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Archive for May, 2009

PowerPoint Hall of Shame

Published May 31, 2009 Presentation skills Leave a Comment

In this brief post, I wish to speak of the many mind-numbing, painful to watch PowerPoint presentations I have endured in my long career. There have been so very many. Just try to make sense out of the abortion at left.

Here are my rules of PowerPoint with help from experts.

No gratuitous animation.
No more than five words per slide. (Seth Godin)
More pictures than words.
One theme per slide.
Very few bullet points.

There is a certain London based Search Marketing firm (picture a light bulb and color it Green) that is the poster child for horrifically bad PowerPoint.

When I became VP of Sales and Marketing there, one of the first things I asked for was their corporate PowerPoint presentation. What I got shocked me. 47 heavily engineered, mind numbingly complex (animated) slides guaranteed to make eyes glaze over by the fifth slide.

It was truly a horror show, but did they care? The most certainly did not. The ownership was young and rich. It was a case of “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” I, and many others, headed for the exit.

Another example was at the CMO Thought Leadership Summit. A senior exec of a very reputable firm stood up in front of an audience and presented the findings of their white paper — with most of the white paper on the slides. I stayed to be polite, but wanted to run as fast as I could for the exits. In fact, a CMO with me in the room left to hit the gym. Sweating profusely was better than listening to a really bad presentation.

Want to see the right way to present? Look for presenters like Seth Godin, Guy Kawaski, Steve Jobs, Al Gore or Garr Reynolds. Google them, find them on-line and watch them. Sign up for Toastmasters and practice, practice, practice.

Your audience will thank you.

Jeff Ogden is in expert in sales and marketing and the President of Find New Customers, who helps companies find and acquire new customers using best practices in lead generation and using a clearly defined demand generation process. He’s also the author of the highly regarded white paper, How to Find New Customers. Lastly, Jeff is featured in the new book by Jill Konrath, Get Back to Work Faster.

Line of Sight — from buyers back through R&D

Does your company make stuff, hand it to marketing and then tell sales to sell it? If so, you’re working backwards. Turn that process upside down.

Here’s what I mean:

What’s on the buyers mind? What does he care about? What are his priorities? Where does he turn for information? How does he uncover problems and solve them? How does he justify his purchases. (Start with existing customers)

How do we sell to them? How does our selling process match their buying process?

How do we market to them? How can we get their attention? What stories can we use? How can we nurture those not yet ready to buy?

What do they buy from us? What do we need to produce? What is the priority of the stuff we produce?

That’s the right approach.

For companies looking for best practices in b2b lead generation who wish to improve the way they acquire new customers, Find New Customers is the place to go. CSO Insights says companies need to improve the way they generate leads and implement processes for business to business lead generation.

Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor, is a demand generation expert and sales leader, as well as the President of Find New Customers, a lead generation company, who helps businesses create lead generation campaigns and continually publishes the best lead generation ideas, so his readers can determine the best lead generation strategy to find new customers.

The lead nurturing movement

Published May 28, 2009 Demand Generation , Lead Nurturing , lead generation Leave a Comment

Attended an interesting webinar today with the Funnelholic, Craig Rosenberg, and Tony Jaros of Sirius Decisions. If you don’t know those men, you should. Though this topic I know inside and out, I still heard some interesting insights from Tony.

Craig started with an interesting story. His grandfather needed a new car. In the past, he’d head to a showroom. But thanks to the Internet, he walked into the showroom with the cars he wanted to look at and what he was willing to pay. The salesman was dumbfounded. But that’s the world we live in today and why sales is such a tough business now.

Companies probably have more raw leads than ever, simply due to better lists and technology. But he says there is too much focus on lead generation and not enough on lead conversion.

Tony described the Demand Waterfall:

Inquiries
Marketing Qualified Leads
Sales Accepted Leads
Sales Qualified Leads
Closed/Won

Then he talked about the three kinds of lead nurturing.

Pre MQL — this is base level qualifying of incoming leads
Recycled — these are the leads that sales rejects as not ready to buy now.
Reconstituted — these are the leads that died on the vine. Dragged on and on.

There’s so much to think about here, but one thing that Sirius Decisions did that every company should do — created a flow chart. This showed a decision process step by step to illustrate how lead nurturing is done.

While lead nurturing is critical, I strongly suggest you begin by learning about your target customers. John Petralia, former Chief Marketing Officer of Iron Mountain, in a podcast with me said that learning about customer personas was the most important step you can take.

Hey Job-Seekers! Get Back to Work Faster is live and 100% free

Published May 28, 2009 Get Back to Work Faster Leave a Comment

Get Back to Work Faster is now live and 100% free.

Events with leading experts
A 170 page e-Manual by sales expert Jill Konrath.
A case study on the Fearless Competitor
Training videos and more!
And did I mention, it’s 100% free!

3 Key Challenges for B2B Sellers – and what to do about each

Published May 26, 2009 Action Items sales , Management best practices , Sales knowledge , lead generation , sales challenges , sales leadership , sales process , tough selling situation Leave a Comment

Imagine this: You run a business that has been doing fine. Suddenly your customers start delaying purchases and budgets are slashed. Leads begin drying up. Cash flow slows while the bills keep coming in. Reluctantly and painfully, you begin cutting staff in order to cut expenses.

Unfortunately, this imagined scenario is all too real today. One need only watch the news or check the Wall St. Journal to find slumping sales and layoffs at companies like Oracle, SAP, EMC, Adobe and Microsoft.

What’s going on? And what can a B2B seller do about it? I’d love to hear your comments, but let me share my ideas as well.

Let’s explore those problems and try to devise answers, so B2B sellers can prosper.

The current problems of B2B sellers revolve around three areas:

Nobody ever calls you back.
It’s taking forever.
The money is gone.

Let’s start by examining each one of these and explore how B2B sellers can address each one.

We begin with “Nobody ever calls you back.” This is actually a chapter one of the excellent book by Jill Konrath, Selling to Big Companies. If you don’t own this book, hop over to Amazon.com and buy it.

Frankly, this problem is too big to write a brief comment about it, so read Jill’s book and my white paper, How to Find New Customers. Between those two, you’ll find a wealth of information on how to get meetings with decision makers.

Next, let’s tackle “It’s taking forever.” At the recent CMO Thought Leadership Summit, I heard this over and over. The solution to this one is simpler. Focus on the customer and his buying process. It is that buying process that is getting delayed.

The steps in the buying process are:

Untroubled/Unaware
Have a problem
Need a solution
Go shopping for a new ‘thing’
Whom to consider?
Who is best?
Decide

Your goal as a seller is to help the customer move through his process of acquiring your product or service. Delays happen when the process gets “stuck.” For instance, a prospect may have a problem deciding on final vendors — between Whom to Consider? and Who is Best? It is your job, Mr. B2B seller, to recognize this process and provide the right information at the right time.

For instance, the Forrester Wave Report dated January 21, 2009 states “iProspect is a Leader in US Search Marketing Agencies.” Who would use this and when should it be used? While that is an impressive document and salespeople are tempted to use it at any time, in reality it fits in a certain point of the buying process.

Clearly, it would help a company go from a bunch of search marketing candidates to a short list when moving from Whom to Consider? to Who is Best? However, it would not work in the Have a Problem stage at all. A decision maker in the Have a Problem stage is looking for information on how other companies like his have solved a problem similar to his, so white papers and case studies fit here.

Use the right info at the right time. Your goal is to help the prospect move through the buying process — and the sooner she or he gets through the process, the sooner you get the deal done.

The last challenge is “The money’s gone.” This one’s tough — there’s no easy answer. However, you must remember that your competitor is alternative use of capital. You have to really focus on the customer and help him or her get budget authority.

Look at the content on your website. Do you have the tools to help the prospect obtain budget authority? Do you have an ROI calculator, organized and set up so it looks like the prospect created it?

It is clear that B2B sellers face unprecedented challenges. But with deep thought and planning, B2B sellers can address those challenges and prosper.

Take action today by mapping customer buying processes, cranking up demand generation and putting great content on your website.

What’s the one thing I should do in B2B Demand Generation?

Published May 19, 2009 Management best practices , Marketing , lead generation , sales funnel Leave a Comment

Bet I’ll be asked that question dozens of times this week….

By now the CMO Thought Leadership Summit in NYC has begun and my breakout session on B2B demand generation with the SVP of Marketing for Level 3 Communications, Barbara Dondiego, and the EVP of Acteva, Ed Lemire, is about to start.

How should I answer that question? I’ve thought long and hard about it.

B2B Demand Generation is a science — and thus cannot be distilled down to a single answer. However, there is one glaring problem in B2B Demand Generation that I want to shout from the roof-tops.

The biggest mistake I see in B2B Demand Generation is the lack of a:

Deep understanding of target customers

Case in point, I’m talking with the President of an online marketing company. His company is very successful — with many clients and lots of articles. His co-founder has even written two books. So why is his business struggling?

If you say it’s the economy, you’re only half right.

Look at his website through customer eyes and ask yourself these questions as if you were the buyer:

Why am I here? What led me to here? What am I looking for?
What am I thinking – based on where I am in my decision making process.
Who are you? (And you better answer in about 20 seconds or less.)
Can I find an answer to my business problem? How have others solved my business problem?
Is the answer specific for me and my role in the company?
Do you discuss the answers in terms I understand or are you using acronyms from your industry?

If you look at the company above, one quickly sees that the President’s website answers none of these questions.

In B2B Demand Generation, your goal is to build trust and move prospective buyers though their buying process — so you can provide high quality leads for your salespeople.

What do you need to build trust and move them through a buying cycle?

Deep understanding of customers and prospective customers.

Get out there and talk to them.

New times means new metrics/measures for your CEO and CFO

Published May 12, 2009 Business relationships , Management best practices Leave a Comment

CMOs are under tremendous pressure to produce results from marketing spend. In fact, the average tenure of a CMO is under two years. It seem like all eyes are looking at you.

Why is this happening and what can we do about it?

In this post, I share how I recommend you speak with your CEO and CFO in this new world. In a nutshell, I believe the conversation needs to change. If I may, I’d like to explain how to do this.

If you’ve read my white paper How to Find New Customers or listened to the recent podcast on demand generation with CMO Club members Brian Harmon, Paul Dunay, Jon Miller and me, you heard how the world of B2B marketing changed. You learned how we live in a “self service” world today and how important it is to have a good understanding of customer buying cycles, as well as the need to nurture leads and create thought leadership content so your firm can become the trusted advisor they turn to in time of need.

CEOs and CFOs look for quarter to quarter revenue — they turn to Marketing to produce ROI on marketing spend. They want a strong flow of qualified leads for salespeople to work on and, unless the money you’re spending produces leads, the pressure quickly mounts. Your marketing programs might be making progress, but without leads, no one cares.

But since buyers are in control, your ability to directly influence them is minimal. You need to patiently build relationships and convert those to buyers. But your CFO and CEO have numbers to deliver. The mismatch between the world of today and the demands of leadership is why turnover and pressure are so high.

In the face of that pressure, how should you deal with your CEO and CFO?

I believe you need to do three things right away.

Educate your CEO and CFO on what is happening and why in the world of B2B Marketing and Sales. (You can start by reading How to Find New Customers)
Set realistic expectations of what can and cannot be accomplished (realistic timeframes)
Most importantly, you need to measure different things.

In order to understand how measuring needs to changes, we need to begin by taking a look at customer buying cycles in How to Find New Customers. The four steps are:

Untroubled/Unaware
Have Problem
Need Solution
Consideration

In order to get someone to buy from us, he or she must move through each of those steps.

If we understand the process, then we can measure the progress through it. We can measure the number of people in each step periodically and, more importantly, track them as they move from step to step in the buying process.

We should still track leads — particularly in detail like this: Raw Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead, Marketing Accepted Lead, Sales Qualified Lead, Sales Accepted Lead, and Won/Closed. But we need to measure process flow too.

Using analytics (which web pages are they visiting, for instance), telesales (ask them) and other techniques, we can classify our prospective customers as to which of the four steps they are in. Even more importantly, once we start collecting data like IP addresses and emails, we can watch and qualify movement from step to step. Also, since Marketing is trying to develop trusted relationships, that too is a metric we ought to measure. We can have telesales call our prospects and get feedback on how we are perceived. (Do they trust us?)

This approach offer several advantages for Marketing.

It shows process rather than raw statistics, so we can track prospects long before they are passed to sales as leads — giving us ammunition to show our CEO and CFO.
Since we are tracking movement through a process, we can demonstrate real progress — progress that builds confidence — even before leads start flowing.
Since our goal is to be perceived as a trusted advisor so they turn to us in time of need, we measure our success.
Lastly, because the customer buying process is universal, this method works regardless of what marketing or lead nurturing program we use.

So here are my action items for you. Educate your CEO and CFO on the new realities of B2B sales and marketing. Share with them your new approach and measures. Explain how this will give them far greater insights into longer term results. And put the new metrics and measures in place.

If you need help, just let me know.

As Sales fades in importance, Marketing rises to the top

Published May 3, 2009 Demand Generation 2 Comments

Recently I had the great pleasure of having a long and relaxing breakfast at The Yale Club with sales expert, Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies. Though Jill and I have known each other for a very long time, this was our first-ever face to face meeting. We had a wonderful and relaxing breakfast together — great food and great company.

Ironically, as I was discussing similarities I see between marketing and military history — I noticed the famed history author David McCullough sitting just three tables away, eating with his family. Jill thought that was quite an ironic discovery.

If you don’t know him, Mr. McCullough is the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes in history — for Truman and John Adams, and has authored books such as The Path Between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback and The Great Bridge. As an avid student of history, I found this a great thrill!

Not only was seeing David McCullough a thrill, but I also had a fascinating conversation with Jill. As one of the world’s foremost experts in sales, I was shocked when Jill agreed with the title of this blog post.

Sales has become trivial next to marketing — but most B2B sellers have not yet realized it.

I told Jill that one of the lessons of military history is that all wars start by fighting the last one. The Civil War started with Revolutionary War tactics. World War II started with Nazi Panzer tanks speeding around the troops using the slow, plodding approach of World War I. I explained to Jill that I see far too many businesses using tactics of the last “war” in business, such as relying on sales Rolodex and cold calling for lead generation.

My hypothesis was further validated in a conversation with Barbara Dondiego, the Chief Marketing Officer of Level 3 Communications. Barb agreed with me that the robustness of the Internet, combined with high speed connections, has severely reduced the influence of salespeople. In addition, my white paper, How to Find New Customers, explored this fundamental change and explained the need for Marketers to engage early and build relationships.

In fact, Jon Miller, VP of Marketing at Marketo said that his company’s salespeople do zero outbound cold calling, yet they have higher sales per rep than Salesforce.com.

There is a profound lesson for all marketers here. Your role and importance has grown while the empire of your VP, Sales is fading. Seize the day and embrace the opportunity.

I invite you to come hear me speak on B2B Demand Generation at the CMO Thought Leadership Summit in NYC on May 19 and 20 where I am on a panel discussion with Barb and Ed Lemire of Acteva. Please stop by and say “Hello.” And if you’d like to read How to Find New Customers or access other great content about demand generation, please visit FindNewCustomers.

Lead Nurturing Belongs in Your Recession Strategy

Published May 1, 2009 Demand Generation , Lead Nurturing , lead generation Leave a Comment

I’m pleased to present this guest post by marketing expert Ardath Albee. Please visit her at MarketingInteractions and to learn more, please visit Find New Customers.

by Ardath Albee, CEO, Marketing Interactions

I’ve seen so many posts about how to fight the negative impacts of a recession on business success that it’s making me crazy. Why is it that people wait until it’s announced that we’re finally in a recession before they start doing what they could’ve been doing all along?

Customer-focused lead nurturing is one of the best ways to prevent experiencing an adverse impact to customer acquisition during a recession. A recent report from Aberdeen showed that best in class companies using lead nurturing increased revenues 28% and qualified leads by 4% year over year.

The reason is twofold: Companies that leverage customer-focused nurturing become valuable resources with higher credibility. The leads they’ve continuously interacted with over time come to rely on them for expertise and useful insights. The vendors who embrace nurturing are even more valuable in times of economic uncertainty.

Here are a few meaty reasons why lead nurturing is a recession buster:
• You’re already growing a relationship with people who’ve given you their permission to contact them with relevant content.
• Reach out with proactive dialogue to learn about what’s keeping them up at night due to this economic shift and then ease their concerns by helping them make the best choices during risky times.
• Create marketing content to address their concerns and give them helpful ideas for riding out the storm so they’re in a better position when the winds change.
• Focus on enabling leads to have confident conversations about why solving their problem with your expertise is the best choice. This is critical since a complex sale generally has at least 7 people with differing perspectives on the buying committee—probably more who influence from the periphery.
• Providing continuity of experience during tough times raises your viability as a long-term partner choice.
• Whatever you do, don’t stop now. If you cut and run to save budget you’re not only wasting leads, but you’re showing them you’ll jump ship when the going gets tough.
• Do NOT start panicking and use hard-sell tactics. Stick to your story. Your confidence and stability during a downturn does a lot for your company’s reputation, not to mention showing people they can trust you to stay focused on what’s best for them.
• Consider increasing your “touches” with more valuable content. You’ll rank above your competitors who’ve stuck their heads in the sand to wait for the good times to return.

Leads interested in your product offerings before the recession, probably need you now—more than ever. Keep in mind that they’ll buy eventually and your goal is to have them buy from your company. Don’t be pushy, be helpful. Prove to your leads that you’re the trusted advisor they’ve been looking for.

If nothing else, a recession gives you the perfect venue for proving you’re focused on them. Nurturing an audience you already have is much more lucrative than flailing about for short-term sales.

Do yourself a favor and learn why the economy is restraining their decision to buy. Now, you’ve got the opportunity to show them why it’s not the best choice to put off a decision that can deliver a needed business value. People still buy during a recession. They’re just more discriminating about the vendors they choose.

Nurturing will help them choose you.

Lead nurturing belongs in your marketing strategy mix—recession or not.

Ardath Albee (Ardath@marketinginteractions.com) is an expert at creating contagious content and e-marketing strategies that engage prospects-from initial attention until they’re sales ready. She has a unique ability to develop content strategies that work hand-in-glove with overall corporate and product positioning to deliver hard hitting e-marketing programs and tools that compel customers to buy. Ardath helps her clients generate more opportunities by optimizing how they leverage marketing automation and CRM technology investments. Her clients include Covad Communications, LANDesk and Silicon Graphics. Visit her website and industry-leading blog to learn more: www.marketinginteractions.com.