COMMENTS
I completely agree that sales should NOT be separated from prospects...especially in our industry. We sell business technology consulting services and without engaging with the prospect, there is no way for us or the prospect to know that they are making the best business decision for their company. A significant role of our sales team is to ensure the prospect first understands their specific business requirement(s) and then evaluates how appropriate technology solutions can be used to most cost effectively and efficiently achieve that purpose. From there, they can make the best decision on behalf of their company. No amount of web content / podcasts / etc. can make that happen.
It is refreshing to see that the tide is turning with respect to lead nurturing. There is though a place for lead nurturing, but not at the top of the sales funnel and as a part of an SLA when marketing is to hand over leads to sales. Lead nurturing by marketing can though be effective on leads sales disqualified or that satkked in the pipeline. Those are people not yet ready to buy. There are though statistics that many of those leads turn into buyers over a period of 12 to 24 months.
Giving leads early to sales requires though that they have the right mindset. The initial contact is not to close a d eal but to hold a conversation to see wheteher there is a mutual interest to continue the dialogue right now. If not the lead should be handed back to marketing so they can insure your company remains top of mind when the prospect gets ready to buy.
Trish, you know how I feel about the importance of getting your sales reps in touch with leads sooner. We have broken our sales and marketing process into segments with demand generation, (appointment setting), and closing. Demand Gen is purely in marketing, but appointment setting is now squarely under sales because we found that the marketing team was not nearly aggressive enough in trying to make contact.
Our best approach for us and our clients is to put more of the marketing response tools directly in the hands of the sales reps because they use them better to actually bring results. We use the marketing teams to design and create content, but we put more and more of the ability to use the in the hands of inside sales reps.
Ken
Terrific post and great food for thought.
I think that rather than separating sales reps from prospects, that we need to get everyone in the pool together - focused on creating a relationship with our prospects that consists of integrating content and conversations at each stage of the buying process.
We need to create content that instigates conversations and spreads ideas our prospects want to talk about - then we need to talk to them. Rather than minimizing the contribution of a sales rep, focus on maximizing the interactions of your inside sales team. Then perfect the hand-off to the sales rep to lessen the friction and smooth their entry into the conversation at the right time.
A B2B complex sale won't happen just because you have great content. But well-designed content can certainly help to build a relationship that will turn a prospect into a buyer.
What a great reason to gain alignment and get over this ridiculous disconnect between sales and marketing.
This is an idea we ponder daily and from two perspectives. On the one hand, our sales people discuss lead generation programs with technology leaders and we must train our people to know what questions to pose to get their input on what they want to achieve with their marketing and advertising dollars. On the other hand, part of that is to explain how online lead generation and the concomitant CRM commitment must dovetail efforts in the nurturing process. While the terrain seems like a monoculture, goals vary widely. In order to ascertain the most important reasons why someone advertises, we must teach our people how to empathize. To do so at a business level requires a maturity we seldom find without the time ingredient. Our culture systematically deters many from empathy as a way of thinking in business. Many see it as counter intuitive, though of course it makes perfect sense.
I too wish I had written this- I've been debating about the balance between inbound and outbound lead generation and how to allocate our scarce resources to both.
Inbound lead gen has dominated the forums, blogs and groups, and in many cases its promises are legitimate.
However, it is not enough on its own- nothing can educate a prospect like a human connection characterized by empathy and building trust.
If we were to rely solely on inbound marketing/lead gen, we would reach only those who are actively looking for our solution. The reality is that any product with real value and sound sales messaging will find a good reception with a reasonable percentage of the targeted, passive market (those NOT looking).
While there are general truths supported by data that show prospects and customers wish to engage with sales reps later in the sales cycle, this MAY or MAY NOT be the best strategy for your sales reps.
Determining the best way to enhance productivity is determined by your company sector, product, and buyer persona's. In high tech you need to have a go get it sales force because there are many moving parts and FUD by the competition. If you wait for your prospects to come to you -- you may be out of a job. It will be different in service related offerings, etc.
Here is the big takeaway -- no matter what industry or type of B2B sales you are in -- you can sell more by creating an inbound marketing strategy to complement your outbound activity. It is a topic I discuss in detail on
www.NewSalesEconomy.com if you would like to read more.
Great post Matt!
Dear Ms. Bertuzzi,
Great stuff!! Very thorough and insightful.
As the (very) old saying goes, "Litera Scripta Manet"-- The written word endures!
As a Sales Manager here in North Carolina, I want to share a great tool that I use constantly in the recognition category. This website (and others) are filled with so many great ideas and quotes, and I want to be able to share these with the employees at my company.
When it’s time to recognize someone for their performance, I take one of these quotes (I keep a long, ongoing list), and rather than giving them a standard old plaque (never again!), I put the quote on a DYI – Design Your Inspiration from Successories, since they are customizable AND personalizable. They are handsomely framed and the photo choices are great. It’s made employee recognition much more meaningful AND appreciated.The website is http://www.dyi.successories.com Thanks again. Anne
The unspoken truth behind the current marketing trends has to do with the organizational and process changes necessary to make this stuff work -- content marketing, SEO, dynamic websites, social media, marketing automation, and lead nurturing/management.
The biggest hurdle companies face is recognizing that without aligned sales and marketing organizations, most of these methods are doomed. Organizations need to define sales and marketing roles (and compensation models) to reflect where they step into the picture and what their objectives are in each step.
Second, these new approaches must be fully integrated with the traditional methods – teleprospecting, email, DM, inside sales and sales enablement – in order to enhance the self-serve model.
Third, is recognizing that the sales pipeline is not ubiquitous. IBM, for example, created something like 1500 individual lead nurturing paths when they revised and automated their demand gen process for Cognos. That means responding appropriately to customers who are “just looking,” as well as those who need help defining their problem, and those who understand industry trends and just want the spec sheets.
The problems that these new trends attempt to solve are very real. We can neither ignore the problems nor pretend the old sales/marketing model still works. But I agree we also have to recognize that you if you postpone face-to-face relationship-building until customers are “ready to buy,” then it’s too late.
Great discussion. I've always been a little dumbfounded when people discuss demand generation and try to define the optimal point at which a lead should be handed off from marketing to sales, as if there can be no overlap in activities among the two. Inbound lead gen has been getting a lot of the attention lately, but the fact we still use terms like "turning a lead over to sales" shows we still have work to do. As marketers, why would we want to stop communicating with a prospect once we've alerted sales of their interest? And why wouldn't sales be screaming "bloody murder" for marketing's support?
We have more sales and marketing tools available than ever before, but the process is still stuck in the days of bingo leads. Perhaps it's finally time we expand "integrated marketing communications" to "integrated sales & marketing communications."
Thanks to everyone for their comments. This topic is a great one because it forces us to rethink our process. There is a middle ground that is optimal for the hand off of leads and each organization needs to evaluate when that occurs for them. This is not a one size fits all strategy so take the time to create your own best practice. Thanks for participating!