DG Marketing Strategies: 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!