B2B Qualified Sales Appointments

Don't Settle for Leads:

Get Demand Generation

Introduction

DEMAND GENERATION?

This first, introductory, article will also provide you with worrying statistics on the huge amount of leads and marketing budget that most businesses are wasting, along with new ideas on how you can easily improve your own lead generation programs.

In addition, you can use this article as a checklist to see where your lead generation methodologies may fall down and where you can pick up the knowledge you need to implement a step-change in your own company�s lead generation programs.

But even more importantly, it will help you achieve more qualified leads, more sales and more profits for your business.

Some startling statistics

THE TOP-THREE BOARD-LEVEL MARKETING ISSUES

According to the IDC report �Tech Marketing Benchmarks and Staffing�, these are the top-three marketing issues regarded as most important at board-level:

1.	To provide consistent ROI measurement
2.	To measure and increase brand awareness and reputation
3.	To measure and increase qualified lead generation results

Most lead-generation-only programs fail to meet points 1 & 3.

Seven startling lead generation statistics

Generating a high return-on-investment from the marketing budget is vital but the following statistics are, on the one hand, alarming (you could be wasting a massive 69% of your lead generation budget) but, on the other, they present you with a golden opportunity as 67% of future orders are ignored by your competitors�

(Source of the statistics: Aberdeen Group, Gartner Group, B2B Magazine, Chilton, Reed Elsevier, and Cahners).

1.	Only 10% of all leads are followed up correctly � 90% of sales leads are not followed up in a timely way; not treated seriously or are even ignored.
2.	A huge 69% of all leads get no follow-up at all � sales people are busy trying to close orders and they quickly lose interest in large batches of new inquiries.
3.	Only 13% of leads are time-wasters � 87% of sales leads result in a sale for one company or another, even if it does take up to two years! To put it another way, almost 9 out of every 10 enquiries will eventually result in an order.
4.	Only 20% of all leads turn into an order within six months � only a small proportion of leads turn out to be short-term, �quick orders�.
5.	A huge 67% of all leads take over 12 months to turn into an order � sales people simply don�t have time to take this into account � it�s not their fault � they�re paid to be working on the next short-term order.
6.	A very low 22% of all companies have a lead nurturing program � very few companies realize the importance of these statistics, and the result is that the 67% of all opportunities (see above paragraph) are mostly neglected. Because of a lack of follow-up and almost no �lead nurturing� over an extended period of time, the eventual decision on which company gets the order is often taken almost at random. If the prospects haven�t been regularly contacted, then your company probably won�t even be asked to quote a year later � the original proposal may well have been lost. Or even worse, a new contact may have replaced the original one and your sales people won�t even know!
7.	On average, seven 'touchpoints' are required to nurture a prospect � every prospect needs to be gradually nurtured to the point of placing an order, and on average, this takes seven �touchpoints� e.g. telephone calls, eMails, site visits, letters, etc. It�s not essential that all seven touchpoints are face-to-face meetings; the important thing is that the nurturing process consists of regular, multiple communications.
	So, what do these statistics mean in practice...

What these statistics mean

A wasted marketing budget or a golden opportunity!

The bad news is that through no fault of their own, your sales people are probably not following up the majority of new sales enquiries effectively and the absence of a lead nurturing program means that two thirds of your leads are wasted - you have no �lead pipeline� for the future.

It�s the joint responsibility of sales and marketing to generate new sales leads but the marketing department is best-placed to carry out Demand Generation programs.

This lack of nurturing of sales enquiries can result in missed revenue targets; wasted budget; an ineffective sales force; and distrust between marketing and sales.

However, the good news is that two thirds of your enquiries are also being neglected by your competitors�

Here is a typical scenario: most companies spend their entire lead generation budget on short-term lead generation only, with no thought to nurturing leads medium- to long-term.

The sales force typically follows up only one third of the unqualified leads they are given, with probably only 10% of the total number being followed-up effectively.

Because only 20% of these leads turn into orders within six months, the sales people often have a poor regard for enquiries generated by their own marketing department.

They simply don�t realize that TWO THIRDS of those very same leads will eventually turn into orders. Or if they do realize this fact, they don�t have the time to implement a one-to-one, personal nurturing process that may last anything up to two years.

The consequence of this short-term attitude is that the marketing department then tries to generate more new leads which they hope will turn into orders in the short term.

But only 20% of those new leads will produce short-term orders!

This is a very expensive way of generating new business and very ineffective as the competition will be doing exactly the same thing in trying to chase leads which will turn into short-term orders.

The competitive pressure on those few leads that everyone is chasing will be enormous.

There is more cost-effective way: Demand Generation!

How much budget is needed?

GOOD NEWS!

The good news is that in most cases, no extra budget needs to be found, you just need to re-allocate a percentage of the existing lead generation budget to Demand Generation.

Demand generation is a cyclical process

THE CUSTOMER ADOPTION LIFE CYCLE

Demand Generation is a cyclical process, taking leads through the customer �life cycle�: from �leads,� to �suspects�, to �prospects, to �customers�, and finally to �advocates�.

Remember � the statistics show that your competitors have not latched onto this new strategy yet!

Over a period of time, enquiries are turned into �A� leads, ready to be passed on to the sales force. These �A� leads are �managed� in conjunction with the sales force until they turn into orders.

The customer is then put back into the nurturing process for ongoing customer retention, ensuring future orders!

According to the IDC report �Tech Marketing Benchmarks and staffing for 2004�, �To provide consistent ROI measurement� was the top marketing issue at board-level.

With just lead generation, as many as eight out of ten potential orders are left on the table. These are the orders that your competitors are getting!

Lead generation simply produces leads � it�s far better to generate A STREAM OF CONSTANT DEMAND.

Some market-leading companies have reached this conclusion but the good news is that 78% of all companies have NOT discovered this �secret�.

Now is the time to steal a march on 78% of your competitors with Demand Generation.

THE METHODOLOGY OF DEMAND GENERATION:

1.	Lead generation
2.	Lead qualification
3.	Lead nurturing
4.	Lead management
5.	Customer retention

Lead generation is just one of five steps in the Demand Generation process. Most companies stop at stage 2. The result is that 67% of orders are lost.

Only by carrying out lead qualification, lead nurturing, lead management and customer retention will the longer-term prospects be brought to the point of a sale, and then further sales�

Demand Generation is so much more than lead generation!

CHECK YOUR SALES LEAD HANDLING PROCESSES

Before reading the rest of this article, you may want to reflect on how well your company is currently handling sales leads, so here�s a checklist that I�ve developed over the years:

FACT:
"With just lead generation, as many as eight out of ten potential orders are left on the table. These are the orders that your competitors are getting!"

Sales lead checklist

Step 1 -

Can you send out the requested information immediately?

	Yes	No
Do your people know what to send with each different type of enquiry?
Do you have electronic versions available?
Do you have sufficient printed versions for those who prefer them?
Do you have enough people to send out the info?

Step 2 -

Are you prepared to update your database? - this new information will need to be used for ongoing nurturing and sales qualification

	Yes	No
Is the database ready?
Do you have all the relevant fields in place?
Do you have the human resources to keep on top of the data entry?
Do you have a marketing database?
Can you track and report on campaigns?

Step 3 -

Do you have a qualification process in place? � your sales people and channel will need qualified leads

	Yes	No
Do you have a �Universal Lead Definition� (ULD) agreed with �sales�?
Have you decided on what basis the leads will be routed to different sales people i.e. do you have a lead matrix?
Do you have anyone to carry out the qualification work?
Are you prepared to outsource the work if necessary?

Sales lead checklist

Step 4 -

Do you have a mechanism for distributing the sales leads? � this may sound obvious: but:

	Yes	No
Will the sales leads be distributed to your sales people?
Will the sales leads also be sent to your distributors?
Will the system software do the work automatically?
Or will a member of staff have to do the work manually?
Will the sales people access the data themselves?
Can they access the information over the internet?
Does it integrate with your existing CRM system?

Step 5 -

Do you have a plan in place to cultivate or qualify your unqualified leads? - longer-term leads are often ignored

	Yes	No
Do you have a plan in place for continued prospect contact?
Do you have the right information to send them relevant messages?
Do you know how often to contact them?
Do you know what offers they might be interested in?

Step 6 -

Do you have a program in place to measure results? � can you determine:

	Yes	No
Cost-per-lead
Cost by qualified lead
Cost-per-sale?
Do you know which lead programs generated the highest ROI?
Do you know which nurturing techniques worked, and which didn�t?
Can you prove that your lead generation & lead nurturing programs are producing increased sales and market share?

CONCLUDE THE REVIEW

Complete your �handling sales leads� review and draw out the conclusions.

Assessing how new sales leads are handled can make the difference between creating an effective and happy sales force, new customers and increased revenue on the one hand.

Or on the other hand... an ineffective unhappy sales force and MD with lost sales, future lost opportunities, reduced budgets and maybe even your promotion or your job!

Pro Lead Group