My wife and I had a baby last Thursday. He is our third boy. Our oldest is five. As the blessed event took place something really jumped out to me. With our first child, we were on the phone for hours before hand, and hours afterwards. But not this time. This time, my wife updated everyone on her status using her blog before we left for the hospital. After the birth, we sent out a text to everyone in her contact list. We only made a few special calls, but that was it. Our market efforts (baby announcement) were complete with only a few written words. Later in the week, my wife updated the blog with photos and a more detailed description of the day's events. One of the comments on her blog was a cousin that stated she had been returning to her site often waiting for an update.
So how does this apply to Marketing or Lead Response Management? I had a couple of thoughts. First was the method in which we communicate now-a-days. Blogging, texting, podcasts, youtube and other methods are replacing the phone call. If you notice earlier, we only called those that were most important to us. Does that say something about the way your leads, prospects and customers feel. If you fill out a webform and only get an email autoresponder back, do you feel cheated somehow? Like you are not one of those people that are important.
I feel like a phone call (a timely phone call) communicates the value you place on each individual lead. Their efforts of seeking you out are rewarded with your immediate attention to their needs.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Quick Responses
Today, I have been looking for some whitepapers offering statistics on automation, crm successes and other smoking guns for the SAAS world. Naturally I looked for CRM companies that offer whitepapers and other resources. Each one that I found required me to fill out a webform to get the pdf. Of four websites, I have already been contacted by two of them. One of them happened within 5 minutes, the other came about 2.5 hours later.
The first company's approach was a follow up to me visiting the website and downloading a whitepaper. He just asked if there was anything more that I was looking for. Of course I said no. The second, however, approached as though I had already read the whitepaper and wanted to answer any questions about that specific whitepaper. Much more effective. I don't know if they delayed the call on purpose but I was able to engage in a more productive conversation with that second company.
If you are looking for more data on response times with web leads click here
The first company's approach was a follow up to me visiting the website and downloading a whitepaper. He just asked if there was anything more that I was looking for. Of course I said no. The second, however, approached as though I had already read the whitepaper and wanted to answer any questions about that specific whitepaper. Much more effective. I don't know if they delayed the call on purpose but I was able to engage in a more productive conversation with that second company.
If you are looking for more data on response times with web leads click here
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Are you in Automotive Sales?
If you are in automotive sales you have got to see this report and case study. It will change your business.
click here to download
click here to download
What is Lead Response Management (LRM)?
Definition: Lead Response Management is the discipline of responding to inquiries for information in timely, continual, and consistent fashion to optimize the contact and qualification rates of leads.
Lead Response Management is one of several critical subcategories that make up Lead Management.
Lead Management is the overal discipline that organizations and individuals use to contact and qualify leads that are generated by marketing efforts.
Lead Management has typically been under the responsibility of the sales departement, but more and more marketing organizations are taking over the functions of capturing, routing, responding, qualifying, tracking, and reporting on leads in an effort to ensure proper return on investment on their efforts that have gone into generating the lead in the first place.
Here is an overview of the typical flow of the lead to sales process with the all-important tracking of costs:
for the rest of the article visit: leadresponsemanagement.com
Lead Response Management is one of several critical subcategories that make up Lead Management.
Lead Management is the overal discipline that organizations and individuals use to contact and qualify leads that are generated by marketing efforts.
Lead Management has typically been under the responsibility of the sales departement, but more and more marketing organizations are taking over the functions of capturing, routing, responding, qualifying, tracking, and reporting on leads in an effort to ensure proper return on investment on their efforts that have gone into generating the lead in the first place.
Here is an overview of the typical flow of the lead to sales process with the all-important tracking of costs:
for the rest of the article visit: leadresponsemanagement.com
Lead Nurturing
Many companies have adopted a strategy of lead nurturing. This is a marketing activity that prepares a lead to hear your offer when they are ready to make a decision. A sample lead nurturing program would include an email going out once a month sharing press releases, case studies, offers, or relevant articles. There are several different software applications that can facilitate these activities that can be found simply by Googling the term.
When should you nurture leads? There are primarily two occasions to nurture leads. The first is when you purchase a list of leads that may or may not need your products or services. You can purchase a list, start sending them emails, faxes or direct mail before you attempt to qualify them as prospects. Once the lead has been in the nurturing process for a period of time, or has taken some sort of action as a result of your marketing, you can remove it from the nurturing and hand it off to your Lead Generation Team and/or Sales Team.
The second occasion to nurture leads is when you get real time leads that are routed to your Sales Team or Lead Generation Team only to find out that the prospect is not ready to make a decision but is in the preliminary stages of collecting information. You can then place them in a nurturing campaign that provides them with the information that is beneficial to companies seeking your services. You can take this opportunity to persuade them to choose you before they are planning on selecting a solution.
As you implement a nurturing strategy, you will see that there is a larger chasm between marketing and sales than you previously thought. Since the majority of CRM solutions do not track leads well, and lead nurturing systems don’t pretend to manage sales opportunities, you will need to decide who owns the lead as it is being nurtured.
Thus enters Lead Nurturing 2.0 – Lead Response Management – which is powered by tools that allow transparent reporting for Marketing and Sales through the entire process. Lead Response Management mixes marketing or nurturing activities with sales and lead gen. activities so they can happen simultaneously instead of one at a time. A sample Lead Response Management strategy triggers a phone call right when a lead presses submit on your web form, followed by a series of emails, faxes and phone calls that vary depending on the outcome of the previous activity. The calls are scheduled for optimal contact times and are triggered automatically without the Lead Generation Team making the conscious decisions to call. Since Lead Response Management can happen while other activities are taking place, you can employ a strategy for new leads, old leads, recycled leads, lost leads, pipeline opportunities, cold deals, lost opportunities, existing clients and clients approaching renewal of contracts.
When should you nurture leads? There are primarily two occasions to nurture leads. The first is when you purchase a list of leads that may or may not need your products or services. You can purchase a list, start sending them emails, faxes or direct mail before you attempt to qualify them as prospects. Once the lead has been in the nurturing process for a period of time, or has taken some sort of action as a result of your marketing, you can remove it from the nurturing and hand it off to your Lead Generation Team and/or Sales Team.
The second occasion to nurture leads is when you get real time leads that are routed to your Sales Team or Lead Generation Team only to find out that the prospect is not ready to make a decision but is in the preliminary stages of collecting information. You can then place them in a nurturing campaign that provides them with the information that is beneficial to companies seeking your services. You can take this opportunity to persuade them to choose you before they are planning on selecting a solution.
As you implement a nurturing strategy, you will see that there is a larger chasm between marketing and sales than you previously thought. Since the majority of CRM solutions do not track leads well, and lead nurturing systems don’t pretend to manage sales opportunities, you will need to decide who owns the lead as it is being nurtured.
Thus enters Lead Nurturing 2.0 – Lead Response Management – which is powered by tools that allow transparent reporting for Marketing and Sales through the entire process. Lead Response Management mixes marketing or nurturing activities with sales and lead gen. activities so they can happen simultaneously instead of one at a time. A sample Lead Response Management strategy triggers a phone call right when a lead presses submit on your web form, followed by a series of emails, faxes and phone calls that vary depending on the outcome of the previous activity. The calls are scheduled for optimal contact times and are triggered automatically without the Lead Generation Team making the conscious decisions to call. Since Lead Response Management can happen while other activities are taking place, you can employ a strategy for new leads, old leads, recycled leads, lost leads, pipeline opportunities, cold deals, lost opportunities, existing clients and clients approaching renewal of contracts.
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