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  • HOW TO BOOST

    YOUR COMPANYS SALES

    WITH MARKETING

    A step-by-step guide to creatinga successful business-to-businessmarketing for leads program.

    M. H. Mac McIntosh

  • www.sales-lead-experts.com Page 2

    M. H. Mac McIntosh

    HOW TO BOOST

    YOUR COMPANYS SALES

    WITH MARKETINGA step-by-step guide to creating a successful

    business-to-business marketing for leads program.

    M. H. Mac McIntosh is one of Americas leading

    business-to-business marketing and sales consultants

    and an expert on the subject of sales leads.

    The primary objective of a successful marketing program is to bring in newbusiness. Marketing programs include many elements, ranging from brandbuilding to market research. But no single part of a business-to-business

    marketing program is more important than generating qualified sales leads.

    Marketing for leads drives sales. Done correctly, it will increase the bottom lineand help the company achieve its growth goals. Marketing programs that are bottom-line oriented focus on generating, nurturing and qualifying sales leads.

    In this guide, you will learn, step by step, how to create a successful business-to-business marketing for leads program.

  • HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

    To succeed, yourmarketing-for-

    leads plan mustreflect sales goals

    www.sales-lead-experts.com Page 3

    DETERMINE GOALS

    Step 1: Set goals at three levels.

    To succeed, your marketing for leads planmust reflect sales goals. Therefore, your firststep is to gather information needed todetermine your companys goals for salesrevenue in the coming year.

    Sales revenue goals need to be stated atthree levels:

    M i n i m u mgoal. What salesrevenue do youneed to stay inbusiness withoutlayoffs? Howmuch revenue isrequired to meetpayroll and cover

    other costs of doing business? What will ittake to keep your companys doors open?

    Target goal. Where would seniormanagement like your companys salesrevenue to be? If you are at a current runrate of $4 million, and they say they want togrow 25 percent, your new sales revenuegoal is $5 million.

    Stretch goal. If your management wantsto get really aggressive, what revenue goalswould they like to achieve? Perhapsthey would like to doubleor eventripleyour companys business in thecoming year.

    There is a straightforward way to determineyour companys sales revenue goals.Interview the senior executives at yourcompany, either serially or in a jointmeeting. The executives to interview includethe business and financial decision-makers(e.g., chief executive officer, chief operatingofficer, president, owner, partner, chieffinancial officer, controller, head ofaccounting) and the internal customers ofyour marketing programs (e.g., vicepresident of sales, director of channel sales,sales manager).

    Remember, you are looking to determineyour minimum, target and stretch goals. Ifthe executives describe the goal in terms ofcompany growth rather than in dollars,convert it into a dollar figure. If theexecutives say they want the company to bethe biggest in the industry, look at thesales revenue of all your competitors andset your sales revenue goal above that ofthe industry leader.

    If the various executives you interview statedifferent opinions about corporate goals,you will need to negotiate a consensus. Thismay be as easy as pointing out thediscrepancy to them. It is not uncommonfor the executives to have different answersabout goals. It is a service to the leadershipof the organization when the marketingexecutive is willing to go back and forthbetween them to arrive at a unified opinion.

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    CONSIDER NEW BUSINESS

    How Much New Business Do I Need?

    The following calculation will help you to determine the amount of revenue from new businessyour company will need to generate from marketing leads to meet its revenue goals.

    Your companys current years sales revenue $

    The percentage of business you typically lose during the course of the year x %

    The sales revenue from new business your company must generate duringthe next year just to stay even = $

    Additional sales revenue from new business needed to meet the newsales revenue goal + $

    Total revenue needed from new business to meet sales revenue goal = $

    Step 2: Determine the percentageof your companys revenue thatneeds to come from new business.

    As you state your companys sales revenuegoals, consider not only the amount of newbusiness you will need to grow to thedesired level, but also the amount of newbusiness required to replace business youwill lose during the targeted period.

    If your goal is a 25 percent increase in salesrevenue, how much new business do youneed to secure? Say your current salesrevenue level is $4 million. At first, itappears you need an additional $1 millionin sales to meet the goal. However, if youreally need $2 million in sales during theforecast period just to replace lost businessand stay even, you will actually need to add$3 million in new sales revenue to meetyour goal.

    Step 3: Determine the per-centage of your companys newbusiness revenue that needsto come from marketing-gen-erated leads.

    The next step focuses on determininghow many leads your marketingprograms need to generate so thatthe company can meet its salesrevenue goals.

    Some people may get involved in an oldargument, Why do we need marketing?We have a robust sales force that is

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

  • The average business-to-business sales call cost $329 in 2001, according to CahnersResearch. This figure is based on responses from 23,341 businesses. Additional keyfindings of Cahners study include the following facts:

    1. A typical business-to-business sale that exceeds $35,000 takes an average of 5.12 sales callsto close.

    2. Less than 20 percent of sales efforts focus on prospective new clients.

    3. The average number of sales calls taken by customers over the phone is 4.61 per week.

    4. On average, customers have only 1.81 in-person meetings per week with salespeople.

    5. Seventy-five percent of the companies studied say that making a sale valued at more than $35,000requires a combination of direct and indirect sales efforts.

    What is the Cost of a Business-to-Business Sales Call?

    www.sales-lead-experts.com Page 5

    capable of bringing in sales. Why botherwith a complicated marketing plan? Thefact is, even with a capable, motivated salesteamwhich includes a combination of

    s a l e s p e o p l e ,d i s t r i b u t o r s ,resellers andrepsyou aregenerating lesssales revenuethan you could beif you relied onthe efforts of themarketing teamto find newb u s i n e s sopportunities. Inaddition, if you

    depend only on the sales team, your cost ofselling is probably higher than itneeds to be.

    In any business-to-business sales situation,salespeople typically find, on their own,

    We have a robustsales force that

    is capable ofbringing in sales.Why bother witha complicated

    marketing plan?

    about 40 percent of the new businessopportunities needed to meet theircompanys sales revenue goal. They developsales opportunities through referrals,additional projects from past customers,potential customers they meet at networkingevents and past customers who have movedto new companies.

    All of that works well for generating salesup to a point. Salespeople working on theirown dont generally reach the other 60percent of sales potential for some verygood reasons:

    Salespeoples quotas and compensationprograms reward them for bringing inshort-term salesthis week, this month,this quarter. Therefore, they have littleincentive to work the longer-termopportunities.

    Most people generally hate the rejectionthat results from cold calling. Salespeople

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

  • www.sales-lead-experts.com Page 6

    are no different. They prefer to spend timewith prospects that are ready to buy now,even though in reality those buyersrepresent only a fraction of salesopportunities.

    Salespeople tend to spend most of theirtime with current customers.

    So how can marketing for leads be used toidentify the other 60 percent of sales op-portunities and make the sales team moreefficient overall? Lead-generation tacticssuch as direct mail, telemarketing andevents are ideal for finding qualified salesleads so that salespeople can spend eachsales call where it is most likely to generaterevenue. Online marketing via websites thatcater to your target audience is anothercost-effective way to generate leads.

    With the cost of a business-to-business salescall rising each year, companies cannotignore the price tag associated with callingon prospects. By using the most efficienttechniques to generate leads and investingin personal sales calls only when they havea greater potential to bring you closer to aclosed sale, you automatically lower the costof sales. The role of marketing for leads isto identify and nurture leads, moving themalong to a point where the cost of a personalsales call, or a series of sales calls, becomesan investment in an actual sale.

    FOCUS ON LEADS

    Step 4: Determine the definition ofa qualified sales lead with whichmarketing, sales and corporatemanagement agree.

    Your goal as a marketer is to help generatesales. Although there are some steps inclosing sales that are out of your control,what you can do is identify qualified salesleads up front. If marketing, managementand sales all agree from the start on what aqualified lead is, there is a better chancethat you will generate leads that are valuableto the salespeople. Its important to confirmthe definition, in writing, with all parties.The definition of a qualified lead is differentfor each company, and each must do thework to define its own meaning of aqualified sales lead.

    Typical definitions include criteria such asthe following:

    Does the prospect have a need or anapplication for your product or service?

    What is the prospects role in the decision-making process?

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

  • www.sales-lead-experts.com Page 7

    What is the prospects timing for purchaseor implementation?

    What is the status of the prospects budget? What is the size of the opportunity?

    A prospect is a contact at a company whoadmits to a business problem, either latentlyor directly, that could be solved by a productand/or service that you are selling.

    Your role, as amarketer, is togive the prospecthope of solvinghis/her com-panys problem.Here are a fewexamples:

    Problem: Thec o m p a n y scurrent disparatecomputer systemsrequire employ-ees to perform

    redundant data entry, thus wasting time andreducing efficiency.Solution: Your software product wouldenable single data entry.

    Problem: The companys managerssuspect its truck drivers are wasting timeon their routes, but they dont knowfor sure.Solution: Your global positioning systemwould allow management to track thelocation of each truck at all times.

    Problem: The company relies on face-to-face meetings among employees located in

    various parts of the country, but it hasrecently slashed its travel budget. It cantafford to send the employees to meetingsthat require air travel.Solution: Your web-based conferencingservice would make it possible for thecompanys employees to meet virtually incyberspace.

    In addition to having a business problemthat you can solve, qualified leads

    Have an established project in play. Thisis apparent if a solution task force hasalready been appointed or, for a smallcompany, if the inquirers boss asked him/her to find a solution or make arecommendation.

    Have the money to buy a solution, or arein the process of developing a budget.

    Plan to purchase within a reasonableamount of time.

    Have negotiated access to power. In otherwords, they can get you in front of theappropriate final decision-maker(s)when the time is right.

    In addition to defining a qualified lead, youshould create a glossary of standard termsdefining what your company considers tobe a suspect, a prospect, an inquiry,a response, a qualified lead, aqualified suspect, a qualified prospectand so forth. Again, sales, marketing andmanagement need to agree on the definitionof each term. This will avoid confusion later.

    Lead scoring can be a valuable tool as youcreate your qualification definitions. Toscore a lead, assign points based on how

    If all agree fromthe start on what aqualified lead is,there is a betterchance that you

    will generate leadsthat are valuable

    to the salespeople

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

  • www.sales-lead-experts.com Page 8

    well the prospect meets each of your lead-qualification criteria. Consider the followingexample:

    Funding, ready to go 5 points Budget in formulation 3 points No budget for project 0 points Is the decision-maker 5 points Is the recommender 2 points Is an influencer 2 points Has a clear need for product 5 points Plans to buy within

    six months 5 points Plans to buy in one year

    or more 1 point Plans to buy $50,000 of

    product 5 points Plans to buy less than

    $100 of product 0 points

    To score the lead, add up all the points.Then, for example, those with 20 or morepoints are determined to be qualified leads;you should send them to your sales force.

    Step 5: Determine how manyqualified sales leads are needed tomeet your revenue goals.

    Next, you should determine howmany qualified leads you need tomeet your revenue goals. Go to www.sales-lead-experts.com/tips/tools to find aMarketing Lead Calculator. Thisinteractive spreadsheet automaticallyperforms a series of simple calculationsbased on information you provide aboutyour sales goals, close rate, average salesprice and so forth, to give you a realistic

    number of leads you should strive for sothat you can meet your objectives.

    The Marketing Lead Calculator will ask youto answer the following questions:

    What is your companys gross salesrevenue target for the fiscal year? (SeeStep 1.)

    What percentage of your sales shouldcome from marketing leads? (SeeStep 3.)

    What is your average sale size (or lifetimevalue of an average customer)?

    What is the percentage of salesopportunities your company will win?

    What percentage of your inquiries willbecome qualified leads?

    What response rate do you expect? What is your expected cost per contact? How many salespeople need leads?

    Using the dollar figures and percentages youenter, the spreadsheet will automaticallycalculate the following:

    Revenue needed from marketing leadsthis fiscal year

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

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    New customers needed this fiscal year Qualified leads needed Total inquiries needed Total contacts needed Contacts per quarter needed Contacts per month needed Lead-generation budget Lead-generation budget as a percentage

    of sales Average cost per inquiry Average cost per qualified lead Average cost per sale Inquiries needed per salesperson this

    fiscal year Qualified leads needed per salesperson

    this fiscal year Qualified leads needed per salesperson

    per month

    Notice that the Marketing Lead Calculatorgives you not only the total number ofmarketing contacts, or touches, you requireto meet your sales goal, but it also givesyou the number of contacts needed perquarter and per month. Keep in mind thatyou can create a steady stream of leads byrolling out lead-generation programs everymonth rather than by launching one largeprogram at the beginning or end of the year.In other words, you will be more effectiveif you make one-twelfth of your total annualcontacts per month rather than making themajority of contacts in one part of the year.(Furthermore, contact and prospectare not synonymous. You can, and should,contact certain prospects multiple timesthroughout the sales cycle. Whats importantis how many contacts you make, not howmany people you contact.)

    A final consideration about the MarketingLead Calculator is the length of time it takes

    to close a sale. For example, if you have asix-month sales cycle, you should aim fortwice as many leads as the calculatorsuggests. Why? Because if it takes six monthsto close a sale to a lead, half the leads youwill get this year will close too late to affectthe current years sales goal.

    Step 6: Determine how many newinquiries are needed to identifyenough qualified sales leads to meetyour goals.

    The Marketing Lead Calculator will help youdetermine how many new inquiries youneed to identify so that you will have enoughqualified sales leads to meet your goals.(See Step 5.) Research conducted by MacMcIntosh, Inc., and its clients on business-to-business buying across industriesshows that

    One in four of those who buy do so withinsix months.

    Another one in four buys within the nextsix months.

    Another one in four buys within the thirdsix months.

    The final one in four buys after eighteenmonths.

    Simply said, three out of four sales arelonger-term opportunities. Therefore,although it may be tempting to create anoccasional, dramatic marketing programthat drums up a large number of newleadsso you can skim the ones that areready to buy nowyou are actually betteroff investing in an ongoing series ofmarketing-for-leads programs.

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

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    STRATEGY:

    BUSINESS PROBLEM

    AND BUSINESS SOLUTION

    Step 7: Determine the specificbusiness problems your products/services address and the problemsyour company is qualified to solve.

    The first step in developing your marketingstrategy is to identify the business problemsyour product or service will relieve. Whywould somebody buy what you are selling?What specific problems does it solve?

    For example, if you sell filling-lineequipment to bottling plants, you mightsolve the problem caused by faultyintegration between the labeling and bar-coding equipment. Or if you are selling tax-consulting services, you might solve theeconomic problem caused by paying toomuch in taxes.

    In addition, you need to think about theproblems your company and its people arequalified to solve based on your experienceand special credentials. What kinds of

    business problems have you helpedcustomers with in the past? What kinds ofprofessional or educational credentials andindustry experience do your people have?What licenses, certifications or approved-vendor status does your company hold?

    Step 8: Determine your companyscompetitive advantages and howbest to articulate them.

    You need to leverage your companysunique selling proposition to articulate forprospects what is in it for them (thesolution) if they buy from you.

    For example, if you are an individualconsultant, you could articulate yourcompetitive advantage by explaining thatyou will not be relegating the prospectsbusiness to an inexperienced employee. Youcould also point out that, because you area small company, the prospects businesswill be very important to youmoreimportant than it would be to a largervendor.

    If yours is a large company, you could talkabout the depth of expertise representedby your large staff. Or you could point outthat you wouldnt have grown so large ifyou didnt provide the highest qualityproducts or services.

    Pinpoint your companys competitiveadvantages by using a SWOT analysis. SWOTstands for Strengths, Weaknesses,Opportunities and Threats. Start a list undereach category.

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

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    Then determine which of those you can dosomething about. Are there threats you canturn into opportunities? An example of athreat would be the downsizing occurringin prospect companies. You can turn thatinto an opportunity by articulating theoperational efficiency provided by yourproduct or service offering.

    To articulate yourcompanys com-petitive advant-age, tell custom-ers why the ad-vantage is relevantto them. Here aresome examples:

    Competitivea d v a n t a g e :Your companyhas the capacity tomass producesilicon micro-gizmos.Articulation:

    We can supply all your silicon micro-gizmos with minimal lead time, thanks toour annual production capability of4,000 tons.

    Competitive advantage: Your companyis the only one in the industryheadquartered in the Miami area.Articulation: We can provide just-in-time service for Greater Miami-basedcompanies because we are headquarteredin Coral Gables.

    Althoughtheoretically everycompany in every

    business maybenefit from your

    solution, you cantafford to try tobe everythingto everyone

    Competitive advantage: Your companyhas a nationwide network of service centers.Articulation: We can support all yourinstallations, coast to coast, through ournationwide network of technicians.

    Step 9: Target the best companiesand contacts with your lead-generation efforts.

    Determine who has the business problemyour products and services address, bothat the level of companies and at the level ofcontacts within those companies.

    Create three lists that rank your currentcustomers using three criteria:

    Gross revenue. Place the largestcompanies at the top of the list and thesmallest at the bottom.

    Profitability. List from mostprofitable to least profitable. Keep inmind that the most profitable are notnecessarily those with the most grossrevenue.

    Fit. Which companies represent the bestfit for what you are selling? This rankingis more subjective than the first two. Itidentifies the companies you know well,those with business you understand, thosethat are fun to work with, those youunderstand best and those with which youhaveor could havea great workingrelationship. Rank these companies inorder, descending from the best fit.

    Your ideal customers are those that are at,or near, the top of all three lists. While

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

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    reviewing your existing customers, considerthe following questions:

    What industries are they in? Are they small, medium or large

    businesses? Where are they located geographically? What is their Standard Industrial

    Classification (SIC) code? What are the titles or job functions of their

    decision-makers?

    This information will help you find similarcompanies and decision-makers to targetwith your marketing efforts. Determine whatis unique about them so that you can findmore like them.

    In addition to looking at your currentcustomer base, review your companysinternal expertise and credentials todetermine likely prospects for yoursolutions. If your company is a start-up andhas no existing customers, you can leverageyour own past experience and that of yourpeople. Think about the kinds of companiesyou and your team have had success within previous jobs.

    You also can educate yourself on a verticalmarket (i.e., a particular industry, such asresidential or commercial construction,banking, distribution or the retail clothingbusiness), weaving the industrys concerns

    and buzzwords into your marketing-for-leads materials. This will suggest that youdo understand the market and its needs.However, be prepared to answer thequestion, Who else in my industry have youserved? It is bound to come up.

    If you dont believe you can successfully sellinto vertical markets, consider horizontalmarkets. These are markets that crossindustry lines. To articulate a horizontal-marketing strategy, you could say, forexample, We are the inventory-controlexperts for small- to medium-sizedbusinesses.

    Geographic markets are another possibility.You could combine horizontal andgeographic marketing with a statement suchas: We are right here in Akron, Ohio, andwe are uniquely qualified to help you withyour inventory-control needs.

    Although theoretically every company inevery business may benefit from yoursolution, you cant afford to try to beeverything to everyone. You must pick thecompanies with which you are likely to havethe best success and the individuals withinthose companies who are in the bestposition to recommend or buy yourproducts or services.

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

  • COMMUNICATE WITH

    YOUR AUDIENCE

    www.sales-lead-experts.com Page 13

    Determine whohas the business

    problem yourproducts and

    services address

    Step 10: Determine how to reach thebest companies and contacts.

    After you have identified the best companiesand contacts to target with your lead-generation efforts, you need to devise ways

    to reach them.The first step is todetermine to whatmedia the targetaudience is ex-posed. For ex-ample, what mag-azines do theyread? This mayinclude nationalbusiness or trade

    publications, regional magazines or theregional editions of national publications.

    In addition, you should think about the

    Professional associations to which yourtarget contacts belong.

    Conferences and tradeshows they attend. Newsletters to which they subscribe. Websites they visit for professional

    information. Radio and television programming that

    attracts them.

    Each of these, potentially, is the source of amailing list, website, conference orpublication that would be appropriate forreaching your target contacts.

    Another way to find the best companies andcontacts is through their professionaladvisors (e.g., accountant, insurance agent,attorney, consultant). Often these advisorsprovide recommendations on purchasesrelevant to their spheres of knowledge. Inother words, they influence buyers. Forexample, a decision-maker in search of acommercial printer might ask his/hergraphic design firm for recommendations.Therefore, your marketing plan should havesome provision for articulating yourcompetitive advantage to these influencers.

    Step 11: Determine the marketingresources available to you

    To determine the resources needed toimplement your marketing for leadsprograms, you may need to think outsideof your present staff:

    You may be able to take on an intern froma local college to help with marketingcoordination activities.

    If you lack in-house resources, consideroutsourcing to specialists:

    Marketing communications experts Graphic designers Event coordinators Telemarketing companies Temp firms

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    Where do you find these outsourcedresources? Ask your peers at othercompanies. See the vendor lists in yourindustry trade association directory. Or visitthe following websites:

    www.freeagent.com www.guru.com www.marketing-match.com www.msquared.com

    Step 12: Determine and prioritizehow best to communicate with yourtarget companies and contacts.

    There are a number of marketing vehiclesavailable to you, ranging from newspaperadvertising to putting your company logoon the Goodyear blimp. However, somemarketing methods have proven to be moresuccessful than others for business-to-business marketing. The tried-and-truebasics of marketing for leads includethe following:

    A good marketing database Direct marketing to generate inquiries Online marketing to catch searchers (this

    includes strong offers, easy-to-useresponse forms and search engineoptimization)

    Websites to bridge the gap betweenmarketing and sales with more in-depthpresales information

    Relationship marketing to nurture andqualify prospects

    Events to help move prospects towardpurchase

    Sales tools to help your sales team sell

    Generally, it is best to start with these basicsand augment them with techniques such asadvertising and public relations after thebasics are firmly in place. Whatever tacticsyou use, make sure the results will bemeasurable; you will need to evaluate theprograms effectiveness later on so that youmay better target your future efforts andprove to senior management that marketingis getting results.

    Step 13: Determine and prioritizetactics for eliciting inquiries fromthese companies and contacts.

    To elicit inquiries from your marketingefforts, you must make strong offers.Consider educational offers such as how-to guides, buying guides, live demos andinvitations to events.

    PRIORITIZE YOUR TACTICS

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    Tailor your offers to appeal to people atdifferent stages of the buying cycle. Thiscould mean a white paper or informationkit for a new prospect early in the buying

    process versus aseminar invitationfor the prospectyou have beennurturing for sixmonths who iscloser to beingready to buy.

    In addition, con-sider self-quali-fying offers. Whocould be more

    interested in a white paper on selecting flat-screen monitors than someone who isthinking about buying this kind of productin the first place?

    You should also use multiple offers. Heresan example from a direct-mail letter:

    To request your free Energy-EfficientLighting Selection Guide, sign up for thefree webinar about the latest in energy-efficient lighting or speak with a lightingconsultant:call (800) 555-1212 or (212) 555-1212,fax (800) 555-1213 or (212) 555-1213,email [email protected],o r v i s i t o u r w e b s i t e a twww.YourLightingCo.com/EnergySaver.

    The availability of multiple offers givesprospects at all stages of the buying cyclethe chance to select the offer appropriateto their needs and the stage of their buyingdecision process.

    You should also make it easy for people torespond to your marketing. Include yourwebsite address (URL), email address, toll-free phone number, regular phone number(for your international callers) and faxnumber. Also consider including a couponor business reply cards they can mail orfax back to you.

    Step 14: Determine and prioritizetactics for identifying qualifiedsales leads.

    This step gets back to how you define aqualified lead. (See Step 4). Create yourresponse forms with questions that elicit theinformation you need to determine whetherthe respondent fits your definition of aqualified lead.

    Make sure all your response channels askthe same qualifying questions. For example,the people who answer your incomingtelemarketing calls should ask the samequestions that are on your websitesresponse form, and those should matchthe questions on your post-paidresponse cards.

    Finally, remember that lead qualification isnot an interrogation. Minimize the numberof questions you ask and keep thosequestions short, or you may scareaway prospects.

    ...you can usethe mail, fax,email and thephone to stayin touch with

    customers

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

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    Step 15: Develop and prioritizetactics for nurturing your not-yet-qualified leads until they aredetermined to be qualified.

    As mentioned earlier, the longer-termprospects represent three out of four of yoursales opportunities. This step concentrateson moving those prospects through thesales cycle.

    To use an analogy, imagine that yourmarketplace is an orchard of fruit trees.Your marketing people are the orchardtenders. They plant, weed, feed and waterthe trees. When the fruit is ripe, they call inthe fruit pickersthe salespeople,distributors, resellers and reps. If enoughtrees were planted (marketing for leads)and the orchard was well tended(relationship marketing and follow up),there will be a bountiful crop of fruit to bepicked (sales) year round. If not, thepickings will be slim.

    In your relationship marketing program,you can use the mail, email and the phoneto stay in touch with customers. You cansend newsletters, requested literature, newliterature, press releases, show invitations,article reprints and case studies. You canalso host events to keep in touch withprospects on a regular basis and help movethem along in their buying process.

    ROLE OF SALES TOOLS

    Step 16: Determine and prioritize thesales tools.

    Since driving sales revenue is the primarygoal of your marketing program, your salesteam is your most important internalcustomer. To truly understand what yoursalespeople face every day, ride along withthem on some sales calls. This will give youa better idea of what they are up against,and what sales tools you need to provide tohelp them demonstrate, propose and closesales. If you give them tools that make themsuccessful with prospects at all stages of thesales cycle, you will develop a win-winrelationship.

    Within the overall sales cycle are severalsmaller sales cycles, or subcycles:

    The prospect comes to terms with havinga need for your product or service.

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    The prospect identifies the type of productor service that could solve that businessproblem.

    The prospect selects a specific vendor. The prospect makes the purchase.

    There are tools you can provide to help yoursalespeople, distributors, brokers, resellersor reps address each subcycle. These toolsshow the business solution offered by yourcompanys products and servicesanddemonstrate the advantages of selectingyours instead of a competitors. Sales toolsinclude the following:

    PowerPoint presentations Online demonstrations Leave-behinds (brochures, advertising

    specialties) Templates Case studies Reference stories

    Templates may be in the form of thank-youor follow-up letters, emails and sales-proposal documents. For example, you cancreate a compelling sales-proposal templateusing photographs and charts/graphs thatfavorably compare your companysproducts and services to those of thecompetition. An attractive sales-proposaldocument demonstrates your companyscompetence and professionalism. If you donot offer templates and other sales tools,your sales team will create them on theirown. You may not like the results, so takethe initiative and give them tools to helpthem sell.

    In addition to creating sales tools to helpyour salespeople demonstrate, propose andclose sales, be sure to communicate to thesales team in advance about your lead-generation campaigns, so that they canparticipate in making the most out of theleads that start coming in. Provide yoursales team with details:

    The campaigns offers How many leads you expect the campaign

    to generate When the campaign will hit Dates and times of events When they will need to follow up on the

    leads What codes to use when entering orders

    so that you can track the return oninvestment

    MERTRICS:

    MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS

    Step 17: Determine how best tomeasure the effectiveness ofmarketing programs.

    There are many ways to measuremarketing effectiveness, but inmarketing for leads the key metrics arethe number of qualified leads yourprograms generate and the programsROI. You need to be able to measurethe effectiveness of programs designedto accomplish diverse goals:

    Generate inquiries Identify qualified sales leads

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    Nurture not-yet-qualified inquiries Provide sales tools for your sales team

    To be able to close the loop later, try totrack the source of 100 percent of yourinquiries or leads. You can do this usingthe following:

    Special email addresses Unique URLs Codes on reply cards, coupons, labels,

    etc. Unique product numbers in your catalogs Extension numbers in your phone

    numbers Department codes or mail stops in your

    companys mailing addresses

    In addition, refer to reports from your CRMor inquiry-handling softwareor fromyour outsourced inquiry-handlingservicefor information about where theleads came from.

    Step 18: Determine how bestto communicate the results ofyour marketing programs tomanagement.

    Ironically, the more efficient you and yourteam are, the more invisible your activitiesmay be to senior management. In additionto reporting to senior management on theresults of your marketing programs, makesure your managers are aware of all themarketing tasks you are working on. Letthem know the many steps and activities youperform to implement a single direct-mailprogram or seminar. It can be useful to keep

    a spreadsheet that shows all activities forwhich the marketing team is responsible,both current and completed. Publicize whatyou are doing and management willappreciate the contribution to sales thatmarketing is making.

    RESOURCES AND BUDGET

    Step 19: Determine the resourcesand budget needed to accomplish allthe previous steps.

    There are three common approaches tobudgeting for marketing:

    a) Take last years budget and subjectivelyadd to it or cut it to arrive at a figure forthis years budget.

    b) Use a percentage of sales as the basisfor the coming years budget. With thisapproach, you look at what you plan tomake in sales in the coming year andmultiply that figure by a percentage; theresult is your marketing budget for thecoming year. For business-to-businessmarketers, four percent (excludingpersonnel costs) is a commonmultiplier. Note that you should avoidusing last years sales volume as the basisfor this calculation. If last year was a badyear for your company, and you onlybudget for four percent of that amount,you wont have a large enough marketingbudget to meet your growth goals in thecoming year.

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    c) Use blank-page budgeting, which is thebest approach. With this technique, youbuild the marketing budget from scratch,using your marketing plan and itsmarketing communications tactics tocreate the budget. To assist with blank-page budgeting, use the Marketing LeadCalculator to determine how much

    funding you willneed, in general,to meet thecoming yearssales goals. (SeeStep 5.) Then,starting with ablank page, list allthe costs for themarketing tacticsidentified in yourmarketing plan(e.g., rentals,postage, mater-ials, printing,design, photog-

    raphy and writing services) and totalthem up to determine the budgetyou need.

    You can use blank-page budgeting toprovide your management with threebudget options: minimum, target andstretch. These budget levels reflect howmuch funding you will require to meetthe minimum, target and stretch salesrevenue goals you defined initially. (SeeStep 1.) You can explain that meetingthe minimum sales goal will cost Xdollars, meeting the target goal will costY dollars and meeting the stretch goal

    Emphasize thecause-and-effect

    relationshipbetween

    your marketingplan/budget andthe companys

    sales goals

    will cost Z dollars. Typically, whenmanagement is presented with proposedbudgets that show a relationship to thecompanys goals, they will pick thebudget linked to their goals for thecompany rather than simply cutting thesingle budget number you otherwise mayhave proposed.

    Step 20: Use your marketing plan tojustify the budget.

    To fortify your budget proposal, be preparedto explain to management, in general, howyou intend to allocate the funds. Yourproposal should include a writtenmarketing plan geared to each of the threebudget levels, including an executivesummary, a situation analysis, corporategoals, marketing strategies and tactics, themarketing calendar and the budget.For a worksheet designed to help withcreating your marketing plan, go to http://www.sales-lead-experts.com/tips/tools/ tofind the Marketing Plan that Drives SalesWorksheet.

    Keep in mind that the executive summaryis simply a summary of key points. Althoughit may appear at the beginning of themarketing plan, be sure to write it last.

    Unless you are planning to use themarketing plan when raising money frominvestors or getting a loan from the bank,dont worry about making it fancy. APowerPoint presentation along with someExcel spreadsheets listing action items andbudgets is all you usually need.

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    Step 21: Get the marketing budgetapproved.

    Dramatic tactics can sometimes rallymanagement support. For example, obtaincopies of all marketing materials from allyour competitors and, before meeting withmanagement, wallpaper the conferenceroom with these brochures, websiteprintouts, ads and so forth. This has beenknown to evoke a strong emotionalresponse in favor of boosting the marketingbudget.

    If your managers resist your budgetproposal, emphasize the cause-and-effectrelationship between your marketing plan/budget and the companys sales goals. If theytalk about cutting the budget from thecurrent level, ask them which sales they arewilling to give up, because cutting thebudget will result in less sales revenue.

    IMPLEMENTATION

    Step 22: Determine the marketingschedule.

    After you gain managements approval ofthe budget, you need to determine the bestschedule of marketing activities to generateshort-term results and to create a steadystream of qualified sales opportunities.

    Some marketing activities take severalmonths to bear fruityou may be talkingto a prospect who wont buy until next year.Therefore, you need to focus some of yourmarketing programs on activities that willcreate sales sooner rather than later. Forexample, you could do a direct mailing to

    prospects who are already well along in thesales cycle. This kind of targeted marketingwill win more short-term sales than a largermailing to a broader audience.

    If your company has not done muchmarketing in the past, short-term results willhelp assure senior management of the valueof marketing. By placing short-termopportunities into the sales pipeline andhelping the sales team close those sales, youalso buy time to put longer-term marketingprograms in place.

    Step 23: Assign responsibilities.

    Having created a marketing schedule, youcan assign responsibilities to employees andoutsourced workers. (See Step 11.) Be sureto list the people assigned to each task,along with a target due date. Try to set thetarget due date a week or two early just incase there are unexpected delays. Thenpolitely remind the assigned people of theirtasks in advance of their due dates, offeringany assistance needed to help themcomplete the tasks on time.

    Step 24: Start implementing.

    If you have methodically performed eachof the preceding steps, you are ready to startimplementing your marketing for leadsprogram.

    To learn more about tacticalimplementation, please go to www.sales-lead-experts.com to find another how-toguide entitled, Business-to-BusinessLead-Generation Tactics: A Recipe forSuccess.

    HOW TO BOOST YOUR COMPANYS SALES WITH MARKETING

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