What’s the difference between a qualified lead and a sales-ready lead? Do you need to have all of the BANT requirements, or will three out of four criteria do? Does a lead need to be ‘nurtured’ before it’s sales-ready?
These are all complex questions to grapple with as a B2B marketing professional. The short cop-out answer is that ‘it depends.’ However, the real answer to ‘what is the definition of a sales-ready lead?’ is much simpler in my opinion.
I believe the definition of a ‘sales-ready’ lead is one that has been accepted by sales and is deemed ready to engage in direct selling activity. Before that point, you can call them whatever you want—prospect, raw inquiry, qualified lead, opportunity—but they’re not a sales-ready lead.
As you can see by my nifty demand gen funnel, there are many stages that a lead enters into. When a structured lead-capturing, scoring- and nurturing-methodology is followed by marketing, and the lead is passed onto sales and accepted, it is (or should be) officially ‘sales ready.’
Of course, leads can leapfrog over any of these stages, or get stuck in one of the categories, but until they have been accepted by sales in a CRM system or whatever your lead delivery mechanism is, they are not yet ready to buy.
I know there are many passionate opinions on this topic, so feel free to disagree with me. What do you think a sales-ready lead is?
Mobile advertising is emerging as an integral part of any marketing campaign these days. While mobile advertising is still in development, ABI Research forecasts that in the next five years, spending on mobile ads in the United States will nearly quadruple—to exceed $1.2 billion in 2015.
This month, Apple’s long-awaited iAd launched. And, one of the first companies to take advantage of nearly everything iAds and the iPhone has to offer, was Nissan. Nissan’s truly impressive interactive advertisement is engaging and lives directly inside the app. The Nissan Leaf iAd allows users to customize their car and learn about key features, including comparative miles per dollar.
So, where is the future of mobile advertising heading this year? It seems that not all advertisers and agencies have embraced mobile advertising and, instead, tend to stick with more traditional advertising methods such as TV and print ads. But with more and more users purchasing smart phones and using mobile internet, maybe 2010 will be the year that advertisers start seeing mobile ads as less of a risk and more as a chance to reach 45 million U.S. smart phone users.
A good beat and I’m set. There’s just something about it. This got me thinking, is rhythm just organized chaos? And, with total locked-down control (the lack of movement, a flat sine wave) is there nothing (maybe a drone, but even in drones I can find rhythm)?
We need rhythm to exist; it’s in our cells, our pulse, and even in our communications. Rhythm is the closest thing we have to making something coherent from chaos. So let’s take this “far-out-dude theory” and apply it to what we do in B2B marketing and communication.
We live in an age of communication chaos. So, how can we communicate more in sync and more clearly? Maybe the answer is a consistent newsletter or e-blast? The consistency of these is good but we need to be weary of the “droning broken-dishwasher effect.”
Don’t be afraid to mix up your communications a little and give your audience some added movement. We need to know our audience’s rhythm and pace to communicate with them in the best possible way. If our audiences are expecting a short memo and we send them a six-page report, they may choke!
Ever been in a conversation that just seems awkward and rife with interruptions and pauses? Nobody likes that. We need to learn more about our audience’s rhythm and where they are in the conversation. I know I’m not the only one wondering about this, so chime in and help out this “dude” and me.
As B2B marketers, we all know how important it is to consistently be in front of your customers/prospects. But, providing the latest information/resources about your respective industries is also important. E-newsletters are a great way to provide valuable information to your customers and prospects, while keeping them thinking about your products/services.
To provide value to your customers, increase your open rates and direct traffic to your website, keep the following in mind:
An e-newsletter should be ‘newsy.’ Reference third party sources along with your own company news.
Provide industry-related links to sites other than your own website.
E-newsletters need to be consistent. Depending on your current e-mail communications to customers/prospects, you want them to expect an e-newsletter from you on a monthly or bi-monthly basis (quarterly works too)!
A relatively easy-to-use e-mail marketing program is Constant Contact. This site allows you to customize your e-newsletter template as well as distribution and tracking capabilities.
If you keep these rules in mind and consistently provide customers/prospects with up-to-date information, they will think of you first the next time they are searching for a product or service you offer!
Working in B2B PR, I’ve learned that it’s important to take advantage of the trends in my clients’ industries. It’s great when PR professionals can capitalize on opportunities that are already present and use them to their clients’ advantages. For example, a client of Canyon’s is in the irrigation industry and July is Smart Irrigation Month. This is a perfect time to use this trend to build awareness for this client!
Now, aside from PR, I think it’s important to do your part to conserve water. With Smart Irrigation Month in full swing, now is a great time to make cuts. I don’t think any of us realize how much water we use on a day-to-day basis—I know I didn’t, so I looked online to get an idea.
According to the American Water Association, the daily indoor water use is 69.3 gallons per person. It’s simple to cut back on indoor water use. Just by installing more efficient water-saving products and services in our homes, and regularly checking for leaks, we can reduce our daily indoor water use by 35 percent—to 45.2 gallons per day.
Have you taken advantage of the trends happening in your clients’ industries and used them to benefit your PR programs? Will you do your part to cut back on your water use?
