Five Myths of Lead Management

Lead management continues to be a hot topic in the world of B2B marketing as we turn the corner and head into the second half of 2010.  Over the last 12 months, marketing and sales dialogue increasingly has focused on how marketers can better engage with the more empowered B2B buyer and what they need to do in order to leverage the B2B buyer relationship. As a leader in lead management process development, our firm has seen a lot of confusion in the market about what constitutes lead management.  There is quite a bit of uncertainty on how companies should approach lead management and what it takes to achieve best practices.  In addition to the confusion, we’ve also witnessed the emergence of many falsehoods about lead management.

In this post, we’ll dispel what we see as the Top 5 Myths of B2B Lead Management.

So what are these myths?

Myth #1:  A Marketing Automation Solution by Itself Will Deliver Lead Management

This myth is at the top of the list as it is so prevalent in the market and causing a lot of confusion for many organizations.

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s many companies fell prey to a similar promise.  Remember the initial emergence of CRM solutions?  Companies embraced the hope of increased revenues and a more effective sales force if they simply implemented CRM.  What they found however was that CRM didn’t help them fix their faulty sales process.

Today many B2B marketers are buying into a similar idea: If they acquire a marketing automation solution, then they will wind up with a lead management process.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Technology adoption must occur hand-in-hand with process evolution.

Lead management is a business process that is enabled by technology (in this case marketing automation).  Groups such as Aberdeen Group and Gartner have substantiated this claim with their research into the B2B market.   Any organization seeking to develop effective lead management must remember that it is process first, technology second, not the other way around.

Myth #2:  Lead Management Is a Marketing-only Initiative

While the development of an internal closed-loop lead management process necessitates involvement from marketing, it is not solely a marketing program.  In fact, if organizations approach lead management from a “marketing only” perspective, the chances for long term success are short lived.

The development of a lead management process, at the very least, must involve a collaborative effort between marketing and sales.  These two groups must work together to define, agree to and implement the process.

In many cases there also will be other groups that will need to be involved, including IT, finance, third-party agencies, partner channels, etc.  The best lead management initiatives include a collaborative effort among all groups that have any stake in the demand generation continuum.  By including all of the appropriate groups, you will obtain a much fuller perspective on your prospects and customers, significantly increase the likelihood of company wide buy-in to lead management, and develop a process that has long term sustainability.

Myth #3:  Lead Management = Lead Scoring + Lead Nurturing

When our firm first engages with a prospective client, it’s not uncommon for us to hear them say something like, “I need help with my lead management process.  Can your firm help me create a lead scoring and nurturing program?”

While lead scoring and nurturing are important components of the lead management process, they certainly don’t constitute the whole.  To focus solely on these two parts would be akin to replacing only one tire on your car when all four are worn down.

When developing a lead management process, there are six key areas that should be taken into account.  At The Annuitas Group, we’ve defined this as the Lead Management Framework^TM.  This framework consists of the following components:

• Data
• Lead Planning
• Lead Qualification (Includes lead scoring)
• Lead Routing
• Lead Nurturing
• Content Mapping & Blueprint
• Metrics

We use the term ‘framework’ to describe the conjoined nature of these components.  Getting back to the tire analogy, to address only one of the components would be like replacing just one tire when all four are bad.  You can still drive the car, but the fuel efficiency is going to be significantly lower than hoped for.  In the same way, improving only one or two of the lead management components will not lead to significant marketing and sales effectiveness.  Instead, lead management must be looked at holistically.  Building out this framework in its entirety will provide a solid foundation and yield the best results.

Myth #4:  I Have a Solid Lead Generation Engine, So I Don’t Need To Worry About Lead Management

As referenced at the beginning of this post, the B2B buyer is now more empowered than ever before.  Their self-directed path to buying has changed significantly.  The most notable change in this path is that sales interaction comes at the end of the buying cycle instead of at the beginning.  In addition, buyers are now demanding one-to-one communication as they drive their own buying experience. It is incumbent on organizations to engage in this one-to-one dialogue if they want to win over the buyer.

Since this is the case, having rock solid lead generation campaigns, i.e. filling the top of the funnel, only serves to begin the dialogue with the buyer. True success comes from also having the ability to manage the relationship all the way through the buying process, i.e. lead management. Most B2B companies fail in this area.

It has been estimated by Gartner that up to 70% of leads generated by a campaign do not get the proper follow-up.  Ignoring these leads by not having effective lead management doesn’t just limit potential marketing ROI, it actually costs an organization money.

 

Myth #5: My Executive Team Would Never Sign-Off On a Lead Management Initiative

In situations where executives have said ‘no’ to a lead management initiative, it’s often because the initiative is presented as just another program.   In the minds of many executives, a new program = new expense.  With the economic turbulence over the recent years, executives want to know how to generate revenue, and cut expenses. However, initiatives that can focus on generating revenue have a better chance of getting funded.  In other words, lead management should be presented as an initiative that will generate revenue.

This scenario occurred with one of our clients.  The VP of marketing didn’t see the wisdom in spending money on the initiative.  Here was the response that we helped our client provide:

The lack of lead follow up is having a significant effect on sales productivity and overall revenue.  Gartner reports that 70% of all sales leads are never acted upon.  In addition, they report that 45% of the leads a company receives will eventually buy that company’s product or service, but not necessarily from that company.

Applying these percentages to the qualified lead totals generates the following:

• Total Leads/Responses Generated in 1-Month:  3,510
• 20% are qualified:  702
• Leads not followed up on (70%):  491
• Of the leads not followed up on, those that will buy(45%):  221
• Average sale amount:  $100,000
• Potential unrealized sales:  $22,100,000

When the executive was faced with the reality that developing a lead management process could help his organization recoup $22M in monthly sales, the approval was enthusiastically given.

Executives speak the language of revenue.  By framing lead management in ‘dollars and cents’ language, you can make the case for its importance.

As the B2B marketplace and the B2B buyer continue to change and mature, it will be vital for organizations to develop a cohesive, holistic lead management process.  Understanding truth from fiction will help companies from getting derailed, and will have a transforming affect on marketing and sales results.

This blog originally posted in August 2010 on Silverpop.com

 

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Don’t Limit Your Nurturing

A recent article in Click-Z, by Mike Hotz, made the case for focusing your email nurturing primarily on the middle of the funnel.  To support his point, Mr. Hotz offered up this statement:

“…..you should concentrate your efforts on the middle of the pyramid, on prospects that were referred to you by a trusted source – ideally your own satisfied customers – as well as prospects who have developed a relationship with your brand but have not yet purchased, and those who consider you to be a recognized expert in the field. This will allow you to build prospect relationships based on trust and value, not loose connections based upon offering the lowest price. “

While I agree that attention to the middle of the funnel can be a vital component for engaging and ultimately acquiring customers,  I’m not sure that it should be the only focus.   Instead, I believe the case can be made to nurture at every stage of the funnel (initial contact, MQL, SAL, SQL and Customer).

Let me use an analogy that I think we can all relate to:  a romantic relationship.  When you first meet “the one”, it often begins with a mutual attraction (interest). There is initial contact, and preliminary dialogue that allows you to get to know each other in the first stages of the relationship. As the relationship progresses, the conversations become longer and deeper. Trust and mutual interest grows.   How you speak to each other, and what you say changes.   When you become engaged, and eventually married, the content of your discussions continues to evolve, taking on a new dynamic.  But the conversation doesn’t end at the altar.  Healthy, growing marriages are evidenced by continuous conversation and communication.  Those marriage relationships that stop the conversation rarely lead to ongoing growth.

Buyer relationships follow this same pattern.  At first, there’s initial interest (they look at your product or service).  Initial communication “engages” them, allowing for a two-way dialogue, where they enter the “middle of the funnel”.  Over time, as the buy cycle moves along, the conversations between you and the buyer become deeper and more focused on specific, rather than general needs.  Eventually, you get the chance to “propose” (ask for the sale) and “get married” (acquire the buyer as a customer).  From there, ongoing customer communication is a must. Otherwise, the relationship will end in “a divorce”, resulting in lost revenue.

So, as you can see, making sure that nurturing takes place at each buying cycle stage is crucial.   Take a look at the diagram below to see why nurturing at each stage is so vital to revenue performance.

As initial contacts (or prospects) are obtained, the majority of them will not be ready to buy right away.  So, it’s vital to begin managing the relationship immediately by engaging them and beginning the nurture process.  At each and every stage of the buying cycle, the content and dialogue you provide should take on a new form, being focused on meeting the needs of the buyer at that time.  We often refer to these “stage-content” combinations (or nurture streams) as Marketing Nurture Campaigns, Sales Acceleration Nurture Campaigns and Customer Nurture Campaigns.

The success of each of these nurture streams will be dependent on how relevant the content is to the buyer and where they are in their process.  Sending the wrong content at the wrong time can turn a buyer off, somewhat like “popping the question” on the first date.  The best way to manage the delivery of your content and manage the dialogue is to ensure you have an understanding of your buyer – this is done by developing your buyer personas (a process that needs to occur BEFORE you launch your nurturing process).  Once you have your personas defined, you can then begin developing content maps for each persona and each stage of the buying process.

In today’s B2B market, it’s not good enough to simply generate leads. You must engage and manage them effectively to ensure they convert to revenue.  Nurturing at every stage of the funnel will exponentially increase your ability to do so.

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What Do You Need for Successful Nurturing?

Lead nurturing is a hot topic right now.  It seems that most of my recent conversations with prospects, customers and others in the B2B marketing industry are centered on lead nurturing.   The discussions usually revolve around issues such as how to nurture, the value of nurturing and what kind of content should be used in lead nurturing campaigns.  My personal experience is that marketers definitely want to (and in some cases, are planning to) deploy lead nurturing of some kind.  Yet time and time again, these conversations arrive at the same end point:  marketers get stuck when it comes to the actualimplementing of a proper lead nurturing process.  If you are one of those who are looking to develop lead nurturing as part of your marketing strategy, but you just don’t know where to start, here are 5 things you need to consider before you launch.

1.  Define Your Buyer Profiles & Buying Cycle

If you’re like me, you receive all kinds of email, mail, etc. that has nothing to do with your business, your interests or where you are with regard to potentially buying a product or service.  The only thing these kinds of communications do is tell me that the vendor has no clue who I am.

Understanding that the goal of nurturing is to engage and build a long standing relationship with the buyer, doesn’t it make sense to understand who that buyer is?  This is done by creating an ideal buyer profile for your company’s product(s) or service(s).  For most companies, one buyer profile is not enough.  In most cases, there are multiple people that make up the “buyer”,  each having a different view and approach to buying decisions.  Developing various profiles that match the multiple buyer personas will enable your company to better engage with each one through your nurturing program.

In addition, as you define the buyer profiles, be sure to also identify and map the buying cycle.  Phases of the buying cycle (for example, Interest – Defining Requirements – Proposal – Negotiation – Justification – Close) should be defined jointly among sales and marketing.  The best success with nurturing will come when you understand the buying phases of your customers and prospects and develop a nurture program that aligns to those phases.  Unless those phases are defined, it will be nearly impossible to deliver the right content at the right time.

2.  Content Creation & Mapping

As just mentioned, it’s imperative to ensure the content you are delivering is relevant to where the buyer is in the buying process.  Nothing can stall the nurturing process more than having irrelevant content.  To ensure your content hits the right audience in a timely manner, develop a content map utilizing the previously defined buying process.  Map content types to buying phases. For example, case studies are sent to prospects in the Interest Phase, ROI benefits are sent to those in the Justification Phase, and so on. This mapping process will give you insight on what types of content should then be created.  Also, be sure to track buyers’ interaction with each content segment. Content delivery is a dynamic discipline, and needs to be adjusted based on behavior of the buyer.

Also, keep in mind that the delivery of content is not contained solely to email (this is a pitfall for many).  The best nurturing and content delivery is done in an integrated fashion.  While email can be effective, it should not be the only mechanism by which you deliver your message.   Be sure to include an array of media including email, direct mail, live events, telephone etc.

3. Ensure the Integrity of Your Data

I once worked with a company who wanted to develop a series of lead nurturing campaigns.  Their reporting showed they were generating 4,000 leads per month and they knew the majority of these had to be nurtured rather than being sent to sales.  As the planning continued we started to segment the data and found that there was a major data problem in their system.  Every time a person took a marketing action (download of a white paper, filled out a form, registered for an event), they were entered into the CRM system as a new lead.  This of course meant that the 4,000 leads the organization thought they were generating were actually much less. It was closer to 800-1,000 per month.

To make matters worse, the company’s solution to cleaning data was to have the sales team delete duplicate records, leaving just one. In doing so, they also deleted buyer behavior data, taking away the ability to track any kind of buying process or persona.

The lesson in all of this is to be sure you have a process whereby your data is managed. Even the best nurturing campaign cannot overcome bad data.  Make sure you define a process for how data is compiled, segmented, and de-duped.  Define your hygiene strategy and data control policy to ensure ongoing integrity.

4.  Define Your Lead Qualification Process

Earlier this year I was speaking at a conference about developing a lead management process. To get a feel for the level of marketing maturity I asked the question “How many of you are currently using lead nurturing?”  About 2/3 of the audience raised their hands.  I then followed up with “How many of you have implemented lead scoring?”  To my amazement less than 1/4 of the hands went up.

I am still unclear on how a company can have successful lead nurturing without a defined lead qualification model.  Sure, you could deploy a drip campaign, but that’s not lead nurturing. That’s simply delivering the same message to a broad audience (mass marketing). It doesn’t allow for the 1-1 engagement that yields the best results.

Before effective lead nurturing can be enabled, a lead qualification process has to be developed.  This starts with answering the fundamental question “What do we define as a lead?”  This is not a question that can be answered solely by marketing. The answer needs to be the result of marketing and sales working together.  Your efforts will be greatly enhanced if you define all the terms used in your lead funnel, starting at the top: response, a valid response, a marketing qualified lead  . . . . all the way through to the definition of a customer.

Once the definitions are agreed to and in place you can begin the process of determining what qualification criteria should be applied to each definition.  To be most effective, qualification criteria has to consist of more than just BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeframe).  To quote Tony Jaros of SiriusDecisionsat the 2010 Sirius Decisions Summit, “BANT are the four most dangerous letters in B2B marketing.”  To get the most from lead qualification, emphasize demographic (buyer profile) and behavioral (actions is the buyer taking and how often) data.

Now that the definitions and criteria are in place, you can begin assigning the numerical values for each qualification i.e. lead scoring.  Again, this is an exercise that must be done in a collaborative effort between marketing and sales.  It is also one that should be measured and tweaked regularly. It’s not a static one-time approach. As your buyers evolve and change so should your lead qualification process.

5. Develop Your Lead Routing Process

Most of us have been victim to the proverbial “black hole” that exists in the lead pipeline.  Leads come into the top of the funnel and inevitably leak out.  In addition there are those leads that sit in the database or CRM system, are ignored and eventually decay.   To avoid this, it’s important to define a lead routing process in conjunction with your nurturing program.

Lead routing consists of a series of business rules and Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) that will dictate when and where leads are sent. Without the construct of lead routing, it’s hard to ensure that leads get the nurturing they need.

Few would argue that lead nurturing helps improve lead conversion, marketing effectiveness and sales productivity.  However, without the other components of a Lead Management Framework^TM , success will be limited.  Taking the time to nurture leads the right way will exponentially increase your nurturing ROI.

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Starting The Lead Management Process

During a recent webinar we conducted, 76% of the attendees surveyed said they had not developed a lead management strategy due to lack of internal resources. This is a common issue facing many organizations, but is compounded further by not knowing where to start in the process.

Building out a lead management process is not an easy task, nor will it happen overnight. Just the sheer complexity of the process as well as not knowing what part of it to address first, can cause marketing organizations to feel overwhelmed and settle for the status quo. However, small steps can be taken to drive change which will go far to build momentum and organizational buy-in.

For organizations looking to develop an internal lead management process here are a few quick things you can do to get started.

1. Involve Sales

Many organizations look at lead management as a marketing-only exercise and begin to develop various processes in a silo with no input or collaboration from their sales counterparts. This kind of “go-at-it-alone” approach is doomed to fail as sales will not buy into anything that is just delivered or told to them. Their input, for example, on what defines a “lead” is just as important as and could differ greatly from marketing’s and needs to be considered. Knowing they are a part of the process will get sales to buy into the idea of lead management and go far in creating alignment.

2. Executive Buy-In

We touched on this in our last blog post, but it bears repeating. Getting your executives bought into the development of a lead management process is important. They will not only control additional funding needed for resources or projects, but often times are the best route to removing any potential obstacles within or across organizations. In order to accomplish this, speak the language of revenue. Be prepared to show the amount of money the organization is losing and stands to gain by adopting a lead management process internally.

3. Know What You Don’t Know

We have seen many organizations begin to develop their own lead management process without first understanding what needs to be fixed. As a result the development of the new process is disjointed and disorganized, leaving many in the organization to question the approach and eventually abandon the project. To avoid this, start with a Lead Management Audit. An audit is an exercise that takes an honest and factual assessment of what is broken, identifies where the current gaps lie and what needs to be done to fix them. This is not about finger pointing or an exercise to assign blame, but instead one that is meant to reveal what is keeping you from improving your marketing and sales success. When conducting the audit, be sure to look at every area that impacts your demand generation practice including but not necessarily limited to marketing, sales, CRM and marketing automation technologies.

 

4. Prioritize Your Approach

Once the audit is complete there is a good chance you will have an extensive laundry list of gaps in your lead management process. The first step is prioritizing those gaps based on which will have the most impact on your organization. A good place to start is by addressing the biggest obstacles to revenue and then moving down to the least. Doing so will provide a plan on how to move to the next phase of process implementation and avoid the “boil the ocean” syndrome.

5. Get In The Right Frame of Mind

It needs to be noted that developing a process based lead management approach in your company is not an easy or overnight task. It is one that takes time, collaboration, change and a lot of effort. If you enter into lead management with the expectation that all involved will embrace change and will be completed in a matter of days you will most likely be very disappointed.

Understanding what lies ahead and being honest with what it will take will help you get through the work involved and keep a spirit of alignment through your organization.

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Let’s Ease Into It

In the last few weeks, I’ve received two phone calls from sales reps responding to my downloading something from their website (at least they said I downloaded something from their website.  In both cases, I didn’t remember downloading anything).  In both instances, the sales rep asked if we could talk about my needs, asked me about my purchase time frame, and inquired as to the best time to show me a demo.  I politely declined the invitations informing each of them that I was not looking to buy.  I’m sure this kind of “cold call” is something we’ve all encountered, and have even been guilty of ourselves.  Yet, it highlights one of the largest gaps B2B companies are experiencing in the lead-to-sale process:  lack of lead nurturing.

I wonder sometimes how different my relationship with my wife would have been had I taken a similar approach.  What if when we first met, we exchanged phone numbers and then I called her the next day and proposed marriage?  No dating. No finding out more about each other. No building the relationship. Just going right to the commitment with no dialog in between.  I can tell you, that would NOT have gone well.   Yet that’s what B2B marketers and sales people continue to do to their prospects.

A recent study by Marketing Sherpa shows that 70% of initial prospects are not in a buying mode when they first interact with your company.  They are actually qualified for long-term nurturing.  These are solid, but “not right now” opportunities and they should be treated as such.

Why does this component have such importance in the Lead Management Process FrameworkTM ?  Because if executed correctly, it can have the biggest impact on improving return.  Here are some statistics that demonstrate the value of lead nurturing:

• Deals that closed on nurtured leads received a 47% higher order value than deals that closed on non-nurtured leads
• Nurture emails have a 2x higher open rate one-off emails
• Companies have shown to achieve an improved win rate on nurtured deals by as much as 20%

But beyond the statistics, marketers should begin getting used to the idea that the B2B buyer is now demanding that sellers build a rapport and relationship before they engage with a sales person.  Research shows that sales is brought into the buying cycle later than ever.  Building this relationship in response to this demand from the buyer is what nurturing is all about.  Here are some things to consider when building a nurturing relationship with your prospects…

1. Nurture at Every Stage in the Buying Cycle

For those companies that are nurturing, too many of them are nurturing only at the top of the lead funnel in an attempt to get inquiries turned into marketing qualified leads (MQL’s). This is certainly worthwhile, but nurturing doesn’t stop there.  Companies need to develop a nurture strategy for all the stages of the buying cycle:

• Marketing Qualified 
• Sales Accepted 
• Sales Qualified 
• Post-Sales 
• During the Lifetime of the Customer

Remember, the goal of nurturing is to build a relationship so stopping communication after post purchase is a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” scenario.  Make sure to keep the nurture process going throughout the customer cycle as well. You’ll not only help them overcome any potential buyer’s remorse, but you’ll also serve to engage them as more loyal customers.

2.  Align Offers Accordingly

Where the buyer is in the buying cycle should dictate what offer is presented to them.  Remember the sales rep calls I mentioned earlier?  They were incongruent.  I was in the “research” phase, but the reps were treating me as if I was in the “consideration” phase, offering me a demo.  As a non-qualified lead, the chances of me being ready for a demo are slim at best, so why offer it?  The best plan of attack is to create an offer map that aligns individual communications and offers with the stages of the buying cycle, which includes customers. And if you don’t know what to offer  . . . . ask your customers, they’ll tell you.

3. Content is King!

It has been said before but it cannot be overstated.  Content is the “make or break” for your nurturing campaigns.  If it’s not relevant or timely, you’ll lose them. Have you ever been part of a dinner conversation that is drab and boring? You know, the kind where you keep looking at your watch, waiting for it to be over?  Well, now you know how prospects and customers feel when marketers don’t make the communications about them.  Buyers are looking for relevant, “to-the-point” content that will provide them information, education, and the ability to take the next step, whatever it may be.  And one more hint: keep your content fresh.  Buyers want current information, not yesterday’s news. 

4.  Automate

As we have continually said, Lead Management is a process and Lead Nurturing is one component of this process.  Marketing Automation enables the Lead Management process and will enable you to effectively execute your nurturing campaigns.  Manually run lead management processes will fail and breakdown as your nurturing campaigns become more complex.  If you are looking to nurture, ensure you automate for success. 

The changing buyer is now in charge and is forcing B2B marketing companies to respond and adapt. Developing a Lead Management Process Framework is key to adapting to this changing dynamic, and developing a nurturing strategy as part of that framework will help you improve your marketing responses, build a better relationship with your buyers and have a positive impact on your bottom line. 

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In Defense of the One-Timer

I was on the phone the other day with a business colleague, and we began discussing what we're seeing in the market place. Specifically, we were discussing our interaction with companies, and how they approach the development and implementation of their marketing programs.  My colleague mentioned that most of the companies with which he comes in to contact perform "One and Done" marketing. In other words, they develop a campaign, launch it, and then almost immediately look to start the next one.  Most fail to create integrated campaigns that allow for lead nurturing and follow-up.

While I could not disagree with him, it did get me thinking about companies who operate in this fashion.  And as I thought about it, I found myself preparing a defense for those marketing executives who are under fire for operating in "One and Done" mode.   The reality is that these companies have no other way to approach marketing.  Given what they have, the majority are doing the best they can.

The more I contemplated this, the more I realized that many companies are forced into "One and Done" mode because they don't have any internal process, mechanisms or technology that allow them to do anything else.  How can a company develop nurture streams, follow-up mechanisms, and user led communications if they don't have the process in place to account for it? Well, they can't!

And that's why so many companies approach marketing the way they do. They're forced to. But there is good news.  "One and Done" can change by assessing the current process (or lack thereof); developing a process plan that includes prospect driven communication, lead nurturing, lead routing, and measurements; and implementing the process by integrating marketing and sales roles, and applying the appropriate automation tools.

Don't get caught in the "One and Done" trap. Sure, you may be in a situation where it's all you can do given the state of your company's marketing operations. But there are steps that can be taken immediately that will allow you to move out of "One and Done" mode, and into an environment where campaigns flow, leads are nurtured and ROI increases.

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Long Term Customer Relationships

The other day, someone asked the question, "How do you keep long term relationship with your customers?"  I responded by saying that I once heard a joke where after 50 years of marriage, a wife said to her husband, "We've been married 50 years, and I can't remember the last time you told me you love me". The husband replied, "I told you 'I love you' the day we got married. If anything changes, I'll let you know."

Unfortunately, that's how many companies deal with their customers. "Thanks for buying, see you later". The key to customer retention is communication. To communicate effectively, companies should develop a strategy. Yes, it sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how often this eludes many companies. 

So, what does this strategy entail?  First, decide which customers with whom you want to develop relationships (let's face it, not all customers are worth keeping). Then, segment the customer list: Top customers; Good Customers; Other customers. From there, develop your communications schedule for each segment. The "Top" list should receive more personalized, high touch communications. The lower levels can receive more "mass" communication. Vary communications messages. Balance "sales" messages with useful content. Also, integrate multiple methodologies: email, phone, sales call,etc. Finally, once the plan is developed, determine what resources (technology, call centers, etc.) will help to enhance the process. Doing this effectively will allow you to develop those long term relationships, and keep your company "top-of-mind" with your customer. 

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Hello…Have We Met?

There is a person that I know here in Dallas and we have been introduced to each other at least 5 times in the past 18 months.  I have even had dinner with this individual as part of a group of 8-10 people.  Each time I see this person, he extends his hand, introduces himself and says, "I don't believe we have ever met".  While I find this humorous and will begin soon to give other names to him each new time we "meet", it is exactly what we do in  the world of marketing. 

Companies launch a campaign, gather up a ton of responses and take the A & B leads and leave the rest to die only to have them put back into the database for the next new campaign that will run next quarter.  The next quarter comes and a new campaign is launched and all of those respondents from the first campaign who were ignored because they had a 6+ month or over timeframe, hear from us saying, "I don't believe we have met".  The already know you and in return told the company they wanted to go further in the relationship.  It is not unlike Kevin Nealon's "Mr. Short Term Memory" character on Saturday Night Live.

Instead of a continual introduction where you never get past a hello, take your hello's (responses) and manage them properly so they turn into "I do's" (closed deals).

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