Throughout my many years in the B2B lead generation business, it’s fair to say that I’ve learnt a thing or two about effective appointment setting (it would be a sorry state of affairs if I hadn’t!). Not that I do much appointment setting myself these days; I’m too busy running the business  here at eMarket2 – a varied task which frequently demands sharing the wealth of my hard-won experience with our telemarketing team.  And, despite the technological breakthroughs that have appeared in recent years designed to help (and hinder) telemarketers, I am still compelled to believe that the secret to effective appointment setting  is all about mastering a small number of basic, but nevertheless critical, techniques . Here are five such techniques:                 

1.

Keep your pipeline filled. Replenish your pipeline with fresh leads from an up-to-date list and continue to top it up as prospects drop out.  Working with a stale or redundant list is demoralising and counter-productive.  But, that said, it’s equally important to know when to discard a lead, which brings me on to our next technique. 

2.

Be persistent. One attribute of a good telemarketer is that they never give up – or at least not until all avenues have reached a dead end.  Give a fledgling telemarketer a new list and quite often they’ll motor through it and be demanding fresh leads within a matter of days, in the process having drawn a blank.  Conversely, give an experienced telemarketer the same list and, in the same amount of time, they will have barely scratched the surface of his or her database.  The main reason for this is that they don’t give up without a fight.  Quite often it will take a dozen or more calls to a single prospect to get a result. The experienced telemarketer knows this, and they will not discard a lead until they are convinced they have exhausted its potential. 

3.

Vary your calling times.  As a telemarketer, it’s too easy to get into a ‘routine rut’, i.e. making all of your calls within a tight and repetitive time frame and following an unvaried routine.  So experiment by calling at different hours of the day, especially if you can’t get hold of someone on the phone on the first or second try. One strategy is to begin your calling day outside of regular office hours: you would be surprised at the number of executives who are regularly at their desks between 7am and 9am, and therefore this can be a remarkably fruitful time to call, not least because the usual gatekeepers have yet to clock-in and there is a good chance that your call will be answered in person by the decision maker.  Likewise, after 5.30 pm can be a great time to catch people at their most receptive: the gatekeepers have all gone home, the working day is winding down and as such there’s a good chance that a decision maker will be open to receiving to a well-placed phone call.   

4.

Do not neglect the influencers. Influencers (and even gatekeepers such as PAs and secretaries) can be your best friends when attempting to reach decision makers, especially in complex sales when there is more than one influencer or decision-maker involved. 

Quite rightly, your principal focus should always be on the decision maker, but, as any telemarketer will tell you, this is in an ideal world, and the hard-nosed world of sales is far from ideal.  In the event that you find yourself selling through a third party, do not make the mistake of expecting them to singlehandedly ‘sell’ the virtues of your product or service up the line. In most cases they won’t.  But, in my experience, third party influencers are able to present your case or, on occasions, act as go-betweens when arranging a face to face meeting.  But whenever you find yourself ‘selling’ via a third party influencer, it is important to arm them with the right information to do the job.      

 5.

Finally, be mindful of ‘you’. By this I mean that you remain constantly vigilant of how you might improve your performance on the phone.  Without a doubt, one of the most important factors affecting a telemarketer’s performance is their telephone manner.  You should sound as fresh and lively on your 100th call as you do on your first call.  If your telephone manner is provocative or monotonous in tone, people will switch off and you’ll never get past the first fence.  Keep your tone sharp and lively.  Be pleasant and engaging, but without being in any way ingratiating or condescending. And, critically, learn to be a good listener. The hallmark of a bad telemarketer is that they seldom stop to draw breath. Rather than engaging with a prospect, they speak ‘at’ them, not ‘with’ them.  

As with so many aspects of lead generation success, the devil is in the detail, and frequently it’s the minor variances (often very subtle) in working practices that determine the difference between excellence and mediocrity.   

And finally…

Denis Thatcher: Iron Lady?

Shortly after moving into 10 Downing Street with his wife (and new Prime Minister) Margaret, Denis Thatcher was presented with a tricky question by a wily reporter: “Who wears the pants in this house?”

“I do,” Thatcher replied. “And I also wash and iron them.”

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

One of the few consolations of England being knocked out of the World Cup was that I was able to enjoy the remainder of the competition without the inconvenience of being emotionally involved. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures to enjoy watching a game of football purely for its own sake, and without caring overly who wins.  Anyway, it’s all over now for another four years and most people agree that the best team won.

The many permutations to consider when planning a successful channel programme

I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have been approached by channel marketing lead generation clients and asked for “the same programme that works best for your other clients”.

The fact is there is no such thing as an “out of the box” channel programme (although it would make my life easier if there were). Any lead generation programme we design for our channel clients will be based on their individual objectives and requirements, and these may include any or all of the following: lead qualification, sales promotion incentives, deal registration, lead management, trade-in and rebate programmes, and more. 

It’s fair to say that despite how many channel marketing lead generation programmes we conduct, no two are ever alike.  

For example, if we are running a trade-in incentive programme, is it necessary to demand physical return of the equipment, or is it going to written off in the equation anyway?  Is the incentive based on what’s purchased? What’s traded in? Or both? Who gets paid? End user? Reseller? Both? Who receives and validates the trade-in? The criteria go on and on. 

And that’s the easy part. The programme really begins with the client’s objectives – defining key metrics to validate programme performance against measurable outcomes.

We would need to consider factors such as what the client is doing now, what has or hasn’t worked in the past, what their competition is doing, as well as the wider industry.  Just because a particular method works for Apple Corp it doesn’t necessarily follow that it will work for the average mid-cap OEM. 

We would also need to establish which geographic areas a programme would cover.  And, if it’s international, any logistics and currency issues that may need to be taken account of. 

There’s also your market and product to consider, such as whether the client is selling a core technology or commodity product, or whether they are an industry leader or follower.  To what level do they have to ‘chase’ new business and how much is created organically.  All such factors will have a big impact on how a channel lead generation programme is planned and executed.  

It sure isn’t easy, and it’s for this reason, among many, that outsourcing your channel lead generation to experts has to be an attractive proposition.  

And finally…

The Counterfeit Winger

One of the all-time classic football scandals revolved around the attempts of former Manchester United winger Mickey Thomas to set up a counterfeiting operation as a lucrative sideline to his sparkling football career. Police investigating counterfeiting operations in Manchester were astonished to discover that Thomas had set up a retirement fund for himself in the form of a printing press which produced 10 pound notes. It turned out that he was in the business of distributing the products of his press to the young players at his Wrexham club. Thomas was rewarded for his entrepreneurial ambitions with an 18 month stint in jail, followed by a successful career as a public speaker!

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

Regular readers of this blog will have noted that I have plenty to say about lead management, marketing automation, search engine marketing, lead nurturing and e-mail marketing. And quite rightly so; this is all part of what we do here at eM2.  But vital as these areas are to the marketing mix, they are only rendered profitable when they convert into sales-ready qualified leads.  And the key word here is ‘qualified’.

This is achieved by having a full-time dedicated lead qualification resource working on the phones. Their exclusive job in life is to process incoming enquiries, as well as warm leads generated by the marketing team, and qualify them before they are passed on to sales to be pursued.  And in all my years in this business, this one action has remained unquestionably the most important factor in generating profitable leads. 

The fact is that when it comes to making an intelligent judgement, marketing automation is no match for real-life sentient human beings who follow up leads based on a set of qualification criteria. But, often carried away by the idea of having instantaneous incoming leads, too many companies pass these unqualified enquires directly on to sales without first having spoken to them.  However, missing out on this vital step is a false economy. Our experience shows that businesses that use an optimised lead qualification and lead nurturing process can convert leads at 40% or even higher.  Those that pass leads directly to sales frequently convert as low as 5%. Sending unqualified leads to sales means you will almost certainly fail to achieve a sustainable ROI. 

A sales team exists to close business

In today’s marketing landscape it takes from between 3-15 contacts to generate a qualified lead.  And this is not something you want your expensive commission-driven sales reps working on.  And even if they are burdened with this responsibility, sales people simply don’t enjoy following up on unqualified leads and it can be a full time job just to get them to do it.     

Worse still, it’s time poorly spent.

The benchmark for a profitable lead is leads-to-opportunity conversion or MQL (marketing qualified lead)-to-SAL (sales accepted lead) conversion, and you won’t come close to hitting a healthy ratio by having your high-performing sales people stuck on making routine phone calls.

Far better to employ someone whose exclusive job is to make prior contact with leads, to overcome any objections, to check that there is a fit between your product and their needs. Save your heavy guns for the final assault and use the infantry to locate the targets.

It’s also a case of horses for courses. A dedicated lead qualification person has the opportunity to optimise the process of connecting with prospects (as well as maintaining a fully updated CRM system) and it gets easier with practice.  Isolating this task is shown to make a marked improvement on conversion rates and ROI.

Whether you have the resources to run an in-house lead qualification team, or whether you outsource the process, make lead qualification a priority. By all means automate your marketing, but never underestimate the effectiveness of real live people on the end of a phone. It works.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

“In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team.” Jean-Paul Sartre.

In the emotive world of football there are some things best left unsaid. While tempting, armchair analysis of England’s performance against Germany in last Sunday’s World Cup match is one such example.   Give it another four years and collective amnesia may mercifully have begun to set in, but until that time…      

Top appointment setting tips for targeting SME decision makers 

Despite the inexorable rise in popularity of Web 2.0, Google Adwords and social media marketing, when it comes to appointment setting, in my experience old fashioned cold calling on the telephone remains the fastest and most cost effective means of getting sales people in front of decision makers.     

Over the years I’ve set countless appointments for myself.  And although in recent years I’ve taken a more hands-off role, I remain involved in training and advising our telemarketers and channel partners on appointment setting techniques. The following strategies are focused on setting appointments for technology companies with decision makers in SMEs.

 Aim for the top

While you wouldn’t place a call to Apple Corp and expect to be put through to Steve Jobs, it doesn’t follow that in most SMEs you can’t aim to speak to the CEO.     

An SME may be defined as an organisation with a headcount from between 10 – 250, and / or a turnover of approximately £2 million- £50 million.   One fact that’s worth noting about the average SME is that the person who makes decisions on major technology purchases is usually not the IT manager; it’s far more likely to be a senior executive and in many cases the CEO or MD themselves. If you target the IT guy you’ll be in danger of talking megs and gigs with someone who has little influence in the ultimate buying decision.  It’s far better to target the CEO first and only work down the line if you fail to get a response.  Go straight in with a message that is designed to appeal to a CEO’s priorities – benefits such as competitive advantage, enhanced productivity and efficiency, cost savings and improved profitability (i.e. not necessarily the same priorities as the IT guy!).

Be upfront

While it may not work with large corporations, a good strategy is to go in with guns blazing from the outset.  Rather than shilly-shallying with an opening litany of niceties and bland open questions, be upfront.  Tell the prospect that the reason for your call is to introduce your company and see if it makes sense to meet face-to-face for 30 minutes.

By couching your suggestion as a closed question too soon in the conversation – i.e. one invites a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer – you are of course in danger of getting a blunt reply in the negative.   The art is to put the prospect in a positive state of mind first by throwing some irresistible pearls of information into your (very brief) opening pitch before you pop the question. Not always easy, granted, but nevertheless very possible with practice. Try writing an opening statement to this effect; continue to use it and fine tune it until you feel it’s working for you.    

More on this subject next time in part 2.

And finally…

Be careful what you wish for…

As a confirmed believer in the astrology, Louis XI of France was hardly surprised when an astrologer correctly foretold that a lady at his court would die in eight days’ time.  However, fearing that an accurate prophet might pose a considerable danger to his rule, he had the man summoned, having ordered that he be thrown from a high window at a certain signal.

“You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others,” Louis began, “so tell me at once what your fate will be and how long you have to live.” “I shall die,” the astrologer replied, “just three days before Your Majesty.”

And absolutely finally…

We have recently developed a “Digital Interactive World Cup Lead Generation Campaign” for a client who unfortunately cannot execute the campaign in time, due to last minute internal data issues.  So, in mutual agreement with our client for  wavering the outstanding fees owed  on  this project, we have retained the rights and ownership and are able to now offer this innovative Digital World Cup Lead Generation Campaign to you for just £1,495 + VAT.*   That’s a substantial saving of 70% off the RRP of £5,000. This rate is only offered because the original client has already paid for the majority of the design and development work and we simply want to recoup our profit margin on the job.

Click the url to play the Penalty Shootout which forms part of the interactive lead generation campaign

If you would like to know more about how you could use this innovative lead generation campaign to boost sales for your business please call me on 01256 85 30 40 or email me ncampbell@emarket2.com and I will send you the Campaign overview workflow PDF doc.  *It is offered as a self service campaign for £1,495 +VAT (you roll it out) or on a fully managed basis (we roll it out for you) for £1,995 +VAT whichever suits your budget and resources.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

“I never make predictions, and I never will.” Paul Gascoigne.

Following England’s ‘disappointing’ performances against the USA and Algeria in the first round of the FIFA World Cup, I was once again reminded of the parallels between the Beautiful Game and the wider responsibilities of management (see blog posts: Learn How Winning World Cup Football Strategies Are Similar to Successful Lead Generation Campaigns Part 1 & Part 2).

Amid calls for England manager Fabio Capello’s head on a dish, the message is loud and clear: the buck stops here.  Just as BP boss Tony Hayward is held ultimately accountable for his company’s negligence in the Gulf of Mexico, so Capello must bear responsibility for his team’s underperformance, regardless of the blunders of individual players on the field.  Still, as I write, all is not yet lost; the England squad have one last opportunity to redeem themselves. All they need to do to stay in the tournament is beat Slovenia (world ranking: 25^th). What could possibly go wrong? Watch this space.             

Pre-designed, ready to go, out of the box lead generation packages

I was talking last time about how forward thinking technology OEMs are beginning to invest more in supporting their resellers’ marketing efforts by building partner programmes for the channel, especially in the areas of lead generation and appointment setting.

Many of our own clients at eMarket2 are beginning to use pre-designed, ready to go, out of the box lead generation packages that can be reused by their channel partners, affiliates and VARs, quickly easily and profitably, and at a fraction of the cost of developing themselves in-house or via a third-part software designer.

It’s true that I have a vested interest here, but I do genuinely believe that pre-built lead generation packages have a big part to play in the future of lead generation – hence our decision to invest long- term in their development. As it becomes harder and harder to get noticed amidst the marketing cacophony, high-quality, targeted online games are a proven way of grabbing attention. The applications are numerous. Alongside being a highly effective lead generation tool, pre-built packages may be used for list building, newsletter sign-ups, brand awareness, promotions and competitions.  Simply place a banner on your website, or as a link in your emails, PDFs and blogs, etc.  They can also be rebranded with your own company name and logo. 

We’ve had an extremely positive take-up for our live World Cup Penalty Shootout campaign (see below for details), so much so that we’re now running the promotion until the 31 July.  We also have plans to create year-round promotions, with the following exciting games now under development to coincide with the following high-profile sporting events:

• Cowes Week: Saturday 31 July – Saturday 7 August 2010
• Rider Cup:  Friday 1 October 2010
• Commonwealth Games:  October 3rd – 14, 2010
• Six Nations Rugby:   Feb 6 – March 26, 2011

Keep reading for further details.

And finally…

“We will not make any excuses for the conditions. They are the same for both teams.” Ruud Gullit, before European match in Tromso.

“It should never have been played. From the start the conditions were impossible. We had to play into the blizzard for 45 minutes with the snow straight in our eyes so we couldn’t see at all.”  Ruud Gullit, 90 minutes later.

And absolutely finally…

Yes, it’s official. Due to its runaway success we’ve extended our World Cup Penalty Shootout campaign until the end of 31 July. Give it a whirl you’ll be hooked in no time:

We have recently developed a “Digital Interactive World Cup Lead Generation Campaign” for a client who unfortunately cannot execute the campaign in time, due to last minute internal data issues.  So, in mutual agreement with our client for  wavering the outstanding fees owed  on  this project, we have retained the rights and ownership and are able to now offer this innovative Digital World Cup Lead Generation Campaign to you for just £1,495 + VAT.*   That’s a substantial saving of 70% off the RRP of £5,000. This rate is only offered because the original client has already paid for the majority of the design and development work and we simply want to recoup our profit margin on the job.

Click the url to play the Penalty Shootout which forms part of the interactive lead generation campaign

If you would like to know more about how you could use this innovative lead generation campaign to boost sales for your business please call me on 01256 85 30 40 or email me ncampbell@emarket2.com and I will send you the Campaign overview workflow PDF doc.  *It is offered as a self service campaign for £1,495 +VAT (you roll it out) or on a fully managed basis (we roll it out for you) for £1,995 +VAT whichever suits your budget and resources.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

“There’s no in between – you’re either good or bad. We were in between.” Gary Lineker.

If by any unfortunate chance you’re having a bad day, spare a thought for hapless England goalkeeper Robert Green; it may make you feel better. As bad days go, his has to be up there with the worst of them.    

Appointment setting for channel partners

Many OEMs rely heavily on their reseller networks as an essential part of their marketing mix. But a consistently high performing channel reseller is a rarity. My clients frequently complain that, from the majority of their resellers, new business comes in as a trickle rather than a flood.

It seems that the main factor frustrating resellers is a lack of an effective marketing strategy. Many resellers tend to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to promoting their channel products; they perceive it as an ‘add-on’ to their core business as opposed to a lucrative business opportunity in its own right. The result is that they fail to capitalise fully on the reseller partnership. 

And yet the opportunities for resellers and distributors have never been greater.  As the technology marketplace moves away from a hardware-orientated one-off sale, the emphasis is less about “buying systems” and more towards “renting solutions”, either on a fixed fee or pay per use basis.

This new and growing plethora of managed services – everything from managed hosting to secure back-up services, BPM, cloud computing and more – allows resellers to benefit from generous recurring and open-ended commissions.

In response to this paradigm shift, forward thinking marketers and manufacturers are beginning to invest more in supporting their resellers’ marketing efforts by building partner programmes for the channel, especially in the area of appointment setting.  

One the fastest and most cost-efficient ways of generating sales-ready appointments is through a   targeted outbound integrated telemarketing /e-marketing campaign.    

If you don’t have the resources to do this in-house, a reputable lead generation agency will have the expertise to help you locate leads and new prospects, as well as knowing the best ways of communicating with your prospects and planning and managing your programme for maximum gain.

A good agency will also help you with your marketing message, by delivering your unique or compelling selling point (USP/CSP) with maximum impact.  Outbound telemarketing /e-marketing can also be used to drive new channel partner programmes and expand and invigorate existing ones.

An exciting and cost-effective new lead generation development  

Many of our clients are also are beginning to use pre-designed, ready to go, out of the box lead generation packages that can be reused by partners/resellers/VARs, quickly easily and cost effectively, such as our current Penalty Shoot Lead Generation Campaign – see below. I’ll be exploring this subject in greater depth next time.    

And finally…

When informed that his concussed striker had forgotten who he was, Partick Thistle manager John Lambie replied, “That’s great, tell him he’s Pele, and get him back on.”

And absolutely finally…

No, not a naked sales pitch, but a genuine win-win situation!

We’ve been bowled over by the extremely positive take-up we’ve had for our World Cup Penalty Shootout campaign. If you’ve yet to consider it, there are still more than three weeks of prime world cup mileage left to make the best of it. Try the demo. How could you resist?

We have recently developed a “Digital Interactive World Cup Lead Generation Campaign” for a client who unfortunately cannot execute the campaign in time, due to last minute internal data issues.  So, in mutual agreement with our client for  wavering the outstanding fees owed  on  this project, we have retained the rights and ownership and are able to now offer this innovative Digital World Cup Lead Generation Campaign to you for just £1,495 + VAT.*   That’s a substantial saving of 70% off the RRP of £5,000. This rate is only offered because the original client has already paid for the majority of the design and development work and we simply want to recoup our profit margin on the job.

Click the url to play the Penalty Shootout which forms part of the interactive lead generation campaign

If you would like to know more about how you could use this innovative lead generation campaign to boost sales for your business please call me on 01256 85 30 40 or email me ncampbell@emarket2.com and I will send you the Campaign overview workflow PDF doc.
*It is offered as a self service campaign for £1,495 +VAT (you roll it out) or on a fully managed basis (we roll it out for you) for £1,995 +VAT whichever suits your budget and resources.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

“The first 90 minutes are the most important.”  Sir Bobby Robson

Hello again,

Following my last post on this subject, an astute reader suggested that I was putting too high a value on soccer’s strategies and that The Beautiful Game is not nearly as “well-organised” as I am prone to believe.

He also pointed me towards a current online survey on http://GlobalFootballMonitor.com, where it seems that most fans are expecting their country’s manager to blame the weather when they lose!

Point taken!

Undeterred, however, I’ve since given some thought to comparing the qualities needed to be a world-class footballer with those required to be an effective telemarketing agent. And there are some uncanny similarities.

In the age of Google Adwords and online marketing, some businesses have misguidedly jettisoned B2B cold calling in favour of an exclusively inbound strategy – big mistake. Indeed, many businesses have now set this process in reverse and have actively revived their telemarketing operations.  Effective lead generation is all about having a balanced mix.  It’s about eggs and baskets.

The fact is that cold calling remains the life blood for many businesses and, statistically, most new business leads are still generated via telemarketing. Whether performed in-house, or by a third party vendor, the cold call is the vital first step in establishing a relationship and driving the sales process.

Consider the end purpose of your actions 

The reason a soccer player competes will differ from person to person, but we can safely assume they all have the same ultimate purpose, which is to win the game – to beat the competition.  

Equally, the telemarketing agent should be driven by the same sense of purpose.  But to achieve consistent success it takes strategy and it takes tactics; we must always bear in mind here that the purpose of a cold call is not necessarily to “sell”, but rather to create the beginnings of a dialogue with a view to setting an appointment or phone consultation. 

A game is rarely won by a player charging down the centre field intent on scoring a single-handed goal. It requires a more subtle, softly-softly approach. So it is with the cold call.           

Most B2B decision makers are on a tight schedule, so don’t waste their time with pushy scripted and hard-sell monologues. It’s the quickest way to turn a prospect off.  Instead, take a consultative approach and, if appropriate, use open-ended questions to guide the prospect through the process.

It’s far better to use a give-not-take approach, which involves more preparation, but inevitably results in a more productive outcome.

To this end, when a telemarketer makes contact with a prospect for the first time they should immediately state the purpose of their call, simply, concisely and professionally. Keep it simple, be clear about your tactics, and have a strategic reason for engaging the prospect- other than simply making a sale.

Focus on your preparation

Every football player needs to prepare themselves prior to the game, both physically and mentally. Preparation can be boring and time consuming, but it’s vital to the outcome of the game. Daily training and workouts, and even mental visualisation techniques are all elements of preparing for a game.

With the right preparation in place, a cold call can very quickly become a warm call.

Know the company you are calling and identify key contacts and decision makers. If you can demonstrate to a prospect that you understand the issues and challenges they face, you will have presented yourself as an educated, trustworthy professional able to help them with their business needs and challenges.

Remember that numbers talk, so whenever possible be concrete and specific – quote statistics, couch your solutions in a way that relates them to time, cost savings, or doing more with less.  Use our old friend the 80/20 rule: 80% listen; 20% talk.

Develop a positive attitude

All the pro footballers I’ve ever seen seem to have nurtured a fearless attitude to put them on the path to winning. So it is with cold calling for an appointment or lead; you can’t be afraid of failure, rejection, or taking “no” for an answer.  Anticipate a positive result with each call, and maintain a positive attitude throughout. Negative thoughts will result in failure.

To be effective in sales you must be “fearless.” Whether it’s a striker lining up the ball to take a critical penalty, or going for the perfect header in the teeth of danger, a player’s psyche needs to be uninhibited by fear. Nike said it best: “Just Do It”.

Put in your 10,000 hours

Muscles need resistance to become stronger. To reach the premier league, it will take a player many years of disciplined practice. As with any complex skill, it is estimated that to reach an expert level of proficiency it will take up take around 10,000 hours. If what you’re doing doesn’t appear to be working then change your tactics.  But never give up. Ask your supervisor or manager to help you identify weaknesses and make improvements  

Telemarketing is the vitally important first step of the sales process.  But to succeed you must go for glory and play to win.

And finally… an unusual lead generation / marketing opportunity

As I mentioned last time, I very rarely, if ever, make a naked sales pitch in my blog, but this is a win-win situation!

We have recently developed a “Digital Interactive World Cup Lead Generation Campaign” for a client who unfortunately cannot execute the campaign in time, due to last minute internal data issues.  So, in mutual agreement with our client for  wavering the outstanding fees owed  on  this project, we have retained the rights and ownership and are able to now offer this innovative Digital World Cup Lead Generation Campaign to you for just £1,495 + VAT.*   That’s a substantial saving of 70% off the RRP of £5,000. This rate is only offered because the original client has already paid for the majority of the design and development work and we simply want to recoup our profit margin on the job.

Click the url to play the Penalty Shootout which forms part of the interactive lead generation campaign

If you would like to know more about how you could use this innovative lead generation campaign to boost sales for your business please call me on 01256 85 30 40 or email me ncampbell@emarket2.com and I will send you the Campaign overview workflow PDF doc.
*It is offered as a self service campaign for £1,495 +VAT (you roll it out) or on a fully managed basis (we roll it out for you) for £1,995 +VAT whichever suits your budget and resources.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

“Be true to the game and the game will be true to you.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m already beginning to tick off the days until 11 June and the opening of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It’s the first World Cup ever to be held on the African continent and it promises to be a wonderful spectacle. Would it be that I were there to enjoy it…

It also leads me to ponder on the many striking parallels that exist between planning a winning strategy for the World Cup and managing a successful lead generation campaign. Planning and executing a B2B lead generation campaign is all about beating your competitor – the Opposing Team – to get the appointment. And, as with any game of skill, it relies as much on tactics as it does on strategy.

The Strategy is in the pre-lead-up: know your targets and their requirements; do your research on their strengths and weaknesses, their size, their competitors, their market segment, decision makers, etc.

How are you going to position your campaign? This will depend largely on what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling a big-ticket item into a large corporation, in all likelihood the decision making process will be complex and the lead time to close of sale quite long. 

It also depends on the nature of your leads and how you manage them. Some leads are simply raw names on a database; others will be more substantial, such as past customers, newsletter or blog sign-ups, or someone who has received a previous cold call, email or sales letter. Still others will have expressed a strong degree of interest in a product.

In the case of the former group, you may be better placed focussing your strategy on a lead-nurturing programme: rather than bombarding raw prospects with ill-timed sales pitches, you send them targeted communications which contain useful content based on the recipient’s role in the company. With stronger leads, a telemarketing agent – or Striker - may decide to go straight for a strike at goal and ask for an appointment. As with the perfectly placed strike in a game of football, knowing when to go for the close in a sales situation is all in the timing.    

Now we come to Tactics. The launch of your lead generation campaign is the game and kick off. The whistle blows and it’s time to make contact. Let’s say you’ve commenced your campaign by emailing a prospect some targeted information. This is the time you may well get issued with a Yellow Card, i.e. “Either stop sending me stuff I’m not interested in or stop contacting me altogether!” Worse still is the dreaded Red Card you receive when someone asks to be removed from your database.    

It’s inevitable that this will happen on occasions (unless your name is Gary Lineker!) but it’s possible to minimise the number of Yellow and Red Cards you receive by making sure your Midfield Players - or marketing support - are doing their job properly. This means that the material they send out – email, direct mail, blogs, whitepapers, e-books, newsletters, articles, tutorials, etc – must be as relevant as possible to your target prospects and forms part of a properly integrated campaign that ties everything together in a logical and compelling format.  Think of the data you send to support your campaign as your metaphorical Wingers whose job is to feed the ball to your strikers – your telemarketing agents. Likewise, the Defence is the responsibility of your campaign or programme managers, whose job it is to maintain quality control and make sure that all processes are in place.  

Needless to say, if we’re to follow this analogy through to its conclusion, it’s the job of the Coach – or manager of your in-house telemarketing and e-marketing team – to train and motivate the rest of the team forward to Win the Game – the appointment – through to winning the World Cup – making the sale.

And finally… an Unusual Lead Generation / Marketing Opportunity

This is a one off sales pitch, something I am normally against, but it’s a win win situation!

We have recently developed a “Digital Interactive World Cup Lead Generation Campaign” for a client who unfortunately cannot execute the campaign in time, due to last minute internal data issues.  So, in mutual agreement with our client for  wavering the outstanding fees owed  on  this project, we have retained the rights and ownership and are able to now offer this innovative Digital World Cup Lead Generation Campaign to you for just £1,495 + VAT.*   That’s a substantial saving of 70% off the RRP of £5,000. This rate is only offered because the original client has already paid for the majority of the design and development work and we simply want to recoup our profit margin on the job.

Click the url to play the Penalty Shootout which forms part of the interactive lead generation campaign

If you would like to know more about how you could use this innovative lead generation campaign to boost sales for your business please call me on 01256 85 30 40 or email me ncampbell@emarket2.com and I will send you the Campaign overview workflow PDF doc.  *It is offered as a self service campaign for £1,495 +VAT (you roll it out) or on a fully managed basis (we roll it out for you) for £1,995 +VAT whichever suits your budget and resources.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

“Easy reading is darn hard writing”  Nathaniel Hawthorne.

I often speak about the importance of delivering high quality supporting material when marketing to prospects. But what does this mean in practice?

Well, lest we put the cart before the horse, let’s talk about basics first.  

Be clear and concise

Posting random facts and figures about your company is never likely to attract much attention.  To effectively reach decision makers, you need to have a powerful and tightly focussed angle that taps into a pre-researched and highly specific need.

Be generous and helpful

In order to grab prospects’ attention, the information you send (including the information on your blog) needs to be useful, relevant and helpful, and should demand nothing in return from your prospects, other than to request that they allow you to continue contacting them with relevant communications.  

Deliver original and well-written material  

Always deliver original, well-written information that is relevant to your company.  This will set your business apart the majority of marketers and bloggers who seem to think it is acceptable to deliver third rate, amateurish work.  If your writing wouldn’t get past a professional editor then it shouldn’t get past your own in-built quality control radar.

Be consistent

Consistent communication is critical to attracting continuing subscribers.  If people receive your emails, newsletters and blogs at regular, respectable intervals over a sustained period of time, they’ll perceive you as a force to be reckoned with and not as a here today, gone tomorrow opportunist.   

Regular blog posting will also enhance your visibility in the search engine rankings. Many businesses pay thousands of pounds to SEO consultants to improve their performance in the search rankings. What they don’t realise is that they can achieve impressive ranking improvements for next to nothing by posting regular keyword-rich blogs.  Search engines pick up freshly posted relevant content and reward websites by moving them up the page.

Share your communications via social media

Don’t neglect to post links to your blogs, videos and webinars on social networking sites. It’s a quick, easy and free way of gaining more traffic and generating targeted B2B leads. You can set up blog feeds on sites like such Facebook and Twitter, as well on share sites such as Digg, Delicious and Reddit, etc.

Don’t place all your faith in your corporate website

When most companies are looking to source new products or services, they aren’t necessarily going directly to vendor websites.  Long before they come knocking on your door, savvy buyers are far more likely to root around online and do some research via blogs and forums to look for advice and feedback from peers. Your task, then, is to make sure that you show up consistently and in the right places. This will engender confidence in your company by pre-selling your credibility.   

Identify your ‘hungry crowd’

To be able to feed your blog posts and videos to the right social media sites, you must know exactly where your prospects are hanging out.  Check out the forums where your B2B prospects are most likely to be found and listen in and contribute to their conversations.  Find out what they’re looking for and give it to them.  First points of call should be relevant business blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Keep on top of the competition

It’s also worth reading your competitors’ blogs, newsletters, etc – especially the most successful ones.  What are they doing or saying that you could tap into to improve your own traffic and readership.  What tactics are working?  Make it a mission to remain one step ahead.

Consider your keywords

Keywords allow your content to be readily identified by the web crawlers when people are searching on your topics.  To this end, all blog and web-based content should feature keywords and phrases that likely to attract decision makers in you industry. These are the words that your prospects are typing into Google and social sites, etc, to search for information. Google’s excellent keyword tool will show precisely which words people are searching on, together with the volume of searches: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

And finally, recession for some…

According to the Sunday Times Rich List, the combined wealth of Britain’s 1,000 richest people soared by nearly 30% during last year, to £333.5 billion. Some recession!

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business

“Praise of the unworthy is robbery of the deserving.”  Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

If, like me, you’ve been involved in business development for any length of time, you can’t have helped noticing the seismic shift that has taken place in lead generation practice during recent years.

Much of this change, of course, can be attributed to the digital revolution. But I believe also that we’ve seen a fundamental change in attitude on the part of the B2B buyer. First of all in matters of choice: not so long ago it was extremely difficult to compare the market for better value products and services without doing an awful lot of footwork.  An even then, it was all but impossible to get any kind of reliable feedback from like-minded business consumers, at least not without accosting people in the street.

With blogging and business networking all of that has changed.  We now have the wherewithal to conduct instantaneous market research at the click of a mouse.  And this ties in with the second big change: the way we allow ourselves to be sold to.

More than ever before, buyers are bombarded with a confusing array of similar sounding marketing messages from competing vendors.  For this reason, if your marketing isn’t to fall on deaf ears, you need to make sure your message gets heard over the noise of your competitors.

Reaching senior decision makers

The majority of B2B buying decisions rely on the approval of senior managers, and this is especially true with big-ticket items.  The problem for marketers is that most senior managers are kept beyond their reach.  In fact many are openly hostile to unsolicited marketing.  More and more, marketers are being thwarted by spam filters, voicemail and impassable gate keepers. So how can you get your message to resonate with senior managers?

The art of engagement

The art of engagement is to provide information that buyers actually need; to give them a reason for wanting to opt-in to your marketing. Most cold sales pitches these days are greeted with a ‘So what?’ or ‘What else would you say?’ response from prospects.  But to influence the opinions of modern buyers we need to actually shape the buying process itself.    

Prospects will often keep marketers at arm’s length until the buying process is well underway.  The result is that the marketer becomes involved only after requirements have been set and a competitive bidding process is happening.  The challenge for the marketer is to become involved earlier in the buying cycle. This means creating a sustained dialogue.

Sustained dialogues generate demand

No one would deny that it’s a challenge to identify buyers who are actively looking for a solution. But it’s important to remember that active buyers are vastly outnumbered by those people who may not have a budget now, but will have one at some point down the line and, just as importantly, the many potential prospects who may not even be aware that they have a need – at least not until you have educated them.  Identifying and communicating this group is what demand generation is all about.

With the right processes in place it is possible to dovetail your traditional lead generation programme (i.e. contacting the minority of prospects who are actively looking now) with an effective demand generation programme designed to nurture contacts for the future. In other words, you get the best of both worlds: a select number of ready buyers, backed up with a steadily replenishing sales pipeline. 

An effective demand generation programme will unearth latent needs, generate demand where none apparently exists and prompt those who are not yet in buying mode to take action. If you don’t yet have one in place, I strongly recommend that you consider it.  

And finally…

The world’s biggest ever study of the effects of mobile phones on human health was launched last week in London. It will include some 25,000 users across five European countries. Among the study’s aims is to establish once and for all whether or not mobiles cause cancer.  That’s the good news. The bad news is that you’ll need to wait until the test ends to find out – it’s scheduled to last 30 years.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading and, as ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

Drop us an email now to see how quickly we can generate sales leads for your business