Increasing qualified lead generation and ROI with lead scoring - Tactical... · Increasing...

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Increasing qualified lead generation and ROI with lead scoring Jen Doyle, Senior Research Manager, MarketingSherpa Kaci Bower, Research Analyst, MarketingSherpa

Transcript of Increasing qualified lead generation and ROI with lead scoring - Tactical... · Increasing...

Increasing qualified lead generation and ROI with lead scoring

Jen Doyle, Senior Research Manager, MarketingSherpa

Kaci Bower, Research Analyst, MarketingSherpa

Today we’re going to discuss:

1. Key findings from research from more than 1,745 B2B marketers

2. A case study in which a B2B company increased sales conversions by 190%

3. Three simple steps you can use to increase the ROI of your lead gen efforts

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Research background

1,745 B2B organizations were surveyed on:

• Top challenges

• Barriers to success

• Best practices

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Key finding from research

No 68%

Yes 32%

Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded June 2011, N=1,745

• 1,745 B2B organizations were surveyed

• 68% of B2B marketers

have not identified a funnel process

• Funnel optimization strategies present great opportunity for success

Q. Have you identified a marketing-sales funnel process (such as registered lead, rules-validated lead, phone-ready lead, etc.)?

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Challenges growing in pertinence

33%

39%

33%

27%

37%

35%

69%

34%

41%

36%

36%

37%

44%

78%

33%

38%

38%

40%

41%

49%

74%

Marketing to a growing number ofpeople involved in the buying process

Marketing to a lengthening sales cycle

Generating public relations "buzz"

Competing in lead generation acrossmultiple media, from podcasts to paid

search to webinars to print ads

Generating perceived value in "cuttingedge" product benefits

Generating a high volume of leads

Generating high quality leads

2011

2010

2009

Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded June 2011, N=1,745

• B2B marketing challenges on the rise year-over-year

• Continual struggle between quality and quantity of leads

• The marketplace is evolving, and marketers are resistant to adapt latest best practices

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CMOs speak out on top challenges

• “The greatest challenge would be lead scoring and the scoring truly representing closing sales.”

• “We lose many of our leads throughout the sales funnel.”

How can I generate more high-quality leads, and improve lead generation ROI?

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Case Study: Revamping lead gen

• Goals: Profile audience, segment database, and establish automated scoring and nurturing

• Results: 190% increase in sales conversions

“My challenge is not to increase the number of leads, but to get improved conversion rates throughout the funnel.” -Nick Halsey VP Marketing Jaspersoft

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Customer-centric messaging

Centralized and

Segmented Database

Four

Nurturing Tracks

Customer

Community Member

Corporate North America

Corporate Europe

CMS

Web Analytics

E-commerce

Open Source

Email System

Mar

keti

ng

Au

tom

atio

n

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Qualification and scoring

• Applied demographic and behavioral scoring

• Collected information through dynamic registration forms

• Handed leads off to Sales once the qualified lead threshold was met

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Triggered nurturing and hand-off

Download of 30-day trial version of

software

Series of five automated emails

Hand-off to Sales

Automated sub-campaigns

Actions indicating readiness to buy

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Results

190% increase in sales conversions

E-commerce #3 closing

rate

30-day trial drip

#2 closing rate

Request for contact

#1 closing rate

How can we approach the funnel in a new way?

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B2B Marketing Funnel 1.0

Leads enter the system

Leads go directly to Sales

Sales “cherry-picks” the best leads

Sales spends significant time “checking in” with the rest to see if they are ready to buy

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B2B Marketing Funnel 2.0

Leads scored

per criteria

Qualified lead criteria established

Non-qualified leads stay in

Marketing for nurturing

Qualified leads go to Sales

Leads enter system

What’s the key differentiator? Marketers must screen leads before sending them to Sales

3-step process

1.

Identify

2.

Score

3.

Optimize

Step 1 of 3: IDENTIFY

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What is a lead?

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IDENTIFY: Defining a qualified lead

• Generate more qualified leads • Improve alignment • Increase sales effectiveness • Accelerate sales pipelines • Increase overall revenues

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IDENTIFY: Defining a qualified lead

“By definition, a universal sales lead is one that has been determined to fit the profile of the ideal customer, has been qualified as sales-ready, and spells out the responsibilities and accountabilities of the participants in the program, Sales and Marketing.”

-Brian Carroll Executive Director of Applied Research MECLABS

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IDENTIFY: Lead qualification improves ROI

• 35% lift in lead generation ROI from screening leads

85%

115%

Average lead generation ROI

Sends all leads to Sales Does not send all leads to Sales

Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded June 2011, N=326 CMOs

27%

28%

32%

51%

56%

66%

71%

Lead has reached a certainlead score

Lead has downloadedcontent

Lead has indicated anacceptable purchasing

budget

Lead has explicitly asked tohave contact with sales

Lead has indicated a validbusiness need

Lead appears to be intarget market

Lead contact informationhas been validated to be

real

Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded June 2011, N=1,745

IDENTIFY: Requirements of sales-ready leads

• For those marketers that do have qualification, these are the most popular criteria

• Contact information, target market and valid business need

• Explicitly asking to have contact with Sales

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IDENTIFY: How to define a qualified lead

1. Analyze existing qualified leads

2. Bring Sales into the loop

3. Draft and roll out

4. Adapt over time

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IDENTIFY: Sample lead definition

• A sales-ready lead for our company has a need for CRM software -- and 'gets it.'

• They have some level of education on CRM and a clear understanding of the benefits.

• They have an adequate budget set aside for their purchase.

• They have downloaded one of our whitepapers on CRM software benefits.

• Approximately 30% of leads generated from Marketing will be sales-ready.

• Approximately 15% of sales-ready leads will be closed by the sales team.

- CRM Software Developer

IDENTIFY: Resources

1. MarketingSherpa’s 2011 B2B Marketing Advanced Practices Handbook

2. Post-Summit Workshop – B2B Marketing Advanced Practices

3. B2B Lead Roundtable Blog – www.b2bleadblog.com

Step 2 of 3: SCORE

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SCORE: Score all leads

• Lead scoring – the process of adding or subtracting points, as a result of various lead attributes and behaviors, that identify sales-ready leads.

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SCORE: Lead scoring improves lead gen ROI

138%

78%

Average lead generation ROI

Currently using lead scoring Not using lead scoring

Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded June 2011, N=326 CMOs

• 77% lift in lead generation ROI from scoring leads

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SCORE: Top lead scoring criteria

30%

32%

33%

38%

38%

39%

42%

49%

50%

57%

58%

71%

Offline lead activity

Subtraction of points

Key problem / pain point

Time frame for purchase

Anonymous tracking ofwebsite activity

Budget

Industry

Company size

Job title

Frequency and / orrecency of activity

Content download

Online lead activity

Source: ©2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey Methodology: Fielded June 2011, N=1,745

• For those who score, these are the top criteria

• Lead behavior is an excellent indication of engagement

• Balance behaviors with demographics

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SCORE: Creating lead scoring campaigns

CRITERIA

• Demographics and attributes

• Behaviors

EXECUTION

• Manual execution for a small number of criteria or leads

• Automated execution to ensure consistency

ASSUMPTIONS

• Launch with a best guess for qualified lead threshold score

• Test and adjust threshold over time

FLEXIBILITY

• Continual process of trial and error

• Gather qualitative feedback and quantitative data

FEEDBACK

• Check in with Sales regularly

• Identify problems early on

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SCORE: Lead scoring attributes/behaviors

Lead Scoring Attributes Lead Scoring Behaviors

Industry Website visit

Company size (number of employees) High-value website page visit

Annual revenue Email open

Location Email clickthrough

Budget Whitepaper download

Job title Webinar registration

Key problem / pain point Phone call

Current solution Email sent

Education Visited booth at trade show

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SCORE Sample lead score calculation (1)

Lead scoring criteria Addition / Subtraction

of points

Works for a company with 100 + employees +3 Indicated an acceptable budget of $5,000 for purchase +5 Indicated a time frame to purchase of three months or less +4 Has job title that includes “Manager” or “Director” +3 Indicated desire to be contacted by a salesperson +21

Total 36

Target threshold is 21, so route lead to Sales

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SCORE: Sample lead score calculation (2)

Lead scoring criteria Addition / Subtraction

of points

Works for a company with 100 + employees +3 Indicated a time frame to purchase of three months or less +4 Clicked through on a company email +2 Visited the pricing page on website +2 Downloaded a whitepaper on benefits of outsourcing +2 Lack of activity for 14 days -3 Unsubscribed from the email list -5

Total 5

Under target threshold of 21, so hold lead

Step 3 of 3: OPTIMIZE

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OPTIMIZE: Continual adaptation

• Adapt methodologies over time to meet the needs of our evolving marketplace

Universal

lead definition

Lead scoring criteria

Attribution of points

Lead score threshold

Overall lead

quality

Continual Optimization

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OPTIMIZE: How to continually optimize 1. Audit your existing lead scoring process regularly

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Example of lead scoring process audit

1. Review scores of deals that closed.

• Did these meet your threshold?

2. Review deal sizes and time to close for won opportunities.

• What were the lead scores for accounts with large purchases and short timeframes to purchase? Were they higher than other leads?

3. Review scores of deals that did not close.

• Were these leads under your threshold?

• Were some over your threshold?

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OPTIMIZE: How to continually optimize 1. Audit your existing lead scoring process regularly

2. Ensure that you have a closed-loop feedback process with Sales

3. Conduct a SWOT analysis of your existing lead scoring process

a. Stay abreast of industry happenings, and any internal or external factors which may influence your market and lead scoring campaigns

4. Be willing to segment lead definitions even further where there are opportunities

5. Adjust the individual scoring values based on how your company (re)defines a lead

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Summary

1. Generating more high-quality leads and improving lead generation ROI are top B2B marketer challenges

2. Funnel optimization strategies present a great opportunity for success

3. Three-step process for B2B Marketing Funnel 2.0:

1. Define and identify qualified leads

2. Score all leads based on attributes that indicate sales-ready leads

3. Optimize through continual adaptation and improvement

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Hands-on training

Instructions for Worksheet 1

• If you DO NOT have lead scoring • Draft criteria for a qualified lead

and initial lead scoring campaign that can be used for launch.

Instructions for Worksheet 2

• If you DO have lead scoring • Execute SWOT (strengths,

weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis of existing campaign.