If there is one thing that sets OnTarget apart from our competitors, it is our ability to reach and communicate with the executive level.

Executive level telemarketing, or C-level telemarketing as some people may call it, is not easy, but can be very effective.

Many people are reluctant to call on the higher level executives in an organization.  They fear their directness, and may be intimidated by them.

OnTarget prides itself on our ability to reach these executives — CEO, CFO, CIO, President, Division Manager, etc.  They are the true strategic drivers in the business, and because OnTarget typically supports the sales and marketing efforts of solutions providers, these are the decision-makers and buyers of our clients products and services.

So, if you are in the market for executive or c-level telemarketing, you have found the right resource — OnTarget Partners.

Ed Trachier, CEO

Researching prospective clients can have many names.  Some companies call it “account research”.  Some companies call it “account mapping”.  Even others call it “account discovery”.

Whatever it is called, I call it IMPORTANT!

Knowing who you are targeting at a contact level is as important as which companies you are targeting.  The decision-makers, influencers and champions of your solution(s) need to be known in order to develop and express the most powerful value proposition possible. 

Connections that exist, trigger events that have happened, and historical decisioning may all be available with a little research.

So, you have to have the time for these processes in order to maximize success.  If you don’t have this time, call OnTarget.  We can help.

-Ed Trachier

Ed Trachier is Founder and CEO of OnTarget Partners.  He can be reached at 214-618-4960, or via email at trachier@ontargetpartners.com.

Ed Trachier, CEO

It is legitamitely hard to create demand in the big-ticket, solution sales world of B2B.

I counsel my clients frequently not to cast a wide net with loose value propositions and generic advertisements.  The “buy now or you may lose out” selling style simply does not work in the markets in which OnTarget operates.  No one buys large solutions on impulse; there is a lot of complex, analytical thought and plenty of budget considerations too.

This is what I call the demand discovery vs demand creation paradox.

OnTarget is in the business of demand discovery, not demand creation.

We look for qualified buyers for our client’s solutions.  We grade these buyers based on several important characteristics:

• They have a real business problem that is solved by the client’s solution(s)
• They are willing to take the time to explore the client’s solution(s)
• They have a discussed budget
• They have a defined time-frame
• They have knowledge of the decision-making process, and share that with us

When all of these characteristics line up, we have discovered demand for our client.

Discovering demand for our clients may be difficult to accomplish, but it is not near as difficult as creating the demand.

-Ed Trachier

Ed Trachier is Founder and CEO of OnTarget Partners, LLC.  He can be reached at 469-200-4901, or via email at trachier@ontargetpartners.com.

Jennifer Hanford

It is becoming increasingly obvious in the B2B arena that inbound marketing works well for businesses, even the smaller ones.  A recent study released by the Hinge Research Institute revealed a remarkable correlation between profitability and online lead generation among professional services firms. The study concluded:

“Firms generating 60% or more of their leads online are 2X more profitable than those generating less than 20% of their leads online.”

You can read the blog for more information:  http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28777/Companies-Relying-on-Online-Lead-Generation-Are-2X-More-Profitable-Data.aspx#ixzz1f2Du1iVs

You may be wondering how inbound online marketing can work for your small B2B business.  Here are 3 ways it is working for our company:

Inbound Marketing Works By Targeting Those Who Are Seeking Your Services

Outbound marketing involves directly contacting potential clients to tell them about you and your solutions. To use a fishing analogy, your company is expected to cast a wide enough net in order to capture at least a few interested members from a huge audience.  Conversely, inbound strategies let potential clients who are specifically interested in your offerings find and come to you. This concentration on being found by interested parties rather than going after them is certainly an efficient and effective use of the fewer resources available in a smaller business.  This efficiency can also be appreciated for B2B companies with limited marketing budgets and multiple time constraints.

Inbound Marketing Fits Small Business Budgets

When you are looking for services where do you go first?  I know I personally rely on the internet and specific search engines to find everything these days. I believe almost anyone can create an effective Boolean search on the internet that will allow them to locate what they need within a few seconds.  Small businesses, even those with a focus on B2B marketing, should be using inbound marketing tools like social media, SEO, and internet advertising, to help them be easily found via search engines.  Many of these tools are free (or inexpensive), efficient, and very user-friendly.  Even the smallest of B2B business will find that inbound strategies are affordable and viable, especially with their high levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

Inbound Marketing Maximizes Integral Exposure

Inbound strategies provide an additional and beneficial component as a cost-effective advertising tool for small businesses with a B2B focus.  This is done by borrowing the credibility and genuine interest of your leads, both actual and potential.  When interested parties have located your company via SEO and social media, they are more likely to share your information with their friends and followers.  Then those friends and followers will share with their friends and followers — and so on and so on. Many of these B2B companies have their own online followings through their websites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or blogs. Their names and/or reputations may even be more recognizable than your own.  This association will be beneficial for all parties who are involved.

In summary, OnTarget Partners is now able to connect with many more potential leads in cost-effective ways and at a fraction of the cost of our direct marketing campaigns.  One of the best parts is that the leads have found us and were interested in what we have to offer.  No cold-calling or hard-selling.  What’s not to like about that?

Jennifer Hanford is Director of Social Media for OnTarget Partners.  She can be reached at jhanford@ontargetpartners.com.

Ed Trachier, CEO

I am sometimes asked my opinion of marketing during the Holidays.

You know, that time between Thanksgiving and New Years, when everything seems to slow to a crawl.

My answer is surprising to some…

Prospecting during the Holidays tends to work, over the long term.

Our clients are unlikely to close net new business during this time, if initiation has not taken place earlier in the year.

However, for building a pipeline for Q1, prospecting during the Holidays just makes sense.

I think there are two main reasons for this:

1. People generally are just in a better mood during the Holidays
2. Gatekeepers tend to take time off during the Holidays, which enables more conversations and better qualifications with decision-makers

As stated by Brian Carroll, Executive Director of Applied Research at MECLABS, lead generation is a “continuous, congruent conversation carried through a multitude of mediums.” Here is the article.   Mr. Carroll seems to describe lead generation as an art, which is a very nice analogy.  Online marketing is a world filled with numbers, metrics, and algorithms.  It helps to take a step back and remember that people – and conversations with people –will always be the core of lead generation.

ROI (Return on Investment) is achieved when marketers convert leads into closes.  I venture to guess that marketing professionals prefer to drive introductory conversations with their leads into successful closes as efficiently as possible.  “Sooner rather than later” is a common motto that I hear.  The good news is that blending offline and online marketing campaigns is creating a more efficient process that is apparently producing the higher ROI results that all marketers desire.

There are various ways of accomplishing the blending of offline and online marketing campaigns.  An example is one we have used at OnTarget Partners.  Members of our staff designed and created a marketing brochure with eye-catching graphics and verbiage.  The material comes in the form of a folder containing marketing slicks which provide information about our company and the services we officer.  The pages detailing our service offerings also include our website information.  We are blending this offline marketing campaign with an online component by affixing a QR (Quick Response) code sticker to the front of these packets.  Scanning this QR code with a smart phone will take the viewer directly to our company website’s homepage.  The information provided in the printed materials is identical to our website’s landing page, creating the opportunity to drive conversations with potential leads no matter where they originate.  Since starting this process we have noticed an increase in traffic to our website as well subsequent inbound online lead generation.

What is your company doing to blend its online and offline marketing campaigns?  We would be interested in hearing how this is working for you.

-Jennifer Hanford

Jennifer is Social Media Director for OnTarget Partners.  She can be reached at jhanford@ontargetpartners.com.

Brian Carroll, Executive Director of Applied Research, MECLABS, has stated that a central problem for many B2B marketers lies in their data.  A marketer often has a list of contacts that may not be as valid as it should be.  “Everything connects to your data,” Carroll said. “Your data represents relationships, and that’s the hub.”  In other words, effective and valid data increases the potential of optimizing lead generation.

Carroll touched on this issue at the MarketingSherpa B2B Summit 2011 in San Francisco this week. He described how seven of the most common problems that B2B marketers face trace back to poor data.  I have listed these below:

Problem #1: Sales capabilities

Many marketers, Carroll noted, struggle with a feeling that some salespeople are incapable of converting the leads they generate. They wish they could give all their leads to a few select salespeople and avoid the others.

However, one of the most common reasons a salesperson cannot close a sale is that they do not have enough data about the lead, Carroll said. They cannot optimize where they spend time and energy because there is no data to direct them.

This problem can be alleviated when data has been qualified and verified prior to passing it along to the salespeople.  The potential for any member of the sales force to convert the lead should be equal when this is the case.

Challenge #2: Relevant content

“The challenge is how we progress people from early interest to purchase intent. Content is one of the ways of doing that,” Carroll said.

This is a common challenge for marketers, even though most understand that content is an extremely effective tool.  Additional research and examination may be necessary in order to uncover what is relevant content and subsequently further validate the lead.

Challenge #3: Technology

Carroll asked the Summit audience, “How many of you have problems with people updating your CRM?” Many attendees raised their hands, and the point was clear. Your CRM cannot be effective until the problems surrounding its data — which many times have nothing to do with a technology or platform — are solved.

OnTarget Partners has solved this problem by allowing limited administrative access to our CRM.  This way we can avoid many instances of “dirty data.”  Only valid, effective data is loaded into the database which optimizes each individual marketing campaign we manage.

Challenge #4: Internal processes

According to Adam T. Sutton, a senior reporter for MarketingSherpa, “Too many marketers have not sat down with their sales team to hammer out a specific definition for a sales-ready lead. “

The VP of Delivery Operations for OnTarget Partners, Scott Bratcher, has found it imperative to meet with our clients when kicking off a campaign so as to avoid this challenge.  That way he knows and understands from the very beginning of the campaign which leads we need to research, prospect, and nurture. This results in higher percentages of optimized lead generation and conversions.  Once again, an important component is producing valid data early in the process.

Challenge #5: Lead capturing

Capturing leads is probably one of the most important pieces of your company’s website.  Data can be used to determine which landing pages are weak, as well as sufficiently analyze from where your better leads are originating.

-Jennifer

Jennifer Hanford is Director of Social Media for OnTarget Partners.  She can be reached at jhanford@OnTargetPartners.com.

A question that is commonly asked in B to B marketing goes something like “how many opportunities do I need to pursue in order to close a certain amount of business”?  A marketing pipeline can provide the answer to this question.

Pipelines are typically defined in stages:

1. 1.       How many leads have you identified
2. 2.       How many leads are you pursuing
3. 3.       How many leads are you bidding
4. 4.       How many leads did you win

1)       Creating a pipeline begins with identifying the leads you should be tracking.  A lead is anyone who may become a buyer for the solution your company is providing.  Lead generation can be a lengthy process depending on how they are obtained.  Inbound leads may be easier to go after since they are responding directly to your company’s website links or advertisements.  Outbound leads require more effort and involve calling (cold and warm), following up, and asking for referrals.

2)      The next step in the pipeline is to determine how many leads you will pursue in order to meet the goals that have been set by your company.  A lead that is qualified becomes an opportunity.  As the number of qualified leads/opportunities increases, so does the possibility of converting those leads into clients.

3)      The next step is to identify the opportunities that have a likelihood of closing as a win.  These are the opportunities where such criteria as pricing, closing date, and solution specifications have been agreed upon by both parties.  Perhaps a contract has even been prepared and reviewed.

4)      The final step in the pipeline process is the close – win or lose.  Either way, you are ready to start again fresh.

OnTarget Partners provides services to help companies with their Lead Generation goals including custom prospecting and campaign management.  Our CEO, Ed Trachier, is very knowledgeable in helping companies achieve their lead generation goals.  Find out how we can help you, too.

http://www.ontargetpartners.com/freeconsultation.html

-Jennifer

Jennifer Hanford is Social Media Coordinator for OnTarget Partners.  She can be reached at jhanford@ontargetpartners.com.

We often hear the expression that the most important words in real estate are location, location, and location.  At OnTarget Partners we have decided that 3 of our most important words are qualified, qualified, and qualified – especially in regards to the leads we generate.  We take B2B lead qualification very seriously and understand that generating quality leads ultimately results in subsequent and successful business for our clients.  Qualified leads comprise one of the most critical factors in successful B2B campaigns.  Lead quantity is important as well since a campaign certainly needs a steady supply of high-quality leads in order to be effective.

So, what makes a lead more than just a lead?  Our process begins with thorough and intensive research at OnTarget Partners.  We determine which contacts should be targeted, based on the type of marketing campaign.  We analyze contacts for each prospective company in which our client has interest.  Our research analysts can then determine who should be the key decision-maker and buyer for our clients’ solutions.  We will then take it a step further by also analyzing other contacts within their organization who may be influential to the main decision makers.

The B2B lead qualification process then continues with verifying and testing.  Contacts are confirmed in regards to their employment status, titles, phone numbers and email addresses.  Only after a contact has been analyzed and completely verified will it be added to a campaign.  When the campaign is completely filled with an adequate number of qualified targets, our opportunity developers are then prepared to hit the phones with their robust lists of data.

Would you like to learn more about our custom research and prospecting services?  Our CEO, Ed Trachier, is very knowledgeable in helping companies achieve their lead generation goals.  Find out how we can help you, too,  here.

Jennifer Hanford is Social Media Coordinator for OnTarget and can be reached at jhanford@ontargetpartners.com.