What is a marketing strategy?Poor sales and marketing integration is so common that it risks cliché. I believe the answer to better integration is by taking a more strategic approach to lead generation. Last night, I stumbled upon Jeremy Porter’s notes and observations from DMA’s B-to-B Conference session entitled, “Sales and Marketing Integration: How To Make It Happen and […]
Continue readingMost marketing ROI measurements are akin to driving a car while staring at the rear view mirror, you can’t see that you are going to crash until the debris is already behind you. Return on marketing investment and accountability are top-of-mind for almost every B2B marketer today I meet, yet the metrics they are using […]
Continue readingI liked this article by Charlie Cook over at SalesMastersWorld. He writes, “Marketing is a lot like farming. You can’t just head out to your fields and bring in a bountiful harvest. First, you buy seed from the money you’ve budgeted. You buy enough to be sure that a good crop will germinate and thrive […]
Continue readingWanted: an exceptional college student to work with me on special projects. Here are just a few of the great projects I have planned: Lead Generation Benchmark report project (helping marketers compare their B2B lead generation performance against peer companies), event marketing, media relations, press releases, various book promotions, administrative duties, and marketing database management. […]
Continue readingI just heard that I was quoted in BtoB Magazine on word-of-mouth marketing (WOM). Richard Karpinski wrote the piece which, from what I can tell, is one the the first articles on WOM for B2B marketers. I wrote a post a while back you might want to check out, “Word of Mouth Marketing relies […]
Continue readingIt’s been well documented that quality of collaboration between sales and marketing directly impacts ROI. The challenge that many organizations face is that their sales process is a black box. No one except the sales team knows what is going on inside the black box until a proposal or sale happens. Worse still, 80% of […]
Continue readingWhat’s the power of closing-the-loop? A few years ago, I worked on a lead generation program with a client that launched a new product life cycle management (PLM) software product. The product was expected to have an average sale of $200,000. Their initial target database was comprised of 2000 product driven companies across 20 unique […]
Continue readingProactively building relationships with industry experts is a powerful way to generate sales leads and positive word of mouth (WOM). Four steps to garner expert referrals: Map out the key players, experts, opinion molders in your industry. Look at speakers at industry events, authors, bylines and contributed articles in trade journals, and blogs. Now you […]
Continue readingMy first post at the Revenue Roundtable… When was the last time you talked to your customers and asked how they were doing? A recent article in the Harvard Business Review, “The One Number You Need to Grow” by Frederick F. Reichheld asks, “Would you recommend our products or services to a business peer?” It […]
Continue readingPeter DeLegge’s article on MarketingToday.com has a great headline, “Senior Execs Say Marketing Budgets Will Rise 20%, Jump 27% for Companies that Measure Effectiveness.” I liked this article because touches on two points that I’ve been writing and speaking about for some time. ROI measurement is the CEO’s top mandate for marketing Marketers who measure […]
Continue readingThis article is a good reminder that our personal connections with our existing customers are an excellent source of future business via referrals. Sell More – bizjournals.com – Strategize to get more leads. SoftwareCEO.com gives some good ideas on how to proactively generate more word-of-mouth leads in their “tip of the week” section (on their […]
Continue readingYesterday, I met with the CEO, CMO and CSO at a top 500 software company. It was clear that each executive had a completely different vision of lead generation and how to measure marketing peformance. This leads to a problem that affects 87% of B2B marketers. CMOs are being pressured to prove themselves when their […]
Continue readingKate Maddox in BtoB Magazine writes, “The pressure to prove the return on marketing investment and the need for corporate accountability are driving many of the key marketing trends for 2005.” 3 of the top 10 trends are: CMO scrutiny Efficacy measurement Better lead management Top Marketing Trends: 10 things marketers will focus on in […]
Continue readingMarketingSherpa just released a new e-book, Marketing Wisdom for 2005. It contains 105 real-life marketing tips and lessons. I contributed lesson #52 (on lead generation of course) in the B-to-B Marketing section. You can download your copy free 2005 Wisdom for 2005
Continue readingMany marketers involved in lead generation have long had a nagging suspicion that their sales team doesn’t take their leads seriously. Published reports show that up to 70% of marketing generated sales leads are not followed up on by a sales person. If this sounds like you, you’re probably missing an effective lead management process. […]
Continue readingAsk most executives and marketers what sales people need and they will say, “more leads.” Your sales people don’t want more leads actually, what they want is “more effective selling time.” A recent report by Aberdeen Group, “Sales Effectiveness: Helping Sales Sell” concludes, “The number one issue for most CEO’s and Marketers is lead generation […]
Continue readingA report by Aberdeen Group, “Sales Effectiveness: Helping Sales Sell” concludes, “70% of companies have misdirected their spending on sales/marketing technology and need to align their investment towards the goal of helping sales sell.” Is your CRM software a joke?Despite the time and money being spent on sales and marketing technology like CRM, web analytics […]
Continue readingA new report by the CMO Council stated, marketing performance measurement (MPM) is a top priority for CEO’s but most companies don’t have a MPM program in place. The report said, “accountability—not brand or eyeballs—is the new watchword for the chief marketing officer.” Why? Many CMO’s hoped that technology (CRM and MRM) would close in […]
Continue readingMarketers must stop viewing lead generation as just a campaign and blogging as another marketing medium. It’s a conversation – a dialog. When I started marketing to executives, a friend gave me this simple advice that’s served me my entire career, “just be people with people.” In other words, be real, be authentic and put […]
Continue readingCEO’s top mandate for marketers is to accurately measure return on investment. The trouble for marketers is that they have the desire but lack tools and resources to execute. I just watched this webcast, “Marketing Performance Measurement: The New Strategic Imperative” by the CMO Council. This high-level webcast features interviews with senior marketers about issues […]
Continue reading