Tactics

3 Ways To Gauge Your B2B Buyer’s Interest Level

Digital body language (aka what you do online) can tell you a lot about how interested your prospect is. Of course, this is expected to change over time, depending on what goes on internally where said prospect works. In his book, Digital Body Language, Steven Woods outlines the 3 main dimensions that help quantify level of interest: 1. Recency How recently did the prospect engage with your site? Timing is everything in the buyer's journey; in fact, the same landing page download or page view can mean very different things at different times in the sales cycle. READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Tactics|

We don’t need marketing – all our work is through tenders

Have you ever heard that? I certainly have. I have also heard CEO's and Sales leaders say the exact reverse: "We need marketing because every time we go to tender, it seems like the RFQ was written by our competitor". It probably was! 'Back in the day' this would have been done by a good sales person with great relationships, a consultative style, and a persuasive argument. Today, it is done by marketing. Good thought leadership marketing engages with the buyers to help them work out what they need and why. 'What' is all about shaping their READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

The Secret to Being a B2B Marketing Rockstar: Maths

In many organisations, it's an eyebrow-raising moment when the words "marketing" and "maths" are uttered in the same sentence. Many marketers are blissfully ignorant of the harsh realities of business, revenue and profits, making decisions based on instinct whilst the sales team huff and puff about how marketing live in cloud cuckoo land, not the real world of monthly targets. CEOs and CFOs allocate the marketing budget as a cost centre and scoff at the idea of a marketer taking a seat at the boardroom table. However, a new era is dawning. Smart marketers, equipped with the READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Tactics|

The progression to RPM – small steps or giant leaps?

Here's a mixed-media challenge. I'm going to pose a question, about someone else's work, and invite you to comment via Twitter. Marketo released a great new infographic today - well done guys - and it articulates a progression for B2B marketing companies through four stages of maturity (they kindly left off the first stage - 'no marketing'): Traditional Marketing Demand Generation Integrated Pipeline Revenue Performance Management (RPM) The data behind this well-resolved infographic suggests that for a slightly higher spend (13% of revenue versus an average of 11%), the results are significant. You get better achievement against READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

The Green B2B Marketing Solution: Lead Recycling

What happens to prospects when they leak from your funnel? I'm talking about people who have expressed interest in your products or services, but somewhere along the line they dropped off the radar. The issue of leaked leads is not a pleasant conversation for most organisations, particularly for the sales team. It's understandable, most people would prefer to discuss successes. It's better to focus on why we have won, not why we have lost, right? Wrong! It's simple arithmetic. In the journey from first contact as an unqualified lead to customer, typically 90%+ of leads will "leak" from READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Tactics|

Get over Business Obstacles: 12-Point action Framework

What would happen if you were able to double your sales and marketing resources overnight? Assuming that you haven’t already saturated your target market, how confident are you that you could at least double your revenues - and how long would that take? What if you were able to quadruple your resources? This question often poses a problem for B2B-focused organisations with long and complex sales cycles, or for sales teams that have a long history of relying on sales heroics. Without a well-defined, scalable sales and marketing process, no matter how much resource you can throw READ MORE ›

By Bob Apollo|Tactics|

How to earn more profit than your competitors

What do you do when a tough competitor enters your space? Many businesses cut their prices, starting a 'race to the bottom' as their previously unassailed niche becomes just another commodity product or service. This strategy carries the seeds of its own destruction. In his classic book, The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter outlines five forces that shape competition: New competitors enter the market Rivalry among existing competitors intensifies Substitute products arrive Buyers use their buying power to squeeze margins Suppliers assert greater bargaining power The classic case of a business READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy, Tactics|

DemandCon: The Changing Brand Role in Demand Gen

As Director of Align Marketing, Michelle Martin’s expertise in brand, marketing alignment and impact strategies has never been more important to her clients given the majors shifts we see in marketing today. At DemandCon 2012 her intimate knowledge, recognized by her Chicago Athenaeum ‘2011 Good Design Award’ for the global rebranding of StepStone Solutions, will be on display during her dynamic workshop ‘The Changing Role of your Brand in Demand Gen’. Michelle will explore what is meant by brand personality and why it must sit at the heart of your business, not just the heart of marketing. Using entertaining READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

Call your leads quickly, and stop calling after 20 hours

B2B marketers know how important it is to follow up leads quickly. But do we know how quickly? And can call backs actually hurt your chances? A customer sent me this link to Lead Response Management last week, and I'm embarrassed not to have seen it previously. Here's the essence: Study was across 15,000 web-generated leads from 6 large companies over 3 years. Sure, the data could be across a larger number of companies, but I'm not disputing their findings. Calling on Thursdays is 50% better than calling on Tuesdays for first phone contact Wednesdays are 25% READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

Building Global Lead Scoring and Nurturing Programs at DemandCon 2012

Do you know what your ideal customer looks like and are you doing anything to help them find their way to you when the time comes to buy? A well built lead scoring and nurturing program can help you assess the quality of your prospects and ensureyou automatically stay engaged with them so when they know that they need what you have, you are perfectly positioned to give it to them. But how do you build one? What are the major challenges? And is your marketing engine ready for lead scoring and nurturing? Ceri Jones, Marketing Director READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|