Conversations with the pre-customer

Pete JakobResponse and Lead Nurturing Manager

IBM United Kingdom Ltd

pete_jakob@uk.ibm.com

The role of marketing is changing…

from monologue to dialogue

from push-marketing to pull-marketing social networking

user-generated content

from shouting to listening

from marketing as selling to marketing as education

relevant content

right time

be where they are authentic

honest

open

less is morefrom demand generation to satisfying customer needs

prospects/targets to guests/citizens

from demand generation to response nurturing

data-centric marketing

Leaky Sales Funnel Increases Customer Acquisition Costs

There are 9 key steps to increasing the yield from campaigns and enhancing the pre-customer experience

• Symptom: Great campaign -> lots of “leads” -> can’t get sales to engage

• 4 Management Questions:

1. Who is the key sales sponsor?

2. What is their capacity for leads, and what shape?

3. What did they agree to do with the leads you generate?

4. How will you review progress with them?

• Impact

– Fewer activities

– Greater accountability

– Increase focus on Enablement and Nurturing

Unless Sales are hungry for your leads, your campaign is doomed

1. Align activity with sales

Client-centric view of

Responses

• Define your policy

– What constitutes a response?

– How quickly will responses be loaded?

– How will responses be loaded?

• Points to consider

– All response types?

– Third Party data from Events, Hosted web content etc?

– Business partner?

– Opt Out?

– Should you record ALL responses?

• Develop picture of clients across multiple campaigns

– What is the optimum touch cadence?

– What governance rules should apply across different campaigns in market?

2. Capture all responsesEvent

Attendance

Website Contact form

Outbound Tele Demand

Generation

Inbound Contacts

3. Plan structured nurturing dialogue

• A systematic approach to campaign contact structure for each response type– Events

– Web Contact Form

– Outbound Tele

– Inbound Response

• Blueprints are a startpoint for customisation for specific campaign needs– Consider non-responders and responders

– Consider “transactional” offers and “dialogue” offers

• Benefits:– Plug leaks in the marketing funnel (eg non-responders)

– Clarify Roles and Responsibilities within the team

– Clarify when/how to pass to sales

– Underpin alignment to tools

EVENT

Email follow up

Transactional Offer: Event materialsDialog Offer: Newsletter

Accept Newsletter Offer?

Yes

Nurture (digital and telephone)

Leverage content aligned to customer journey

Ne

wsle

tte

r

Sales Ready?

Pass to Sales

Marketing to follow up with Sales to review outcomes

No

Yes

Non-Attendees

AttendeesPrioritise

Monitor Open rates and click

thru’s

1. Plug leaks in the funnel by re-engaging with non-responders

2. Use “Dialogue” offers that permit ongoing contact3. Monitor activity to provide prioritisation4. Nurture via Telephone and Digital5. Leverage content aligned to buying cycle to

advance customer journey

3. Plan structured nurturing dialogue (contd)

4. Align nurturing offers to buying cycle

JOURNEY STAGES

ISSUE RECOGNITION

SCOPE REQUIREMENTS

SUPPLIER SELECTION

WHAT THEY WANT

Objective, up-to-date information

Information at the right level

Tools to help them understand what the right level is (eg vs maturity or vertical)

Guide/pointers to other information

Proof of capability

Objective support, no sales pitch

Case studies

Explanation of different solutions

Ability to ask questions

Clear “why me” from suppliers

Endorsement from 3rd parties

Accessibility to the right people who can take issue to technical solution

ASSETS and OFFERS

White papers – IBM & credible others

Newsletters

Interactive tools

Supplements

PR

Webinars

Industry Events

IT Press/Online

Podcasts

Case studies

Q&As

FAQs

Solutions

Self Assessment

Why IBM

Demo

Product specifications

Call me/Inbound call

Learn Scope Select

5. Score based on activity

• Can be Manual or Automated– Automation allows for automatic

routing of contact details once a new threshold reached

Events registration

Web Forms

Outbound Tele

Inbound Enquiries

AttractorTriggers

Standardised digital nurturing engine

Added-value Response

Customer’s pain

Engagement measure

Telemktg Development

Rep

Pass to Sales

Nurture Further

Objective: Know more about the client at the end of the journey than at the beginning

Comms 1What is the issue?

Why Should you care?

Comms 2What’s YOUR Pain

Comms 3Let’s Dig Deeper

6. Automate where appropriate

Comms 1What is the issue?

Why Should you care?

Comms 2What’s YOUR Pain

Comms 3Let’s Dig Deeper

6. Example: Standardised video-lead framework for digital nurturing

7. Integrate with CRM

• Significant Customer Insight may have been developed via

– Automated Marketing System

– Other Marketing Processes (eg external Telemarketing)

• Make this visible to the sales team

1. Responses– How many named named, valid responses did marketing generate?

2. Marketing Validated Leads (MVL)– How many responses are nurtured to a level that has been mutually

agreed with sales • Separate marketing “influenced” from marketing “sourced”• Segment via Customer type (eg Core Clients, Investment Clients,

New Clients etc)

3. Sales Acceptance– Sales agreement (via SLA) to perform specific tasks with MVL

• Lead follow-up timeframe• Feedback required

– SLA defines specific reasons for rejection• Incorrect routing• Incomplete record• Doesn’t meet agreed threshold

– MVL-to-sales acceptance days – Review on regular basis via Sales/Marketing “huddle”

Source: Sirius Decisions

8. Measure key indicators

4. Sales Qualified Lead– Conversion rate of Sales Accepted lead to SQL– (Plus conversion rate of Sales Accepted to Lost)– Cumulative size of the opportunities now in pipeline

5. Closed Business– Conversion rate of SQL to closed business

9. Refine and keep learning

• Integrate with the Buying process

– Not about the selling process

• People, Process, Tools

– Cultural aspects are the most challenging (Marketing and Sales)

– Sell the vision

– Tools alone won’t fix it

• Timing

– Be selective, but relate to the bigger vision

• Stay Fresh – there’s a wealth of free insight

– Blogs

– Google AlertRSS Feeds

– Network

Getting started

• Where does it hurt most?

• What can you control?

• Appoint a leader

Thank you!

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