B2B Sales Lead Generation

Many companies have low spots in sales from time to time. When this happens it is important to know how to evaluate the situation and take immediate steps to plan a comeback.
Here are the primary items to review:
1) Close Ratio – Make sure the close ratio is the same or better than previous successful months.  If it are lower, go to review item 2.  If the ratio is good then got to item 3.

2) Win/Loss Analysis – You must look for any trends showing why deals are not closing. Once a trend is detected, it is important to correct it and make necessary adjustments using a top-down structure based on importance. Start with deals that are in the closing stage and work down to the tactics that are being used in prospecting activities.

3) Volume levels of the sales pipeline – if the rate of proposals being produced is low, it could indicate several problems associated with lead generation such as:
(a) messaging is less effective,  (b) sales prospecting activity has slowed or has become  inefficient,  (c) marketing activities have decreased or have become less effective.

4) Prospect Targeting / List integrity – identify strengths and weaknesses within verticals and titles being persued. Also, assess the level of bad data encountered during prospecting.

Constant analysis is key in successful selling and when included as a best of practice and performed as a routine, many low producing sales months can be avoided.

There has been a lot of buzz about the sole use of marketing tools and technology to sell.  I merit the use and effectiveness of some of these tools and techniques, but complex sales still requires the human element.  I’m specifically referring to complex products/services that can be considered a large investment, such as$30,000 or more.

The first part of the process is establishing rapport and hearing the prospect’s challenges in their own words.  This is exemplified by, Paul McCord’s article Two Keys to Great Client Relationships, where he states,  ”Building rapport demands you focus your attention on your prospect or client, not on what you want to get out of the session, what you’re going to say next, or how you’re going to get the signature on the contract.” 

To best achieve the “discovery” phase and build rapport with a prospect requires a live voice-to-voice interaction.  This can be accomplished by placing strategic outbound calls in conjunction with other proactive communication mediums and promotions.  This can require an investment of time and persistence but if worked in an organized and strategic manner, it can reap a plentiful harvest

The earlier rapport can be built with the prospect, the better.  Once the communication and trust is established, the opportunity can be effectively qualified for the next stage in the sales process or put into a nurturing process.

Common question in my industry of B2B Lead Generation and Appointment Setting for complex sales are:
1) What would be a good qualified lead to sale conversion rate?

2) Quality – How many sales opportunities were good?

Here is a good example of a high-quality B2B Lead Generation / Appointment Setting Program:
A client of a Minecor B2B Qualified Lead Generation Program reviewed the outcome of previously transitioned Qualified Leads, regardless of who won the business. The result:

63% Closed Revenue (Either by Minecor client or competitor)
24% Sales Cycle extended or on hold status
13% Fall-out (project was cancelled or not qualified)

note: All leads were BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline) qualified and came with an appointment/conference call as part of the transition criteria. sample lead

In my quest to find new and innovative marketing mediums, I ran across a company named SlideRocket.   It is great how they have made it possible to provide a presentation that is not only more exciting than a regular PowerPoint but is also interactive.   Here is an example of a great presentation:

In B2B sales it is easy to miss out on opportunities because you weren’t aware of the latest news relevent to your clients, prospects and/or marketplace. It takes a too much time to check on a multitude of sources and manage all that information well enough to utilize it at the right times.
I recently found a great tool, Workstreamer, that takes care of important news information for you. It acts upon your input and configuration so that the right type of information stays in front of you. Then, you can use it as a “triggered event” when dealing with your clients and pursuing your most prominent prospects.
It is provides more functionality than simple RSS feeds and it is free. Here is where you can check it out! www.workstreamer.com

For years marketers have measured the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and events by assessing “cost per lead” as their indicator of success. This metric was traditionally used to measure the effectiveness of advertising and the lead was typically unqualified, meaning there was no presence of an identified project, budget and other qualifications. While this measurement still may have some significance, it is important to note that “revenue per lead” is the true indicator of success. After all, what good is it to have a low cost per lead if the quality is not sufficient, meaning a low probability to produce revenue? In the “revenue per lead” paradigm, it is possible to link real revenue to lead generation efforts and determine the profitability.

Once the revenue per lead is determined, other figures of significance such as cost of goods sold can be factored in for a final analysis. The desired result should be high yield from qualified sales opportunities (qualified leads) and the ability to make future business decisions based on learned facts and findings.

Why has this cost per lead paradigm lasted for so many years? A firm specializing in complex sales lead generation outsourcing, Minecor, believes there are four top reasons:

1) Simplicity – It is much easier to report what happens on the surface such as how many responses resulted from a direct mail campaign versus how many responses entered the pipeline or resulted in a sale.

2) Long sales cycles - Complex products/services tend to have long sales cycles, many of which are 6 months to one year or more. Management within companies are demanding to know the trends per campaign and Marketing managers are eager to justify strategies. Reporting for campaign and event effectiveness tends to be delivered and taken as conclusive evidence too early within the stages of a sales cycle. Furthermore, there is usually no plan in place to report the long-term effect.

3) Ability to maintain reporting integrity – Most marketing departments lose the ability to report as deals mature in the sales cycle. As deals get closer to resolution, the communication between Sales and Marketing diminishes.

4) Multiple campaigns and events – A majority of the time, companies will implement multiple campaigns, events, and strategies during a typical sales cycle of 6 months to one year. This makes reporting more complex for marketing since they usually try to attribute success to one triggered event.

To be a most valuable asset to an organization, a marketing department should be able to show the entire picture of how their company is performing and assist the sales department in obtaining better closing ratios. This means the marketing executives must have insight to the lead status as they mature, associated marketing events that contributed to each lead, and the value of each opportunity.

Working to obtain the revenue per lead statistic takes time. Minecor recommends at least one full sales cycle to get the benchmark established followed by ongoing periodic measurements. As more cycles are completed the data will become more accurate. Minecor recommends the following measurements depicted in phases:

PHASE I – Conversion Performance Ratios

• Call to Conversation (determine data integrity and messaging effectiveness)

• Conversation to Qualified Lead (determine value proposition effectiveness)

• Conversion of Mild interest to Qualified Lead (help determine market acceptance)

• Qualified Lead Run Rate (measure program performance at multiple levels; monitored weekly)

PHASE II – Leads Entering Sales Pipeline

• Qualified Lead to “Leads Developed”

This verifies there is a viable sales opportunity present.

PHASE III – Leads Resulting in Proposal

• Qualified Lead to Quote/Proposal

A major milestone in lead performance measurement is to see how many get to the quote or proposal stage. This is, of

course, assuming the sales force has taken adequate action with each qualified lead.

PHASE IV – Final Success Measurement

• Qualified Leads Closed (won) or Lost

PHASE V – Performance Metric

• Revenue per Qualified Lead

Each metric above is an important indicator of marketing effectiveness, and together they provide predictability as to the level the sales pipeline will produce revenue.

How does a marketing department ensure they are setup to successfully track Revenue per Qualified Lead? Here is are some suggested steps:

1) Decide what Lead elements to track such as:

Sources

• Cold Call Leads

• Web traffic

• Events (Webinars, seminars, trade shows)

• Campaigns

Market Acceptance & Effectiveness

• Messaging

• Product feature likes/dislikes

• Competition

2) Decide what attributes are the most important – examples:

Company Attributes

• Industry Verticals

• Size by Employee

• Size by Revenue

Lead Classification

• Deal size

• Expected Purchase Date

3) Define what tools you have or need to acquire for tracking and how they may be weighted. Here are examples:

CRM

• Have a reliable CRM and setup in a manner that will ensure tracking for the long haul.

• Make certain the fields in existence and separated. This will aid in assimilating data for future trends & analysis.

Third party reports - rely on your outsourcer & make sure they have the tools and ability

• Lead Generation Outsourcers

• Get sample templates and refine requirements to match your goals

• A good outsourcer will provide reporting and further marketing analysis

Reports from special purpose applications (software & SaaS)

• Make sure other marketing tools can export data into a useful mechanism for further manipulation 

To effectively depict Revenue per Qualified Lead remember to take measurements at the point of resolution – take all deals that have closed and determine what campaigns/events/communication/marketing documents they had in common.

Why is quantifying Revenue per Qualified Lead more valuable than Cost per Lead?

• Trend Analysis — If setup and executed correctly, your organization will have additional market insight and be able to make better business decisions. This includes tactical decisions such what is the right size target company, and strategic decisions such as how to position against competitors and what resellers to leverage.

• Quantifies Success — The most effective strategies/campaigns can be revealed through metrics related to Return On Investment (ROI) and marketing budgets can be redirected accordingly. Most reports, used today, only measure number of leads.

• Minimized Lost Opportunity Costs — It alleviates time wasted time on leads that are not prioritized nor qualified.

Once the mechanism for measuring Revenue per Qualified Lead has been established and is successfully operating, Marketing will become more cohesive with Sales due to increased bi-directional communication. The organization will be empowered to achieve a higher level of performance. The ultimate goal is to provide the highest quality of sales opportunities for input into your sales pipeline. The top paid and most skilled sales personnel should focus on closing deals and less time nurturing them through the beginning stages of the sales cycle. Fueling the front-end of the sales process is one of the most important aspects of producing revenue efficiently. Mistakes at the early stage can result in a low close ratio compounding expenses and lowering company profit margin

www.minecorinc.com

Minecor is an outsourced sales and marketing company focused on complex sales B2B lead generation, telemarketing services and IT leads generation services.  We build customized programs that combine outbound telemarketing services and multi-touch marketing that ultimately develops, nurtures, and qualifies sales opportunities for our clients’ sales teams.  Encompassed in the same sales lead generation solution is a Market Intelligence module that enables our clients to keep their competitive edge by adjusting to the market trends based on analysis of captured datapoints.

It is our pleasure to bring this blog (B2B SalesLeadGeneration.com) to you and let you know of our experiences and tips on B2B lead generation best practices for complex sales.

There is always a debate when it comes to what the ratio of qualified leads to revenue objective should be.  Before we talk about actual numbers, it’s important that we define what is meant by qualified lead.  For this discussion, let’s use the BANT system:  

• Budget – project funding exists or can be allocated
• Authority – the contact has decision-making ability
• Need – the project exists or need is acknowledged
• Timeframe – estimated time to purchase

Many sales organizations will hit a good quarter and then deal with the reality they have exhausted their qualified leads pipeline.  What do they usually do?  They temporarily turn their outside sales team into an inside sales team.   Not only is this usually ineffective, but it is not cost effective.  Most outside sales people do not like to make cold calls, and if they make the calls, it is usually at a much lower rate than the inside sales personnel.  The result is an alternating good and bad quarter.

So, what is the answer?  Minecor, a professional B2B lead generation outsource company for complex sales, has found that the most successful companies have a qualified lead to revenue objective of 5:1 or greater.

 To determine the best ratio for your company.  It is important to look at the sales metrics or KPI’s Key Performance Indicators) and determine close rate first.  Then, determine amount of resources and the number of inside sales reps needed to produce the necessary volume of qualified leads.

As a marketer, you may have several options to consider to boost performance:

• automated software solutions such as email
• increase number of inside sales reps
• webinars
• trade shows
• direct mail

Regardless of the mix of solutions used above, remember that complex sales usually requires a relationship.

There have been a significant number of times that I have spoken to marketers that have purchased a contact list from a list provider only to find that it came with a large amount of unwanted contacts.  Is this the fault of the list provider?  Not necessarily – sometimes the customer does not give sufficient criteria, but many times it due to skipping essential preliminary steps and lack of refinements just before the final purchase.   Although it is unrealistic to expect a perfect list, here are some steps you can take to ensure high quality:

1. Have a budget and/or number of targets in mind that can be managed by campaign(s) (remember, you usually do not have to extract all the data you pay for in a single transaction)
2. Provide a thorough amount of criteria to perform the initial database query (this should be relative to your ideal customer target profile…company size, line of business, titles, etc.)
3. Scan a preview list and pay special attention to titles and company names that you are familiar with (most list providers are willing to provide this because they are not giving the name, email, nor the phone number)
4. Work with the list provider to eliminate one or more elements to expand or narrow the list as needed
5. Negotiate not having to pay for contacts you already have in your company’s database (Yes- you guessed it! This means your database administrator must deduplicate the list before loading it into your company’s database or CRM)

All this can be a lot of work and take a number of hours depending on the list size, but just think of all the wasted time that would occur if your organization works hundreds or thousands of contacts that do not fit your target profile.