I am speaking of the email blast or direct mail piece that is one-size fits all.
Or the telesales call that is the same for every conversation and simply asks: are you buying?

Buyers react negatively not because lead generation and outbound marketing interrupts their day but because the message is not appropriate and brings no value.

A relevant and timely message will override concerns on privacy and interruption.

Here are some approaches for customizing messaging or honing target segments even if you may not have full visibility on the prospect:

• Target prospects who look and feel like your best customers;
• Talk about your customers that are in the same segment as your prospect: size of account, industry, geography or accounts held by a competitor.  Note how pain points were addressed and impact achieved.  Everybody loves a good story;  
• Use the language of your buyer and explain your value proposition using their words;
• Target prospects who are flagged based on buying triggers such as office moves, executive changes, corporate expansion / contraction or weak competitors.

With these points in mind, the buyer is much more likely to be receptive to responding.  Try testing different messages and see which brings the best results for your lead generation.

Related Posts
The Moment of Truth for Sales
Selling to the Digital B2B Buyer
Destructive B2B Sales Practices
Insights on the Outbound Renaissance

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On a broader scale, language defines who we are, what groups we belong to and our culture.   

In Quebec, almost 50 years ago, the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF -  Quebec Board of the French Language) was established to ensure that French would be the primary language in the province of Quebec assuring the rights and identity of the French-speaking majority.

Supposedly first dubbed  ’The Language Police’ by the TV show 60 minutes, the OQLF accepts language complaints filed by Quebec citizens.     Although having no police powers, the OQLF can fine or even shut down an offending business.

Do we need language police in our world of B2B sales & marketing?

The ancient Greeks used the word bárbaros to describe foreigners as ‘those who babble’  (hence the word ‘barbarian’)

Perhaps this is an early example of mis-aligment between sales and marketing.   Could it be that ancient Greek salespeople referred to their marketing colleagues as bárbaros?  

Whatever the case, we continue to face basic issues in B2B sales and marketing.

The core concept of the definition of a sales lead and its workflow is the subject of endless debate and lack of clarity within B2B organizations.

The sales lead is the currency upon which sales and marketing transact their business.     If sales does not agree with marketing on the definition of a sales lead or their role in the lead lifecycle, then marketing’s efforts are futile.     This is akin to doing business between sales and marketing but in different currencies.

The agreement between sales and marketing acts as the catalyst for sales effort.

I propose that it is not the definition of the lead that matters but rather that sales and marketing agree on that definition.    

So here is my definition of a lead that provides any sales and marketing organization with a base to work from: 

The Sales Lead: A defined prospect to be engaged by Sales.  

Implied in this simple definition:

1. A sales lead is defined and agreed upon between sales and marketing and
2. Sales agrees to follow-up on such prospects in a consistent way.    

This approach provides the flexibility that is often needed.    Depending on buying behavior and selling processes, organizations may categorize a lead as an inquiry, an appointment or a qualified lead.   As time moves on, this definition can evolve.

If we can’t get consensus on something as simple and vital as a sales lead, then we should summon the language police.   As B2B organizations we have lost our way and our identity.

Related Blog Posts
An Identity Crisis for the Sales Lead
Sales Leads vs. Appointments
10 Signs that Sales & Marketing are Mis-Aligned

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Buyers who are at ease in researching, communicating, collaborating and buying on the internet are choosing to do business differently.  

And I am not referring to the ‘Lost Generation’: those dying breed of executives who ask their executive assistants to print out their emails.  

In a recent blog post, Steve Woods notes that:   

As the emphasis on face-to-face interaction as a way to build trust decreases in lieu of other ways of building trust, the need to be “in the field” also decreases.  

With the recession, corporations are pressured to cut sales costs.  Steve Woods cites a stellar blog post from David Skok that compares the relative efficiency of different B2B selling models.  

But if B2B sales teams reduce the amount of face-to-face selling time in favor of more efficient sales models using the web and telephone, will B2B buyers be receptive?  

In fact, B2B buyers have been driving this change for some time and the pace is accelerating:  

1. The buying process starts online and so do sales meetings -  Given that most buying is initiated with online search, buyers are naturally becoming more accepting of interactions with sales via web conference, email and online chat.   These buyers expect a fast response from an informed sales rep and will not wait for the time it takes to schedule an in-person meeting.
2. The digital buyer prefers data to voice -   The social B2B buyer is more than likely on Facebook at home and at work,  on email and LinkedIn.  The buyer favors producing content that  is written (data) and not spoken (voice).  This week Facebook announced that  it has reached 500 million users. LinkedIn has over 70 million members worldwide.  Not only is this communication data-driven but it is now mostly mobile: mobile data eclipsed voice traffic in December 2009.
3. The buyer is not at the office – How you can you meet face-to-face when your prospect is not at the office?    The B2B buyer’s office is often in motion (e.g. plane, trains & automobiles) or a home office.    The door to your customer is opened through their mobile device and not a fixed position PC.
4. The buyer is time-starved – Buyers face inordinate demands on their time.  Meeting face-to-face is becoming less frequent due to jam-packed schedules.   The Corporate Leadership Councial found that the “average ‘job footprint’ (what a worker is expected to do) has increased by a third since the beginning of the recession” (see the Economist for more details).   In  the new book “Snap Selling“, Jill Konrath diagnoses the buyer as suffering from:    Frazzled Customer Syndrome, a debilitating condition brought on by excessive workloads, 24/7 availability, information overload, lack of sleep, and job-related stress.
5. The World (of Buyers) is Flat – Evaluation teams are dispersed across the country and even around the world.     Meeting face-to-face with all team members is not a possibility given the dispersed nature of buying teams.

Do you sense that buyers are less reluctant to meet in-person?   What are you seeing out there in the market? 

Related Posts By Robert Lesser 
Destructive B2B Sales Practices 
The Buyer is Alway’s Right. (Not!) 
Use Outbound Marketing to Target these 5 Buyer Types

New research from McKinsey & Company identifies destructive sales practices and prioritizes what customers want from B2B sales organizations.

The research is focused on end users and is statistically significant: McKinsey interviewed 1,252 purchasing decision-makers of high tech products and services at small, medium and large business in  the US and Western Europe. 

Research on end users and on this scale is relatively rare in the B2B world.   

Here are some of the key research findings from McKinsey:

1. The buyer’s experience with sales and product or service features were the most important factors in a purchase decison – not price.        (All the more interesting given that the survey was conducted during the recession).
2. A high performance sales force can boost share of customer by an average of 8 to 15 percent.
3. The two most destructive sales behaviors were inadequate product knowledge and excessive customer contact.

In my mind, there are a number of considerations for a B2B sales organization:

1. Quantifying the Impact - For a sales organization to change, the impact from poor sales practices will need to be defined.    The impact of an 8 to 15 percent customer share increase (per McKinsey) is substantial, especially for high ticket, complex B2B solutions.     Prospect and customer surveys (e.g. Win/Loss) on their sales experience can be used to quantify the impact of the sales experience.
2. Better Sales Training - Training on solution knowledge and how best to engage customers are two key training areas for sales.    McKinsey calls for a centralization of content development and creation of compelling value propositions.    This seems to be a call for marketing and sales to align their efforts better on messaging.   Rather than grand training programs, it’s interesting that McKinsey calls for experiential training and on-the-job training.
3. Raising the Bar on Sales Personnel -  Customers are empowered by online information sources and social networks.      Knowledgeable sales reps who bring a consultative approach and value to customers are a much better fit to today’s customer.      This heightened requirement should help to raise the bar on the calibre of B2B salespeople.
4. Innovative Sales Methods & Tools - Innovative approaches to sales and lead generation enable sales to be smarter and faster.     Done right, sales can be more proactive and more meaningful in touching customers.    The risk is that customer concerns on the frequency of contact could increase should sales not add value or act smarter with that contact.

There are a number of events that could perpetuate rather than reduce destructive sales practices:

1. The Sales Funding Squeeze- According to IDC’s Tech Barometer, in 2010 investment in sales will again outstrip IT investment.    This gap between revenue and costs will pressure sales organizations to scrutinize training expenditures.   
2. Unrealistic Quotas- some of the comments on the McKinsey research pointed out that unrealistic quotas and short term horizons create destructive B2B Sales Practices.   According to CSO Insights, in 2010 sales quotas continue to rise even though attainment of quota was lower in 2008 versus the prior year and sales resources are less.
3. Tech Mergers & Acquisitions - In Q1 2010, $68.8 billion of tech deals were announced versus $19.2 billion for the period a year earlier (source: Reuters).      More sales forces will be merged and rationalized consuming resources and creating distraction .      A recovering economy will create more opportunities for salespeople.   In this environment, sales education will be adversely impacted.

Comments Are Welcome

Are we on the path to resolving destructive sales behaviors?     What action will it take to be successful?

Resources

Blog Post on the Sales Renaissance
Webinar on the Sales Renaissance featuring LivePerson, Ariba and TriNet

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Hastening this rebirth are pressures from dissatisfied buyers, a growing imbalance between spending on sales efforts and buyer’s budgets and scrutiny of return on marketing spend.

What to do?  

The answer:  Innovate to improve the buyer experience and enhance outbound productivity.

Organizations such as Ariba, LivePerson and TriNet are reinventing their go-to-market and sales strategies through innovative approaches to outbound demand generation.

• Ariba radically changed their approach to event recruitment with startling results by using social networks and a sales intelligence solution.
• LivePerson bolstered the outbound productivity of their enterprise sales team with a new telesales enablement solution.
• TriNet increased sales productivity and expanded into new geographies more profitably with accelerated customer acquisition rates with a sales intelligence solution.

I reviewed these outbound success stories on our webinar on April 13.   Couldn’t attend?  No problem, go ahead and view the webcast here (no registration required).

The significance of the outbound renaissance on B2B sales & marketing is profound as these innovative approaches drive organizational change:

• Sales Six Sigma – Once the domain of manufacturing and other back office functions, organizations like TriNet are ‘ripping apart and putting back together’ sales processes.     To drive scalable and profitable growth, sales and marketing teams through their operations teams, are taking rigorous, analytical methods to improve their business models.
• Front End Loading of Talent – Enabled by intelligence and productivity tools, sales can now afford to position higher skill set and even subject matter experts at the top of the sales funnel and at the first touch with the prospect.     Ariba now engages sales reps to precisely target prospects in event recruitment programs.    In the past, the first touch would come from marketing and not sales.    
• Hybrid Roles Align Sales & Marketing – Marketing operations collaborating on sales process.   Field marketing reporting to sales management.    Inside sales reps recruiting prospects for events.   These cross-over and hybrid roles are driving alignment between sales and marketing.
• The Democratization of Sales Intelligence – Once the preserve of senior management or analysts, business intelligence is speading out to the far reaches of the organization.    At TriNet, front line sales reps are enabled to engage CXO level decision-makers at small businesses in timely, relevant and meaningful messages.     Prior to enabling solutions such as InsideView, only enterprise sales reps would be able to profitably leverage sales intelligence gathered from disparate sources.
• Sales Labor Arbitrage -  The first human touch between the seller and buyer cannot be automated, only outsourced.   At least, that was the approach before new solutions like ConnectAndSell.   Now the low skill set dialing can be outsourced and the high skill set discussion with the prospect is conducted internally.      In the past, LivePerson outsourced appointment setting.  Now LivePerson’s enterprise sales team sets their own appointments. (Full disclosure: my organization, Direct Impact Marketing is a ConnectAndSell solution provider partner).