Marketers are always looking for new, innovative approaches to deliver improved results to their organization.

What if there was a program that could fundamentally shift your sales results and significantly improve your marketing ROI?

Well believe it or not, there is a program that will significantly improve your results and lead to a higher return on marketing investment spent on opportunity development.

If you are like most marketers, the lion share of your marketing budget is being invested in new customer acquisition programs. Yet, for this critical area of opportunity many marketers continue to focus on leads and responses when they should be focused on delivering marketing qualified leads (MQL's) to your organization that continue to be nurtured to Sales Ready.

The reason for this shift will be discussed in more detail below, but the key outcome of this approach is more revenue per lead generated and an overall reduction in the sales cycle.

Isn't that a key deliverable for all of your marketing activities?

This is an important consideration for all marketers because not all leads are created equal. Today, many of the leads you deliver to your sales organization are simply looking for more information to start their assessment of you as a potential provider or they are simply researching information on a potential area of opportunity for the future.

Yet, many marketers are sending these leads directly to the sales team for follow--‐up.

Does that makesense? Is this the right approach given the negative impact on sales productivity?

Let's take a quick look at some of the data that suggests this approach may not be the best course of action.

According to industry data there is a huge gap in the quality of leads marketers deliver to their sales organization. Henry Bruce, President and Founder of Rock Arnard Group said it best, "When I reflect on the state of Marketing automation, three stats paint a very ominous picture."

• 70% of the buy cycle is complete before sales engages with buyers

• Only 50% of a typical sales team achieves quota

• Only 10%-¬‐15% of new leads are considered sales ready

Think about the data reported above...if 70% of the buy cycle is complete before your sales team engages with potential buyers, your ability to convert those leads drops significantly. Additionally, if only 10-¬‐15% of the new leads are sales ready, we are wasting the sales teams time by engaging them at this point in time.

These types of leads need to be nurtured further before sales engagement with these early stage opportunities.

Follow--‐up on leads of this nature will also negatively impact you Marketing ROI and provides a false assessment of your opportunity funnel. Most organizations are blaming sales for their inability to convert leads to sales rather than digging deeper to really |understand the root cause for the results. Since much of a prospects time is spent researching online before they ever contact a prospective company, you need to have an ongoing, lead nurturing program  that starts a dialogue with these prospects well before they realize they are ready to invest in your solution.

As part of your nurturing program, you must leverage all of your marketing response channels in order to connect with the prospect to gain an understanding of why they are inquiring and what information they would like now. By taking this step, you have an opportunity to provide the prospect with high value content and start the nurturing process for future engagements.

Through ongoing engagement with each prospect, you are building their trust, confidence and awareness of your capabilities as a potential provider. As you continue your engagement activities the prospect has an opportunity to guide you on what they are interested in through their actions, such as, the download of high-¬‐ value content, or requesting a free trial. This process, ultimately leads to sales ready lead status.

The  days of one and done marketing programs are gone. Replaced by ongoing, lead nurturing programs that step the prospect through a cycle of high value opportunities to learn more, and provide you critical insight on their current and future needs.

 Once you have built a nurturing and scoring program, you will be able to deliver high quality leads (sales ready) to your sales team and you will be on your way to improved marketing and sales results in all areas.

By taking your existing program and leveraging technology in a more strategic and focused manner, you  can transform your overall program results.

The data suggests that this approach is significantly more effective and as a marketer, it's our responsibility to seek optimized results for every aspect of our marketing. In fact, in a study developed by Forrester Research, they found that companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-¬‐ready leads at 33% less cost.

Which leads me to one of my favorite quotes, "effective marketing doesn't cost more, it costs less"

 If you are looking for more information and insight on how to achieve this approach for your organization feel free to contact me at howard@larsonassociates.ws

by Joseph Manos, Executive Vice President, Mind Fire Inc.

Tags: mulitmedia · teleprospecting · marketing

I’m a Swede, well half Swede with the other half Norwegian, either way I’m happy with my back ground and the work ethic I was raised in.

So what are the top 15 reasons to form a partnership with Me?

1)     Punctuality – a meeting that was supposed to start at 1 o’clock will start precisely at 1 o'clock. If it s half hour meeting it will end at 1:30, not 1:35. It’s called prick kl.1. This meeting has been booked months ago. This is because we Swedes are great…

2)     Planners – we have already looking ahead to week 45 in 2020. You need to know where you are going if you’re going to get there. It’s called framförhållning. This means we are always...

3)     Prepared – we know how to predict, when to proceed and what to produce. We know what good things might happen, what bad things might happen so we are able to move towards the good and away from the bad and keep out of stormy seas and I hate stormy seas! Put simply, we are good…

4)     Performers– the proof is Sweden’s first place in just about everything. Swedes are also modest but we can talk about that another time.  We also have a passion for…

5)     Projects – these are lead by someone who is hopefully aware of what’s going on, understands what is going on and has a handle on the desired outcome. It’s called projektledning. Swedes are expected to be...               

6)     Participative – giving their opinions when asked for. There are no bad ideas just that some are better than others at bringing a faster outcome. It’s called theförankringsprocess. Everyone should feel part of the…

7)     Process - there are so many that someone has to learn how to manage them. Yet that does not mean anyone is left on the outside looking in. It’s called processhantering. A process consists of many meetings. One type of meeting is the…

8)     Pre-meeting – it's a meeting before the meeting. Yes let’s get some issues out on the table so people have the possibility to pose questions before the real meeting on “Thursday”. This is because Swedes are…

9)     Precautious – decision making is a lengthy, risky process. It is not that risk is bad but we want to make the pathway that brings us to the end goal the fastest with the least amount of risk and animosity, we are still a team. It’s called the beslutsprocess. Being ultra-careful we might not say 'yes' or 'no' but they may say. . .

10)  Perhaps – which, for Swedes, is possibly a 'maybe'. But unlike an American  maybe which usually means no, a Swedish Perhaps means we will keep an open mind on the subject and not shut any doors just in case this is the right door. But if we  do say 'yes' then a promise is a promise. We will get on, do it and get it done in the shortest amount of time possible. By global comparison, we are very…

11)  Productive – The projection is probably a larger part of our companies GNP. Ya sure we might be talking small and needing some mico thought to everything but such progress is a result of many skills we possess. One skill is being particularly…

12)  Pragmatic - patiently putting solutions into practice, avoiding too much…

13)  Pressure – which can be both good and bad. It’s called lagom mycket. Too much panic and pressure causes Swedes to walk into the wall. So we prefer to be…

14)  Positive – as in having a positive attitude, positive energy, and a positive mind. It’s called arbetsglädje. And one of the most positive things of all in Swedish business life is the world famous…

15)  Parental leave and vacations – which is the Swedish way of combining being a family, a parent and a professional together. Yes there is life outside of work.

Larson Notes & Satire: So you’re not blonde, you don’t have blue eyes. Yust say “ya sure” and get on with it!

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

Tags: Lead · Gen · Generation · Cold · Calling · Swede

Let Your Sales People Focus on Closing the Sale!

If you already have trained and talented sales people, why do you need a dedicated teleprospector? They should be able to do their own prospecting for new accounts, right?

Yes and no. You have sales people that are trained to deal with with complex, sophisticated business solutions, so I must ask you, why on earth would you use them to go down into the trenches, get down and dirty, getting involved with grass roots lead generation work? Isn’t the best use of their time being in front of qualified prospects, belly to belly doing what they do best, closing the deal on prospects that have a need that you can take care at a fair profit, that fit your niche?

Complex sales don’t just close by magic, nor do they close over the phone or through emails. They require face-to-face meetings, and perhaps sophisticated presentations, where pain is uncovered, solutions are discussed and deals are made.

If you have talented sales people, their focus should be at the bottom of the sales funnel, working with the cream and getting in front of the key decision-makers, and negotiating the close.

In my selling experience, this is who I want to be talking to and I’ll bet this is also where your sales people want to be, talking to people further along in the buying cycle.

It takes time and attention to bring a sale all the way to a close, and it’s best when you can use your high end talent for this sophisticated, somewhat delicate, part of the sales cycle.

Using a teleprospecting person to make the calls and qualify the leads allows your sales people to do what they do best.

 
Top of the Funnel Phone Calls

• A teleprospector is an excellent complement to your sales people that needs to get in front of highly qualified leads. 
•  A dedicated teleprospector gets on the phone, and spends the time that is needed at the top of the funnel.
• A teleprospector can make thousands of calls, and have hundreds of conversations that are required to narrow the list down and hand off the qualified opportunities to your sales people.
• For every deal that actually gets to the table for negotiation and closing, at least one hundred calls need to be attempted.

 
Isn't your highly skilled and valuable sales people’s time is much better spent in front of the prospects that have a need and are nearer to the point of ready to close?

And isn't the teleprospector’s time is best spent making the calls, asking the right questions, and using their refined skill set to qualify and discover actionable leads.
 
Refining the List
An added benefit to outsourcing calls to a qualified dedicated teleprospector is that they will filter your list down to only highly qualified leads.

In my experience, many times an inside sales people will hold on to prospects that have no future. It’s a comfort factor to hold onto the names. They’re going to buy eventually, right? This only leads to time wasted on calls and communication with prospects that have no hope in ending in a closed sale.

A dedicated teleprospector has the expertise to ask the right questions, and spend the right amount of time in order to determine if there is a real interest. If there is none, then no more effort is spent engaging with people a company that is not going to take the next step.

The result is a hand off to sales people, names or prospects that they know are worthy of their time and the effort it takes to move them down through the sales funnel to a successful conclusion.

Engaging a dedicated teleprospector to work with your sales people ensures both you and your sales people that the sales funnel keeps flowing and there is no roller coaster rides in getting qualified prospects.

Your salespeople can continuously work on being in front of the decision makers ready to take the next step, while a skilled dedicated teleprospector continues to hand off highly qualified leads to them.

For better lead gen in telemarketing, teleprospecting and lead generation call Larson & Associates at 847-991-1294 or email me at howard@larsonassociates.ws .  One call is all it takes to start getting sales leads into your peoples pipeline.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make teleprospection for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 10 hours a week. Maybe you should add teleprospecting into your marketing mix call today and find out.

In part 8 we are getting into why content matters to your sit site. What makes a site really work and not work.

61. Useful Content:  Google may distinguish between “quality” and “useful” content. You have no choices on what Google things is good and what Google thinks is bad. All you can do is post what you think is the best you got.

62. Content Provides Value and Unique Insights: Google has stated that they’re on the hunt for sites that don’t bring anything new or useful to the table and guess what? Google lowers the page ranking,

63. Contact Us Page: Google prefers sites with an “appropriate amount of contact”. And if your contact information matches your whois info you might get a bump in page bonus.

64. Domain Trust/TrustRank: Site trust — measured by how many links away your site is from highly-trusted seed sites is a hugely important ranking factor.

65. Site Architecture: A well put-together site architecture helps Google thematically organize your content.

66. Site Updates: How often a site is updated and especially when new content is added to the site is a site-wide freshness factor. And it makes the spiders come back and rank your page more often.

67. Number of Pages: The number of pages a site has is a weak sign of authority. At the very least a large site helps distinguish it from thin affiliate sites. Size can matter.

68. Presence of Sitemap: A sitemap helps search engines index your pages easier, faster and more thoroughly, improving visibility.

69. Site Uptime: Lots of downtime from site maintenance or server issues may hurt your ranking and can even result in deindexing if not corrected. Google needs sites that are up. If you are not find another host. It is important

Larson Notes & Satire:  Content, content, content. Good quality and unique. BUT if your site is not on the 1st page of an organic search and you did not let me play with it.

In the last week Page 1 results got 27 percent of all traffic from the average search, but my blog got 97%. Content matters and blogs matter.

In a sample of over 8 million clicks over 94% of people only clicked on first page results and less than 6% actually made it over to the second page.  One of the biggest drop offs is between the 10 spot (bottom of the first page) and the 11 spot (top of the second page).

And for better lead gen in telemarketing, teleprospecting and lead generation call Larson & Associates at 847-991-1294 or email me at howard@larsonassociates.ws .  One call is all it takes to start getting sales leads into your funnel.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make teleprospection for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 10 hours a week. Maybe you should add teleprospecting into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Tags: SEO · Search · Engine · Optimization · Key · words · keywor

In part 7 we are getting more into the inner workings of your site. What makes a site really work and not work.

60. Parked Domains: A Google update in December of 2011 decreased search visibility of parked domains. So what is a Parked Domain? It is a web address that does nt have a site attacted to it or hosting of a site and is only redirects people to your primary site. A parked domain is NOT a website. Instead, it is a forwarding trigger so to speak to take the person to your primary domain name and web site for your company. Parked domains are commonly used when:

You need a place to park a domain for which you do not have a website

You have more than one domain that should lead to your primary domain

You have common misspellings of your domain name that you have registered

61. Useful Content:  The key here is what is useful? Google decides. As king of web searches Google may distinguish between “quality” and “useful” content. Again this is a game and you need to learn how to play the game.

62. Content Provides Value and Unique Insights: Google has stated that they’re on the hunt for sites that don’t bring anything new or useful to the table, especially thin affiliate sites.

63. Contact Us Page: Google wants what they call prefered sites with an “appropriate amount of contact information”. You get a bonus and brownie points if your contact information matches your whois info.

64. Domain Trust/TrustRank: Site trust — measured by how many links away your site is from highly-trusted seed sites — is a massively important ranking factor. There are services that you can subscribe to for your site to become a trusted site. I guess if you need a quick fix it might be a good thing but I like to do things organically because they are more lasting in the long run.

65. Site Architecture: A well put-together site architecture (especially a silo structure) helps Google thematically organize your content.

66. Site Updates: How often a site is updated — and especially when new content is added to the site — is a site-wide freshness factor. A blog, a new service page in the beginning do daily updates or changes to your site after a while a few times a week should be enough to keep those little web spiders coming back to your page looking for your changes.

67. Number of Pages: The number of pages a site has is a weak sign of authority. At the very least a large site helps distinguish it from thin affiliate sites.

68. Presence of Sitemap: A sitemap helps search engines index your pages easier and more thoroughly, improving visibility.

69. Site Uptime: Lots of downtime from site maintenance or server issues may hurt your ranking and can even result in deindexing if not corrected. If your down all the time maybe its time for a new hosting company.

Larson Notes & Satire:  Your site has to look nice, load fast and now be able to be mobile friendly. I'll take my personal satire down to a minimum because I don’t make the rules I just try to figure them out as they happen.

Page 1 results got 92 percent of all traffic from the average search.

In a sample of over 8 million clicks over 94% of people only clicked on first page results and less than 6% actually made it over to the second page.  One of the biggest drop off’s is between the 10 spot (bottom of the first page) and the 11 spot (top of the second page).

And for better lead gen in telemarketing, teleprospecting and lead generation call Larson & Associates at 847-991-1294 or email me at howard@larsonassociates.ws .  One call is all it takes to start getting sales leads into your funnel.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-1294
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociatesFans
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make teleprospection for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 10 hours a week. Maybe you should add teleprospecting into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Tags: SEO · Search · Engine · Optimization · Key · words · keywor