CRM - March 2009 - (Page 42)

in this issue ■ CRM USER COMPANIES References are to the first page of the story or section in which the company appears. AT&T 26 Bureau of Justice Statistics 27 Burger King 26 BusinessWeek 14 Central Intelligence Agency 20 Chipotle Mexican Grill 32 Colorado Department of Revenue 20 Department of Defense 20 Direct Mail By Hand 46 Eloqua 43 Epson 26 FitLinxx 44 General Motors 14 Hannaford Bros. 32 Hershey’s (The Hershey Co.) 26 JCPenney (J.C. Penney & Co.) 14 Marshall Field’s 50 Ministry of Service, Government of Alberta 20 New York City 311 6, 20 Popeyes Chicken 48 Selfridges 50 Senior Transitions 43 Showtime Networks (CBS Corp.) 26, 32 Transportation Security Administration 20 United States Postal Service 6 Varian Medical Systems 45 ■ADVERTISERS Avaya back cover www.avaya.com/cc Calabrio 17 www.saynotoducttape.com Citrix inside front cover www.gotomeeting.com Free 30-Day Trial (promotion code: crm) CRM Evolution 2009, Aug. 24–26, 2009, New York. 49 www.CRMevolution2009.com/inquiry 1-800-300-9868 CRM eWeekly inside back cover www.destinationCRM.com/newsletter 1-800-300-9868 ITI Practical Books 5 books.infotoday.com/ 1-800-300-9868 ■WEB EVENTS Feb. 25, 2009: Infor webinar 9 http://webinars.destinationCRM.com/infor/135/ On Demand: Nuance webinar 11 http://webinars.destinationCRM.com/nuance/130/ March 4, 2009: Oracle webinar 13 http://webinars.destinationCRM.com/oracle/120/ it’s been, it’s no surprise that when can be just as important as what or how. “Many companies routinely give all the contacts from a trade show, webinar, or other demand-generation campaign to sales or telemarketing to call,” says Jon Miller, vice president of marketing for Marketo, a vendor of marketing automation software. “But just getting their badge scanned or downloading a white paper does not mean that person wants or is ready for a sales call. They may be qualified to be a potential customer one day for your product or service, but right now most of them are not yet ‘sales ready.’” Marketo’s research indicates that typically fewer than 25 percent of new prospects meet the criteria for “sales ready” and fewer than 5 percent are active opportunities.“So,” Miller asks, “is it really a good idea to spend 75 percent of your time calling—and annoying—the wrong people?” The answer, of course, is “No.” “I believe companies should wait until the prospect also shows the engagement and behaviors that indicate they are sales ready,” Miller continues. In other words, cultivate leads over time and pass them to sales when they’re ripe. “This not only prevents the prospect from having a bad reaction to an unwanted interruption, it also improves sales productivity—which can lead to 40 percent or more revenue growth.” (Even if Miller’s right about the 40 percent bump provided by sales productivity, that still may not be the single-most influential move you could make with regard to revenue. Once your shock wears off, see “The Untold Secret to Lead Scoring,” on page 41, for the key to a potential 66 percent increase.) Miller knows there are reasons why sales reps can’t—shouldn’t—call everyone. The easiest way to annoy potential customers and your sales team at the same time is to prematurely label new contacts “leads”and have sales call them too early. When the sales team calls everyone—including the unlikely prospects—it (a) perpetuates the impression that all marketing leads are “no good” and (b) makes them more likely to ignore the ones that are good. And Miller suggests a major flaw inherent in the most-common demandgeneration programs, such as trade shows and webinars: These efforts create leads in large batches. Given all at once to sales, the resulting flood of leads means a lot of good leads don’t get contacted in a timely fashion as sales works through the list. Then, once the list has been touched, sales looks for their next “list” to call and often ends up cold-calling completely unengaged prospects in the hope of creating opportunity. This is a much less efficient use of time compared to following up with warm, engaged, and qualified leads. As a marketer himself, Miller laments the fact that many companies stop marketing to leads once they’re passed off to sales—a terrible notion, he says. Contacts that could develop over time into real leads end up sitting idle in a sales rep’s contact list without any active effort to stay in touch or accelerate the buying process. Instead, leads that are deemed “not sales ready” should be recycled back to marketing for further nurturing. Vannoy provides another angle on timing. “Most organizations are focused on what’s hot now. Only a certain percentage of companies in your market are looking for product at any given time,” he says. This is why it’s important that leads be dynamic, the scores changing with age and new data. “If scoring is implemented properly over time, you can show who’s worth nurturing.” Lead scoring, when done right and done consistently, can bring new power to a sales organization and make its bond with marketing much tighter. Using the intelligence gleaned from lead scoring, you might even gain new insights about your company. “Do you know where you lose prospects?” Vannoy asks. “Most sales professionals can tell you ‘X percent leave at Stage 9 of the process,’ but what percent leave before Stage 1?”He says modern lead scoring can help answer that, if you’re ready for it:“It takes a fundamental change in how you run your business—how you train and deploy salespeople.” Contact Senior Editor Marshall Lager at mlager@destinationCRM.com. www.destinationCRM.com http://www.avaya.com/cc http://www.saynotoducttape.com http://www.gotomeeting.com http://www.CRMevolution2009.com/inquiry http://www.destinationCRM.com/newsletter http://books.infotoday.com/ http://webinars.destinationCRM.com/infor/135/ http://webinars.destinationCRM.com/nuance/130/ http://webinars.destinationCRM.com/oracle/120/ http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - March 2009

CRM - March 2009 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Stay Tuned Stimulating Citizen Experience CRM on Twitter Retailers Face Reality Making Relationships Matter Required Reading We the People Innovation Nation CRM and the iPhone Looking to Score The Virtual Welcome Mat A Tough Transition Made Easier A Training Regimen Gets Rigorous A Battle Fought from Afar Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - March 2009

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