April 4: Software that delivers the most data wins

April 2nd, 2013

SLMA CEO Jim Obermayer says that software programs that explain the most data, and are verified by the most evidence, are better than those that do not. He'll discuss how CRM properly applied, along with marketing automation, gives the most data on marketing performance and gives more evidence than any other combination of software. In essence, those with the most data will win. But, he says, "You have to manage the sales lead system to win."

During this program Obermayer contends that those with the most marketing toys win. But tools without leadership are just tools in the hands of fools.

About Obermayer

Obermayer is an author (four books) and a speaker on subjects of sales lead management, sales enablement and marketing ROI. He is the founder and of the world-wide 6200 member Sales Lead Management Association, which also has a Linkedin Group of 2987 members. The SLMA is the sponsor of the yearly Sales Lead Management Week, the annual contest for the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management, and the nomination and naming of the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management. The SLMA also hosts the weekly c-level interview program; SLMA Radio. Obermayer is the Vice President of Business Development at Vitech Corporation.

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Posted in CRM and Related, Sales Strategist, Current and Past Shows, Sales Lead Management | Comments |

March 28: Why Sales Forces are Moving Inside – Kevin Thornton – VanillaSoft

March 25th, 2013

Host Jim Obermayer will interview Kevin Thornton, EVP of VanillaSoft and discuss the trend (some would say tsunami) of sales departments that are moving from outside to inside positions. Thornton will debate differences in productivity, sales activities and how to measure ROI when going from outside to inside salespeople. He will tackle how to manage, motivate and control these new sales superstars. Using VOIP for the mobile workforce and the software that is more than simple CRM, Thornton will tackle how to help them manage their goals and workday.

About Kevin Thornton

As Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing for VanillaSoft, Kevin Thornton is responsible for accelerating customer and revenue growth and overseeing all new customer engagement and acquisition strategies.

Prior to joining VanillaSoft, Kevin served as Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, Americas at Corel Corporation where he was responsible for all regional sales, marketing, alliances, and business development activities. Prior to Corel, Kevin served as Senior Vice President Sales for Sage Software’s Small Business Division.

About VanillaSoft

Founded in 2005, VanillaSoft provides its global client base with award-winning, cloud-based Lead Management Software for telesales and appointment setting. VanillaSoft customers benefit from increased productivity by deploying an award-winning, Best-In-Class feature set that includes next-best-lead routing, auto-dialing, on-board intelligent messaging, integrated e-mail, real-time lead distribution, live dashboard and digital call recording.

Typical users realize a productivity increase of 30 to 100% over traditional CRM, creating an easy to justify ROI.

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Posted in CRM and Related, ROI | Comments |

March 14: Be in the Right Place at the Right Time with Prospects

March 11th, 2013

Susan Finch will interview The Vanella Group, Inc. CEO & Founder, Mari Anne Vanella about topics including “Filling in the White Space Between Conversations.” How can you recognize opportunities for a low touch dialog that is effective without pushing for a meeting or conversation the prospect isn’t ready for.

Mari Anne Vanella has over 25 years of sales and business management experience. Mari Anne’s firm, The Vanella Group, Inc. has served the B2B technology community with teleservices-based lead generation services for 13 years. Her clients list includes Hitachi, SAP, and many others. Mari Anne is an accomplished speaker, author, and thought leader in the sales and marketing domain. Her blog, Insights into Cold Calling, features content for today’s enterprise sales teams and has thousands of readers. She has spoken at Dreamforce both in 2011 and 2012, recently was featured in the 2013 WBO Sales Bootcamp as a speaker, and does a lot of work to further educate and modernize the approach companies take to long term pipeline development. Her book “42 Rules to Cold Calling Executives” has been a bestseller on Amazon for several years.

Mari Anne has been named to the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management 2011, 2012 and has been nominated in 2013 - winners yet to be announced.

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Posted in CRM and Related, Sales Skills Training, Lead Nurturing, Networking, Women and Business, Remote Relationships | Comments |

February 28: Mastering Three-Ups and One-Down

February 26th, 2013

Increasing Revenue, Productivity, Customer Satisfaction, and Decreasing Cost

Host James Obermayer interviews International C-suite Turnaround Mercenary Robert S. Murray Robert S. Murray author of "It's Already Inside", and former Vodaphone C-suite executive

Leading change is the hardest thing that a leader and executive has to do. Mostly because they are locked into left-brain thinking: spreadsheets, facts, figures, the demands of shareholders and the board. What leaders often miss is the right-brain response by the stakeholders — their emotions. In order to engage the hearts and minds of those that the change is impacting, leaders must communicate from a place of understanding for what is going through everyone's mind, then change leadership becomes easy. What follows is a simplified roll-out, wider adoption, and traction on implementation.

He is Author of the highly acclaimed book on life and leadership, It’s Already Inside. http://www.SoCalBMA.org/e-Shop. The book is getting notable praise from every level of leadership - from those just starting out in leadership roles to seasoned CEO's. It's a book that connects the left-brain world of business to the right-brain focus of employees and customers, and how today's leaders can nurture that.

About Robert S. Murray

ROBERT S. MURRAY is a passionate storyteller and leadership mentor, bringing more than twenty years of Senior Executive Business experience with Fortune 100 and small start-up organizations in Marketing, Sales, Operations, Business Development, and General Management in over 20 countries. As Chief Customer Operations Officer for Vodafone, Bob headed-up the complete consumer and business customer service organization serving over 9.2 million customers generating over $1.6 Billion in revenue. He lead the company to achieving the highest customer satisfaction rating, highest customer to FTE ratio, lowest “Bad Debt” and lowest customer churn rating in all of the 61 Vodafone operating and partner countries as well as the third lowest cost to serve. Bob developed and executed on Operational Efficiency Program that reduced OpEx by 20% while improving service levels, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

Along the way, Bob has been the recipient of two New York Festival Awards and one Summit Award (Portland, Oregon) for Marketing Innovation Excellence. His current daily tasks include his role as Chairman of The GrowthPoint Group, a collection of the finest business minds to be found; Advisory Board Member for ElementFour, an innovative company that has developed technology to produce pure drinking water out of atmospheric air; Board Director for Russell Breweries, a Canadian Craft Beer producer; Associate Professor at the Sauder School of Business and the BCIT School of Business; Executive Advisor and Strategic Facilitator to many companies; and an international Keynote Speaker on leadership and business.

Robert S. Murray received his diploma in Marketing Management from British Columbia Institute of Technology; studied Sales Management at The University of British Columbia; Executive Finance at Queens University; and Advanced Services Marketing at Babson College. He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Posted in CRM and Related, Sales Strategist, Sales Skills Training | Comments |

June 28: Anderson Crosby of Relecom, Inc. talks about reporting tools

June 25th, 2012

SLMA Radio interviews Anderson Crosby president of Relecom, Inc. Host James Obermayer asks Anderson why he developed a reporting tool when so many are available within CRM and Marketing Automation programs. Who uses the tool more, advertisers, agencies or publishers? How easy is to use? What is the cost? What is the benefit of the benefit when using Relecom reporting?

More about Anderson Crosby, President, Relecom, Inc.:

Anderson is a recognized expert in Digital Marketing Metrics and an active speaker at marketing events on topics ranging from Digital Marketing Best Practices to Measurement and Metrics. He has developed award-winning integrated marketing programs for multiple fortune 500 companies.

He founded Relecom to address the market need of understanding and managing overwhelming digital data and developed a marketing measurement and decision system to turn data into decisions.

Anderson holds a BS in Advertising from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from the University of California, Irvine.

Relecom provides an independent marketing measurement and decision system. By collecting key information from across multiple communication channels, Relecom presents valuable performance scores, rankings and alerts so marketers can monitor the effectiveness of their marketing activities. They focus on decisions not data and provide timely actionable information for management decisions that impact your business. Overview video

Anderson has spoken at a variety of local and national events: • San Diego AMA- Metrics Matter: Moving Beyond the Click-Through Rate (May 2010) • Orange County AMA • Frost & Sullivan Marketing World Events • Los Angeles Direct Marketing Association • University of California Irvine • California Poly • Digital Media Center

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Best of SLMA Radio: Jeanne Hopkins of HubSpot

May 3rd, 2012

The Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) weekly internet radio program, broadcast live at 5 PM PST each Thursday, announced he will interview Jeanne Hopkins of HubSpot on January 19th as the show’s 100th guest. Jeanne Hopkins is HubSpot’s Vice President of Marketing. Guests on the SLMA Radio Hour are CEOs and CMOs from CRM software, marketing automation software, lead generation and other sales lead management firms, as well as CMOs in B2B and B2C companies.

Will Crist said that Jeanne runs the demand generation and lead conversion efforts for internet marketing software company HubSpot. Her previous experience includes serving as chief marketing officer for MarketingExperiments, MarketingSherpa and InTouch, three leading marketing research and publishing organizations that serve the B2B and B2C markets; and senior director of marketing programs and communications at Symmetricom. In addition, Jeanne has over 20 years of senior-level management experience with B2B and B2C companies leading their sales and marketing teams.

The SLMA internet radio program can be reached via the SLMA website: http://www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/. Click on the SLMA Radio logo on the left, and then the “listen live” button. Archived programs of 99 CEOs/CMOs from companies in the sales lead management field are available. SLMA radio shows can also be subscribed to via iTunes.

About the Sales Lead Management Association The Sales Lead Management Association was founded in 2007. Membership is free. The association serves 4,250 members of the worldwide sales lead management community.

In 2011, SLMA’s site received more than 146,677 total visitors. A privately held organization, SLMA has a diversified business model with revenues coming from sponsors, display advertising, SLMA Radio, sponsored video webinars, newsletter advertising, sponsored cartoons, industry leader links, a speaker’s directory, case studies and a blog, Sales Lead Management Today.

SLMA featured programs include more than 300 articles and whitepapers, the “50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management” (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), the SLMA “20 Women to Watch in 2011” and “Sales Lead Management Week” (Oct. 15 through 19 in 2012).

For additional information, visit the SLMA.

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Media Contact: Sue Campanale 714-637-6989 scampanale@salesleadmgmtassn.com www.salesleadmanagementweek.com

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Posted in Uncategorized, CRM and Related, Marketing Automation, Marketing & Media | Comments |

March 8: Dan Rogers CEO of SmartLead

March 5th, 2012

SLMA Radio interviews Dan Rogers of SmartLead. Will Crist the host will ask about Dan to explain:

What do you mean when you make the claim you offer software with a service?
What is personalized software capability?
Please describe what you mean by “complex lead distribution.”
Account management and customer service are an issue with the big CRM companies, why is SmartLead different?
Can you define sales lead nurturing SmartLead style?

Dan Rogers drives the company’s vision. With more than 22 years of executive experience, Dan’s leadership expertise includes international assignments. In New Zealand, he was a charter member of the CLEAR Communications management team. In Ireland, Dan served as the Director of General Operations at East Telecom. And in the Netherlands, he worked for Versatel Telecommunications. Prior to joining SmartLead, he also served as Vice President of Customer Solutions for APAC Customer Services and Vice President of Customer Services at Telecom USA in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Dan is also a member of the Sales Lead Management Association’s Advisory Board. Dan’s state appointments include the Iowa Capital Investment Board and the Iowa Emergency Response Commission. He holds a Bachelors Degree from the University of Iowa.

Since 1981, companies have relied on SmartLead’s customized lead management systems and best practices to smoothly and seamlessly manage leads from the moment the leads are generated, through qualification, ranking, nurturing and distribution to sales people or channel partners.

About SmartLead

SmartLead is the only full-service lead management company with:

Dedicated account managers to advise clients on best practices and implement their programs
Web-based lead management, sales force automation systems
Insightful analytics system
In-house marketing services: contact center, direct mail, email, printing, web hosting, and fulfillment/warehouse.

Large companies with complex sales or dealer distribution systems rely on SmartLead to simplify the Herculean task of managing thousands of leads from multiple sources. SmartLead smoothly and seamlessly manages the lead process from the moment the leads are generated until the leads are qualified and distributed to sales people or channel partners.

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Feb 9: Kevin Miller CMO and Principle - SalesFUSION

February 6th, 2012

Kevin has over 17 years of database marketing, CRM and software marketing & sales experience. Kevin has worked in both sales and marketing capacities and spent 7 years supporting large-scale retail marketing promotions for companies like Sony, Discovery Channel, Toyota and Guinness. He has worked closely with agencies such as Bozell, JWT and Grey Direct.

In addition to marketing/promotion work, Kevin spent several years with Onyx Software, an enterprise CRM application. From Onyx, Kevin moved into a key role with NuEdge System, Inc, an enterprise database marketing solution used by Sears, Bridgestone and Saks. NuEdge was acquired by Metavante Corp. and Kevin stayed on working with the database marketing software and CRM application for retail financial services.

From here, Kevin moved into the B2B Demand generation ranks with Marketbright and played a key role in developing their demand generation programs, webinars and sales training. In January, 2009, Kevin joined SalesFUSION and has taken over Marketing and Sales management duties and works to establish the brand of SalesFUSION in the market. Kevin brings years of extensive marketing and technology sales experience to SalesFUSION and drives the overall messaging and B2B marketing philosophy of the company to market.

Miller holds a BS Marketing and BS Psychology from Albright College in Reading, PA

Kevin is very active in many LinkedIn groups and regularly authors white papers, articles and blogs. Kevin is an open networker on LinkedIn.

Will Crist the host will ask Kevin:

You make the claim you can generate more leads that turn into revenue. How do you do that?
What is the cost of using your platform?
How long does it take to get up and running with SalesFUSION?
Do you think B2B spending will increase or decrease in 2012?
Can you give three tips to a B2B company that creates 1,000 inquiries a month, uses a CRM system but sales are declining?

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Posted in CRM and Related, Database Management, Marketing & Media | Comments |

Feb Shows: Shawn Naggiar, Kevin Miller, Jeff Pedowitz, Debbie Qaqish and Paul Mosenson

February 1st, 2012

The Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) weekly radio program (broadcast live at 5 PM PST each Thursday), announced the line-up for February’s SLMA Radio Programs. He will interview Shawn Naggiar CRO of Act-On Software on Feb 2nd, Kevin Miller CMO and Principle of SalesFUSION on February 9th, Jeff Pedowitz and Debbie Qaqish of the Pedowitz Group on Feb 15th and Paul Mosenson President of NuSpark Marketing on Feb 23rd. Read the rest of this entry »