DISQUS

Thanks Mikey...completely with you on this one!

@prakash it's good to see that focusing quantity has worked for you. Till date I have yet to come across a marketer who has achieved 100% results through an email campaign. If you could identify 600 from your database where you were 100% they would be interested....why would you send out an email campaign to them in the first place? You have qualified leads which you can directly sell to. You seem to be missing the point.... but I take it that you believe it doesn't matter how many contacts you had to go through to get the 600 inquiries as long as you get your results

Thanks Rob. It's true "doing the right thing" can pay off on the sales side as you put it. While many sales people try and fight their way through PA's, working with them often works much better.

Thanks Bill. "Third party referral" is useful. I've had some feedback for this discussion on twitter etc where some believe the CAN-SPAM law states you cant contact a company you have had no prior business relationship with before so everyone should work within these limits period. While I completely respect that ... there is a lot of good feedback on how someone can connect with a completely new company by being careful not to "spam" them and giving them clear "opt out" options within the message body.

Thanks Kristine, knowing the exact roles of those on target lists and how they will perceive the emails is critical. Your blog post is a great example of how perception of the receiver can be positive or even damaged by how the email program is planned.

@sthornton thats great perspective on this topic. I agree there is a lot more to what should be considered or treated as spam than just who its from and relying only on those in your permission list like you said keeps you from exploring new opportunities. As someone else pointed out to me on Twitter, sending emails too frequently can also be considered spam, sending emails long after building the permission based list can also be looked at as spam.

Thanks for the comments Robert, Michael. It is a rather bold statement to say there is no such thing as demand creation and only demand identification. I say that because I got some strong feedback for this post from another reader on a Linkedin group who doesn't agree with it and I can understand his point of view too. I wouldn't completely dismiss the term demand creation or demand generation completely and think its a valid term to describe lead generation and marketing activities which focus on creating demand for your product or offering. However while talking about the use of lead nurturing programs I agree demand identification is a term that describes the motive of nurturing leads.

Completely Rob. If marketing can get involved with the profiling process it leaves inside sales to focus on connecting with more qualified prospects and selling.

Trish I agree pre-call planning is important and as an inside sales person you need to know the answers to the questions before you make the call. The point here is do you really want your inside sales team to spend their time doing the pre-call research or do you want them to focus their time on calls connecting with the buyers? For example, if an inside sales person had account profiles delivered to them which clearly state whether the account has held budget for the product they are about to pitch, they wouldn't have to spend time going after those.

John, this app seems to have done a great job seamlessly integrating the strengths of direct marketing along with lead nurturing technology. You wouldn't normally associate offline or direct marketing with a lead nurturing software but Enthusem proves they can work together.

Thanks Rob. It's true that these could go the same way as email and phone calls if they get crowded and only time will tell if these networks remain as popular as they are now.

Thanks Ardath,

You brought some really great points here. Twitter DM and Linkedin are less intrusive for the reasons you mentioned. The fact that Salesforce has now added a Twitter app confirms what you mentioned about it being able to keep an eye on the exchanges and use that knowledge (without seeming like a stalker). Perhaps over time if these channels get over crowded with information, we'll start reacting to them the way we do with phone and email but we'll have to wait and see about that. For now it seems non intrusive and a good way to connect.

Absolutely @Perry, lead databases that are simply lying around without being touched by regular reach outs are very under utilized and not being used to their full potential. Those leads considered low value at one time may turn out to be customers later and thats where a lead nurturing program becomes so valuable.

@kapologisztika geomarketing based databases would be effective especially given you're in the logistics segment. My point was having the right target accounts with the right decision makers, right contact information and right data or intelligence will increase the results and make the process of acquiring customers more efficient.

I agree Marc, technology like SalesView puts sales intelligence and important data at the finger tips of inside sales reps and helps them be better prepared while going after accounts or decision makers. However, if the inside sales reps were to spend their own time gathering that intelligence themselves, it wouldn't be the best use of their time. Internal marketing teams are undoubtedly great to have when it comes to creating and qualifying leads.

@espdirect the use of email marketing is extremely widespread and the lower costs are undoubtedly why it remains so popular. However surveys have shown a downward trend for email marketing as marketing automation and lead nurturing applications are gaining momentum. Products like Nurture which offer a lower cost on demand lead nurturing solution are likely to gain in popularity since they have an edge over traditional email technology and are becoming just as affordable.

Thanks Geoff. It also works as a reference for the message we use while calling prospects within this vertical to see if we may be able to help them in a similar way to past customers we have worked with in these verticals.

Yes it does seem from the comments that direct mail is not dead yet for sure. Companies like Dell are making the most of inbound marketing as well as social media in their strategy but I still get a direct mail catalog or specs for a new line of products once a month so direct mail is also still an important part of their mix. Inbound marketing is smart and effective for a lot of businesses so I have no doubt it will continue to gain momentum but outbound is not likely to be wiped out completely any time soon.

Thanks Rick.

I agree. Inbound is in and it will only gain ground and direct mail will continue to decline but it will still have some place. Perhaps a smaller one.

Absolutely Darin. A bulk of the bad data problem comes from the sources whether they are entered by employees, come from inbound marketing channels etc. Having checks before they get into the CRM is crucial.

Sure Ari, list building is just an initial step into identifying who are the main decision makers to connect with within the companies you wish to target but its really lead qualification which will help identify the real buyers and separate them from the rest. The ones that are not ready to buy can be put back into the nurturing process till there is a requirement or be filtered out if they are not qualified.

Thanks Christopher, it is definitely an exciting space and a great way of uncovering opportunities. Since a part of what we do with lead data management solutions is qualify these active leads to identify clear opportunities there could be synergies in what we do as a next step after knowing which companies are showing interest and also perhaps how sales ready they are. This really helps identify those who visitors who haven't registered and get some insight into where they are in the buying process.

This is an interesting insight Bill. I agree that forms of lead generation and internet advertising which are clearly measurable and the ROI is clear will be better off than offline media where spend will slow down unless results are justified.

Thanks Hana. I agree completely that it is a lot of effort and very time consuming but its rewarding when you can use that data quickly for campaigns. Completely worth it.

It is ironic that they employ so many professionals whose only responsibility is to predict even the smallest changes in trends that will cause a rise or fall in a particular vertical and yet the biggest catastrophe that was brewing right in their own organizations was missed.