Why has or does strategy leave the building for B2B demand generation marketers in some instances?

Wikipedia defines strategy as: a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. We have seen an absolute failure to plan and to design a plan that achieves success, specifically in the channel marketing space.
Recently we have been allocated onto a project where the director of marketing is carpet bombing a specific market with 8 unique campaigns and wants us to come and be the 9th campaign effort in their area and to also hit a segment that isn’t even a viable segment for this partner to specifically target. The amazing part of this is that nobody is planning, nobody is looking at what actions will lead to success, and instead strategy has been left out of the equation all together. Bottom line sometimes marketers just want to mark things off their list, “throw money at it” and hope it works. Also we think people do not learn the art of strategy or have never been taught it. Instead it’s go, go, go…..look busy, act busy, be busy and maybe, just maybe you’ll get some results.
Our suggestion is to always look at the overarching goals, develop a logical strategic plan that makes the most sense and then execute those activities that will get you to your goals. Not a difficult formula but one that is often left behind or not utilized. Define the goals based upon specified demand generation experience and or data points and realistic expectations. What is the plan with regards to this demand generation tactic and what needs to happen before you take action? Who needs to be involved, what needs to be done, when do we start, how do we do it and where do we end?

High Value Tactic: Appointment Setting

I met today with a potential client and specifically with their product marketing team. The comment that summarized the meeting was “can we justify the spend to Sr. Management even though we believe your services are High Value.” This struck me as an interesting comment and from a sales perspective you could interpret many different meanings, objections, next steps, etc from this comment. I simply took it that we need your services but everything has to hit a multiple of ROI that makes everyone comfortable up in the c suite.
Let’s talk about high value. High value with regards to Appointment Setting and Teleprospecting work couldn’t apply more. The concept of getting into a new prospect account and opening up a new revenue stream through the Art of Cold Calling is not a new concept and frankly its not even sexy in this social media induced craze era that we currently all work in. But what it does do is show tremendous hard hitting ROI when conducted appropriately. Adding a new customer that has a let’s say 10X ROI in the first year, means you can estimate the lifetime value of that customer X10 further. That to me sums up high value. Building credible and substantial relationships is high value. I just wished everyone in the board room and C suite would understand that they received their opportunity to advance through the help of other people that they were introduced to and that their own personal ROI comes from that introduction or spark that ignited along the way.
And that is why Teleprospecting is such a high value tactic and so critical when it comes to relationship building. It’s still a Mano e Mano world the last time we checked.

The discounting of a particular strategy or service over another……NOT SO FAST!

Being primarily an inside sales organization built to help marketing and sales professionals achieve their goals of driving more revenue through qualified pipeline development, I can’t help but be totally confused on how B2B marketing service providers present themselves still even in this economic downturn. Many firms that we talk to, run into, or review continue to promote themselves as creative and process geniuses or flat out as organizations that can execute tactics that marketers don’t have the skill or time to do themselves internally. What are they doing if they aren’t helping drive revenue? That is another post all together.
We’ll be honest the last time we looked on Guru.com there were 32,000 graphic designers listed as gurus. Think that space is crowded in 2011? Last time we checked marketing executives were getting even more pressure to deliver even more sales support and revenue opportunities so slinging email to 100,000 people a week or some creative piece that the mail room uses to play hockey with in the basement may not be a viable strategy anymore. Flat out we have seen pricing double to triple our costs to set face to face executive appointments with no guarantees or impact from marketing agencies. So how do you as a sales or marketing executive choose a vendor or a strategy over another vendor or strategy? Our suggestion: pick the one that really brings in revenue and ups profitability and focus on that as your first prerogative. Secondly focus on combing these services through one vendor and make sure they understand your services, brand and value propositions. Not that gimmicks still don’t work but in the B2B world less money means less gimmicks and less opportunities to focus on efforts that really deliver. This our two cents from the front line of the teleprospecting and appointment setting world.

I was recently asked about how do you know if a rep should be an inside sales rep or an external direct sales rep or most importantly when do you move them to the other role?

I think hiring and setting the appropriate expectations up front and specifically hiring to the desired sales skill set is extremely important.

Many organizations start reps in an inside role with the desire to quickly move them to an external direct sales role. Most people in my experience struggle to execute the multitude of sales skills needed to be successful in either role.  Let’s face it; a majority of sales people have no interest in working the phones aggressively let alone daily.  So I think you have to tread cautiously on moving someone from inside sales to outside sales unless you measure their goals on the inside role very carefully. If they have always wanted to do direct sales but are willing to put him in some hard hours and months on the inside path to also learn that skill set then I think you can take a chance occasionally. However moving these people to a direct sales role too quickly can also prove a mistake. I would argue that you can become very good at both skill sets, however not everyone can master both of them and ultimately at the end of the day you have to test and evaluate on where they appropriately should fit.

Signs of when an inside sales rep is burned out

I recently participated in a Focus.com discussion with a slew of other thought leaders about this very topic. Please check out the report that Focus.com has published.

Focus Experts’ Briefing: 8 Signs that an Inside Sales Rep Is Burned Out

What is the current appointment setting output data you have?

I recently watched a very interesting interview with the CEO of Tupperware.  He mentioned that he thought advertising was no longer a key factor in his business. This he mentioned was due to the large direct sales force he has all over the world selling his products. He felt, that people buy from people and more importantly; especially from people or brands that their friends recommend. We couldn’t agree more.

We are constantly asked do you see upward or downward output trends when it comes to appointment setting and total meetings set.  The answer from our perspective is that we have seen a steady up-tick so far this entire year.  We would estimate a 12-15% up-tick conservatively in the first four months.  Part of this is due to the fact that we are growing as well as an organization; however we think it is safe to say that appointment setting is still a viable and relevant tactic, If not one of the most critical or most difficult to master within any organization (our biased opinion of course) with the best ROI out there.

Researching new B2B Demand Generation vendors: Who really represents the Best of Breed in their industries and what does that criteria look like and how do you find them?

Boy it seems that the amount of expert vendors running around on the web posting their credibility and service capabilities constantly is kind of surreal at this point with all of the aggregate groups, social networks, etc . This to me is throwing off some people on how to find valuable best of breed vendors.

I recently read a post from six months ago on a linked in group where a decision maker posted a request for referrals to vendors who could help his company with B2B demand generation and marketing. First off the number of responses was incredible (over 70 so far) and the diversity (including international posts) and skill sets and companies that responded frankly shocked me. I’m sure there was some value in what was posted but who has the time, tolerance, stamina and drive to read that many recommendations. I’d question if my employees were doing that during the work day when searching for new vendor solutions for Extended Presence.

I’m a fan of Jim Cramer’s best of breed within a sector focus when it comes to investing.  I think it may be valuable to apply this to your vendor research.

Here are a few ideas for you:

Pick the companies that appear to be best of breed based upon your key needs.

• So perhaps do your research first:   Gather referrals from a few people vs. the world and maybe have some identified criteria as part of your process.
• I had an old mentor who was a successful CEO mention that when people go job searching they are way too broad. His advice was to focus on the industry you want to work in and specific ally focus on companies within that industry that you have thoroughly researched and like and go after them aggressively.  Maybe this is a way to start your search.
• Define from your experience and goals what constitutes best of breed?

o   Look for case studies, real results and length of experience of the management team and how long the company has been around as a first step

o   Know what kind of tactics you want to focus on then go from there (I’m sure vendors have more offers than you are initially interested in but again determine where to start)

Understanding your Target Audience before spending your marketing dollars

Recently over the holidays I received what at first glance, looked like an attractive offer from one of my credit card vendors. It was for a free companion flight to Europe if I spent a certain amount of money before the end of the year. The ironic part of this marketing piece is that this credit card company knows that I do not have the credit limit on this card to hit the dollar spend required in the last month of the year. It was impossible from a very simple data point level to spend the money required on that card to reap the benefits.

Now this is a B2C issue but I think we see this often in B2B as well. Consistently some marketers continue to utilize poor list sources. I recently received a prospect list from a major client with a major list vendors Database for us to utilize on a campaign. Wells Fargo was on the list with 5 contacts including only 2 total contacts that were relevant to the campaign. When you look up WF in Jigsaw there are over a 1000+ IT professionals available. How can companies have such discrepancies in their databases and or their vendors?  I believe this comes down to a lack of internal skill sets within these marketing organizations around list analytics and or marketing intelligence skills and also that some marketers skip valuable simple steps. If the credit card company would have run a quick equation on my limit, my annual spend on that card they could have saved a few bucks and not even sent that color direct mail piece to me.  Same goes for B2B marketers. Take the time to analyze data points and data bases and your outcomes will that much more measurable and possible.

How do you know you potentially have the worst channel marketing program in the world?

Ask yourself the following. We recently had the unfortunate opportunity to work with what I would consider potentially the worst channel marketing program in North America.
• Do you ask your vendors to set a guaranteed # of appointments and pay them half market value?
• Do you let Partners determine the data that they want to target and confine that to an unrealistic # of prospects?
• Do you run 5 campaigns in the same geographic area i.e. New York City or Northern California?
• Do you let partners reject leads because they don’t lead to immediate business?
• Do you sign contracts with vendors and then with partners (so essentially you have two different agreements with two different parties?)
• Do you have a common commodity product that is gradually losing market share?
• Do you sit back and let your marketing vendors get constantly beat on by your partners?
• Do you run through marketing vendors, i.e. replace them every year?
This was precisely the scenario we found ourselves in a few weeks ago. I would say in our eight year history as an Appointment setting firm that we have walked away from less than half a dozen customers. We ran away from this client as fast as we could! We have a real can-do attitude and usually give it our all. This one we packed it in about half way and wrote back a check to the customer and they fully understood that they had run another good vendor aground. Matter of fact the previous vendor went out of business. Hard lessons learned from the front line!

“Inside Sales Tips: What are the tips for success you would give an individual inside sales rep?”

Be consistent and well organized while trying to be absolutely unique and personalized (take a direct customized marketing perspective).

Many inside sales reps fall down because they simply aren’t great organizers. So for example they call a prospect and then forget to follow up even with tasks set or reminders being provided by their CRM. This lack of organization or lack of concentrated focus can make for gaps in their process and inconsistency.  Consistent doesn’t mean multiple touches and follow up it means committing to follow through. So if you tell a prospect you will get them information do it and if you say you are going to follow up do it. These are simple tactics that have been successful for me during the years that I conducted inside sales for a couple of different companies.

The last part is customizing and being unique with your prospects by taking a direct marketing approach. Treat each prospect as unique. Actually understand what their challenges are, what’s new and or exciting with their business and how you can help them in some capacity. In the current information age we live in, sloppy or unprofessional tactics can ruin a good inside sales professional’s chance of securing new business very quickly. I recently read the blog of a fast growing Value Added Reseller where the CEO had posted a terribly written note that he received from a realtor who was trying to win his business. Literally he scanned and posted the letter into his blog. He was making the point, besides the terrible penmanship, that there was no value in the note it was all about the experience level of the realtor not about anything relevant to what was on the CEO’s mind. Imagine the follow up call by that realtor and how that must have went?