jeff Ogden as a B2B expert and says, “Jeff Ogden has a resume that stretches into next week. Jeff finds the time to make sure his blog gets new content every day of the week – and twice on the weekends.”

In addition to content freshness, Fearless Competitor is also recognized for the fine job Jeff does in engaging with his readers.

The Best B2B Blogs of 2012 highlights blogs that provide valuable tips and expert advice on B2B hot topics, including, sales lead generation, sales, lead nurturing, lead scoring, marketing and more.

Each blog was ranked on the following:

Content freshness
Blog age
Social media presence
Engagement with readers

The Best of BuyerZone series highlights the best business blogs and sites on the web. These blogs and sites provide their readers with valuable tips, advice, anecdotes and expertise on an array of industry topics. Winners are nominated by the public, then reviewed, selected and ranked by BuyerZone’s editorial staff.

To learn more about these Best of B2B Blogs of 2012 blogs, visit: http://www.buyerzone.com/pages/best-of-buyerzone/best-b2b-blogs-2012.html

To read about previous Best of BuyerZone series winners, please visit: http://www.buyerzone.com/pages/best-of-buyerzone/index.html.

About Fearless Competitor
Fearless Competitor.com is a popular B2B marketing blog that shares interesting insights on challenges in B2B marketing and sales. Written by the sales and marketing expert Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers,, and award-winning expert in sales lead generation, it shares information on content marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, social media and more. Jeff is also the host of the popular online show Marketing Made Simple TV.

About BuyerZone
Since 1992, BuyerZone has helped connect millions of businesses with thousands of quality sellers for hundreds of products and services. Buyers save time and money on important purchases by receiving free price quotes from sellers who best meet their needs. BuyerZone’s lead generation programs and marketing services provide sellers with cost-effective, easy-to-implement and results-focused solutions that deliver leads from prospective buyers at every stage of the purchasing cycle.

BuyerZone, headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, is a division of Reed Business Information. RBI is a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: blogging, Find New Customers, management-best-practices, sales lead generation, social media

“Keys to Human Centric Leadership” - @tedcoine on Marketing Made Simple TV

March 7, 2013 Leave a Comment

Ted Coine

In this show, management expert Ted Coine of SwitchandShift.com shares tips on how to use human-centric leadership ideas in his discussions with show host Jeff Ogden. In this show, you’ll learn:

How 5 Star service and human centric approaches drive profits.
The real keys to leadership in the 21st century.
Dear Mr./Ms. CEO - Your baby is ugly.

Marketing Made Simple TV “TV on the Web” premieres new shows every Thursday at noon ET/9 AM PT. The show is directed by Craig E. Yaris of Esquire Tech Solutions and is edited by Kevin Ogden.

Please visit the show sponsors.

Filed Under: Interviews & Guest Appearances Tagged With: blogging, Leadership, Marketing Made Simple TV, sales lead generation, Ted Coine, TV on the Web

Success does not make you happy. Happiness makes you successful.

February 17, 2013 Leave a Comment

The biggest misunderstanding about happiness is this:

Success does not make one happy. On the other hand, happiness helps make us successful.

To learn the keys to happiness, watch this TED video. If you can spare just a bit over 12 minutes, you will be rewarded by a very funny TED video about happiness.

For more info on happiness, check this out. I also had the pleasu

re of interviewing Jenn Limm of Delivering Happiness on my former TV show, Mad Marketing TV. And be sure to check out my new show, Marketing Made Simple TV.

Happiness by Shawn Anchor

Filed Under: Self Education, Sunday Posts Tagged With: blogging, Happiness

The end of Saturday posts at Fearless Competitor

February 2, 2013 2 Comments

I’ve decided to retire Saturday posts at Fearless Competitor. Now that I manage GE worldwide for The Pedowitz Group, I’m crazy busy.

(Oops, no I’m not doing that job anymore. Not sure why, but my boss decided to cut me loose. I think it’s because he believes he’s the best salesperson and that’s the most important client, he’s the best person to manage it.)

But on the brighter side, I’m back managing the revenue marketing connection company Find New Customers again, helping companies create best practices sales lead generation programs.

It’s harder and harder to find time to blog. I need to cut a bit. So this is the final Saturday post.

The End

We will still share interesting and different posts on Sundays. And we’ll still blog Monday to Friday too.

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

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: blogging

Here’s the dirty secret of revenue performance management software

January 29, 2013 Leave a Comment

The demos look great. Prospects, nurturing, scoring, landing pages and more. Revenue performance management software is awesome, right?

NO!

Here’s what these software vendors don’t want you to know. (In fairness, some are quite up front about it.) It’s a LOT of work. Here’s what you’ll need in addition to software for your sales lead management programs.

Deep and complete buyer personas
A strong and compelling value proposition
Content mapped to buyer personas, buying cycles and pain points - in various forms, including mobile ready.
A series of nurturing events (emails, direct mail, slideshares, etc) crafted into s story and matched to the buying cycle.
An agreed definition of a lead with your sales teams.
Scoring based on demographics (job title, company size) as well as behaviors (how often they visit, which pages they visit, what content they consume.)
Lead routing and handoff procedures - as well as clawback processes. (“claw-back” is when Marketing takes back a lead Sales does not follow up on.)
Metrics and Key Performance Indications to tune your marketing operations.

Do you have all the additional people, processes and methodologies here? Don’t feel back. Few do. The road to becoming a Demand Generation company with marketing firmly connected to revenue is a long and hard process. Fortunately, there are fine companies out there that can help you make this journey successfully. Contact Find New Customer.

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

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: blogging, buyer personas, content marketing, management-best-practices, marketing automation software, marketing-campaigns, Pedowitz Group

Nearly 1/2 of BtoB Marketers will increase spend in 2013, according to BtoB marketing study

January 28, 2013 Leave a Comment

The economy may be struggling but BtoB companies are investing more in BtoB marketing, according to BtoB’s “2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans” special report.

The annual report, now in its 10th year, was based on an online survey of 366 b2b marketers, conducted between Nov. 12 and Nov. 30, 2012.

Demand generation (acquiring new customers) is the top priority, with almost 7 out of 10 saying it is their #1 priority. That means a good year for marketing automation firms like Marketo and for my company, the revenue marketing connection firm Find New Customers. Both firms fit squarely in the BtoB demand generation space - Marketo’s great software matched with Find New Customers services.

“According to the Outlook survey, 67.2% of marketers plan to increase their spending on digital marketing this year. Within digital marketing, the top spending areas will be website development (with 70.1% of marketers planning increases this year), email marketing (61.9%), social media (56.0%), online video (55.8%) and search (52.5%).

Mobile is also growing in importance for b2b marketers, with 32.7% of respondents now using mobile as part of their marketing strategy, and 35.5% planning to increase their spending on mobile marketing this year.” (Also, check out mobile marketing expert CK Kerley on Marketing Made Simple TV.)

There are a few clear take-aways for BtoB companies today:

You need to start the Revenue Marketing Journey right away, if you’ve not already done so.
Content marketing is more important than ever and needs investment.
Are you nurturing leads and scoring behaviors? If not, you will be left in the dust.

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

Filed Under: Marketing, Self Education Tagged With: blogging, buyer personas, content marketing, lead-generation, lead-nurturing, lead-scoring, marketing-campaigns, sales-challenges

Happy 7th Birthday, Fearless Competitor blog

December 17, 2012 Leave a Comment

Fearless Competitor celebrates its 7th birthday today

This b2b marketing blog created 7 years ago, long before I founded the lead generation company Find New Customers, is a graybeard among blogs. If you are into blogging, there are lessons for you here.

Our first post went out on December 17 , 2005. “Lessons in Leadership with Scott Cook of Intuit“

That makes this blog seven years old today. In dog years (internet years), that’s an eternity.

I want to thank the hundreds of thousands who have visited this blog in the last seven years, and everyone who has ever shared thoughts in our comments. Thank you!

We also thank BuyerZone for naming this blog the top B2B marketing blog of 2012.

Happy Holidays from Find New Customers.

Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers is an award-winning B2B marketing expert. He was named a top 25 Sales Influencer for 2012 by OpenView Labs. He was also named one of the Top 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management by the Sales Lead Management Association. And this blog was named the top B2B blog of 2012 by BuyerZone. He also holds a degree in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame who is playing Alabama for the national championship on January 7, 2013.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: blogging, Find New Customers

Company executives poorly equipped for the job search game

December 13, 2012 Leave a Comment

One big problem I see is how poorly equipped existing executives are for the job search game. Few have many LinkedIn recommendations, Twitter followers, or awards won. This is a potential disaster for these executives, because if they lose a job, it will take a long time to build the kind of assets that a person like Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers has today. My good friend, Jim Burns, CEO of Avitage, brought this up to me recently.

To illustrate the problem, let’s examine an example. Take a look at this lady, EM. She’s Vice President of Field Marketing at a multinational software firm. (She’s a real person, but I only use her initials.)

I looked at her online presence on social media and awards - and contrasted it with me, Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers. I then put my findings in to Excel and graphed the results.

Note how Jeff Ogden (2) has vastly more Linkedin recommendations, endorsements and connections that does EM (1).

It’s not just social presence, but awards won too. Check out these awards won by Jeff Ogden of the lead generation company Find New Customers. EM has won zero awards.

Top Sales Influencer
Top B2B Blog
Top 50 Influencer in Sales Lead Management for both 2011 and 2012.

What if EM loses her job? She is, essentially, screwed. She has to start from scratch building what Jeff built over the last few years. And it takes a lot of time and hard work to win the kind of awards won by Jeff Ogden, President of the B2B lead generation company Find New Customers.

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

Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers is an award-winning B2B marketing expert and a great speaker. He was named a top 25 Sales Influencer for 2012 by OpenView Labs. He was also named one of the Top 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management by the Sales Lead Management Association. And this blog was named the top B2B blog of 2012 by BuyerZone. He also holds a degree in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: blogging, Find New Customers, social media

B2B Lead Generation Company Find New Customers Core Values

December 11, 2012 Leave a Comment

We at the B2B lead generation company Find New Customers have some strong Core Values. We hope you find these of value to you.

Undoubtedly, you look for shared values when you are looking for B2B lead generation experts to help you with your business. That’s why we wish to share these values with you. If you like them, we invite you to check out Find New Customers in detail. At Find New Customers you will find great free content, like the great white paper How to Find New Customers - the guide to great b2b lead generation programs.

Core Values of Find New Customers

A Promise Made is a Promise Kept (One’s word is precious.)
Always Be Giving (Do for others without asking anything in return.)
Listen Much More than you Talk (You learn and gain empathy by active listening.)
Learning is a Lifetime Endeavor (Never stop learning.)

One of the key principles of business is that people (customers and employees) don’t care What you do. They care much more. Why you do it?

As the Creator and Host of the popular syndicated show, Marketing Made Simple TV, I’ve had the privilege to interview experts in trust, such as Don Peppers (co-author of Extreme Trust: Honesty as a Competitive Advantage) and Dave Horsager (author of The Trust Edge). As both of these men pointed out, strong values and consistency are hall-marks of highly trusted people.

We hope you share the values of the B2B lead generation company Find New Customers. We’d love to hear what you think? We love comments and those who share on social media.

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: blogging, Core Values, Find New Customers, lead-generation, lead-nurturing, lead-scoring, management-best-practices

10 Questions to Decide Whether to Hire In-House or Outsource to a lead generation company

November 27, 2012 Leave a Comment

The CEO of a software company in the Midwest asked me to help him conduct his interviews of in-house marketing folks. He’s trying to decide whether to hire in-house or outsource to a lead generation company, Find New Customers. (Interestingly, the CEO wants to outsource, but one Board member wants him to hire in-house.)

After I wrote a list of 10 interview questions for this CEO, I thought “These questions would be valuable to a lot of companies.” So I turned the email into a blog article which I share below.

Update: Here’s the email I got from that CEO:

Hey Jeff,

I wanted to say thank you for the questions! I really appreciate the guidance. We are going through the questions with quite a few people and we will see what the outcome is. I will let you guys both know shortly how it works out. Thanks again!

Regards,

Paul

Should you hire marketing in-house or outsource to a lead generation company?

If your internal candidates are unable to answer these questions adequately, you’re a good candidate for lead generation companies like PointClear, The Pedowitz Group or even Find New Customers.

10 Questions to Ask an Interviewee for a Marketing Role (Answers follow each question):

How do you recommend one conducts Buyer Persona interviews? (Are they familiar with the 5 Rings of Insight from BuyerPersona.com?)
What are the keys to creating effective content? What role does content play? (Content needs to move buyers through the buying process. It “greases the skids,” so to speak.)
Please define Progressive Profiling? What is it? (Progressive Profiling is asking for a little bit of info every time someone visits your website. For instance, if we have name and email, we might ask for job title. It’s a way to gently get info.)
Blogging is important to us. How long have you been blogging and how often is your blog updated? What recognition has your blog received? (We’ve been blogging here for seven years, our blog publishes every day and BuyerZone named us the top B2B blog for 2012)
What marketing awards have you won? Where can I see them? (Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers is a Top 50 Influencer in Sales Lead Management award winner)
Do you have a documented demand generation process? Can you share it with me? (Find New Customers offers the SCORE demand generation program)
How does one go about creating a lead nurturing process? What do you recommend? (Lead nurturing is the process of sharing valuable content (to them) over time to earn their trust. Nurturing campaigns need to be mapped to buying processes.)
What are the keys to creating an effective lead scoring program? (Talk to Sales and ask them how you can be certain they will follow up and which page(s) they visit makes a big difference. A product demo is more valuable that a Careers page.)
Show me examples of the white papers, eBooks and webinars you have done. (Find New Customers has written several white papers including How to Find New Customers, eBooks and led multiple webinars.)
Metrics are the key to tuning marketing for optimal results. Give me a couple of metrics you like to use. (There are a lot of choices here, but focus on metrics based on outcomes, like win rates and deal velocity. Twitter followers and website traffic is nice, but not particularly useful.)

What do you think? Do these help you decide whether to hire in-house or outsource? We love comments and those who share on social media.

Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers is an award-winning B2B marketing expert with deep knowledge of B2B demand generation. He was named a top 25 Sales Influencer for 2012 by OpenView Labs. He was also named one of the Top 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management by the Sales Lead Management Association. And this blog was named the top B2B blog of 2012 by BuyerZone. He also holds a degree in Marketing from the University of Notre Dame.

Filed Under: Self Education Tagged With: blogging, buyer personas, content marketing, Find New Customers, lead-generation, lead-nurturing, management-best-practices, marketing-campaigns