Sales Lead
Management Association Newsletter
April 2008 - In this Issue
James Obermayer, Executive
Director, Sales
Lead Management Association
 Regardless of the type of agency (branding,
direct, PR, or on-line) most, but not all, are universally afraid of
proving the return on the client's money put at risk. Granted some
are kept at arms length and regardless of their efforts to talk
about actual results, the client demurs, hedges, hesitates, backs
away, avoids, passes up, circumvents, evades, steers clear of, shuns
and just plain hides from any discussion about ROI.
The agency that wants to keep its client base,
especially in tough times when marketing dollars are cut, had better
ask the tough questions of its clients. For instance:
1. When we create these inquiries, how soon
will they be distributed to the sales channel?
2. Are business rules in place for 100%
follow-up by marketing, the sales channel or both?
3. How are you qualifying the inquiries we
create so that the salespeople are aware of the "Leads" from the
non-buyers?
4. Does marketing have a system in place to
measure the return on investment for the lead generating dollars
we spend on your behalf?
5. May I see reports that show the sales
that result from the demand we create?
Tough questions, but agencies that have
courage (and want to keep working) will force their clients to face
the reality that it isn't enough to create demand, you have to prove
the results. Results are why clients spend money with agencies.
I asked Robert Moreau, VP of Sales &
Marketing of the Rubicon Marketing Group, Inc., how they manage to
convince their clients to embrace the best practices in inquiry
management. He said: Read the entire article.
by M. H. "Mac" McIntosh, Visit Mac's Web
Site
 You've spent a great
deal of time, effort and money putting together your
business-to-business sales lead generation program. But how you
handle the leads once you get them will make the difference between sales team and new customers, on the one hand, or an unhappy
sales team and lost sales on the other.
Here are six key
questions to determine if you have the best chance of being
successful with your sales lead programs, and a checklist to help
ensure it. Read the entire article.
M.H. "Mac" McIntosh is one of America's leading B2B marketing consultants and considered to be an expert on sales lead generation. He can be reached at [email protected].
by Mark Friedman,
Partner,
Cerius Consulting Group, Visit Cerius
Consulting's Web Site
One of the problems many companies experience is
that they don't have enough qualified leads for their sales force.
In fact, in a recent Harvard Business Review survey of over 1,000
companies, the number one 2006 priority was to optimize their
lead-generation programs.
The article goes on to state, "For a salesperson, a
steady stream of worthy leads is practically nirvana." Does Sales
Force Automation (SFA)/Customer Relationship Management (CRM) have a
role in helping solve this problem? Absolutely! This article will
address the role that SFA/CRM software can take to proactively
address this important issue. Read the entire article.
Mark Friedman is an experienced, results - oriented executive with
over 20 years of proven success in managing Sales, Sales Lead
Management, Telemarketing, Marketing and Customer Service. Notably,
world-renown consulting giant Accenture and the Distribution
Research and Education Foundation have recognized one of his
programs as a Wholesale Distribution Industry Sales "Best Practice";
the program overview was published in "Maximum Sales Velocity:
How to Build a World-Class Sales Organization" by David P.
Woodrow.
Watch Mark's Video - "Eliminate the Black Holes in your Sales and Marketing Process and Increase Your Bottom Line Results"
by Robert Bly - Freelance
Copywriter and Author, Visit Robert
Bly's Web Site
 Suppose you had
responded to an advertisement from a manufacturer of forged steel
valves and requested more information. How would you react to this
reply?
Dear Sir:
Chemical Equipment
magazine has informed us of your interest in our line of valves for
the chemical process industry. Enclosed please find the literature
you requested. We will await with interest your specific inquiry.
Sincerely,
Joe Jones, Sales Manger
XYZ Valve Corporation
That letter doesn't
call for action, build trust in the letter writer or tell the reader
why he should want to buy valves from XYZ. There's no salesmanship
in it, just a blunt acknowledgment that an inquiry has been made
fulfillment package that should help move the sale along will not. Read the entire article.
Bob Bly is an independent
copywriter and consultant with more than 25 years of experience in
business-to-business, high-tech, industrial, and direct marketing.
Bob has written copy for over 100 clients including Network
Solutions, ITT Fluid Technology, Medical Economics, Intuit, Business
& Legal Reports, and Brooklyn Union Gas. Awards include a Gold Echo
from the Direct Marketing Association, an IMMY from the Information
Industry Association, two Southstar Awards, an American Corporate
Identity Award of Excellence, the Standard of Excellence award from
the Web Marketing Association, and AWAI's Copywriter of the Year.
By Ruth P. Stevens, eMarketing
Strategy, Visit eMarketing
Strategy's Web Site
 Measurement is a
hot topic for marketers today. Everyone is under pressure to
demonstrate results, deliver value to the firm—and justify budgets.
Fortunately, we
direct marketers have always been measurement-oriented. Our
philosophical roots are in metrics and ROI. We set up all our
campaigns to be measurable, and we test incessantly—at least on the
consumer side.
On the B-to-B side,
direct marketers have more trouble with measurement, due to the
complexity of the sale and the length of the sales cycle. Sales
people don't want to be bothered reporting back to marketing about
sales results. And when selling through channel partners, resellers
or retailers, sales figures are frequently unavailable altogether. Read the entire article.
Ruth P. Stevens
consults on customer acquisition and retention, for both consumer
and business-to-business clients. Ruth began her direct marketing
career in 1986 at Time Warner, where she spent seven years in
marketing, new business development, and general management at
Book-of-the-Month Club and Time-Life Books. She then went to
Ziff-Davis as Vice President of Marketing for Computer Library, the
electronic publishing division. From 1996, she spent three years in
direct marketing management at IBM, and then worked in senior
marketing positions at two Internet startup companies in New York
City before starting her consulting company in 2000.
Tighten Lead Management - Small Improvements Yield Big Results in
Revenue and Profit - by Mike Schultz, RainToday.com, Visit RainToday's Web Site.
 The Yankee Group estimates that between 40% and
80% of new business leads are lost, not followed up upon, or
otherwise mishandled due to poor company processes. As marketing and
sales practitioners at professional services firms we estimate that
these numbers are right on the mark.
At a professional services firm, a number of
factors usually have to be in place for a lead to get the full
attention it deserves. Read the entire article
Mike Schultz is
President of the Wellesley
Hills Group, a management consulting, marketing, and lead
generation firm focused on helping professional services firms grow.
He is also the Publisher of RainToday.com , the premier online source for
insight, advice, and tools for service business rainmakers,
marketers, and leaders. He can be reached at [email protected]. Check out Mike's Services Insider Blog for more tips and insights.
SLMA Loves to
Blog: No Easy Subjects Here
Since we posted the
first Blog entry four weeks ago the reception has been great. We
have discussed how Marketers are the Builders of Wealth, Sales Lead
Management Week, and how Closed Loop Lead Management Systems = Lead
Quality and Lead Management (guest author Danny Head from Avaya).
In the coming weeks you'll see more hard-nosed criticism and great
guest authors on controversial in-your face subjects.
Subscribe to the Sales
Lead Management Association Blog.
The Sales Lead Management AssociationSM (SLMA) is Looking for Subject
Matter Experts
These experts can
be vendors or end users. The criteria is that you contribute
at least one article or white paper to the articles section of the
SLMA site. You must be recognized in some manner as an expert
in some form of inquiry management. Please send requests to be
considered a subject matter expert to [email protected].
Please list:
►Area
of expertise. If you don't see a category, suggest a new one.
►Number of years in the area of expertise.
►Name, Title, Company Affiliation, Address, E-mail address.
►Send
a 100 word biography.
►If
you have written articles, speak on the subject of inquiry
management or written books on related subjects, please put these
qualification in your request.
|
|
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