The Elephant on the Conference Room Table

On September 17th, I'll be interviewing Tom Weinbaum, VPof Demand Creation Marketing at Foundation Source. Isn't that a great title! Our topic is "Lead Management" and how to do it successfully. This is often a highly charged area as for the first time, marketing is requiring accountability from sales and vice versa - I call it "The Elephant on the Conference Room Table."

It's the Monday morning senior management team meeting. It starts with the VP of Sales giving an update on the sales pipeline and revenue and then it's your turn, Mr/s Marketer to give an update on the lead funnel and the impact you are making on revenue. Your report focuses on all the leads you are turning over to sales, how qualified they are and how you don't think they are being followed up on (is that correct English?) Sales volleys back that what they are getting is not qualified and so goes another Monday morning senior management team meeting.

People there is an elephant sitting on that conference room table that no one is acknowledging and it's called lead management. This has been a topic of my last few blogs because I think it deserves a lot of attention in 2009. My friend Eric Blumthal of Count5 just responded in our LASER Lead Generation Group on this topic and here is a synopsis of the problem.

1. Sales and marketing don't have a common set of lead definitions
2. Sales isn't classically trained to work the very top of the sales funnel - nor are they compensated for this work (in a sense)
3. Marketing is not trained in selling at all - they don't know what they don't know
4. No one is responsible for working these leads they way they need to be
5. There is no "lead management process" in place with assigned roles, accountability, tools and time lines

Here is an example. Marketing works hard to get a lead - as defined by marketing. How often does marketing take it upon themselves to have their own definition of a lead and never invite sales to this discussion? VERY often. Sales gets LOTS of leads from marketing and based on prior experiences, sales will cherry pick through these leads and call them when they get some free time or the pressure to get more opportunities into the sales funnel gets high. Big mistake as the shelf life of a lead is 72 hours max and in some industries, several hours. Does all of this sound familiar?

Here is a sample outline of a joint sales and marketing workshop I have facilitated many times that will help address that elephant on the conference room table.

1. Do a survey - have sales comment on lead production from marketing and have marketing comment on lead followup from sales. Discuss the results.
2. Create a common set of lead definitions, given the tools available to marketing today. "I, Marketing, will pass a lead to sales when it meets this set of criteria..."
3. Create an SLA with sales - "I Sales, will follow up on qualified leads from Marketing within 24 hours of receiving the lead."
4. Jointly develop campaign ideas. Sales is your best resource for what potential leads will respond to..ask them!

Of course, this is all very simplistic but you would be amazed how often these basics are not in place. Why? Because this represents a process and role change for marketing - it's hard for marketing to do and it's hard for sales to accept. It is the elephant sitting on the conference room table that everyone is hoping will go away. It won't and you will have to address these process issues around lead management.

How have you addressed this issue in your company?

Metrics That Matter

If your CEO or VP hasn't yet asked you for metrics that demonstrate your impact on the business - get ready for 2010 because it's coming! As we travel across the country and meet with marketers now fully tasked with making a lead generation and demand generation impact, it is apparent that more and more companies are asking for, even requiring, "Metrics That Matter." In business speak, this means what is the revenue contribution from marketing. For many marketers, this is a daunting task but with the arrival of marketing automation systems on the market, this is now a slam dunk!

As you look at how you can report on "Metrics That Matter," here are five best practices:

1. Start with what you have
As you adopt marketing automation systems and implement and begin to fully utilize them, you will change what you measure because you will now be able to measure things you could not before. However, in the beginning, start with what you can tangibly and discretely measure. Items such as: # of emails sent, % open, % click-throughs and % effective rate (click-through/open)

2. Create a set of base-line metrics
To see improvement, you have to start with a baseline. Create a baseline (even if it is your best guess) for every key metric you will be tracking and reporting. Try to get general agreement on these metrics.

3. WAG for every campaign
A few years ago Harvard Business Review did an article on the art of guessing (Wild *#* Guess) in business and found that experienced professionals were often no more than 10-20% away from their WAG when compared to actual results. For the DG marketer, this means that EVERY campaign needs to have a set of WAGs associated with them - from Day 1. This will help you get used to working to achieve these key metrics.

4. Only a handful of metrics matter
While there are many things you can measure, ask yourself - "What does my leadership team care about?" This will help you define the Metrics That Matter. For example, your CEO could probably care less about how many emails got sent out or the number of opens or even click-throughs. What he probably cares about are the number of highly qualified leads sent to sales as measured by the % of these leads that converted into opportunities.

5. Walk and talk like a VP of Sales
Last year we did a study on metrics by interviewing top Demand Generation Marketers. We found many common attributes across this seasoned group but one of the most surprising was they sounded like a VP of Sales. They were incredibly Metrics That Mattered driven and could tell you at anytime where they were against plan - almost like they had a quota (some did.) Additionally, they were deeply integrated with sales and knew that if sales was going to achieve their quota, then they had to achieve theirs.

What have you seen?

No Lead Left Behind!

If you ask any marketer who has recently invested in marketing automation, being able to launch all kinds of lead nurturing programs was probably one of the top reasons they invested. I recently spoke to Jim Kanir and Heather Bennett at M5 and they have 16 different lead nurturing programs that they are running. AND, they just implemented Eloqua in March! So, can it be done? Yes! Can it be done quickly? Yes! Can it be done effectively? Yes! Listen on Sept 3 at 1:00 EDT as we talk to Jim and Heather for the Demand Generation Essentials Series.

In the meanwhile, here are 5 Best Practices for improving your lead nurturing programs:

1. Map out the Life of a Lead
- Go to a white board and map out the path of every type of lead in your company
- Map it our from inquiry to close
- Identify all the places where you have "lead leakage" (What does not convert
to the next step.)
- These are an ideal set of leads to nurture
- Examples might include:
- All prospects that received a demo but did not convert
- All leads passed to sales that did not move to the next stage after 30 days

2. Set up lead nurturing based on behavior
- Identify a set of online behaviors that indicate specific interest, but not
yet ready for a sales call
- Set up a program that places that prospect into a specific lead nurturing
program based on that online behavior
- Examples might include:
- A visit to your pricing page
- Multiple pages visited in a solution section

3. Set up lead nurturing based on demographics and a form
- Create a form and ask a question like - "What is your number one initiative
for 2010?
- Give several options and force one answer
- Based on that answer, place that prospect into a nurturing campaign on that
top initiative

4. Set up a lead nurturing program post a trade show
- Number one lead complaint is about trade show leads - you typically get a lot
but the quality is not good.
- Take the leads from the trade show and place into a nurturing program to help
qualify

5. Set up a lead nurturing program to re-awaken a database or a list
- Create a high level thought leadership campaign or a series of offers
- Drip to the identified list
- Examples might include:
- Old leads
- Old contacts

What have you seen work?

Social Media and the Boston Bruins Interview Today!

Dear Fellow Marketer: Remember to join me, Debbie Qaqish, at 1pm EDT today, as I talk with Laura Zexter of the TD Garden and Boston Bruins on BlogTalkRadio.  Laura will  share with us how TD Garden and the Boston Bruins go to market using multiple channels, how they integrate social media, and how they implemented their most recent campaign - The Golden Ticket. If you haven't registered yet, sign up now: The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results.  Why Register? It's a simple, one time process Once registered, you have access to all 12 DG broadcasts, including past shows You will also have access to the entire Demand Generation Toolkit, which includes podcasts, white papers, worksheets, and Q&A script from the broadcasts Instructions to Access Internet Broadcast Once you click on the Blog Talk Radio link here, click the Play/Chat button (this option will appear immediately before the show begins) and have your computer speakers turned on - you'll hear the live interview streaming over the internet. You do not dial the phone number in order to hear the interview. Instructions to Participate During the Show Live questions - dial the Call In Number shown at the top of your screen: 646-478-5604 Chat Room - to comment in the chat room, you must first be registered and logged into BTR. If you haven't registered for BTR yet, click here. Please register for BTR before the show. After you have logged in, you must refresh the page, then your display name will appear, and you will be able to make comments. During the show you will be prompted to ask your questions, either through chat or call-in. Instructions will also be given throughout the show for how to ask questions. Looking forward to your participation, Debbie Qaqish CRO The Pedowitz Group, The Demand Generation Agency Follow me on Twitter: DebbieQaqish Today's Blog: Social Media Food for Thought

The Demand Generation Essentials Series – Real Live Stories.  – Real Life Results. Flex your social media muscle  Tweet this  Share this DG Definitions of the WEEK: Subscription Management also known as Preference Management is a process that a list builder uses to add and/or remove members from their lists. It can be used for multiple list building purposes such as direct mail, but is often more associated with email and telemarketing.

Manage your subscriptions here The Pedowitz Group 14162 Seabiscuit Alpharetta, GA  30004 USA

Social Media Food for Thought

How well do you know your social media channels as they pertain to your prospects? What the heck does that mean? Many marketers will bundle Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn into one clump of “social media” when there is much more opportunity to act upon. Each of these channels offers a different behavioral outlet for prospects. As online marketers, it is our responsibility to understand how our prospects behave through these media of social expression.

Each of these social media channels offer a different means of expression and interaction between members. Twitter allows for thought leaders and influences to share snippets of wisdom under 140 characters mostly through observation. “What are you doing?” asks the infamous site, which is slightly different and will elicit different answers than Facebook’s “What’s on your mind”. Who are those thought leaders and how do they influence your prospects? Facebook provides not only profile pages of individuals but also groups and fan pages where discussions are held. What is said in these discussions and what does that tell you about your market? LinkedIn has a similar pattern of groups and profile pages, but on average is updated less frequently. The hesitation of what to add on these pages loses candid thought that the instantaneous social media outlets of Facebook and Twitter provide.

Many of us feel that we know our prospects from a face to face value, but do we know their online behavior? How often do your prospects check Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn? What groups or fan pages do they actively participate in on Facebook? Finding these answers can be tedious, but rewarding. In a Web 2.0 world where active participation keeps you up to date with your prospects, why would you waste a goldmine of opportunity offered through these various channels?

What have you seen or experienced?

Reminder - 3rd DG Essentials Series Interview Today!

Dear Fellow Marketer: Remember to join me, Debbie Qaqish, at 1pm EDT, today on The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. I will be discussing lead scoring with Pam O'Neal, Vice President of Marketing at BreakingPoint on Blog Talk Radio. Lead Scoring is such a "hot topic" today and Pam will share with us how she implemented lead scoring at BreakingPoint. I'm sure you will find the show very informative, as she describes how she got started with lead scoring, how she learned to experiment to get it right, and the wins and challenges she had along the way. Here's how you can hear this interview on Blog Talk Radio: Once you click on the Blog Talk Radio link from this email, the click Play/Chat option will appear as soon as the show begins. Click "Play" and have your computer speakers turned on to hear the live interview streaming over the internet.  Note:  You do not dial a telephone number to hear the radio show. You will hear the audio 'STREAMING LIVE' over the INTERNET via your computer speakers. This interview is part of the 12 Week DG Essentials Series and includes top Demand Generation Marketers talking about topics that are influencing today's business. Topics include:   Using social media for demand generation  Improving lead quantity and quality  Using marketing automation and other Web 2.0 technologies  Aligning sales and marketing  Tracking and reporting on measurable results The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. is a virtual, free, and live educational series!   Join us, today! Debbie Qaqish CRO The Pedowitz Group, The Demand Generation Agency Follow me on Twitter: DebbieQaqish Today's Blog: Lead Scoring De-Mystified

The Demand Generation Essentials Series – Real Live Stories.  – Real Life Results. DG Definitions of the WEEK: Lead Scoring – is a process using a marketing automation system that allows you to assign points to demographic data ( a C level title might get 10 points while a Director title might get 8 points) and implicit behavior ( visiting 10 pages on a specific solution on your website).  This point system is designed to identify when a prospect "raises their virtual hand" letting you know they would welcome a call from sales.  This is an MQL. Demographic data - hard data that is pulled from CRM (title) or a form (# of emplpyees).  Part of the total lead score.   Behavioral data - online behavior such as number of pages visited or the visit of a key web page.  Part of the total lead score.

Manage your subscriptions here The Pedowitz Group 14162 Seabiscuit Alpharetta, GA  30004 USA

B2B Thought Leadership with Debbie Qaqish

SilverPop interviewed me for a blog post. Check it out here: B2B Thought Leadership with Debbie Qaqish

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The Taxi-Cab Driver, The Day Laborer and The Marketer

As a consultant, I often travel around the country to visit clients.  Usually, I take a cab from the airport to the client location.  Taxi drivers are a hard-working group of people.  Typically they log 12 hour days and often wait hours at a time at a 'premium spot', like the airport, where they know there will be lots of travelers and hopefully long drives where the fare and tip will be high.   Every 1 in 10 drivers is different though, and you can spot them right away.  Their cabs are cleaner, their step is livelier.  But what really makes them different is they make an effort to get to know you and what your plans are for the week.  These drivers realize it is not about this fare, but all the future fares.   They often offer to drive you for the week and give you their card so you will call them the next time you are in town.  These drivers never wait in line.  They have clients and they set and manage a schedule.

When I am at home, there always seems to be something to do around the yard.  For the bigger jobs that are labor intensive, I can drive a few miles down the road and hit a couple of spots where the day laborers hang out.  As soon as I pull the truck in, they swarm in.  First person(s) that get in the truck wins the job for the day.  Once in the truck, we negotiate the pay rate and they are paid in cash when the job is complete.  The other laborers who weren't so lucky sit around and hope another truck will pull up soon.  Every day they repeat this process.  Every so often, I will notice that some of the workers are smarter than the others.  When the job is complete, they take a few extra minutes and walk the neighborhood, handing out cards and referring them to the work they just did.  This typically leads to more business for them and before long they are managing their own crews and they don't wait on corners any more.

Most marketers I know work very hard and they spend hours per day working on their website, sending out email campaigns, working events.  They can't always measure the impact of their efforts, but know if they work hard enough, some of their activity will produce leads and help the sales team bring in more revenue.    Then there are the smarketers.  These are the people that realize it is not how hard you work, but how smart you work.  They leverage social media, marketing automation and tools to create conversations all over the web, not just on their website.  They do not wait for prospects to come to them, they take the conversation to the masses, but focus their efforts through key channels.  They use technology to drive more activity with no additional labor.    They are driving revenue while everyone else is managing costs.

Every field has workers that toil for their keep.  Every field also has intelligent game changers.  They don't follow the same trail as everyone else.  They forge ahead and find new paths and create new opportunities.  Which one are you?

Lead Scoring De-Mystified

As I was designing the 12 Demand Generation Essentials for our current educational series on BlogTalk Radio, Lead Scoring became DG Essential #3. It's important and effective. Yet, when I went to find a marketing practitioner who had deep experience in this area, I came up very short. They just did not exist. In talking to some of my friends and colleagues in the industry, the reason for lack of Lead Scoring implementation had little to do with technology and everything to do with process. Here are some of the reasons why and what you can do about it:

1. Sales and marketing don't often speak the same language. - Yet, when you do lead scoring, you have to do it with sales. A good lead scoring system produces high quality leads for sales and who knows better than sales which questions to ask for qualifying and propensity to buy?
2. Lead scoring creates "fear." - "What do you mean I (sales) don't get to see everything?" Even though sales people complain about lead quality, they still feel like they have to see everything so if you slow down the lead flow, this can create tension with sales.
3. Change, change, change. - Since lead scoring is an activity that has a big impact on sales, it often creates a lot of change and when was the last time marketing lead a change that effected sales? Lead scoring forces a discussion, a common set of lead definitions and direct responsibility for marketing in producing quality leads and sales in following up on these leads.

So, how do you address the above issues?

1. Involve sales from Day 1
2. Keep is simple, simple, simple
3. Turn something on - Like I tell my clients - "No small animals will be harmed in the process"
4. Implement, review (get feedback from sales) and tweak - Think about it. The chances of you getting this absolutely right the first time is very small.

What have you seen that works?

Reminder - 2nd DG Essentials Series Interview Today!

Dear Fellow Marketer: Remember to join me, Debbie Qaqish, at 1pm EDT, today as I talk with Edwin Thompson, Director of Marketing Programs at Brainshark on BLOGTALK RADIO.   If you haven't registered yet, sign up now: The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. On today's show, we will be talking about one of the hottest topics in marketing:  "How to Better Align Sales and Marketing".  You will hear Edwin Thompson talk about his strategies and tactics for successfully integrating sales and marketing both prior to, and after, implementing a Marketing Automation System. You will hear how this alignment made a major impact on revenues at Brainshark. HERE'S HOW BLOGTALK RADIO WORKS: YOU DO NOT DIAL A TELEPHONE NUMBER TO HEAR THE RADIO SHOW. You will hear the audio 'STREAMING LIVE' over the INTERNET via your computer speakers. Once you click on BlogTalk Radio, click Play/Chat (this option will appear immediately before the show begins). Be sure to have your computer speakers turned on to HEAR THE LIVE INTERVIEW STREAMING OVER THE INTERNET. During the show, you will be prompted to ask your questions. I will give you instructions on how to ask questions, during the show. This interview is part of the 12 Week DG Essentials Series and includes top Demand Generation Marketers talking about topics that are influencing today's business. Topics include:   Using social media for demand generation  Improving lead quantity and quality  Using marketing automation and other Web 2.0 technologies  Aligning sales and marketing  Tracking and reporting on measurable results The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. is a virtual, free, and live educational series!   Join us, today! Debbie Qaqish CRO The Pedowitz Group, The Demand Generation Agency Follow me on Twitter: DebbieQaqish Today's Blog: Why is achieving sales & marketing alignment so hard?

The Demand Generation Essentials Series – Real Live Stories.  – Real Life Results. DG Definitions of the WEEK: Service Level Agreement (or 'SLA' for short) is a document which captures the roles and responsibilities of sales and marketing through the Lead Management process.  It also includes the lead language and criteria established between sales and marketing for the proper follow up and disposition of leads supplied to sales from marketing. Marketing Qualified Lead (or 'MQL' for short) means a lead is ready for sales.  It meets the jointly agreed upon criteria established by sales and marketing and has been through a lead scoring program.  The lead scoring program looks at both the quantitative data (i.e. title/ role, number of employees, etc.) and the online behavior (i.e. number of visits to the site, number of pages viewed, number of people from one company visiting the site in a period of time, etc), to ascertain:  How qualified is this lead?  What is their propensity to buy?

Manage your subscriptions here The Pedowitz Group 14162 Seabiscuit Alpharetta, GA  30004 USA

Why is achieving sales & marketing alignment so hard?

I love everything about selling (having been a VP of Sales for many years) so when I became a full time VP of Marketing, aligning the two teams to help improve lead generation just made sense to me. In addition, we bought a marketing automation system and this technology gave me a concrete way to involve sales and to help improve key aspects of their pospecting and sales cycles. I think it has been my experience and understanding of sales that helped me knit all this together. This does not seem to be the norm and this is the crux of the problem for the mis-alignment between sales and marketing.

I was talking to a Marketing Director recently and we were doing a Life of a Lead process flow - a key process to map for implementing marketing automation - and I was stunned to find out they knew next to nothing about sales or the sales process in their company. This is analogous to not knowing the profile of your target audience. How do you message them? How do you interact with them? What kind of high value offers do you make?

Whether you have sales in your background or not, the lesson learned is to get to know sales and your company's sales process and remember that the sales team is your ultimate customer. You produce Marketing Qualified Leads and they consume them. Once you have this sales savviness as a foundation, take a look at this post from Steve Woods of Eloqua which presents some great ideas for how to better align sales and marketing beginning with the impact you can help them make on revenue.

What has worked for you?

Sourcing & Selecting a Marketing Automation Solution

Debbie Qaqish on Blog Talk Radio

Listen to the interview with Mary Gary of Fluke Networks as she talks about Sourcing and Selecting Marketing Automation - a fabulous interview filled with details you will want to hear. Once you get to the site, it is the Featured Episode. Also be sure to join us next week when we talk to Edwin Thompson from Brainshark.

Reminder - 1st DG Essentials Series Interview Today!

Don't forget – We're holding our first interview today to kick off the Demand Generation Essentials Educational Series! If you haven't registered yet, sign up now: The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results.

Join us today at 1:00 EDT when we talk to Mary Gary of Fluke Networks about how to Source and Select a Marketing Automation System.

Instructions: Once you click on BlogTalk Radio, click Play/Chat (this option will appear immediately before the show begins) and have your computer speakers turned on. You'll hear the live interview streaming over the internet. You can ask questions at the end of the interview.

Over the next 12 weeks, we'll interview top DG marketing practitioners and hear their real world accounts about what worked – and what didn't work – on their journey to achieving measurable demand generation success. Topics include:

* Using social media for demand generation
* Improving lead quantity and quality
* Aligning sales and marketing

It's educational, it's live, it's fun and it's fast paced. Go to our DG Essentials Series Landing Page to find out more, to register and to see what will be covered each week.

Debbie Qaqish
CRO
The Pedowitz Group, The Demand Generation Agency

Follow me on Twitter: DebbieQaqish
Today's Blog: DG RFP's don't work!

DG RFP's Don't Work

I was recently working with a client who had put out an RFP for a marketing automation solution and they were a little confused about the responses. All vendors indicated they had all the features and functions they were looking for! How were they to make a decision?

For more complex marketing and sales organizations, I don't believe that using the old tried and true software RFP approach for sourcing and selecting Marketing Automation is the key to choosing the right system for your company. Rather, it is a basic, standard part of the process and building Use Cases is what really helps a company determine what system will work best them.

Twelve months ago, we weren't seeing any RFPs in the Demand Generation space. But finally, our market is growing more sophisticated and I am seeing all kinds of RFP templates and processes. Don't get me wrong. RFPs provide a foundation for doing low level comparisons. But anyone can check off that they have a feature or function. It really comes down to how all this gets knit together to create an effective Demand Generation program. That's where building your own Custom Use Cases come into play. Areas to consider:
1. Describe your power user - If this is a part of their job, they are not too technically inclined and you need to get things done quickly and with a slim staff, you might want to look at systems that are easy to learn and use. What if that power uses leaves and no one else is trained?
2. Map out The Life of a Lead(s) in your company - This will give you a good idea of what your marketing automation system will need to do and what it will need to integrate with. This process will give you important details on your CRM integration requirements
3. Define your Lead Management System - how will leads be passed and what kind of SLA's will be put into place for sales and marketing.
4. Define the kinds of campaigns will you need to execute - Global or only US? Use of templates, dynamic content, triggers, lead nurturing etc.
5. Define the key metrics you will need to track
6. Based on the above activities, fully vet 3 - 5 Use Cases with envelope ROIs.

Feature comparisons will only get you so far in your decision cycle. To truely understand what you need in marketing automation, take the time to build and vet Use Cases. This also serves as your ROI justification to your executive committee and if you involve sales in this process (which you should), you will have early and active buy-in from your major consituent.

What have you seen?

But I Don't Have Enough Content to Start a DG Program!

When talking to marketers about beginning a Demand Generation initiative, "But, I don't have enough content to feed that engine!" is a common concern. My answer - maybe you do and maybe you don't. What I do know is that a new way of looking at content is required when beginning a DG program. Here are Five Best Practices:
1. Chunk, chunk, chunk your content
In an email, you are making one touch, with one idea. You don't need to throw the encyclopedia at them. Take one element from a current content piece that will provide one point of value for your subscribers.
2. Third party content
Who says you have to write it all? As long as the piece is relevant, provides a point of value for your subscribers and elicits behavior you can score and respond to, it works!
3. Micro-papers from your blogs
I often find that what I blog about can make a great mini-paper. If you add to that any comments your blog created, you have a piece of content worth using.
4. Interviews
You can interview anyone - a client, an analyst, etc. Create and send it out as a podcast. I use BlogTalk Radio - free and easy. This also helps you mix up your content types
5. Content is king
In this internet world we live in, content is king. If you don't have it, you will need to get it! Look at what your competitors are doing...

The One-Armed Basketball Player

When I was a kid, we used to play basketball all the time.  Every day, after school we would be out there, playing until well after sun-down.  There was a kid named Robert who was a few years younger than us.  He was pretty fast and you could tell he was going to be a great athlete when he got older.  Of course, us older kids beat him up pretty good under the hoop.   Robert was fast, but he could only go to his right.   After a while, we figured out that if we pressed him left, he couldn't do anything, thereby neutralizing his speed.  One day, Robert was out goofing around with some of his friends and broke his right arm.  For two weeks, we didn't see Robert at all.  Then one day, his Mom dragged him down to the court and told him she was tired of him hanging around the house.  "Please get out here and play with your friends."  Robert was tenuous for the next week, just sitting on the sideline and moping.  Finally, he couldn't resist getting in the game.  Now, he only had a left hand.  At first, we took it easy on him, because we knew he was right-handed.  We would usually wrap up around 8:30-9, but Robert was still there, shooting.  The next day we came back and he was always there first.  Robert was determined to strengthen his left hand, something he never used.  After about a month, Robert could move left pretty well.  After another 2 weeks, he was shooting better with his left hand then he ever did with his right.  Then the cast came off.  Now, Robert was dangerous.  He could move left or right with equal speed and power.  He developed a sweet cross-over dribble that left you hanging onto your shorts.  In time, Robert was starting for the school basketball team and ended up being one of the best athletes the school had ever seen.

What does this have to do with marketing?  EVERYTHING.  We use one channel too much.  We rely too heavily on email at the expense of social media, text, RSS, direct mail, offline.  As marketers, if we can develop left and right channels, we can be more effective.  One channel is too predictable and ineffective.  Multiple channels will help you win many times over.

Creating an Unfair Advantage

Don’t you just love that phrase? I do. For me, it represents the real opportunity before all demand generation marketers today.

As I reflect on that phrase, it is clear that we now have a whole new genre of tools at our disposal that cross both marketing and sales and that use the power of the web to help us make better pursuit decisions – from the very top of the lead funnel all the way deep into the sales funnel. For example, if I’m a demand generation marketer or a sales person, I want to know the minute my top prospects are responding to my emails, visiting key pages on my website or tweeting about my offerings. Insight to this kind of on-line behavior helps me make better decisions that result in more business for my company. AND, I can respond manually or automatically to this behavior.

I bought my first marketing automation system 5 years ago when I was looking for a way to produce high quality leads for our sales team that would have a measurable impact on revenue. I’ll never forget the first time I saw a marketing automation demo. I sat in my chair amazed at how it worked and thinking furiously how this was going to dramatically change not only how we created leads but also how we sold. This was beyond gaining a competitive advantage, this was going to give us an unfair advantage – and it did.

Yet, the market has been slow in the uptake with only about 2,000 companies currently using the more sophisticated marketing automation systems with sales extensions. But we are seeing phenomenal growth in this category in 2009.

Fast forward to 2009. “Gaining an unfair advantage” is a phrase that popped up last week while interviewing Jon Miller of Marketo for our iGNITE Demand Generation Series. We were discussing Marketo’s new Sales Insight solution and I had asked Jon how their customers were responding to it. He said one of his customers said that Sales Insight gave his team an “unfair advantage.” I got goose bumps! Who doesn’t want an unfair advantage in this challenging and hyper-competitive market?

My contention is that the current genre of marketing automation tools and sales extensions can provide a company with an unfair advantage. “Gaining an unfair advantage” needs to be the rallying cry for all demand generation marketers in 2009 and beyond. You have access to tools, processes and best practices that can create this “unfair advantage” for your company. Use them!

What have you seen?

Sneak Peak - Debbie's Session at Boston OMS May 2009

The Pedowitz Group has taken the OMS Tour by storm! Aaron Kahlow sneaks into Debbie's Demand Generation Essentials session at the Boston Summit in May. See Debbie's thoughts about the Boston conference here. You can also check out Aaron's entire vlog of the Boston OMS Tour on this Channel.

What DG Marketers Can Learn From Charlie Chaplin

We can learn a few things about how to appropriately staff for demand generation from Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times."

As a factory worker on the line, he was over-worked in a highly manual process. The result? Poor product and a very frustrated worker. Now I know that you aren't going to go out and tear down your existing lead generation factory, but imagine if the character had had the benefit of a great automated system. How would his job change? What would happen to the result? And, how would he feel about his new role?

As marketers take on marketing automation systems in order to produce high quality lead generation, they are discovering that a new set of skills is required to support new automated techniques. Just this morning I had a conversation with one of our clients around how to properly staff for demand/lead generation. Here are the 4 key roles I outlined for her. For this blog, I thought I would continue to use Mr. Chaplin's manufacturing analogy. After all, you are in the Lead Production business!

1. A System Power User - Someone who will be the Power User of the marketing automation system. This person is responsible for building the emails, landing pages, forms, list segmentation and lay-out of campaigns. They are also responsible for building the work flow of the campaign and for suggesting ways to improve the overall campaign structure.

A good analogy for this role is the person responsible for the line in a manufacturing facility. They use all the machines and technology to ensure the production run produces as envisioned and designed.

2. Analytics - someone on the team needs to be responsible for analytics for 2 reasons:

A. You don't know what you don't know when you get started. With that as a premise, you will have to do a lot of experimentation, testing and tweaking to get to the point of producing high quality leads for sales on a scalable and predictable basis.

B. You will begin tracking and reporting on metrics that are new. As you do this, you will be looking for ways to show the impact of marketing on revenue and this means tracking your impact into the sales cycle. This takes a new way of thinking, working with systems and analysis.
In a manufacturing setting, this role is analogous to the QA person who is always looking at key measures and ways to improve key measures - with the ultimate goal of producing defect free leads - this means sales accepts and closes all of the leads you produce!

3. Digital World Communicator - This is a communications role for the digital world. As you write copy in emails, landing pages, forms, etc, being brief, to the point and following the stream of consciousness is critical. If a prospect clicks on a Google Ad based on a topic, the landing page they go to needs to continue that topic, that stream of consciousness. It's all about behavior and setting up a digital dialog to elicit behavior.

In the manufacturing world, this role is analogous to the Plant Manager - the person responsible for understanding the business requirements and translating that to production.

4. Strategist and Change Agent - No one really wants to hear this one but it is the most important role of all. EVERY client we work with is surprised at the amount of change demand generation with a marketing automation system invites. Some are ready for the change and can make it happen quickly. Others, need a bit more time. This senior executive is responsible for not just getting campaigns out the door but for impacting revenue for the company. If you think about the Life of a Lead from marketing inception through the hand-off to sales to opportunity and close, demand generation can impact ALL of these areas.


This role is the executive (the suit) who is in charge of surveying the market and their constituents and determining how best to use the production resources to meet the needs of the company. It is a powerful position and carries a lot of responsibility for the bottom line.

Enjoy watching the clip of Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times" and consider how introducing a powerful marketing automation system changes key processes and roles in your company.

This is just a high level of overview. What have you seen? Have you seen these roles as separate roles or are you seeing these roles being combined? Would love to hear your comments!

DG and Peanuts

This weekend, I went to my family's 41st reunion in Blakely, GA. If you need a map to look it up, that's OK! It's a small town in southwest Georgia and a staple of the economy is peanut farming. As a matter of fact, it is one of the richest peanut growing regions in the world! On a trip to the Piggly Wiggly to get fruit to make a gigantic fruit salad (got to feed about 200 people), I noticed that the small town was really touting their peanut-driven economy with these banners flying around the town square. They wanted to make sure that everyone was fully aware of their intense focus as a community on peanuts.

As I thought about this PR move, it occurred to me that as B2B companies look to implement a demand generation (lead generation) program, they are actually finding new ways to fuel their own economy - the economy of leads that get passed to sales and get closed. And, like peanuts in southwest Georgia, a little PR can go a long way.

Just this past week I was at a client location and part of what we talked about was how to "promote" marketing's new demand generation program to senior management, sales and other groups who might need to understand this new focus. I asked them a simple question, "Do you have a PR firm?" The answer was Yes and I simply explained they need to develop their own internal PR for demand generation and to consider both formal and informal means of communication. It's a PR calendar for demand generation which serves the same purpose of any PR effort - educate and get on board key constituents.

While you might not need to put up red banners all around the office, finding a way to provide this key education on a new focus for marketing is a brilliant move. Maybe Demand Generation Proud?

What have you seen that works?

Debbie Qaqish Interviewed By HubSpot

My partner Debbie was just interviewed by HubSpot on her viewpoints on Demand Generation: http://tinyurl.com/r2l9ps

Boston OMS is a WOW!

We kicked off a 16 city speaking tour with the Online Marketing Summit in Boston - our topic - what else but demand generation! I was a little worried that our session might not be that well attended as so much attention was being paid to the social media elements of the tour. Was I ever wrong! With 100 people in attendance at the Boston event and 3 consecutive sessions being run, our session on Demand Generation Essentials drew over 50 attendees! Part of the reason may be that OMS is now offering a certification for demand generation and our course helped "students" earn credit. Kudos to Aaron Kahlow and team for bringing this much needed certification to market via the Online Marketing Institute.

My big take-away - anything to do with lead generation is still hot and getting hotter and education is the key!

What are you seeing??

$15,000 in Free Services for Eloqua Implementation

This week, we issued a press release about offering up to $15,000 in free services to support an Eloqua implementation. Our goal is to help marketers get quicker time to value and focus on selecting the most appropriate platform for their needs. It has been the subject of much debate. We believe we can help marketers of all backgrounds be more effective and drive more revenue for their company. True process change takes time in any organization, but with today's SAAS offerings, there is no reason why marketing and sales can't achieve quick returns with the low hanging fruit while they continue to make more measured changes over time.

Making a Decision for Marketing Automation

As I talk to marketers about their goals and objectives for 2009, many are looking at marketing automation systems. While I applaud their forward thinking, I also find that they are making decisions without iron clad ROI and/or a true understanding of what a marketing automation system can do for them.

We highly recommend building out a series of Use Cases which will:
- Show specifically what the investment will return for you and by when
- Provide a clear vision to how the solution will be used
- Engage and align all key areas of the company – sales, marketing and senior management in the process thereby producing buy-in, collaboration and a common vision
- Create your “Go To Market” campaign schedule with agreement from all parties
- Provide your training case around your solution

How did you approach this important spend?

An Interview with Kelly Scott

Today we interviewed Kelly Scott about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue. TPG: 1.  What are some of your most effective lead generation programs? Kelly : We've had lots of success with webinars, "lumpy package" direct mail campaigns, and live product demo events. TPG: 2.  How do you measure your marketing performance?  What are some of the key metrics you use? Kelly : Our #1 metric is the % of leads that convert into 1st appointments for our sales team. TPG: 3.  What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation? Kelly : Not nearly enough. TPG: 4.  How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization? Kelly : Blunt force... just kidding! We constantly communicate back and forth to make sure everyone's on the same page. TPG: 5.  How do you define a qualified lead? Kelly : A qualified lead for us is someone who is in the market for a new phone system. TPG: 6.  What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts? Kelly : It plays a major role. As a technology firm, we have to make sure we stay on the cutting edge. TPG: 7.  How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand? Kelly : We have a company blog, our CEO twits (or is is tweets?), and we're also on FaceBook. TPG: 8.  What are your three top priorities for this year? Kelly : 1. Increase Revenue 2. Increase Revenue 3. Increase Revenue Oh, and I think we're trying to increase revenue. TPG: 9.  What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation? Kelly : Don't be afraid to try something new. Just remember to test and retest. You never know when you'll stumble across something that works. TPG: 10.  How do you see the role of marketing changing? Kelly : I see marketing becoming less and less "theoretical" and more metrics and results driven, especially with the new technology that's available to give marketers more access to data.

Email and Beyond!

After attending the Marketing Sherpa Email marketing conference, I can tell you, we have a LONG way to go for marketers to fully understand, embrace and leverage the incredible new processes and tools available on the market today. This in no way diminishes the focus of the conference – it enhances it! I saw an incredible thirst for education around all elements of using the web to improve lead flow and lead quality to sales. The rooms were packed, great questions were asked and marketers were very engaged. Learning these basics is incredibly important and these marketers were out to get all they could! Education, certification and training for marketers will continue to be a major theme in 2009 and 2010.

At the same time, my life everyday is about working with marketers who have a huge need to move well past email marketing as a singular solution and squarely into the land of demand generation. We define demand generation as the revenue focused activities from both sales and marketing that get quality leads into the top of the funnel and help pull opportunities through the sales funnel faster and more effectively. Demand generation is based on the notion of building unique one-on-one relationships, automatically, with your prospects based on their “digital body language.” It’s the other half of the discussion that sales and marketing is missing.

I frequently hear that the percent of demand generation marketers is small, maybe as high as 4% of all marketers. Consider this statistic. If you add up all the customers held by the marketing automation companies like Eloqua, Marketo, VTrenz, etc, the number is probably around 1500, tops! What are all the other marketers doing?

They are getting up to speed. Where are you?

What are your thoughts?

Thinking Like Your Prospect, And Why You Need to Do It!

Last week I had the opportunity to work with a large, well-known education brand to develop a demand generation strategy. One area of deep exploration was who do they sell to and how do these people buy. I think every marketer would agree that this is fundamental to any effective lead generation program. Yet, because marketing is at least one step removed from the actual prospect/customer and because thinking about online behavior is new, this is a challenging exercise to work through.

Here is what we did to help this company begin to sort this out. Please feel free to share how you have addressed this issue!

1. Develop a Persona Profile – this is not your typical marketing profile. We were looking for who they are, where do they go to get information, how they think, who do they talk to. The idea behind the persona is to understand them well enough so we can get them into the sales process WHEN THEY ARE READY. This is not about collecting marketing data.
Execution Idea: Have the cross-functional team (sales and marketing) who is creating the persona present their findings in ROLE of the persona. It’s fun and even more importantly, it’s easy to remember and associate!
Execution Idea: Do Not let a single word or phrase be anything but the prospect perspective. NO corporate language allowed.

2. Map the Decision Making Process – how does this persona make decisions, who do they talk to, where do they go? Based on where they are in their process, what kind of information helps them take a step closer to your solutions?
Execution Idea: Have the cross-functional team (sales and marketing) who is mapping the Decision Making Process use flip charts and think in big buckets of stages such as Realization (I realize I have a problem), Education (what kind of solutions are out there), etc.
Execution Idea: Stay in role!

3. Map the Life of a Lead in your company – this is the process of walking through all the steps you take a lead through from first contact to a piece of closed business to life cycle of the lead
Execution Idea: Make someone in the group “a lead” and have them walk through what happens to them from the first contact to being a closed piece of business – this is your “As Is” state

4. Define the Gaps between how the prospect makes a decision and how you process them from lead to close
Execution Idea: Use your flip charts from Steps 2 and 3

5. Develop the New Life of a Lead – this is your “To Be” state
Execution Idea: Re-write Step 3.

Working with very clear personas in Step 1, helped this process be successful. Otherwise, it would have been all over the map!

What have you seen that works?

Why Email Deliverability is Like Moving to a New Neighborhood

I was trying to explain to a client the various aspects of email deliverability, IP warming, reputation etc. We ended up discussing the analogy of moving to a new neighborhood.

Today, you are really popular. Your kids get invited to all the parties and you play tennis and know everyone at the club. Things couldn't be better - you are welcomed and accepted. Then you move and everything changes. No one knows who you are, and you have to start all over again making friends and reintroducing yourself to the community, even though as a family you haven't changed at all.

As it relates to email, when you move your domain from one carrier to another, you have to 'start over' and work on your relationship all over again and it takes time. There are things you can do like move over your spf records, but the fact remains is that you have to reearn your reputation and build trust again. Over time, you will (hopefully) be just as popular in your new neighborhood as in the old one.

An Interview with Cathy Johnson

Today we interviewed Cathy Johnson about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue. TPG: 1.  What are some of your most effective lead generation programs? Cathy : Executive to Executive interviews TPG: 2.  How do you measure your marketing performance?  What are some of the key metrics you use? Cathy : Number of leads passed to sales; dollars closed by sales from marketing generated leads TPG: 3.  What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation? Cathy : 50% TPG: 4.  How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization? Cathy : Marketing participates in the weekly sales meetings; processes are put in writing and agreed upon by both sales and marketing. TPG: 5.  How do you define a qualified lead? Cathy : Identified decision maker(s), budget and timeline TPG: 6.  What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts? Cathy : We use Salesforce.com; we're looking into marketing automation TPG: 7.  How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand? Cathy : We're not TPG: 8.  What are your three top priorities for this year? Cathy : 1. Revenue 2. Revenue 3. Revenue TPG: 9.  What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation? Cathy : Get sales and marketing working together first and implement lead definitions and lead processes that both agree upon. TPG: 10.  How do you see the role of marketing changing? Cathy : Marketing is increasingly more responsible for helping to build the pipeline.

An Interview with Debbie Qaqish

Today we interviewed Debbie Qaqish about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue. TPG: 1. What are some of your most effective lead generation programs? Debbie Qaqish: Thought leadership with patience. So often, people think one email = one lead. That's not so for most businesses. Having a great thought leadership series with directed messaging around client pains and issues is one of the most successful campaig TPG: 2. How do you measure your marketing performance? What are some of the key metrics you use? Debbie Qaqish: Number of leads created Number of leads accepted by sales % of leads converted to opps % of leads that close to business TPG: 3. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation? Debbie Qaqish: 75% TPG: 4. How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization? Debbie Qaqish: Many ways. See my BLOG posts for February. TPG: 5. How do you define a qualified lead? Debbie Qaqish: A qualified lead is a jointly defined definition between sales and marketing which says - this lead is ready to be called by sales. TPG: 6. What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts? Debbie Qaqish: Enormous! I spoke to someone last week who is still doing COLD CALLING. I couldn't believe it. With the plethoria of tools with varying levels of sophistication and price points, NO ONE should ever be making cold calls. TPG: 7. How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand? Debbie Qaqish: Lots of experimentation to get to something that is scalable. TPG: 8. What are your three top priorities for this year? Debbie Qaqish : 1. Lead quality 2. Use of social media 3. New solutions TPG: 9. What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation? Debbie Qaqish: Align yourself with sales. You cannot do this on your own. TPG: 10. How do you see the role of marketing changing? Debbie Qaqish: A lot! Marketers are now running lead generation businesses for the company and are making measurable contributions to revenue. This is not your Daddy's Oldsmobile!

An Interview with Neal Bush

Today we interviewed Neal Bush about viewpoints on Demand Generation and what best practices are being used to help marketing drive revenue. TPG: 1. What are some of your most effective lead generation programs? Neal : search engine marketing, SEO and email TPG: 2. How do you measure your marketing performance? What are some of the key metrics you use? Neal : number of new qualified sales opporunties per month, new TPG: 3. What percentage of your budget is allocated towards lead generation? Neal : 10% TPG: 4. How do you achieve alignment with your sales organization? Neal : weekly meetings with sales management, sales advisory council with Marketing and Sales TPG: 5. How do you define a qualified lead? Neal : one that has completed a form and sat through a demonstration TPG: 6. What role does technology play in your lead generation efforts? Neal : tremendous amount, we utilize technology and automated triggers to move people in and out and between campaigns TPG: 7. How is your organization leveraging social media to drive demand? Neal : we are just dabbling in it at this point, creating groups on Facebook and Linked In, we blog a lot TPG: 8. What are your three top priorities for this year? Neal : get more with less, upsell existing customers into new projects and products TPG: 9. What advice would you give a marketer who is just getting started with lead generation? Neal : take your time, be careful and baseline and measure everything TPG: 10. How do you see the role of marketing changing? Neal : a marketer needs to not only be more analytical today but also much more in touch with technology and how to use it.

Web 2.0 Selling...It's Here, Now!

This blog is inspired by reflection on what has changed in selling - the answer is EVERYTHING. My background includes being a VP of Sales for many years, working for one of the world's most renowned sales training companies and now working in the lead generation space. This mix has given me a forward thinking perspective on what is Web 2.0 Selling and here it is.

First, the Buying Process. By now, you've heard everybody and their brother talk about this yet FEW companies have a documented Buying Process - how their customers buy, how they go through their decision making cycle, who is involved, what kind of information are they looking for and when. But, boy can they tell you about how they Sell! How customers buy is THE game changer for sales. No longer do they need to pull in a rep to get education - they get it online and actually use information gleaned from online to go deep into their buying cycle and YOUR sales cycle.

So, what has happened? MARKETING, not sales, is now using powerful "lead management" systems that help them look at, track and automatically respond to online behavior. They get a lead qualified, pass it to sales who now has a lead to follow up on - IN THE TRADITIONAL WAY. Most sales groups have no further insight into online behavior! Did I miss something here? Why is this insight only in the hands of marketing. As a sales person, I would want to have access to ALL information around what an opportunity is thinking, doing to help me shape better pursuit decisions.

I predict this will change dramatically in 2009.
1. As marketing gets more educated and comfortable with these tools and begin to work more with sales in bringing this capability into the SALES process, we will wind up with a group of sales people who will find they cannot live without this invaluable digital behavior.
2. The lead management companies are coming to market with additional solutions that are just for sales people to use as they pursue opportunities
3. This entire market is maturing rapidly

It is going to be a lot of fun to introduce digital insight and behavior into the sales process and see how it all changes in 2009. And, at the end of the day, this is a response to how our prospects and customers have changed.

How do you think sales will change in 2009 with these new tools and behaviors?

"The Year of the Lead"

It seems like demand generation has exploded onto the marketing scene in 2009. Call it lead generation, lead management or demand generation, the appetite for leads has grown exponentially between this year and last. The business is coming from very focused and motivated marketing teams who understand this is "The Year of the Lead." The pressure from their companies to produce revenue in this type of atmosphere has opened up exploration of new ways to impact and create revenue. The spotlight is now squarely on demand generation solutions.

You see this in several ways:
1. The marketing automation companies and consulting groups are seeing rapid growth in this environment
2. Even in companies where marketing budget and/or teams have been cut, the focus on lead generation continues and we see many companies who are now "outsourcing" their lead generation function. A recent study from DemandGen Report showed that the budgets for lead generation are holding steady in 2009 (after big increases in 2008) and in some cases are increasing.
3. Participation of marketers in professional events focused on demand generation is growing and the fact that we now have events focused in this area is growing

Along with that appetite has also come a much broader knowledge of the exciting marketing category. I had a conversation yesterday with a marketer just beginning to look at lead management systems and how to improve leads in his company. He was WELL educated. He had spoken at length with a peer in another company and he had great ideas for what he wanted from a demand generation program. This is strikingly different from even a year ago. At that time a typical conversation would have been me doing ALL the educating.

The net? If your CEO or VP has asked you for more leads, better quality leads or ways that marketing can impact revenue...they are serious. It is "The Year of the Lead."

Tell me your opinion! What are you seeing?

10 Best Practices for Sales & Marketing Alignment

This week I was working with a new client and we were conducting the lead management kick-off meeting. This client had just purchased a lead management system and was preparing to soar into the world of Web 2.0 marketing. In attendance were the marketing staff and a significant number of sales people. The ratio of sales to marketing in this meeting was 3:1.

The purpose of the kick-off was to:

1. Begin building a collaborative lead management relationship between sales and marketing


2. Begin building a jointly constructed lead management process


3. Introduce the team to the capabilities and possibilities of their chosen lead management system


4. Build a set of Use Cases (highly customized lead management scenarios for the company with priority)

The entire team fully participated, shared and respected each other’s opinions and ideas during the session. The result of the day was a sales and marketing team that was fully charged and excited about Web 2.0 lead management in their company.

I share this story as a way to set up how every company needs to better align sales and marketing around ALL lead generation efforts. In a study we conducted last summer, we asked leading marketers what one piece of advice they would give to a new lead generation marketer – the answer was a loud and resounding – “Get aligned with sales.” We see this as such a critical success factor that in our newly published LASER Approach, we outline beginning the lead management dialog with sales even before your company invests in a lead management system

The case above is finally beginning to become the norm yet I still see companies in which marketing does not or can’t engage with sales in building and improving lead management. Here are a few ways you can improve your own alignment with sales and your lead generation efforts. These are not rocket science, but they are Best Practices that will ensure you lead generation success. What have you seen that works?

Work with sales to:

1. Build a language of leads
   This is the most BASIC step yet EVERY company we work with has an issue of not using a common language of leads
   
2. Build a common lead management process
   When is a lead handed over, how is it handed over, what is the responsibility of sales when it is handed over, how does sales hand it back to marketing if not yet sales ready?
   
3. Create a lead scoring program
   You cannot create a lead scoring program without sales. Time and time again, when we facilitate a lead scoring exercise with sales and marketing, marketing is amazed at what they learn
   
4. Build Sales Champions for the lead management program
   Identify and work with a few sales people to ensure they have high quality leads and access to the prospect digital behavior so they can make better pursuit decisions. They will never go back to selling with this and it will win over the rest of the sales team.
   
5. Build a priority of campaigns
   Nobody knows what is hotter in the market than a quota carrying rep. Ask them what kind of program or message will produce “Hot Leads.”
   
6. Create a regular communication cycle
   This includes the campaign calendar which gives them time to order their priorities to follow up right after a campaign. It also includes communicating on how programs are doing and the impact marketing qualified leads are making on the funnel and the revenue picture for the company
   
7. Create a feedback loop
   You will need to get feedback on the quality of the leads so you can make adjustments for future programs
   
8. Service Level Agreements Marketing is working hard to produce leads that fit the requirements of sales. Sales should have specific duties and responsibilities when it comes to lead follow up and disposition
   
9. Guiding Principles
   As marketing spends more and more time in the lead management part of their business, their role changes and you need to re-set expectations. Creating 5 – 7 Guiding Principles will help everyone understand the new role of marketing and reduce potential friction.
   
10. Finally, if you don’t know how sales works in your company, learn!

What have you seen that works?

Fail Fast and Fail Forward!

"Fail fast and fail forward!"

This is advice I recently heard from a veteran sales & marketing professional when asked what advice would he give to the fledgling demand generation marketer. While this is not something you expect to hear, it makes perfect sense given the unknown territory the demand generation marketer is responsible for. The statement sums up an approach which uses an hypothesis for all elements of an untested demand generation strategy, test it, analyze it, if it fails, move on to the next option.

However, what I see every day are marketers who believe they need to get it right the first time! So let's debunk the idea that is has to be perfect every time. The use of a hypothesis, testing and improving through cycles is not new in a business setting. Entire industries such as manufacturing and software development were built on this concept. To help you ratchet up your level of professionalism as you work in your organization to improve demand generation, let’s borrow a model that is known and accepted around the globe in every industry – the Deming Cycle.

Developed by Edward Deming in the 1930’s to improve the manufacturing process (and demand generation IS a process), the idea is that perfect quality was not possible in the first iteration of a manufacturing process. Deming outlined a simple, yet highly effective 4 step process that tests and builds in quality over numerous cycles. It’s called PDCA or Plan-Do-Check-Act (also known as the Deming Cycle, Shewhart Cycle, Deming Wheel, or Plan-Do-Study-Act.)




PLAN
Establish the objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the specifications.

DO
Implement the processes.

CHECK
Monitor and evaluate the processes and results against objectives and Specifications and report the outcome.

ACT
Apply actions to the outcome for necessary improvement. This means reviewing all steps (Plan, Do, Check, Act) and modifying the process to improve it before its next implementation.


Without using this specific language, the most successful marketers in demand generation use this kind of process. They take the approach of planning the best they can given what they know today and given the data and systems they have at hand. They are not afraid to approach this as a series of experiments. They begin with a hypothesis, run the experiment, see what happens and adjust the next cycle as needed.


Here is a recent example of Plan-Do-Check-Act for Demand Generation. Last week we launched a "test" campaign for one of our customers. We tested two different elements: the subject line and text versus graphics in the body of the email. We had 4 different emails that we tested. As usual, the CLEAR winner with a 45% click-through to form completion ratio, was not the one we expected! We were convinced going into the test that this would not be the winner. In fact, the one we liked had horrible performance. So, later this week our client will now confidently launch the broad campaign knowing he has chosen the best option and should expect a very good result.

So as you look at your demand generation efforts, don't be afraid to test, test, test! It will make you a more successful marketer.