Inquiry Management

SLMWeek: Lead Management isn't about implementing software.

During this celebration of Sales Lead Management Week, we interviewed Richard Brock of Leadlife in 2014. It's still relevant, we still haven't learned. Richard Brock, who many say is the founder of customer relationship management and consequently modern sales lead management. We tackled the difficult subject of why lead management continues to be a failure at so many companies. Why do they think that by just putting in a software product they will instantly increase sales?About Richard Brock Richard Brock is a tech-savvy, entrepreneurial software development professional with over 30 years of experience in CRM Solutions and deep roots in Marketing Automation. He is the co-founder and CEO of LeadLife Solutions, a provider of an on-demand lead management solution that drives revenue by bundling state-of-the art marketing automation technology with lead management systems to maximize sales opportunities. He is a board member of the Technology Executives Roundtable, mentor to various technology companies and Founding Father of CRM. Richard pioneered the Sales Force Automation space by starting Brock Control Systems (Firstwave Technologies), which became the leading provider of web-based Customer Relationship Management applications. About LeadLife Solutions LeadLife was founded and designed by experts with lots of sales, marketing and customer relationship management experiences. We understand the pressures placed on sales and marketing departments to hit numbers. Whether it’s a sales execution tool, a marketing automation solution or both, LeadLife’s proven platform provides companies flawless execution of their marketing and sales strategies. And we are there to help. www.leadlife.com ------------------------------This episode is generously sponsored by The Vanella GroupThe Vanella Group, Inc. is the only firm that delivers telebased lead generation programs exclusively for enterprise technology providers. They achieve results 5 times higher than industry standards for outbound lead generation based on the research published by implementing their unique Telesales 2.0 methodology. We are an award winning leader in this space and get results like no other firms.The Vanella Group supports firms from Fortune 500 companies to startups.To learn more, visit BuildPipeline.com or call 888-335-0340

How to ID Your Best Prospects out of the Primordial Slop

Host Jim Obermayer discusses with Tony Tissot, director of Marketing at eTrigue,  how to extract the most qualified prospects from the masses of inquiries that most companies create.  When salespeople are surveyed they always say, “ I want more leads.”    Three months later they say, ”You misunderstood me, I want more qualified leads.”  Tony is going to share how this is done.  About Tony TissotTony Tissot has been an advocate of marketing automation capabilities since before the term was coined, while running marketing and corpcom for a $2B division of a Global 50 company and later, two successful technology start-ups.  Tony Tissot is currently Sr. Director of Marketing at eTrigue, a pioneer in marketing automation. twitter @tonytissot About eTrigueeTrigue provides easy-to-use Marketing Automation solutions to help you identify hot leads and close more sales. eTrigue DemandCenter marketing automation creates, executes and tracks powerful multi-channel demand generation campaigns, email marketing campaigns, and online activities with real-time lead alerts, automated lead scoring and reporting, and search-based profiling without requiring dedicated staff or IT integration.Target and nurture your best prospects easierAlign Sales and Marketing to drive revenue fasterImprove ROI and accountability with measurable results eTrigue helps generate and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, and increase revenue. In addition, eTrigue’s advanced analytics give marketers the tools they need to measure results and demonstrate true ROI. Software-as-a-service, eTrigue DemandCenter Intelligent Demand Generation solutions combine sophistication with ease of use. No dedicated resources are required to run eTrigue marketing automation or to make changes to achieve a better fit with your marketing and sales process. And because we understand the inherent value of volume in sales, our flat-fee pricing allows for an unlimited number of company users with unlimited campaign frequency and customer activity—promoting, not penalizing, your company’s growth and success. Successfully enabling customer demand generation programs for 25 years, eTrigue was initially developed by one of Silicon Valley’s leading marketing and demand generation agencies. Inspired by the difficulty of running demand generation programs for startups and for multinational clients within the constraints and limitations of cumbersome, or feature-light applications, the eTrigue marketing automation and sales acceleration solutions were developed to fill a need for a better demand generation solution. The eTrigue DemandCenter automated marketing solution has been such a success that demand outgrew the high-tech agency. With years of development completed, over 3,000 successful demand generation programs launched, and a strong customer base growing more than 100% per year, eTrigue Corporation was officially launched. When it’s time for your sales to take flight, contact eTrigue Corporation at 800.858.8500. 

The most listened to show in 2013: Hunting From Helicopters: Getting to B2B Decision Makers in the Real World

SLMA Radio host Jim Obermayer interviewsShawn McLaren, Chairman of ConnectAndSell.In the last interview Shawn told us how a salesperson could have 6-8 meaningful conversations per hour. Maybe this time he will reveal even more. In 2007 Shawn gave up his quest for the perfect golf game because he discovered, as he terms it, a system that liberates Sales Warriors (aka Conversation Pigs) by providing so many conversations with decision makers so efficiently that it removes all excuses for non-performance and brings smiles to the usually harried faces of VP’s of Sales and CMOs. Shawn’s early successes included selling encyclopedias door to door in the Michigan winter and building both code and company for the world’s first mainframe storage system; a system that included security algorithms that rivaled the unbreakability of Navajo Codetalkers and would have stumped the Enigma machines that helped the Allies win WW II. Shawn’s only regret in life is his failed tryout as a pitcher for the New York Yankees in his mid-30s. He is plotting his revenge in the form of a hostile takeover of the franchise thanks to the expected growth and success of ConnectAndSell. Shawn is a founder and Chairman of ConnectAndSell and was its CEO for 3+ of its formative years.

How to develop leads that will close.

Host Jim Obermayer and his guest Tom Judge tackle the thorny issue of not just how to create inquiries and leads, but leads that actually close. As Vice President of Direct Marketing Partners, Tom has solved this problem with some of the largest high-tech companies in business to business; and also some of the most modest in size. Leads that close is a problem for all companies regardless of size.
 
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.
Diagnosing lead-to-sales funnel problems.
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.
Campaign management, lead management and analytics.
www.directmarketingpartners.com

January 10: Why you need interactive proposals and cost for doing it.

SLMA host Jim Obermayer interveiws Isaac Pellerin of TinderBox. Isaac will discuss why proposal creation is easier than ever before, why it should be software as a service and the cost involved in starting up and using proposal software.
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".

June 14: Victor Kippes, CEO of Validar

SLMA Radio host Jim Obermayer will ask Victor if the rumors of the demise in trade shows as a lead generation event is true?  Are trade shows as strong as always?  How can marketing manager make the most of their trade show investment? Victor Kippes is CEO of Validar Inc., a B2B lead management company that specializes in events.
Much of Validar’s value proposition is based upon Victor’s experience as a receiver of leads. He has been in a sales role for over 20 years both as a direct contributor and as the leader of a large enterprise sales team. He is a recovering sales leader who understands very well the challenges marketing and sales leaders face specific to demand generation and lead management. If you are a marketing leader interested in understanding and articulating your true value, or a sales leader interested in improved conversions and pipeline growth, Validar and Victor are there for you.
You can follow Victor on Twitter at @vkippes. About Validar Validar is a B2B Lead Management company that specializes in events.  It doesn’t matter whether your exhibiting at a tradeshow, or producing your own event or seminar series.  Since 2005, Validar Inc. has helped companies identify, qualify, and manage leads more efficiently and effectively. With our software and services, companies can capture highly qualified leads at the lowest cost and quantify the performance of their marketing efforts.
For any business, it is important to know where leads are in their buying cycle so they are treated appropriately and follow-up activity is not wasted. Our solution enables companies to segment their event attendee based upon both explicit and implicit participation. We enable attendees to control how they are treated post event through technology. victork@validar.com Phone:206.577.1123 Twitter:twitter.com/vkippes Web: www.validar.com Blog: http://www.dontaskdontsell.com/ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBFEUnB1Bs0

Oct. 6 Show: Debra da Costa, Direct Marketing Partners and Susan Finch, Binky Patrol, Inc.

Debra da Costa, CEO Direct Marketing Partners
Debra da Costa is the founder and CEO of one of the leading sales lead management service providers, Direct Marketing Partners. Debra is a pioneer in the sales lead field. Debra da Costa founded Direct Marketing Partners in 1991 with the goal of creating a company truly responsive to the individual needs of clients. To this end, she structured DMP so that the company would be large enough to have the depth of expertise required by corporations with worldwide interests, but of a size that would permit close project participation by all the firm's senior staff, as well as flexibility and agility.
From the beginning, and under Debra's leadership, DMP has provided clients with marketing campaigns, which generate sales leads of superior quality. Over the years, the company’s offerings have expanded to include call center/ telemarketing, hosted database, list research and acquisition, direct mail, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing, professional services consulting, fulfillment and event support services.
Before creating DMP, Debra was the President of Debra da Costa Consulting where she was responsible for high-tech industry marketing campaigns.
In her career, Debra has held several design and technical positions with public agencies in both Canada and the U.S. and was responsible for the marketing efforts of Lawrence Moss and Associates. It is through these experiences that she discovered that all roads lead to marketing.
Debra will be answering question and sharing insights on the importance of lead qualification.
Susan Finch, Founder/CEO Binky Patrol, Inc. - a 501c3
In 1996 Susan Finch was immersed in a high-end art gallery in Laguna Beach, but knew she needed to do something to help her community and children in need.  The idea for Binky Patrol Comforting Covers for Kids came to her one afternoon and she immediately contacted local media to help her get this idea rolling.  One of the first partnerships she developed was with Wahoo's Fish Taco headquartered in Santa Ana, California.  She learned the value of mutually beneficial partnerships with regards to sponsors and events.  She was carried along in the beginning by Wahoo's Founder, Wing Lam who showed her how everyone can win and all brands can benefit from the criss-cross marketing and publicity.  This was before Social Media and the Internet was truly getting its legs at that point.  Now, 15 years later, the organization has enjoyed publicity at the local level with chapters finding their own corporate partners.  The companies are able to utilize the list of the charity and gain exposure, goodwill and a sense of community without a lot of effort.  The charity benefits from the added volunteer force, exposure to the sponsors clients, newsgroups and social media reach.  All benefit.   Susan will answer questions about ways B2B and B2C can help expand their reach while helping a charity, without putting a strain on their budgets.

June 16 Show: Maria Pergolino, Marketo and Bob Moore, Catapult Works

Maria Pergolino, Marketo
Deemed by Telesmart Communication’s Josiane Feignon as “one of the most creative and spirited marketing bloggers,” Maria Pergolino leads Marketo’s inbound marketing, campaign optimization and demand generation strategies as the Director of Marketing. Her impressive 10 year online B2B marketing career spans everything from CRM, social media, content marketing, search marketing, and lead generation and nurturing.
Maria is a co-author of the most successful social media, lead nurturing, and lead scoring books created specifically for B2B Marketers, entitled The Definitive Guides to B2B Marketing. She also provides frequent contributions to the MarketingProfs blog and is an author of Marketo’s popular blog, Modern B2B Marketing, which has over 16,000 subscribers.
Maria has held management positions at companies such as Shunra, ESIS, Inc and, is Salesforce.com Certified Administrator and user group leader. She is also is a sought after speaker at numerous marketing events, and has a Marketing Degree and MBA from the School of Business at Rutgers University.
She was listed as one of the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management by the Sales Lead Management Association.
Recognized as a B2B Marketing thought leader, Maria has made significant contributions to the sales lead management and marketing automation industry. She has contributed over 100 blog posts annually to top 100 marketing blogs, as well as writing or contributing dozens of articles and white papers to drive awareness in the field of lead management. Her posts and papers are typically read by tens of thousands and she has a vast following of over 3300 in her twitter network. Maria has presented to thousands at a time, both online and at live events and has also developed much content through multimedia like video and webcasts.
Maria’s work has also been cited in multiple published articles and books, including the bestselling book “Content Rules” which specifically quotes Maria on her work in lead management. She has spoken on over 30 webinars and at 40 live events in the field of lead management, and more specifically on topics including social media, lead nurturing, content marketing, lead scoring and revenue performance management. Maria has also been a speaker for such organizations as American Marketing Association, MarketingProfs, Direct Marketing News, Online Marketing Connect, BtoB Magazine, Business Marketing Association and many more. Additional professional achievements include: Winner of several BMA B2 Awards and last year she was named one of 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management.
Maria is constantly creating new ways to drive demand for Marketo. She is always one step ahead of the competition and refuses to be a follower. Maria continually strives for excellence in everything she does, and measures herself not only by her own accomplishments, but by the accomplishments of those around her. She is a fearless leader and works every day to make herself, and those she works with, better marketers.
Bob Moore, Catapult Works
Bob has built unrivaled expertise in data management, matching and ETL technologies. Bob has served as the Database Chair for the Northern California chapter of the Direct Marketing Association. In his current position, Bob works with CatapultWorks clients like Brocade, Alcatel-Lucent, Symantec and others as he manages the company's data services group and the entire database operations. In addition, he is responsible for the acquisition and adoption of new database management technologies that can be applied to enhance CatapultWorks’ services. Bob joined CatapultWorks in January of 2005 when his company, Data Direct, a leading full service database management firm, was acquired by CatapultWorks. Bob has been a strong catalyst in applying technological advances to business marketing and data management processes.

April 28 Show: Mary Dedrick, Kristi Gloppen

Kristi Gloppen Sr. Manager, Web Marketing, Advertising & Sales Enablement - Xilinx, Inc.
Kristi Gloppen is an established communications professional with over ten years of B-to-B marketing experience. Her areas of expertise include: electronic direct marketing, advertising, social media and lead management. Kristi has spent the past 2 decades in the high-tech, electronics industry focused on creating sales and marketing campaigns targeting electronic engineers. She has degrees in both Communications and Business.
Mary Dedrick – Chief Operating Officer As COO Performark
Mary Dedrick is responsible for all aspects of operations and strategy development. Her keen ability to marry process and technology has been instrumental in driving Performark’s highly successful outsourcing solutions that integrate people, process and discipline resulting in sales and marketing alignment based on buyer-centric lead management processes.
With more than twenty-five years of experience, Mary is a visionary leader with a deep business process background. She understands the technical implications of complex relationships and has a proven track record of architecting and deploying innovative, results-oriented, practical solutions to a range of business and systems related challenges.
Prior to Performark, Mary was Senior Vice President of Web Enablement for Innuity, Inc., with responsibility for customer-facing elements of the business, operations, business delivery, inside sales and customer service. During her tenure with Innuity, Mary conceived and orchestrated the design and delivery of a patent-pending production process for automated web site creation which contributed to the company’s 400%+ growth in three years.
Mary has held various technology-related positions in diverse organizations and industries including Computer Power Group, Health Central (now Allina Health Systems), Baxter Travenol, Northrup King and Control Data.

April 7 Show: Ken Thoreson

Ken Thoreson of Acumen Management Group, Ltd.
In this interview, Ken Thoreson, President of Acumen Management Group puts into perspective the need for executives and managers at all levels to develop both personal visions for success and business visions for growth. To take advantage of the changing market, successful business organizations must focus on both their leadership and management skills, knowing the difference and executing effectively separates the top performing organizations from all the rest.  Listen and learn how to create personal vision and why it is the spark that ignites action and how you communicate it and build an entire organization that is energized, focused with a culture based upon high performance.