May 2011
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CURRENT RELEASES AND NEWS FROM OUR MEMBERS (Directly linked to the SLMA site):
"We don't have much time, so tell us everything you know about lead management..."
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RECENT BLOG POSTS:
May 25, 2011:
You can’t ask that question without also asking, “How is the Marketing Automation and CRM working for you?” Both valid questions. Both entwined with each other. Both dependent on each other in a performance oriented dance that is more easily measured than most people let on. Read the full post >>
May 17, 2011:
We agree that when marketing creates demand (leads) it takes talent and intuition and creativity.
Sales skills are unarguably learned, but a little natural ability from an out-going personality helps. Sales lead management however is another topic. It crosses many department boundaries (not just sales and marketing). Read the full post >>
May 15, 2011:
This is a new job description which is posted in the Check Lists/Job Description Section of the SLMA Resources area of the web site. Also check out the Sales Lead Manager description. Read the full post >>
May 3, 2011:
Sometimes it doesn’t make any difference how much sugar you add to something it won’t change the outcome. Sprinkle a little or a lot of sugar on bull and it won’t change the taste; you can’t make it into candy. You have to start with meaningful ingredients. Let’s take sales lead management (yeah, I know it’s a stretch, but read a bit more). Read the full post >>
ARTICLES OF IMPORTANCE - MEMBERS ONLY ACCESS:
Iron Butterflies: Women Transforming Themselves and the World
By Birute Regine
 Reviewed by SLMA Staff
Amazon $12.92 Barnes & Noble $13.17
265 Pages, paperback, published by Prometheus Books
 This author's current email signature sums up this book in one line: "When sleeping women wake, mountains move." Chinese proverb
During the recent 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management nominations, I came across this book and downloaded the first free chapter to consider it before I purchased. I devoured the first chapter and knew I needed the book, fast.
Although this book is written to speak to women in business, it affects all women and can walk you through the transitions from what the author refers to as an Amazon, to a Shape Shifter to an Iron Butterfly as we work through male dominated industries and old ideas about the roles of women. She takes her readers on a gentle path of exposition, awakening and action so smoothly and tenderly you don't realize what she is building you up for until you arrive at the chapter that speaks to you.
Ms. Regine develops a relationship with her reader that allows them to get comfortable through the initial chapters and then she becomes more intimate by revealing more about herself and her profiled Iron Butterflies as the reader travel through the book. What struck me is after reading the profiles of many of the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management, I noticed Iron Butterfly qualities in the testimonials men and women were giving about these successful women in a typically male industry.
I not only recommend this book for women in business and in any relationship; but for the men who wish to lead them with a more productive style by abandoning the gladiator techniques that are falling away in this new era of women.
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Implementing a Successful Solution Selling System
by Phil Nasser, President, Sales Productivity Institute
Our client had invested in a well-respected sales training program expecting to increase their sales force's productivity and prepare the company for expected growth. At a minimum the client had expected to see an immediate, preferably dramatic, increase in their pipeline…to be more exact, an increase in the number of prospects and in the dollar value of their pipeline. While there had been some sales improvement, the client wasn't sure if it was because of the recently completed training or because of several new products which were just released. Secretly, he worried it was the latter. We were contacted to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the new sales system.
Read the complete article here (member login reguired)
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Sales Lead Management Association Poetry Challenge
Are you an unrequited poet? Now is your chance to join the muses and entertain the business
community with your poetry on one of four subjects (unless you can stuff all four into one
poem). Put your poetry skills to work on the subjects of sales lead management, marketing ROI,
CRM or Marketing Automation.
Be creative in your poetry, you can use any form of poetry you like, from blank verse to free
verse, Haiku to Senryu, a Limerick (be careful here) to a Sonnet; we’ll publish it if is in good
taste and addresses one of the critical areas of sales lead management.
Be creative,
be wild, be serious, be humorous, but above all have fun.
View all of the guidelines here, SLMA Members may go directly to the entry form.
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SLMA Adds Live Video Webinar Broadcasts for Sponsors
The SLMA Under the direction of the new Director of Video Production, Bill Goldsmith is now offering Video Webinars. Now Webinar presenters can present their educational and product information to an unlimited audience live and visible to the audience. James Obermayer, CEO of the SLMA said, “Gone are the days when the webinar attendee looked at a PowerPoint presentation and only heard the presenters voice. Now up to 15 presenters (a panel for instance) can be visible to the audience. For more information about the SLMA Video webinar program, call Ron Goodman, VP of Business Development at 510 471 3874 or email him at: [email protected]
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Top 5 ways to leverage teleprospecting for high quality enterprise leads
When your solution is expensive and the sales cycle is long, it is essential that you find ways
to help your sales channels be more productive. Providing them with highly qualified leads
when the prospect is ready to talk to sales helps move the sales activity from prospecting to
selling. The key is making sure that the lead is truly qualified. There is no substitute for a
live discussion with a highly skilled teleprospecting manager to insure that the prospect is ready to talk to your sales person.
Read the complete article here (member login reguired)
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Marketing Automation Venture Funding: Profitable or
Profligate?
by Lauren Carlson CRM Analyst, Software Advice
Originally appeared May 11, 2021 Reprinted in part with her permission.
Lauren had spoken with to a lot of marketing automation vendors in the last year, and the topic of venture capital comes up often. Some vendors are proudly announcing new rounds, while others are deriding the fundraising as reckless and unsustainable. Lauren says she is not exactly a Silicon Valley insider (fooled me) so she decided to dig a little deeper into the topic. The
following is an abbreviated form of her article. Click here for the full version.
VCs invested over $396 million in marketing automation vendors since 1998.
Why are VCs investing?
VCs recognize that marketing is changing rapidly. The Web has dramatically changed the way businesses market and advertise, and it has greatly improved the ability to measure these activities. The stories that marketing automation vendors are pitching to VCs – optimal execution and measurement of marketing in the Internet era – are matching with what those investors hear
from marketing VPs at their other portfolio companies. Second, VCs are enamored with all things cloud.
Is this money well spent?
A half dozen companies have taken in the majority of marketing automation venture funding. Below, I break them down, showing funding in relation to their revenue and customer base. In addition to detailing who took how much capital, we also attempted to analyze how effective they have been in turning this capital into revenue and customers.
Certainly, we don’t have all the data we would need to perform a detailed internal rate of return (IRR). In fact, these revenue and customer numbers are our estimates, so we might even be wrong in some cases. However, I think we’re in the right ballpark on each vendor and we can see some interesting information come to light.
First, Aprimo and Unica lead the chart by raising $76 million and $66 million, respectively. Both established pretty decent customer bases and revenues. During the past couple years, both firms had decent exit events of roughly $500 million. Neither was a home run, by VC standards, but they were the kind of double or triple that can make a fund look pretty good. I’d say the venture route worked out pretty well for these guys.
Eloqua and Marketo are the two market leaders that remain independent and they have raised $41 million and $58 million, respectively. Both of these vendors are enjoying good market momentum and have built customer bases and revenues that are on track to rival those of Aprimo and Unica. I would expect that either could be on track for a half billion exit, but both companies’
executives claim to be aiming for >$1 billion IPOs that will support a long-term, standalone company.
Siverpop and Genius have both raised significant amounts of venture capital, but it doesn’t appear that they have gained the same market momentum as Eloqua or Marketo.
What does a home run look like?
What makes Eloqua and Marketo think they can pull off billion dollar IPOs and knock it out of the park? We suspect that these companies executives’ and investors look to a small set of publicly traded cloud application companies for precedent. Specifically, Salesforce, SuccessFactors, and NetSuite have all executed successful IPOs and traded up to attractive valuations – an extraordinary valuation, in the case of Salesforce.
As of May 8th, Salesforce trades at $17.6 billion, Successfactors trades at $2.6 billion, and NetSuite trades at $2.2 billion. While they’d love to get a Salesforce valuation, I think any marketing automation software vendor would be excited to reach a $2 billion market cap.
What will it take to get there?
We went back and looked at these three public comparable companies’ historical financials to get a sense of what type of performance market automation leaders would have to pull together to earn a similar valuation.
Clearly, all three of these cloud vendor have built substantial revenues through consistent growth. However, what we find most interesting is the bottom line. SuccessFactors and NetSuite are still unprofitable, and Salesforce.com is only marginally profitable with a 6% operating margin. Compare that to SAP’s operating margin of 32% and Oracle’s 36%. What gives?
Well, Wall Street clearly likes the cloud computing model as much as their VC peers. By assigning premium valuations to unprofitable or marginally profitable companies, they are telling cloud executives, “Nevermind today’s profits; go for the big leagues. Invest in R&D, sales, and marketing to own cloud computing.”
What does this all tell us?
Basically, it’s go big or go home. Marketing automation vendors that want to own their market, emerge as a cloud computing leader, and earn a ten figure valuation need to invest a lot of capital today to ensure their vision. They have the support of venture capitalists and Wall Street investors. Moreover, there is adequate precedent set by Salesforce, SuccessFactors and NetSuite.
Raise a lot of money and execute well.
LAUREN wants to hear what you think. Provide your response by clicking on the link below.
Read more: http://www.marketingautomationsoftware.com/blog/marketing- automation-venture-funding-1051111/#ixzz1NP0EeLG6
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2011 B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Report
Purpose: This report is designed to help business-to-business (B2B) marketers select marketing automation systems. It provides detailed information on individual vendors, including scores that measure each product's suitability for different kinds of buyers. This is combined with background information on how marketing automation systems are used; industry size, history and trends; related systems that compete with or complement marketing automation products; and tips fors system selection and successful deployment.
Download the PDF >>
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ActOn Software
Applied DM Research, Inc.
CartoonLink, Inc.
ClickPoint Software
eti Sales Support
Event Technologies
The Hill Group
ITN International
Invenio Solutions
InterlinkOne
LeadLife
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The Pedowitz Group
PointClear, LLC
Sales Benchmark Index
SalesFUSION
Sales Leakage Consulting
Sandler Training
Validar Inc.
The Vanella Group
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The Velos Group, Inc.
Vorsight