Adam Needles, SIlverpop presentation from the OMS Roadshow events in Portland and Seattle - discussing a new mindset that B2B marketers need to embrace. B2B marketers need focus on engaging in dialog with prospects, focusing on nurturing leads with content and conversation until they become sales-ready leads.
14. B2B case >>> AllRegs Mortgage industry data provider 2006 25+ tradeshows per year Low conversion rates Major source of leads Today 10 tradeshows per year Higher conversion rates New lead-gen avenues (e.g., alerts)
17. More-informed + more-demanding “With the rise of the Internet and social connectivity, there is now a more informed and demanding customer who is capable also of influencing peers' buying decisions.” >>> Sandy Carter, The New Language of Marketing 2.0
18. Modern B2B customer More-informed + more-demanding Multi-channel Buying Communicating From push to pull
19. From push to pull “No longer is the corporation the fulcrum around which customer groups and suppliers revolve. ... [T]he customer is now the pivot point.” >>> Paul Greenberg, CRM at the Speed of Light (3e)
20. From push to pull >>> B2B redux >>>MarketingSherpa
28. Engagement marketing Engagement marketing = Putting ‘engaged’ dialogue at the center of your go-to-market strategy Making your marketing customer-led More than just mere ‘targeting’
30. B2B case >>> Workforce Software Workforce policy and compliance management solutions Challenge qualifying leads based on demographics, assessing BANT ‘Mass qualification’ strategy Content-based marketing Use of survey forms to support scoring Scoring model + nurturing Customer self-selection
33. B2B case >>> Brainshark Online presentation software Challenge w/ efficient lead-gen Outcome-focused lead management process Quality of leads = sales conversion rate Tight MQL definition Focus on reducing cost of sale
44. Sales Process – 10% Market Definition – 20% 52% Lead Generation Product Marketing – 2% Marketing Communications – 12% Hiring – 10% Leads = your greatest challenge 52% of marketing organizations say lead generation is their #1 marketing challenge >>>SiriusDecisions
45. Lead economics 70-80% of leads = lost or ignored 45% of leads = will buy from someone, not necessarily your company 10% improvement in lead quality = 40% improvement in sales productivity 1% reduction in dropped/lost leads, combined with a 1% improvement in lead-to-order conversion rate, increases annual gross profit by 136% >>> Annuitas Group
46. Lead Generation Reporting & Analysis Lead Nurturing Lead Management Process Lead Qualification & Scoring Sales Collaboration Lead Routing & Acceptance Dynamic view of leads
47. Awareness Marketing Interest + investigation Marketing Qualified Sales Accepted Sales Qualified Sales New Business Lead workflow
52. Role of lead scoring “A solid lead scoring approach not only helps to rank prospects against one another, but can smooth the lead flow and serve as the baseline for building a range of business rules that include ownership, role and activities.” >>> SiriusDecisions, “What’s the Score?”
54. B2B case >>> Edgar Online Online corporate financial information Challenge managing leads and qualifying them Highly-granular lead scoring Based on everything lead views Helps with campaign evaluation Enables greater scale Quality vs. quantity of leads
58. Marketing / sales divide - mindset Marketing “They don’t follow up on any leads we give them” “A lead to them is a sale” “They ‘cherry-pick’ and act like they know what the leads want before calling them” “They don’t even look at half of the leads we give them” Sales “We have no visibility into what they are doing” “We need more support from them” “The leads they pass to us are worthless” “They don’t understand who our target market is”
62. B2B case >>> Sant Corporation Sales proposal, RFP, and document automation software Challenge as sales really needed marketing to ‘warm up’ leads Catalyst for ‘engaging’ sales Educating about nurturing Building lead-qualification consensus Aggressively using scoring Building sales/marketing relationship
64. Low confidence in marketing ROI “Despite marketing’s drive toward financial accountability, only 7% of senior-level financial executives surveyed report being satisfied with their company’s ability to measure marketing ROI …” >>> Marketing Management Analytics, March 2007 release
65. Danger of blanket ‘measurement’ “Too many metrics will not help articulate the value of the marketing organization. … [I]n this digital world, so many things are measureable that it can become overwhelming. Just because something is measurable, does not mean it should be measured or that it is valuable to measure.” >>> Sandy Carter, The New Language of Marketing 2.0
72. B2B case >>> TIBCO SOA and BPM software Challenge knowing what was working / what was not Focus on achieving a ‘closed loop’ Integration of platforms Tie in to company’s own platform Analytics ‘mash-up’ Tuning of lead-generation activities
Decade as a B2B marketerResearch + write about marketing technologyPropelling Brands blog + book [link/pic??]Recently joined SilverpopMarketing advocatePlatform evangelist
We have to be accountable to the bottom line We have to be accountable to Sales Customers Consultative sale Significant exchange of information Relationships matter============FROM Digital Body LanguageThe sales professional“… [T]he consultative sales process is where the sales professional thrives by engaging prospects in trusted conversations and guiding the buyer’s thinking on relevant aspects of the buying decision.”ProcessBuyer educationIntake/empathy with the buyer’s pain points and challengesSales person begins to convince that the pain points and challenges are understood and solvableTools: collateral, studies, research, case studies, white papers, events, etc.Buyer then begins to evaluate solutionsSalesperson pivots from consultant to advisor to sellerSales person “… provides the buyer with the right information and the right messages in the right format at the right time.”
We have to be accountable to the bottom line We have to be accountable to Sales Customers Consultative sale Significant exchange of information Relationships matter============FROM Digital Body LanguageThe sales professional“… [T]he consultative sales process is where the sales professional thrives by engaging prospects in trusted conversations and guiding the buyer’s thinking on relevant aspects of the buying decision.”ProcessBuyer educationIntake/empathy with the buyer’s pain points and challengesSales person begins to convince that the pain points and challenges are understood and solvableTools: collateral, studies, research, case studies, white papers, events, etc.Buyer then begins to evaluate solutionsSalesperson pivots from consultant to advisor to sellerSales person “… provides the buyer with the right information and the right messages in the right format at the right time.”
Old challenge: Be at the right tradeshows Allregs is an information provider for mortgage industry professionals. It is the official online provider of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting guidelines. In 2006, they attended approx 25 tradeshows which was their major source of lead generation. Since they implemented Engage B2B, they now attend 10 per year. They were putting names from the tradeshow events into their database and then oversaturating their list because there was no way to segment their list. Today, Allregs uses Engage B2B as a lead gen/cross sell tool. Before it was a “shot in the dark” and now it is much more improved. Before: No automation platform; not embracing a lead management mindsetAfter: Better integration; automation platform; lead management mindsetKey capabilities utilized: Nurturing Surveys Engaging w/ prospects and customers based on where they click Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM
What is B2B is not even clearHow to reach B2B customers is constantly evolvingMarketing paradigm is forever re-aligned
What is B2B is not even clearHow to reach B2B customers is constantly evolvingMarketing paradigm is forever re-aligned
What is B2B is not even clearHow to reach B2B customers is constantly evolvingMarketing paradigm is forever re-aligned
70% of leads aren’t waiting on you; you’re waiting on them.
We have to be accountable to the bottom line We have to be accountable to Sales Customers Consultative sale Significant exchange of information Relationships matter============FROM Digital Body LanguageThe sales professional“… [T]he consultative sales process is where the sales professional thrives by engaging prospects in trusted conversations and guiding the buyer’s thinking on relevant aspects of the buying decision.”ProcessBuyer educationIntake/empathy with the buyer’s pain points and challengesSales person begins to convince that the pain points and challenges are understood and solvableTools: collateral, studies, research, case studies, white papers, events, etc.Buyer then begins to evaluate solutionsSalesperson pivots from consultant to advisor to sellerSales person “… provides the buyer with the right information and the right messages in the right format at the right time.”
Role of marketing is changing – moving more down-stream
Poll - Budgets increase - Budgets decrease
Dialogue must be - Legitimate - Concerned
Dialogue must be - Legitimate - Concerned
Finding solutions: Customer/prospect-led marketingWorkforce Software’s software offering for time management and payroll is appealing to such a wide range of customer roles and types of companies that it became important to have leads self-qualify themselves. The client likes to use the term “mass qualification.” To accomplish this “mass qualification,” Workforce Software uses Engage B2B’s survey functionality to ask several qualifying questions at sign-up – you need to create an account on Workforce Software’s site before you can access any content. Iinitial survey questions ask about type of system currently being used, timeframe for purchase, # of employees, and title. Workforce built a scoring model based on the survey responses, including subsequent surveys. Higher leads scores are determined by amount and quality of prospect participation. In the end, incoming leads are providing valuable, self-reported information that is ultimately turning into more sale opportunities. Impossible to qualify merely based on title – payroll and employee interaction spans many different roles at different-sized corporations Previously telesales and others trying to make decisions about sales readiness based on gut or high-level demographic informationWorkForce Software requires all its prospects to sign up for a WorkForce account in order to download premium content or participate in its marketing programs, such as a Webinar. “Workforce Software offers premium content as part of our marketing programs. We believed that people seeking to consume our premium content through our marketing programs would be willing to provide us information in exchange,” said Charles Kim, direct mail manager for Workforce Software. Using Salesforce.comUsing the Engage B2B Survey module, WorkForce Software asks prospects several qualifying questions at sign-up, such as type of system currently being used and size of organization, as well as follow up questions over time as additional premium content (e.g. white papers) is requested, thereby collecting important qualification information about its leads. The fields and information are readily available to the sales team via Salesforce.com. The marketing team then developed a lead-scoring method within Engage B2B based on prospect responses to the survey questions. Leads with higher scores are routed to sales via Salesforce.com, while those with lower scores are put into an automated lead-nurturing program in which additional survey information is collected. Higher lead scores are determined by amount and quality of prospect participation. For example, a frequent website visitor that also downloaded an “ROI Kit” might pass the threshold from “cold” to “warm” lead.