From Click to Closed - Inbound Sales and Marketing Blog

DRAGON’S DEN: The Quickest Way to Lose Your Company

The widely popular Canadian TV show that pits aspiring entrepreneurs against  five Dragons (Multi-millionaires), each with the expertise - and the money - to turn burgeoning business ideas into incredible fortunes.  The problem is that the Dragons chew them up and spit the entrepreneurs out like chum.  Why?  Well because these Dragons did not acquire their wealth for nothing; they knew how to protect their interests and make sure they made as much money as quickly as possible.

Launching a business is no small task. No matter how big an idea you think you have, it still takes a lot of work and a ton of cash.  Or does it?  Yes, it does take a lot of hard work, but the ton of cash is the part that I begin to question. The Dragons are ruthless, and rightly so - it's their own personal money on the line. I understand that with the credit crisis around the world, finding funding is not easy. But they use their money to bully around the entrepreneurs in order to take control of their companies.  Any idea that the Dragons see that they know could make money, they instantly go for the jugular, and ask for 51% of the ownership.  What many entrepreneurs miss is that even though they sell 51% of the company, it does not mean they need to give up 51% of the voting shares, or control of their company.

All companies take calculated risks in order to grow. Some of these risks can threaten a company's profitability or even its survival. Entrepreneurs who intend to stay in business for the long haul have to acknowledge risk and then put programs and policies in place to manage it. They should ask three questions as part of their business planning:

• What are the worst things that could happen to the business?
  By answering this question, an entrepreneur can then take steps to defend the business against the risk.
• How likely is it that they will occur?
  By answering this question, the entrepreneur can set priorities in managing risk.
• Is the company taking the right steps to prevent them?
  Entrepreneurs have to answer this question honestly, tempering their optimism with realism. In some cases, an entrepreneur may need the help of an adviser.

So then what is the risk of going on Dragon’s Den?  Giving up control of your company?  Being rejected? Many entrepreneurs feel that money is the answer to all their problems.  They think that once they have this money, all the doors in the world will open and then revenue will just flood in.  Well I am sorry to tell you that is not the case.  What these entrepreneurs need to do is develop a sound business development plan.  This is not as expensive as you may think. 

With the power of social media and the internet, these entrepreneurs can spread the word themselves.  They have spent so much of their time focusing on their product or service that they have not spent the time spreading the word.  With the help of an advisor, they could put that same passion and drive that developed their product into spreading the word and building a community on-line.

We have worked with many entrepreneurs to implement inbound marketing channels that deliver 60% lower cost per lead than traditional outbound channels.   These entrepreneurs can share their passion and expertise in their blogs. Social media and blogs are becoming marketing powerhouses. Contrary to the rumours, businesses are generating real customers with social media and blogs.  Some businesses are still unsure about the utility of social media and blogs.  They ask: “Are potential customers really reading Twitter? Does Facebook do anything more than build brand awareness?”  The answer is, “Yes!”.  Over 40% of companies who use the services of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and company blogs for marketing have acquired customers through each of those channels.

My recommendation to these entrepreneurs is don’t waste your money on outbound marketing techniques that are getting less and less effective over time.  The average human today is inundated with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions per day and is figuring out more and more creative ways to block them out, including caller id, spam filtering, Tivo, and Sirius satellite radio.  Rather than do outbound marketing to the masses of people who are trying to block you out, I advocate doing "inbound marketing" where you help yourself "get found" by people already learning about and shopping in your industry.  But most of all, don’t give up control of your company - it’s your baby - and only you can have the drive and passion to take it to the next level.

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Rush at Red Rocks

After an amazing day meeting with the team at Net-Results, and learning more about the great things that are happening - large new clients coming on board and game changing new  features being added - I had the opportunity to see the iconic Rush, live at probably the greatest venue in North America: Red Rock Amphitheatre. It truly was amazing.  This is a band,  which for more than 30 years has not been afraid to do what they wanted, without any concern about the critics might say. Their willingness to try new things and think outside the box has provided inspiration for many of today's hottest bands and has made them the #3 selling band of all time.

The members of Rush have themselves noted that people "either love Rush or hate Rush", resulting in strong detractors and an intensely loyal fan base. As I watched the 9,500 screaming, mostly male, fans just go nuts about how great the “holy triumvirate” is, it reminded me that to be truly great, to be iconic, you can’t be afraid of controversy.

I am not saying that you need to go out and stir up controversy for the sake of building a brand. What I am saying is sure your brand has a strong definitive voice. Many, many companies, even as they enter the world of blogging and social media, play it safe. They worry too much about not wanting to offend anyone that their content becomes too vanilla. Would you rather have 100 passionate fans or 100,000 people who will not remember you 5 seconds after reading your content?

That is the point that many companies miss. They are not thinking about being authentic and letting their prospects and customers know exactly who they are and what they stand for. Instead, they are holding on to the dream that one day, with enough vanilla content, prospect may  buy from them.  You need to say what you think and think about what you say.  Is your
message adding value to your prospects?  Is it making them think?  Or does it sit in that same place that everyone else does and allows them to pass on by without causing them to think twice?

Love it or hate it you must make them think.  If they are thinking, then they are starting the process of engaging with you.  The more engagement you can develop, the greater your brand.  A brand is not about how pretty you look, or what nice colors you have.  A brand is what mental image you prospects and clients conjure when they hear your name.  If you don't make them think, they will not even remember you.

When I was 5 years old, I spent summers in Quebec to learn French.  One year when I was flying by myself from Quebec City to Toronto, the attendants let me sit right in first class in the seat beside Ray Daniels (manager of Rush).  Not only did I get to meet Rush but also met Gowan.  For me this was a memory I will never forget and really could not fully appreciate at the time. Seeing them live for the first time at the amazing Red Rocks was an event I will cherish for many years.  I do so appreciate the opportunity the Net-Results team provided me and consider them a valued partner, not only to Inbound Sales, I am but also proud to call them friends. Michael, Matt, Lindsey, Correy and the whole team at Net-Results go out of their way to make their clients are happy, and as an agency, what more could I ask for?  I have had the opportunity to work with many email and marketing automation providers over the years, and the way Net-Results makes clients feel like part of the family and well-looked after is second to none.  They are truly the best in the business.

What Everybody Ought to Know to Successfully Implement Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is not as simple as selecting a platform or tool and forgetting about it.  Ultimately, the success of marketing automation at your organization will depend on the people you choose to operate it and the process you design around it.  Even the greatest tools are only as good as the people who implement them and the system they build around it. Three key factors can make or break your investment:

1. A well designed “From Click to Closed” methodology that includes not only the lead nurturing components, but everything from lead generation to lead follow-up to close.
2. The people on the team.  This includes someone to own and operate the marketing automation system and a person (or people) responsible for qualifying leads.
3. A never-ending commitment to generating great content.

There’s no doubt about it, there is a revolution taking place in marketing departments around the world and that marketing automation is leading the way.  Marketing Automation is to marketing like a CRM is to Sales or an ERP is to finance:  essential.  We are not talking about a “shiny new toy”, but, when used correctly, a competitive advantage.  As your competitors leverage automation to optimize their marketing, your non-use puts you at a competitive disadvantage.

Marketing departments can learn from successful CRM and ERP implementations, by how they help realize the benefits of automation. Like CRM and ERP implementations, there is no such thing as “plug-and-play”.  Success in implementing automation involves commitment on the part of the implementing organization.

From “Click to Closed” Marketing is a Process

The first step to a successful marketing automation implementation is to map your customers’ buying process.  Once you understand how and why your customers buy, you can then define your marketing funnel.  The marketing funnel should start with a lead/inquiry generation and finish at the end goal (a Sales Accepted Lead or an order, etc).  Once you have established your funnel with agreed upon definitions - such as MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead), SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) and SAL (Sales Accepted Lead) - you should then place metric goals against the funnel.

A marketing automation system is not a magical application where you just start creating better leads instantly, but rather it’s a system designed to support your marketing operations.  The reason why most implementations fail is that the organizations implementing them don’t know what they want to do with them or which specific pain points they want them to address. Just like how a CRM is designed to support your sales process, marketing automation is designed to support your marketing process.  You really need to start with the end in mind, know what your buyer is doing and draw a picture of how your funnel will work.  Once you have your “picture”, you’ll see clearly how marketing automation can support you and your organization. Far too often, organizations work the other way. They get the marketing automation system and then figure out what to do with it. Don’t make that mistake. When you are considering buying a system, hand the marketing automation sales team your process, and they will have a clear understanding of how to show you the system. Implementation will involve less pain because you know where you want the system to take you.

It Takes a Team Effort

When you hear the word “automation” you may think that it means people are less important in the whole process.  Actually, that could not be more wrong.  In order to be successful, you need people actively involved and accountable for this initiative.  People support every well-run business software - and that is a fact. If you only remember one thing, let it be this: don’t forget your people and don’t be ashamed to utilize them. Two key roles in a successful implementation are:

1. The System Owner
   This is not an IT person, but rather someone from the marketing department whose job it is to understand the system inside and out and help drive the necessary parties within your organization.  This is crucial to provide the inputs necessary to make the system work.  Often in larger organizations, an outside vendor can take on this role.  Regardless of whether in house or out-sourced, someone needs to understand the system and be able to leverage all the features and functionality.  Armed with this knowledge, this individual will be able to articulate to the organization what the systems needs, and when necessary, be able to find the gaps in the system and help push the organization to full them.  This individual will also be responsible for watching the metrics, internalizing them, and presenting them back to the organization.  The system owner is watching for red-flags, positive trends, and so on, because it’s their job to do so.
2. Lead Qualification Team
   Marketing automation does not eliminate the need for lead qualification. Every organization needs to have a phone-based team that follows up with your scored leads, connects with these people, qualifies them, and then passes them to sales. Getting from “lead” to “qualified lead” is a coordinated process of marketing automation features, such as:  scoring, emailing, web activity, and progressive profiling.  A dedicated rep is also key – it’s their  job to connect with scored registrations via phone or email, qualify them, and then connect them with a proper sales rep. (For more on this check out Here’s a Quick Way to Increase Lead Conversion Rates.)

Commitment to Content

Marketing automation without original content is SPAM.  Period.  It doesn’t work if you have a single piece of content and you’re pushing the same message over and over again. Marketing automation works best with quality content. It’s like putting the right fuel in your race car. Your marketing automation system needs the fuel (i.e. content) to win the race.

In order to understand if you have the correct content, you first need to create buyer personas and tailor content for them. Who are the various buyers of your technology? Understand who the stakeholders are and what they care about. Marketing automation will help you recognize these stakeholders and create individual content campaigns for them. Once you have developed your personas you then need to understand your buyer‘s journey and create a content funnel. What does your buyer do when they buy solutions in your market? Create a map for the buyer’s journey, tie that to the various personas, and create content that leads them down the path. Remember, today’s buyer can go out on the Internet and get the information they need without you. As they go through their buying cycle, keep them engaged with you by providing them the information they need during their critical buying functions.

Whether you have already implemented an marketing automation solution or still considering it, a well defined process, people to support your growth, and content are the keys to success. Marketing automation is an ongoing process, continually tweaking your content, campaigns; time etc. to look for triggers that are more effective than others, or just as an adjustment to market conditions or change in buyer behaviours is also essential. This combination will drive real marketing ROI and make the sales organization and the CFO happy.

Here’s a Quick Way to Increase Lead Conversion Rates

Recent research shows that qualifying leads are 32 times more successful when contacted 1 hour after interest event versus 24 hours. But for many organizations it is hard enough to get sales to follow up on these leads period, let alone within the optimal time.  With many organizations starting to implement Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation process, the quality and quantity of leads has greatly increased. But there is still one big mistake that many organizations are still making; they are handing these leads off to a quota caring sales person instead of a lead qualification team.

In having worked with many organizations to implement inbound marketing and lead nurturing practices, there are a few things that I have noticed. Noteworthy for this blog is that, marketing automation is not a replacement for the need for sales to qualify leads.  As a matter of fact, marketing automation makes the lead qualification function more efficient; that is, and they can qualify more leads in less time.  This is because with lead nurturing, prospects have already started to be qualified, but there still is the need to fully qualify them.

For many larger organizations, the most successful lead generation/lead management programs have dedicated phone services whose sole job in life is to take raw inquiries and qualify them before they are sent to sales. For many organizations that have a lead qualification team, they are able to convert up to 65% of the leads, whereas organizations without are more in the 10% range. The key for these organizations is to have a human tied to a phone-based function that sits in between lead generation and the sales team.  What they do is follow up on leads from marketing based on a set of qualification criteria, decide which ones should go to sales, and which ones should be sent back to marketing for further nurturing.  This can be either done in-house or can be outsourced.  The important thing is that raw, unfiltered leads are not being sent directly to sales.

Here are some reasons why this works:

• Most sales people pride themselves on being closers
  Sales exists to close business, and often they are very good at it.  So let them do their jobs.  Just look at the numbers: today it takes on average 6-8 touches to generate a qualified lead.  That is not something that you want an expensive, quota caring sale rep to be working on.  Instead you want them working on what they do best, closing business and making money.
• Closers don’t have time to, or want to follow up on leads
  They don’t, they won’t, and it’s a pain in the butt to get them to do it.  Often when a sales rep is planning his or her day, they are looking at where the money is today, not where it may be  down the road.  When they get swamped, the first that that gets put off is the follow up on new leads.  When you consider qualified leads are 32 times more successful when contacted 1 hour after interest event versus 24 hours, this can be very costly for many organizations.
• The numbers speak for themselves
  For many marketing teams; the key benchmark has changed from MQL (Marketing Qualified Leads) to SAL (Sales Accepted Leads).  With this change there has come the need for ensuring  that you team is converting as high a ratio as possible.  When you consider that a sales qualification team can convert up to 6X as many opportunities, the numbers speak for themselves. You won’t come close with sales doing their first voicemail follow-up.  You want someone whose sole job it is in life is to reach your leads, overcome objections, make sure they are a fit, and get them connected to sales teams.

When looking at your lead generation and lead conversion process in your organization, you not only need to consider lead generation (inbound marketing) and lead nurturing (marketing automation) but you also need to consider lead conversion.  With a strong lead qualification plan that includes an individual committed to the sole purpose of qualify leads, your organization can achieve much greater ROI (Return on Investment) in all your lead generation and lead nurturing initiatives.

The Best Time for B2B Companies to Contact New Leads for Optimal Conversion Rates

One of the key things in any lead generation program is how well the marketing qualified leads (MQL) convert into a sales qualified lead (SQL).  A recent 2010 study of 126,695 B2B observations by Lead Response Management highlighted how imperative it is for B2B sales people to follow up on sales leads within the first 20 minutes. Beyond 20 minutes, the probability of qualifying the lead levels off and gradually degrades to zero within 24 hours, when all contact methods are equally ineffective. After the sweet spot of 20 minutes has past, it takes a lot more effort and an aggressive contact approach to pursue qualifications.

Phone followed by email clearly stood out as most effective for B2B lead qualification. Though sending an email immediately after a phone contact is much less effective than delaying the email for 2 to 13 -hours.  Phone contact allows a bit more time for following-up and shows more receptiveness while initial email contact is a turn off.  Considering that many of these leads may have started through email and have gone as far as email can nurture them, it is no surprise that this becomes less effective.

Action in the first 1 to 2 hours can yield over 50% effectiveness, but a long plateau of under 30% opens up from 2 to 14 hours. The effectiveness of contacts made at 5 minutes after interest is established was 7.8 times more likely to qualify than at 30 minutes, with a continued sharp drop-off in effectiveness over time. So ultimately, you need to have an efficient and timely transfer of information between your marketing department and sales such that sales can catch these leads within the 2 hour window.  If sales are unable to contact these prospects with that 2 hour window, it then becomes a game of phone tag and the priority for the prospect may be gone.

In qualified leads, phone contact is the most effective method up to the point of approximately 4 to 6 months, when email overtakes in effectiveness. After about 4 months the effectiveness of phone contact drops to the point where a cheaper nurturing approach makes sense.  These are prime leads that can be handed back to your marketing department for lead nurturing with marketing automation software.

Another interesting fact was that the sectors of communications and information technology are highly time sensitive, showing a rapid drop off almost immediately within a 48 hour period. Software as a Service (SaaS) and professional services firms showed a moderate and more levelled drop off, and financial and healthcare lead qualifications were reasonably effective out ?to 24 hours. Still, ultimately all sectors show the need for a response within 24 hours, IT shows the need for follow-up within an 8 hour period.

Ultimately qualifying leads was 32 times more successful when contacting 1 hour after interest event versus 24 hours.  For most organizations to achieve this, they need to make sure that marketing is able to transfer these leads almost instantly and that sales are committed to calling immediately.  In order to get sales to buy into this, there are two important steps:  first, have a unified definition of what a leads is, and second, show sales how they obtain greater results the quicker they respond. The quicker they respond the greater the results for them.  This can be achieving by sharing with them the results of this study.

The Secret to Successful Lead Generation

As the customers’ buying process have changed with the advent of the internet, many companies are now searching for the secret to generating high quality leads effectively and at the lowest possible  price per lead.

Enter “inbound marketing” and “marketing automation”.  Both are new terms for many marketers let alone businesses executives.  While both individually offer many promises to generating large amounts of leads, marrying the two together provides the most effective results. The most effective is to marry the two.

The old approach to marketing relied on sending out mass messages to as many people as possible in as many forms as possible.  While this may have worked for the 3% of buyers who might actually be searching for that solution, for the 97% of people who were not in an active buying mode, and who were not engaged, they often marked the message as spam.  The pure lack of response from these prospects can attest to the fact that old methods just don’t work anymore.

An inbound marketing system turns this all around by using remarkable content that attracts prospects to come knocking on your door. From there, marketing automation makes it possible to nurture the 97% who are not in an active buying mode, so that when they are ready, they call you first.

Companies that have effectively married these two practices have seen the following results:

• 200% increase in website traffic
• Conversion rate increases by over 250%
• A decrease in the average cost of lead acquisition by 60%, as compared to outbound marketing approaches.  The average cost to acquire a lead is 60% less compared to outbound marketing approaches.

If these numbers seem unbelievable to you, consider that 92% of business-to-business buyers start the search for a solution online.  So getting to the #1 spot on Google can expose you to 58% of buyers who are searching for your product at that very moment. (Google’s 70% market share X the almost 90% of people who click on the 1^st results X the 92% that start their search online).  When you marry this 58% with an effective lead nurturing process, many companies can achieve 40% market share.

In order to get this 40% market share, you need to implement an Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation process that works well together.  When done right, this process is far more effective than the sum of its parts.  When you map this process to your customers buying process, many companies have achieved over 60% market share.

The Components of an Inbound Marketing and Marketing Automation Process

1. Your Content
   As any internet marketer will tell you “content is King”. Remarkable content will make your website the destination of choice for people interested in your market place.  A great inbound marketing system depends on the quality of the content you share.  This is the area that has the greatest effect on your success online.  The following tools help display it, disseminate, promote and catalogue it.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Tools
   Search Engine Marketing includes tools for Organic Search (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC).  There are also tools to help devise Keyword strategies and others to assist with advertising campaigns; score your website, analyze its traffic share, determine your Search Engine Results Page ranking, assess incoming and outgoing links, etc.
3. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Tools
   With Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter being all the buzz these days, SMM tools are a must to manage all of them. The tools help find authoritative or influential blogs and websites for your area. Others help with Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn and the many social media platforms. A search for any of these topics on Google will result in a long list of articles and tools, and our blog covers the subject too.
4. Content Management Systems (CMS)
   A great way to manage your content is with a CMS.   The benefits of a CMS is that whole content of a webpage will be incorporated into a database, where a non-web administrative staff with little knowledge can manipulate the whole content easily with less hurdles within a smaller time frame.
5. Marketing Automation Software
   It’s great to have all these prospects coming to your sight, but you also need to have a plan on how you are going to nurture them into a sale.  Enter marketing automation software that can nurture your prospects from a general browser to paying customer.
6. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
   After your Marketing Automation has tracked your prospects and determined which prospects are HOT; leads are fed into your CRM system, allowing your sales team to conduct timely sales calls with prospects who are in a buying mode.

The Process in Action

Imagine visitors arrive on your site, attracted by your keyword and SEO strategy and all that Social Media Marketing you’re doing. They find that your site perfectly matches their keyword phrase (because you created your marketing strategy and keyword phrases correctly, and then built a website optimized for these same keywords).  The site is such a perfect fit to their expectations that they begin exploring and don’t bounce away.

They register to get your remarkable content. They read it and return for more. Because they have given you their name and email address, they are assigned to the first of your drip-email nurturing campaigns and are now automatically nurtured and cared for, according to your best sales and marketing practices encoded in your system’s Business or Automation Rules. Your prospects are cared for flawlessly, repeatedly and 24/7. Each automated drip-email element provides just the right response to nudge this person to the next step in their buying cycle.

Once they have entered a buying mode (as determined by you and monitored by your Marketing Automation Software) your sales people get a notice (in your CRM system) to call this prospect.  Complete with a full history of this buyer’s behaviour and a targeted message, your sales person signs them up that day.

This may sound unbelievable but this is the exact system that many successful companies are using. Their marketing people are released from the drudgery of managing leads and responding to routine inquiries, thus freeing them to create new campaigns with remarkable content. And sales people concentrate their efforts on the hot prospects who are ready to buy now and leave the “just looking” leads to the automation system. This is how the marriage of inbound marketing and marketing automation increases your revenues while lowering your costs and thus boosts profit significantly. 

What about the other 97% of buyers?

Why do things that experienced sales veterans know not get passed on to Marketing? Does Marketing not listen, or is Sales not sharing?  I have often talked about how in this digital age that Sales and Marketing need to align with each other another and here is another example. Recently I had a meeting with  two extremely experienced and smart sales executives (Note: these are prospects who are now clients); this was my first time meeting with one of them who was brought in to help make the final decision on our partnership.  The associate at one point stated: “you are a web design firm”.  That actually kind of offended me.  Not that it was his fault, but I think than many people have a misunderstanding what Inbound Sales and Marketing is.

I mentioned to him that if he asked me if we were a website design company, I would say “no”.  What we do is provide Sale Qualified Leads (SQL) for our clients. How we do that is by using things like social media, Google, and other digital mediums, with their website as a hub.  But it involves so much more than just website design.  I asked him what he sees when he looks at most company websites.  He responded that “it was a bunch of junk about that company”.  I told him that he was correct then asked him what happens when a new sales person starts making prospecting calls and they do nothing except talk about themselves.     He laughed and said that was simple:  the prospects hang up.

That is exactly it:   if most experience sales executives know that talking all about you is a bad practice for amateurs, then why do we allow it on our websites?  There is a golden rule in sales that you should spend 80% of your time listening to your client, and I think that marketing needs to learn this rule.  A DemandGen Report webinar on Inside the Mind of B2B Buyers: New Paths to Purchase, pointed out that over 9 out of 10 buyers consumed content on their way to purchase — especially white papers, eBooks, webinars, podcasts, video clips and much, much more.   What kind of content worked best?  Content personalized to them — their industry, their title, their stage in the buying process, their consumption device (iPhone, Blackberry, laptop, etc.)  To compete today, you need great content well-mapped to your buyer personas.

Much like how Sales knows how you have to take a prospect through a buying process, most Marketers, and especially people who develop websites, need to learn that same process.  It starts as status quo and then moves through to problem identification to option evaluation and then eventual purchase.  If your website and marketing strategy is not mapped to this process then you are doing your company and your prospects a disservice.  You are wasting their time and yours.  It’s no wonder that many websites only convert 3% of their traffic.  Actually, it fits exactly with what sales strategist Chet Holmes says:  At any given time, about 3 percent of your market is in active buying mode. So your website is able to convert that 3%, but what is it doing for the other 97%.

What is your website/marketing strategy doing to capture, nurture and eventually close the other 97%?  And that is where today’s progressive companies are working.  They’re not fight with price cuts and giveaways cutting into margins with every other company out there.  No, they are targeting that 97% that are not looking to cut your margins and waste your time. 

The progressive companies are out there, demonstrating thought leaders and helping educate  prospects.  And as any good sales person will tell you, they would rather be the person crafting the need and requirements as opposed to coming in after your competitors have already done so.  I used to find it interesting when one of my sales reps would bring me a RFP (Request For Proposal) and want to bid on it because it would make their month, quarter or year.  Often I would tell them that it was not even worth the effort.  Why?  Well, I can thank Tom Sant for that.  In his book Persuasive Business Proposals, Tom Sant takes you through the process of evaluating if it is even worth bidding and wasting your time.  He asks two key questions:  1) have you had influence on, and 2) have you had access to and if yes, how much, the decision makers or influencers in the buying process.    If you answer “no” to these two questions, it’s not worth bidding.  I believe that this same process needs to be part of the modern B2B sales process.  If you have not been involved in the early stages in the process then someone else, your competitor, most likely has, or will.    So who do you think is going to get the business if you continue to do nothing?

My question to you is: what are you doing today to get in on the early stages of the other 97% of buyers who are going to eventually buy your product or service?

How to Sell your CEO on Inbound Marketing

In today's business culture it can be tough to get executives buy into new initiatives. With rapid changes with how consumers make their purchase decisions, marketing teams need to adjust accordingly. Often this involves convincing your CEO and executive team why to do online and inbound marketing. Sometimes this problem has to do with company culture or leadership, but often it comes down to communication and how it is explained. Really, many marketing teams could learn from their sales counterparts on how to achieve this.

Here is a 7-step process to convince your boss to start inbound marketing:

1. Do Your Homework
   As any good sales person can tell you, doing your homework before you get in the meeting can make the biggest difference in terms of success. You need to study your CEO like a must-have customer. This means knowing his demographic, BANT and behaviour patterns. Did he come up through marketing or sales, or maybe it was through operations or finance? If he is from a sales and marketing background, talk to him about how the buying process has changed and how 79% of all executives are involved in doing their own online research. Or that 89% of all Business to Business purchases start online. If your CEO comes from a finance background, show him how inbound sales leads cost 60% less than their traditional outbound counterparts. You also need to take a look at their age. If your CEO is a Baby Boomer, growing up during an age of Rock and Roll, protests and riots (though recent events here in Toronto during the G20 summit might revive this) you need to speak to what they respond to: cues of achievement and status as well as being a trailblazer. But if your CEO is a Gen-X who grew up with divorced families, crack, gangs and violence, you need to use creative ideas and smart messages.
2. Discover what your CEO Cares About
   After getting a good understanding about what motives your CEO, you need to match your presentation to what his organizational goals are, whether that's cost reduction, sales growth, a new product launch or something else. Match his language to your message, whether the context is a new blog or maybe a well-conceived Facebook strategy.
3. Remember the 80:20 Rule
   In sales, there is the golden rule: you should only talk 20% of the time and have your prospect (your CEO) talk 80% of the time. How do you do this? Ask questions. Walk your CEO through the whole process by asking him question about current challenges, goals, and how he wants to bring about change. By doing this you will not only discover more about what is important to him, but also you increase his engagement and buy-in.
4. Sell on Benefits, not Features
   Sales 101 teaches you that you don't sell features, you explain the benefits. That means don't explain how you can track a lead and nurture it from start to finish. Rather, explain how you can pass well qualified leads to sales so they will waste less time chasing unqualified prospects resulting in greater efficiency for the organization. Remember to be as specific as possible and match it to his personal and organizational goals.
5. KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
   At it's depth, inbound marketing can be very complex, and it goes deep into every behaviour prospects/clients make. Your CEO doesn't need to be the inbound marketing expert. If he was, why would he need you? Filter what's important into a message simple enough that your CEO can not only make an appropriate decision but also repeat the message. You want to make him your advocate; if cannot explain it himself, how is he going to champion it into your organization?
6. Be Prepared to Draw
   Dan Roam's book "The Back of the Napkin" showed that thinking with pictures can help anyone develop new ideas, solve problems in unexpected ways, and share insights more powerfully. The quickest way to help your CEO understand is to draw a diagram - on paper or a white board. Diagram existing communications channels like e-newsletters, word of mouth, and emails, alongside social media platforms and blog posts, and then use that diagram to talk through when to use what and why.
7. Ask for the Business
   I see it all the time with people who are new to sales, they are afraid to ask the most important question of all: "what's the next step?" If you are not comfortable asking for a 100% commitment, ask about preferences. If you feel that you're CEO will not green light a new initiative based on a single meeting, keep momentum building by clarifying the next step: ask your CEO to choose between action and further study. For example, you might say, "We could study this more, maybe involve more people in the discussion, or I could test a few ideas and keep you posted on results before we spend lots of company resources. What's your preference?"

Remember, when looking to implement inbound marketing in your company, you need to sell it to your organization. These 7 steps can set you up for success, and help your organization achieve a greater number of lower cost leads. And isn't that what your job as a marketer is to do?

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Measuring your Success Connection

We love taking tests to see how we measure up in various areas of our lives. Sometimes we share, sometimes we hide results from IQ tests; personality tests; romance and chronological age tests but we seek the feedback regardless. It's human nature to want to know how you compare to your fellow man. We should be just as eager to administer tests to the strategies we take when we are building our business connections. We all know the saying, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Measurement is essential to making informed decisions about marketing investments. Every company is different, with different goals, budgets, systems and structures. As in our personal lives, we should identify a specific outcome and then determine measurements against this benchmark.

Avoid paralysis. Use analysis...

Let's look at four areas of marketing and an overview of what can be measured. Always keep in mind that what we are looking for is engagement with the customer.

Blogging:

Blogging is the new kid on the block of internet marketing. The great thing we are learning is that there are numerous metrics that can be evaluated. When you're trying to stand out, try building a blog that focuses on your expertise. Your blog let's people know who you are and what you do and it also provides useful, measureable information:

1. Who is reading?
2. Where are they coming from?
3. What content is most popular? 
4. What is your bounce rate?
5. How are the numbers moving in relation to interaction through comments, quizzes or contests?
6. What are you learning from emails initiated by your Blog?

Traditional Off-Line Ads

Some modern marketing strategies have evolved to focus on direct response marketing. Unlike traditional advertising this call-to-action style actually can begin to answer the age-old question, "Is our advertising getting the job done? " Consider these points:

1. Always include a feedback loop. This provides critical information and could eliminate waste.
2. There are numerous ways to code your ad, and thereby analyze variables:
   
   • Letter or department after your address
   • separate 800 numbers
   • unique auto-responder e-mail address
3. Use these or other tests to customize your classified ads to the specific outcome you are seeking.
4. Important Note: Test one variable at a time.
   

Social Media

Effective marketing depends on knowing your customer. Social Media is the perfect research tool. You can learn what customers, and even competitors, are saying about you and your product. More importantly, you are learning what clients need, their behaviour patterns and decision-making trends. A few metrics to consider are:

1. Fans
2. Growth rate of fans or followers
3. Mentors
4. Number of comments
5. Ratings
6. Contest entries
   

When your social media presence is metrics driven, you can easily see what is working and what isn't.

Traditional Website

Of course, when your goal is to be found by your customer, you want to be sure that what they find is going to convert to business. Constant review and improvement of the website experience you provide, means more business. It's too easy to let this silent partner become non-productive. Are you gathering these metrics?

1. Unique visitors
2. Page views per visitor
3. Time spent on site
4. Total time spent per user
5. Frequency of visits 
6. Dept of visit
7. Conversions

None of the above lists are meant to be comprehensive but rather to inspire consideration. As well, there are other areas such as eBooks, free offers and other branding strategies that can be useful.

Don't give up until it adds up.

Effective marketing doesn't happen by remote control. You've got to regularly schedule review of your measurements. Perhaps you can optimize your results by assigning monetary values to your metrics. Never underestimate the potential of marketing. Whether it is potential partners, new customers or satisfied employees your success connection can be made to measure.

BUSINESS CARDS: You are the Message

Do you have your own brand? Can you describe the three main components of your personal brand in twenty seconds? Is your business card representing your brand each time you hand it out? If you were doing really well right up until the business card question than you might want to go over this checklist to bring your business cards up to the professional speed you aspire to.

1. You Go First: Set a good example. Always have business cards available and, when you make a good connection, be the first to ask for a card.
2. Get Found: Make sure that your contact information is presented so that you can be reached easily. Use the method of communication that works best for you. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to follow up on what seems like a possibility and find that you've reached a dead end. 
3. Make a Memory: There is nothing more common place than the business card. Make sure yours is memorable. You probably have a stack of cards from colleagues and competitors. When you spread them out on your desk beside yours, does your card hold its own? If not, what is missing? 
4. Details make the Difference: Have your cards professionally typeset and printed. Don't be so creative that your information is difficult or even impossible to decipher. Quality appearance and quality "feel" can make your card special. 
5. Be Seen: If your business card is delivering your message twenty-four hours a day, it's a good idea to make sure your prospect knows where it's coming from. A professional picture can be a great way to stand out from the crowd. 
6. Tell Your Story: This could be the most important line on your card. Whether you think of it as a tag line, a mission statement or a call to action, make sure that this communicates your brand. You have carefully crafted your brand on your website, in your email, on your invoices and when you're giving presentations. The same attention to detail with your business card will earn dividends too. 
7. Show Your Brand: Make sure your business cards are consistent with your personal brand message. At every point of contact with you, your product or your expertise, people should receive a consistent, quality message. That's your brand! From your online presence to face to face meetings every point of contact, including your business cards, should talk your talk. Remember you aren't just saying "This is my card!" you're saying, "This is me!" 
8. Give Them Something of Value: Many business cards get thrown away with-in 24 hours. Make yours have staying power by giving them something of value in your card. Be it a promotion or a discount. Your business card needs to have staying power.
   

A great product that I have found, and use, that does all of this is the Inspire Card. Check them out; they really have mastered all of these facets, it is a business card and a referral network tool all in one.