SLMA Radio host Will Crist, on Sept 2nd  at 5 PM PST, provides news coverage on sales lead management and interviews. 

Past guests include Joe Payne, CEO of Eloqua, Mac McIntosh the sales lead expert, Gary Slack of Slack Barshinger, Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo, and Dan McDade CEO of PointClear.  

The top of the program is dedicated to recent news events that pertain specifically to sales lead management.   During the following 45 minutes the radio host will interview Andy Brownell CMO of  Dan Rogers and Mari Vanella.  Some questions for them include:

Dan Rogers: SmartLead by AdTrack

1. What is your opinion of the biggest challenges facing a CMO today and how do they solve the issues?
2. How do you integrate your services with SalesForce?
3. Why should a sales manager care about what lead management system is used?
4. You had a study last year that showed that only two nurturing touches is the optimal number of times to communicate with a prospect to persuade them to buy.  Tell me more about this.
5. Why do you call a sales inquiry a declining asset?

Mari Anne Vanella: Vanella Group

1. You use the term on your site, Rich Sales Intelligence for large opportunities, what do you mean by that?
2. You say on your site that you deliver strategic, powerful sales development solutions rather than just leads.  Can you explain what you mean by that?
3. I assume you use social media. What has been most effective for you and why?  
4. What social media tactics do you recommend for your clients?
5. Tell me how you solved a recent big issue for a client?

To listen live, visit OCTalkRadio.net and click on the "LISTEN LIVE/ON AIR " banner while the show airs.

        

Today, August 26th at 5 PM PST, SLMA Radio host Will Crist provides news coverage on sales lead management and interviews with Eloqua’s Joseph Payne and sales lead expert Mac McIntosh.  Some of the questions we will cover include:

From Joseph Payne

-What does Eloqua mean when it says it can deliver Sales Intelligently and Measure Everything?
 
-What is the biggest challenge facing CMO’s today?

-Why should a company president care about using a marketing automation process?

-Can Eloqua make life more predictable for a Sales Manager?  How?

-Are there industry segments which have had more success with marketing automation than others?

-Who do you look up to for leadership?

From Mac McIntosh

-Who do you look up to as a leader in B2B Marketing?

-I have to ask for some advice:  A CMO says the salespeople for his company are not following up on the sales inquiries she gives them.  What advice can you give her to change that?

-Some more advice please:  A CFO has unusual power in a company and doesn’t believe in creating sales leads.  How do you change his mind?

-What is the best lead generating vehicle today for B2B companies in this down marketplace?

-What is the biggest mistake companies make in managing sales leads?

-What advice do you give CMO’s about measuring the ROI for marketing?

Tune in at 5 PM PST

        

Listen to g guests Gary Slack, CEO of Slack Barshnger and Chairman of the Business Marketing Association,  Andy Brownell, CMO of LeadMaster and Russ King CEO of LeadMaster talk about their companies, use of Twitter (a client of Slack Barshinger) and the future of inquiry management.

You can also subscribe to the show with iTunes.

 Standard Podcasts [00:50:00m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player  ... << MORE >>

This is the inaugural SLMA Radio program for the Sales Lead Management Association.  Will Crist the moderator announced industry news and interviewed Dan McDade president of PointClear and Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo . It's nice to hear industry leaders opinion's about their companies and the future of sales lead management.

SLMA Radio will be broadcast bi-weekly in August and goes weekly in September.  Want to hear the broadcast?  Click below and  enjoy. 
Listen Now:

        

SLMA Talk Radio Program – August 12^th 5 PM PST - News and Interviews with Gary Slack of Slack Barshinger (agency for Linkedin) and the Chairman of the BMA and Andy Brownell, CMO of Lead Master

The SLMA Radio program is brought to you by the membership of the Sales Lead Management Association.

SLMA Radio is a 50 minute internet radio show which broadcasts live at 5 PM PDT, in the United States from OC Talk Radio.   The show is hosted by Will Crist and produced by Paul Roberts and James Obermayer. It will broadcast bi-weekly in August and weekly in September. Our guests this week are Gary Slack of Slack Barshinger the BtoB Agency. Slack Barshinger has as one of its clients Linkedin. Gary has been instrumental in the recent growth of the Business Marketing Association. Andy Brownell is the CMO Of Lead Master a Leader in Sales and Lead Management solutions.

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Company URL  http://www.validar.com 

Who are your mentors and why? 

The resources I migrate to are on this list. (The 50 Most Influential List) ;nice job SLMA. I gain great insight from Brian Carroll,  DemandGenreport and our friends at Salesforce.com. Also, our existing customers are great mentors and resources.

What is the most helpful advice you've received to improve your business? 

Stay true to your vision.

What is the most helpful advice you can give to help others improve their businesses? 

Focus on helping your customers with their challenges versus selling them products. Also, stay true to your vision! 

How do you give back to the professional community? 

www.dontaskdontsell.com is purely focused on helping marketing and sales professionals in their day to day activities specific lead management.

What is your favorite business book? 

"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" is timeless and has been very helpful in my business career.  Also, right now i am reading "Behind the Cloud " by Mark Benioff and Inbound Marketing by the ...

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The Sales Lead Management Association has an opportunity for a media sales rep to represent it’s various services.  These services include sponsorship, display advertising, radio commercials, industry leader news, speaker’s directory, sponsored white papers, research, and webinars plus text and newsletter display advertising.  The ideal representative will have a media sales background, understand internet media and is probably representing other non-competing services or associations.  This is an above average commission only opportunity.  Please send your resume to:jobermayer@salesleadmgmtassn.com 

        

Debuting today, the SLMA Radio program is brought to you by the membership of the Sales Lead Management Association. 

SLMA Radio is a 50 minute internet radio show which broadcasts live at 5 PM PDT, in the United States from OC Talk Radio.   The show is hosted by Will Crist and produced by Paul Roberts and James Obermayer. It will broadcast bi-weekly in August and weekly in September. 

Guests this week are:

Dan McDade, President of PointClear
Phil Fernandez, CEO of Marketo

You may listen to SLMA Radio this afternoon at 5 PM, PDT from the SLMA website by clicking on the "Listen Live Button"which takes you to OC Talk Radio.    Click the "On Air" button.

        

PRESS RELEASE

 Beginning July 29, 2010, Will Crist to host weekly SLMA news & interview radio show

Los Angeles, CA - - July 20th,  2010- - James W. Obermayer, executive director of the Sales Lead Management Association,  announced today that the SLMA will host a weekly talk radio program centered around the topic of sales lead management.  Obermayer said, "Well-known radio commentator Will Crist will be our host and interviewer.  We’ll cover recent industry news and interviews with business leaders.  This is not simply blog radio or a podcast; it’s the new live web radio with all of the quality you expect from a professional radio program."

SLMA Radio will start broadcasting Thursday, July 29th at 5 p.m. PST (California, US).   Listeners can connect via the SLMA Website.  Produced by Paul Roberts of OC Talk Radio, the SLMA Radio broadcast is also available through the OC Talk Radio website.   

Host Will Crist said, "In our first broadcast on July 29th, we will interview Phil Fernandez, president and CEO of Marketo and Dan McDade, president, CEO and founder of PointClear."

The second program will air Thursday, August 12th, when Crist interviews Gary Slack, CEO of Slack Barshinger and Chairman of the Business Marketing Association, and Andy Brownell, CMO of LeadMaster . 

The third program, airing August 26th will feature Joseph Payne, CEO of Eloqua  and Mac McIntosh, President of  Mac McIntosh, Inc., business to business sales lead expert.  By the beginning of September, broadcasts will air weekly.

SLMA vice president of marketing, Sue Campanale, said "This show is open to SLMA members and non-members alike; anyone interested may listen in.  Recorded broadcasts will also be archived on the SLMA site.   Interviewees will be provided a copy of the program they participate in.  Guests are subject to change."

Commercials Accepted
Campanale also said, "This is not pay to play.  Our guests are not asked to pay a fee to be on the show.  We are, however, accepting commercial advertisers for this new web radio program.   There will be three 60-second commercials per each 50-minute program.   Rates are available on the SLMA site."

About the Sales Lead Management Association
The SLMA is an association with the mission of helping companies become successful in the critical business process of managing sales leads.  It has more than 2,500 members world-wide.  Membership is free.

# # #

Media Contact:  Susan Campanale
714-637-6989
scampanale@salesleadmgmtassn.com
www.salesleadmanagementweek.com

        

The age old question – is it better to provide more leads to sales or less leads that are better quality? Well it really depends – is your company meeting and/or exceeding its revenue numbers? Are your sales reps hitting and/or exceeding quota?  If you are like the majority of companies out there, the answers to these questions are “no.” If they are not, then something needs to change.  How many of the leads that you send to sales are closing?  If that’s a good percentage of the leads, then it sounds like the issue is to just pump up the volume and more revenue will close (of course we are assuming you are measuring ROI on your campaigns so it’s profitable revenue).  However, if you are like the majority of companies out there, sales is closing somewhere between 2 – 10% of the leads that marketing is generating. That’s not a particularly great stat. So what’s got to change?  Well, if you could provide better quality leads to sales, would the close percentage get better? It certainly should.  Better quality not only leads to better close rates but can reduce the cost of sales (sales reps spending time calling people that aren’t qualified) and increase your marketing ROI.  So, based on the questions above, it seems like a pretty easy question to answer – quantity versus quality – if you are like most of us, we’ll take quality any day.


Lisa Cramer is president and co-founder of LeadLife Solutions, a provider of on-demand lead management software that generates, scores, and nurtures leads for B2B marketers. In 2009, Lisa was recognized as one of the top 5 “Most Influential People” in sales lead management. For more information on lead management or best practices call 1-800-680-6292 or email info@leadlife.com.

        

Wednesday, July 7th – DMAnc Education Webinar

Sales 2.0 + Marketing 2.0  + Informatica Case Study
   

What is Sales 2.0 and why should you care?

Sales 2.0 is the mirror image of Marketing 2.0 and it represents dramatic changes in both sales and marketing to accommodate Web 2.0 and Buyer 2.0 behavior. Attend this webinar and learn what Sales 2.0 is and how it can improve your marketing, sales, profits and return on investment.

Our speakers:

ANNEKE SELEY ‒ Chief Executive Officer - Phone Works
author of Sales 2.0 ‒ Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology

BRENT HOLLOWAY ‒ Director of Inside Sales - Verint Systems
author of Sales 2.0 ‒ Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology

RICHARD STEINHART ‒ Director - North American Inside Sales, Informatica Corporation
Informatica is a data integration software company whose clients include 84 of the Fortune 100 companies ‒ their clients include leading companies in telecommunications, financial services, healthcare, energy, insurance, and life sciences.

Attend this Webinar to Learn:
•How Sales 2.0 is redefining the future ...

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Maybe the lack of sales lead follow-up by salespeople (75-90%) has to do with their disrespect for the time, effort and cost to find the inquirer.  They simply don't know how much it cost to find qualifed prospects.  Plus, most don't know the that nearly half of the inquirers they get will turn into a sale for someone. 

Thomas Paine said "What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly, 'tis dearness only that gives every thing its value."

Give a salesperson five inquiries a month and they follow them up; give them 50 and they have a different opinion.  Suddenly they do not have the time; most they say are not worth their effort.  I have found that more than 25 inquiries a month without a qualification or nurture process spells wasted marketing dollars.  This means that 75-90% of the lead generation dollars are wasted.  Pity more marketers aren't better at proving the ROI for their programs.    I guess more should read Jim Lenskold's book, "Marketing ROI ," or Mark Jeffery's book, "Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know"  

        

Company URL:  http://nurtureinstitute.com 

Who are your mentors and why?  My Father, Taught me to nurture. Robert Whitney, showed me the map . Napoleon Hill, Showed me the path. Jay Abraham, Taught me the most about marketing. Seth Godin, inspires me daily.
  What is the most helpful advice you've received to improve your business?  Helping Customers Succeed, Not just buy.  Mahan Khalsa Automate Follow-up Processes.

What is the most helpful advice you can give to help others improve their businesses?   

Get very serious about nurturing.  Decide to Automate and systematize selling process. Identify, your A level clients and prospects Individualize, with a dossier approach Interact, with messages that matter and content that counts. Influence, earn the right to help them succeed  Nurture, to cultivate the ones you want and the ones you want to keep.

"When your heart is in your dreams, no request seems too extreme."
  Jimminy Cricket 

How do ...

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On June 30th the Sales Lead Management Association enrolled it's 2500 th member. Donna Arthur of MEDIAmail Packaging of Lebanon, TN, joined on June 20th. Welcome Donna! ... << MORE >>

Our computers and hand-held devices hold our business. The worry of file cabinets crashing while we're away are a thing of the past - it's the back up, the hard drive, the LISTS, ORDERS and CALENDARS. In the summertime, you have a few unique things to worry about: traveling with a computer; making sure that computers don't suffer from heat or lack of ventilation; and ensuring that a big storm or hurricane doesn't knock out your systems while you're away.
 
If you're traveling with a computer, you'll want to make sure you don't accidentally leave it at the airport - that's an obvious first step in a successful journey! After that, your primary worry until you get to an electrical outlet will be making sure you have enough battery power to last.

1. Make sure you've run a full backup before you leave. Save copies of important documents on your corporate file server, and password-protect and encrypt the files on your hard drive.

2. ...

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I will attend and I suggest you consider it also...Jim Obermayer

Join BtoB this Tuesday, June 22 for the only *free* virtual tradeshow dedicated to the best lead management technologies and tactics for B2B marketers

You won't want to miss this free event featuring keynote addresses by Joseph Jaffe - Author & marketing/new media/social media thought leader and Charlene Li - Bestselling Author & founder of Altimeter Group.

The show will be open from 11:30 a.m. ET - 5:30 p.m. ET, allowing plenty of time for you to network with peers, attend sessions and enter to win great prizes.

Complete agenda:
http://www.btobonline.com/section/agenda2010

More details/register: http://www.btobonline.com/section/leadingedge2010

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Entry by Andy Brownell, Chief Marketing Officer, LeadMaster Inc.

For those of us who do business through channel partners, finding out exactly what happened to leads that are sent to the channel is always a challenge. How many of those leads did your partners follow up with? How many turned into sales? What's the ROI for each program that generated those leads?

If you're fortunate enough to have a channel sales rep helping your partners follow up with and close leads, you're doing a better job than most. Still, many leads fall through the cracks. Why? Because sales is a numbers game and warm/cool leads are on the losing team. Each partner rep may work with dozens of channel partners each of whom may work hundreds of leads. And when a rep is working to close a deal, he's not focused on the other leads.

Many of us thought that CRM systems were the answer. But reps frequently write things like 'Called 3 times and couldn't reach them,' or 'No opportunity,' prematurely marking them dead. Management might not understand why, but in the reps’ perspective, it makes sense: they only have so much time, and working on proposals, configurations, presentations and briefings takes time. They'd much rather be working on an immediate deal than on a lead that might close in 6 months.

So what's the answer? From my experience, combining what I call a ‘lead driver’ with a quality lead management system can increase the number of A-level leads passed to sales reps, thus increasing the number of deals closed. First, let’s focus on the lead driver. The primary role of a lead driver is to follow the lead, whether this position is internally filled or outsourced. Following and managing the leads through the channel has to be this individual's sole responsibility, so that they have time to manage and track the massive volume of leads circulating in the channel.

The lead driver makes sure the leads are being worked. As they work with partners, if a partner hasn't followed up on a lead within a specified period of time, the lead driver reassigns it to another partner. Thus, the lead driver follows the lead until it is either closed, lost to the competition or has been determined to never truly have been a lead. By raising the visibility of leads that weren't sales ready, lead drivers can help improve the overall lead scoring methodology. Moreover, as sales reps focus only on leads that are truly sales ready while the rest are sent to lead nurturing, the lead driver helps drive not only revenue and sales efficiency but also lead quality.

As the second part of the equation, for this process to go smoothly, all sales leads must be passed through a single lead management system. This provides those with authorized access real-time updates of any and all leads; it helps marketing know the effectiveness and the ROI of their lead generation programs; it minimizes outdated information in your database; and the channel manager can finally track which partners are following up on leads and which aren’t.

Thus, the problem of tracking ROI and channel efficiency is solved with a dedicated “lead driver,” and a single lead management system that you and your channel share. But this is not the only benefit of having a unified lead management system. This approach can also benefit your partner sales reps. Here's an example. When a partner rep leaves the company and a new rep is hired, the lead driver gives them a call, tells them about the leads they’ll be working and walks them through the lead management system. By having up-to-date information about their leads in a system that is easy-to-use, the new rep can come up to speed quickly.

Consider implementing a sales driver for your own channel. With a small initial investment, you’ll be sure to increase sales revenue.

Andy Brownell
Chief Marketing Officer
LeadMaster
andy.brownell@leadmaster.com
www.leadmaster.com

        

Author: Lisa Cramer, Co-Founder & President, LeadLife Solutions

We often hear marketers struggle, knowing that they need and desperately want lead management systems and processes, but are worried about their ability to implement one. We are all resource constrained, marketers probably more than most, so how can companies start down the path of lead management without overhauling their entire operation in a 3- 6 month implementation?

Lead management can really be taken in steps – yes, for maximum return you need to implement all components and processes from website to close of sale.  But we’ve found that just taking the first small step can provide some immediate ROI and immediate visibility to all that’s been missing.  One example might be, if a company currently sends an electronic monthly newsletter to prospects, we’ll often suggest starting simply by moving that process to a lead management tool. The process involves importing leads into a lead management system, using the lead management system to more definitively segment and target these prospects.  Set up an email template within the lead management system with dynamic content that can changed based on some basic criteria such as industry and watch the advanced behavior tracking open up your eyes. 

The benefits are immediately obvious.  First, lead management systems provide a very detailed way of segmenting your prospects.  If segmented well (industry, title, size of company, behavior, interests, etc.), then your ability to target messages to the segmented list will be much better and much more effective.  Personalization combined with relevance is one of the most important criteria for successful email conversion. You should see more clicks and better conversions over time as you provide more relevant information to your prospects. And if your lead management system is what it should be rules can easily be created to dynamically change text or images to better suite your targeted recipients.

Download our whitepaper “A Quicker, Simpler Path to Lead Management ROI” and learn a step-by-step approach to getting up and running with lead management. Discover how taking small steps can provide immediate ROI and visibility into what’s been missing.

Lisa Cramer is president and co-founder of LeadLife Solutions, a provider of on-demand lead management software that generates, scores, and nurtures leads for B2B marketers. In 2009, Lisa was recognized as one of the top 5 “Most Influential People” in sales lead management. For more information on lead management or best practices call 1-800-680-6292 or email info@leadlife.com.

        

We have three new e-Books on the SLMA site.

Title:  Focused Outreach Lead Generation from Exceed Sales. 
Author:  Elisa Ciarametaro.   www.exceedsales.com

Are you sick and tired of hacking through a jungle of information about lead generation?
Elisa Ciarametaro wrote  this e-book to make your strategy clear and easy to follow. There is a 10-Step Guide to produce high quality Leads and Raise the ROI for your programs. She covers a  definition of Focused Outreach and the ten step plan. Great for those new to the field or seasoned veterans.

This guide presents key strategies that work for Exceed Sales clients, and you’ll see them step by step.   This is a registered down-load for members only or go to: www.exceedsales.com

Title:  The Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing
A Marketo Workbook

This is a 43 page workbook, yes there is some work to do, divided into four parts:
 
 Part one covers: What is Lead Nurturing.
 Part Two: Lead Nurturing Basics.
 Part Three: Advanced lead Nurturing.
 Part Four: Calculating the ROI of Lead Nurturing.

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From Michael Brown  ...
One of the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management 2009
 
This Latin phrase, which also is on our money, means “of many, one.”  You make many lead generation and development calls each day and they may start to sound the same … to you. But not to your prospects. They hear only one.
 
Because each prospect hears you once, the onus is on you to make that one time sound distinctive. So despite your repetition (hope not boredom), you need to make every single call throughout the day and week sound as good as your very first. Here’s how:
 
•         Envision your prospect. They are not awaiting your call with baited breath and hand above the receiver. They are doing something else and are subject to all the usual workplace distractions and interruptions. So your call must compel attention based solely on your verbal delivery and content. You have a new audience every call.
 
•         Make each call unique. Your pre-call preparation, such as a visit to your database(s) and their web site, ought to provoke at least a few questions to guide the conversation with your prospect or customer. Refresh your Question Bank often.
 
•         Present the next step in context. For example, if you want to send a video link, explain why watching the video is beneficial: "Ms Prospect, I urge you and your colleagues to look at the new video ... it runs only 2:25 ... because you will see why you may, indeed, want to consider us ... there are some powerful economic advantages! OK?"
 
•         Do not rush! Getting the details such as their e-mail address makes sense only if they are going to take the next step. So develop your case, secure the prospect’s agreement, THEN ask for the administrative details.
 
© 2010, Michael A. Brown