The general thinking is that summer is a slow time where decision makers are away and generally things are slow. And, to a very limited extent, that is true.
In order to get a clearer answer to this question in our B2B environment, we analyzed the results we got in the summer months vs the rest of the year over a 20-year span.

The projects we reviewed had conversion rates that ranged from well over 30% to less than 3%. And the results indicated that the summer months produced slightly higher conversion rates.

• Summer months conversion ratio – 13.51%
• All other months – 13.37%

The next obvious question is … Is the amount of effort (hours worked) required higher in the summer months versus all other months to produce this result?

Actually not. Using the same 20 year period we found that on average the exact same number of hours per lead is required when comparing summer months to all other months.

Reasons for this are many but the primary one is that while fewer decision makers are accessible in the summer, there are also fewer obstacles in getting through. And many times they are more relaxed and are more amenable to engage in a meaningful discussion.

Is it different over the Christmas holiday period? Nope. Pretty much the same.

So in terms of B2B Lead Generation we can definitively state that results do not vary seasonally (unless of course you have a seasonal business.)

We have a valued client company that is expert in what they term “Retail Execution Solutions”. In essence, they enable large retailers to “have the right product in the right place at the right time.”

The unique aspect that our client brings is a highly systematic, integrated approach that enables them to link all of those disparate, essential activities, giving them the power to bring the results to bear on the full scope of their operations. Hence, the term “Retail Execution.” As I said before, it gives them the ability to “have the right product in the right place at the right time.”

As I was thinking about all of this, it dawned on me that what our client provides to retailers is analogous to what we provide to our clients. We provide “Sales Execution Solutions.”

Surely every company we work with is already doing the basics: generating leads, perhaps even pre-qualifying them, they have sales forces and, especially nowadays, they may have access to some kind of CRM to track their leads and sales activities.

They might want or need more leads, or better qualified leads. Or they may need help managing their database and tracking their prospects, leads and sales activities. And they may need to better understand their market or ways to develop new markets or bring new products to market. But the basics elements are there in order for them to survive.

So where does Sales Execution come into play? In the very same way our client supports their retailers: our deliverable is in providing clients with a systematic, repeatable, successful closed-loop process for growing revenue, developing and managing new business opportunities and targeting their marketing investment on vehicles that have the best potential for revenue growth and the successful development of their company.

By engaging with a company that focuses on Sales Execution (or enhancing sales productivity), you are focusing your sales resources precisely on those qualified prospects and customers that are ready to make a purchase decision in the near term (“the right contact in the right prospect company at the right time”).

There are many companies that can provide pieces of this kind of solution on an outsourced basis, some at a far lower cost than managing it internally. But the real trick is in creating an environment in which all of the pieces of the business development puzzle can work together, seamlessly, and one in which they augment one another to create true, powerful sales execution.

So, while “Retail Execution” enables a retail company to have the right product in the right place at the right time, “Sales Execution” enables a company to put their sales people in front of the right prospects at the right company at the right time.

I’d love your comments and questions.

Their competitors, often with the same or even superior products and services, struggle and all too often fail.

What’s even more telling is that these very same companies thrive to a greater degree during good times. When everyone else is selling successfully they far outsell their competition and steadily increase their share of market.

Clearly, their success is not based on having a better solution. It’s really based upon the application of time-tested, solid sales and marketing strategies that keep them headed in the right direction regardless of the environment.

At eti we’ve worked with many of these world class companies over the past 25 years. We have been witness to the strategies they employ that have created the most success. We’ve also learned from their failures.

We’ve distilled some of the insights we’ve gleaned from our clients’ successes and many of the best practices employed by these winning organizations in a new eBook entitled Successful Sales and Marketing Strategies for Both Good Times and Bad. As a business leader with an interest in strategic business development, we’d like to share with you those strategies for success.

The eBook is yours to download for FREE by clicking here. There’s no obligation whatsoever, so click here to get your copy.

If you find it interesting, please feel free to share it and discuss it with your colleagues. And if you have any questions or comments when you’re done reading, feel free to give us a call.

We’ve just published a new article on the site that provides some perspective. Click here to read more.

~mf

From our humble beginnings in a renovated barn in Greenburgh, NY to our current modern facilities in Valhalla, NY, we have continued to grow and thrive. And our family of clients and staff has also grown with us.

I’m happy to say eti Sales Support continues to be at the forefront, in terms of technology as well as with the maturation of our unique approach to lead generation and lead qualification efforts in the B2B space. We continue to evolve, innovate and stay relevant. And, we are committed to do so in the future.

A word of thanks to all of our clients, employees and suppliers over the years. We may have created the environment, but without your support we could never have been successful.

Last night we celebrated in style at a local restaurant in Pleasantville. A good time was had by all!

~ mf

Predictive Dialing.

1. A technology (primarily used in Business to Consumer environments) which programs a PBX to dial ahead of the “operator” because statistically one can anticipate that X number of calls are required to find someone to talk to.
2. When someone picks up the call is transferred to an available “operator”.

eti does not and will never entertain using such technology. Some reasons …

• Our Business Developers (BDs) are required to fully prepare themselves prior to initialing a call.  This includes reviewing prior contact history,  notes, results as well as in circumstances doing research to familiarize themselves with the prospect company prior to engaging a prospect in a consultative dialogue.   Preparation is key in our world.
• 99% of all businesses will answer their phones. But navigating within an organization and getting to the key stakeholder/decision maker is an entirely different matter.
• If you’re dialing an extension then in all probability the call will be answered … even if only by the person’s voice mail. So “busys” and wrong numbers are usually not a major factor in a B2B environment.
• Typically there is a pause – anywhere between 2 and 20 seconds while the dialer finds an operator to take the call. When this occurs the poor prospect says … Hello …. Hello … Helloooooo … until someone comes on the line. It’s unlikey the prospect will view this positively?
• Bottom line is we don’t see this technology as a way to drive a high quality communications with high level prospects in complex B2B environments.

Preview Dialers.

1. The prospect record is brought up via a call queue or search result and the prospects’ telephone number can then be dialed dynamically when the BD clicks on the number.

eti has used Preview Dialing technology extensively since its inception. It’s quick and efficient and allows for adequate preparation by the BD prior to initiating a call.

Automatic dialers (aka Robo Dialers).

These systems dial numbers (usually sequentially) and deliver a prerecorded message automatically to the recipient when they pick up or on their personal voice mail. It is not used much in B2B environments for many of the same reasons that Predictive Dialers should be avoided.

Targeting consumers or business people in this manner – whether you’re a politician, a charity, credit card or a bank – is (in at least this writers opinion) unprofessional and ineffective. Indeed, it may even be regarded as a relationship-breaker.

Automatic Call Distribution (ACD).

• This is primarily used by call centers to handle incoming calls and is effective in managing the flow and volume of calls coming in.
• When used correctly it is very useful and practical for both the caller and the recipient organization.  The problem is that often unsuspecting callers are many times placed in holding “purgatory” for lengthy periods of time. That can be solved of course by providing sufficient levels of staffing. But, many operations don’t because that increases costs significantly.

There is nothing better (and more effective) than having a prospect call and, immediately, there is immediately someone live to talk to.  And when that person is knowledgeable, speaks their language, and relates to them culturally it is worth its weight in gold. So ACD’s in a B2B environment are useful but should be used for limited purposes.

eti does use ACD’s and endeavors to deliver the following average results.

• 99.9% of all calls are answered by a Business Developer within 1 minute.
• 80% within 20 seconds.
• When a queue is backed up we provide the caller with an estimated hold time (or their position in the queue)
• We always offer the caller the ability to leave a message. Call backs are usually initiated within 4 hours

On Line Live Chat.

• Chat comes in two flavors: Passive and Active.
  •   Passive involves the placement of a button on a typical web page and requires the prospect to click on the link/button to engage in an interaction.
  •   Active takes a more pro-active approach. Using powerful algorithms one can program the system to pop up an invitation to chat based on the users history (clicks and pages visited) and time on the site.

While the latter can be perceived as intrusive, it is very easy for the prospect to dismiss the offer to chat. Those who do pro-actively engage can be converted to real marketing qualified leads (MQL’s) if handled professionally.

eti has an expanded practice that now offers B2B Business Developers to field chat interactions. Our primary role leverages both smarts BD’s, phone and chat in order to convert prospects into highly qualified sales opportunities. Please see my recent blog for more about this capability. (Note: We do not undertake technical support efforts.)

To fincd our more about eti’s capabilities to meet your company’s lead generation needs please call Sheldon Sachs (VP Business Development) at 914.747.03030 Ext 3450.

This happens all the time.

To help gain the upper hand, companies constantly come up with incentives to build direct relationships with channel partner sales people.  Relying on this strategy, however, leaves you at the whim of the channel’s sales staff.  That’s not the best position to be in.

The most effective way to win consistently is to ensure you engage with the end user directly, and making sure that, when they’re ready to buy, your solution will be preferred.

That’s where an effective, ongoing lead generation effort focusing on your best targeted prospects comes in.
By developing an organized ongoing lead generation effort you will achieve the following:

• You’ll build trust
• You’ll ensure that those involved in decision making are familiar with your solution and how it can best meet their needs
• You’ll lay the groundwork for the prospect to understand that your solutions is the best fit
• You’ll help promote your brand as the industry leader

When you build and nurture personal relationships consistently over time you’ll find that when prospects are ready to buy (i.e., to effect change) your company will be top of mind, the first to receive the call.

It’s an investment well worth making, and one that over time will beat the competition hands down.

Some food for thought.

Depending on the additional costs of hiring a new sales person (in real terms probably about double his/her salary), you might instead want to consider investing that money in a professionally run lead generation and qualification campaign to maximize your existing sales force’s productivity.

For example – using only one sales recruit as an example (and you can play with the numbers as they may be applicable to your business):
Salary – $60k + commissions.    Assume $75k (low by any standards for most B2B industries.)

Overhead x2 (travel, recruitment, training, social costs, management, etc.).  Real costs are probably in the range of $150k.

If you assume that the cost of identifying a qualified sales opportunity to be in the range of $1,000, then for the same $150k, you could deliver 150 newly minted, highly qualified sales opportunities to your existing sales force. And if the cost were $500 per qualified opportunity, that’ would present 300 new opportunities.

Looking at this conservatively (@$1k per), let’s say your sales team can convert 20% (1 out of 5 of those qualified opportunities) into a new client. That would generate 30 additional sales at your average sales value. If each average sale was worth $50k in revenue, that’s an additional $1.5 million in new revenue. (Not to mention the potential recurring value of that new client relationship).

Let’s take a more optimist tack. If the cost per qualified opportunity was actually as low as $500, and the resulting 300 additional sales opportunities converted at a better rate, such as 25%, this would net you 75 sales (to new clients).  And using the same $50k average per initial sale, this would net $3.75 million in additional revenue.

Not chump change!

So, in lieu of investing in new sales reps who need to be recruited, trained and mentored, and who will take some time and effort to hit the street running, it may well be more lucrative to increase the productivity of the existing sales force.   Also consider your recruitment success metrics.  How many new recruits  succeed out of the block.  What is your cost of failure?  And will an investment of $150k for example net you between 30 and 70 new customers with between $1.5 and $3.75 million in new net incremental revenue?  It’s doubtful.

Of course, your company might be among the very few that has a sales force that is really productive and has no need for additional qualified sales opportunities to work with.  But, in the 25 years we’ve been in business, I’ve never come across one.

Remember that for every minute your high cost field sales people are not out there selling to prospects and customers that have a need for your solutions, you’re losing a selling opportunity!

By the way, eti has a great Sales Opportunity cost calculator that you may find useful.

For more on how eti can help you ramp up your sales please call Sheldon Sachs at 914.747.3030 Ext 3450.

It seems that they had conducted a group survey that showed that, despite the fact over 55% of respondents said they get more than $10,000 in revenue from the average customer in a given year, only 8.8% of the survey participants felt that they would be willing to pay $500 for a super-duper qualified B2B lead.

He asked me “Why do you think so few companies are willing to pay $500 for a highly qualified lead? Have leads simply become passé? Do few companies even know what to do with good leads to begin with?”

My response went something like this:

It seems to me that some of the respondents to your question spoke to some of the metrics that matter such as closing ratios, acquisition cost and margins; others raised the issue of trust (also extremely important). I didn’t see anyone address lifetime value of a new relationship or even ROI (perhaps I gave up reading too soon). In my view, those are more important issues (along with trust). But they are still beside the point.

The basic flaw in the question is why does the cost of a lead matter at all? Buying leads, no matter how qualified, is a bottom-feeding strategy doomed to failure.

The key to lasting business development success is in investing in building a systematic methodology for touching prospects proactively, profiling their interests and challenges (what keeps them up at night), raising their awareness of your brand and solutions and building their trust and nurturing a relationship by engaging them in ways in which they can address successfully those things that disturb their sleep and the areas in which they have expressed interest.

The objective should NOT be to buy prospects, not matter how qualified. It should be driven toward investing in a growing prospect pipeline that will feed and nurture your company for many years to come, and has the potential to retain those clients for the long term once they have been converted from prospect status to client. The argument is akin to the analogy of providing a hungry person with a fish rather than teaching them how to fish so they never have to ask you for food again.

In the final analysis, a thoughtful lead generation buyer (and seller) should move their focus away from cost per lead (or even acquisition cost, which is far more meaningful) to infrastructure investment. Move the focus from one-off outcomes to a built to last solution and you’ll change the tenor of the dialogue significantly.

Well, this isn’t entirely true.  The actual number is 45% of all inquiries turn into a sale for someone.   When Mike Simon (founder of Inquiry Handling Service, now Harte Hanks) taught me that number, I was a wee communications manager just out of college.  The information changed my marketing and sales career.

Of course, I only half believed him that half of the inquiries I gave our salespeople at Beckman Instruments were as worthy as he contended.   I had to prove it to myself.

After completing several “Did You Buy Studies” (necessary because the salespeople reported back on only 25% of the inquiries given them), sure enough…45% of inquirers had bought something within one year (we surveyed inquirers that were 12 months old).  24-26% of inquirers bought something that were six months old (yep, we went to a different group).   And 12-15% of inquirers bought within three months from a different set only three months old.

Yes, we measured conversion from a single source (tied to avoid mixed sources), but always from a single point in time within 30 days.

Once we had these numbers, I started to report to management on the ROI from various lead generation sources.  That stirred up a few hornets.  Some sacred-cow lead generation sources were proved to be less than stellar, while some thought to be ‘fillers’ were purchasing more than expected.

The variable we found was us.  We knew that our lead generation activities found buyers, but with only 25% follow-up by our salespeople we were not participating in 75% of the opportunities.  Duh!

Simple variable, but oh so hard to change!

Increase follow-up and you will increase sales.   We found that increasing follow-up, by almost any means, increased sales.   Hence, the justified claims from marketing automation software and lead generation and qualification companies that their programs increased sales 200-300%.  No surprise there.

The lesson learned?  If you can’t get your salespeople to follow up 100% of the inquiries, find an outside firm to nurture the leads for you.  No budget?  Think about the lost opportunities.  Begging your salespeople to do the obvious usually doesn’t work.  Spend a few bucks and have professionals nurture the leads until each is sales ready.

Toss in nurturing with a marketing automation program and you’ll be beating 75% of your competitors.  Why only 75% you ask?  That’s because 25% have already figured out that half of the inquirers buy something from someone… and that someone is the person and company that follows up.

James Obermayer, Sales & Marketing 365, A year of wisdom at your fingertips, Racom Communications, Chicago, Il, Number 14 of 365 Tips & Tricks,  http://www.racombooks.com/