optimizing the lead€¦ · session speakers 2 brian carroll executive director of revenue...

Brian Carroll Pamela Markey

Executive Director, Director of Marketing & Revenue Optimization Brand Strategy

MECLABS MECLABS

A data-driven optimization process that goes beyond lead capture

Optimizing the Lead:

Session Speakers

2

Brian Carroll

Executive Director of Revenue Optimization

MECLABS

Brian Carroll is Executive Director of Applied Research at MECLABS and CEO of InTouch, part of the MECLABS Group. Author of the bestseller, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, Carroll is a leading expert in lead generation and he's profiled and regularly quoted in numerous publications. Carroll also speaks to 20,000 people a year on improving sales effectiveness and lead generation strategies. He has been profiled and regularly quoted in numerous publications such as BtoB magazine, Selling Power, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Target Marketing, Inc., Marketing News, DM News, MarketingProfs, MarketingSherpa, Software CEO and CMO Magazine.

@brianjcarroll

Session Speakers

3

Pamela Markey

Director of Marketing & Brand Strategy

MECLABS

Builds strategic partnerships, plans promotional initiatives, and is responsible for both Primary and Applied Research communication- and marketing-related activities. If it impacts a MECLABS brand, it goes through her.

Before joining the team in June 2009, Markey worked for seven years as a wireless marketing manager at Bell Canada, during which time she managed campaigns for the Solo Mobile and Bell Mobility brands. Her work has been recognized at Cannes, the CLIOs, and the Canadian Marketing Awards among others.

Markey started her career in marketing at Microsoft while completing her Bachelor of Commerce degree at Dalhousie University.

@pamelamarkey

Optimizing the Lead

Identify the right companies and people

Segment, score and prioritize

Initiate a memorable conversation

Nurture regardless of time to buy

1

2

3

4

Segment, score and prioritize

Initiate a memorable conversation

Nurture regardless of time to buy

2

3

4

Optimizing the Lead

Identify the right companies and people 1

What is a lead?

Inquiries are not leads

• 5 to 15% of all inquiries are sales-ready

1

What is a lead?

Inquiries are not leads

• 5 to 15% of all inquiries are sales-ready

Sales doesn’t need to “accept” the leads

• Confirm whether the lead met the Universal Lead Definition agreed to between sales and marketing

1

What is a lead?

Inquiries are not leads

• 5 to 15% of all inquiries are sales-ready

Sales doesn’t need to “accept” the leads

• Confirm whether the lead met the Universal Lead Definition agreed to between sales and marketing

Create your very own version of a ULD

• Apply it to every lead, and iterate as you close the loop

1

What is a lead?

Inquiries are not leads

• 5 to 15% of all inquiries are sales-ready

Sales doesn’t need to “accept” the leads

• Confirm whether the lead met the Universal Lead Definition agreed to between sales and marketing

Create your very own version of a ULD

• Apply it to every lead, and iterate as you close the loop

CREATE YOUR ULD

1

Identify the right companies and people

Action Item: ULD checklist F What makes a good sales lead? • How can we raise the bar and give your better more actionable leads? • What initiative or need makes this a good fit? • What info is necessary to determine if a lead is worth the follow-up? • What are the titles/job functions of economic buyers and influencers? • What does this company values? What is its culture like? • What are the common business issues?

"

1

Identify the right companies and people

What information is required to qualify leads as being sales ready?

• What are the characteristics of the ideal sales opportunity? • What are the questions sales want answered before getting a lead? • What info is must-have vs. nice-to-have? • Which questions tend to gather the most-needed information? • What should we start doing to make leads more actionable? • What things should we stop doing with leads that don’t value? "

F Action Item: ULD checklist

What information is required to qualify leads as being sales-ready?

• What are the characteristics of the ideal sales opportunity? • What are the questions sales want answered before getting a lead? • What info is must-have vs. nice-to-have? • Which questions tend to gather the most-needed information? • What should we start doing to make leads more actionable? • What things should we stop doing with leads that don’t value?

"

1

Identify the right companies and people

Action Item: ULD checklist F

"

Use the ULD to delineate “sales-ready” vs. “nurture” lead statuses • Will there be a time frame to evaluate and implement a solution? • Will there be a formal or informal budget in place? • Are there specific behaviors or traits you are looking for?

1

Identify the right companies and people

Identify key info a sales rep would value in speaking with a prospect • What fuels interest and how must we focus on it with the solution? • Where is the best entry point? • Who is involved in the buying process as it evolves? • Should anyone else be contacted? • Where’s the funding coming from and who has authority over it?

"

Then, only send as many sales ready leads that the sales person can effectively handle

Action Item: ULD checklist F

Then, only send as many sales-ready leads that the sales person can effectively handle

"

Identify key info a sales rep would value in speaking with a prospect • What fuels interest and how must we focus on it with the solution? • Where is the best entry point? • Who is involved in the buying process as it evolves? • Should anyone else be contacted? • Where’s the funding coming from and who has authority over it?

1

Identify the right companies and people

Identify key info a sales rep would value in speaking with a prospect • What fuels interest and how must we focus on it with the solution? • Where is the best entry point? • Who is involved in the buying process as it evolves? • Should anyone else be contacted? • Where’s the funding coming from and who has authority over it?

"

Then, only send as many sales ready leads that the sales person can effectively handle

Action Item: ULD checklist F

Then, only send as many sales ready leads that the sales person can effectively handle

"

Identify key info a sales rep would value in speaking with a prospect • What fuels interest and how must we focus on it with the solution? • Where is the best entry point? • Who is involved in the buying process as it evolves? • Should anyone else be contacted? • Where’s the funding coming from and who has authority over it?

FOCUS ON EFFICIENCY

1

Background: An industrial testing equipment manufacturer engaged the MECLABS Leads Group to follow up on leads generated through tradeshows and a PPC campaign offering a free book.

Goal: To understand when to stop calling a teleprospecting list.

Primary research question: At which point does the value of sales-ready leads from a calling campaign no longer outweigh the costs?

Approach: Record and analyze teleprospecting campaign data to discover the point of diminishing returns

Experiment ID: (Protected) Location: MECLABS Leads Group Library Test Protocol Number: TP1214

Research Notes:

15

Experiment: Background 1

Primary research question: At which point does the value of sales-ready leads from a calling campaign no longer outweigh the costs?

Experiment: Campaign path

Leads Generated

Tradeshows PPC campaign

Qu

alif

ied

Le

ads

Re-engagement

1

Days 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Leads 412 57 14 4 11 12 8 10 6 5 1 2 2 3 10

Percent 61.3% 8.5% 2.1% 0.6% 1.6% 1.8% 1.2% 1.5% 0.9% 0.7% 0.1% 0.3% 0.3% 0.4% 1.5%

Cumulative 412 469 483 487 498 510 518 528 534 539 540 542 544 547 557

Cumulative % 61.3% 69.8% 71.9% 72.5% 74.1% 75.9% 77.1% 78.6% 79.5% 80.2% 80.4% 80.7% 81.0% 81.4% 82.9%

Days 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

Leads 7 5 3 5 2 3 5 3 4 2 3 3 2 3 6

Percent 1.0% 0.7% 0.4% 0.7% 0.3% 0.4% 0.7% 0.4% 0.6% 0.3% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.4% 0.9%

Cumulative 564 569 572 577 579 582 587 590 594 596 599 602 604 607 613

Cumulative % 83.9% 84.7% 85.1% 85.9% 86.2% 86.6% 87.4% 87.8% 88.4% 88.7% 89.1% 89.6% 89.9% 90.3% 91.2%

Days 31 34 36 37 38 39 40 42 44 46 47 48 49 51 53

Leads 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 2 1

Percent 0.4% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.6% 0.1% 0.3% 0.1%

Cumulative 616 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 631 632 634 635

Cumulative % 91.7% 92.0% 92.1% 92.3% 92.4% 92.6% 92.7% 92.9% 93.0% 93.2% 93.3% 93.9% 94.0% 94.3% 94.5%

17

Experiment: Results

Point of diminishing returns: Consider the value of a lead against your campaign cost to discover the point at which ROI is no longer favorable

!

1

18

Experiment: Results

Analysis of the calling and lead generation data showed that 90% of successful leads were converted within 28 days of first contact

• 60% of conversions happened on the first day

• Another 30% take place over the next month

• Conversions dropped off significantly after 28 days

Looking for a decision point:

• 30 days is when conversions stop increasing every day

• 15 days is the last point at which at least 1% of conversions occur

• 9 days is where you reach 80% of conversions

• 2 days is where you reach 70% of conversions

*The last conversion in this data set took place on 343rd day (672 total conversions)

1

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

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Experiment: Results

* *

15 days last point at which

at least 1% of conversions occur

30 days conversions

stop increasing every day

Campaign days

Sale

s-re

ady

lead

s 1

Identify the right companies and people

Initiate a memorable conversation

Nurture regardless of time to buy

1

3

4

Optimizing the Lead

Segment, score and prioritize 2

Sample Marketing and Sales Process

Lead Capture

Segment and Score Leads

Qualify and Nurture

Sales Engagement

Analyze Results

Capture leads

Normalize data

Enrich data

Merge de-dupe

Segment leads by potential

Apply lead score: lead data

lead behavior

ULD

Qualify phone-ready leads

Distribute sales- ready leads

Analyze data

Close the loop

Leads converted

Sales pipeline

Sales closed

Overview deck

Opportunity

Approach deck

Proposal and LOA

Close

2

Step 1. Lead Capture

Web inquiries

Sales generated

Subscribers

Social media Inquiries

Event registrants and attendees

Webinar registrants / inquiries

Enrich data

Unusable data store

Merge and de-dupe

Normalize data

External firmographic

data

2

Step 2. Segment and Score Leads

Segment for next action

Sales Qualification and Discovery

Human interpretation (qualitative)

Segmentation based on potential

(quantitative)

Lead

scoring

Phone Qualification and Discovery

Touch Points (e.g., what content have they engaged?)

Explicit User-supplied Data (e.g., Registration Forms)

Data Hygiene, Enhancement and Consolidation

Targeting/Messaging/Calls-to-Action

2

Step 3. Qualify Leads

Implicit Information

Touch points

User-tracked behavior What have they engaged?

Explicit Information

$ Sales-ready Leads

Contacts

Companies

Ideal Customer

Does it meet the ULD?

Rep call to qualify

Assign to rep

Inquiry comes into DB

Hand off to sales possibilities

2

Step 3. Qualify Leads

Mark as nurturing Email

Call quarterly

Mark as disqualified

Not a fit

Interest Timeframe

Budget

Critical ULD Factor 1 Critical ULD Factor 2

NO Does not meet ULD

2

YES Set appointment Hand off to Sales

Step 3. Qualify Leads

Prospects willing to speak with

sales?

YES Meets ULD

NO Mark as nurturing

Email/Call

2

Cycle back to improve your DB

Web Inquiries

Sales Generated

Webinar

Registrants / Inquiries

Social Media Inquiries

Event Registrants and Attendees

Downloadable Tool

Database Touchpoints

John Smith Touchpoints: 02/08/2012 - Attended Workshop “Advanced Event Marketing Practices” 10/18/2011 - Email Opened “TODAY: How marketers are transforming change” 10/18/2011 - Downloaded Tradeshow checklist tool 10/18/2011 - Attended Webinar - B2B Mkg BMR: Marketers 10/12/2011 - Email Link Clicked “Three ways to increase leads generation at tradeshows and events” 10/12/2011 - Email Opened “Three ways to increase leads generation at tradeshows and events” 09/20/2011 - Downloaded Q3 Event Summary whitepaper 09/19/2011 - Attended Webinar – “Event budget planning” 09/05/2011 - Called – Spoke with Inbound Inquiry team 09/02/2011 - Message: Your question about services 09/01/2011 - Web Lead – Web – Contact Page

2

Progressive Profiling

First-time download lead gen form Subsequent download progressive profiling

Capture a little more information each time you provide value

2

Sample Marketing and Sales Process

Lead Capture

Segment and Score

Leads

Qualify and Nurture

Sales Engagement

Analyze Results

Capture leads

Normalize data

Enrich data

Merge de-dupe

Segment leads by potential

Apply lead score: lead data

lead behavior

ULD

Qualify phone- ready leads

Distribute sales- ready leads

Analyze data

Close the loop

Leads converted

Sales pipeline

Sales closed

Overview deck

Opportunity

Approach deck

Proposal and LOA

Close

2

Identify the right companies and people

Segment, score and prioritize

Nurture regardless of time to buy

1

2

4

Optimizing the Lead

Initiate a memorable conversation 3

Relevance

3

Timing + Relevance

3

Timing + Relevance

Memorable

3

Timing + Relevance

Memorable

TIME YOUR TOUCHES

3

Lead Generation Model

INQUIRY CUSTOMER

Identify Need

Make Decision

3

Lead Generation Model

INQUIRY CUSTOMER LEAD

Research Solutions

Identify Need

Make Decision

3

Lead Generation Model

INQUIRY CUSTOMER LEAD SALES-READY LEAD

Research Solutions

Develop Short List

Identify Need

Make Decision

3

Lead Generation Model

INQUIRY CUSTOMER QUALIFIED PROSPECT

LEAD SALES-READY LEAD

Research Solutions

Develop Short List

Identify Need

Review Proposals

Make Decision

3

Lead Generation Model

INQUIRY CUSTOMER QUALIFIED PROSPECT

LEAD SALES-READY LEAD

Research Solutions

Develop Short List

Identify Need

Review Proposals

Make Decision

Branding Advertising

PR

SEO Website

Direct Mail

Events Tradeshows

Webinars

Outbound calls

Inbound 800#

Lead Nurture Opt-in Email

Conference Calls

Face to Face

Follow-up

3

Lead Generation Model

INQUIRY CUSTOMER QUALIFIED PROSPECT

LEAD SALES-READY LEAD

Research Solutions

Develop Short List

Identify Need

Review Proposals

Make Decision

Branding Advertising

PR

SEO Website

Direct Mail

Events Tradeshows

Webinars

Outbound calls

Inbound 800#

Lead Nurture Opt-in Email

Conference Calls

Face to Face

Follow-up

Broadly Targeted Less Interactive Less Measurable

Narrowly Targeted Highly Interactive

Highly Measurable

3

Multi-modal Lead Generation 3

Case Study

Background: A networking equipment company facing bankruptcy needed to prevent leads from going to the competition, improve reputation and accelerate pipeline velocity. Objective: To determine if a clearly defined funnel and highly focused message will optimize progression through funnel stages and close deals. Test Design: Marketing-sales collaboration, message map development, multichannel messaging and sales team follow-up.

Experiment ID: Networking equipment company funnel optimization test Location: MECLABS Primary Research Library Test Protocol: CS31556

Research Notes:

3

43

Case Study

• Sales and Marketing collaboration

• Identify target accounts, specific audiences and key issues for campaign messaging

Messaging Issues Accounts Audiences

3

44

We consciously chose the most vocal salespeople to participate in the process to accelerate buy-in.

Chris Waldo

Demand Generation Leader, Americas

Nortel

3

45

Case Study: Campaign messaging

What’s Next

Urgency

Rebuild Trust

Assurance

Content Audit

3

46

Case Study: Multi-channel messaging

• Microsite with messaging-related content

• Invitation-only in-person roundtable in 12 cities

• Invitation-only webinar

• Integrated social media

• Registered visitors added to automated email nurturing

3

47

Case Study: Sales team follow-up

• Microsite registrations mapped back to pipeline

• Weekly sales notification of lead opportunities

• Sales team follow-up based on opportunities that met lead criteria

3

Case Study: Results

What you need to understand: A clearly defined funnel and highly focused messaging will optimize progression through funnel stages.

30% Existing opportunity participation

34% Revenue came from campaign response

15% Microsite conversion rate

*

3

Identify the right companies and people

Segment, score and prioritize

Initiate a memorable conversation

1

2

3

Optimizing the Lead

Nurture regardless of time to buy 4

Case Study

Background: An IT management firm engaged MECLABS for lead generation

$80 million annual revenue 100 channel partners 27 sales people, 10 marketers

Objective: To determine if basic lead management can improve pipeline

Test Design: Creation of a ULD, lead qualification, lead nurturing, clear lead handoff and feedback process.

Experiment ID: IT desktop management firm Location: MECLABS Leads Group Research Library Test Protocol: LG4028

Research Notes:

4

Case Study: Challenges

• < 2% lead-to-sale pipeline conversion

• Marketing felt leads were going into a “black hole”

• No closed-loop feedback process

• Unable to measure ROI

More activity but the same results *

4

Case Study: The approach

Closed Loop

Feedback

Marketing Pipeline

Sales Pipeline

Customers

Returned Prospects

Events, Events, Summits, Guides, Subscribers, Website, Teleprospecting

Sales Ready Leads

Not a Fit

Sales Generated

Leads

Existing Clients

CRM

Measure ROI

HANDOFF

Level 3,4,5 Leads

Inquiries (Level 1)

Nurturing (Level 2)

4

Case Study: Results

375% Increase in sales-ready leads

200% Improved lead-to-sales opportunity

$4.9 M Additional sales pipeline in 8 months

4

Case Study: Results

375% Increase in sales-ready leads

200% Improved lead-to-sales opportunity

$4.9M Additional sales pipeline in 8 months

What you need to understand: By actively nurturing and closing the loop, improved lead to sales opportunity and pipeline increases are achieved *

4

Understand

Audience

Organize Content

Track Results

and Engagement

Execute Tracks

Messaging

Strategy

A relevant, consistent conversation with viable potential customers, regardless of their timing to buy.

•Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

1 •Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

2 •Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

3 •Touch

•Track

•Follow-Up

4

Progressive Lead Movement Across Buying Stages

What is lead nurturing? 4

Align messaging to roles and needs

Connect with your personas:

• Project Leader

• CIO

• Contact Center

• Field Service Center

• Executive Sponsor

• Stakeholders

CIO Q1

Month 1 Free executive report via direct mail with follow-up call

Month 2 Invitation to executive roundtable via email with follow-up call

Month 3 Link to relevant Podcast via email with follow-up voicemail

IT Director Q1

Month 1 3rd party article via email and voicemail

Month 2 3rd party article via email with follow-up

Month 3 Link to relevant webinar via email with follow-up call

IT Manager Q1

Month 1 Relevant white paper via email with voicemail

Month 2 Direct mail piece

Month 3 Invitation to webcast via email with follow-up call

Multi-track lead nurturing timeline

Client Plan for Q1 Audience: 3 Contacts Deep

4

Align messaging to roles and needs

Connect with your personas:

• Project Leader

• CIO

• Contact Center

• Field Service Center

• Executive Sponsor

• Stakeholders

CIO Q1

Month 1 Free executive report via direct mail with follow-up call

Month 2 Invitation to executive roundtable via e-mail with follow-up call

Month 3 Link to relevant Podcast via e-mail with follow-up voicemail

IT Director Q1

Month 1 3rd party article via e-mail and voice mail

Month 2 3rd party article via e-mail with follow-up

Month 3 Link to relevant webinar via e-mail with follow-up call

IT Manager Q1

Month 1 Relevant white paper via e-mail with voice mail

Month 2 Direct mail piece

Month 3 Invitation to webcast via e-mail with follow-up call

Multi-track lead nurturing timeline

Client Plan for Q1 Audience: 3 Contacts Deep

BUILD YOUR TRACKS

4

Repurpose quality content

Research Chart

4

Repurpose quality content

Tactical tool download

Blog post

Video clip Webinar

Email

Research chart

4

Measure and refine

Tactical tool download

Blog post

Video clip Webinar

Email

Research chart

Registrants Attendees

Replays

Views Likes/Dislikes Social Shares

Page views Comments

Social Shares

Opens Clickthroughs

Shares

Downloads Social Shares Lead Capture

4

Optimizing the Lead

Identify the right companies and people

Segment, score and prioritize

Initiate a memorable conversation

Nurture regardless of time to buy

1

2

3

4

Takeaways: Identify

Collaborate with your sales team to determine and apply your Universal Lead Definition

What information is required to qualify leads as being sales-ready?

• What are the characteristics of the ideal sales opportunity? • What are the questions sales want answered before getting a lead? • What info is must-have vs. nice-to-have? • Which questions tend to gather the most-needed information? • What should we start doing to make leads more actionable? • What things should we stop doing with leads that don’t value?

"

1

Takeaways: Prioritize

Set up a process that allows your team to increase pipeline velocity

2

Takeaways: Initiate

Match your conversation timing and relevance with your customer’s stage

3

INQUIRY CUSTOMER QUALIFIED PROSPECT

LEAD SALES-READY LEAD

Research Solutions

Develop Short List

Identify Need

Review Proposals

Make Decision

Takeaways: Nurture

Nurture leads, regardless of time to buy 4

Thank you

Questions?

Brian Carroll Pamela Markey

Executive Director, Director of Marketing

Revenue Optimization MECLABS

MECLABS

A data-driven optimization process that goes beyond lead capture

Optimizing the Lead

Experiment: Background

Background:

Objective:

Primary research question:

Test Design:

Experiment ID: Location: Test Protocol:

Research Notes:

68

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Lightest blue R:0, G:145, B:204

Light blue R:0, G:131, B:185

Medium blue R:0, G:105, B:150

Dark blue R:0, G:94, B:130

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