the sales & marketing stimulus package · the solution is a stimulus package of a different...

The Sales & Marketing Stimulus Package

A 7 POINT PLAN for:3aligning sales and marketing, 3optimizing lead management,

3recovering lost revenue.

TM

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presented by

http://demandgenreport.blogspot.com/

The Stimulus Package ...................................................................... 3

Lifting The 10% Tax Burden ............................................................. 5

Funding The No (Good) Lead Left Behind Initiative .......................... 7

A New Deal To Maximize Sales & Marketing Resources ................... 10

Insurance That Leads Are Hit While They’re Hot .............................. 12

Raising The Digital IQ ...................................................................... 14

Improving Close Rates on Opportunities .......................................... 16

Avoiding Earmarks and Hidden Costs .............................................. 18

The Sales & Marketing Stimulus PackageSeven New Initiatives To Recover Lost BtoB Revenue Through Demand Creation and Lead Generation

TABLE OF CONTENTS

© 2009 DemandGen Report • 3

Uncharted waters. Unforeseen events. These phrases of unpredictability have replaced the “endless bubble” or

“irrational exuberance” as the catchphrases of business. However, companies are realizing that even in this “great

recession” a few business elements remain constant. One of them is the importance of building demand for

products and services. Another is aligning the sales and marketing process which targets prospective buyers and

translates that demand into revenue.

Companies that ignore these business realities will be treading on thin ice in this business climate. No amount

of bank loans or creative financing can stabilize a company that cannot create demand, and manage the buying

process for its products and solutions. However, a company that reinvests the intellectual capital, financial capital

and management capital into a cohesive sales & marketing effort is investing in a stimulus package that will be

far more effective in the long run. Lead management, backed by the properly aligned sales and marketing

structure will provide an economic boost to most any company that has a viable business model and substantial

product offering.

The obstacle that stands often between demand generation and lead management is a lack of the sales and

marketing alignment that is necessary to efficiently create demand and capitalize on ready buyers. That lack

of alignment is depressing the number of opportunities which convert to closed deals due to the inability of sales

teams to efficiently and effectively follow up on their most qualified prospects. The solution is a stimulus package

of a different sort than the government has implemented.

This stimulus package will inject more efficient capital, energy and management efficiency into sales and market-

ing practices. It will pull companies out of the doldrums of clogged pipelines and leaky funnels and into an active

The Stimulus PackageInjecting more efficient capital, energy and management efficiency into sales and marketing practices

INTRODUCTION


world of demand creation and lead generation. This eBook will make the case that seven new initiatives can

recover lost opportunities, generate better prospects, and give sales and marketing personnel the tools to work

smarter and more effectively by accessing intelligence about their prospects in real time.

The Sales and Marketing Stimulus package is an automated, intelligent solution for any company stuck in the rut

of old school sales and marketing turf wars. To understand how it can work, companies must first understand the

price they pay for the status quo.

The status quo should be unacceptable for any company. According to a report released in 2008 by CSO Insights,

the cost of ignoring demand creation, lead management and sales and marketing alignment is staggering.

Bottom line: Companies are being taxed 10% of their total closed business, resulting in 6% decline in total

revenue on average. That 10% tax is the result of sales opportunities that never get addressed because the lead

management system is not efficient and because the sales and marketing teams are working in separate worlds

and toward separate goals.

Other costs/problem issues CSO Insights identified from poor lead management include:

• 20% of opportunities forecast to be won resulted instead in “no decision.” Pursuing these non-deals through-

out the entire sales cycle (to forecast close) is a costly waste of resources.

• 40% of all sales reps currently fall short of their quota.

• 50% of leads were reported to have been self-generated by sales reps, independently of lead management

solutions that involve sales and marketing teamwork.

INTRODUCTION


Every company will have a different price to pay for its burden of inefficient lead management. But again, some

things are consistent. Aberdeen’s Ian Michiels interviewed sales and marketing professionals from 315 enterprises

and found that when sales and marketing technologies and processes are aligned, organizations outperform their

competition. In his report, The Convergence of Sales and Marketing Technologies, he noted that best-in-class orga-

nizations enjoy (on a year over year basis) nearly a 50% uptick in revenues and a 21% increase sales conversions.

As Michiels notes, sales and marketing alignment is usually the area that can be most immediately addressed and

can have the highest impact. If sales and marketing are not working with the same intelligence, it makes it much

more challenging to advance prospects through the funnel and close as many deals as possible. Lifting the 10%

tax burden requires a new style and technology of communication.

That approach requires marketing and sales to pass intelligence on leads back and forth seamlessly, enabling the

right level and mode of contact for each prospect at each phase of the engagement. At the simplest level, what

this means is that marketing can automate the process of nurturing a lead until qualifying criteria are met, at

which point, sales can be instantly notified of prospect interest, and lead status updated so that marketing no

longer sends emails to a lead which is being actively worked by sales.

Similarly, if sales finds that a qualified lead is not engaged or ready to make a purchase, sales can update the lead

status, passing responsibility for “remarketing” back to marketing. Lead qualifying criteria can be based not only

Initiative #1: Lifting the 10% Tax BurdenCompanies pay for the disconnect between sales and marketing and for the resulting inefficient lead management. Here’s how the Sales & Marketing Stimulus Package proposes to provide relief.

LIFTING THE 10% TAX BURDEN


on factual information (industry, company size) but also on the prospect’s online body language, including factors

such as frequency of visits to the website, number of pages visited, length of the visit(s), and specific pages visited.

CALCULATING A DIFFERENT TYPE OF SALES TAX How much is your company paying in “ignorance tax?” Based on the estimations of revenue losses and lack of

closed deals by CSO Insights, companies are leaving 10% of all deals on the table. Now some new accounts are

more valuable than others. But when the final account total is tallied, CSO Insights believes that the 10% of leads

that go unresolved results in roughly a 6% hit to overall revenues. If a company could close that gap, here are

some projections as to how its business would change:

The Sales Burden: CSO Insights focused here on the Fortune 100 to illustrate what a 6% of unclosed business

looks like. It estimates, along with Genius.com, that ineffective lead management costs the Forune 100 $225 bil-

lion in sales per year. That means for every $10m in sales budgeted by a Fortune 100 company, lack of proper lead

management costs $575,000.

The Marketing Burden: For the marketing team, CSO Insights focused on the 10% lack of lead closure. The

10% lead tax puts undue pressure on the marketing team as they have to generate more leads to keep up with

the inefficient close rates. For a small to medium sized business, let’s assume an account executive has a $1 million

quota and an average deal size of $25K. That means the sales person needs to close 40 deals to hit that $1 million

number. At a 56% close rate (which correlates to the CSO research), marketing needs to provide 70 opportunities

for the sales rep to reach their revenue goal. Now take away 10% of the business due to a lack of alignment and

poor lead management. At the inefficient 46% close rate, the marketing department now needs to provide 86

qualified opportunities and a substantially higher multiple of that number at the top of the funnel.

When you take this scenario a step further, the cost considerations clearly come into focus. Assuming a 5% con-

version rate from lead to opportunity, it would require 860 additional leads to develop 43 opportunities. Assuming

a cost per lead of $100, that tab would be $86,000 a $16,000 tax bill added to the cost of sale.

LIFTING THE 10% TAX BURDEN

In improper alignment, marketing identifies lead from random list or databases that lack transparency. When properly aligned, marketing courts prospects based on agrees

criteria and nurtures the lead within the lead management

system. If it is qualified…

It’s sent to sales which contacts prospect within marketing recom-mendation and keeps system updated.

Sales works toward moving prospect toward close

If prospect is not closed or

moved toward sale within a set

period of time it is sent back to marketing to be filed or

remarketed to.

Sales and Marketing Alignment


Lead management carries two powerful motivators for any corporate executive. First it offers a fast ROI. Second, a

lack of investment will have potentially disastrous consequences. Therefore, “no lead left behind” should be every

company’s mantra. It represents a commitment to a spending where necessary on lead management, and in the

process, enabling sales and marketing to lift the 10% tax burden.

Unfortunately, marketing automation often signals an information lockdown. Under this “black box” approach,

leads are left behind firewalls, silos and turf wars. They are often locked away from sales people who need it

most. But if sales and marketing work together, and engage constantly and consistently, they can determine

which leads are qualified and need immediate attention (from sales) and which leads aren’t and need further

nurturing (from marketing).

Secondly, solutions need to enable quick responses and follow-up when a lead goes from mere browsing to active

buying. Unfortunately “set and forget” automation can let these leads languish “on hold” instead of instantly up-

dating their status and turning them over to sales who can then provide the appropriate attention. A laser-focus

on sales results and timely action that “leaves no prospect behind” is the goal.

Unfortunately, companies cut lead generation programs due to overall budget concerns. Part of the attitude

toward those cuts can be attributed to inaccurate lead scoring. Companies need to set the proper benchmarks for

good leads and make sure that pulling the plug on unprofitable prospects is a fact-based decision. Too often those

decisions are made from executive frustration, a lack of process, and a short-sighted point of view.

Ineffective lead scoring is often the result of silos between sales and marketing teams. In many cases, the scoring

Initiative #2:Funding The No (Good) Lead Left Behind Program“Set and forget” automation can leave good leads sitting on hold. Smart marketers are ensuring no good leads are left behind by notifying sales immediately with immediate access to prospect activity.

FUNDING THE NO (GOOD) LEAD LEFT BEHIND PROGRAM


of prospect behavior is ranked by the marketing department without input from sales on key criteria. When orga-

nizations fail to prioritize scoring and make it a collaborative process between sales and marketing, the “set and

forget” mentality results in weak leads being pushed to sales. Best in class companies have established processes

to review the value of prospect scoring based on web activity, historical data, job title, etc.

This initiative also addresses lead quality and response. Ardath Albee, consultant and editor of the Marketing

Interactions blog, stresses that the concept of “no good lead left behind” should be tied to the ability to specify

“conversion events.”

For example, if a prospect downloads a white paper; an auto-response welcome/thank you message is immedi-

ately sent with a link to the white paper. Then an automated message is generated internally which schedules a

follow up message for one week after. But, if the prospect who downloads the paper shows a higher degree of

later-stage buying interest, the company is only creating a lag time by holding off on follow up and ultimately

could be leaving a good lead behind. For example, if an online demo is known to indicate a high-propensity for

customer conversion, but doesn’t trigger the score required for sales readiness, the company could be missing out

on an opportunity.

In a better scenario, when independent conversion events are triggered, sales is notified immediately and can take

the right action because they have instant access to the prospect’s activity history and other information. “The

ability for a prospect to, if you will, override the nurturing campaign schedule and receive relevant engagement at

the right time could be termed the ‘no prospect left behind’ program,” says Albee. “Even better, interactions can

be initiated on the prospect’s timeline, not the company’s.”

LEAD MEASUREMENT METRICS If a company does not find the funding for a “no (good) lead left behind,” program, it is more than likely com-

petitors will. According to a January 2009 report from DemandGen Report, budgets for lead generation and lead

management had already increased in 2008 for more than 50% of the respondents, and 81.9% indicated that

those levels of spending would remain flat or increase again in 2009.


0

5

10

15

20

25

<10% 10–20% 20–30% 30–40% 40–50% 50+%

Impact of Lead Management on PipelineThe DemandGen report shows that more than 20 percent

of respondents saw a 10-20 percent increase in their pipeline as a result of improved lead management.


In other positive findings from the Demand Imperative report, the sophistication and metrics in place to man-

age the lead generation process is clearly on the rise. For example, more than 50% of companies now have

established lead gen goals or quotas in place, and more than 20% are expected to measure and meet those

goals on a monthly basis.

And while the economic downturn has caused many companies to put more pressure on their internal

demand generation teams to increase the lead volume at the top of the sales funnel (31.3%), the majority of

respondents (59.2%) indicated there will be more of a focus on quality leads, rather than quantity.

Looking forward to strategies that will help ensure that more qualified leads (and fewer unqualified leads) reach

the sales team, more companies are putting an emphasis on lead nurturing programs to cultivate the interest of

a prospect by providing relevant content and thought leadership. Then once prospects have shown a sufficient

level of interest, sales can be automatically triggered to engage

or re-engage.



It’s highly doubtful that he ever had lead management in mind specifically, but his rules echo through the ages

when applied to sales and marketing alignment. Simplicity, harmony, and opportunity can define the new deal

between sales and marketing. The two departments need to find common process, interest and even compensa-

tion in order to manage new leads.

The “new deal” as part of the stimulus package means that sales and marketing have clearly defined and com-

mon goals. With this unified approach, marketing needs to plant the seeds for new prospects, and nurture them.

Sales needs to harvest those leads or advise marketing on how they could be educated for future opportunity.

Along the way, communication must be maintained. Web 2.0 solutions such as mobile SMS, mobile email, blogs,

webinars, podcasts, and the interfaces that give all stakeholders access to lead management activities make com-

munication easy. While communcation tools might be an option, competition and the current economy make

them necessary.

Let’s take a look at the new deal in action. BT Business, the BtoB division of the UK’s leading communications

carrier, was looking to decrease the effort, and lead time associated with their online marketing efforts. With a

quarterly planning cycle for the centralized email marketing campaigns that communicated to these clients, BT

was often unable to respond or capitalize on changing market, economic or competitive conditions. They also

needed an email marketing solution to help them better connect with, and better serve that BtoB market, which

accounts for 45% of BT Business revenues.

Initiative #3:A New Deal to Maximize Sales & Marketing Resources“ Three rules of work,” said Einstein. “Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

A NEW DEAL TO MAXIMIZE SALES & MARKETING RESOURCES


BT selected Genius Pro to help them better connect with their customers. With the Genius Pro email market-

ing solution the company was able to provide helpful advice and products to the market during the economic

downturn. BT Marketing utilized Genius to send out tactical and personalized emails. The emails to BT Business

prospects all looked as if they were personalized from a BT sales rep. In fact, the campaign was customized for

over 15,000 corporate prospects.

After receiving an email, the prospect could click on an embedded link to be automatically directed to a personal-

ized landing page for more information. When this “trigger” was sent, the BT account manager associated with

the account received an instant alert indicating the customer’s online interest. The account manager could then

follow up with the customer to offer advice, service and or finalize a purchase of the promoted product.

The account manager was immediately given access to a visual replay of the prospect’s Web site visit, so the

account manager could see in which products and services the prospect displayed the greatest interest. Armed

with this insight, the account manager could then follow up with the customer to offer advice and guidance on

those relevant areas and move to finalize the purchase of that product.

BT developed a series of five emails over 10 weeks (beginning in November 2008), which highlighted how BT

solutions could help their customers during the economic downturn. The goal of the campaign was to leverage

email to nurture potential buyers, highlight useful BT products and provide immediate service to interested pros-

pects—ultimately facilitating increased brand loyalty and purchases. Each email targeted a specific concern and

offered a targeted BT solution that addressed that concern.

The result was increased sales effectiveness. BT account managers were able to identify, prioritize and quickly ser-

vice customers who showed interest in BT products and the effort stimulated additional purchases and increased

BT customer loyalty.

A NEW DEAL TO MAXIMIZE SALES & MARKETING RESOURCES


Part of the $200 billion-plus lost every year due to poor lead generation can be attributed to a failure to respond

to them in a timely fashion. Investing in a lead management system is extremely important to this initiative. In

fact, more than our other stimulus initiatives, lead insurance depends on having the proper technology. Manually

managing leads is bound to result in poor response times, whether they are pursued by email or phone.

For example, in his recent “Lead Response Management” survey, James Oldroyd, PhD, Professor at MIT, found that

the ability to contact and qualify a web lead decreases dramatically after just five minutes. In just 30 minutes,

the likelihood plummets by 100x. Yet the bulk of companies either have no systemized follow-up process or wait

until more than 48 hours to respond to leads. In today’s economic environment you cannot afford to miss out on

even one qualified opportunity. You need to capture, qualify and close every possible deal.

State of the art lead management systems provide real-time lead management to ensure that leads in the pipeline

are being handled by the right sales and/or marketing team member at the right time – resulting in better custom-

er service, higher revenue and more productive marketing efforts. This enables sales and marketing to collaborate

effectively, identify opportunities, quickly pinpoint their current interests, and instantly alert the best sales team

member to build the prospect relationship.

While the Oldroyd study focused attention on the lead time response issue, other research studies have supported

it. Last year a CapGemini report, focusing on car dealerships, showed 34% of Internet leads want a response

within four hours, 8% want an instantaneous response, and 50% are willing to wait up to 24 hours. Automated

lead generation, the report said, would surpass the expectations for 92% of all leads. The likelihood of being able

Initiative #4:Insurance that Leads are Hit While they are HotThe proper response timing is necessary to capture, qualify and close every possible deal. Companies need to guarantee this ability, and this guarantee requires a new look at the old sales funnel.

INSURANCE THAT LEADS ARE HIT WHILE THEY ARE HOT


to get an Internet lead on the phone decreases significantly over time after they submit their information:

Within the first 2 minutes = 51%

Between 3 and 7 minutes = 42%

Between 8 and 12 minutes = 35%

InsideSales.com measured response times to inquiries made while on Web sites of all of the sponsors at the Sales-

force.com Dreamforce ’08 during November. Inquiries were made on 124 Web sites through Web-based forms

where available and all responses were tracked whether they came by email or telephone. The responses surpris-

ingly found that some leads go unattended. The key results:

• 53.2% of companies attempted response to inquiries on a web form by email.

• 39.5% of companies attempted response to inquiries by phone.

• 37.1% never responded by either media.

• Average response time by email: 13 hours, 14 minutes, 24 seconds.

• Average response time by phone was 44 hours, 31 minutes, 08 seconds.

• Average number of email attempts of those that did respond: 1.45 attempts.

• Average number of email attempts by all companies: .66 attempts.

• Average number of phone attempts of those that did respond: 1.14 attempts.

• Average number of phone attempts by all companies was .45 attempts.

Best practices (5 minute response):

24.2% responded by email in 5 minutes.

3.2% responded by phone in 5 minutes.

As is the case with all lead management, lead response times require automation and sales and marketing align-

ment. Measuring your companies lead response time is a good start. Improving that lead time through automated

processes for personnel and data will close the gap.

INSURANCE THAT LEADS ARE HIT WHILE THEY ARE HOT

A NEW LOOK AT THE LEAD FUNNEL


Let’s take another perspective on lead management and sales and marketing alignment. The goal of both is to

educate all the stakeholders in the equation. The smarter everyone is, the smarter they will manage leads. Lead

management raises the digital IQ of the entire company. On a deeper level we can identifiy specific areas that

provide that intelligence: Sales 2.0 and online behavioral cues.

Sales 2.0 is generally applied as the practice of relying on internet-based communication to provide fact-based

prospect knowledge to all members of the sales and marketing team. Sales 2.0 means that everyone on the team

relies on the data collected on prospects, the scores assigned to the leads, and the manner of follow up. Sales 2.0

means not waiting for a inbound phone call, face-to-face meeting, or trade show to start prospecting or even

closing an account.

Deploying Sales 2.0 processes requires sales and marketing to adopt a new process for reading their prospects.

They can’t see the furrowed brow that signals frustration or the subtle relaxation of the shoulders that indicates

comfort. Clues from a prospect’s digital behavior are necessary because they can make sales and marketing

people smarter. The proper alignment between sales and marketing will enable the communication necessary

with the customer.

While the digital behavior can effectively be used by automated campaigns to determine the right response in

a nurturing campaign, if that same data is not presented to the right sales rep at the right time, so he/she can

quickly and easily read the digital behavior, the whole point is lost. Unfortunately, most marketing automation

systems overlook the critical role the sales team plays in the process of responding to new leads. Reading digital

cues is for marketing and sales, not just marketing.

Initiative #5:Raising the Digital IQ for Sales and MarketingBy studying the digital behavior of prospects and applying Sales 2.0 processes, leading companies are capturing qualified leads and closing more deals.

RAISING THE DIGITAL IQ FOR SALES AND MARKETING


Answering questions such as “where was this lead before she was at our website?” or

“what search terms did she use to land at our site?” provide lead management intelli-

gence. If a prospect came to your website via a search engine, than those keywords need

to be invested in. If multiple executives from a company come to your website and visit

pricing pages or take a demo, the sales team should likely be triggered to follow up with

that prospect immediately.

Regardless of what a prospect did or didn’t do, nothing will energize the information that

defines digital behavior like real-time information into the lead management system. A

good example can be seen from case study of supply chain integration and e-commerce

management firm Advanced Data Exchange (ADX). The company’s management team

realized having an integrated approach to sales & marketing would be critical— as it pre-

pared to launch a new service designed to open up EDI to millions of buyers and suppliers

still relying on faxes and the post office for supply chain management.

For the introduction of its CommerceMail service in late October 2008, ADX deployed the

Genius platform for real-time marketing and sales analytics and the results have been fast and

dramatic—enabling ADX to capture 60 qualified leads for their new service in the first 90 days.

“When we implemented Genius, we made the commitment to working together as a

team, keeping checks and balances on each other, and jumping in to help each other

when necessary,” says Heather Steele, senior marketing specialist at ADX. ADX utilized

the Genius Pro product to send out a series of four automated and personalized emails

to prospects. Depending on their response (if they asked to see a demo), the ADX sales

team received an instant alert via the Genius Tracker. As part of the alert, the sales reps

also received immediate insight into their interest and could then immediately reach out

to the prospect.

RAISING THE DIGITAL IQ FOR SALES AND MARKETING

Sales 2.0 Author on the Role of Digital IQ

Anneke Seeley is the author of the recently published Sales 2.0. She presented at the Sales 2.0 Conference in early

March. A former executive with Oracle and now the CEO of PhoneWorks, Seeley has been at the forefront of implementing Web 2.0 communica-tion solutions for sales and marketing. Now she consults with major international firms on bringing Web 2.0 together with the communica-tion necessary to enable Sales 2.0.

Q: There have been quite a few defini-tions of the term Sales 2.0, some clearer than others. What’s yours?

Seeley: I describe Sales 2.0 as a more effec-tive and efficient way of selling more efficiently. It is enabled by Web 2.0 technology. It is a combination of the art of collaborative selling coupled with the new culture of measurement.

Q: It seems like this will mean some new behaviors will need to be adopted by all different point people in a company.

Seeley: Executives in sales and marketing are being forced to rethink the way they do things today. Part of what forces this revision is the economy. You have to constantly rethink how you can improve your operation and reach out to prospective customers at the same time. A sales or marketing executive that truly embraces Sales 2.0 is always looking at the way customers want to buy.

Q: How has that customer’s buying cycle changed?

Seeley: Face to face meetings are rare. Some bigger customers will go all the way from pitch to close without a face to face meeting. That means sales and marketing executives must be more effectively aligned. They are truly contribut-ing to the sales process in a shared fashion. They should share all available metrics and maybe even have a shared compensation package. The process of Sales 2.0 is being redefined constantly.

Q: How does Sales 2.0 intersect with lead management?

Seeley:Lead management is a very impor-tant part of the sales cycle and all parts of the company must respect that. When it comes to lead management it’s about strategy, process, and people. Now we have a lot of new technol-ogy that can improve strategy, and it can enable a smoother lead management process, and the entire sales cycle is certainly faster as a result. But what I see companies do wrong is that they start with technology before they look at people and process. Understand your lead generation issues first. Is my problem identifying prospects? Is it in finding a good group to target? No tech-nology can help you understand where to start.

Q: Many companies are stuck in this downward economic spiral. Can Sales 2.0 help pull them out?

Seeley: I have clients that have seen dramatic results by implementing Sales 2.0 strategies, which include the proper sales and marketing alignment. One software company I worked with in the past year has seen a 12% sales increase and a 17% head count decrease. Another client in the medical hardware business has produced a 7% incremental jump in busi-ness. Those results are hard to dispute.


The most common cause for lead management failure is a disconnect between sales and marketing. Turf wars

and silos get them to this point, good teamwork can help bring them out. In basketball parlance the sales and

marketing effort is easy to see. The point guard (marketing lead management specialist) brings the ball up the

court, looking for opportunities to score. He passes to the shooting guard (lead scoring) who has the opportunity

to make the other players move into better position, or he decides to take the shot himself. But more often than

not he passes to the front court (sales) where the big guys are closer to the basket. If they hit the shot the deal is

closed. If they don’t hit the shot the ball is rebounded and passed back out (remarketed) to the backcourt.

The basketball analogies go further than the sport. Everyone needs to play his or her position in order for the

team to score. All members of the team need to be able to share the ball (or information) to advance the

team’s prospects. Movement, agility, and awareness are the key factors. More formally, the process is called

“dynamic engagement.”

In the dynamic engagement process, marketing and sales pass lead communication and qualification responsibil-

ity back and forth seamlessly, enabling the right level and mode of contact for each prospect at each phase of the

engagement. At the simplest level, what this means is that marketing can automate the process of nurturing a

lead via email until qualifying criteria are met, at which point, sales can be instantly notified of prospect interest,

and lead status is updated so that marketing no longer sends email to a lead being actively worked by sales.

Initiative #6:Raising the Close Rate on Sales OpportunitiesA coordinated game plan between marketing and sales results in cultivating prospects and responding when they are ready to buy.

RAISING THE CLOSE RATE ON SALES OPPORTUNITIES


Similarly, if sales finds that a qualified lead is not actually engaged, sales can

update the lead status, passing responsibility for “remarketing” back to market-

ing. Lead qualifying criteria can be based not only on factual information (industry,

company size) but also on the prospect’s online body language, including number

of visits to the Web site, number of pages visited, length of the visit(s), and specific

pages visited.

All members of the sales and marketing team have visibility into the play, its prog-

ress, and its success. Instead of actually passing, the lead management team has a

series of engagements with each other and with the prospect. If no one drops the

ball the chance of success is greater.

RAISING THE CLOSE RATE ON SALES OPPORTUNITIES

David Thompson turned a business frustration into a business opportunity and hundreds of clients have profited from his efforts. As the CMO of WebEx, Thompson realized the sales team found many of the leads provided by the marketing team to be useless. He started Genius on the premise that sales and marketing needed to work together in different ways, using Web 2.0 technology as a foundation for that change.

Q: Describe some of the issues you had as a marketing executive which lead to the launch of Genius.

Thompson: Lead generation and lead management can be a frustrating process for any company because there’s an attitude that sales has its job and marketing has its job. There’s always room for finger-pointing. At WebEx we had an enormous amount of leads but at any given moment we were overwhelmed by them. At the end of the day, sales must know who to call, how to call and when to call. Marketing has to help them do that.

Q: What you’re describing is a pretty radical reinvention of market-ing isn’t it?

Thompson: It is different, but let me explain. In the Sales 2.0 model the sales effort must help buyers buy when they want to buy. It’s up to marketing to do most of the upfront selling. For the long-term, marketing does have to support the commitment to sales. Marketing must court and cultivate customers who want to buy when they want to buy. That’s where lead management comes in. That’s where these incredible Web 2.0 tools come in. Now if you’re suggesting that marketing changes radically, yes, I agree. Branding? Forget about it. Branding is relationship-building and the cultivation of buyer’s interests.

Q: How would you convince a skeptical marketing executive that this is the right structure?

Thompson: In this economic environment you need more leads and you need better leads. If you don’t have the ability to generate them, you’re out of business. If you don’t increase the reach and frequency of your lead management efforts, the lead flow dries up. If you don’t have enough leads for sales to go to Plan B, or Plan C, you’re in big trouble. I’d say in this economy, for every one of your leads that has layoffs, you need to have a new one to take its place if necessary.


Finally, as with any stimulus package, those involved with executing the plan need

to make sure it rolls out efficiently. If a solution requires IT funding and support, it

will ultimately cost more than budgeted. If the costs associated overrun budgets,

now the ROI calculation is different and the finance people are skeptical. Lead

management solutions should be as close to “plug and play” as possible.

Some of the leading edge thinking in this area comes from Dave Green, presi-

dent of PipeAlign and the co-author of The B2B Refinery. Green has advanced

the “lead refinery” methodology that urges companies to turn raw lead data

into revenue opportunities on a systematic basis. Along with Green we’ve iden-

tified four things that make or break a lead management solution.

1. The Cross-Functional Breakdown: If there’s no cross-functional executive

sponsorship, there’s no champion for the leads that come from sales channels,

marketing campaigns, events, and even post sales operations. Without cross-

functional executive support, those “in the trenches” trying to implement a lead

system will run into turf wars that will slow or even stifle adoption of the platform.

2. The Data Standard Breakdown: Without good data, the best software

system in the world will not provide the results you are looking for. Define and

use data standards. Start with a collaboration between sales and marketing on

the definition of a qualified lead. Revisit and revise this definition. In essence,

the rich understanding in sales and marketing of the business rules much be

reduced accurately to fields of data that are consistent across all points of

capture.

3. The Process Breakdown: Unless there is a well-defined, thoughtful, well-

documented process around what to do with a lead and what the conse-

quences are for non-compliance, the high quality data in your new lead system

will yield reports that make investments in lead generation subject to the CFO

expense-cutting axe, especially in times like these. That process must be com-

municated repeatedly to all channels and to marketing. The process should also

evolve as the business changes and as user needs evolve.

4. The Complexity Implosion. The temptation is to design a rocket ship to

the moon, right off the bat. Don’t. Go slow. Automate only the most critical

functions. Make sure those work. Then automate a few more items. This “go

slow” approach allows users to understand the software platform more deeply

before requesting functionality that they may never use.

Initiative #7:Avoiding Earmarks and Hidden CostsDoing your homework before implementing a lead management system could make or break the ROI. Be sure to read the fine print.

AVOIDING EARMARKS AND HIDDEN COSTS


Investing in the FutureDuring one of the challenging periods of his presidency John F. Kennedy, offered the following quote:

“ When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”

CONCLUSION

A similar choice exists for BtoB organizations. While many buyers have retrenched and sales cycles are often

extended, there are some silver linings. Just as The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 prom-

ises to revive the slumping economy by boosting spending on energy, health care and infrastructure, the

Sales & Marketing Stimulus package can put your company in a position to grab market share from weak-

ened competitors and emerge stronger when the recession fades.

Unlike the complex macroeconomic trends, there is a fairly simple and clear solution for the BtoB sector.

The success of any organization is most easily defined by revenue growth. The sales and marketing stimulus

package addresses that equation head on. When marketing is aligned as a demand generation engine, and

the sales team is tuned in to intelligence on prospect behavior, the process of turning potential into revenue

is seamless.

The Sales & Marketing Stimulus package requires investment in Sales 2.0 technology and practices, as well as

a laser focus from top executives and a shift in corporate culture.

Companies can ignore the revolution in lead management. But they do so at the risk of leaving new business

on the table, leaving revenue unclaimed, and leaving their future in the hands of sales and marketing tactics

that are doomed to fail in the new world of BtoB buying cycles.

About Genius.com Genius.com is the first SaaS solution that delivers the benefits of marketing automation to both Marketing and

Sales, embodying the principles of Sales 2.0 that make it easier and more efficient for Sales and Marketing to

close more deals “in the cloud”. Our powerful, intuitive and instantly available demand management software

automates marketing workflows and provides real-time sales alerts on qualified lead activity so Sales can pro-

vide immediate, informed follow-up. Genius delivers a complete sales and marketing solution including: email

marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, website tracking, instant alerts, and closed-loop reporting capabilities

to manage and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, drive revenues and prove marketing ROI.

Genius.com® Incorporated™

1400 Fashion Island Boulevard

Suite 500

San Mateo, CA 94404

1-888-6-Genius

[email protected]

www.genius.com

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