Demand Generation
Proven Strategies
According to a recent study, the ROI on ‘case studies’ created by marketing departments is
woeful at best. The average case study takes over 60 hours to create and 75-90% of marketing
collateral is not used by a company’s own sales team. At most, sales reps may hand out printed
case studies without comment to prospects as a low-value leave-behind after a meeting.
Only 36% of executives report that their buying decisions are influenced by case studies. Granted,
it is better than advertisements at a pitiful 17%, but far behind meetings with executive peers at
80%.
Forbes article, Dialing for Tech Dollars, caught my attention. The article reports that B2B brands
like Microsoft, BEA and PeopleSoft are outsourcing lead generation (via telemarketing) for $1million+
software solutions.
Can the "T-word" help sales people sell complex solutions?
B2B marketers voted B2B telemarketing as the #1 safest tactic they would be most likely to invest
in if their CEO gave them an extra $50,000 for lead generation. (Marketing Sherpa survey of 729
marketers)
Hunting down executive level decision makers is a time consuming task most sales people hate doing.
One sales manager told me at a conference with a chuckle, "90% of sales people hate to cold call and
the other 10% are lying."
Bottom line: If you have a sales person selling $2million annually, their time is worth roughly
$1,000 per hour in revenue to your company ($2,000,000 / 2000 working hours per year roughly =
$1000 per hour)
Can outsiders generate ROI for the complex sale?
If you have a complex sale, you can't risk hiring a B2B "telemarketing" firm that handles
transactional sales or low-cost, in-demand widgets. You need to hire savvy professionals who
understand the needs and issues of each company they contact. Unlike B2C telemarketers - where it's
a numbers game - B2B is about quality not quantity.
The Forbes article points out that telemarketing can be effective assuming you find the right
partner. Outsourcing costs from $40 to $100 per hour depending on the company. From $7K to $16K per
month per rep.
When it is done well, I've seen B2B telemarketing firms help sales people sell by almost doubling
their selling time. At one company we've documented revenues from leads at 2000% to 6300% ROI using
B2B Teleprospecting for clients in 9 to 18 months.
A 1998 report by Gartner entitled, "Inside Selling: Selling More at Lower Cost," showed that adding
inside sales person (a.k.a. telemarketer) to support an direct/field sales rep can increase revenue
per rep by 150%. Assuming all things remain equal that means 10 field sales people would now perform
like an equivalent team of 25.
The report estimates the fully loaded costs for 1 inside sales person is 35% of the cost for 1 field
sales person. Using the above example, the increased cost to get the performance 15 more field sales
people would be adding 3.5 field sales people in additional budget i.e. you're paying 13.5 field sales
people (10 + 3.5 in additional budget) to get the productivity of 25 direct sales people.
Overall, every sales person I speak to says they are working harder today than they did 5 to 10
years ago and getting the same or less return.
If you decide to outsource, the key is to find a partner that aligns with your culture and
understands your company, your value proposition, your target market and the key issues of people
you’re trying to reach.
According to studies, the single biggest challenge for contemporary B2B marketers is effective lead
generation. Conversely, it has been pointed out that 80 percent of marketing expenditures on lead
generation are wasted because the leads are lost, ignored or discarded by sales people.
Marketers today are constantly reminded that the company needs more sales leads...now! Unfortunately,
that immediacy is quite often at the direct expense of quality. Instead, marketers should adopt and
tailor lead generation programs that will increase the odds of creating better sales leads and
relationships that will ultimately result in long-term, happy and profitable customers. 1. Teleprospecting works. As we all know, tech buyers are a notoriously tough crowd to cold call.
Sherpa's findings contradict the "calling doesn't work" line we've heard for years. Their data shows
that over 50% of tech buyers admitted to short listing a vendor after receiving a well timed and relevant
phone call.
B2B Telemarketing - Dialing for Tech Dollars & complex sales
2. Sherpa's data shows that more decision makers (not just influencers) are attending webinars and
watching archived events. This indicates the importance of relevant educational events and online
content for lead generation.
3. Companies who provided fewer but higher quality "sales ready" leads to their sale people have
better sales conversion rates than those that send lots of early stage leads and that creating a
"cost per lead" culture just does not work.
