Sales & Marketing Management - March/April 2008 - (Page 11)

SALES STRATEGY performance engineering department slices and dices company data so we really understand their business. The more we know, the more we can help them. As a company, we live in the data.” Long-term, Sprague says, PRC starts to learn how the data performs and is able to create predictable models for their clients. These models allow better forecasting. San Francisco’s ON24 bases its lead generation system on Webcasting and “rich media”—basically, anything not in paper format. “Webcasting is one of the most effective vehicles for producing costeffective leads,” says Kim Ryden, director of lead generation for ON24. “You can get your message across while maintaining your company’s brand and generating leads and information that can be archived through our Insight24 system.” Live Webcasting involves streaming audio and/or video content over the Internet on a specific day and time right to an individual’s computer. Ryden says it is especially well-suited for larger groups. ON24 assigns an “event manager” who stays with the account from brainstorming through Webcast. “Once the data is collected,” Ryden says, “it is up to the client what they wish to do with it … we do have additional services, such as scoring the data, if they need help in interpreting it. “Also,” Ryden adds, “the Insight24 program extends the shelf life of the Webcast by archiving the data collected so that it’s available anytime to anyone who may have missed the Webcast.” ON24 provides a unique URL for each media buy. “Our application service provider platform is hosted on our servers, and is so powerful we can customize the information any way the client would like it,” Ryden says. “This is also powerful because we maintain the company’s brand. ON24 stays in the background.” Companies can extend their spend by taking advantage of Insight24, an archiving system of ON24’s clients as well as non-clients involved in technology. It is a free syndication network of prominent technology and business Web sites for professionals involved in the buying process for technical products and services. Lisa McGuire, director of Insight24, says leads are free to companies for a period of six to eight weeks. “After that, companies only pay for the leads they want.” www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com Cross Media of Dallas offers a proprietary system of automated lead management, one that CEO Mike Tobias says is a combination of an “ASP [application service provider] system and some glue.” As Tobias explains, “Automated lead generation systems act as an understudy for a company’s sales and marketing teams. We ask our clients how they’d like to be followed.” Tobias says Cross Media’s system recognizes that With clear allocation of responsibility via electronic lead generation, sales and marketing can no longer point fingers at each other. every company is different. “Some transactions take a day to close, others two years, with all types of things in between,” he notes. “It’s very important to understand that the return on sales with low value but repeat business can be way higher than a one-time purchase. Some companies want to try indirect channels but don’t know what to expect. They are able to reallocate their budgets on an ongoing basis to reflect changes in the market.” Todd Murphy, vice president of sales and marketing services at Cross Media, says a big misconception about automated lead management is that PERCENTAGE OF it’s expensive. He says of COMPANIES the four buckets that CONSIDERING SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE leads fall into (qualified FOR THER CRM and interested; interestDELIVERY METHOD. ed but not qualified; not qualified and not interested; and qualified but SOURCE: ABERDEEN STUDY not interested at this time), leads that fall into the fourth category usually end up in a “dark hole.” “Let’s face it,” he says, “salespeople don’t like prospecting. This means 75% of leads may dry up and blow away. The goal is to make these types of leads hot. We nurture them and squeeze every available lead we can to convert them and are able to close the loop because of how we prospect.” [THE PULSE] 93 MARCH/APRIL 2008 SALES &MARKETING MANAGEMENT 11 http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - March/April 2008

Sales & Marketing Management - March/April 2008 Contents Editor's Letter Brian Tracy University Sales Marketing Management Cover Story: Lessons From the Master Maximum Mobility Training Technology Incentives/Motivation Travel/Meetings Book Excerpt - Value Merchants The Way I See It - End the Discounting Habit

Sales & Marketing Management - March/April 2008

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