How to align your marketing-driven sales lead processes to better meet sales’ needs (How the cool cats in marketing can help the big dogs in sales
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The document discusses strategies for aligning marketing and sales processes to enhance sales effectiveness and achieve higher ROI. It emphasizes the importance of marketing-driven sales, identifying qualified leads, and utilizing lower-cost marketing initiatives for nurturing prospects. Best practices include ongoing collaboration between sales and marketing, tailored messaging, and effective lead nurturing strategies.
How to align your marketing-driven sales lead processes to better meet sales’ needs (How the cool cats in marketing can help the big dogs in sales
- 1. How to align your marketing-driven sales lead processes to better meet sales’ needs (How the cool cats in marketing can help the big dogs in sales) M.H. (Mac) McIntosh
- 2. Agenda • Quick introduction • Building the case for aligning marketing and sales • Building the case for marketing-driven sales • How to align your marketing with sales for maximum impact and ROI 2
- 3. M. H. (Mac) McIntosh Business-to-Business Sales Lead Expert™ • A specialist in designing, implementing and improving marketing-driven B2B sales lead programs
- 4. Mac’s credentials • 20+ years of hands-on success in B2B marketing, direct marketing and sales – Both in the trenches and in senior marketing, sales and management roles • Expert in both digital and traditional marketing strategies and tactics – Voted #1 of the SLMA’s 2010 “Top 20 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management” and in the “Top 10” 3 years in a row – Teaches both undergrad and graduate-level courses in marketing and direct marketing – Conducted more than 250 seminars and workshops on lead generation and management in North America and Europe
- 5. Mac’s businesses • Sales lead management consulting • Specializing in helping companies like yours to design, implement or • Marketing-driven lead generation improve sales lead management and marketing automation agency services programs and results • Providing the people, expertise, technology and resources you need to drive more leads and sales 5
- 6. A sampling of clients 6
- 7. Building the case for aligning marketing and sales • Most top performing companies with sales and marketing aligned get better results – 40% of sales forecasted pipeline is generated by Marketing compared with 22% for average companies and 13% for laggards – 31.5% average year-over-year growth in revenue versus 18.2% for average companies and a 6.7% decrease for laggards Source: Aberdeen Group - Sales & Marketing Alignment - 2011 7
- 8. Building the case for marketing-driven sales • Marketing-driven sales is a more cost effective 8
- 9. Do the math 5 sales calls @ $329* = $1,645 vs. 12 Marketing contacts @ $15 = $180 + 3 sales calls @ $329= $987 Total: $1,167 A $478 savings (29%) *2001 Study of Business-to-business sales costs - Reed Business Information 9
- 10. A proven marketing-driven sales strategy • Use lower-cost-per-touch marketing for prospecting, nurturing and qualifying • Use your higher-cost-per-touch salespeople to demo, propose and close Lower cost-per-touch marketing Higher cost-per-touch sales Prospect Nurture Qualify Demo Propose Close 10
- 11. Help them sell Best practice • Old practice – Marketing passes all inquiries to sales as leads • Best practice – Marketing passes only the sales- ready opportunities (Marketing Qualified Leads) to sales 11
- 12. Marketing-driven sales results • Exponentially more prospects being touched than via sales alone • Up to 300% more sales-ready opportunities in the sales pipeline • Salespeople becomes up to 50% more efficient • Cost per sale drops by 25% or more Source: Clients of Mac McIntosh & AcquireB2B
- 13. Start by aligning your campaigns to the customers’ buying process Determine Reconsideration Satisfaction (Buyer’s Remorse) Acknowledgement of Needs Selection (Purchase) Prospects Decision spend only to Start the 5% of their Buying Process time in Investigation Yet Establish these of Options salespeople Selection stages Determine spend nearly Criteria Measurement 100% of their Criteria time in these stages 13
- 14. Two ways to impress the “big dogs” in sales 1. Help them sell more 2. Appeal to their egos 14
- 15. During the planning stage Ask sales for their opinion • Ask where to focus your marketing-driven lead generation efforts – Industries and applications – Companies and contacts • Ask what they see competitors doing right and wrong 15
- 16. During the planning stage Get your hands on sales’ intelligence Sales Marketing • Buyer profiles • Buyer personas • Objection handling guides • Key offers (calls-to-action) • Competitor information and messages 16
- 17. During the planning stage Ask sales for their opinion • What key messages to deliver • What “offers” or “calls-to-action” prospects will respond to • What media to use • What’s a “qualified” lead? 17
- 18. Use personas to drive messaging and offers • Job • Age • Education • Situation • Problems • Personal issues • 18 Goals
- 19. Consensus is critical to your success Define a Marketing Qualified Lead 19
- 20. Use lead qualification scoring to determine • Next steps – Lead nurturing – Telemarketing – Inside sales – Sales-ready – Routing to the correct sales contact 20
- 21. Consider lead routing • To telemarketing? • To inside sales? • To field sales? • To reps, resellers or distributors? 21
- 22. During the planning stage Ask for their opinion • What tools they need to better – Compete – Demo – Propose – Close 22
- 23. Ask for their opinion During development • Ask them to review and comment on preliminary drafts – Personas – Messages – Offers and calls-to-action – Media – Materials – “Marketing Qualified Lead” definitions 23
- 24. Ask for sales’ opinion After rolling it out • What’s working? Why? • What isn’t working? Why? • How is the competition responding? And what should we do about it? • What else is needed? 24
- 25. Ask for their opinion Who should you ask? • Sales Managers • The top performers • The loudmouths • The old pros • The newbies 25
- 26. How long before B2B inquirers buy? • 0-6 Months: 23%-27% • 7-12 Months: 15%-18% • 12-18 Months: 25%-33% • 19+ Months: 19%-25% Source: Clients of Mac McIntosh & AcquireB2B 26
- 27. How long before B2B inquirers buy? In other words • Three out of every four sales come from longer- term leads • Marketing needs to nurture these longer-term leads until they are determined to be sales- ready (MQLs) 27
- 28. Make offers that align with where prospects are in their buying process •Case studies • Assessments •Info kits • Consultations •Decision tools •How-to guides • Custom demos •Webinars •White papers • Seminars • Quotations • Buy-now incentives
- 29. Types of offers Application notes Free samples Product comparisons Articles Free trials References Assessments Gift with purchase ROI calculators Case studies How-to guides Self-assessments Checklists Information kits Seminars Configurators Lunch and learns Tutorials Demonstrations Needs assessments Videos Discounts News Webinars Buy-now incentives Newsletter subscriptions Whitepapers E-books Phone consultations Workshops Executive briefings Pricing 29
- 30. Tips About offers • Tailor offers for your various buyer personas • Create a suite of offers, each addressing the various steps in each persona’s buying process • Educational offers often work best • Create new offers by repurposing, refreshing and rebundling existing content • A good title can quadruple response 30
- 31. The Old Approach Competitor Information steals the sale is sent TIME Sales Prospect is Prospect is follows up? ready to buy Closed identified sale 31
- 32. Lead nurturing strategy • Build sales-winning relationships with prospective customers as they move through their buying process – Awareness to inquiry – Inquiry to consideration – Consideration to purchase • Concurrently attempt to identify the qualified, qualified (sales-ready) opportunities 32
- 33. The Lead Nurturing Approach Competitor Relationship Marketing bounces out ( E-mails, Mail, Phone ) TIME Prospect is Perfectly-timed Closed identified sales call sale 33
- 34. Best practices Allow sales to pass leads back to marketing • If leads are determined to not really be sales-ready • For further nurturing • For re-qualification 34
- 35. How often should you pro-actively contact prospects? • From their point-of-view, the keys are relevance and usefulness • From your point of view, frequency depends on • What happened last • The value of the prospect • The media used • What relevant and useful information you can offer 35
- 36. Make the right offers (calls-to-action) • Aligned with where your prospective customers are in their buying process • To help move them forward – From awareness to inquiry – From inquiry to consideration – From consideration to purchase 36
- 37. Lead Nurturing results • 23% to 306% more qualified leads • 108% to 260% more revenue per customer Source: Clients of Mac McIntosh & AcquireB2B 37
- 38. Best practices • Determine the number of sales-ready leads needed to help salespeople meet their goals – Ask for my free Marketing Lead Calculator™ • Remember to factor in the sales cycle time 38
- 39. Understand your marketing-to-sales funnel Marketing Touches Inquiries (responses) Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Accepted Leads Sales Qualified Leads Closed Sales 39
- 40. Tip • Give sales (and management) visibility into what happens earlier in the funnel 40
- 41. The truth about sales lead follow-up • Sales will follow up if the leads you generate for them are truly qualified, sales-ready opportunities • Reporting back on lead follow-up is another matter 41
- 42. To “close the loop” and learn about lead follow-up and results • Minimize the paperwork – Leverage the CRM system • Consider incentivizing them 42
- 43. Consider incentivizing follow up • Higher commissions on followed-up leads • Create a “Frequent Follow-up” or “Mystery Lead” program • Trophies and plaques 43
- 44. Best practices • Call two customers or prospects each week • Walk a mile or two in sales’ shoes – Regularly attend the other team’s meetings • Sales attend marketing meetings • Marketing attend sales meetings – Accompany sales on sales calls • Offer a makeover of their homemade materials 44
- 45. In summary • Marketing’s most important “customers” are your salespeople (and/or channel partners) • The keys to getting marketing aligned with sales 1. Shared goals and objectives 2. Incentivize the behaviors you want 3. Makeover or provide better sales materials 4. Aim for continuous improvement 45
- 46. Additional resources • Marketing for Leads Calculator™ • Marketing Optimization Kit™ – Three ways to get them: • Visit www.acquireb2b.net/demandcon2012 • Give me your business card • Email me at [email protected] 46
- 47. Remember • If it was easy, they wouldn’t need you! 47
- 48. Thank you! M. H. (Mac) McIntosh, President [email protected] +1-401-234-4406 @B2B_Sales_Leads www.linkedin.com/in/salesleadexpert www.acquireb2b.com www.sales-lead-experts.com 48
Editor's Notes
- #8: Top performing companies grew twice as fast, had more in the pipeline and converted more into sales
- #9: Top performing companies grew twice as fast, had more in the pipeline and converted more into sales
- #40: MeasureNumber & percentageCount all of these salesNew customersNew business from existing customersReactivated customers