Sales Lead Management Radio

Aug 2015

Five Ways to Increase Qualified Leads from Trade Shows by 300%

Too many companies go to trade shows because their competitors are there and they fail to realize that shows create their most qualified leads. Industry stats indicate it takes fewer touches to make a sale from an exhibit visitor. If this is true, companies should be trying to go to as many shows as possible and the goal should be a high lead count of qualified prospects. In this program, Victor Kippes, President of Validar will describe the Five Ways to Increase Qualified leads by 300%. The host is Jim Obermayer.

Since 2005, Validar Inc. has helped B2B event marketers better understand and articulate their value. Validar’s goal is to close the loop between event marketing and sales by enabling through technology the ability to driving relevant activity to sales while measuring the performance of each customers event marketing campaigns. With Validar you can now truly understand the economic value of your event marketing efforts.

Whether you’re producing a seminar series, user’s conference, lunch and learn, or exhibiting at a tradeshow, If the primary purpose is generating renewed interest in your products and services, Validar is the perfect fit.

From capturing leads at tradeshows to managing onsite registration, tracking session attendance, gathering feedback, and providing sponsors lead retrieval they have a full suite of solutions for you. These tools deliver useable data that supports your goals and measures your performance against measurable, actionable objectives. Validar will always provide 100% effort in understanding your event marketing goals and objectives, and our promise is to meet or exceed your expectations at every event.

Call Validar at 1-888-784-2929 or text the word Validar to 878787 to learn more.

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This episode is generously sponsored by The Vanella Group

The 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

Aug 2015

How Artificial Intelligence, Applied to Lead Management Finds Hot Leads

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Can Artificial Intelligence Find your Next Customer?

If salespeople don’t pursue leads, and the run-of-the-mill marketing automation system is mediocre in pursuit (but better than reps) and the average CRM system tracks but doesn’t qualify, some people say the answer is applying artificial intelligence (AI) to the issue. AI is said to be different from autoresponders in that the system interprets intention and sentiment, avoids lost leads, and helps to surface those that intend to buy. In the interview Alex Terry, CEO of Conversica and Carl Landers, Senior VP and CMO at Conversica help clear away the mysteries of AI and its application to sales lead management qualification. About time.

Alex Terry, Chief Executive Officer

Alex is an accomplished general manager and leader with over 20 years of management experience in high-growth SaaS companies. Previously, Alex was CEO at Become, Inc. an award-winning shopping analytics platform providing performance-based marketing services to thousands of merchants in North America, Europe and Asia. Prior to that, Alex was EVP and General Manager of the Zoomerang.com online survey business where he introduced new lines of business, re-energized growth and managed the business through its acquisition by SurveyMonkey, Inc. Alex was also President and CEO of NeoEdge Networks and spent five years at Time Warner/AOL in senior executive roles. A technology and business model innovator, Mr. Terry holds multiple patents for his work in Internet services, integrated communications, and interactive billing systems. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.

Carl Landers, Senior Vice President and CMO

Carl has over 20 years of B2B marketing experience in high tech. Prior to joining Conversica, Carl was chief marketing officer at Serena Software, a leading provider of software development and deployment solutions to the Global 2000. He joined Serena as VP of product marketing and demand generation after serving in a similar role at CA Technologies in the company's portfolio management business unit. Carl's previous experience includes senior marketing, product management and product development roles at Niku Corporation, Tyco International and Raychem Corporation, and startups Perfect Commerce and Zoho Corporation. Carl holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University.

About Conversica:

Conversica is the leading provider of lead engagement software for marketing, inside sales and sales organizations. Driven by artificial intelligence technology, Conversica’s custom online persona automatically contacts, engages, nurtures, qualifies and follows up with leads via natural, two-way email conversations until the lead converts into an opportunity or opts out. The virtual sales assistant interprets the lead’s intention and sentiment in email replies and extracts key information, such as phone numbers and the best time to call. As a result, our customers find their next customers more quickly and efficiently, while ensuring no lead is left behind.

Used by more than 8,000 sales representatives worldwide, Conversica maximizes sales opportunities by optimizing sales team productivity and has helped create more than US$8 billion in sales revenue.

Founded in 2007, Conversica is a portfolio company of Kennet Partners and is headquartered in Foster City, California.

Aug 2015

Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers

Book Review with the Author: Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers

Author Ruth P. Stevens is interviewed on August 13, 2015, 10:30 Pacific time by SLMA Radio Host Jim Obermayer about her book Maximizing Lead Generation. We will discuss her step by step lead generation recommendations, see if the top media options have changed in the time since the book was published and if her predictions on the ways lead generation is going to evolve has started to come true.

About the book: Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers

Paperback, 11 Chapters, 199 pages plus index

The Case for Lead Generation
Campaign Planning
The Marketing Database
Campaign Development
Campaign Media Selection
Response Planning and Management
Lead Equalization
Lead Nurturing
Metrics and Testing
The Fast Evolving Future of Lead Generation

Available on Amazon and Que Publishing
List Price: $44.95 Que $26.99 Amazon: $15.85 Also available as a Kindle book.

About Ruth P. Stevens

Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, teaches marketing at business schools in the U.S. and abroad, and is a contributor to HBR.org, AdAge, Biznology and Target Marketing Magazine. Crain's BtoB magazine named Ruth one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing. Her newest book is B2B Data-Driven Marketing: Sources, Uses, Results. She is also the author of Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers, andTrade Show and Event Marketing, and co-author of the white paper series, "B-to-B Database Marketing." Ruth is a director of the HIMMS Media Group and the Business Information Industry Association. She also serves as a mentor to fledgling companies at the ERA business accelerator in New York City. She is past chair of the DMA Business-to-Business Council, and past president of the Direct Marketing Club of New York. Ruth has held senior marketing positions at Time Warner, Ziff-Davis, and IBM and holds an MBA from Columbia University. Learn more at www.ruthstevens.com.

Jun 2015

Lead generation and maximizing what you’ve already got.

Companies create new prospects every day, while often ignoring that salespeople give up on most prospects within 1-2 phone calls and in less than 30-60 days. They move on to the low hanging fruit of short term buyers and ignore that research shows that 75% of the purchasing decisions are made in the 4th to 12th months. In this interview with Chris Lynde, CEO of dbSignals he tells how to maximize the leads you have already. The host is Jim Obermayer.

About Chris Lynde

Chris Lynde is founder and CEO of dbSignals. Chris is an analytically minded, self-described “data geek” who has more than 30 years of experience in multi-channel database marketing, data, and analytic services. He has pioneered a number of large-scale, first-to-market database products and held several C-level roles with direct profit-and-loss responsibilities of more than $300 million in Fortune 1000 corporations, as well as pure start-ups.

In his previous role as senior vice president for Club Holdings, Chris led the implementation of multi-channel marketing technology, customer database development, and marketing campaign planning across the portfolio. Prior to joining Club Holdings, Chris was senior vice president and general manager of Source Marketing; senior vice president and general manager of Equifax Marketing Services; and president and CEO of Oaktree Systems, a public database marketing subsidiary of Gateway Industries.

A serial entrepreneur with a passion for music and golf, Chris in the 1970s co-founded Rainbow Records, the largest record chain in the Chicago metro area with 13 stores. He also founded TeeShots International, a direct marketing company specializing in golf products, and co-founded Destination Golf, a nationally syndicated television show that ran on Fox Sports and ESPN.

About dbSignals

dbSignals is ranked among the top marketing automation solutions for large, medium and small businesses by Raab Associates’ 2015 Vendor Selection Tool (VEST) Report. The company combines data, technology, and the science of machine learning to automate the sales and marketing process so customers can stay focused on running their businesses. dbSignals’ Customer Acquisition Prospecting Databases, coupled with real-time data management and self-learning technology creates smarter campaigns and the best results possible. The dbSignals platform sits on top of an integrated database that contains customer data, a national B2B and B2C prospecting database, and a complete system of record.

Based in Broomfield, CO., with offices in Phoenix, AZ., dbSignals is a wholly owned subsidiary of Club Holdings, LLC. dbSignals provides everything a business needs to acquire and retain customers on one easy-to-use SaaS platform. The services are available direct and through white-labeled resellers. Learn more at dbsignals.com

Commercial sponsors on SLMA Radio include: The Young Company, The Vanella Group and Vanilla Soft.

Mar 2015

Contact Marketing: When you absolutely MUST get through to someone.

Stu Heinecke is the author of "How To Get A Meeting with Anyone" (BenBella Books, 2-2016) and host of this week's show. His book is a compilation of "Contact Marketing" techniques, as he calls them, designed to help sales reps break through to their toughest-to-reach, VIP prospects. In his book, and in this series of interviews, he asks top sales thought leaders, "When you absolutely must get through to someone of great importance, how do you do it?"

Linda Richardson is the author of "Changing the Sales Conversation" and Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training business. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence for 2006 and in 2007 she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.”

Linda is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling, which is the cornerstone of Richardson’s methodology. Other innovations Linda has spearheaded in the sales training industry are: development of a comprehensive, integrated curriculum dedicated exclusively to sales, commitment to customization vs. generic training, and development of an interactive coaching-type training methodology. Her innovation in eLearning earned Richardson the Best Soft Skills Award from Elearning! magazine and Product of the Year for Richardson SkillGauge™ diagnostics from Customer Interaction Solutions magazine.

Linda is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including her most recent works, Perfect Selling, The Sales Success Handbook — 20 Lessons to Open and Close Sales Now, Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management courses at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. She is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences.

Linda began her career as an educator and educational psychologist and transitioned to the corporate world where she developed a passion for sales effectiveness. Prior to founding Richardson, Linda was a teacher, a manager at a global consulting firm, and an officer at a major financial institution. She has been published extensively in industry and training journals and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board magazine.

Linda currently serves on the Mayor’s Council for the Arts for the City of Philadelphia, is a Director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and a Director of the American Poetry Review. She served on the United States Small Business Administration President’s Council from 1991 to 1993.

Feb 2015

Content and Lead Generation through RSS Feeds

The Geekspeak Guides, Susan Finch and Yvonne Heimann, are at it again giving you ideas of how to use your own site content, content from other sites and from venues such as Youtube, Pinterest and more to populate your site, your podcasting venues such as iTunes and Stitcher. These ideas will help create that fill in content for your social media posts to give you more time to REALLY engage with people in real conversations. This episode was recently featured on Blubrry as a valuable episode.

RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is your simple pipeline of information. In a nutshell, it’s a properly formatted text file created dynamically by websites such as blogs and other content management systems. They don’t all create them, but most do. There are even tools you can use to create one on your own. THIS is the file you want so you can PUSH your content and reuse it, reshape it and share it better with MANY more venues including iTunes. You may use this superpower whether you are gathering content from your website, Pinterest, podcast or other online sites and services.

This video will give you several ideas and teach you how to find your RSS feed on your own site, and where you can use it.

Did you know that PINTEREST is actually a BLOG with CATEGORIES? That means that your entire Pinterest account and individual boards can all be treated as an RSS feed.

Google offers a great FREE tool to generate a feed post, allow subscribers, manage subscribers and allow you to bring in content from other sites into your own, share your content with others with just a few lines of code and it is all DYNAMIC using RSS.

Having a feed address gives you something very specific to submit to Google on one specific topic.

Podcasts use XML/RSS feeds, as well. It's a text file with useful fields for these various venues. For a podcast, it knows to look for the associated media file, episode art and excerpt. Depending on the podcasting service you use such as Blubrry, Podbean, Lipsyn, you'll be given different options before they send your fabulous content off to venues such as iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and more.

This 20 minute show gives you some great ideas to use your content to generate more interest, more credibility, more leads and ultimately more sales. Trust us, we know this works.

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Find Geekspeak Guides on:

itunes: http://bit.ly/gsgitunes
stitcher: http://bit.ly/gsgstitcher
blubbrry: http://bit.ly/gsgblubrry

Jan 2015

How Branding impacts Teleprospecting and Lead Generation

Michael Falkson, founder of eti Sales Support makes the case that those that ignore branding do so at their peril. He believes too many marketing manager's think that branding is an expensive exercise that has few measurable benefits for the small to mid-sized company. Falkson argues that branding and its benefits make the sales process much easier and he tells us how to do it. The host for this show is Jim Obermayer.

Michael Falkson, Founder & CEO

Founder and CEO of eti Sales Support, Michael Falkson leads the company's strategic direction.

An entrepreneur at heart, Michael emigrated from South Africa in 1987 to establish eti. eti is a premier B2B Sales and Marketing support agency. eti has been a leader in the field since the company's inception, innovating and deploying cutting edge technologies, which include stateoftheart CRM, PRM and Marketing Automation solutions geared towards maximizing sales productivity.

Prior to leaving South Africa, Michael was the CTO for Effective Letters Pty. Ltd, SouthAfrica's leading Direct Mail Marketing agency, and CEO and founder of ETM Pty Ltd, which was the largest Call Centre operation in the country at that time. He was also the founder and Chairman of SATA (South African Telemarketing Association) until emigrating to the US.Michael studied at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

About eti Sales Support:The Sales Lead Generation Company

Whether you're just beginning to grow your business or you already have a thriving national or global business, eti has the resources, the experience and the services to help you expand.We're a leading business-to-business sales support agency specializing in programs to maximize clients' direct marketing and sales growth nationally and globally.

Founded in 1987, we have a record of success in increasing clients' sales with New Customer Acquisition as the most important aspect of our many sales driven services. Our Business Developers are college-educated with most having extensive previous business experience. Our clients profit fully from their successful abilities in conducting sophisticated programs that require knowledge, intelligence, business insight and communication skills to produce the best results. Our core competence is in consultative business development, primarily for clients with complex products, services, and value propositions.

eti Mission:

To grow client sales by maximizing sales productivity.
To provide high-quality, responsive, (global) business-to-business sales support services via a growing pipeline of sales opportunities.
To provide leading-edge, real-time reporting and analytics that offer clients optimum control and accountability to maximize returns on their marketing investments.
To provide highly effective leadership and support for integrating sales and marketing campaigns.

Sales Lead Generation Services include: