Sales Lead Management Association^SM Newsletter
In this Issue

►Mid-Year 2008 Marketing Study Presented by BtoB Magazine and the
Sales Lead Management Association - James Obermayer, Executive Director, Sales Lead Management Association
►Measuring B2B Lead Generation Campaigns - By John M. Coe, President, Protocol B2B
►Sales Software - How To Determine If It's Pushing You Forward Or Holding You Back - by Patrick Cahill: Senior Associate, Wellesley Hills Group
►Sales Leads are a lot more like Fresh Fish than Fine Wine!! - By Mark Friedman, Partner, Cerius Consulting Group
►Five Keys the Marketer Needs for Sales To Work Their Leads - By Chris Edwards:The AdTrack Corporation
►CRM, Where is Your Customer and Your Relationship?- By Bill Rice,Founder and CEO of Kaleidico
►B2B Marketers Learn How to Drive Sales Wild!

Mid-Year 2008 Marketing Study Presented by BtoB Magazine and the Sales Lead Management Association^SM

By James Obermayer, Executive Director, Sales Lead Management Association

This report contains research and opinions on marketing spending in the last half of 2008, obstacles to spending marketing dollars to drive sales, immediate priorities for the remainder of 2008, the percentage of business from sales inquiries, and the percentage of salespeople who report on the disposition of inquiries. These results were published originally by BtoB Magazine in its BtoB Special Issue S15, Lead Generation Guide 2008.  A digital version is available online.

In May, 2008, BtoB Magazine and the Sales Lead Management Association surveyed its membership and circulation list to find out:

1. Are B2B marketers going to spend more or less on inquiry generating programs from July to December in 2008?
2. What are their obstacles to spending more money on marketing to drive sales?
3. What are their immediate priorities for the remainder of 2008?
4. What percentage of new business comes from sales inquiries?
5. What percentage of salespeople report on the disposition of sales inquiries?

The Survey Process

The survey was done via email on Wednesday, May 14th.  A total of 20,370 emails were sent to the circulation list for BtoB and the membership list of the Sales Lead Management Association. 273 responses were received and the survey was closed to responses at approximately 6 PM on Sunday May 18th. For some questions the entire 273 respondents answered, for others a smaller percentage responded and their response was taken as a weighted response from their particular group. We did not ask titles and industry classification.

Read the rest of Mid-Year 2008 Marketing Study Presented by BtoB Magazine and the Sales Lead Management Association.

Measuring B2B Lead Generation Campaigns By John M. Coe, President, Protocol B2B

In the past 50 years and probably in the next 50, the primary role of B2B marketing communications is to generate inquiries and leads for the sales groups to follow-up and close. Yes, brand advertising is important, creating collateral is needed and developing an effective trade show is always required. But, when it comes time to justify the marketing communications budget the only result that produces identifiable revenue are the leads that have been generated and turned over to the sales groups for conversion.

That's when the problems start. First, what to measure is the first question? On one end of the spectrum is the recorded data that marketing communications has on the number of raw inquiries and qualified leads handed to the sales group. On the other end are the sales groups who only will point to only a few leads that were "worth anything". That is, of course, if they will even admit that there was a lead that they didn't already.

Read the rest of Measuring B2B Lead Generation Campaigns - By John M. Coe, President, Protocol B2B.

John is President and Founder of the Sales & Marketing Institute. His background includes experience on both the sales and marketing side of this important issue. On the sales side, John was a field sales person, national sales manager and executive in charge of both sales and marketing for two firms. On the marketing side, he ran a B2B direct marketing agency for 10 years, was National Campaign Manager at IBM and Sr. VP of Rapp Collins Worldwide. He has been measuring lead generations campaigns for a long time and has the scares to prove it. He can be reached at by calling 480-348-2500 or by email at [email protected]

Sales Software - How To Determine If It's Pushing You Forward Or Holding You Back

by Patrick Cahill: Senior Associate, Wellesley Hills Group

Professional service providers can now use sales technology (such as Salesforce.com) to become lead generating and nurturing machines. Automated timed e-mails, the distribution of new leads to the proper sales professionals, follow-up reminders, and the recording of e-mail communication with leads are just some examples of how the right sales software can help business developers sell more.

Unfortunately, some service firms I have worked with look at their sales technology as a hindrance or as something to train for when one "has the time." If the talk around your company's water cooler touches upon such things, it's time to take a step back and think: Do people like to complain or is our sales technology slowing business down?

How do you begin to answer this question? Let's evaluate your sales technology with some key questions and decide if you've got a bunch of complainers or legitimately frustrated business developers.

The key aspects:

• Ease of Use
• Time
• Integration
• Accessibility
• Scalability

Before we delve into these topics, note that some issues may not require new software. You might simply need to train your people or optimize your software.

Read the rest of Sales Software - How To Determine If It's Pushing You Forward Or Holding You Back -by Patrick Cahill: Senior Associate, Wellesley Hills Group.

Patrick Cahill is a Senior Associate with Wellesley Hills Group (www.whillsgroup.com), a consulting and marketing services firm that helps professional service companies to grow. Patrick can be reached at [email protected].

Sales Leads are a lot more like Fresh Fish than Fine Wine!!

By Mark Friedman, Partner, Cerius Consulting Group

Two recent studies indicate that the process of sending qualified lead to a company's sales organization is fundamentally broken.

In the first study, it was found that 70% of all Trade Show Leads are never followed up by sales. All the time, effort and money spent attracting people to the company's trade show booth was practically wasted. Additionally, in a second study conducted by Performark, they found that 60% of Business-to-Business leads took over 60 days for the company to follow up.

Over the years, numerous advertising studies have consistently indicated that when companies inquire about one of your products or service, 20% of those end up purchasing them from someone – either you or your competition - within 6 months and 45% end up purchasing within 12 months.

So what is the implication for your Sales Lead Management program?

Speed matters: the first company to respond to a qualified lead stands a better chance of closing the deal. And this is why sales leads are a lot more like fresh fish than fine wine; sales leads do not age well! It is critical that a company optimize their processes to quickly and efficiently respond to qualified leads.

Read the rest of Sales Leads are a lot more like Fresh Fish than Fine Wine!! - By Mark Friedman, Partner, Cerius Consulting Group

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"

Five Keys the Marketer Needs for Sales To Work Their Leads

By Chris Edwards: The AdTrack Corporation

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things in the life of a marketing manager is trying to solve the riddle of how to get a sales rep to follow up on a lead that they generated.  In many ways, it's like giving a gift to someone that they never open. 

Think about it…

• you've thought about the person and perhaps asked what they would like
• you've done research on the best kind of gift to get
• you've figured out where to go and get it

• you've even wrapped it and presented it directly and specifically to them

And then they don't even bother to open it or tell you if they liked it (and let's not get into the ‘thanking' part).

Isn't that how it often seems to work with sales leads?  The marketer…

• Has solicited feedback from the sales team about the kind of leads they need
• Has created messages that speak directly to generating interest based on sales input
• Has done market research to find the best places to reach this audience
• Has put in place a lead distribution process to get the lead into the hands of the rep

And then the rep either doesn't bother to follow up on the lead or report the result.

So how do you fix this?  It's a question I'm asked on a daily basis, and my answer is simple, and the five key components are the same regardless of industry or even channel type.

Read the rest of Five Keys the Marketer Needs for Sales To Work Their Leads - By Chris Edwards: The AdTrack Corporation.