Friday, August 26, 2011

Do Your Sales People Need Fewer Leads?





If your sales team (including dealers) is missing revenue targets, their first impulse might be to cry out, "We just need more leads." After all, it's logical that more leads will generate more opportunities and more sales.

It reality, just the opposite turns out be true.

A sales paradox is at work here because reps actually need fewer sales leads -- or, more accurately, fewer raw, unfiltered, unqualified leads from marketing. Drowning your sales reps in more leads, especially those of poor quality, can simply make things worse.

Standard lead generation's focus on quantity floods the pipeline with far too many low-value leads that don't deliver sales and marketing ROI. Qualifying criteria are rarely met due to lack of marketing resources.

It's no surprise that many recent surveys of sales reps report that an overwhelming majority of marketing-generated leads are not being pursued because their quality is perceived to be poor. Rep calendars are cluttered with unqualified meetings; ultimately, money is being wasted on lead-generation programs that simply don't work.

Sales teams need qualified leads that have been carefully and consistently nurtured, as well as appropriately developed into high-value, sales-ready opportunities. Reps can then invest their time more effectively on the most likely buyers.

Source: Dan McDade

Next time: Attributes of a well-qualified lead.




Wednesday, August 24, 2011

How To Improve Offers (Calls To Action)



Last of a three-part series...

1. Make sure your offers are compelling. Your offer should answer the question: "What's in it for me." Things like pricing brochures, specs, and self-promotional videos are not compelling offers because they do not answer that question. Informational items like whitepapers, guides, and webinars are compelling.

2. Link back to your site in your offer. Although lead nurturing is a very powerful tool, provide a way for your leads to find you again besides through email. If they enjoyed your whitepaper, make it easy for them to remember where they got this valuable information by linking to your site on the cover page.

3. Create offers for every stage of the buying cycle. Just like your forms might vary for each phase of the buying cycle, your offers should as well. Someone at the top of the buying cycle may be more interested in an informational piece like a guide, whereas someone more committed at the bottom of the cycle might be more interested in a free trial or demo. You don't need to pick and choose. Create offers for each phase, and include a primary or secondary call to action to these various pages throughout your site.

Friday, August 19, 2011

How To Improve Landing Pages


1. Match the headline of the landing page to the corresponding call to action. Keep the messaging consistent on both your CTA and the headline of the landing page. If people click a link for a free offer and then find out there's a catch on the landing page, you'll instantly lose their trust. Similarly, if the headline reads differently than the CTA, it might lead to confusion., and the user might wonder if the CTA linked to a wrong page.

2. Be clear about what you're offering. This is the most common mistake with landing pages. People often try to be too clever or witty with the headline...and the offer isn't clear. Again, if you're givng away a free whitepaper, say "Download our FREE Whitepaer for Improving X." Plain and simple.

3. Improve the positioning above the form. Just like you want to have your call to action above the fold, it's ideal for this form to be above the fold as well. This way, there can't be any confusion as to what's expected from the visitor on this page. They simply need to fill out the form to get what you're offering.

4. Keep the text concise and easy to scan. Be brief and to the point. It's the offer where you give the prospect more information. In addition to your headline, have a brief paragraph explaining the offer followed by a few bullet points outlining what the offer consists of to include the benefits.

5. Remove links and navigation to maintain focus. When a prospect reaches your landing page, you're just a few keystrokes away from getting their contact information. So don't distract them with links that we'll take them further away from your goal to get a lead.

Next time: How to improve offers.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Increase Sales and Lead Generation




Six ways follow to increase website conversions, not only to the point of becoming a lead, but to the point of becoming a qualified lead.

How to improve your calls-to-action:

1. Calls-to-action do best "above the fold" - the space of your webpage viewable to the user without having to scroll down. According the heat map analysis, "below the fold" will only be viewed by 50% of the people who view your page.

2. Be crystal clear about what the offer is in your CTA...and be specific. If you're giving away a free whitepaper, say "Download our FREE whitepaper for X." If you're hosting a free webinar, say,, "Register for our FREE webinar on X." X should convey a compelling benefit of receiving the offer. This is much more effective than "Download Now" or "Get a Free Whitepaper."

3. Use images rather than text so it stands out. Images stand out on a webpage more than text...and get a lot more attention. Additionally, using an image will allow you to show off an offer in a way you can't necessarily convey using text alone.

4. Make your CTA a hyperlink to the corresponding landing page. Whether intentional or a matter of forgetfulness, the lack of a link will make it harder for visitors to find out how to get the offer. Instead, they'll likely give up. Double and triple check to make sure all of your CTAs link to their corresponding landing pages.

5. Place CTAs on the most relevant pages. CTA's shouldn't be one size fits all. If your company offers various products or services, you may want to consider creating a different offer for each. Then you can place CTAs linking to each offer on the website pages that are most relevant to the offer.

6. Finally, add CTAs to each blog post. Whenever you create a new blog content, choose an offer that's the most relevant to that blog post. Then add a call-to-action to the bottom of that blog post linking to the landing page for that offer.

Next time: How to improve landing pages.

MY OBJECTIVE:

To share common sense lessons learned with 40-plus years experience in marketing, sales and as a B2B publisher.

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