by tradesmeninsights | Mar 4, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
We’re all focused on generating more leads these days, but I find it ironic that most companies don’t do much with them once they get them. Simply fulfilling a request is not the answer, but yet many companies do just that. According to a recent survey of people who have requested info suggests that 80% of all sales are made on or after the third contact. The survey conducted by Marketing Best Practices, Inc. polled over 700 respondents with only 8% buying after the first call.
David Frey, the senior content editor of www.MarketingBestPractices.com and author of several marketing books advises, “An educated prospect is your best prospect, and if they haven’t become a customer it’s because you haven’t fully educated them on value of your product and developed a relationship of trust.”
Why do many businesses have a problem following up with their prospective customers? Mr. Frey explained, “The problem is not that small businesses don’t have the capacity to follow up with prospects, it’s that they don’t have the systems in place to do it well.” In his recent newsletter, “Follow-Up Marketing: How To Win More Sales With Less Effort,” Mr. Frey advised, “A good follow-up marketing system should have three attributes:
1. It should be systematic.
2. It should generate consistent, predictable results.
3. It should require minimal physical interaction to make it run.
This leads to a more pressing issue and that is, what is the difference between sales lead management and a CRM tool? According to Russ Hill, President of Ultimate Lead Systems:
Sales lead management is a sub-function within an overall CRM strategy. Traditional CRM programs like Salesforce.com, SalesLogix, ACT, Goldmine, Maximizer and others focus on the sales person entering and managing his own data and pushing it “up” to management.
Sales lead management starts with management generating and capturing leads from all sources, fulfilling information requests and delivering them to the sales channel and tracking follow-up and sales results to measure marketing return-on-investment.
Here are some other interesting facts:
INQUIRIES MEAN NEW BUSINESS!
67% of all inquiries are from legitimate prospects with real needs.
34% have current needs that must be satisfied within 6 months!
70% did not know the company made the product before seeing their ad
. . . making them NEW PROSPECTS!
A six year study* of nearly 60,000 inquiries conducted by Penton Media Company also found that:
43% of inquirers receive literature and information too late to be of use.
72% of inquirers are NEVER CONTACTED by a salesman.
25% of sales contacts are made at the inquirer’s request.
40% of inquirers purchase the advertised product, a competitive product or change their suppliers.
* NED Reader Action Reports
The key is to get a lead management system in place that can help your CRM convert those leads into sales.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 25, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Trade associations, by design, are supposed to be the “official spokesperson” for their constituency. Most though have missed the opportunity to harness the power of the Internet and social media. This is especially true of the more conservative manufacturing-type groups.
One such group that has done a great job in using the Internet and the social media tools is The Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA). They have a blog (Speaking of Precision) and are active on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Miles Free, Director of Technology and Industry Research (also Chief Blogger) says: “Our members value the PMPA for the ability to network. Using our blog to provide thought leadership, technical resources, advocacy, another channel for communication, and recruitment helps us help our members and the industry stay connected. We use social media to help us provide connection, effective advocacy, and keep our members and the industry apprised of critical issues. At virtually no cost. For PMPA, social media is key to effective associating.”
Here are 5 reasons they are using social media :
- Thought leadership – They want to be known as the “Experts” in their space and their blog.
- Technical resource – To keep the industry updated on issues ranging from the latest OSHA requirements to new specs for a certain quality program, as well as to promote knowledge retention.
- Advocacy – All associations need representation in Government whether it’s national, state or local. Their position on issues are vital and social is a great place to rally the troops.
- Communicate with members – Most associations have several ways to touch their members, but blogs let them focus on one key subject and communicate with them on a regular basis, but in a different format that they are used to.
- Recruitment tool for new members – All associations are looking for new members, and this is a way for new potentials to see what they are doing and identify themselves as potential new members.
So, if you belong to an association and they aren’t using social media, tell them they are missing a great opportunity.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 23, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
B-to-B marketers, especially those in the manufacturing sector who are targeting the professional tradesmen, are slow to adapt to new things and social media is one of them. I’ve seen it in our business that clients (manufacturers) are aware of social media, but don’t know how to use it to get business. Yes, social isn’t about getting business (short-term), it’s about branding and thought leadership roles, but in the real world and especially in this economic climate, companies are also identifying new potential customers and taking them through the selling cycle to see if they can be converted to a sale. If B2B folks would have a better understanding of how to use social, then it would be easier for them to incorporate it into their other marketing efforts.
I recently read a post by Kipp Bodnar from Social Media B2B, 7 steps to building a B2B social media lead generation pipeline. Kipp outlines ways to identify and take leads through a system just like any other lead. Here are some highlights from his post:
- Understanding online analytics – You need to understand what the data is so you know what to do with it. There are several tools available, both free and paid. Google Analytics is probably the most popular free one. But it’s important to have analytics across social platforms and a simple data collection tool like Bit.ly would work just fine for Twitter and the built-in Facebook Fan pages.
- Develop a strategy – I’ve said over and over that content is king. So you need to develop a strategy to communicate the type of information your target audience wants and then overlap its content distribution platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs and Forums.
- Build a mechanism to gather leads – What good is it to generate leads if there is no place to identify next steps? What do they want—literature, demo, a salesman to follow-up?
- Integrate leads into a CRM system – Leads don’t matter if you don’t get the right info to the right person. There are several out there and the one we use is called Ultimate Lead Systems. It can track leads by source, type of product or service they are interested in, and track any kind of correspondence you have. It also helps you monitor your sales forces activities as it relates to new business.
- Set up a social sales follow-up program – You need to find where a potential lead is in the selling cycle and then nurture them down the sales funnel. I wrote a post, Where do your prospects fall in the sales cycle, that will shed more light on the different stages.
A social media lead generation program isn’t really different from a traditional one other than the issue of speed. Responses can be immediate and you need to be able to support them appropriately.
These, by no means, are all the steps. What are ways you’re dealing with this issue?
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 18, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
One of the biggest challenges I face with our B2B clients is trying to convince them that Social Media has a place in their overall marketing plan.
B2B an B2C are more aligned than you think. And in most cases in my opinion, B2B companies have an advantage because they have a well-defined audience, (e.g. Plumbing Contractors), where they can focus their energy and expertise.
Jay Baer in a recent post, Crushing the Myth of B2B Social Media, agrees with my premise, and he cites a recent study by MarketingProfs, State of Social Media Marketing Report, (which surveyed more than 5000 marketers) that both B2B and B2C marketers basically used the same tools… Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace.
In that study, both use the same basic tools, but how they use them differentiates the two groups. Jay reinforces the fact that no matter who you are, you should have a plan and process in place to implement and monitor your progress.
So B2B marketers should get on the band wagon and start utilizing these tools.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 16, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Social media isn’t like other traditional methods of marketing like direct mail or e-mail campaigns. These have set objectives and ways to track response mechanisms to check open and response rates.
Social media, on the other hand because of the nature of the beast, doesn’t have those types of metrics in place. Social media isn’t like other traditional methods of marketing like direct mail or e-mail campaigns…and please don’t do it because everyone else is!
Thomas McMahon in a recent post, 7 considerations for tracking social media success, outlines some great suggestions on how you may want to evaluate your social media tracking.
Here are some highlights:
- Quality over Quantity – The only really important numbers are the ones that are following you that are truly engaged and interested in what you’re saying.
- Hearing vs. Listening – You need to realize that not everyone is always hearing you. You want to connect with your listeners and hopefully get them engaged.
- Participate and Engage – Social media is about involved. You just can’t post articles…you need to participate in conversations.
- Be Where Your Action Is – Define your niche market and then find out where like-minded people hang out. Those are the forums, blogs and communities you need to be active in.
Remember, social media is a long-term investment with no short-term ROI. Be patient, build your network and trust within your target audience and social will pay off in the long run.
What other considerations should be on this list? I’d love to hear from you.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 11, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
If you’re reading this post, I’m preaching to the choir, but it’s amazing the number of people who still don’t understand social media. If they have an idea of what it is they have, they don’t have a clue on how to use it in the B-to-B world.
I recently did a webinar for our clients and prospect list that is now housed as a webcast. If you know of someone struggling with the social media scene, this is a 35-minute overview of how to use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr from a B-to-B perspective. I showed practical examples of how real world companies are taking advantage of social. It’s my way of trying to spread the good news about social media.
