About  Tom Judge

Tom Judge is the VP of Strategy and Business Development at Direct Marketing Partners. An ECHO award winning B2B Demand Generation and Lead Management services provider.

He’s responsible for diagnosing and fixing B2B sales lead funnel problems. Tom also   on the board of the Northern California DMA, runs the NorCal BMA Sales Lead Roundtable, and teaches workshops on Lead Management best practices at events and conferences. He is a member of the Sales Lead Management Association’s list of “50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professionals”.

Contact info: Tom Judge VP Strategy Direct Marketing Partners, Inc. tjudge@dirmkt.com 510-368-7527

About Direct Marketing Partners:

Direct Marketing Partners (DMP), is a prospect development demand generation service provider for B2B selling firms with a complex sales process. DMP provides a suite of services and software tools in three major areas so client firms can focus on sales –ready lead pipelines.

1. Diagnosing lead-to-sales funnel problems.
2. Solving those with custom go-to-market programs. Ranging from prospect database building, inbound lead qualification and nurturing, outbound target account lead generation tele-prospecting and appointment setting.
3. Campaign management, lead management and analytics.

www.directmarketingpartners.com

Host Jim Obermayer interviews Jeanne Hopkins CMO of SmartBear on this volatile topic.    In this fast paced interview, they discuss why creative right brained marketers must become more analytical and left brained in their approach to marketing metrics and measuring the ROI for their programs.    Jeanne says marketers have to leave the arts and crafts mentality and realize that marketing has to produce measurable sales or creativity is next to useless.

About Jeanne Hopkins

Hopkins comes to SmartBear from HubSpot, a marketing software leader and pioneer in inbound marketing, where she was vice president of marketing. Her marketing leadership helped HubSpot become the second-fastest growing software company in the Inc. 500 by generating 45,000 new leads each month. Hopkins previously was CMO of MEC Labs, owner of MarketingSherpa, MarketingExperiments, and InTouch, and senior director, marketing programs & communications, for Symmetricon, a leader in precision time and frequency technologies.

Hopkins, a firm believer in the top-of-the-funnel lead-generation capabilities of inbound marketing, is coauthor of the book Go Mobile, a step-by-step introductory look at starting mobile marketing efforts that has been the #1 best-selling mobile marketing book on Amazon.com. She is also one of the top 10 Sales Lead Management professionals for 2011.

Join host, Jim Obermayer as he and Ellie tackle one of her pet peeves. This is a topic she’s passionate about - purchasing email marketing lists. Just don’t do it.

About Ellie Miram:

Being a marketing manager in an organization that generates more than 80,000 leads per month is a significant job for anyone, but Ellie Mirman, who leads the marketing for the medium-sized business market at HubSpot, makes it look easy. From creating remarkable content to educate leads and customers alike to innovative workflows that nurture leads through the funnel, Ellie is a master at both the art and the science of sales lead management, and has developed many of the best practices we leverage organization-wide here at HubSpot.

Ellie launched the email marketing program at HubSpot, growing it into the largest lead generation channel in the company, and also started the HubSpot webinar series, pioneered new customer research and feedback channels, and collaborates with the product, sales, and marketing teams on a daily basis to attract, convert, close and delight visitors, leads, and eventually customers.

Ellie is a thought leader in inbound marketing and an expert in funnel management. Of her expertise, HubSpot Marketing Director Kipp Bodnar notes, “Ellie is the ideal marketer. Her decisions are rooted in data and made in conjunction with her sales director to ensure fluid transitions of leads between marketing and sales. Her marketing is revenue-focused: instead of points for lead scoring purposes she assigns projected revenue values to each lead and leverages these values in her lead management rules.”

Ellie Miram has been named one of the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management for 2013.

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

With over 18 years of experience working with Fortune 500 marketing teams, Anderson has developed and managed direct and digital marketing strategies and programs.

Anderson is a recognized expert in Digital Marketing Metrics and an active speaker at trade show events on topics ranging from Digital Marketing Best Practices to Digital Marketing Metrics. His work has been featured in BrandWeek and Communications World, and his work has also won various industry awards including the DMA International ECHO Award, MarCom Creative Award, and the Web Marketing Association’s Website Award.

About Relecom:

Relecom provides digital marketing measurement services to advertisers, agencies, and publishers. Their online reporting system provides an independent, real-time view of your marketing activities throughout a variety of digital channels. Actionable information is provided to you in up to daily reports, allowing you to spend your marketing dollars wisely.

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

Sparking debate and fostering the next generation of professional women through advocacy, mentorship and business moxie is what Juliana Lukasik can bring to your next conference. You’ll want her unique perspective as a expert in high-profile, international product launches and a leader for the cause of promoting women in media. We wanted to hear more from her on the topic of mentoring and relate it to the sales and marketing industries.

When SLMA Radio cohost, Susan Finch first heard Juliana speak, it was on a panel honoring the 20 Women of Influence in Oregon. It was sponsored by the Portland Business Journal. Mentoring professionals, especially women, is Juliana’s passion.

The Sales Lead Management Association is always talking about lead nurturing, lead management and sales skills training. It is our responsibility to dedicate as little as 3% of our time to mentoring professionals and students to help them become the leaders we want to face in sales, as peers. How else will they learn best practices if not from those who go before them? Tune in to hear Juliana and Susan speak about the importance of mentoring in all industries.

A bit about Juliana Lukasik:

Juliana has been in the film business for over 20 years. She is in the minority three percent of women commercial directors. She graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelors of Arts in Broadcast Communications. In 1999, she purchased Signature Films and changed the name to @Large Films. In addition to day-to-day management of the company and business development, Juliana has produced and directed projects that have won Emmy, Addy and Telly awards. As a child, Juliana was told by her father that there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. She believed this to her core. She is also the President of the CEIC (Central Eastside Industrial Council). Along with her love of advertising, Juliana is currently in pre-production on a project about one of her favorite subjects, pet adoption.

Follow her: @julianalukasik View her LinkedIn profile.

Host Jim Obermayer interviews Barry Lieberman, On-Line Reputation Expert.  We will ask Barry about the 5 Myths about Social Media and your online reputation. Should anyone really care about odd-balls making stupid comments about you or your company on line; or are they stupid comments?   How can you learn about your on-line reputation?  Is it too costly today to create customer advocates? How do I maintain a reasonable customer support reputation online and afford to stay in business?

Barry Lieberman – Interim CMO & CEO, Marketing & Customer Support Leader & Advisor

Senior executive with over 30 years’ experience enabling organizations to see a real return on their investments in marketing and sales. Lieberman is focused on improving an organization’s customer facing operations’ effectiveness, infrastructure & processes.  His goal is to empower companies to enjoy the rewards of a consistent, integrated approach to marketing & customer support.

His specialties include:

High technology, financial services, insurance, business services, and wellness products. Internet and online marketing, online reputation assessment and restoration, customer experience/support infrastructure effectiveness and enhancement, social media marketing, electronic and postal mail marketing, telephone marketing, database marketing.www.linkedin.com/in/barrylieberman .

About Advantage Plus Marketing Group The goal of Advantage Plus Marketing Group is to empower companies to increase their value to the marketplace and investors while enjoying the rewards of a consistent, integrated approach to marketing, customer support and sales. Since 1992 Advantage Plus Marketing Group has implemented over 1800 programs for organizations ranging in size from multinational corporations to personal selling organizations. APMG creates programs that bridge the gap between marketing and sales and truly convert marketing programs to sales revenue by using the integration of new marketing tools with time-proven processes and techniques that enable sales channels to respond effectively.

Susan Finch interviews Christine Crandell, President of New Business Strategies.

During their discussion Christine covered the differences between leading Boomers vs. Millennials and the group fringing on both ends.

They also hashed over the regular confusion businesses have over hiring a consultant versus hiring a contractor. Many times clients try to stretch one into the role of the other without fully understanding the differences.

Further in the interview, Christine and Susan examined Management by Objectives (MBO) and targeted contributions; they need to be measurable. It’s not acceptable to talk nothing but of concepts, and goals. There needs to be concrete evidence of success, failure or progress.  There needs to be accountability, as well. Are you the one who put together the plan? Are you the one responsible for the results or at least reporting on them?

The topic of reinvention and morphing was also part of the show. Women have a tendency to morph more into roles rather than honing  their idea business persona that matches who they truly are at all times. Part of that is due to fear, part of it is due to the fact they’ve never spent the time to define themselves and core values.

Join us for this show on Thursday at 5pm to listen to it.

About Christine Crandell: Christine Crandell is a 25-year B2B expert in market strategy, driving demand, and building successful, profitable organizations. Her work with CEOs and Boards is focused on helping them understand how to optimize their strategy and align their organizations to accelerate revenue. As President of New Business Strategies, she leads the international strategy consulting firm and has advised over 100 client CEOs and Board of Directors in North America, Europe and Australia in areas including M&A, market category creation, company strategy, and go-to-market planning. She also advises sales and marketing teams on how to structural and culturally align with buyers to dramatically improve performance.

It is from her direct experience as a serial CMO that the Seller’s Compass™ Methodology was born. CMOs are faced with new expectations to optimize prospect and customer engagement, improve ROI, and drive significant portion of revenue pipelines through new social technologies. Through first-hand experience in experimenting with new market engagement models, Christine discovered the power of aligning outward to buyers and the buyers’ journey. Over a five year period, she refined the Seller’s Compass methodology into a program that can be implemented by companies of all sizes, across all industries.

Read her full bio here >

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.

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.

In THIS corner: Dan McDade

McDade founded PointClear in 1997 with the mission to be the first and best company providing prospect development services to B2B companies with complex sales processes. He has been instrumental in developing the innovative strategies that drive revenue for PointClear clients nationwide.

In addition to serving as president and CEO of PointClear, Dan is the author of The Truth About Leads, an insightful book that sheds light on the little-known secrets that help focus B2B lead-generation efforts, align sales and marketing organizations and drive revenue. The book was published in January 2011.

Prior to starting PointClear, Dan served as president of UST, The Business Marketing Group, a high-tech B2B marketing services firm. The company, serving leading technology companies including Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, Oracle and SAP, grew over 500% during his tenure. From 1989 to 1991, Dan was an independent consultant providing direct marketing, telemarketing and new business development consulting services. Clients included Sears, Exxon, Rodale Press, R.J. Reynolds, and The Ritz-Carlton. Dan also served as vice president of marketing with Jackson & Perkins in Medford, Ore.

Dan is chairman of the board of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Education Collaborative, an organization promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education in Georgia’s middle and high schools. He is a member of TAG, and also serves on the boards of TechAmerica Southeast (formerly AEA); the Business & Technology Alliance, a TAG society; and TAG Marketing. The Sales Lead Management Association named Dan one of the 50 most influential people in sales lead management in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Dan is also the author of ViewPoint | The Truth About Lead Generation, a blog exploring issues related to B2B sales, marketing and lead generation.  Dan speaks regularly at industry events, both on and offline and writes for publications such as BtoB Magazine, Chief Marketer, Target Marketing Magazine, Sales and Marketing Management Magazine and MarketingProfs.

And in THIS corner: James W. Obermayer

Obermayer is an author (four books) and 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 2973 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.

James Obermayer is the principal of Sales Leakage Consulting, Inc., an Orange County, CA., marketing and sales interim management consulting firm.  His career has been equally divided between sales and marketing positions.    He has also been Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a B2B direct marketing agency.  He has served as VP, Worldwide Sales at an enterprise software company, an internet services company, Senior Vice President for two industry-leading inquiry management firms and Vice President of Marketing for a medical device manufacturer.  In addition, he has written more than 95 articles on sales and marketing management. He is a frequent speaker for corporations and also national and regional conferences.

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.

Jenny is president elect of the state chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization, having served as the Indiana Chapter learning chair. She also is active in the National Association of Women Business Owners. Jenny is the founder of the Indianapolis chapter of AA-ISP, the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals. She has also bee listed as one of the 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management 2010, 2011 and 2012. She was also among the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management in 2011 and 2012.

Jim Obermayer will be talking to her about the factors that can alter the result of a lead generation campaign, as well as answering the question of, “How long should a campaign go before you see results?” among other topics and scenarios. Join them for this informative, enlightening discussion.

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.

Join them for this lively conversation.

“Your biggest risk is that I’ll tell you what you want to hear instead of what I really think because you control my compensation.”

Jeff once told this to an interviewer with a straight face, but it turned out to be true.

A little about Jeff Fischer:

But not anymore! There was a time when I had arranged all of my management books in my New York office at eye level so that people sitting across from me could see that I had read all the right stuff. That office is gone now, I’ve thrown away the books, and I no longer live in New York.

The Desire to Look Good

The desire to look good carried me through four advanced degree programs and drove my career for many years. It fed 100-hour weeks on Wall Street and fueled a global consulting career serving some of the greatest companies in the world. I lived at furious pace (I filled a new passport with stamps in one year), climbed many ladders, and had the opportunity to get to know some truly amazing leaders.

I’m extremely proud of some of the work I’ve done. It’s just not what I envisioned for myself. Growing up I did things like volunteer at a nature center, work in a commercial boatyard, and even as an EMT. I didn’t want to sit in an office. But about two years before college, I started giving up the things I liked to do for activities that I believed would look good on a college application.

Her cut to the chase deliverables have produced her own award winning sales, and national acclaim. In addition to her contributions to emerging companies, many non-profits and corporations have been the beneficiaries of her visionary leadership style resulting in substantial, measurable growth.

Once told she would never walk again, she defied the odds and overcame the obstacles that promised her life long limitations. Refusing to accept being told what she couldn’t do, she found her way to walk again and has never stopped. Kathie brings that same determination to all of her savvy business strategies.

Crediting this life changing experience as her catalyst, she soon developed the business formulas and strategies that persistently equal success for thousands of individuals and organizations nationally.

With concise and visionary accomplishment, her speaking prowess, signature products, and services far surpass the current market metrics. Get what every busy professional seeks: more money, more easily through business growth, marketing, networking, and sales.

Some of the show highlights and topics include:

There are two perspectives

1. Lack of confidence in their ability to sell or whatever they interpret what the word “sales” means to them.  These people usually have a disconnection to the language that sales professionals describe as the sales process.

2. Clear understanding of what the customer needs so that the sales conversation is about serving and discovery.  This group is usually comfortable and connected to the language that sales professionals describe as the sales process.

Small business owners frequently hear what they consider vague and non-relatable concepts, “lead management, sales lead management, ROI, lead nurturing, sales funnel management, lead generation.” These same people have not been exposed to that professional language, yet they are out there trying to accomplish these goals. If they were confident in what makes them different, this would not get in their way.  It seems to be part of the stigma they associate with the term, “Sales Professional.” You’re going to have a difficult time selling anything if you can’t become confident in your ability to sell your products or services.

Three key pieces to gathering the information ahead of time:

• Keeping your finger on the pulse of trends that will affect your prospects or customers.
• Conducting focus groups
• Creating strategic partner alliances serving the same audience, as well as other sales professionals serving same audience

She asks them, “What’s on your radar for 2013?” “What are obstacles that are possibly going to keep you or your customers from reaching their goals.”

Susan Finch acknowledged these can be scary to ask the questions that you may not like the answer. But asking these questions make you empathetic, knowledgeable, credible. You will discover the correct market entry points, at what moment are they more receptive to hiring, launching, purchasing a service.

Kathie Nelson: realizing that if you have a sales manager over your shoulder telling you that you have to produce. “I can’t slow down to do discovery because I have to get the quota up.”  If you don’t take the time for discovery, you are constantly turning over rocks, “Are you my customer?” “Are you my customer?”

Do you want to increase your sales quickly? Then commit to investing in the time, slow down - evaluate who my best customers were and what were they really going through. In general, do they have challenges? This process helps her empathize and serve them better. Once she did this and got clear on the experience of my customer, my sales doubled. This was through strategic partnerships.

“For every minute spent in planning saves 9 in execution.”

Book recommendation for sales professionals:

Dave Crenshaw’s book, “The Myth of Multitasking.”  His overall message: Multi-tasking serves no one.

If you are in sales and don’t want to be seen as a sales person, you are sabotaging your success. Whatever stigma you have associated with the sales profession is old news. You can be an honorable, caring, successful SALES professional, and proud of the product or service you represent, happy with the success you are adding to your customers’ businesses.

Kathie’s two books, “I Want What She’s Got!” and the “Busy People Guide to Getting Unstuck” are helpful reads that will have you laughing and crying and inspired.

• The financial value that cultivating a strong brand brings to an organization
• Best practices for sustaining your brand, and measuring its effectiveness

Branding is the process, the ways an organization uses to externally communicate their brand. A pretty logo. Nice collateral. A great slogan. These are not your brand. They are symbols of your brand. Your brand is the culture of the organization — your clear evidence of distinction. As a company, you must internalize it or lose pace with your competitors. Unless your employees deliver upon its promise, your brand can go dead in the water, or worse.

About RUSS CORNELIUS, Certified Brand Strategist

Mr. Cornelius is President and CEO of Brand Savants, Inc. In 2002, Russ launched Marketing Savants, a full-service marketing agency, and steadfastly stayed with the commitment to work only with clients who understood the importance of the strategic planning process as well as the role brand development plays in a successful marketing program. Realizing that brand development and the subsequent branding processes require companies to look inward as well as outward, and that the brand development process is a company-wide initiative, and not just a marketing initiative, Russ launched BrandSavants. This is when he designed EnculturationTM, an internal brand initiative program.

Russ, one of just twenty-two Certified Brand Strategists in the country, helps companies define their vision, navigate a course to vision-achievement and domination of their markets by helping them to define their brand, differentiating themselves from their competitors and leading their employees to understand, accept and live the organization’s brand.

Russ Cornelius has been an active SoCal BMA member since 2011. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Brand Savants, Inc. 619.296.6662 San Diego, CA 92106 Latitude/Longitude: 32.727°/-117.227°

G. Mark Alarik is co-founder and president of Sales Overlays, a sales and marketing agency that has served Fortune 500 and smaller companies since 1975. Their primary business is developing problem solving marketing campaigns that fill the sales funnel with quality leads and grow the value of the customer base. Mark is also a published author in many trade magazines.

You can contact Mark at 847-942-7140 to learn how to over-come silo-zation in your organization.

Join host, Jim Obermayer as he talks to Al Davidson about the four biggest mistakes people make in managing their sales funnel.

Many sales people are familiar with the concept of the “sales funnel,” with the idea that every sale starts with a large pool of prospects, which are eventually narrowed down by the various steps of the sales process (qualification, presentations, proposals, etc.) leading to a much smaller number of customers who actually decide to buy and close the deal.

A big part of success in managing sales leads is developing a better way to understand and manage your company’s sales funnel. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes that small business leaders tend to make in managing their sales funnels – and ideas on how you can get better results.

About Al Davidson:

Al Davidson is the President and owner of Strategic Sales & Marketing (SSM), which he founded in 1989. Under Al’s direction SSM has designed and implemented new business development plans and programs for thousands of B2B companies nationwide. Since their inception SSM’s calling center has completed over 50 million new business sales presentations to high level decision makers and generated over 7 million sales leads. As a result, SSM has developed major account development expertise in the high technology, manufacturing and business service sectors. In addition Al Davidson has 25 years experience in business-to-business (B2B) direct marketing, new business development consulting, sales force management, lead management, sales training, and B2B web marketing. SSM also powers the Connecticut Technology Council’s Lead Generation Resource Center (LGRC). The mission of the LGRC is to provide advisory services to CTC members in the following areas; identifying new business opportunities; searching out and qualifying customer prospects and business partners; design, production and implementation of marketing programs and strategies.

A bit about Strategic Sales & Marketing, Inc.

Strategic Sales and Marketing (SSM) is a lead generation company specializing in B2B lead generation, appointment setting and managing sales leads for major accounts in multiple industry sectors. Founded in 1989 by Al Davidson, Strategic Sales and Marketing is widely recognized as one of the “leading lights” of the lead generation industry.

Highlights of their lead generation programs include:

• Completed over 50 million new business sales presentations for our clients.
• Al Davidson, founder and president, has been nominated by the Sales Lead Management Association as one of the 50 Most Influential leaders in the industry.
• Generated over 7 million sales leads for our clients.
• Created millions of dollars in new revenue for our clients.

Strategic Sales and Marketing clients range from small local businesses to Fortune 100 companies.

Ruth P. Stevens’s expertise in customer acquisition and retention derives from a decade and a half of hands-on marketing for both large enterprises and start-up companies. Just prior to beginning her consulting practice, she served as chief marketing officer at an Internet company in New York City. Before that, she had broad responsibilities for direct marketing at three corporate giants – IBM, Ziff-Davis and Time Warner.

She has been listed as one of the 50 Most Influential in Sales Lead Management in 2011, one of the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management in 2012 and 2011. Since going independent in the late 90’s, Ruth has had a lot of experience with people who are on the fence with the decision of whether venturing out on their own is for them, or are they better staying with or seeking a firm to work for.

She will also help alert you as to the common mistakes people make when making this change without thinking it through all the way. This mistakes can make the difference between success and failure.

SLMA Director of Online Marketing, Susan Finch brings some of the more practical advice in this decision such as seeking the advice of your tax advisor or CPA, speaking to others in the same type of business as you are considering starting. She has been independent since 2001 and doesn’t look back at her decision with any regrets. She also recognizes it isn’t for everyone.

The show is informative and may bring up some points you’ll find helpful if you are considering this leap.

Isaac Pellerin is the Revenue Marketer at TinderBox, a Software as a Service that makes it easy to create, manage, and track interactive proposals. He loves a good story and enjoys working to enhance the way companies engage with their prospects and customers. He believes that marketing and sales are at their best when they have shared goals and metrics.

About TinderBox: TinderBox is an Indianapolis based software-as-a-service that helps you get to yes faster with a smarter, simpler, and more efficient proposal and marketing communications process—one that builds lasting business partnerships. Founded in 2009, TinderBox has become the choice for sales and marketing organizations such as Angie’s List, Gannett, and Accenture Life Sciences to create compelling proposals that get to “yes”.