Recently in Guest posts Category

I've got a guest post up at the LeadsCouncil web site: Five Landing Page Mistakes We All Make. I say "we" in the headline specifically because BuyerZone has made all of those mistakes at different points over the years, and while we've learned the lessons, we're still not perfect.

As a result of #3 -- constantly testing new designs and other changes -- we're regularly creating new versions of our landing pages. The trick is making sure we're not letting old mistakes creep back in as we're testing new improvements.

(If you're not familiar with it, LeadsCouncil is a great resource for lead buyers and sellers. It's an independent organization that aims to build trust and promote best practices, with the overall goal of helping increase the size of the lead gen market. BuyerZone is a founding member of LeadsCouncil and we're glad to be working with them on our State of B2B Lead Generation Survey.)

A guest post by Matthew Schwartz

Ever since we launched Follow the Lead in late 2009, the most popular blog posts have revolved around cold calling. Despite all the kibitzing about online communications and inbound marketing - and the accompanying shift in marcom budgets - cold calling remains one of the most enduring, albeit problematic, methods of generating new leads. In an increasingly digital era, the human touch, the human voice (unaltered and unabridged), is taking on a new currency.
 
But the game has changed. Dialing for dollars is no longer forgivable, not to mention prohibitively expensive. Such an approach to generating new leads is, at best, counterproductive and, at worst, inexcusable, what with online-search engines the norm of business and myriad tools available online on how to drill down so you're reaching more qualified prospects.
 
In numerous conversations over the last 18 months with industry observers, a few essential elements about effective cold calling have bubbled to the surface:

Guest post by Samantha McCormick from BuyerZone's SEO team.

Top sales guy, lead generation expert, B2B marketing guru. Did you ever wonder what makes a 'guru' a guru? At what point is someone deemed an 'expert' in their field? Sometimes it takes a bit of exposure for a sales or marketing professional to reach expert status. Below are four experts that we at BuyerZone follow for insight into sales, lead generation, and marketing.

We asked them about a piece of their content that made waves in the B2B community. We also picked their brains on their area of expertise. Check out the blog posts that made them - and comment with the post that made you!

The Sales Machine

Geoffrey James, Author and Sales Machine BNET columnist

Most sales blogs induce cringes, catnaps, or a weird combination of the two. Geoffrey James does neither -- often using sharp wit, brutal honesty, and political commentary in his BNET articles. Insightful and intelligent, the blogs are fun to read yet always leave us with practical take-away knowledge. The post that made him garnered over a thousand Facebook likes, spurred a heated comment discussion, and sent the little Twitter bird into a tailspin.

The post that made him: The 8 Stupidest Management Fads of All Time

BuyerZone: In your post, "Why Your B2B Marketing Sucks," you talk about how a B2B company's marketing department should "sit at the feet" of the sales team, and "compensate marketing based upon its ability to generate qualified leads that the sales team can close." Is there a company or industry that does this effectively?

James: Sales 2.0 companies (mostly applications layered atop Salesforce.com) do a really good job of it, mostly because their own products force marketing to be measured in ways that make sense to the bottom line. Brainshark is a poster child for effective use of technology to measure marketing appropriately.

BZ: You seem to have a sour outlook on MBA programs. Is there an institution that's doing it well?

James: Wharton and a few other schools are now offering sales courses, which are generally swamped with applicants. Overall, though, prospects are bleak because academia hates sales: MBA programs were built upon the concept that marketing was everything and sales was either a detail or a soon-to-be-obsolescent remnant of the bad old days.

The B2B Marketing Expert

Dianna Huff, B2B Marketing Consultant and President of DH Communications

Tapped for ideas on how to connect with your target market? Dianna Huff's B2B Marcom Writer Blog might get the cogs turning again. Dianna doesn't just write about new marketing tools like videos and free ebooks, she shows us how to use them. Her blog reads like a book you can't put down.

The post that made her: The Top 10 Marketing Writing Mistakes

BuyerZone: Your sales and marketing blog posts are fun to read. How can someone who doesn't have a talent for writing engage in online marketing for his or her business?

Dianna: Start with what you know best -- the mistakes you see people making [in your field]. I created The Top 10 Marketing Writing Mistakes simply by listing out the mistakes I saw companies making with regard to copy. It was very easy to create.

BZ: What tools do you recommend for measuring social media success?

Dianna: I personally don't use a whole lot of tools -- Hootsuite, the FB "Like" button, and the Twitter button are the main ones I use. I'm not out to get leads via social media. I'm more concerned with ensuring my content reaches a broad audience. So getting lots of retweets and blog comments are my way of knowing I'm writing content that people enjoy.

The Online Marketing Guru

Dan Garfield, Online Marketing Manager at OrangeSoda

As Online Marketing Manager of OrangeSoda, a Utah-based online marketing firm, Dan Garfield is a key contributor to the company's online marketing blog. He writes for the small business crowd, often giving us tips on lead generation and posting cool infographics about trends in social media, search engine usage, and more.

The post that made him: What Google Leaves in China

BuyerZone: What is a recent conference that was useful to you?

Dan: Pubcon. Not necessarily for the presentations but more for the chance to find out what works for other people and other companies, and thinking about how we can cater it to OrangeSoda.

BZ: Our readers work for companies that sell phone systems, payroll services, and other B2B products. Even here at BuyerZone, we have trouble deciding what's too silly to share with our Twitter followers and on our other social media outlets. Do you have any advice for B2B companies that use social media like Twitter and Facebook?

Dan: "When you're marketing to a business, you're still marketing to people." Chris Brogan said that. A lot of times we think we need to have a certain decorum or style when we're talking to people - but they're still people. Try to think about how you can influence sharers. There is a difference between marketing to sharers and marketing to readers. A car salesman sells a car, Apple sells a lifestyle, a culture. Get people to talk about an experience.

BZ: What is your go-to source for industry news?

Dan: Buzz Out Loud [a podcast].

The Marketing Technology Expert

David Raab, B2B Technology Consultant and Principal of Raab Associates, Inc.

David Raab's Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems has received widespread recognition throughout the B2B community for its comprehensive analysis of B2B marketing solutions by Eloqua, Marketo, Market2Lead, and more. On his Customer Experience Matrix blog, David keeps tabs on new advances in marketing and sales technology and evaluates the strengths and features of the newest products.

The post that made him: Demand Generation Vendors and their Target Customers

BZ: In one of your blog posts, you show customer returns quoted by various leaders in marketing automation (Eloqua, Marketo, and the like). As a marketing technology consultant, what is the greatest return you have seen a client experience after implementing a marketing automation system?

We see the greatest return in the ability to run and evaluate many more campaigns with the same staff. This allows marketers to deliver better targeted messages.

BZ: What technology solution is a must-have for a small B2B company?

I suppose I'm biased but I do think marketing automation is a must-have. At the minimum, you want to build an email list and retain a reasonable level of contact with its members. You definitely need to avoid spam but basic email is the best way to keep your product top-of-mind for potential buyers. Once you have a reasonable email program in place, you can move on to more advanced nurture streams, lead scoring, behavior tracking, etc.

*****

What is the post that made you - or should have?

As 2010 winds down, we thought it would be worth recapping some of the most popular posts from this year in case you missed one, or if you want to review one of the topics we covered in detail.

This was our first year authoring this blog, and we hope you've enjoyed our thoughts on the world of lead generation. Of course, we're still new at this, so please let us know what you like and what we could do better.

Without further ado, the top 10 posts this year:

10. The Importance of Speed-to-Call in the Sales Process - our friends at Leads 360 talk about the need to follow-up on leads, quickly.

9. Selling Tips for New Sales Representatives - hiring a new salesperson? Here are some thoughts on getting them up and running smoothly.

8. Insights on the Construction Buyer -  key findings from our research on how to best sell to people looking for buy construction equipment.

7. Nine Online Sales Tools Worth the Money - learn about nine tools that are worth the money and give you more control in how you manage your time, connect with clients and perform sales operations.

6. Five SEO No-No's - five SEO tactics you should absolutely, positively never do.

Mie-Yun Lee, BuyerZone's President and Founder, took some time recently to speak with the good folks over at ZoomInfo about all the change going on in B2B marketing and sales and
how executives should approach it.

Head on over to read Mie-Yun's thoughts, and also be sure to spend some time checking out ZoomInfo's blog: Follow the Lead - full of great information and tips.

Be sure to check out our recent post on Marketo's Modern B2B Marketing blog about the questions you need to ask potential lead sources you're considering.

In the post, we cover the major questions to ask, including:

• How leads are generated
  
• Credit or return policies
• Lead formats
• Verification
• Relevant experience

So head on over and give it a read!

We're also curious about the questions you ask when considering a new lead source. Share yours in the comments below.
 

Although it's hard for some of us to believe, BuyerZone's been doing online lead generation for more than 15 years now. In some ways, it still seems like just a few months ago we were a startup working out of a dingy converted gym.

On the other hand, we've got experience working with companies of all sizes, across dozens of wildly different industries, and in good and bad economies. So we've learned a thing or two over the years.

Here's a summary: we guest posted some lessons we've learned from 15 years in lead gen over at LeadCritic. For anyone buying or selling leads online, it's a must-read. Go on, check it out!


(Note for the detail-oriented: we were founded in 1992, but it took us a couple of years to get into lead generation.)

Guest post by Pat Meehan

As a lead management software provider, Leads360 has the unique opportunity to analyze a massive sample of leads. We understand the extreme value of having such a powerful tool in front of us, and therefore have a team dedicated to hypothesizing, proving, and/or disproving our theories about the complex nature of leads. Recently, we put our theory of the importance of "speed-to-call" in the sales process to test, and wow -- were we amazed.

Businesses that rely on leads hear the emphasis on speed every single day. It's told to them by their lead providers, by their lead management solution, and by their CRM provider. In fact, it seems that everyone wants your company to be as quick and efficient as possible.

But why is speed so important?

After analyzing several million leads we found that speed-to-call was the single largest driver of lead conversion in the first 2 minutes after the lead was generated. Companies who were responding to their leads within one minute of receipt were able to achieve 391% improvement! Now of course achieving this extremely quick contact rate on a consistent basis could be a daunting task if not equipped with the right tools, but even if you miss the critical "2 minute window," your chances of conversion increase by an average of 62% if called within 30 minutes, and 36% if called within the first hour.

As you can see from the above findings, contacting leads quickly should be a necessity, not a luxury. The most popular analogy that we use with our clients is that leads are not bottles of fine wine that get better with age: they are gallons of milk left out of the fridge. Leads are perishable entitles that go from valuable to valueless in a matter of minutes, and therefore require immediate attention.

Now you may be thinking these findings only apply to leads that are looking for a product or service immediately, but that is 100% false. Calling leads instantly is still extremely valuable even for buyers looking to purchase down the road. By calling instantly, chances are you become the first to contact the lead. Additional research shows that the first person to make contact with a lead is more easily able to establish a sense of loyalty and rapport, which in turn can actually override competing offers.

There you have it: speed-to-call in the sales process has a dramatic role in determining lead conversion rates and should be taken seriously by companies who rely on leads. If your company is purchasing or generating leads that are not being contacted instantly, you're wasting money and not capitalizing on potential gains.

Download detailed study results here.

So remember, listen to your lead provider and lead management solution when they tell you to call quickly, and good luck!

Pat Meehan is the Marketing Coordinator at Leads360 and Editor of Coffeforclosers.org.