As an example, technology is outlined in the book as a barrier to entry. After receiving an e-mail your potential prospect has several options:

1. Read it and reply (highly unlikely)
2. Read it and discard it
3. Dismiss it as spam
4. Dismiss it as spam and block future e-mails from your address

More often than not the prospect will dismiss your e-mail as spam or simply ignore it The “Circle of Leverage“ is designed to help you to surpass this and other barriers, allowing you to get in the door.

So what is the Circle of Leverage? The circle of leverage system is a top down sales lead strategy that gives detailed steps on how to cause your potential customer to ‘want’ to let you in the door. According to the author this can be accomplished by activating one of your targets four ‘Key Engagers.’ The four key engagers are; your prospects fears, insecurities, competitiveness, or desires what Mercury Leads refers to as the “pain or gain” factor. For example, if your target fears what might happen if you aren’t let in the door, (missed opportunity) what will motivate them to give you the chance to present your ideas? Acting upon one or more of these key engagers will enable you to get your foot in the door with a highly qualified sales lead.

In total, the system includes 15 steps. There are ten preparation steps designed to expand your knowledge base of your potential client and five execution steps. After reading through all the steps of the Circle of Leverage system it is easy to envision a cohesive business development process. While this lead generation system is not guaranteed it does seem to be a sound concept. The real question is does it work. For Mercury Leads, it is a sales lead system that definitely seems to present good ideas on how to get in. At the same time, many of the ideas presented in the book seem redundant. Preparing and executing follow up steps have been a part of the sales lead process forever. The tactics that sets this book apart is what happens behind the scenes. Using several ‘leverage points’ the lead generation system is designed to cause your targets to be talking about you or your product before you even talk to them in person. This is where the aforementioned key engagers become essential in your pursuit of a sale. One example Boylan gives in the book outlines letters that he sends out to several targets in a business that trigger the competitiveness engager. In these letters he describes how he is already talking to several of their competitors about his product. Boylan believes the targets are much more likely to let you in the door because their competitive instincts compel them to learn what their competitors already know about you and your product.

This book describes a system that, on the surface, seems to be a bulletproof idea. However, this system seems a bit coercive at some points and, if placed the wrong hands, I could see how people could make some wrong turns. Nonetheless there are several good ideas presented in the book and was definitely a good read.  We give the book a thumbs up.

The Fifteen Steps:

Preparation:

1. Define what you need vs. what you want
2. Do your homework
3. Develop a prospect profile
4. Understand your prospect’s nature; key drivers such as competitiveness or opportunity for gain.
5. Crystallize the net benefits of your offer
6. Know your competitors net benefits and your key points of difference
7. Reality Check: Why do you deserve to get in?
8. Crystallize the net benefits of granting you access
9. Take stock of your firepower
10. Check your attitude

Execution

1. Prepare your initial communication and put it in play
2. Flush out your prospect
3. Dance, Sponge, and Reiterate
4. Align and champion your offer
5. Open their door

Book Review – The Power To Get In, by Michael Boylan is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!

The study examined 3 years of sales lead data across 6 companies that generate and respond to web leads, from over 15,000 sales leads and over 100,000 call attempts.  The behavioural study revealed when sales representatives had success around calling web generated B2B sales leads. To find these facts, we looked at sales leads that were captured through a web form, and attempted or called at least one time. Summarized below are some of the more interesting findings related to speed and timing when responding to web generated leads:

1. BEST DAYS TO CONTACT & QUALITY SALES LEADS – Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact (by 49.7% over the worst day) and qualify (by 24.9% over the worst day) leads.  Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead (by 19.1% better than the worst day).
2. BEST TIMES OF THE DAY TO CONTACT & QUALIFY SALES LEADS – 4-6 p.m. is the best time to call to make contact with a lead (by 114% over the worst time block). 8‐9 a.m. and 4‐5 p.m. are the best times to call to qualify a lead (by 164% better 1‐2pm, the worst time of the day).  4‐5p.m. is the best time to contact a lead to qualify over 11‐12 a.m. by 109%).
3. DIMINISHING ODDS – The odds of calling to contact a lead decrease by over 10 times in the 1st hour. The odds of calling to qualify a lead decrease by over 6 times in the 1st hour.

 Some say that much of life is timing.  I guess it is,…

Is it Important to Follow Up on Leads Promptly? You betcha! is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!

• 600,000 companies started a business in 2011, 600,000 businesses failed in the same year.
• There’ve been 33% turnover in jobs and 40 million jobs listed.
• 6,000 people change jobs every hour
• 71% of business cards collected have one change or more within 12 months.

Wow as I look at these numbers, it makes me shiver. How in the world can you develop leads and keep your database clean in this type of environment. These stats lead to the conclusion that high quality leads are hugely preferable over a quantity based approach because of the turnover demonstrated. Then, increasingly importance knowing the difference between leads that just have demonstrated an interest vs. those that are ready to buy becomes monumentally important.

Xerox for example has shrunk their lead database from 100,000 records to lower than 40,000 records. Increasingly, we get calls for companies that want Mercury to telemarket verify their prospect database before we even think about pitching a product. With list compilers pushing prices of $100 per thousand records, a major focus has to be to market only to those highly qualified prospects. Additionally, with the average cost of a direct mail package running $1.25, you’d better be mailing to a person that exists, let alone being concerned about duplicate elimination.  The importance of database enhancement can’t be stressed enough in this example. In this day and age most wise marketers are just testing small quantities of prospects from their databases prior to executing any kind of Marcom effort. This way at least they know what their list obsolescence really is. Are you a wise marketer?

What Are These Stats Doing to Your Data? is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!

World renowned telemarketing guru Jeff Gitomer once said, “You don’t get great selling in a day. You get great selling day by day.” This statement really personifies what it takes to be a great telemarketer. Sales is not a once and done process. In today’s business world, information is everywhere and is easily accessible. Companies looking to buy, now have options for them that were once unavailable. However, that doesn’t mean that C-Level executives won’t entertain a phone call from a professional b2b sales lead generation company. Even an expert telemarketer must now play by a new set of sales rules. I’ve outlined 10 steps to making an effective telemarketing call in today’s economy.

1.    Attitude – Before you pick up that phone your thoughts and emotional state have already determined if you will be successful or not. If you, the telemarketer, don’t have a good attitude, followed by expert knowledge and a true sense of passion the prospect is going to bail at the first opportunity. Be exceptionally well prepared with your product, script and b2b sales offer.  Prior to making that telemarketing call do something that puts you in the right frame of mind. Think of this time as warming up. Even Michael Jordan took practice shots before a game.

2.    The Opener – Once you have identified that you are communicating to the right person, present your value proposition in the first 30 seconds of the b2b sales call. Before the telemarketing call, craft an attention getter, typically referred to as the Value Proposition (Value Prop) or Unique Selling Proposition (USP).  This is the #1 reason that your prospect should remain on the telemarketing call with you.

3.    Find the Pain, Sell the Opportunity – In today’s business environment managers are increasingly being held accountable for costs and/or generating a profit. As a b2b sales lead generation expert your job is to identify the unpublished point of pain and explain  how your solution fills the void. Conversely, if your solution can increase unrealized sales or profitability, you, the telemarketer, are smart to present these opportunities quickly and succinctly.

4.    Interact – There’s nothing worse than a one-way conversation. Your prospect will soon exit the call.  An expert in teleprospecting lead generation is prepared prior to the call and probes the prospect for an opening to present their solution.    They do their homework and know the prospect, the company, and have a solid profile in hand prior to making the call.  They also have anticipated objections and can counter these with meaningful expert dialog enabling them to achieve their objectives for the call.

5.    People Buy From Experts – There is really only one reason b2b sales people thrive, they have more knowledge than the buyer. The professional telemarketer brings experience via their solutions that the buyer needs and doesn’t have. Telemarketing is the easiest and most efficient way to present these solutions to the decision maker and open the door to the demonstration.

6.    Focus on Maintaining – Your power questions should help guide the prospect to share what dissatisfies them most about their corporate situation. One tactic during a telemarketing call is to tell the prospect how you’ll stabilize their profits, safeguard against industry trends, overcome fear and abolish their worries. Prospects are just as motivated to maintain what they have as they are to buy something new.

7.    Practice Makes Perfect – Role Play. Rehearse in the mirror if you have to. Take the time to come up with a good script designed for teleprospecting lead generation and rehearse it until you don’t need the script. Then take it to the next level, pitch it without benefit of the telemarketing script.  If you’re the expert your product knowledge should allow you to succeed with the prospect pitch.

8.    Close – You’re saying this a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at the number of telemarketing professionals that don’t have a defined path. You’re in charge of the call and need to stay in that position. Lead the prospect to where you envision and you will realize the predefined goals and objectives of your teleprospecting call.

9.    Cultivate the other 95% – In B2B sales it is may take to 5, 6, 7 or more telemarketing phone calls, webinars or face-to-face conferences to close the deal. During that time you need to build trust and credibility.  Position yourself and your organization as industry and thought leaders with articles, whitepapers, graphs, webinars, podcasts, testimonials and client case examples. Learn to read your prospect and present solutions to their objections. When the time is right don’t be afraid to ask for the sale. In telemarketing, persistence pays off. Each teleprospecting lead generation professional has their own style, learn which style works best for you then learn to refine it.

10.    Review – Take the time after each telemarketing call to review what you could have done better and then learn from those mistakes.

It takes a lot of time to become a great b2b sales lead generation expert. Remember, you will be rejected. You only fail when you quit. Don’t ever doubt yourself; with practice anyone can be a darn good telemarketer. To quote legendary teleprospecting connoisseur Red Motley, “Nothing happens until a sale is made.”

Good Selling,

Paul J. Plvan
Mercury Leads, Inc.

The Art of the B2B Sales Call is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!

Ask any lead generation marketer what the most important aspect of a campaign is and you will get 50 different answers. Many marketers love to tout about how fancy their new CRM System is or how effective their pay-per-click ads are running. Those are all nice and well but these tools are only as good as the person using them.

In this Web 2.0 era we as lead generation marketers often forget that marketing isn’t about tricks of the trade, it is simply about what your company can do for your client. It boils down to sales and getting your client more them. So what is the most effective sales lead generation strategy to convert more prospects into sales? It all starts with the offer.

The offer is the most important aspect of any landing page, website copy, teleprospecting call or pay-per-click campaign. All too often the business offer is poorly written and does not emit an emotional response in the prospect. Companies tend to brag about how good their product is and how poorly the competition is doing. The fact is the prospect does not care about your industry reputation, how long you have been in business, what awards you have won or certification classes you have taken. The prospect is looking for specific information to help him/her make an important buying decision.

On average you only have 5-8 seconds to convince someone to stay on your website. If the prospect doesn’t find something compelling they simply go onto the next website. There are 6 characteristics of a great offer.

A compelling business offer is:

1.   Of Value to the prospect.
2.   Exclusive- something the prospect can’t get anywhere else
3.   Tangible- something the prospect can visualize
4.   Relevant- to the business or the prospect’s personal needs
5.   Easy to deliver message that is simple and clear
6.   Entertaining and Engaging

Hands down the most compelling offer is the informational offer. Your information should help the prospect research solutions quickly and effectively and ultimately solve their problem. The informational offer should include a strong appeal with high perceived value and be relatively low cost and risk to the prospect. It should be focused on taking action.

Put yourself in the prospects shoes when coming up with an offer by asking yourself these questions:

•    What is the best way to solve my business problem or corporate goal?
•    What solutions does your company offer to help me solve my problem?
•    What are all of the issues I should be concerned about when researching this problem?
•    How do I know what solution is best for my particular problem?
•    Who are the market leaders in the industry? Why?
•    What do peer reviews say about your company? Who can I trust?
•    What is a fair price I should pay for this product or service?
•    What type of ROI can I expect from this solution? What company will give me a fair assessment without inflating their numbers?
•    What other costs such as (training and support) will there be? Are these long-term costs?
•    How soon can we see the benefits from your solution?

Once you have addressed these questions you as a sales lead generation marketer need to come up with tangible solutions to these problems focused on getting the prospect to take action. At each stage of the buying cycle you should be gaining your prospects trust by lead nurturing with whitepapers, trend and 3rd party studies, webinars, flash videos, testimonials, case studies, e-books, competitive analysis of your company vs. competitors, ROI calculators, podcasts and seminars.

Keep in mind that your company is not in the business of selling products; your company is in the business of selling solutions. Once you focus on these aspects of lead generation marketing and lead nurturing you will start to see more prospects be converted into lifelong sales.

Yours in Selling,

Paul J. Plvan
Principal
http://www.mercuryleads.com

Writing a Strong Business Offer is Crucial in Sales Lead Generation is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!

In today’s tough business environment it is increasingly important to do 2 things very well as you execute your demand generation process:

• Have a well executed multi-channel communications strategy
• Create a closed loop lead generation process that includes a planned lead nurturing process

As a B2B lead generation and sales lead company we see these 2 items most often missed or just overlooked by Marketing Executives working on lead generation strategies. As you can see below independent research companies have validated that this is a major mistake. Consider these facts:

• Closed loop lead management process including database segmentation, lead qualification, lead scoring, and lead nurturing leads to 50% pipeline growth.
• Well-executed multi-channel marketing campaigns generate a sales lift ranging from 7-34%.
• Companies that develop nurturing programs increase their average order value by 47%.
• An estimated 70-90% of all leads generated by marketing are never followed up by sales.

This is indeed sobering information for Marketing Executives and their lead generation campaigns. These tactical elements are generally considered the most vital part of any lead generation process, and we have realized even higher lift than this in client lead generation and demand generation processes so the payoff is obviously worth the effort.

Discipline is the operative word and a great deal of it is required. Whether implementing these processes in-house or using an external vendor your job just may depend on accomplishing these aspects of your sales lead generation program. You have to look at this through the eyes of your target prospect. The C-Suite is more and more involved in key purchasing decisions of the organization. They also have the least amount of time. Therefore your communications, and messaging for demand generation has to be expertly coordinated in order to gain top of mind awareness for your product or service. To use a Mercury Leads analogy you have to “fish where the fish are”, the CEO, CTO, or CFO can be found in the most remote estuaries.

The statistics listed above are common sense but with a little discipline your company can prosper when other organizations and competitors are stagnant. I’ve attached a link to a document we’ve compiled over the past several years something we call “Lead Generation Facts of Life“. By taking your campaigns to the next level and exercising common sense and discipline your lead generation strategies will enjoy a substantial increase in overall performance. For other helpful white papers please visit our website and of course we welcome your comments.

Yours in Selling,

Paul J. Plvan
Principal
http://www.mercuryleads.com

C-Suite Demand Generation is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!