Company URL |
http://www.annuitasgroup.com |
Who are your mentors and why? |
I have had the good fortune of having many good people in my career that I was able to learn from and who gave me the opportunities to grow in my career. Two people in particular that come to mind are Randy Aronis and Jeff Honeycomb. Randy is the President of Ingenuity Sales Consulting and he and I met at the beginning of my career. Randy was the one who truly taught me what it was to manage a buyer relationship and how to sell effectively with the buyer at the center of the process. Jeff Honeycomb was the President of the Service Management Business Unit of McAfee and gave me ample opportunity to develop a lead management practice within the business. In addition he continued to, provide me with great advice and inputs as we proceeded in its development. |
What is the most helpful advice you've received to improve your business? |
We have a phrase internally which is "plan the work, then work the plan." It seems rather simple but it allows you to focus especially when bumps in the road are encountered. I have seen to many companies develop a strategic plan and at the first sign of a challenge, divert. This is short term thinking and does not produce long-term sustainability or growth. |
What is the most helpful advice you can give to help others improve their businesses? |
I would repeat what was given to us about planning. I would also say to surround yourself with good counsel and advisors. Having people on the outside who have a fresh perspective giving inputs on the route your organization should take is invaluable. When you are in the business and growing it, its hard to take a step back and see some things clearly. Get good folks around you who are not afraid to point out the needs and help shape the direction. |
How do you give back to the professional community? |
I think we do a pretty good job at sharing our information and our outlook on the market and the B2B lead management space. The new face of B2B marketing is changing so rapidly I think information sharing is the way to go. However while I definitely enjoy the professional side of things, one of the ways we give back is by seeing what charitable organizations our peers are involved with and trying to get involved as best we can. We have a good track record of working with several non-profits either as advisors or as hand-on volunteers and believe it is important to give in this way of both time and money as we are so extremely fortunate. |
What is your favorite business book? |
My favorite business book is "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done" by Ram Charan and Larry Bossidy. The book is so practical and underscores the importance of focusing on the things that matter and working the plan. |
What's your recommendation of the 4 steps?
Which 4 basic skills or process steps do you recommend? |
There are four general steps that we propose when looking to implement a holistic lead management approach some of which I have previously mentioned:
- Audit & Discovery: Take time to find out what you don't already know. Make sure you identify the issues and the gaps that are hampering your business.
- Develop recommended fixes: This is a unified marketing and sales effort and often times will involve other groups such as operations, IT etc. This is where the sacred cows must be put aside and real solutions applied to the issues.
- Develop & Implement: Begin to take the recommendations, develop and implement the process and put controls in place to make sure they are followed.
- Automate. Trying to manage a lead management process manually will be difficult and in many case impossible.
|
Your reasons for choosing this book are: |
There are so many facets within marketing that I do not know that I can choose one. I am a big fan of United We Brand by Mike Moser as it is written for someone doing this in the day-to-day aspect of branding. Getting back to the lead generation/management side of things I think The Fundamentals of Business to Business Sales & Marketing by John Coe and Lead Generation for the Complex Sale by Brian Carroll are also excellent books . |
What would you say to someone who asks what to do first in managing sales leads? |
The first thing that I would recommend is to develop and implement a holistic lead management process. This is a combined effort of marketing and sales working together and should begin with a discovery of the current process or state of affairs as it relates to lead management. This step is crucial as it will quickly show where the gaps exist and what breaks are occurring in the current processes.
The areas that should be included when looking at lead management are:
- Data
- Lead Planning
- Lead Routing
- Lead Qualification (including scoring)
- Lead Nurturing
- Metrics
- Technology
Once the gaps are identified in these areas marketing and sales then need to work together to develop and implement the necessary processes, this will allow them to manage sales leads properly. It is important to note that this exercise takes time, takes marketing and sales working in tandem and will bring operational change to an organization. |
If someone wants to nurture sales inquiries what process would you recommend? |
I would first of all encourage them to do so. All of the research shows that nurturing increases sales value and has an increased positive impact on the buyer relationship. As for the process of nurturing, it can not be done in isolation as it impacts virtually all other areas of lead management mentioned previously. Developing a nurture program in isolation will only get you so far and will most likely not produce the results intended or expected.
The first step is determining the definition of a lead (sales and marketing together), in order to nurture you need to know what will be routed to sales i.e. a lead and what will be routed to a nurturing program. Once completed the mapping of the nurture stream (routing rules, frequency, static versus dynamic) can begin and will take on many different tracks. The goal is to allow the prospect to develop a relationship with the organization and proceed as they need to. A few more thoughts on nurturing:
- Automate the nurture program. I have seen companies try to do this manual or via a CRM system and it just does not produce. A marketing automation solution should be the tool of choice for nurturing
- Test, test, test! Companies will test their initial campaign but not their nurturing programs. Measure to see whats doing best and adapt as necessary
- Content is a must. You have to have the relevant content to keep the buyer engaged.
|
What steps would you suggest to measure the ROI for sales inquiries? |
I think the basic answer is to measure each stage in the buying cycle from inquiry through to closed sale. This would include:
- Inquiry to Lead
- Lead to Marketing Qualified Lead
- Marketing Qualified Lead
- Sales Accepted Lead
- Sales Qualified Lead
- Close
These are some basic measurements that with the right process driving the solutions can be measured. Nurturing will also play a key role into the development of these metrics.
Once an organization develops these metrics and can manage these on a consistent basis I would suggest moving to quarterly benchmarking, measuring customer lifetime value etc. I think more importantly companies need to determine what they will do with these metrics. I suggest putting a lot of time into the analysis of these metrics and using the BI from the data to help shape your future marketing and sales strategy. |
ActOn Software
Applied DM Research, Inc.
CartoonLink, Inc.
ClickPoint Software
eti Sales Support
Event Technologies
The Hill Group
ITN International
Invenio Solutions
InterlinkOne
LeadLife
New Business Strategies
The Pedowitz Group
PointClear, LLC
Sales Benchmark Index
SalesFUSION
Sales Leakage Consulting
Sandler Training
Validar Inc.
The Vanella Group
VanillaSoft
Velocify
The Velos Group, Inc.
Vorsight