B2B Lead Blog

The lack of a strong lead nurturing discipline can cost your organization substantial unrealized revenue. Without lead nurturing in place to capture and cultivate early-stage leads, your marketing funnel misses out on valuable opportunities.

The true value of lead nurturing comes from the technique of staying in touch with prospects while providing them with the relevant information as they move through the evaluation and buying process. But, how do you get that delicate balance just right? 

I’ve gotten the okay to highlight 5 Nurture Campaign Time Factors from MarketingSherpa’s new B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook that will help you to fine tune the nurturing timing. MarketingSherpa uses real-life examples and charts to hit home these five factors, but here’s a quick look at them:

1.    Immediate welcomes
As soon as you receive a response to a lead generation campaign, you should rush out a welcome message in reply. It’s just good manners to acknowledge someone’s interest in your brand promptly.

2.    Lead Qualification Telemarketing
The velocity of follow-up matters. As soon as possible use telemarketing (aka teleprospecting) to qualify each lead.

3.    Interest-level Timing
Most prospects go through a variety of interest levels in your brand. Without being annoying, you need to stay in their radar until they decide to make that buying decision. Identify where they are in the buying process so you can share relevant information at the right time (i.e. should you share a case study vs. white paper? etc).

4.    Industry Timing
It’s a given that you may need to adjust your campaign timing to reflect your industry’s annual rhythms.

5.    Job Function Timing
Data shows that a decision maker is heavily involved at the very start and the very end of the process, but leaves the middle of the process up to the influencers. For your niche, you’ll need to investigate who gets involved at which point in the process so that you can segment your messaging. 

I encourage you to check out MarketingSherpa’s B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook. It is a  monster of a book, but I assure you it’s jam packed with practical, hands-on advice for B-to-B marketers.

Readers of my blog can save $250 off the book at
http://leadgenhandbook.marketingsherpa.com/

Books, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Marketing Strategy, Sales Leads

Before the Internet and social media tools, companies could only communicate through the filter of advertising or media ink placed by a PR firm. But fortunately the rules have changed.

I just interviewed David Meerman Scott author the new book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly. The book was officially released on June 4, 2007.

David also writes the Web Ink Now blog and has been named to the MarketingSherpa Viral Marketing Hall of Fame for the past two years in a row. During our interview we cover a variety of topics that are relevant to lead generation, PR and marketing.

Show Notes

• The New Rules of Marketing & PR
• Strategies for reaching more buyers directly via the web
• The role of content in reaching people earlier in their buying process
• Building your online credibility and authority
• Thought leadership and the changing role of media and journalists
• PR tactics that work

Listen to podcast now (MP3 27 min 12 MB)
Subscribe to the Start With the Lead Show

David is a friend and colleague so I’m happy to see his book is doing so well. As I write this post his book is ranked in the top 100 of Amazon Best Sellers. Congrats David! Get your copy of The New Rules of Marketing & PR on Amazon.

Books, Marketing Strategy, My Podcast, Podcasting, Public Relations (PR), Thought Leadership, Web/Tech, Weblogs, Word-of-Mouth

Complex sales cycles make the development of multi-modal marketing strategies critical.  For many B2B marketing pros (especially those in technology), a time-tested tool is the white paper.

As I’ve written before, I’m a big proponent of educational marketing tools such as white papers because they allow you to reach people early in their buying process. Just remember, they should be EARLY in their buying process! 

I recently had the pleasure to read Michael Stelzner’s new book on the topic, Writing White Papers: How to Capture Readers and Keep Them Engaged. I think book lays out proven strategies to producing white papers that support your lead generation process.

Also, I recently wrote a post, "Using White Papers for Lead Generation," that you might want to check out too. 

Read more…

Books, Lead Generation, Marketing Strategy, Sales Leads

I had a great time chatting with Todd at 800-CEO-READ on lead generation. This is the first of three podcasts 800-CEO-Read is doing on B2B sales and marketing.

Here’s what Todd says about it:
"In this podcast, I talk with Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Next week, I interview Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies. In week three, I bring Jill and Brian together to talk about the interface between marketing and sales."

Like many of Todd’s podcasts; this one is a high-level discussion geared for business leaders and those who support sales people. While you’re there, I encourage you to take some time to visit 800-CEO-READ’s other websites. They are a super resource for anyone who reads business books.

Listen to podcast now (MP3 43:47 min 30.1 MB)

B2B Telemarketing, Books, Cold Calling, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Event Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Leadership, Marketing Strategy, My Podcast, Podcasting, Public Relations (PR), ROI Measurement, Referral Marketing, Sales, Sales Leads, Web/Tech, Webcasts/Webinars, Weblogs, Word-of-Mouth

Ellis Booker, editor of BtoB Magazine, posted a short list of five of the best marketing books published in the past 12 months, as well as a couple due out imminently. My book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, along with friends Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg’s Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? and Debbie Weil’s The Corporate Blogging Book, were included on the list. Very cool!

Read BtoBOnline.com: A summer bundle of marketing books

Books, Current Affairs, Lead Generation, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations (PR), Sales Leads, Weblogs, Word-of-Mouth

If you are involved in selling (or marketing) professional services, you’ll want to know about this new eBook, The One Piece Of Advice You Can’t Sell Without: From 11 experts on selling professional services, produced by RainToday.  They have consolidated the best advice from top-notch professional service sales experts.

Chock full of useful information, the eBook provides a broad look at the selling process. Although the advice comes from many directions, you’ll find some ideas will help you sell more. 

Download the eBook here.

Read more…

Books, Cold Calling, Event Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations (PR), Sales, Sales Leads, Word-of-Mouth

It’s exciting when someone you know launches a new book. Congratulations to Debbie Weil, a recognized blogging expert, on her first offering, The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right (Portfolio Publishing, 2006). I will post a review on Amazon soon. 

This is the perfect time to release a book on corporate blogging. Many companies are just getting started with using blogs to attract and engage their customers. And, as my recent post about MarketingSherpa’s research shows, blogs have become a great lead generation tool for marketers.

Books, Lead Generation, Weblogs

My latest project is ready! I just published a complimentary new e-book titled Start with a Lead: Eight critical success factors for lead generation. Please download it and pass it on.

According to studies, the single biggest challenge for contemporary B2B marketers is effective lead generation. Conversely, it has been pointed out that 80 percent of marketing expenditures on lead generation are wasted because the leads are lost, ignored or discarded by sales people.

Marketers today are constantly reminded that the company needs more sales leads…now. Unfortunately, that immediacy is quite often at the direct expense of quality. Instead, marketers should adopt and tailor lead generation programs that will increase the odds of creating better sales leads and relationships that will ultimately result in long-term, happy and profitable customers.

In this e-book, you will learn how to develop high-volume, high-quality lead generation programs for your company. It was written for business leaders, managers and marketers who want to help their sales team sell with highly qualified business opportunities, because sales people should only be brought in when a lead has been qualified as “sales ready.” 

Download Start With a Lead: Eight critical success factors for lead generation

Books, Cold Calling, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Event Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Leadership, Marketing Strategy, Personal Messages, Podcasting, Public Relations (PR), ROI Measurement, Referral Marketing, Sales, Sales Leads, Web/Tech, Webcasts/Webinars, Weblogs, Word-of-Mouth

Each month, one of the folks over at BeTuitive Publishing writes a business book summary and review that is included in their newsletter and blog.  The most recent review is of none other than Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.  Todd Smart, BeTuitive’s president, and I have known each other for about fifteen years, but he assures me that the book was chosen for review on its own merits.  

Here’s some of what they had to say:

"This book will be most helpful for a reader with a keen interest in business strategy.  The chapter topics are universally applicable to all industries, and the lead generation methods are suited to all types of business practices. The content flows logically, escalating from fundamentals to tactics and development."

Read the entire summary and review.

Books, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Marketing Strategy, Personal Messages, Sales Leads, Weblogs

My good friend, Bryan Eisenberg and I met up while he was on his book tour in Minnesota.  Like many visitors to Minnesota (Land of 10,000 Lakes), Bryan wanted to see the Mall of America. Being married with two daughters, I’m a highly qualified mall tour guide ; )

After walking around the mall a few times, we stopped by Barnes & Noble to sign the remaining copies of our books.  We both wished we had a camera to capture this event… I mean how often do two friends have their books come out on the same day and then get to autograph them together! 

Later, we met up with our friend, Dan Janal, of PR Leads fame for dinner.  Dan brought his camera along so now I can share the pictures with you.  All three of us had a great time exchanging ideas on marketing, life, business and books.  Thanks for treating us to dinner Dan! 

Well, Bryan’s new book, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, just hit the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today Best Sellers list all in the same week!  Congratulations to Bryan and co-authors Jeffrey Eisenberg and Lisa Davis! 

Books, Current Affairs, Lead Generation, Leadership, Personal Messages, Sales Leads, Weblogs