Implementing lead management best practices through marketing automation reduces the cost of marketing, fills the sales pipeline faster with better quality leads, and grows revenue
Modern Marketing Center of Excellence ReportDemand Metric
Executive Summary
In March 2014, Demand Metric collaborated with Pardot/Salesforce to conduct a research study entitled “Marketing Report Card: Keeping our Seat at the Table” to identify how Marketing as a function is being perceived. While many of the insights drawn were expected, there were a few that were shocking.
Only 15% of organizations claimed to have an easy time justifying their marketing budget. Furthermore, just 12% of organizations felt that Marketing is perceived as a highly profitable revenue center, whereas 59% perceive Marketing as a ‘necessary’ or even ‘unnessary’ expense.
This best practices report will discuss how organizations can build a Modern Marketing Center of Excellence (MMCoE), turn these perceptions around, and drive revenue growth.
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- The Modern Marketing Maturity Model
- How to Improve Your Marketing Maturity
- How to Work the Modern Marketing Maturity Model
- Modern Marketing Center of Excellence (MMCoE)
- Benefits of a MMCoE to the Organization
- The Modern Marketing Center of Excellence (MMCoE)
- Why Consider Working with Demand Metric
- We Are the Marketers Behind the Marketers
- Our Best Practices Report Methodology
- Customer Feedback & Testimonials
- About Demand Metric
Pivotal CRM : Analyst Report - Lead Management Pivotal CRM
In the past, the ability to track the cause and effect of marketing campaigns has been elusive, so demonstrating true ROI for marketing initiatives has been hit-and-miss. The new reality, however, is that marketers are now judged by the same criteria as other line-of-business managers and executives. Not only has lead quantity come under scrutiny, so has lead quality. lead management technology—one of the key ways to demonstrate the value of well-planned marketing campaigns—is now widely available. In fact, the value of this technology is becoming irresistible for marketing professionals in many mid-sized and smaller businesses today.
Modern Marketing Center of Excellence ReportDemand Metric
Executive Summary
In March 2014, Demand Metric collaborated with Pardot/Salesforce to conduct a research study entitled “Marketing Report Card: Keeping our Seat at the Table” to identify how Marketing as a function is being perceived. While many of the insights drawn were expected, there were a few that were shocking.
Only 15% of organizations claimed to have an easy time justifying their marketing budget. Furthermore, just 12% of organizations felt that Marketing is perceived as a highly profitable revenue center, whereas 59% perceive Marketing as a ‘necessary’ or even ‘unnessary’ expense.
This best practices report will discuss how organizations can build a Modern Marketing Center of Excellence (MMCoE), turn these perceptions around, and drive revenue growth.
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- The Modern Marketing Maturity Model
- How to Improve Your Marketing Maturity
- How to Work the Modern Marketing Maturity Model
- Modern Marketing Center of Excellence (MMCoE)
- Benefits of a MMCoE to the Organization
- The Modern Marketing Center of Excellence (MMCoE)
- Why Consider Working with Demand Metric
- We Are the Marketers Behind the Marketers
- Our Best Practices Report Methodology
- Customer Feedback & Testimonials
- About Demand Metric
Pivotal CRM : Analyst Report - Lead Management Pivotal CRM
In the past, the ability to track the cause and effect of marketing campaigns has been elusive, so demonstrating true ROI for marketing initiatives has been hit-and-miss. The new reality, however, is that marketers are now judged by the same criteria as other line-of-business managers and executives. Not only has lead quantity come under scrutiny, so has lead quality. lead management technology—one of the key ways to demonstrate the value of well-planned marketing campaigns—is now widely available. In fact, the value of this technology is becoming irresistible for marketing professionals in many mid-sized and smaller businesses today.
blackdot - Accelerating Marketing & Sales Transformation - SydneyMarty Nicholas
Accelerating Marketing & Sales Transformation
Sydney - 16 March 2017
Practical strategies for advancing customer & business outcomes in the digital age.
www.theblackdot.com.au
Marketing Agility: The Missing Metric?Shelly Lucas
Marketing agility isn’t just about doing things faster. It’s about being adaptable to abrupt shifts in customer needs and industry developments. In most cases, dialing up your nimbleness requires more than a team tune-up—usually, it requires nothing short of a transformation. Why, then, don’t CMOs measure their agility progress?
In this white paper, you’ll learn how and why marketers should consider measuring adaptability.
Marketing Operations to-date has focused primarily on marketing automation, return on marketing investment, and work flow management. Here's how to take it to the next level, with much stronger impact on all of Marketing's stakeholders internally and externally.
Agile marketing is an optimised approach to people, processes and tools in marketing planning and execution, in response to changing customer behaviour and market trends. It provides a way to add, remove and/or modify marketing targets, strategies and tactics on an ongoing basis. Agile marketing centres on a change in business mind-set from the traditional marketing structure to a more flexible (agile) structure that has been so successful in the information technology industry. It champions data-driven marketing decision making, with an emphasis on value creation from a customer’s perspective. Every member of the agile marketing team must embrace the core values of the agile methodology in order to facilitate this shift in mind-set and support the successful completion of the team’s activities and the achievement of the team’s objectives
This white paper discusses why small businesses are experiencing a decline in lead volume and quality, and acts as a step-by-step guide for lead generation in "the new normal".
Studies that have examined consumers response to celebrity endorsements in advertising still suggest that this tool is extremely efficient for influencing, at least one of the 3 levels of their relationship with the brand: Awareness(Mind), Connection (Heart) and Behavior (pocket). The studies are conflicting in what is the impact level and whether if really impacts all the 3 but there seems to be no doubt that there is an influence. As a validation of this belief is that companies are increasing their spending and plan to continue doing it.
But, on the other hand, the cost of using this tool are extremelly high and the risks are undeniable.
Therefore, it becomes crucial that organizations are able to manage their portfolio of sponsorship and to measure if they are being sucessfull or not. In other words, organizations want to make smart decisions and need information to support them on that. This is what the paper “Sports Assets Portfolio Management” i’ve presented intends to address. The following slide will provide na overview of what can be found in that paper.
This paper describes what it means to implement effective management campaigns. It also highlights how teleprospecting can be a key tactic in your marketing strategy.
A Guide to Effective Lead Generation - The Journey from List to LeadReshma Nigam
This white paper delineates Markable Solutions’ high impact lead generation techniques to develop marketing qualified leads for an organization’s sales pipeline.
You will learn how to:
1. Define a lead and understand the buying process
2. Build a robust B2B lead generation strategy
3. Use various list-to-lead techniques by Markable Solutions
blackdot - Accelerating Marketing & Sales Transformation - SydneyMarty Nicholas
Accelerating Marketing & Sales Transformation
Sydney - 16 March 2017
Practical strategies for advancing customer & business outcomes in the digital age.
www.theblackdot.com.au
Marketing Agility: The Missing Metric?Shelly Lucas
Marketing agility isn’t just about doing things faster. It’s about being adaptable to abrupt shifts in customer needs and industry developments. In most cases, dialing up your nimbleness requires more than a team tune-up—usually, it requires nothing short of a transformation. Why, then, don’t CMOs measure their agility progress?
In this white paper, you’ll learn how and why marketers should consider measuring adaptability.
Marketing Operations to-date has focused primarily on marketing automation, return on marketing investment, and work flow management. Here's how to take it to the next level, with much stronger impact on all of Marketing's stakeholders internally and externally.
Agile marketing is an optimised approach to people, processes and tools in marketing planning and execution, in response to changing customer behaviour and market trends. It provides a way to add, remove and/or modify marketing targets, strategies and tactics on an ongoing basis. Agile marketing centres on a change in business mind-set from the traditional marketing structure to a more flexible (agile) structure that has been so successful in the information technology industry. It champions data-driven marketing decision making, with an emphasis on value creation from a customer’s perspective. Every member of the agile marketing team must embrace the core values of the agile methodology in order to facilitate this shift in mind-set and support the successful completion of the team’s activities and the achievement of the team’s objectives
This white paper discusses why small businesses are experiencing a decline in lead volume and quality, and acts as a step-by-step guide for lead generation in "the new normal".
Studies that have examined consumers response to celebrity endorsements in advertising still suggest that this tool is extremely efficient for influencing, at least one of the 3 levels of their relationship with the brand: Awareness(Mind), Connection (Heart) and Behavior (pocket). The studies are conflicting in what is the impact level and whether if really impacts all the 3 but there seems to be no doubt that there is an influence. As a validation of this belief is that companies are increasing their spending and plan to continue doing it.
But, on the other hand, the cost of using this tool are extremelly high and the risks are undeniable.
Therefore, it becomes crucial that organizations are able to manage their portfolio of sponsorship and to measure if they are being sucessfull or not. In other words, organizations want to make smart decisions and need information to support them on that. This is what the paper “Sports Assets Portfolio Management” i’ve presented intends to address. The following slide will provide na overview of what can be found in that paper.
This paper describes what it means to implement effective management campaigns. It also highlights how teleprospecting can be a key tactic in your marketing strategy.
A Guide to Effective Lead Generation - The Journey from List to LeadReshma Nigam
This white paper delineates Markable Solutions’ high impact lead generation techniques to develop marketing qualified leads for an organization’s sales pipeline.
You will learn how to:
1. Define a lead and understand the buying process
2. Build a robust B2B lead generation strategy
3. Use various list-to-lead techniques by Markable Solutions
With the Help of Advanced Lead Management Software.pdfrahulkmm1997
In today's competitive business landscape, efficiently managing leads is paramount for sustained growth and success, whether you're a small start-up or a large enterprise. Lead management software steps in to offer powerful tools and features to streamline your sales pipeline and drive revenue. This vital tool facilitates the orchestration of lead-related activities throughout the customer acquisition journey, encompassing lead generation, qualification, and conversion through tailored strategies. It empowers marketing and sales teams to handle leads effectively within their pipeline, offering functionalities for lead generation, segmentation, nurturing, scoring, routing, and performance measurement. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore everything you need to know about lead management software, its benefits, key features, and how to choose the right solution for your business.
Optimize lead. Management to Align. Sales and MarketingMrSeller Zograf
New pressures for marketers
Today’s marketers are under mounting pressure to demonstrate the direct connection between marketing programs and sales impact.
Measuring return on marketing, particular marketing investment is hardly possible. Marketers need to show a positive feedback between outreach activities and bottom-line result such as new customer acquisition or even beter - sales revenue. But for many companies,mesurign marketing effort is still unreachable and therefore deficient lead management practices keep getting in the way.
The landscape of business-to-business marketing has profoundly changed. Marketers face the formidable challenge of tracking leads from an ever-expanding array of channels in an increasingly complex purchase-decision process.
In the past, marketing teams focused largely on raising brand awareness through creative work,
but this is no longer true.
Marketing departments now must be able to show—proof-positive—that their efforts directly contribute to new leads, customer acquisitions, sales, and revenue growth.
Marketers working in the new landscape of business-to-business marketing face yet another challenge: how to manage an ongoing digital dialog with prospective customers.
Today’s buyers use social media extensively, marketers need to be agile enough to
keep them engaged and informed—not just in the early stages, but throughout the marketing and sales lifecycle.
New solutions: a holistic approach
Marketing automation software, which automates the process of moving leads through
the sales funnel, can be part of this solution but clearly technology alone cannot make the difference.
The solution lies in synchronizing processes and technology to better align marketing and sales and improve lead management.
Marketing operations offers a way to coordinate people, processes, and tools. Marketing operations principles offer a holistic approach to optimizing lead management and provide
the way from marketing spend to revenue through realized sales—one that examines how people, processes, and tools come together throughout the marketing and sales lifecycle.
And evaluated software tools are improving both marketing and sales force automation.
By taking steps to coordinate people, processes, and tools to manage leads, marketing leaders can more accurately measure and maximize return on marketing investment.
The holistic approach focuses on three key activities:
• Synchronize the efforts of cross-functional teams
• Optimize lead management workflows
• Close critical gaps in software systems
Need to synchronize team efforts
Marketing and sales teams often are not aligned in their processes and goals.
Lack of synchronization between marketing tactics and sales objectives magnifies the difficulty of measuring performance.
Marketing staff contend with the pressure of keeping the sales pipeline primed with leads.
At the same time, sales personnel rout
Ten Steps to Building a Brand Publishing Center of ExcellenceComBlu, Inc.
In conjunction with the Forbes CMO research, the Brand Publishing Institute (BPI) has just released an additional report that examines the 10 best practices required to effectively build a publishing center of excellence.
This report is designed to provide marketing executives a holistic methodology for organizing, optimizing, and systematizing enterprise-wide publishing processes.
In addition, this framework provides an objective lens to help marketing executives evaluate the many technologies, skills sets, organizational changes, and process redesigns they will need to consider as they build a publishing competency.
The Brand Publishing Institute offers best practices research, executive education workshops, and practitioner certification programs designed to teach marketing leaders – and their direct reports – how to successfully manage the rising cost and complexity of content operations, and sustainably fuel content-intensive sales and marketing programs. www.brandpublishinginstitute.com
Rewiring marketing: a practice based approachBrowne & Mohan
Many marketing managers are not aware if they are leveraging marketing efforts correctly or getting the returns that they anticipated. Often people believe transforming marketing is all about creating some digital assets. Marketing transformation is not piece meal improvement. The primary purpose of a marketing transformation is to increase the ROI of marketing your company. In this white paper, Browne & Mohan consultants share a practice based approach to marketing transformation.
6 Key Steps For a Successful Pipeline Management ProcessNavinNair24
A structured pipeline management is the lifeblood of successful sales organizations. It serves as a guide to sales team members in the complex journey of converting leads into customers. Benefits of having robust pipeline management are manyfold.
Sales is an area where many companies find the outcomes belie investments and outcomes. Many companies attempt sales transformation in a piece-meal fashion. In this paper, we discuss the framework for sales transformation and five fundamental levers of sales transformation.
The evolution of digital commerce has given rise to a growing set of customer expectations for the digital experience, both within and across channels. That experience is enabled by a combination of strategy, technology, content and features, all of which require an investment of time and resources. Those resources must work collaboratively – often across functional silos including marketing, merchandising, creative, technology and more – to deliver an optimal experience.
In this paper, we will explore:
-how successful retailers, brands and digital merchants structure their digital organizations, leveraging technology where appropriate, to achieve maximum effectiveness while operating under resource constraints
-the advantages of aligning organizational design, technologies, tools and work processes to empower internal teams to work together more effectively
-the tools that empower agile digital commerce teams to succeed
Authors: Kanaru Fukushima
Topics: Ecommerce Basics, Ecommerce Strategy, Omnichannel Organization, Ecommerce IT Development, Omnichannel Architecture
Industry: B2B / Wholesale, Retailer / Brand - Other Goods, Other, Retailer / Brand - Fashion & Accessoires, Retail Products – Electronics and IT, Travel & Leisure
Publication date: January 2017
Sales, Marketing & Service Optimization: Strategies for Accelerating GrowthCognizant
Revenue growth requires more than IT cost-cutting and increased efficiencies. Across industries, top-line growth requires a focus on customer relevance and on sales, marketing and service effectiveness.
Pivotal Mobile Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications provide a range of solutions that ensure a sale is never delayed because of limited access to critical data.
The Pivotal CRM team at CDC Software is a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software applications. Pivotal CRM is the only CRM solution offering rich functionality, a full application suite, and best-in-class customization capabilities, all with a low total cost of ownership
The Pivotal Service suite has been designed to drive improvements in customer service while reducing operating and maintenance costs throughout the customer lifecycle — while improving the quality of customer interactions.
Pivotal CRM for Home Building and Real Estate is a clear choice for single- and multi-family home builders and other real estate industry firms looking to increase operational efficiency, gain competitive advantage, and meet the challenges of a market slowdown.
Wird ein Social CRM Tool mit dem Anspruch implementiert, die ohnehin nur mäßig funktionierende CRM Installation zu verbessern, führt dies so gut wie sicher zu einer Enttäuschung. Die besten Projektergebnisse erzielt ein Social CRM als natürliche Erweiterung der bisherigen CRM-Tools und-Strategien
Implementing lead management best practices through marketing automation reduces the cost of marketing, fills the sales pipeline faster with better quality leads, and grows revenue
Pivotal SyndMail is a complete e-mail marketing solution that lets you segment your audience, send electronic communications, and analyze the success of your campaign.
Institutional asset managers need to become more customer-centric to differentiate themselves in the market and retain current clients. When institutional account contracts come up for renewal, client satisfaction plays a critical role in their decision-making.
Explains how businesses can use CRM to foster and implement customer-centric innovation, enhancing the customer experience and creating internal efficiencies to establish a clear competitive edge.
Explains the practical CRM tools that can help to introduce repeatable, proven process to your sales team. So you can help them figure out what works best.
Explains the real, practical advantages healthcare payer organizations can experience by using CRM technology to streamline and minimize paper-based processes.
From Complexity and Frustration to Simplicity and Effectiveness it is the most viable foundation for discovering new opportunities that build momentum and inspire growth.
How financial services companies are using customer relationship management to converge people, processes, and products more effectively to earn the position of valued partner, and embark on true relationship banking — with the end result of growing business momentum
The executive Guide to CRM architechturePivotal CRM
Explains the importance of flexible software architecture, and how the right CRM solution can support and even advance an organization’s ability to evolve in lock-step with changes as they occur—enabling them to attain and maintain a competitive advantage.
The crm journey from productivity to profitPivotal CRM
How companies across a vast selection of industries are using customer relationship management to converge people, processes, and products more efficiently.
Addressing the contact center opportunity, discuss five important contact center trends, and explain how companies can embrace these trends to create a smart strategy that can improve the top and bottom line.
Pivotal CRM for Financial Services offers comprehensive, integrated, industry-specific capabilities that increase insight into operational performance, streamline processes across the firm, and improve responsiveness to client demands
[Note: This is a partial preview. To download this presentation, visit:
https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations]
Sustainability has become an increasingly critical topic as the world recognizes the need to protect our planet and its resources for future generations. Sustainability means meeting our current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It involves long-term planning and consideration of the consequences of our actions. The goal is to create strategies that ensure the long-term viability of People, Planet, and Profit.
Leading companies such as Nike, Toyota, and Siemens are prioritizing sustainable innovation in their business models, setting an example for others to follow. In this Sustainability training presentation, you will learn key concepts, principles, and practices of sustainability applicable across industries. This training aims to create awareness and educate employees, senior executives, consultants, and other key stakeholders, including investors, policymakers, and supply chain partners, on the importance and implementation of sustainability.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental principles and concepts that form the foundation of sustainability within corporate environments.
2. Explore the sustainability implementation model, focusing on effective measures and reporting strategies to track and communicate sustainability efforts.
3. Identify and define best practices and critical success factors essential for achieving sustainability goals within organizations.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction and Key Concepts of Sustainability
2. Principles and Practices of Sustainability
3. Measures and Reporting in Sustainability
4. Sustainability Implementation & Best Practices
To download the complete presentation, visit: https://www.oeconsulting.com.sg/training-presentations
Attending a job Interview for B1 and B2 Englsih learnersErika906060
It is a sample of an interview for a business english class for pre-intermediate and intermediate english students with emphasis on the speking ability.
Improving profitability for small businessBen Wann
In this comprehensive presentation, we will explore strategies and practical tips for enhancing profitability in small businesses. Tailored to meet the unique challenges faced by small enterprises, this session covers various aspects that directly impact the bottom line. Attendees will learn how to optimize operational efficiency, manage expenses, and increase revenue through innovative marketing and customer engagement techniques.
Discover the innovative and creative projects that highlight my journey throu...dylandmeas
Discover the innovative and creative projects that highlight my journey through Full Sail University. Below, you’ll find a collection of my work showcasing my skills and expertise in digital marketing, event planning, and media production.
Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit and TemplatesAurelien Domont, MBA
This Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit was created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Management Consultants, after more than 5,000 hours of work. It is considered the world's best & most comprehensive Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit. It includes all the Frameworks, Best Practices & Templates required to successfully undertake the Digital Transformation of your organization and define a robust IT Strategy.
Editable Toolkit to help you reuse our content: 700 Powerpoint slides | 35 Excel sheets | 84 minutes of Video training
This PowerPoint presentation is only a small preview of our Toolkits. For more details, visit www.domontconsulting.com
Implicitly or explicitly all competing businesses employ a strategy to select a mix
of marketing resources. Formulating such competitive strategies fundamentally
involves recognizing relationships between elements of the marketing mix (e.g.,
price and product quality), as well as assessing competitive and market conditions
(i.e., industry structure in the language of economics).
Enterprise Excellence is Inclusive Excellence.pdfKaiNexus
Enterprise excellence and inclusive excellence are closely linked, and real-world challenges have shown that both are essential to the success of any organization. To achieve enterprise excellence, organizations must focus on improving their operations and processes while creating an inclusive environment that engages everyone. In this interactive session, the facilitator will highlight commonly established business practices and how they limit our ability to engage everyone every day. More importantly, though, participants will likely gain increased awareness of what we can do differently to maximize enterprise excellence through deliberate inclusion.
What is Enterprise Excellence?
Enterprise Excellence is a holistic approach that's aimed at achieving world-class performance across all aspects of the organization.
What might I learn?
A way to engage all in creating Inclusive Excellence. Lessons from the US military and their parallels to the story of Harry Potter. How belt systems and CI teams can destroy inclusive practices. How leadership language invites people to the party. There are three things leaders can do to engage everyone every day: maximizing psychological safety to create environments where folks learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo.
Who might benefit? Anyone and everyone leading folks from the shop floor to top floor.
Dr. William Harvey is a seasoned Operations Leader with extensive experience in chemical processing, manufacturing, and operations management. At Michelman, he currently oversees multiple sites, leading teams in strategic planning and coaching/practicing continuous improvement. William is set to start his eighth year of teaching at the University of Cincinnati where he teaches marketing, finance, and management. William holds various certifications in change management, quality, leadership, operational excellence, team building, and DiSC, among others.
Memorandum Of Association Constitution of Company.pptseri bangash
www.seribangash.com
A Memorandum of Association (MOA) is a legal document that outlines the fundamental principles and objectives upon which a company operates. It serves as the company's charter or constitution and defines the scope of its activities. Here's a detailed note on the MOA:
Contents of Memorandum of Association:
Name Clause: This clause states the name of the company, which should end with words like "Limited" or "Ltd." for a public limited company and "Private Limited" or "Pvt. Ltd." for a private limited company.
https://seribangash.com/article-of-association-is-legal-doc-of-company/
Registered Office Clause: It specifies the location where the company's registered office is situated. This office is where all official communications and notices are sent.
Objective Clause: This clause delineates the main objectives for which the company is formed. It's important to define these objectives clearly, as the company cannot undertake activities beyond those mentioned in this clause.
www.seribangash.com
Liability Clause: It outlines the extent of liability of the company's members. In the case of companies limited by shares, the liability of members is limited to the amount unpaid on their shares. For companies limited by guarantee, members' liability is limited to the amount they undertake to contribute if the company is wound up.
https://seribangash.com/promotors-is-person-conceived-formation-company/
Capital Clause: This clause specifies the authorized capital of the company, i.e., the maximum amount of share capital the company is authorized to issue. It also mentions the division of this capital into shares and their respective nominal value.
Association Clause: It simply states that the subscribers wish to form a company and agree to become members of it, in accordance with the terms of the MOA.
Importance of Memorandum of Association:
Legal Requirement: The MOA is a legal requirement for the formation of a company. It must be filed with the Registrar of Companies during the incorporation process.
Constitutional Document: It serves as the company's constitutional document, defining its scope, powers, and limitations.
Protection of Members: It protects the interests of the company's members by clearly defining the objectives and limiting their liability.
External Communication: It provides clarity to external parties, such as investors, creditors, and regulatory authorities, regarding the company's objectives and powers.
https://seribangash.com/difference-public-and-private-company-law/
Binding Authority: The company and its members are bound by the provisions of the MOA. Any action taken beyond its scope may be considered ultra vires (beyond the powers) of the company and therefore void.
Amendment of MOA:
While the MOA lays down the company's fundamental principles, it is not entirely immutable. It can be amended, but only under specific circumstances and in compliance with legal procedures. Amendments typically require shareholder
Unveiling the Secrets How Does Generative AI Work.pdfSam H
At its core, generative artificial intelligence relies on the concept of generative models, which serve as engines that churn out entirely new data resembling their training data. It is like a sculptor who has studied so many forms found in nature and then uses this knowledge to create sculptures from his imagination that have never been seen before anywhere else. If taken to cyberspace, gans work almost the same way.
1. BUSINESS PAPER
Uncover The Gold: A Business Case Study
for Best Practices in Lead Management
Business Insight You Can Use
Executive Summary
In the beginning, someone raises a hand and says Yes—tell me more. From that
moment on, a company becomes engaged in one of the most critical functions that
impacts sales success: lead management.
It's an intricate, complex process spanning both marketing and sales professionals.
In order to make sure leads are properly targeted, distributed, tracked and acted upon,
companies need a unified system that makes the entire process more visible and
collaborative. From initial marketing campaign planning right through lead qualification,
this paper explores how one Pivotal customer—the LCD Products Group of Sharp
Electronics—has invested in marketing automation technology to ensure that their
marketing and sales teams more efficiently recognize and act swiftly on the most
profitable opportunities.
Change is sweeping through marketing organizations everywhere. Expectations
are rising—give us more, better quality leads, more quickly—while budgets and
headcounts shrink. The mandate of doing more with less has never been more
apparent, and pressure is increasing for marketing teams to draw a direct line drawn
between their activities and the bottom line. The good news for marketing professionals
is that lead management technology, one of the key tools that demonstrates marketing
value in the charts and statistics that executives demand, is now widely available.
It's no longer merely the "Fortunate 500" who can afford to buy and implement this
powerful capability, and have marketing teams that are intensely, quantitatively
accountable. As lead management strategies—and the processes and technologies
that bring them to life—come within the reach of mid-sized and smaller businesses, the
value proposition and timeliness of these tools are becoming irresistible to those who
need to prove their worth.
Over the next few pages you will learn how lead management best practices and
technology have transformed how a division of Sharp Electronics generates, distributes
and manages leads for better sales success. We'll also examine why more companies
are joining the trend, raising the lead management bar to sharpen how they identify
and win new opportunities.
2. Marketing Today Enter Lead Management
Traditionally, marketers have been 'ideas' people, It is not just the idea of lead quantity that has come under
experimenting with creative ways to generate leads and scrutiny. It's lead quality.
create awareness. For some time, it was accepted that
the benefit of marketing would be soft and qualitative Rather than asking how many leads were generated,
in nature—we know half of our marketing activities are executives are asking for conversion rates, or what
useful—we just don't know which half. We know marketing proportion of leads resulted in closed opportunities.
is necessary, we just don't know how good we are at Answering this question means analyzing the entire lead
it. Until today, ROI-based reporting had long been an lifecycle—from how the lead was generated to how the
inexact science. But as our collective understanding and lead was distributed to sales and what happened once
visibility improves, what we see alarms us. Leading market it got there. Teams are accountable to show investment
research firms have recently released studies suggesting return and solid performance at every step, and over
that the vast majority of all sales leads—up to 70%—are time, to show quantifiable improvement. As executives
never acted upon because they don't reach the right ask tough questions, lead management technology gives
person at the right time. marketers the visibility and the answers they need to
consistently show they're on the right track.
This is a sobering reality for marketers everywhere.
Lead management is the process of rapidly and
effectively creating, nurturing, distributing and analyzing
Operational Account Ability leads. The ultimate goal? To increase the likelihood that a
lead will convert to a qualified opportunity and then a new,
Has Arrived satisfied customer. To implement a lead management
The ultimate goal of any marketing department is to strategy, marketing and sales must work closely together.
generate qualified leads for sales, who then converts them
For best results, a lead management system must
into customers. The rate at which deals close is the final
converge the right people, processes and information
yard stick by which every marketing investment should
at various stages:
be measured—but it's not easy. In the past, the ability
to track the cause and effect of marketing campaigns • Identifying hot leads and automatically route to direct
has been very elusive, resulting in no ability to clearly sales or channel partners
determine true ROI for marketing initiatives.
• Actively engaging the remaining leads and nurture them
And the pressure is on. In a recent report, Boston-based through the pipeline to eventual sale
research firm Aberdeen Group revealed that marketing
departments are just now being held to demonstrate the • Tracking leads to closure and evaluate the ROI of
same level of quantitative value as other departments. marketing campaigns
"The era of operational accountability has arrived," states
the report. "Coupled with the maturation and growing • Integrating the external channel including value added
effectiveness of marketing technologies, [a] focus on resellers (VARs), other resellers and strategic partners
quantifiable performance promises to accelerate • Integrating offline qualification resources such as
a measurable shift of an organization's marketing call centers
spend away from traditional media-based advertising
processes and towards technology-centric, interactive Let's examine the marketing process of one Pivotal
marketing services.1 customer—Sharp Electronics' LCD Products Group. We'll
look at how the above lead management milestones were
Marketers are now judged by the same criteria as other met both before and after they implemented marketing
line-of-business managers and executives. They are automation technology, and see how this new tool
held accountable for their spending, their headcounts transformed their marketing model for more successful,
and their contribution. "The time has come to automate more visible results.
a broader collection of enterprise wide marketing
processes," suggests the report. "Fortunately, the Sharp Electronics' LCD Products Group, based in New
necessary supporting technology is now available to Jersey, began using marketing automation in June
enable marketers to streamline traditionally manual 00. According to Fred Krazeise, Director of Strategic
processes and to better target communications to Marketing at Sharp's LCD Products Group, his company
appropriate audiences. began to look at its lead management planning,
execution, distribution, nurturing and several years
ago. It was part of a marketing approach focused on
helping Sharp VARs and channel partners win and keep
customers for life.
1 From What Works: Best Practices in Marketing Technologies, Aberdeen Group, February 003
CDC MarketFirst | Business Paper
3. Defining Lead Management
Before we move into the story at Sharp, let's examine the five key stages of lead management. For better or worse, sales
success and the ability to demonstrate ROI is directly impacted by how effective marketing teams are at the following:
Lead Management: Closing the Loop with Marketing and Sales
1. Lead Planning Generation 3. Distribute Leads
This stage consists of planning the entire campaign— Lead distribution consists of ensuring leads reach the
determining lists, developing messaging, selecting the right person at the right time.
medium, setting the timing, planning the marketing
project, then specifying lead qualification and distribution There are many distribution systems—according to
mechanism with Sales. territory, product, lead source, level of urgency, or new
vs. existing customers. They can also be escalated if, for
example, they have a short timeframe to make a decision,
. Qualify Leads or a ready-approved budget, or if they have a particular
In this stage, leads are qualified, scored and processed urgency or a high value associated with them.
according to pre-determined criteria.
With the right technology infrastructure, companies
Typical lead process points and 'flags' are defined, can automate the distribution of leads according to
including qualification questions and process, distribution predetermined criteria. This removes the burden from
rules, lead scoring (specific definitions of A, B and C-level support staff, and ensures that leads really do reach the
leads), components and duration of the sales cycle, how right person at the right time.
to deal with atypical or out-of-profile leads, and ownership
of each stage of the process.
4. Nurture Leads
Once lead qualification criteria are determined, they can Lead nurturing allows companies to remain in touch with
be automated. For example, surveys can pose questions longer term leads until the lead is ready to be advanced
like, Does this prospect have a budget in place for a into the sales cycle.When the lead is closer to making a
product like ours? purchase, it can be passed on to sales.
When this information is known, the lead can be passed Nurturing—the process of progressing a lead from an
to sales as a 'hot' lead requiring rapid follow-up, or a 'cold' 'unqualified' to a 'qualified' state worthy of devoting your
lead requiring further nurturing and communication. marketing resources—is an often neglected step in the
lead management process.
CDC MarketFirst | Business Paper 3
4. 5. Measure and Evaluate Programs management—teams need to go beyond meeting lead
quotas, and focus on what it will take to close the loop
The last stage of lead management is to close the loop and foster sales success.
on results. Post-campaign analysis and reporting is the
key to demonstrating success, or perhaps identifying Leads feed into the top of the sales funnel as a result
how a marketing approach could be improved. By going of marketing campaigns. Then, they are distributed to
through a detailed planning process at the outset, teams pre-sales professionals for qualification, and finally to the
are clear as to what is to be measured at each step, and sales team for closing. Only once a lead has moved far
have visibility into how similar campaigns have performed. down the funnel do sales professionals begin working to
When the ROI and cost per lead from each campaign close the most qualified leads. However, many companies
is accurately reported, patterns can be identified which have holes in their sales funnel, through which leads and
help marketing teams to do more often what is proven opportunities can slip and be lost.
to work well.
It is an expensive endeavor to move a lead through the
funnel and into sales. By the time a sales rep is assigned
Step One: to engage with a prospect, that prospect needs to be
deeply qualified.
Lead Planning and Generation
Planning a successful campaign begins with a strong If a 'cool' lead is sent through prematurely, valuable
sense of what has and hasn't worked in the past with sales resources can be wasted. Smart lead planning and
a particular audience. It also starts with lining up the tracking ensures that the most thoroughly qualified leads
necessary resources and processes to handle the leads are given the green light to move forward, and also helps
when they come in. This is at the heart of today's lead marketing to advance the most profitable leads at the
optimal moment.
The Solution: Integration
In the illustration above, the funnel on the left shows a a particular audience. It also starts with lining up the
traditional sales and marketing organization. The funnel necessary resources and processes to handle the leads
on the right shows an organization with automated lead when they come in. This is at the heart of today’s lead
management. As you can see, a lead management management — teams need to go beyond meeting lead
system works on the front-end to target, sort, qualify and quotas, and focus on what it will take to close the loop
flag leads properly, which makes for a smarter and more and foster sales success.
cost-efficient sales cycle engagement. The lead spends
more time being engaged by lower cost marketing Leads feed into the top of the sales funnel as a result
programs and qualification initiatives and is only passed of marketing campaigns. Then, they are distributed to
to sales when the likelihood of closing is at its greatest. pre-sales professionals for qualification, and finally to the
This allows sales to maximize their return by only sales team for closing. Only once a lead has moved far
interacting with qualified leads. down the funnel do sales professionals begin working to
close the most qualified leads. However, many companies
Planning a successful campaign begins with a strong have holes in their sales funnel, through which leads and
sense of what has and hasn’t worked in the past with opportunities can slip and be lost.
CDC MarketFirst | Business Paper 4
5. It is an expensive endeavor to move a lead through “At Sharp Electronics we are using CDC MarketFirst to
the funnel and into sales. By the time a sales rep is further differentiate ourselves from other manufacturers
assigned to engage with a prospect, that prospect needs in a highly competitive environment,” he says. “It gives
to be deeply qualified. If a ‘cool’ lead is sent through us the ability to take the Sharp LCD product message
prematurely, valuable sales direct to end users and create awareness, preference
resources can be wasted. and demand for our products throughout our dealer
Since deploying Smart lead planning and network — an essential strategy to building long-term
CDC MarketFirst, tracking ensures that the most relationships.We began to see results within three weeks
thoroughly qualified leads of using CDC MarketFirst. Now that I have it, I can’t live
Sharp has enjoyed: are given the green light to without it.”
• An increase in the number of sales move forward, and also helps
leads from 6,500 in the whole of marketing to advance the
001 to more than 8,000 in the first
seven months of the system’s use
most profitable leads at the Step Two: Lead Qualification
optimal moment. The LCD Product Group at Sharp began using CDC
• 85% reduction in cost per lead
— from $388 per lead in 001 to $58
MarketFirst in June 00 after a three-week deployment.
In the illustration above, the
per lead in 00 The product’s powerful yet intuitive campaign
funnel on the left shows
management capabilities enable Sharp to manage
• The ability to make new dealer or a traditional sales and
one-to-one, direct campaigns allowing the company to
territory changes in minutes, instead marketing organization. The
of days drive dynamic, personalized, and relevant information to
funnel on the right shows an
prospects and customers. With the system’s ease-of-use
• The fact that call center script organization with automated
and flexibility, marketers can quickly make changes
changes can be made in less than lead management. As you
to the system, such as adding surveys to outbound
a day, rather than taking weeks can see, a lead management
telemarketing campaigns.
system works on the front-end
to target, sort, qualify and flag Far too often, marketing teams focus on generating large
leads properly, which makes for a smarter and more cost- numbers of leads, but fail when it comes to qualifying
efficient sales cycle engagement. The lead spends more those leads. By making effective use of marketing
time being engaged by lower cost marketing programs automation tools, together with an appropriate lead
and qualification initiatives and is only passed to sales management strategy and process, it is possible to bridge
when the likelihood of closing is at its greatest. This allows the gap between quantity and quality.
sales to maximize their return by only interacting with
qualified leads. The ideal result is a high number of qualified leads that
are likely to convert into sales. Leads will be uneven
To bring a lead management system like this to life, sales or of indeterminate quality if the strategy, process and
and marketing teams need to work together to create a technology used in qualifying them is inadequate. An
lead processing plan. Together, they should define: unqualified lead will distract sales representatives with
• Qualification questions and processes low-value leads, while high-value leads languish at the
bottom of the pile getting cold. ‘Raw’ leads can also
• Lead distribution rules distract the additional resources, especially if you use a
• Lead scoring: specific definitions of A, B and C-level live person to call into a lead that has a high chance of
leads being cold or non-pursuable.
• Components and duration of the sales cycle With proper lead qualification, leads are captured,
• How to manage atypical leads or out-of-profile leads collected and consolidated. Then they’re enriched with
any existing data the company may hold about the
• Ownership of each stage of the process
prospect (Marketing automation solutions can help amass
Once the lead process is defined, marketing automation progressive profile data and large amounts of behavioral
powers both the planning and execution of campaigns. data in activity logs, surveys, and other vehicles).
This technology streamlines workflow planning and
resource allocation, provides the infrastructure to execute Finally, leads must by qualified and prioritized — either
campaigns rapidly and make changes dynamically, and manually or in an automated fashion according to
to test campaigns in real-time. predetermined business rules. Lead prioritization —
or “scoring” — will determine how leads are distributed.
Fred Krazeise, Director of Strategic Marketing at Sharp’s
LCD Products Group, worked with his sales team to Lead qualification, since it triggers which path a lead
identify the best lead process. Then, he employed the takes (whether the lead is passed to sales, moved into
CDC MarketFirst technology to give his marketers the a longer-term nurture campaign, or dropped), is critical
tools they needed to make it happen. to sales success. It’s all about timing, and being able to
identify when a lead is ready to buy. In the early stages
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6. of reviewing its lead handling and management process, received, what happened to them? Were they even
Sharp surveyed the buying history of a representative followed up? Sharp discovered that 58% of leads sent to
sample of prospects, and they made a fascinating dealers and VARs were never followed-up.
discovery. Of the prospects tagged as “cold” leads, 58%
of them actually did make The problem with manual lead distribution is clear.
a purchase of a Sharp LCD Different processes are always required for different
With CDC MarketFirst, product within six months channels; however, and that with manual processes there
of making contact with was not only technology failure but lack of coordination
Sharp has experienced: and integration. Moving to a marketing automation
Sharp. The consequences
• 1000% increase in the number of of this mistake were huge — solution helped the company to re-engineer the process
qualified leads on the strength of the technology, eliminating many of
consider all the opportunities
• an 85% decrease in cost-per-lead. that were lost. The only reason the manual elements and providing a framework for
prospects made a purchase is co-ordination and integration. They gained visibility into
because they took the initiative marketing’s impact on the end result: closed deals.
to engage with the company, rather than the company
In addition to giving Sharp powerful campaign
being proactive at the right time. The question for Sharp
management capabilities, CDC MarketFirst also
was then, “how much revenue did we let slip through, by
enables the company to significantly improve its lead
not reaching out to prospects that needed us?”
management processes and enhance support of its
distribution network. In fact, by using CDC MarketFirst, the
Step Three: Distribute Leads company has completely realigned the manner in which
sales leads are captured, ranked and distributed to its
Time is of the essence when a customer is ready to buy. resellers. In less than three weeks of using the solution,
Any delay may mean losing a sale. After all this effort, can Sharp generated, qualified and distributed 96 percent
companies afford not to distribute leads effectively? of the entire previous year’s leads to its top dealers and
resellers. They have also achieved a 100 percent follow-
Lead distribution is more than simply e-mailing or faxing
up on those leads, giving them an unprecedented lead
leads off to sales teams or channel partners. Lead
conversion rate, which means more business for everyone
distribution consists of routing leads to the appropriate
involved, and better, faster service to end customers.
member of the sales team — or channel partner — based
on predetermined rules. Not only to the right person
— but at the right time. Step Four: Nurture Leads
Now that it uses CDC The distribution process Not everyone is ready to buy the first time they hear about
MarketFirst, Sharp found: should include venues for the a product or service. Many are only in the early stages of
sales team to interact with the purchase process when they enquire — and they can
• more than 90% follow-up rates on
leads, up from 4% those who have assigned the be passed over by sales teams eager to pick only ‘low
leads to them. They may need hanging fruit’ prospects who appear to want to buy quickly.
• 96% of the entire previous year’s further information or lead
leads were distributed to top dealers The best lead management practice is to nurture leads
enrichment. Likewise, they are
and resellers within three weeks of over time by segmenting them by product, service
using the solution contributing back by entering
new insights, prospect and purchase readiness, targeting them with further
interactions and deal status communication relating very specifically to their interest
into the company’s customer relationship management — and then tracking their responses and promoting
(CRM) system. Then, both marketing and sales teams them to a higher level of sales opportunity at the
should be able to track the progress of leads as they appropriate time. Throughout this nurturing process, all
progress through the sales cycle. communication with the prospect should again be held
in the CRM solution. Marketing automation enables this
For Sharp, moving forward meant taking a hard look critical business function that supports, encourages and
at how the company had been distributing its leads assists the creation of business processes and strategies
— and what might be done to distribute them more around nurturing and developing customers.
effectively. Leads were manually distributed to dealers
by fax, depending upon their ranking. This was not the As the Sharp Electronics example clearly illustrates (58%
most effective distribution mechanism. Technology could of leads flagged as ‘cold’ bought on their own initiative
— and often did, fail — with fax machines running out of within six months), a cool lead today may be a hot lead
paper, transmissions getting lost or buried under others, tomorrow. Leads such as these require a longer-term
or transmissions getting stuck in the fax machine’s relationship — just because a customer doesn’t want to
memory buffer. But even worse, there was no clear buy right away, it doesn’t mean they don’t want to buy
view into what was happening on the other end of the at all.With automation, customers can be nurtured in
fax machine. Even if leads were successfully faxed and a cost-effective manner. And nurturing a cool lead to
a hot lead is less expensive than working from scratch.
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7. With CDC MarketFirst, Sharp has experienced an
unprecedented lead conversion rate of the leads that were
Step Five:
considered cold in the beginning due, in part, to long-term Measure Evaluate Programs
customer nurturing and development.
In a recent report, Gartner estimates that “enterprises
“Before marketing automation, we typically qualified leads routinely spend 10 percent to 30 percent of their revenue
by telephone. That’s how we would get information from on marketing and sales activities, without being able to
most dealers about the resolution or nurturing of a lead,” demonstrate a positive return on investment from those
says Krazeise. “Now, we qualify leads electronically and investments.
by further telephone conversations.
A lead management program provides a way for
We have a separate campaign that we run within CDC companies to measure and see that ROI — and learn
MarketFirst that automatically sends out follow-up e-mails what’s working, and what isn’t. Analysis feeds backs into
to nurture prospects. All of our literature requests, for planning for the next marketing campaign, and the whole
example, are now fulfilled automatically. People don’t cycle starts again — smarter.
have to walk down to the
mailroom. Now they send With marketing automation, all of the data required
With CDC MarketFirst, out product information to conduct that analysis is collected in real-time while
Sharp enjoys: electronically through CDC campaigns are underway. As leads are qualified, as
MarketFirst, much more easily, they are distributed, and as sales are booked. Rather
• 75% reduction in literature fulfillment
expense conveniently, and than relying on data that comes in a long time after the
cost-effectively.” fact — or is highly subjective — management, sales,
• 5% reduction in advertising marketing, finance and call center operations can quickly
expenses
For lower-priority leads see what is happening within marketing and sales cycle
• nearly 100% follow-up on leads, and prospects, marketing at any point in time — and feed back what they learn into
giving it an unprecedented automation gives Sharp and strategic and business process improvements.
conversion rate
its channel partners easy-to-
use programs for nurturing CDC MarketFirst’s powerful and intuitive campaign
campaigns that will keep prospective customers engaged management capabilities enable Sharp to manage
and informed. Keeping track of all leads, whatever their one-to-one, direct campaigns allowing the company to
current interest level, is an integral part of Sharp’s overall drive dynamic, personalized, and relevant information to
plan to manage each lead throughout the customer prospects and customers.
lifecycle and maximize sales opportunities.
In addition to giving Sharp powerful campaign
CDC MarketFirst has also helped Sharp reduce literature management capabilities, CDC MarketFirst also enables
fulfillment expenses by 75 percent by giving the company the company to significantly improve its lead management
the tools to quickly and electronically respond to customer processes and enhance support of its distribution
requests for product collateral. Fulfillment requests can network. In fact, by using CDC MarketFirst, the company
either be generated in the call center via agents, or by has completely realigned the manner in which sales leads
customers or prospects on the website. Once the request are captured, ranked and distributed to its resellers.
is submitted, CDC MarketFirst automatically fulfills the
Previously, Sharp would send out a lead to its dealer
literature order and sends out a personalized e-mail
network, but was slow to receive any feedback on what
with the appropriate PDF, ensuring a consistent brand
happened to that lead. Since deploying MarketFirst, the
experience in process.
company now has several mechanisms in place so that
their dealers can make requests and provide feedback to
Sharp immediately using the web, e-mail and call center.
This has allowed Sharp to be more nimble in responding
to its dealer’s needs.
2 From Gartner, Inc.: “Lead Management and Reporting”: Claudio Marcus, October 3, 2002
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