How Managing Leads Can Pump Up Your Pipeline. Presented By: Laura Ramos, Vice President and Principal Analyst Forrester Bill Nussey, CEO Silverpop

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1 How Managing Leads Can Pump Up Your Pipeline Presented By: Laura Ramos, Vice President and Principal Analyst Forrester Bill Nussey, CEO Silverpop January 26, 2010

2 Agenda Why Silverpop commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct this study Why managing demand is an essential marketing discipline Six lead management best practices Conclusion: Successful lead management improves marketing s standing and stature Q&A 2 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

3 Our Goals for the Study B2B marketers still struggle with lead management What causes marketers the most pain? What strategies and tactics lead to success? Guidance and recommendations from leading B2B industry analyst Laura Ramos 3 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

4 Agenda Why Silverpop commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct this study Why managing demand is an essential marketing discipline Six lead management best practices Conclusion: Successful lead management improves marketing s standing and stature Q&A 4 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

5 Leaky funnels increase acquisition costs Source: October 4, 2006, Improving B2B Lead Management report 5 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

6 Web 2.0 disenfranchises the seller 6 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

7 Social media will change B2B marketing game even more Old Market interactions based on products New Market interactions based on business outcomes Source: May 7, 2008, Community Marketing: A New Discipline For Business Technology Marketers report 7 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

8 What does this mean? Marketers must shift strategy from outbound campaigns to inbound dialogue creation Close the gap between early information gathering and product selection Manage, not just develop, demand New process, company behavior, and technology are required 8 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

9 Agenda Why Silverpop commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct this study Why managing demand is an essential marketing discipline Six lead management best practices Conclusion: Successful lead management improves marketing s standing and stature Q&A 9 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

10 How do top marketing firms manage demand? 1. Focus on process, not technology 2. Work collaboratively with sales 3. Profile customer behavior 4. Capture, score and classify leads based on facts and deeds 5. Design content that builds dialogue 6. Nurture prospects not yet ready to buy Value Process maturity 10 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

11 Demand management pays off in real benefits What benefits did you gain from marketing automation? Better leads/more robust pipeline 9 Greater visibility into marketing activity 7 Better customer insight/data 7 Efficiency 4 Improved marketing accountability 3 Source: commissioned interviews conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Silverpop, September Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Base: 15 Senior Level Marketers using lead management automation (multiple answers accepted)

12 Lead management closes up the leaky funnel Source: October 4, 2006, Best Practices Improving B2B Lead Management 12 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

13 1. Getting the process right insures success What were the key things that led to your success? Focus on process, not technology 6 Technology ease of use 5 Iterate scoring model 5 Sales alignment/pipeline visibility 5 Reporting/tracking 4 Improving data quality 4 Base: 15 Senior Level Marketers using lead management automation (multiple answers accepted) Source: commissioned interviews conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Silverpop, September Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

14 1. Focus on process improvement Define process before you look at the technology Identify gaps, set milestones Make someone s job dependent on achieving plan Select technology partner(s) last Don t assume because you ve bought automation technology that you fixed your process. Marketing Director, small software technology provider, and others Automation breeds complexity and it can t replace good marketing strategy. VP, Marketing and Strategy, business services provider 14 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

15 Ingres Best practices team of people from marketing, IT and sales defined process 1 month to launch first campaign Automated triple-touch campaign to weed out unqualified leads early Identified as qualified leads sent to sales Other sent to 18-step nurture campaign Immediately improved company s ability to efficiently handle large quantity of leads 15 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Not only does this allow us to pass better leads over to sales, but it has also made us more effective as a marketing organization overall. James Crosby Director of Operations Ingres

16 2. Lead management improves the sales interface What challenges or pain points did you need to address? Lead scoring/qualification 10 Better alignment with sales 6 Develop demand/nuture 6 Improve data quality Improve reporting Improve marketing efficiency Top pains = sales/marketing interface Improve list building/targeting 4 Source: commissioned interviews conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Silverpop, September Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Base: 15 Senior Level Marketers using lead management automation (multiple answers accepted)

17 2. Success starts with sales partnership Expect process redesign to uncover issues in sales process Foster teamwork and open communication lines with sales Marketing and sales must work from the same playbook. If sales doesn t buy-in, lead management automation will never succeed. Director of marketing, software vendor With lead management, there is no more finger pointing over leads because I can show what marketing is doing higher up in the funnel. This fundamentally changes the conversation with sales. Head of Product Marketing, software for legal discovery 17 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

18 USA Financial Sales inundated with unqualified leads Developed closed-loop plan Took process-oriented approach to better understand each marketing activity s value Incorporated database segmentation, lead qualification, lead scoring and lead nurturing Sales pipeline increased by 50% Because sales appreciates the value of the leads we are now delivering, the relationship between marketing and sales have become much more collaborative. Raeanne Thompson VP, Marketing Services USA-Financial 18 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

19 3. Profile to understand buyer behavior Source: January 2009 How To Avoid B2B Marketing Obsolescence Forrester report. 19 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

20 3. Profiling improves scoring and targeting Research customer issues, not product features What keeps them awake at night How measured and rewarded Where aspire to go next Focus on what customers do, not what they say Build and refine buyer personas 20 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

21 WorkForce Software Not enough lead profile information collected upfront Explicit & Implicit scoring Explicit: data provided by the prospect, including BANT criteria (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline) Implicit: monitoring prospect behavior Web site visits, white paper downloads, opens and clicks, etc. Sales only acts on qualified leads Now that we ve put structure around how to identify quality leads, we can segment those leads by the information gathered during the leadqualification process. Bob Gallagher VP of Marketing WorkForce Software 21 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

22 4. Numeric scores qualify prospects precisely Pop quiz: Which is the better lead? #1: Comes by your booth at a major trade show, sees a demo, chats with a rep, and drops off a card. #2: Registers for a Web seminar, attends, asks a question, but fails to click on your follow-up . #3: Visits your Web site and downloads a whitepaper. Comes back to the site on three consecutive visits within 48 hours two weeks later. #4: Referred to your sales person by someone else at the same firm, but no record of this contact in the marketing/sales systems 22 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

23 4. Tuning and testing is key to lead scoring effectiveness Numeric scoring is less subjective, more actionable 8/15 said numeric scores gave best results Flexibility to address changing market conditions Use inside sales team to tune the process rapidly 8/15 use lead scores to prioritize and balance workload We found the best way to fix lead scoring quickly was to use our inside sales team since they are the ones drinking from the lead fountain, they can tell us what works and what doesn t. Sr. VP, Strategy and Marketing, software integration firm Iteration and sales cooperation perfects lead scoring 23 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

24 EDGAR Online Generated large volume of leads needing qualification before handing to Sales Carefully defined criteria to identify quality leads High scoring leads routed to Sales, others to nurturing campaign Now identifies 5x more qualified leads than previously Close rate more than double industry average 24 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. We carefully score every single lead that comes through our online registration. As a result, the quality of those leads passed over to sales has gone up tremendously. Bill Shaughnessy Director of Online Marketing EDGAR Online

25 5. Use content to build dialogue with buyers Which channels are crucial to your marketing programs? White papers Social media Search optimization Webinars Inside sales Direct mail Web site Trade shows Syndication (other Other Base: 15 Senior Level Marketers using lead management automation (multiple answers accepted) Source: commissioned interviews conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Silverpop, September Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

26 5. Relevant content accelerates customer engagement Focus on creating relevance, not volume Segmentation + scoring = know what works Test copy/content, repurpose, syndicate Cultivate a conversational style We make our content get to the bottomline. We keep it simple, frank and easy to read. We put the answer that we think the customer wants to see up front and then substantiate our claims with facts and proof. We give the reader a reason to read further. Sr. VP, Strategy and Marketing, software integration firm Build dialogue; don t intrude 26 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

27 LeanLogistics Planned to separate itself from pack by providing quality thought leadership Sent prospects invitations to Webinars, white papers, case studies and analyst reports More relevant content led to open rates of 20-25% 400% increase in warm leads passed to Sales We decided to separate ourselves from the competition by leveraging our tremendous internal transportation expertise by positioning ourselves as industry thought leaders. Ginger Stegmier Director of Marketing LeanLogistics 27 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

28 6. Lead nurturing practices must mature How would you characterize your lead nurturing? Multi-touch communications 9 Respond to changes in behavior 7 blasts 5 Drip communication/single track Not achieving desired results Not using it/ too new to tell Complexity and lack of best practices hinder results. Base: 15 Senior Level Marketers using lead management automation (multiple answers accepted) Source: commissioned interviews conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Silverpop, September Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

29 6. Nurture prospects not yet ready to buy Nurturing resurrects the fine art of market development Start with contact data clean up Initiate a stay in touch program Invite warm prospects to express an interest Attend a webinar Register for a whitepaper or premium Create opportunities for buyers to engage with a live person 29 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

30 The Sant Corporation Entirely manual lead-nurturing program executed via spreadsheets was becoming too daunting a task Lead-nurturing campaigns include series of s with value-added information (i.e., white papers and links to articles that promote Sant s value proposition) Nurturing campaigns used to break into new vertical markets Open and click rates on nurture campaigns have tripled Before the economy took a downturn, Sales has plenty of leads. Now they understand that we need to nurture people to move them through the pipeline. Kimi Fowler Marketing Systems Manager The Sant Corporation 30 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

31 Agenda Why Silverpop commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct this study Why managing demand is an essential marketing discipline Six lead management best practices Conclusion: Successful lead management improves marketing s standing and stature Q&A 31 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

32 Marketers experience real benefits Automation gives sales greater appreciation for value of marketing 87% of the deals that we close have been nurtured extensively. Our leads are heartier, we see people move through pipeline more quickly. Marketing gains greater efficiency and control over programs We can measure much more accurately what is working in marketing programs and what is not. Bad data costs us a lot. This system has really helped to clean that up. We spend much less on useless lists and more on buying the right leads. Lead management improves marketing measurement and accountability We ve seen 4X increase in inbound demo requests, 3X increase in pipeline dollars, 2X increase in appointment-opportunity conversion. Marketing now accounts for 1/3 of all lead sources. 32 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

33 Lessons learned: start with process and planning What key lessons did you learn that you would pass onto others? Define your process, plan, execute 6 Get sales/executive buy-in 5 Practice good change management Work closely with vendor/integrator Get right fit of functionality for your needs Plan to work on data quality 3 Source: commissioned interviews conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Silverpop, September Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Base: 15 Senior Level Marketers using lead management automation (multiple answers accepted)

34 Lead management upgrades marketing s standing and business role No. 1: SEGMENTATION MARKETING SALES No. 4: NURTURING Lead management success HOT 99% COLD 10% No. 2: SCORING 34 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. No. 3: CONTENT

35 For further information, from Forrester September 22, 2009, B2B Lead Management Automation Market Overview January 15, 2009, How To Avoid B2B Marketing Obsolescence January 15, 2009, "Four Ways To Grade Lead Management Maturity" workbook. January 12, 2007, B2B Marketers Can Learn From Software Firms December 28, 2006, How Technology Improves Lead Management November 30, 2006, How Mature Is B2B Lead Management? October 4, 2006, Improving B2B Lead Management 35 Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

36 Questions? Thank you Bill Nussey Blog: Laura Ramos Blog: Entire contents 2009 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved.