B2B Lead Blog

I have a confession: you know the cliché about the cobbler’s kids? I’ve been there and done that. And you can see proof of it back in April, 2009, when I blogged about how to best leverage LinkedIn as a lead generation tool.  Step five was “create your own LinkedIn group and share relevant content.”

The problem was that my company at the time, InTouch, which became a part of MECLABS this year, didn’t have its own LinkedIn Group.  My message to my blog readers should have been, “Do as I say not as I do.”

I knew, having advised my readers to start a LinkedIn group, that I should at least consider doing the same. But I wanted to make absolutely sure that whatever I created would contribute value that couldn’t be found anywhere else. Why add to the noise?

So I began perusing groups in earnest. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find any one, at the time, that was completely dedicated to lead generation. Okay, let me qualify that – one that was completely dedicated to lead generation without self-promotion drowning out discussions that addressed real issues. That was the gap that needed to be filled, so three weeks later I launched the B2B Lead Roundtable.

Today, we’re celebrating its second birthday, and I am proud to say we are on the verge of 8,500 members. In fact, I expect that we will reach and exceed that milestone this week.

I am also glad that the B2B Lead Roundtable became what I had hoped: a forum where professionals can share their questions and insights without being inundated with people trying to sell them something. Instead, they’re given legitimate, compelling feedback from professionals who genuinely know what they’re talking about.  That’s probably because the vast majority are seasoned executives.

Read more…

B2B Telemarketing, Content Marketing, Current Affairs, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Lead Scoring, Leadership, Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Thought Leadership, Web/Tech

This week I was in San Francisco doing a live, streamed presentation, Uncovering Trends and Best Practices in Lead Generation, for Cisco. It’s part of their on-going Partner Velocity Program which provides in-person events, in-depth resources, and online marketing tutorials to their value-added resellers worldwide.

I believe Cisco sets the standard for how to engage channel partners, and am honored that they asked me to share my ideas around where they need to focus their marketing attention and resources. In essence, smart marketers approach their work like a portfolio manager; they’re constantly thinking about and testing the optimal investment strategy.

In the playback below I examine how to make the best investments of marketing time, money and energy, and point out the areas where too many marketers are squandering opportunity and resources. I cover:

• The latest trends in lead generation.
• How to create buyer personas.
• Social media as a lead generation tactic.
• Steps to optimizing the B2B mix.
• Guiding principles to effective B2B telemarketing.

Of course, I only had an hour to speak and each of these topics could be a webinar on their own. In fact, that’s precisely the case next week, considering the topic for the next B2B Lead Roundtable Webinar: Teleprospecting that Drives Sales-Ready Leads – How One Company Slashed Their Cost per Lead by More than Half.

What other points would you like me to expand on? Let me know; watch the broadcast replay and review Cisco’s excellent blog post about my presentation. I’d love to hear from you.

B2B Telemarketing, Human Touch, Inside Sales, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Lead Scoring, Social Media, Thought Leadership, Webcasts/Webinars, Webinar Replay, Weblogs

Watch our latest B2B Lead Roundtable webinar for a powerful case study on how to execute content marketing strategy in the real world and discover how it can build powerful alignment between sales and marketing.

View webinar replay:

How ECI Telecom Developed a Content-Marketing Program from Concept to Completion and the Surprising Results from B2B Lead Roundtable on Vimeo.

View and download slides only here

I met Michelle Mogelson Levy, Associate Vice President of Marketing Programs for ECI Telecom, when she served on my panel at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit in January. She had the floor for just 10 minutes to present her company’s content-marketing strategy. But what she had to say, even in that short time, was so rich with actionable takeaways that she definitely deserved more time to share her story.

That’s why I invited her to present at this month’s B2B Lead Roundtable webinar. Michelle candidly revealed what it takes to drive results through content marketing in the real world. She explained why it’s critical to:

• Deeply understand your potential customers, what they want and when they want it, and gain alignment around that from your entire organization.
• Identify each piece of content you have and how it fits into each turn of the buying cycle. She explains why it took four interns 10 months, as well as the input of the entire sales and marketing organization,  to complete that process at ECI.
• Provide information responding to business issues your prospects are facing and why it’s smart to leverage third-party resources they respect to do so.
• Repurpose content if you have limited resources and how to go about it.

Well, I could go on and on, but I recommend that you review the webinar video above, even if you’re not directly involved in content marketing. Here’s why: the process of executing a content marketing program is transforming ECI’s entire marketing and sales organization, making them more aligned and responsive to customers’ needs and each other.

In, literally, the last minute of the webinar, Michelle explained what she considers one of the greatest benefits of her content marketing strategy: sales alignment. Every week, she meets with sales teams worldwide to discuss what marketing is doing.

“It’s critical they understand our activity,” said Michelle, “The emails that were opened, what was sent…showing them the value marketing can provide and aligning our whole process with sales activities.

“This is one of the hardest alignment programs I’ve done, but one of the most beneficial…You can see from the beginning where you generated that lead, how you nurtured that lead, when you passed it to sales, how they accepted it. And now we’re seeing real opportunities that have come as a result of those marketing-sourced leads.”

Read more…

Content Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Marketing Strategy, Sales Leads, Thought Leadership, Webcasts/Webinars, Webinar Replay

In the free B2B Lead Roundtable webinar replay below, Paul Teshima, Senior Vice President of Customer Strategy and success for Eloqua, explains what revenue performance management is, and how the fastest-growing companies are using it to optimize return on marketing investment and achieve unprecedented competitive differentiation. Hope Frank, Chief Marketing Officer of Webtrends, and her marketing team detail how their company is executing RPM and their outcomes so far.

Watch the webinar replay here:

The Evolution from Demand Generation to Revenue Performance Management from B2B Lead Roundtable.

View and download slides on slideshare

Lead Generation, ROI Measurement, Thought Leadership, Webcasts/Webinars, Webinar Replay

If you’re looking for some marketing wisdom and inspiration, my MECLABS colleague, Daniel Burstein wrote a post on the MarketingSherpa Blog, “Marketing Wisdom: In the end, it’s all about…” that’s definitely worth checking out. He brings together the collective wisdom of a project he spawned by asking  bloggers to reveal their most important message; look for posts on twitter with #lastblog.

Here are just a few of Daniel’s favorite takeaways that are worth reading…

Pursue purpose
“True entrepreneurs will never be satisfied with riches. They have to affect change, and will risk everything to make their vision reality.”
– The Last Blog Post: 5 Lessons I’d Leave Behind by Paul Roetzer, PR 20/20

Exciting but intimidating times
“As a marketer we have no choice but to improve what we are doing. Embrace change.”
– The Last Blog Post: Marketers must embrace change by ToddLebo, MECLABS

When there is an elephant in the room, introduce him
“It’s in the flaws of our products that our customers really see the personality of our company.  So, let’s agree that instead of hiding the elephant in the room that we find ways to show how our companies go above and beyond when our products aren’t perfect.”
– The Last Blog Post- What Marketers can learn from The Last Lecture by Maria Pergolino, Marketo

Delight
“When writing I try and ask myself, “Will this be fun to read? Will the audience be delighted?” If the answer is no, then maybe it’s time to take another crack at it. The important thing is not to forget that I am writing for people, not just suits.”
– The Last Blog Post: The 4 Metrics That Matter by Jesse Noyes, Eloqua

Link: MarketingSherpa Blog: Marketing Wisdom: In the end, it’s all about…

Marketing Strategy, Personal Messages, Thought Leadership

As you can see, my blog has a new look.

That’s because it isn’t just my blog anymore. There are a multitude of thought-leading voices that deserve a platform, and I look forward to making sure this blog provides that opportunity. This will truly be a roundtable to discuss and explore the best ideas. Click here to see our regular contributors; I look forward to adding more in the coming months.

There’s a new name, too. That’s because, when I began this blog in 2003, lead generation had a far narrower scope than what it encompasses today. The internet and the applications that have evolved with it have created a new marketing and sales world. Today, we’re leveraging concepts that were nonexistent eight years ago. Whole companies and careers have been built up around them – as they should.

We now have within our reach the ability to engage more customers in a much more meaningful way than ever before.

This, at heart, is what lead generation is all about – but I don’t believe the term “lead generation” is adequate enough to encompass  all that driving leads entails – the process is so much more involved than it was a decade ago. Whoever heard of lead nurturing or marketing automation or revenue performance management in 2003? The platforms weren’t available to execute them.

However, regardless of innovation, our work is still about creating the conversations that drive leads and, ultimately, revenue. We hope this blog continues to be the inspiration for them.

I hope you like our new look, and our new name, and I would love to hear what you have to say about it. Feel free to comment here or on the B2B Lead Roundtable LinkedIn Group.

Finally, if you have subscribed to our RSS feed, be sure to update your subscription to the new feed at the top right of the page as the previous RSS feed will end soon.

I look forward to keeping up with the accelerating evolution of the business environment, and helping you do the same. 

Lead Generation, Personal Messages, Thought Leadership, Web/Tech, Weblogs

What if someone asked you what your last words would be?

In essence, that’s what Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content for MECLABS, asked of me when he requested I publish my last blog post today. Of course, this isn’t my last post, but I like Daniel’s idea and am honored to join other top bloggers in sharing our most important message.

For me, that’s to embrace the power of trust and let it drive everything we do. You see, trust is the foundation of relationship, and relationship is what business is built upon. Without trust, there is no relationship and there is no business.

So how do you create that trust? Paradoxically, it’s never been easier or more challenging.

As we all know, social media has changed everything. It seemed like yesterday that marketers were able to micromanage every aspect of image and message disseminated to the marketplace. Now, our customers say who we are. So, of course, if what we’re saying about ourselves isn’t aligning with what’s actually happening, we’re going to be in trouble fast.

On the other hand, thanks to social media, it’s never, ever been easier to demonstrate why we are trustworthy and why we are worth doing business with.  And this can make all the difference in the world in creating opportunity. I know it has for me.

You may recall that the dot-com bubble burst not long before 2003, and like many other marketing organizations at the time, my teleprospecting and lead generation business was seriously struggling. We lost our three top clients and 40 percent of our revenues in a mere two months. I was contemplating how we were going to survive the crisis when I recalled clients repeatedly telling me, “We really value your services. But we value more than just that – your ideas have really helped improve our lead generation results.”

That’s when inspiration struck. I thought, “Why not teach our future clients what we learned and add value before they even start to look for services like ours?”

When you give people what they value, without expecting anything in return, you build trust. So, with that in mind, I started the B2B Lead Generation Blog in October of that year. It was free, it was easy. And it has resulted in opportunities that I would have never imagined in my wildest dreams – from publishing a bestseller to becoming part of an organization the caliber of MECLABS.

Looking back, it feels nothing less than miraculous. Such is the power of trust. And that power begins with trusting yourself enough to embrace your own inspiration and take that first step. You never know where it may lead.

Human Touch, Leadership, Thought Leadership, Weblogs

Over the holidays, I had some time to really dive into the LinkedIn B2B LeadGen Roundtable discussions. One started by Ann Thornley-Brown, President & CEO, Executive Oasis International, Toronto, caught my attention. She started the discussion in August, yet members continue to provide feedback.

Ann wanted to know how happy the group was with the lead generation results of their social media campaigns.  “Are your efforts on LinkedIn and Twitter paying off?” she queried. “How many leads have you generated? How many specific pieces of business have you picked up? I know a lot of bright people who are really active on these sites and very few are seeing results. How about you?”

Her question, and too many of her 30-plus responses, illustrated the disconnection between the expectations of marketers who are out on the frontlines every day and marketing gurus proclaiming the wonders of social media.  After all, if you Google  ”Top 10 B2B Trends in 2011” you’ll see social media listed on every one of them.

Then why, if Ann’s discussion is any indication, are so many marketers dissatisfied with the results they’re getting from it?

I took this question to Sergio Balegno, Director of Research for MECLABS, the parent company of InTouch. He authors MarketingSherpa’s Social Media & PR Benchmark Guides, is considered a foremost authority on social media strategy, is quoted by the media extensively and presents at institutions like Harvard.

He’s also been in marketing for more than three decades, well before the internet was even on the scene. This gives him some not-so-typical long-term perspective in a world that demands instant gratification.

If anyone could provide insight to why this is going on, it’s Sergio. Here’s his take:

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Books, Lead Generation, Sales, Social Media, Thought Leadership

Have you had some great marketing successes this year? Then you’ll want to let my colleagues at MarketingSherpa know. They’re compiling their ninth annual MarketingSherpa 2011 Wisdom Report. It shares the best thoughts, ideas, anecdotes and takeaways from marketers in 2010. 

In fact, even if you’ve had disappointments, and are willing to share, they’d like to hear from you as well. After all, failure is often the best teacher.

Tell us, what are some of the best lessons you learned this year?   

Great marketers are always working so diligently to put everything and everyone else in the spotlight. That effort deserves attention. That’s why I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to attain some very positive publicity. 

Share your wisdom here, but you’ve got to do it soon because the deadline’s December 21.

B2B Telemarketing, CRM, Cold Calling, Current Affairs, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Event Marketing, Human Touch, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Qualification, Lead Scoring, Leadership, Marketing Strategy, Public Relations (PR), ROI Measurement, Referral Marketing, Sales, Sales Leads, Social Media, Thought Leadership, Trigger Events, Web/Tech, Webcasts/Webinars, Weblogs, Word-of-Mouth

If you’re a follower of marketing and sales blogs beyond just this one, you’ve probably noticed all kinds of blogs and tweets sprouting up today around The Blog Tree, just released by Eloqua and JESS3.

And I think the attention is well deserved.

Every blogger has some kind of blog roll, but without guessing from the names or clicking through each and every one listed, it’s challenging to know what you can learn from them and what value they provide. And if you wanted to know what blogs influence them, how they’re connected to other blogs, or how they contrast and compare to the rest, you were out of luck unless you had hours upon hours of time to invest in research.

Until The Blog Tree.

At a glance, you can see the scope of the best content in the marketing and sales blogosphere and how it all works together. Joe Chernov, Director of Content at Eloqua, puts it this way:

“Anyone can cobble together a list of Twitter tips or ‘must-read’ blogs and crown themselves ‘content marketers,’” he explains. “But when you produce content that surprises, informs and delights, you don’t have to market it. It blooms naturally.”

I am humbled and proud that the InTouch B2B Lead Generation Blog has a leaf on The Blog Tree, as do the blogs of our sister companies, Marketing Sherpa and MarketingExperiments.

I look forward to watching The Blog Tree continue to flourish as more thought leaders share their insights and fresh blogs emerge.

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Social Media, Thought Leadership, Weblogs