Why It Takes 7-13+ Touches to Generate a Qualified B2B Sales Lead Today

Why It Takes 7-13+ Touches to Generate a
Qualified B2B Sales Lead Today
Laurie Beasley, President
Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc.
Tom Judge, VP Strategy
Direct Marketing Partners, Inc.

Your Presenters
 Laurie Beasley – President Beasley Direct Marketing
 President DMA Northern California www.dmanc.org
 Instructor UC Berkeley Extension www.extension.berkeley.edu
 Instructor Online Marketing Institute www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org
 Tom Judge – VP Strategy Direct Marketing Partners (DMP)
 Vice President DMA Northern California
 Contributor Sales Lead Management Association
www.salesleadmgmtassoc.org
 Program Chair NorCal BMA Sales Lead Roundtable www.norcalbma.org
.

Why So Many Touches?
Its not easy generating the “sales-ready” leads

The Goal of Demand Generation is Sales!
However there are some bumps in the road…
 The CSO Insights annual survey uncovered problems
 The average number of reps making quota was 63% for 2012
 Only 42% of firms met or exceeded their 2012 revenue goals
 CSO Insights indicated that 92% of firms are raising their
revenue goals this year
 Over 40% of firms indicate the increases are 15% or more!
.

B2B Marketing
Challenges
Top 2 = our focus

Challenge: Quality Over Quantity
.
 Marketing Sherpa’s 2012 B2B Benchmark report
explored what marketers are actually doing
Problem Uncovered:
 73% of the leads distributed to sales ARE NOT Sales-Ready!
Solution Case Cited:
In the same report; Marketing Sherpa cited a case of a
firm that moved to higher quality “sales-ready” scored
leads (A B2B HR solutions company)
 The lead volume dropped by 52%
 While revenues increased 41%

8
1. Marketing generates a lead with basic interest, not ready to engage a sales rep
2. Sales teams reject unqualified leads, feels disconnected, requests “sales-ready” leads
3. Few actually convert and the numbers are unsustainable
Current marketing focus Current sales focusThe B2B lead
development gap
Issue 1: Marketing hands off
Leads too early. Unqualified
Leads waste sales’ time.
Issue 2: Sales cherry picks leads, letting
longer-time-frame leads leak out.Issue 3: Marketing spends
More $ to replace lost leads.
Reach Interest Desire Convert Enrich Retain
Warm leads leak out
Gap in The Middle of the Funnel is
Costing Time & $ Money
Source: Forrester October 2006, Best Practices “Improving B2B Lead Mgmt”
Forrester: Low Quality Sales Leads Create
Sales Problems
Symptoms: Few conversions into customers

The increased reliance on higher sales lead quality from
the sales teams has changed the game for demand gen
marketers
You as a marketer are now on the hook to deliver
This is the new norm
Tension Between Sales & Marketing

Challenge: How Can We Improve Our
Lead-To-Sales Results?
Here are some best practices and multi-touch cases
that improve lead quality

Example of a 7-13+ Touch Sequence?
1: Initial email campaign
2: Initial direct mail campaign
3: Call, prospect not there, leave a message
4: Send email follow up
5: Call, prospect is not involved in any way, referred to correct contact
6: Start over, transfer the call into person you’re referred to, leave VM
7: Send email follow up: first email
8: Call, prospect not able to talk then, but did schedule another time
9: Send email follow up confirming call appt. day/time
10: Call held, prospect interested, however wants more information
before all the qualification questions on script are completed
11: Send personalized email follow up with relevant info.
12: Prospect now ready to talk about needs, access to budget,
purchase authority, level of urgency and timeframe= Qualified!
13: Email to confirm appt. scheduled with field sales rep, CC rep.

Value of Nurture Process
Contact # 1
Contact # 2
Contact # 3
Contact # 4
Contact # 5
Contact # 6
Contact # 7
Contact # 8
Contact # 9
Contact # 10
Contact # 11
Contact # 12
Prospect
Customer
50% of sales people have given up
Just now you are becoming a factor in your
prospect’s mind
Nurturing slowly, your prospect
gets to know you
You are probably the only
person to make 8 contacts
with this person
You harvest
low hanging
fruit
You are
earning top of
mind
awareness
At this point when you
prospect is ready to
buy, you have a 90%
chance of being called
*Microsoft study

Reality: Wow, 13+ Touches is A LOT!
How do we shorten it?
 We'll outline 11 ways to shorten the process and improve
results.
 Then we'll share 2 use cases and their results.

Start with the end in mind:
• Review historic sales data
• Segment by customer types
• Review profitability data
• Know the buying process
• Build buyer Personas & relevant messaging
for each
Assess your TAM:
• Review the resources it will take to acquire
1. Plan - Start With the End in Mind
Create a “Perfect Prospect Profile”

Digital/Online data points:
• Digital profile, Segment
• Web content activity
• Trigger events
• Scoring & its limits
Non-Digital/Peer-to-peer data points AND relationship:
• Needs, Plans & Business pains
• Role in the buying process
• Access to funding
• Size of opportunity
• Time frame and sense of urgency
• Willingness to move forward and engage with sale rep?
2. Clearly define the “Sales-Ready Qualified Lead”
(which can blossom into your perfect customer)

Advanced Lead Rating & Scoring Criteria
16
Tip: Combine digital and BANT Plus
data points into your scoring

Sample of “BANT+ Sales-Ready” Lead Data
Detailed background information on the prospect and the
selling opportunity helps drive more productive sales results

Multi-Touch Process
Dispelling the Marketing Automation
“Solves it All” Myth
Sirius Decisions has now inserted Tele-qualification into this model to increase
the sales qualification information gathered to boost lead quality & conversions

Common Problems We See
With Overdependence on Marketing Automation
 Marketing automation is dependent on lead forms
submissions
 Lead form submit rates are declining
 Difficult if not IMPOSSIBLE to get BANT+ criteria from
lead forms (even when using progressive profiling)
 Result: “Sticky funnel conundrum”. Lots of unqualified leads
rattling around in the system
 99% of your true prospects haven’t filled out a form or
come to your website. Many responders do not fit your
perfect prospect profile. You must monitor the profiles.
Action: You need to proactively outbound target the key account
contacts in your sweet spot with your value propositions

3. Quantify Your “Sales-Ready” Lead Quota
Sample Lead Requirements Calculator
Scenario Requirements
ANNUAL SALES REVENUE GOALS: $13,000,000
Sales Revenue Goals/Quarter $3,250,000
Revenue per sale $115,000
# Closed Sales Required/QTR 28.3 Or 9.3 Closes/mo.
Estimated Closed Rate on Pipeline Proposal Opportunities 25%
# Qual Leads That Must Convert to Pipeline Proposals/QTR 113
Est. forward conversion rate from sales-ready lead into Pipeline 40%
# Qualified Sales -Ready Leads Required per
Quarter (Prospects meeting sales-ready criteria)
283
# Qualified Sales-Ready Leads Required per
Month (Prospects meeting sales-ready criteria)
94
TomJudge, All Rights Reserved, Copyright Protected

Gain agreements with
• Marketing’s lead quality and quantities
• Sales team follow up actions on each qualified lead
• Gain senior management agreement
Tip: Obtain sales or channel rep SLA sign offs that they will
engage sales-ready prospects and track in CRM
4. Align sales – marketing – and Management with
Your Plan

Sample of a basic
agreement between
sales and marketing
• Marketing agrees to
quality of leads
delivered
• Sales agrees to follow
up steps and CRM
tracking

5. Target Prospect Data
Tip: Create a process to improve prospect data
 Forrester reports that 37% of firms indicate this is a
significant marketing problem at their firm
 Action item: Fix and standardize the prospect database
Hint: This is a never ending task

6. Segment Your Target Markets
 Tip: Segment your target markets into smaller
more manageable target sub segments.
Don’t boil the ocean
 Action item: Compare campaign performance by segment to
identify better performing markets to focus resources better

Common Segmentation for B2B
Single Product Segmentation Example - Business services with multiple decision
makers/influencers
Customers
Prospects
Financial
Automotive
Non Profit
Non Profit
Small, Medium, Large
VP
Marketing
VP
ProductionCFOCEO
2x 3x 3x 4x = 72 Segments
Business Universe
Financial
Automotive

7. Story Tell With Your Content
 Tip: Sync up relevant content with personalized
messaging to tell your compelling story, differentiate
and establish your brand as one they want to put on
their short list
Action item: Review and revise your content and messaging to help
you “earn the right” to ask the tough qualification questions you need
gathered to qualify prospects

8. Offers DO Matter
 Tip: Use a compelling offer with staying power.
 Content can be your best offer
 Action item: ALWAYS OFFER something of perceived value

Business to Business Offers & Content
Offer
Responsivenes
s (1-5)
Qualified(1-5)
Optimum
Offers
ROI calculators 3 5 15
Whitepapers/ Guides 3 4 12
Case studies 4 3 12
“Relevant” giveaways 4 3 12
Video clips or demo 4 3 12
Webinars 2 5 10
Live events 1 5 5
Free giveaways 5 1 5
Tradeshows 2 2 4

9. Think B2B Relationships:
People Buy From People
 Tip: To accelerate b2b prospect lead development,
include tele-qualification in the touch process
 Action item: We suggest running a three-month A/B test using
email + tele-prospecting in the lead nurturing and qualification
process and measure the lift and ROI.

Tip: Warm Prospects First by Sending
an Email or Direct Mail Before Calling
 You CAN do cold calling alone without sending a
campaign in advance. Lots of people do it. However,
their productivity may not be optimal.
 We have found sending out an email and/or direct mail
before a campaign can make it 30-40% more productive,
and save in tele-prospecting expenses.
 Why? Several reasons:
 You can triangulate from an email or direct mail to draw the
prospect into the conversation.
 If they’ve read the email or direct mail before you call, they’re
much more informed and can more clearly define their needs
 You appear to have a more comprehensive offering
 You allow more channels for prospects to communicate through

10. Track All Touch Metrics
Tip: Analyze KPI metrics in light of the original touch
plan & make refinements during campaigns
Action item: Analyze results metrics from end to end. Adjust
tactics to improve each metric along the way to a better outcome.

11. Put in Place Comprehensive Lead
Management Resources
 Tip: Implement a lead mgmt. system & team that gives
you end-to-end visibility into all of your campaigns
Action item: Have the right talent and executive dashboard reporting
tools to manage your lead funnels and make revisions. Mgmt. wants this!
.

Part 2:
Multi-Touch Case Studies

Putting it into Practice
 To summarize:
 Marketing is being required to generate more sales ready leads.
 This isn’t easy to do. Marketing automation can’t make it happen
alone.
 You’re going to have to plan for multiple touches and multiple
channels.
 To shorten the process: have a comprehensive plan, targeted
lists, segmented messaging, good offers, great creative (email,
direct mail, etc), plan for personal touches (teleprospecting) and
track the metrics.
 Now let’s see some real-world scenarios.

Case 1: Glove Corp.
 VP of Sales read the DMP/Beasley Direct case study in
first chapter of this book, and voila! he called me.

Superior Glove
• Leading industrial glove manufacturer
• Average value of new glove customer
account: $50,000/yr
• Target: safety/operations/purchasing
decision makers in metal manufacturing
industries
• Goal: $2.5 million in incremental sales for
this product line
• Tried everything: PPC, email, tradeshows
• Couldn’t get enough “qualified” sales
opportunities coming in to hit their numbers
• What to do next?

Sales Funnel Needs
 $2.5 million in sales/$50,000 per sale =
50 closed sales (@ 20% close rate)
 You’d need 250 qualified sales
opportunities at proposal stage (25%
convert to proposal)
 You’d need 1,000 “Qualified A” leads in
the sales team pipeline (10% convert
into “qualified A leads” and go to sales)
 You’d need 10,000 marketing level leads
in the demand generation process

Could Email Alone Get Him There?
Let’s give him a hand…
• Let’s assume available list universe of
safety/operations people = 7,500. If he
emailed all 7,500 and got 1% inbound
response = 75 and 50% of those fill out form =
35 marketing level leads.
• He’d have to mail this list at least 285 times to
get the 10,000 marketing level leads in the
pipeline. (Probably more because he wouldn’t
get 1% inbound response each time.)
• No, email alone will not achieve sales goals

Solution: Multi-Touch & Multi-Channel
 Email + tele-prospecting sequences
 Lead nurturing until qualified & put a voice and
personality with the relationship
 People buy from people they like and this differentiates them
 This also yields a better conversion rate
 Test two offers: Book vs.. free glove
 Test two lists: House vs.. rental list

Tested Free Glove Offer vs.. Book Offer

Glove Campaign Touch Count Per
Qualified Lead
SuperiorGloveLeadsTouches ProgramthroughDecember7th
ALeads
List TotalLeads DialsPer Lead Emails Per Lead
TTL Touches
per Lead
AverageTouchesPer
Lead
House List Glove Offer 8 3,5,2,2,1,1,5,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2 29 3.63
House List Book Offer 9 4,5,1,2,3,4,1,4,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 34 3.78
Metal Stamping Glove Offer 1 5 1 6 6.00
Metal Stamping Book Offer 8 1,1,6,1,3,1,2,2 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2 26 3.25
Communications Unknown 28 2,3,3,1,1,1,1,1,1,4,4,5 2,2,2,2,2,2,1,1,1,2,2 131 4.68
Communication Tier 1 15 7,3,1,3,2,2,2,4,3,2,1,2,3,3,8 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,12,2,2,2, 66 4.40
ISHN 2 8 0 8 4.00
ISHN_11_7_12 16 3,1,1,9,1,1,2,1,5,4,2,1,5,4,2,1,5,1,1,2,1 1,1,1,1,2,2,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,2,2,1, 72 4.50
87 187 91 372 4.28

Four to Five Touch Points Required
 4 to 5 touches, to be exact
 This involves:
 1. Initial email campaign
 2. Initial call (Left voice message or directed to proper contact)
 3. Call to engage new contact in the value prop and offers
 4. Email to contact
 5. Call to complete qualification script, and if qualified then
close on Superior Glove sales rep appointment

Case 2: WAN Software Company
• WAN (wide area network)
optimization
• Entrenched competitor: Riverbed
• Very complex sale to over-
busy IT
• “Pain” is felt when applications
run too slowly on IT network.
But isolating the speed issue
difficult, and often trumped by
other priorities

WAN Software Company
 Have been doing email, webinars, PPC, trade shows.
 Top of funnel demand gen focused
 Large buckets of unqualified leads in Salesforce account.
 Lead management issues
 No formal process in place for tele-qualifying inbound
leads or generating qualified sales opportunities
 Mid funnel problem similar to Forrester example

Solution Pilot Program
 Clearly defined sales ready criteria
 Multi-touch approach implemented + nurturing
to develop prospects until they qualify
 Test two offers: Gartner Magic Quadrant
report vs.. on-demand webinar featuring
Gartner analyst
 Test three lists: House lead file vs.. Rental file
of Riverbed sites vs.. webinar/seminar
attendee file
 As program rolled out, webinar
registrants/attendees & inbound responders
were also nurtured until qualified

Which Offer Worked?
 Both
 It was nearly a 50/50 split

Which Lists Worked?
 All of them!!!
 But some worked better than others. How do we
know? Metrics… We tracked the number of contact
attempts required to reach IT titles from each list.

Campaign Touch Count Per Qualified Lead

Observation: Range of 2 to 9 Touches
• Program wide, it required an average of 7.51 touches (via
telephone and email) per contact to convert to a sales-
ready defined quality lead.
• Webinar and live seminar lists representing the low end
of the spectrum at 2.50 touches (Best)
• House file and Riverbed rental file at the higher end at
9.46 touches per lead.
• It is also worth noting that this average does not account
for the pre campaign calls required to identify and
validate the correct contact, or the webinar touches.
• For example, it might require a phone call or two to gain a referral
identifying the appropriate contact. This is critical as many lists
have outdated or bad data problems.

Patience, patience, patience
• Did this program show immediate results? Not exactly.
• 1 qualified lead was generated during the first 75 hours of
the program
• During the initial 50 hour development and roll out phase,
several challenges were identified, including low initial
response rates to the message when contacting non-
responders, difficulties in gaining contact referrals and
minimal receptivity to initial messaging
• Refinements to messaging and follow up calls to engage prospects
were needed because the IT targets were busy and had a different
way of perceiving the messaging and value props. These prospects
were only concerned about their own schedules, so setting call back
times and sending a relevant email proved critical to engaging,
establishing a trusted relationship and discussing their needs. Then
BINGO!

How we fixed it… Listening and Revising!
• More product training for callers was scheduled and
completed to improve call dialogue and overcome
objections that stonewalled conversations.
• Competitive comparisons with Riverbed were re-
positioned. Client was presented as a solution to
system issues encountered by Riverbed users, rather
than as a competitor of Riverbed.
• Emails were sent by members of the Calling Team that
included White Papers, and Case Studies as well as
On-Demand Webinars designed to refine sequential
touch points, improving the quantity and quality of
program dialogues. This helped establish a nurture
sequence designed to educate prospects on the
viability of client offerings.

Q&A
Laurie Beasley
lbeasley@beasleydirect.com
Direct: 408-782-0046 x21
www.beasleydirect.com
@BeasleyDirect
Blog: www.BeasleyDirect-blog.com
Tom Judge
tjudge@dirmkt.com
Direct: 510-368-7527
www.directmarketingpartners.com
Blog: http://www.directmarketingpartners.com/blog.html

About Beasley Direct Marketing
 Beasley Direct Marketing, Inc. provides copywriting, design,
programming, and consulting services for the following direct
marketing channels:
 Search (PPC and SEO)
 Email Creative, Design, Deliverability Audits, and Broadcast
 Direct mail (with and without PURLs)
 Landing Page Design (with and without PURLs)
 Mobile
 Video
 Social
 Website Design
 Catalog/eCommerce
 Brochure, White Paper, and Guide copy and design
 List Building and CRM Database Management
 Telemarketing
 Translation for all of the above
 Executive Dashboard Tracking, Reporting, and Lead
Assignment

About Direct Marketing Partners (DMP)
DMP is a lead management and lead funnel qualification
services provider for B2B selling firms
DMP provides customized lead-to-sales service bundles.
DMP teams are an extension of our clients’ demand gen teams.
Clients receive dedicated trained teams to execute multi-touch email,
direct mail and peer to peer tele-prospecting campaigns with marketing
automation and funnel metrics to optimize lead to sale conversions.

Why It Takes 7-13+ Touches to Generate a Qualified B2B Sales Lead Today

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