September 2013

Businessman touching the tip of a bar chart

10 Ways Sales Benefits From Marketing Automation

September 30, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

Sales runs on high-octane fuel that consists of intelligence and time. When you know who to call, when to call them, what to listen for and what to say, you close more deals.

Marketing automation generates such highly qualified leads that you can identify them as ready for sales engagement — right now. Marketing automation tools let marketers track and measure a prospect’s activity, identify when a lead meets known buyer-readiness conditions, and pass that lead to sales as soon as a hot prospect is ready to be contacted. This eliminates the need for cold calling and wasting time on leads that aren’t ready. Additionally, marketing automation makes it feasible to nurture prospects at scale, which speeds up the sales cycle by warming prospects into hot leads — and then qualified sales opportunities.

To help decide whether your sales team can benefit from marketing automation, here are 10 points to consider. These are key ways marketing automation serves as a sales enabler to help you identify, nurture, approach and close new sales.

1. Eliminate cold calling. With marketing automation, the team has tools to nurture leads until they’re ready for sales or to be dismissed. This process generates well-qualified leads that have displayed buying intent — meaning you spend your time in front of prospects who are ready to buy instead of cold calling.

2. Remove the blindfold. Know who you’re calling and what to say. Customer intelligence dashboards show you what each lead cares about, what content they’ve viewed, and what actions they’ve taken, so you can talk to them about their specific needs.

3. Know when to call. Along with high-scoring leads getting passed to you as they become sales-qualified, web site visitor tracking alerts you whenever a particular person or company visits your web site. You know when they’re thinking about your company and solutions. You can even set alerts to be notified when someone is browsing a particular page on your web site. For example, you can get an alert that a buyer you’re working with is studying a page with in-depth information about a product other than the one you’ve been discussing. That could lead to a whole new sales opportunity.

4. Shorten the sales cycle. Research shows nurtured leads close faster and generate larger deals. Your marketing team feeds prospects content and information they need, guiding them through the buying cycle. When a lead exhibits strong buying signals, it gets passed to sales. Marketing automation gives marketing teams the muscle they need to more effectively nurture leads, drawing them through the funnel more quickly and delivering more highly qualified leads to sales. According to CSO Insights, companies that excel at lead nurturing have 9% more sales reps making quota.

5. Make the most of email. Sales reps can use marketing automation systems to automatically personalize messages, send them at the optimal times for prospects and format them appropriately for a particular customer. Trigger emails can be customized to inbound actions so buyers receive personalized communications. CRM integration ensures that all email communications — automated or otherwise — are captured in your activity history for each lead.

6. Help marketing qualify leads in a way that is most helpful to the sales team. Marketing automation provides a framework for your potential customers’ progress as they traverse the buyer’s journey, and makes it easy for marketers to manage leads. You define characteristics, such as title or industry, and behaviors, such as attending a webinar, that indicate when a prospect will likely become a buyer. Buyers that meet your pre-defined conditions are assigned to lead groups, such as “Marketing Qualified,” “Sales Accepted,” or “Sales Qualified,” taking the guesswork out of a lead’s status. Leads advance through classifications automatically as they engage in progressive buying behaviors, until ready for sales engagement.

7. Use scoring to prioritize your time and attention. By assigning a score to lead behaviors and demographic characteristics, marketing automation tracks a lead’s progress through the lead funnel with pre-defined scores. For example, if you know that looking at your pricing page is a buying signal, you assign that action a high score. Scores accumulate. When a buyer-ready lead score threshold is passed, a notification to the correct sales rep is triggered, letting them respond to that hot lead quickly. Some systems generate Hot Prospect list notification automatically, helping sales reps focus on the best leads and reach them at the right time.

8. Maximize customer lifetime value through cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. Marketing automation reports and dashboards enable analysis of customer data, such as purchase history and company size, which helps identify targets for cross-selling and up-selling. Behavior history profiles indicate likely follow-up sale products based on each lead’s pre-purchase and post-purchase content interactions.

9. Benefit from marketing automation without leaving your CRM. Many marketing automation systems integrate with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, SugarCRM, and SalesLogix, and work with other systems as well. It’s particularly convenient when salespeople can view and access powerful lead insights and opportunities right in their own CRM dashboard, saving time and effort.

10. Align sales and marketing. According to an Aberdeen study, 91% of top-performing companies marketing had a strong understanding of sales goals, as opposed to 63% of laggards. Successful companies align marketing and sales goals and collaborate on activities like developing buyer personas. This leverages sales’ insider knowledge of customers and buying stages to create content, programs, and campaigns that are better targeted and more effective for closing sales.

This article was written by Chris Hardeman, Act-On’s VP of Sales, and appeared on DemandGenReport.com.

Top Ten Tips For B2B Telemarketing

September 26, 2013/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by admin

Being effective in your B2B telemarketing campaigns all about being ready to address the various issues faced by both your customers and business prospects. Basically, it is all about providing quality customer service for all you call as well as those who call you. While you do need to meet your sales leads targets, you also need to make sure that the other party is happy as well. This is a very important point in ensuring that your B2B appointment setting process will go smoothly. Now, the question here is how you do your job right. Luckily, there are some tips that you can use.

1. Clarify complaints – people complain about the service or products that you offered, you should check the details. Most callers would be saying too many details that the real issue could get muddled.

2. Have confidence – this is a real boost to your performance, one that can be noticed during your call. Believe that you can do the job, and the job can be done.

3. Be positive – no matter how bad the day has gone by, thinking that things will turn out well in the end is important. A little positive outlook can mean a great deal for a person’s morale.

4. Speed up the call handling – time is precious, for both the caller and the called. It is important that you and your B2B lead generation team be made aware of that. No dilly-dallying of calls, go straight to the point, and help your prospects get things done.

5. Have a proactive system of helping prospects – some problems can be anticipated before it happens, so it pays for you and your team to prepare for it before it happens.

6. Plan your seating arrangement – this is especially important in large scale telemarketing operations with shifting work schedules. It would be useful if you can get some automated planning system that will maximise the productivity of our marketing team.

7. Know who you are calling – take note that there are different kinds of customers and potential B2B leads. Once you realise these little details, it would be easier for you to generate more sales leads for your business.

8. Make self-service options easier for users – sure, nothing beats a good marketing call, but you have to make sure that alternative sources of information is readily available in a quick and convenient manner.

9. Hire the right team – telemarketing can be a really stressful and complex job, so in the event that you have to hire people, make sure you hire those who know this business well.

10. Delegate to the right people – you cannot do everything well on your own. In case you have to do business with someone you are not skilled with in handling, leave that job to those who do.

These tips can be really simple, but they all have a strong effect on B2B lead generation campaigns that rely on them. You can follow these tips to, and you will see that this is a good investment.

Consistency: Key To Effective B2B Lead Generation

September 19, 2013/in Lead Generation /by admin

As a customized mobile applications provider, you need to provide quality products and services to your customers. This is the conclusion of your B2B lead generation campaign, one that may or may not bring you the profits you are looking for in the long run. Still, this is something you need to do in order to keep getting sales leads in the Asia-Pacific region. After all, this is a very competitive market. You need to stand out or be carried away by the tide. Now, how can you do that? How will you be able to get the results you want? What is the secret to reaching your appointment setting goals? The answer is rather simple: you just have to be consistent.

Yes, consistency is the key to effective marketing. You need to be consistent in everything you do, to be steady in the face of change, to be a paragon of stability for those looking to generate B2B leads. Be consistent in your B2B telemarketing work, and your customer will come naturally. All you need to do now is to mind the quality of all those mobile apps you have been selling in the market. It is not that hard, if you think about it. Now, what are the benefits of greater consistency for your business?

Measurability – when you are consistent, you will be able to take accurate measurements, record the necessary data for your marketing campaign. Consistency allows you for greater analysis of what you need to improve on.
Accountability – when you are consistently doing one specific task, it will become expected that you will do that specific task. If you fail, then others will notice it. This greater accountability is important if you want to ensure the quality of your work. No one wants to fail in their task, right?
Reputability – when you consistently deliver what you promise, you create a positive reputation about you and your market. This is a very important point. Without a good reputation, you will not be able to sell. Building one from scratch can be time-consuming and costly, so you should better do your job right the first time.
Relevancy – you know just how important your business should be to your customers. If you sell a lot of goods that they like, then they are more likely to go back to you for more .Keep that up, and they will become your customers for life. That can happen to you, as long as you have the consistency to deliver.
Applicability – your message will only be accepted if you keep on giving your B2B leads prospects any marketing material that is relevant to them. And if the topic is timely enough, interesting, as well as informative, plus you keep delivering it consistently, then there is a higher likelihood of them becoming your customers in the long run.

As you can see, consistency is the name of the lead generation game. Either you do that, or prepare to say goodbye to your sales leads prospects.

What Dr. Seuss can teach us about social media marketing

September 18, 2013/in Social Media Marketing /by admin

When talking about children’s books, some of the titles surely to be brought up are The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who! and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. These, among others, are classic tales written by an American author, poet and World War II hero named Theodor Seuss Geisel, most widely known in pop culture as Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was not your ordinary storyteller dealing with common morals and lessons. He often touched issues on environmentalism, anti-consumerism, racial equality, and militarization. That makes it no wonder that his stories did not only appeal to the young but also to teenagers and adults alike.

Dr. Seuss was open in discussing his methods and motivations in writing. These nuggets of gold have been treasured as guiding principles in literature and public media. Either through direct quotations or passages in his books, his philosophies can be applied in social media marketing:

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant.”

One important ingredient in making an impact: sincerity. You have to own your words; otherwise people will persecute you and question your integrity. Before you put a word out, check if it really represents what you wanted to convey.

“The more you read the more things you will know.”

Dr. Seuss wanted to promote reading among children, and for adults he acknowledges man’s innate thirst to learn. It’s hard to introduce concepts to people if you don’t have anything to give. Reading inspires, motivates and brews ideas so we can share them.

“Why fit in, when you were born to stand out!”

Social media is becoming so multi-faceted that the only way to be noticed is to be extremely unique. If your content doesn’t have that x factor, recognition will be a long shot.

“Be who you are and say what you feel because the ones who mind don’t matter, and the ones who matter don’t mind.”

Critics may decry your work, but they are not who you’re marketing for – it’s the audience who matters, and as long as you cater to their needs, you’re doing fine.

“Words and pictures are yin and yang. Married, they produce a progeny more interesting than either parent.”

Statistics will tell you that posts with photos gain more engagement, and common sense will tell you why.

“It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.”

Perhaps one of Dr. Seuss’s most famous lines, this just means that you are always allowed mixing enjoyment in achieving your marketing goals – in fact, sometimes it’s a pre-requisite to being effective. You just have to determine certain boundaries to remind yourself to stay on track.

Hire Right For Your Appointment Setting Team

September 16, 2013/in Appointment Setting /by admin

In any kind of business, hiring the right person for the job is a crucial activity. This is what makes all the difference in the success or failure of your company. That is also the main concern for those involved in B2B appointment setting campaigns.

You see, the risk of hiring the wrong man is a real problem. It can cost your company a big deal in terms of lost sales leads, not to mention the loss of good will and rapport, in case your new hire is not that good in public relations. Now, just imagine if the job vacancy is in the telemarketing department. Just think of the mess that it would create for you to fix.

Mind you, that does not come cheap. In that case, why not do it right the first time? If you just know how to do it, then you will be in the right path.

Take it slow

You know, the hiring process should never be rushed. Sure, you know that upper management has their demands, and that they set deadlines, but you need to wait a little bit more, in case the right candidate comes up. Waiting for resumes to come in takes time, and that is something you can never rush.

Consider hiring as a sieve

In order for you to hire the right people for B2B appointment setting services, you need to basically weed out the worst from the best candidates. Basically, you can only do that if you have a lot of candidates, which means you keep contacting as many candidates as you want. And if you put the right rules and processes in place, like interviews or special instructions, you can truly get the best ones.

Have checkpoints

For longer hiring processes, it would be sensible to set up check points. This will allow you to screen out applicants based on specific skills or knowledge that your company may need. Also, this gives you more time to decide on who you should really hire to get your B2B leads.

Give out correct tests

This is one portion of the hiring process that is so important, but one that usually creates a lot of misunderstanding on the part of your hiring team. You see, test scores can only do so much, especially if what you give them is just a generic type of test. Maybe you need to conduct more exams, or probably more interviews to really bring out a candidate’s skill.

Ask your team

After you have evaluated the values, methods and skills of your candidates, and seeing them as acceptable in your eyes, try asking your own team, hear what they say. They might be able to give you additional input about their skills, or provide you a perspective that is different from what you initially thought of.

Yes, hiring more people for your lead generation campaign is a necessity. All it takes is for you to take a concrete effort to choose your people properly.

graphic illustration of telemarketing team

Secrets In Better Telemarketing Team Retentions

September 14, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

Here is the deal with B2B telemarketing: you simple lose too many employees in the course of many campaigns. Turn-over rates and work dissatisfaction can be high, which explains why only a handful of people would actually stay and keep looking for sales leads. This is a real headache for many managers, since getting employees to stay is also an important job. So, how does one ensure that employee retention is good? There are several ways to do just that. And really, if you think about it, this is no secret at all. It is just that only a handful of people actually know that this would work.

So where will you start?

Let us deal with skills improvements first. Despite what you see, money is not the real motivator for your B2B appointment setting team. It is with regards to improving and expanding their repertoire of business skills. This is something that no money can take place. And this is precisely what will compel your employees to stay with you. With the world of business in a constant state of change, you have to prepare your people for the challenges that they will face.

Another thing that you have to remember is that you have to keep open channels of communication with your employees. You may have given them specific instructions on what to do, but a lot of things can change in short notice. In order for you and your team to adapt quickly, you need to maintain open channels of communication with them.

Third, try to ensure that everyone can advance in the company. In one way or another, tell your B2B lead generation team that they can go higher with you. It may not have to be outright promotions, but you can always employ other tools, like bigger salaries, more responsibilities, and the like. These are very powerful tools for promotion that you should not take lightly. It can even be better than the usual perks or vacation offers for the best employees.

Next, maybe you should take a closer look at your own management style. It may not have to be that dashing or something, but it should be a style that plays on the strengths of your business and yourself. You need to know how to best lead your people, and not just pulling them around and telling them what to do in generating sales leads. That would have been really unproductive.

Lastly, you should help your employees reach a work-life balance. You know that it will be difficult for your employees to leave their problems at home and concentrate on their B2B lead generation task. Help them adjust to work as well as the needs of their homes. Your employees will appreciate that and will make them less likely to leave you.

Of course, if lead generation skills are what you or your marketing team lacks, then maybe leaving the job to outsourced marketing agencies would be a good business strategy for you to take.

Increase Your Sales Leads With Effective Telemarketing Management

September 10, 2013/in Old Blogs /by admin

If there is anything that you might complain about B2B telemarketing campaigns, it is that the rate of success can be pretty low. But really, that would only happen if you do not manage your team well. You see, this medium of B2B lead generation is a constantly evolving and adapting form of marketing.

Managing this requires leadership and business skills that not many have. It might take some years to master them, but you can learn them. You just need to be willing. And as for those who currently have telemarketing management problems, perhaps the following pointers would be a big help for you:

More sales training – yes, your people may have undergone a lot of product trainings and the like, but it never hurts to have another day of training. A little polishing of skills can go a long way in your marketing efforts.
Assign more sales people – sales is a science and art, one that requires specific skills that only a few would be able to pull off. You have to make the effort to select people who have a deeper orientation to sales. This is for the good of your marketing campaign today and tomorrow.
Do your recruitment right – you want to make sure that you have the best people for your B2B lead generation campaign, right? Then make sure that you are sourcing them from a pool of really talented people.
Be a little more patient – with the way B2B appointment setting processes turn out, patience is a real, albeit rare, virtue. But really, a little patience can mean a lot in keeping control even in the worst situations.
Experiment with your pilot team – there will be events when you just have to use a new strategy or technique in marketing. In that case, you should work with a small group of marketers who will check its soundness, as well as iron out any wrinkles that might turn up.
Prepare cross-selling – there will be times (which would be useful for larger firms) when a sales leads prospect requests something beyond the responding marketer’s ability. You should train them on proper transfer processes.
Use transfer calls better – why let go of a call if you can just transfer it to someone else who has the time to handle it? You see, prospects lose interest in you if the call ends without anything meaningful done. By transferring calls, you also avoid the hassle of callbacks and still keep your connection with the business prospect
Draw the line firmly between sales and marketing – sometimes, the bickering between these two departments (due to vague job descriptions and work assignments) can be very bad, that your business loses more B2B leads that you generate. By designating which department does this and that, you avoid the trouble between the two.

It is all about proper marketing management. That is the secret to successful telemarketing campaign. This is how your get things done well.

a woman browsing social media on her smartphone

Best Days For Lead Generation Posts On Facebook

September 9, 2013/in Social Media Marketing /by admin

For a lot of marketers out there, success in social media marketing depends a lot on scheduling. You see, no matter how much you post, announce, or display your latest products or services in the market, if there are no people viewing them, then all your marketing efforts will go to waste. That is the undeniable truth in marketing, and this is something that you really have to deal with correctly if you want to generate good sales leads. And the most basic factor that you have to resolve deals with the right schedule in posting content on social media, like in Facebook. So, where do you start with this?

When it comes to scheduling, social media posts seem to get good traction during the weekends, where most of the conversation by people takes place. Monday and Tuesday are all right, but definitely avoid Wednesday, where conversation is at its lowest. As marketers, you will understand the importance of getting your message across the most number of audiences. This is why you need to know when to post your message ideally. Without that working knowledge, then you are pretty much shooting in the dark on this. Make it a point to study where conversation about your business or industry is highest, and then use that time for your promotions. That will work.

Now, if you think that posting on Facebook often will get you the B2B leads that you are looking for, then think again. Too often, we fall into this frequency trap. A lot of social media marketing campaigns fail because they do not put into consideration the receptiveness of your market regarding your business message. The key here is not to pepper your audience with your content. One or two posts per day are actually very effective in getting you the desired results. Three or more posts in a day are routinely ignored by your prospects already. Besides, any more than that and Facebook’s optimization team will be penalizing you very soon.

Another that you have to remember when posting on Facebook: your content must be short, packed with details, as well as compelling to your readers. It does not have to be that big or elaborate, but you should at least know just how important it is to get the details right in the most effective manner. Take note that the average Facebook reader will often ignore long article or posts. Rather, concentrate your efforts on snackable content. Most of these readers often check their Facebook accounts during their break, so you have to make sure that your content can be read effectively in as shortest a time as possible.

The power of effective social media lead generation and appointment setting will rest on your ability to create content that will compel your readers to do what you desire. Your company will benefit much from it. Sure, that may be a lot of hard work, but at least you have a good place to start for your marketing campaigns.

How to deal with Appointment Setting problems - Featured image

Six Steps To Dealing With Problems In Appointment Setting

September 6, 2013/in Appointment Setting /by admin

Managing and resolving problems are a normal part of dealing with customers in an appointment setting campaign. I mean, you are conducting one since you know that prospective sales leads have their own problems to solve, right?

We need to know how to best handle the selling process. By properly assisting your customers, you establish a better relationship with them. When they have a positive relationship with you, they spread the word to their friends and family. Word of mouth practically compels the listeners to come in and ask for our help. All of that starts with the proper way of resolving problems and issues that are presented to you. Now, this is how you do it:

To start with, clarify with the customer what the problem is. Listen carefully to what they are saying. You should take note that resolving this problem is very important to your B2B leads prospects. Otherwise, they would not even be coming near you in the first place. Take ownership of the problem (even you are not to blame). Your job, at this point, is to calm them down and open coherent discussion.

Next, investigate thoroughly the problem. And when I say thoroughly, I mean deeply. A problem may not be what it seems. It is possible that several layers of issues encompass a single problem, which will require several different ways to deal with it. A simple ‘band-aid’ solution will not cut it like that. You have to be decisive in dealing with such things.

Third, you should be willing to give your sales and telemarketing team more power to resolve issues. You can create a ‘one-call’ resolution system that will answer all customer issues in an efficient and effective manner. And the crucial piece of that set-up is giving your people the authority to deal with problems on their own.

Fourth, prepare your reports. After going through all the facts, you should then share your findings both with the company you work for and the customer you are helping. The former needs the data in order to store in their archives, while the latter would want to know the extent of your work. And both parties might be able to give you more details once they knew where you stood at that time.

After the reporting, then comes the time for you to develop the business solution. You know that each customer has their unique issues. That is why you should put some effort into crafting a personalized solution to their problems. It will take some time, but you will realize that you are in the right path come implementation time.

Finally, you should follow up. After implementing the solution, you should come back and asses it well. You need to know whether your plan worked, or if you need to alter the plan yet again. This is the last, yet the most important, step.

See, these can be simple ways to improve your lead generation and appointment setting campaign. You just need to have the courage to implement them.

Improve Your Telemarketing For Australian Business Leads

September 5, 2013/in Lead Generation /by Dara Lin

Let’s face it, we all want to generate more sales for our business. In order to do so, businesses in Australia consider telemarketing. Lead generation and appointment setting campaigns in Australia are a good way to get more leads.

However, as a business owner, I want high-quality leads that could give me a better ROI.

To improve your telemarketing productivity on your Australian lead generation and appointment setting campaigns, here are three simple tips for you to follow:

Find The Perfect Telemarketer

As a telemarketer, it is your job to look for opportunities, deliver the right message and leave a positive impression of your company. If you’re telemarketing for Australian business appointments, in particular, you have got to make sure that your telemarketers have the right qualities – listening skills, knows what and when to ask relevant questions, calm and can skillfully handle all of your prospects’ questions. Prospects want a little information prior to agreeing to an appointment, so give your telemarketers a bit of information about your business/company beforehand – the kind that you’d want to know if you were the customer – then do a mock call and pick the telemarketer who performs the best. This way you can weed out those who are inexperienced and increase your chances of getting high-quality business appointments.

Have A Killer Telemarketing Script

scripts can be used as a guide for every telemarketer. What should be included in your script?

Information about your company (company name, address, and website).
Information about your company, the products, and services offered.
Questions you need to ask to pre-qualify your prospects.
Rebuttals for possible objections

Telemarketers shouldn’t give up if their first call isn’t perfect. Scripts can be personalized and writing one that will get you the most Australian business leads and appointments will need a few tweaks before it becomes effective. Your first script won’t be perfect and might even turn out with much lesser sales leads and appointments than you had expected, but testing your script and improving on it as you go is the best way to get your pitch just right.

So if your first campaign didn’t turn out as much as you’d planned, just keep making improvements on your telemarketing script ‘til you get the perfect killer sales pitch. You should better read Earn Appointments with These Cold Calling Scripts for All Industries

Keep Your Business Contact Database Up To Date

When you’re outsourcing your telemarketing campaigns (and even if you’re not), you wouldn’t want your telemarketers spending most of their time apologizing for wrong numbers or asking for the contact details of your intended prospects, right? You’d want your team to focus and use their exceptional telemarketing skills to actually sell things or get your salespeople appointments. To be able to do this, it would be best to have your telemarketing list reviewed or updated first before starting your telemarketing or appointment setting campaign.

Seems simple enough, right? Well, to make things even simpler, hire or outsource to a lead generation company that specializes in B2B lead generation services in Australia and you will soon be closing those deals in no time.