This document provides tips for driving high-conversion inbound leads through disruptive messaging. It recommends messaging that is polarizing to pick an enemy and highlight pain, relevant to target the right roles, and insightful to teach audiences something new. An example messaging framework is given for scaling a business in a way that avoids missed targets and high turnover. The document concludes by assigning homework to review marketing materials and ensure communications teach audiences insights that disrupt inertia and drive high lead conversion.

1. Secrets to driving high-
conversion inbound leads
David Priemer
VP Sales

2. About me
•15 years in tech sales, 3-start-ups
– $500M in total acquisitions
• Last venture, Rypple, acquired by Salesforce (2012)
– top clients: Facebook, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Spotify, LivingSocial
• Rypple rebranded as Work.com
– retooled sales machine, grew business 450% in 9Q’s

3. Top 3 sales lessons learned
1. Selling stuff is hard!
2. People operate on inertia
1. Only your mother cares about how smart you are *
* 3b. Everyone else cares about results .

4. Lead conversion is about INERTIAL ju-jitsu
Reducing inertia makes it easy to buy from you!

5. We see great examples all around us
“Damn! I DO need to
start eating healthier!”
“Don’t know if I need this,
but it was right there…”
DisruptiveComplementary

6. Traditional lead conversion model
Marketing driven MQL’s
Sales convert here
Buyerinterestlevel
Large
Inertial
gap
MQL’s are low conversion, high effort

7. High intent lead conversion model
Buyerinterestlevel
Reducing inertial gap key to high conversion
Marketing driven MQL’s
Sales convert here Small
Inertial
gapHigh intent leads

8. Messaging that drives high intent leads
Polarizing
People get it quickly
Relevant
Message hits home
Insightful
Teaches something

9. The science behind why this works (best book ever!)

10. Polarizing: pick an enemy (lead with pain)
• What BIG problem are you tackling?
• What universal issue are you improving?
• Who specifically your solution targets.
Examples:
• “Sales rep attrition costs your company millions”
• “Happy customers are your best sales people”
• “Accounting software for non-accountants”

11. Polarizing messaging example: Rypple

12. People love to talk about polarizing messages!
Wall Street Journal (Oct/08): Get Rid of the Performance Review!
The Economist (Dec/08): The Rypple effect: A novel way to satisfy feedback junkies
Wall Street Journal (Apr/10): Yes, Everyone Really Does Hate Performance Reviews
New York Times (May/10): Time to Review Workplace Reviews?
Wired (Jun/11): How Facebook Uses Feedback Loops: Meet Rypple
Gigaom (Jun/11): Performance reviews 2.0: improving feedback for web workers
Forbes (Sep/11): Social Power and the Coming Corporate Revolution
Forbes (Jun/12): Applying Lean Startup Thinking To Managing Talent
Wall Street Journal (Jul/12): Leveraging the Facebook Phenomenon For Business
Forbes (Aug/12): Hacking Work
Forbes (Sep/12): Work.com Redefines what HR Software Is

13. Relevant: is the message on target?
• Is your customer’s pain part of your message?
• Are you focused on the right roles/personas?
HR
Execs
Sr. Mgrs
Buyer By Transaction
HR
Execs
Sr. Mgrs
Buyer By Revenue

14. Relevant: is the message on target?
• Is your customer’s pain part of your message?
• Are you focused on the right roles/personas?
• Are the words you’re using the right ones?
What can we learn
from this guy?

15. Insightful: teach your audience something new
• leverage the power of reciprocity to raise intent
• build value in your brand
• use insights to uncover hidden pain!

16. Example: scaling your business the wrong way
Missed
Revenue
Targets
Variable
Win Rates
90% of managers don’t spend enough time coaching,
motivating, and driving accountability
67% of reps will not make quota
40% of reps will leave in the first 12 months
Sources: The TAS Group, Objective Management Group Inc.
High
turnover
Unclear
Expectations

17. Example: reward for high engagement organizations
Reduced
turnover
Bersin Associates Study, June 2012
31%
17%
Increase in
goal attainment
Sales Executive Council, 2007
2-4XIncrease in
customer satisfaction
Aberdeen Group, 2009
Reduced
onboarding time
Salesforce customer survey, 2013
35%

18. Haven’t listened until now?
• Disrupt inertia to drive high conversion leads
• 3 messaging properties that reduce inertial gap:
– Polarizing: people get it quickly
– Relevant: message hits home
– Insightful: teaches something

19. Homework
• Make sure messages immediately communicate value
• Review the words you’re using in lead gen materials
• Segment your lead nurturing tracks by persona
• Ensure your communications teach something