Anything "successful" is directed by a process. Look at the human body and the process of blood circulation or look at installing an underground sprinkler system. These are two things that work very efficiently and successfully when every step in the process is connected and working together for the end goal they are aimed at achieving.
Creating opportunities that generate forecastable revenue is no different.
An organization must not only have a process for creating opportunities in place that creates a framework for success but they must manage that process. I do understand that each organization is different (product/service sold, target markets, sales team structure, marketing spend, etc) and this is something that must be recognized first and foremost. That said, although each organization is different, there are "best practice" approaches that can be learned from studying other organizations both similar to yours and vastly different. The critical piece is the creation of a process that is sustainable and measurable and then managing the pieces of that process.
In my experience I have found that the most successful organizations that I work with are ones that take a look at the entire process and evaluate each piece of the puzzle. Below are a few of the steps in the process of creating opportunities that generate forecastable revenue.
- Messaging
- Marketplace Awareness
- Lists of Prospects
- Marketing to the lists
- Tracking and Nurturing of MQL's (marketing qualified leads)
- Following-up on MQL's (teleprospecting)
- Determining when the MQL is ready for transition to sales
- Transitioning MQL's to sales as SQL's (sales qualified leads)
- Feedback on SQL's
- Conversion %'s of SQL's to forecastable revenue
- Sales Process/Cycle
This is a list of items off the top of my head, each one of these has a number of moving pieces that need to be planned for and evaluated as well.
I believe the bottom line is this, if you want to employ a successful process around opportunity generation you need to look at every piece of the puzzle and make sure they are all lined up to support and drive the success of the process.
In this case, producing forecastable revenue!
In my recent webcast, Perspectives in Teleprospecting - A Closed Loop Strategy, I talked about the importance of having a closed loop feedback process in place to track all of the qualified leads that your telesales team is uncovering. When you are investing time and money in a lead generation program you want to be able to prove the effectiveness of your campaign and make sure that all of the qualified opportunities that your team is passing over to sales are being nurtured appropriately.
When we instituted a closed loop process a few years ago we noticed a higher level of accountability from the sales reps that we were passing leads to and our clientโs project engagements became longer.
We implemented a process where we would send a very brief email survey out to the sales rep that received our lead after they had the introductory call with the prospect. This gave the sales rep an opportunity to let us know if they were able to connect with the prospect and if the information we gathered during our qualification call was validated. It also gave them the ability to give feedback on any other questions we could have asked to make the lead more qualified. This process held the sales rep accountable for following up on the opportunity that we generated and also gave them piece of mind that, if it was off target, we would refine our messaging/qualification questions to reflect the feedback that they gave us. All of the feedback that we received was tracked and reported on at the end of each month so that our client could see what percentage of feedback was positive, how many of our leads were moving forward in the sales process, and which reps were best at giving us feedback. One of my clients, at the end of a quarter, noticed that one of their sales reps had only given us feedback on 45% of the opportunities we passed over, whereas another rep had given us feedback on 90% of all the leads we uncovered (industry averages suggest that you should be receiving a minimum of 75-80% of feedback on all of your passed leads). My client decided that they wanted us to scale back our prospecting in the one sales repโs territory and focus more attention on the other sales rep who was more engaged in the process. This was a strategic decision that they were able to make based on data that we didnโt have before implementing a closed loop strategy.
I have also seen an increase in the length of time our clients engage in a teleprospecting campaign with us since implementing a closed loop process. Before we started following-up and tracking all of the feedback on our leads, our clients sometimes had a hard time justifying their budget if their sales team hadnโt closed any business during our pilot program. Now we were able to accurately report on the percentage of positive feedback that we were getting from the sales team and exactly how many of our opportunities were moving forward in the sales process (how much on pipeline/forecast). This provided our client with some compelling ROI numbers that helped justify additional budget to continue the campaign. Often times this was data that hadnโt even been entered into our clientโs CRM system.
If you have an inside sales team in place, or outsource this function, it is important to track what is happening to all of the opportunities that are being passed to sales so that you have an accurate picture of the effectiveness of your lead generation campaigns.
What do you do to measure the quality of the leads you receive or send over?
Have you ever dined at a restaurant where the
gratuity is automatically added at the end of every bill? If you
havenโt, I can tell you that it certainly does not compare to the
dining experience where the server is accountable to fulfilling the
satisfaction of their clientele in order to earn โpositive feedbackโ โ
the tip. After my server forgot about my meal, then brought fish when
I wanted a burger, it all made sense as to his service, when I received my bill with 20%
gratuity automatically added. I can assure you I never revisited that
restaurant.
As part of our training process, we emphasize the
importance of a "highly qualified" opportunity. Why is this important?
Well, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. You can tell your
inside rep over and over you need leads with shorter timeframe, a more defined
budget, or a more fleshed out โscope of opportunityโ, but if they are hitting
their activity numbers, these requests could fall on deaf ears. Nothing
will have a greater impact on developing prospecting strategies quicker
and more efficiently than holding your BDR accountable with a closed loop feedback process.
Closed loop feedback opens doors of communication
that may have never existed before. If the manager at the restaurant never received a complaint about her waiter's poor service, how would they know that their meager tip was left for any other reason? If your
inside rep is compensated on positive feedback, you bet they will reach
out to the outside sales rep as to why the previous opportunity was not
deemed successful and how they can better qualify the next one.
Bridging this communication will accomplish optimal end results for all
parties involved.
For more information on the closed loop process, check out part three of Pete's eBook, Driving Marketing ROI.
Pete Gracey discusses how to evaluate the success of outbound teleprospecting campaigns.
Every year, around this time, fitness centers begin advertising their special rates for the upcoming New Year. At the start of January gyms are full of well-intentioned folks making good on their resolutions. After about a month the excitement wears off and many people fall back into their old routines and the gym slips down several notches on the priority list. It might be that the expected results didn't materialize and many give up to a degree. There are some that end up hiring a personal trainer for a one month trial period and hope that will get them into shape. Yet once a week sessions for a month is not enough to make much of an impact. Hiring a professional is a great idea, but giving the commitment enough time to succeed is the key to realizing your goals.
I have seen many organizations, especially in this economy, that recognize the value of hiring an outsourced teleprospecting firm but are weary of trying one out for more then a month. Unfortunately, these organizations are going to run into the same problem that the individual who expects to see results after a month of once a week sessions with a trainer faces. You want to give your outsourced teleprospecting firm enough time to get ramped up, build pipeline, and gain momentum. I have found that shutting down a campaign after only 30 days does not give my clients enough of a sample size to gauge results accurately.
A former client of mine was hesitant in signing more then a one month contract with us. They felt that a month would be enough time to judge how successful we were at finding qualified sales leads. This client wanted us to find opportunities with C-level executives at Fortune 500 companies. I set the expectation that it typically takes us at least a month to get fully ramped up, especially within the target that that they wanted us to go after, but they wanted to stick with the one month program. I got my team trained and on the phones as quickly as possible and at the end of the month we had passed over 4 qualified sales leads. My client was happy with the leads and felt that they were right in line with what they were looking for, but they had been hoping for more. They also mentioned that had one of our leads closed then they might have been able to extend the contract (even though they had a 12-18 month sales cycle). I assured them that if they were to extend the program they could expect to see the amount of leads increase in the following months and that 30-40% of these leads would start moving to forecast. Yet due to a tight budget they decided to stop after the month.
I received a call from this client a couple of months after their contract ended. They told me that two of the leads that we had passed were moving forward in their sales process and had a good chance of becoming closed business. They agreed that they should have invested more time into the program.
If you are looking for a teleprospecting firm to deliver fully qualified sales leads and truly become an extension of your sales and marketing team, a long term commitment yields the most dramatic and measurable results.
Here's why most companies ignore the lead qualification step in the Marketing and Sales process:
"Because I invest in technology to score leads."
"My marketing people take care of this."
"That's what I pay my sales people for."
"If they stopped by our booth, filled out a form, attended a webinar, or accepted an appointment, then the lead IS qualified."
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong.
Here's why that thinking will cost them big:
First let's differentiate between a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL).
An MQL is someone who stopped by your booth, filled out a form, attended a webinar, and maybe even agreed to an appointment. These folks have expressed interest in learning more about your company's offerings. That's a great start - but it's only a start. These interested potential prospects must be fully qualified by a skilled Business Development Representative before they can become an SQL.
Getting MQL's directly in front of your sales people is better than nothing, but not by much. There is still a lot work to do, work that falls outside the skill set of a typical sales rep. You might recall from my last blog entry, that they don't want to do it, they are not good at it, nor does it make economical sense to have your highly paid closers doing it. Oh yeah, and let's not forget, they're not going to do it anyway.
Let a skilled Business Development Rep do what they do best: qualify and convert an MQL into an SQL. Their job is to call through the pool of MQL's, have conversations with each potential prospect and place each prospect into the appropriate "bucket". Some will be deleted from the system entirely, some will be placed into a "nurture" state which could have various actions depending on their profile. For example a small deal with a one year timeframe might get a newsletter or email quarterly, while a larger deal with a shorter timeframe might get tagged for a follow-up by the BDR in a month or two. Of course, the qualified SQL's will be scheduled for an appointment and passed to sales immediately.
This is a very detailed process, and is more science than art, which is why it is critically important that this process is applied using top notch talent, who are supported and trained appropriately.
You've invested in a great marketing team who are delivering lots of quality MQL's, do the right thing and make the additional investment necessary to qualify and convert them to SQL's. This is the point in the process where a reasonable investment can deliver an exponential difference in your mROI.
Including this very important piece of the process will pay off with better retention, better opportunity to recruit the best and the brightest sales talent, and ultimately drive more revenue.
So what happens to those leads that you generate where the sales rep has a good first call with the prospect and determines the account to be a solid fit...the only problem is that the prospect (for whatever reason) is not ready to purchase for 6-12 months. The rep might even provide decent feedback initially (because now you have a
feedback mechanism in place) so you feel good about the quality of what was passed only to check back 6 months later to discover nobody ever reached out to that prospect again and now the lead needs to be re-qualified (or worse yet you lost the deal to a competitor).
This leads me to another common reason why a lead doesn't get adequately followed up on...
*The sales leads that were received did not have an immediate timeframe and ended up not being nurtured appropriately*
I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and when I reached the register I knew what question was coming "Are you a Barnes & Noble Member?" - Now I knew what all the benefits of being a member were - the discounts, coupons, special promotions, etc. Barnes & Noble had done a great job emailing me about the perks of their membership every month or so and every time I made a purchase I would notice that my receipt had an "amount that I would have saved if I had a membership". Yet for whatever reason I never signed up...maybe I hadn't seen the value of spending $25 a year or maybe I was in too much of a rush every time I made my way to the counter. So when I approached the register the other day I figured I would just decline the offer like I had so many times in the past. Yet as the sales person once again told me about all of the benefits I started thinking about how often I shop there and the money I would save...and so I finally handed over my $25 and signed up. They had done a great job reminding me of the value the membership provided - even when I wasn't in the store - and I really began seeing how the program could be worth it to me. Had they only asked me occasionally about the membership, or not sent me emails, or shown me how much money I wasn't saving every time I made a purchase, then I probably would never have signed up. Barnes & Noble had done a great job nurturing me until I was ready to sign up to be a member. This is an incredibly important step in the lead lifecycle process - it's easy to close the leads that are ready to purchase - but if you want to be successful you have to effectively nurture the leads that aren't quite as hot.
Most sales reps want immediate gratification - they don't get excited about opportunities that aren't ready to move for 6+ months. Yet these can be great leads that end up resulting in closed business. I worked with a client once who gave my team about 500 "leads" to follow-up on that had just been sitting in their CRM system for a year or so. I was told that they had been "warm" at some point in time but hadn't been touched in a while. As my team started prospecting through them we came across a high percentage that had ended up purchasing a competitor's solution. When asked why they hadn't evaluated my client's technology their response was "I had been talking to someone over there but nobody ever followed-up with me". Had these leads been nurtured appropriately, our client may have ended up with a few more customers.
There are many different ways and mechanisms in which to nurture your warm leads along - just make sure these prospects are receiving some sort of contact from your company so that when they are ready to buy, your name is the one that pops into their head.
So, perhaps for your company, 2009 hasn't exactly been the greatest year from a bottom line performance standpoint. Many economists would argue that we've just passed through one of the worst years in the economic history of our country. I can say from my experience, that I wouldn't disagree. But hey, we all made it. We are here at the start of Q4, thinking of finishing a tumultuous year strong. We are dusting off our budgets and figuring out what we truly need to do to build the foundation for a great comeback year in 2010. As a leader in the outsourced sales and marketing space, we've seen the economy slowly but surely regain it's footing over the course of Q3. Our clients have gone from discussing how to best conclude our relationships, to trying to figure out how to expand the amount of spend they apply to our services. Our new business acquisition has increased dramatically over the course of Q3. In my completely untrained and wholly unsubstantiated opinion, U.S. technology companies are getting ready to roll in 2010. While '09 was tough for all of us, everyone left standing is smarter, leaner, wiser, hungrier, and more determined than ever to succeed in their space. It's a good time to be in technology.
I'll dispense with the pep talk and get to the point: It's go time.
What is your demand generation plan for Q4?
What do you want to accomplish? How much forecast for Q1 2010 do you need to generate from your Q4 initiatives? Have you figured out exactly who you want to sell to in 2010? More importantly, can you clearly and concisely explain to them exactly why they should part with their precious cash to work with you? If you do know the companies you want to sell to, and what you are going to say to them, do you have the names and contact info for the people in those organizations that you need to say it to? If you do have the list, what are you going to do with it? What programs will you run this quarter and when and why? You know by now that you must make more with less in 2010, so, do you have a Marketing strategy that includes the optimal mix of social media and traditional marketing and that will enhance every marketing dollar that you spend? Do you have a politely aggressive teleprospecting plan in place to support all of your programs? Have you worked with sales to define exactly what a qualified opportunity is and when it should be transitioned from teleprospecting to sales? If you have, have you mapped out what is to be done with all those nuggets of gold that your teleprospecting is going to deliver to your sales team? How will they follow up? How many times and what will the sales team say to those prospects? How will you close the loopon all of those qualified opps that were previously delivered to sales over the last 9 months? Where are they in the process? What is the nurturing plan for those opps? Most importantly, you work hard to market what your company does, how will you measure your own success and the return on your marketing investments for Q4. The list goes on...you get my point, we've got our work cut out for us.
Over the course of the next month, I will be posting details, thoughts, and progress pertaining to the AG Salesworks Q4 09 Demand Generation Campaign. We've done our best to answer all of the questions above and are ready to begin execution of our own comeback. It is my sincere hope that by sharing our experience over the next three months, you'll be able to commiserate with us, empathize with us, congratulate us, and ideally decide to include us in the story of your company's 2010 comeback.
Pete
Last week I started talking about the common reasons why sales reps don't follow-up on the leads that marketing and inside sales provides. Today I will look at the importance of soliciting feedback in a structured way and how to hold your sales reps accountable for following up on the leads that you are delivering to them.
*Nobody holds the sales team accountable for providing feedback on the leads they have received*
I joined a book club last year figuring it was just a thinly veiled excuse to get together once a month, drink wine and catch up with my friends. Sure, we were "assigned" a book to read and I did make every attempt to finish it but time got away from me and I ended up skimming the last half. When I arrived to the first book club one of the girls pulled out a list of talking points and questions to get our feedback on the novel. It became apparent to the group that I had not finished reading the book and wasn't able to answer most of the questions. You can be sure that I read each subsequent book in its entirety after that. By asking follow-up questions to elicit feedback from all of the members of my book club, the host held us accountable for doing the reading and kept us engaged in the discussion. The same can be said for holding your sales reps accountable for giving feedback on the sales leads that you are delivering. If they know that nobody is going to circle back and check up on the leads then they are more apt to brush them off or not be as proactive in their follow-up.
The qualified opportunities that you are delivering may end up falling into a black hole if you don't have a closed-loop process in place to ensure that they are being followed up on. You could be delivering an optimal amount of sales opportunities and your sales reps might even be pleased with the quality at first glance. So you might continue along, thinking that your lead generation program is running along smoothly, only to find out at the end of the quarter that the closed business percentage from your campaign is 0%. Had you been getting real time feedback from your reps you could have made changes as needed and held them accountable to follow-up appropriately.
This challenge prompted my colleagues and I to develop a closed-loop process aimed at soliciting and tracking feedback on the leads that we deliver to our clients. This is all tracked in our CRM system and can be reported on at any time. It gives our clients real-time visibility into the quality of our leads and helps them to determine the ROI of the campaign. It also holds each sales rep accountable for following-up on every lead that they are given. By tracking which reps give us the highest percentage of feedback, our clients can even determine who to assign and not assign future opportunities to.
Of course everyone needs to be on the same page as to what defines a qualified sales opportunity. If everyone has a different definition then challenges can arise. I will talk more about this next week.
Sometimes, more frequently for complex technology solutions, the right list simply does not exist.
From premiere services, you can hope to reach 60-70% of the titles per company you are searching for, but that leaves a significant void.
Even more frustrating, many of our clients solve advanced problems whose ownership could cross any or all of several business units.
Having a few correct names in one unit may be a complete waste if the ownership, if the problem resides elsewhere.
Everything that we covered over the last week really can have an significant impact on your progress toward pulling together your ideal list. Unfortunately, manual input will always be necessary in order to obtain a sales prospecting list with true value.
Any data you've purchased is a "jumping off point" until you have validated the contact.
Additionally, there will always be missing data points.
No list will be as granular as you will like.
Thus, another manual research step is necessary.
Free resources through Wikipedia help to segment data by student population in Education, bed count in Healthcare, and employee count in the enterprises.
For example enter "List of schools districts in the
United States" in Wikipedia's search and it will give you a listing of schools by state.
The single most important step in building a targeted sales prospecting list is validating the information.
The only way to be sure your list contains value is by having a real person physically pick up a phone to verify and substantiate the information and worth of your data.
Place your initial dial into the highest point of contact within any organization.
When contacting a College/University or Enterprise/Fortune 500 account reach out to the CEO/President. Within hospitals I suggest administration. For the K-12 vertical I suggest the superintendants office. Invariably in all cases you will get their assistant live, and as Chris Snell pointed out in his
blog, they can be a powerful resource.