What works when selling to marketers

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1 What works when selling to marketers Lead generation best practices for marketing technology and services vendors A noisy, cluttered marketplace makes it difficult for marketing technology vendors to find the right tactics and messages that will get noticed by marketers. However, traditional lead generation practices are very successful in reaching this target. appointments set with marketers Other professionals appointments set after following up on no interest response phone call Appointment per lead Outbound calls response 14 via 31 set in first call appointments 11 1 call Follow up or call MON TUE WED THU FRI Appointments set by day calls 3 calls 5 12 Midweek/Midday most productive 6 2 calls 30 All Industries Marketers 5 10 Marketers are 8-30 more receptive to lead generation efforts 25 more Appointments set by time (Eastern time zone) Data is based on a study by LeadJen of lead generation campaigns targeting lists of marketers over a three and a half year period, from These records included 1.45 million outreach attempts, included more than 20,000 conversations with marketing professionals, and generated 830 appointments resulting in nearly $4.8 million in revenue generated. LeadJen 11 W. 96th Street, Suite 250, Indianapolis, IN leadjen.com

2 What works when selling to marketers Lead generation best practices for marketing technology and services vendors One of the most successful marketers of all time, P. T. Barnum was innovative not only in his ideas, but also in how he promoted those ideas. The businessman and founder of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was famous for noting that without promotion, something terrible happens...nothing! Yet, even a visionary like P. T. Barnum would be amazed at the changes taking place today in marketing. What once was the practice of trying to get as many people as possible to purchase a product or service, today is a targeted consumer-driven process that requires marketers to reach potential customers with the right information at the moment they are making a buying decision. Fueling this process and adding to its complexity is a constantly changing technology landscape. Less than two decades after Newsweek published an article titled The Internet? Bah!, online marketing is a crucial component of most marketing plans. To understand how quickly technology is changing, consider that just 10 years ago social media platforms Facebook and Twitter were not even around. Today, more than a billion people have Facebook accounts and Twitter boasts more than 500 million registered users. To keep pace, a growing crop of tools has been introduced to marketers, including CRM, data analytics, content marketing, marketing and search optimization, to name just a few. technology providers are tasked with breaking through all the clutter and reaching marketers with tactics and messages that will get noticed. It may be surprising, then, that traditional lead generation practices are very successful in reaching this target. Marketers are more receptive than many professionals to lead generation efforts Appointment per lead Appointments per account All industries: All industries: That s where this white paper comes in. LeadJen, a B2B lead generation company, studied how marketers respond to appointment setting tactics, and has developed best practices for selling to marketing professionals. The study found that: Marketers are 25 percent more receptive to lead generation efforts than most professionals. Certain lead generation efforts are very effective in reaching marketers and driving sales revenue. Marketers consume information uniquely and have preferences in how they respond. This white paper will discuss the findings of the LeadJen study and offer best practices for selling to marketing professionals.

3 Study Methodology LeadJen reviewed records for lead generation campaigns targeting lists of marketers over a three and a half year period, from These records included 1.45 million outreach attempts, including both phone calls and s. The campaigns included more than 20,000 conversations with marketing professionals, and generated 830 appointments resulting in nearly $4.8 million in revenue generated. Key Findings Marketers are more likely to respond to lead generation efforts than other professionals. In this study, the average connect rate for lead generation efforts directed to marketing professionals was percent. That s 8-30 percent higher on average than other professions. This willingness to respond may be due to marketers unique understanding of what goes into a campaign. Since marketers design lead generation programs, and are used to being marketed to themselves, they are more likely to respond. is particularly effective in reaching marketers. A common lead generation practice is to continue calling targets until reaching a point of diminishing returns. While every industry is different, a rule of thumb is no more than eight calls. 53 Outbound calls Follow up phone call or call Who responds to lead generation campaigns? Marketers Other professions This doesn t mean that marketing professionals are necessarily easier to reach by phone. What it does show is that marketing professionals who are not reached live by phone are more willing to respond either to an or by calling back when a voice message is left. However, when targeting marketers, is a particularly effective tactic, resulting in a whopping 20 percent of appointments set with marketers. When targeting marketers, a good practice is to start with a maximum of three and call combinations. Appointments typically are set with the first call and combination, and then drop off significantly. Making more than three phone calls isn t productive with marketers.

4 Marketers are quick to say no. Professional persistence is important. Because of the growing market for technology solutions aimed at marketers, marketers tend to get a lot of phone calls. A by-product of this is a tendency to quickly brush off the caller. We call these hasty nos because the marketer may not even completely understand the option they ve discarded. However, lead generation campaigns that are professionally persistent pay off with sales down the road call Lead generation campaigns that follow up a hasty no response with an often can snag an appointment. In the study, percent of all appointments set came from an sent to a target after a hasty no response calls 3 calls 4-6 calls 34 Follow up response call/ That percent translates to almost $700,000 in revenue. Follow up s work because they give the prospect more time to think about the message. Setting up a template saves sales reps time and makes this extra step highly profitable. If after sending a follow up the prospect doesn t respond, it s a good practice to keep the name on your list but to focus time and energy on other targets. These names can be retargeted with another campaign using any additional information callers have been able to discover to help make the next campaign more targeted. Messaging is critical to break through the noise. When a marketer receives a sales call or , they tend to break them into categories: technology, public relations, promotional companies, etc. If they don t have a need based on one of these categories, the solicitation is quickly discarded. Messaging is critical to making a phone call or stand out. A good message will show that you understand the prospect s business; have insight into the companies, brands and technologies they already work with; and will demonstrate how your company complements or compares to these companies. Some of the most successful messages position against other brands without necessarily selling against those brands. For example, a marketing technology company can reference an industry leader, such as Salesforce. com, to demonstrate how the technologies can work together. The assumptive statement is a jumping off point for a conversation, even if the prospect doesn t use Salesforce.com, and gives the sales rep an opportunity to gather even more intelligence about the prospect for future campaigns.

5 Sample calling script: We work with marketing executives in organizations that use Salesforce.com and are being challenged by sales management to improve rep adoption and gain better insight into prospecting activity. With our solution, marketers can answer what is or isn t working with prospect lists, messaging, calling cadence and rep performance increasing productivity by over 50 and improving conversion by 20. Midweek, midday is the sweet spot. The day and time that lead generation efforts are conducted can play a significant role in the success of the campaign. While it s always best to test to determine the best day and time to reach prospects, our study provides some insight. Summary Marketers are challenged more than ever to keep up with changes in the industry, which can present both challenges and opportunities to lead generation campaigns. While marketers are looking for solutions to help them perform their jobs better, getting through to them can be difficult. Understanding the best ways to reach marketers can significantly increase the success of a lead generation campaign. Appointments set by day Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday The best day to set an appointment with a marketer is Tuesday; the worst is Friday. This makes sense when considering that Fridays and Mondays frequently are part of long weekends, and Mondays often are the days that marketing teams meet to plan their week The best time to set an appointment is 2-3 pm Eastern, which brackets the lunch hour in all U.S. time zones. executives are more likely to be at their desks catching up on and social media before or just after their lunch break. The worst times to call are before 9 am and after 5 pm Eastern Appointments set by time (Eastern time zone) Across the globe, LeadJen has developed partnerships and supplied services that increase sales growth through database building, marketing campaigns and appointment setting. These advances enable any company in any industry to improve marketing campaigns and grow sales revenue. LeadJen is consistently blazing past phenomenal benchmarks of appointment generation and pipeline growth. Contact LeadJen 11 West 96th Street, Suite 250, Indianapolis, IN Phone: (877) LeadJen LeadJen.com