2010 January «

Archive for January, 2010

How to Find New Customers celebrates its first birthday

It was one year ago this month, January 27th, 2009, when How to Find New Customers was born. And what a first year it was!

It was on that date that Jon Miller, co-founder and VP of Marketing at Marketo took a chance on an unknown. And a superb writer, Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies , stepped up to lend a hand. I simply cannot thank those two enough.

The birthing process was long and hard, but in March 2009, How to Find New Customers was released. What a ride it’s been.

It started winning great reviews, like the one from the Funnelholic, Craig Rosenberg. The B2B Marketing Zone linked to it and Focus.com posted the entire white paper. It has been downloaded hundreds and hundreds of times from all over the world. Even giant companies like Hewlett-Packard and Cisco are reading it, as well as hundreds of great smaller companies. But we’re not done. We hope to make it available in many languages soon.

I could not be more proud of this baby and the many businesses who have improved their business results from the ideas and concepts it contains. Thanks.

Have you read it? If not, download it right away. After all, it’s free.

Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers is now Director of Marketing for Aplicor. The ideas in this blog come from the Fearless Competitor, Jeff Ogden, and in no way represent Aplicor.

Why change a prospect’s lead nurturing process?

Published January 16, 2010 Easy lead generation , Fearless Competitor , Lead Nurturing , Management best practices , Remarkable content , lead generation Leave a Comment

Please note that the views and opinions in this blog represent the ideas of Jeff Ogden, the Fearless Competitor and in no way represent the view and opinions of my employer, Aplicor.

I was asked that question by my new manager, Chuck Schaeffer, CEO of Aplicor — the software as a service provider of award-winning CRM and ERP software. It was a great question and undoubtedly a question a lot of marketers face. I thought it would be helpful to share some best practices with my readers. I hope you find it helpful.

Let’s say a senior sales executive at a large software firm downloads your white paper. Then later, she downloads an eBook. Would you change the lead nurturing process she is on? Probably not.

(Here’s an a key point about sharing your content – make it easy and simple. Don’t do what Oracle did. I wanted to get a sales challenge white paper from Oracle, but I found the process and form so cumbersome and intrusive, I abandoned it. Ironically, do a Google search and you can access the white paper directly. Shame on you, Oracle. Really bad job by a very large software firm.)

While you would not change your lead nurturing program for a simple action, there are situations where you would. A good example is a change of buying stage.

Let’s say after downloading your content, multiple people start searching for pricing in Google and using the built in search on your website. That probably indicates that this company is no longer in the Awareness phase but it rather in a late buying stage. So you want to adapt your lead nuturing process to the stage this prospect is in.

You might want to share a third party analyst report on your company’s position or an award your company has won. (Please note that Aplicor’s won more awards than anyone.)

If you wish to learn more about demand generation, I invite you to download the highly acclaimed white paper, How to Find New Customers. For a great book on these issues, check out Ardath Albee’s e-Marketing for the Complex Sale.

If your company is facing a major ERP upgrade or major sales challenges, I hope you’ll consider Aplicor.

How Jeff Ogden landed a top marketing job

Published January 11, 2010 Get Back to Work Faster , Job Creation , Online Presence , Remarkable content Leave a Comment

(Update since this was written. I have left this company. Their CEO decided, without warning, that they needed deep industry experience. He also ripped my white paper for not having enough company and product content. Please note that this white paper became Definitive Guide to Making Quota, a very popular white paper for sales.)

If you saw me mentioned by Tory Johnson on Good Morning America, (You can watch it here, in case you missed it) you learned a success story of a 50 year and older professional in a tough job climate — how Jeff Ogden became a Director of Marketing without a resume or job application. Not to mention the fact that I beat out well over 100 well-qualified candidates.

Despite what Tory said, I was not a desperate job-seeker blasting out resume after resume, as I was President of Find New Customers, “Lead Generation Made Simple.” Business was okay, but it was getting better and better. The future was very bright before this company found me.

You’re here undoubtedly here to learn more about how you can duplicate the approach I used.

For even more detailed information on these approaches, please visit Get Back to Work Faster. This site and the book of the same name is a project I did with Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies.

Before we share our keys, let’s first talk about how the world of job search has changed. Job searching and sales have a lot in common. Job search is just sales where you are the product. So job seekers need to study the world of sales.

Sales has been revolutionized by the advent of high speed internet. Buyer self-education has changed everything. In fact, MarketingSherpa found that 8 out of 10 deals occur when the buyer finds the seller. In the employment field, it’s when the hiring company finds the employee. Employers look for great candidates online today.

So the real key today is to make sure you are exceptional and findable online. This is how I won this top marketing role.

Here are 4 tips on making yourself compelling online.

Establish a strong online presence
Focus and demonstrate expertise
Become a publisher of great content
Spread yourself everywhere

Establish a strong online presence

What does that mean? I became very active and established myself on Twitter, Linkedin and FaceBook. I also wrote a blog that grew quite popular called Fearless Competitor. And I created a website to showcase my expertise, Find New Customers. How popular did I become? I just learned that I’m much more popular online than an NFL player with an identical name. Beat the NFL? You can do it.

Focus and demonstrate expertise

What are you expert in? Or what can you become expert in? Remember, if you don’t have a strong expertise, blogs and books can bring you up to speed quickly. My area of expertise was demand generation — the approaches businesses use to find and acquire new customers. Refine and hone your expertise.

Become a publisher of great content

For me, that meant writing a white paper called How to Find New Customers. I first had to find a sponsor and a mentor, so it’s not easy. But you can do it. I interviewed experts for podcast and created eBooks like Prospect Driven Marketing. If you don’t know what a white paper, eBook or podcast is, start researching it online. Look at the content on Find New Customers for samples.

Spread yourself everywhere

You don’t know where employers will look, so you need to be everywhere. The big sites are Twitter, Linkedin and FaceBook — if you are not active and present on all three, you are selling yourself short. Linkedin in particular is a place employers search. (It’s where my new employer found me.) If you’re not familar with these, research them online. But don’t just sign up. Be active online. Search for information about a topic or company in Twitter, for instance. If you find an article about your area of expertise, share it on Twitter. Jason Alba of JibberJobber has an excellent DVD entitled Linkedin for JobSeekers.

Finally find yourself a great mentor. Mine was the remarkable Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies (remember the similarities between sales and job search?). Jill and I collaborated on the book Get Back to Work Faster.

: Jill Konrath

For more information on how to use these techniques, please visit Get Back to Work Faster. And I’m happy to answer any of your questions via email. Just send them to jefflogden at gmail.com (use the @ sign). You can also connect to me on Twitter @fearlesscomp.

Good luck.