By Larry Fleischman, Practice Director, Branding and Go-to-Market Strategies & Solutions, Televerde

Craig Burbidge, a VP Marketing with Hitachi Consulting, recently conducted a side-by-side comparison of Televerde’s sales opportunity generation capabilities with that of a rival for a 90-day stretch. Neither Televerde nor our competitor was aware of the “bake-off” scenario, which was deliberately intended by Craig. The objective was the same for both firms: Position Hitachi’s customer-relations software solution and supporting services to medium-size businesses and generate qualified sales leads. 

By the end of the program Televerde delivered five times as many leads as our rival, and the leads were better quality according to Craig, who attributes this to Televerde’s persistence, a differentiator called out by journalist Victoria Barret in an article she wrote on Televerde that appeared in a recent issue of Forbes. 

We wanted to share a bit more with you, our Create & Accelerate readers, about what really happened during this apples-to-apples comparison.  We also want to make the point that a bake-off, assuming it’s an apples-to-apples comparison that is measured on equal values, is never a bad idea, especially for companies utilizing more than one outsourced lead-generating firm or at least thinking about doing so.

Having worked with many teleprospecting firms in the past, Craig was curious about what would happen if he put two rivals against each other without either of them knowing they were being tested.  He wanted to make sure he was receiving the best possible yield in terms of qualified leads.  Here’s how it worked:  The product being pitched to prospects was Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution and Craig gave each competitor half of his budget.  All variables were exactly the same.  One experienced lead generation specialist from Televerde and one from the competing firm were given the same level of training.  Both had been engaged with Hitachi programs previously.   At the end of the three-month test period, the results were clear: Televerde not only delivered five times more leads but the quality of those leads was measurably better.  Craig attributes Televerde’s victory to our unique business model, the utter tenacity of the lead generation specialists, and their thorough understanding of the product they were selling.  A win for Hitachi and definitely a win for Televerde. 

The bake-off is not an unusual approach, at least not for Televerde and probably not for our competitors either. It’s a reasonable, meaningful and measurable way to gauge the capabilities of the competitors. While the total cost each firm charges may not be the same, when that cost is deducted from the return value of the sales opportunities generated to calculate the true program ROI as well as the cost and ROI per each opportunity, the bottom line metrics reveal the actual value. 

Clearly there is a bake-off pay-off for the winning firm, and there’s a pay-off for the organization conducting the effort which now has peace of mind in knowing where precious demand creation dollars should be spent. 

So if you’re wondering how to effectively compare results between two or more firms, consider the bake-off approach. It’s not a new idea. Some would say it’s “old school.” But it’s fundamentally sound and can produce reliable results. While simple in concept, the implementer must make the effort to level-set expectations and variables so that the playing ground is fair for all involved and so the results are not subject to suspicion. 

Any firm with confidence in their resources, methodologies, systems and capabilities should welcome a bake-off opportunity vs. shrug it off as a low-value test or perceive it as demeaning to their value.

The journalist, Victoria Barret, blew the door wide open to who and what we are. And we like it!  No, it wasn’t a puff piece and no, it wasn’t all favorable. But what real reporting is?  Do you trust an article or television news piece that gushes about its subject?  No way. It doesn’t ring true. Forbes (via Victoria) scrutinized us every which way, going behind the scenes at our “inside the walls” call center operations, talking to our workforce and several clients. The result? An almost 360-degree view of what makes Televerde tick within the confines of a three-page article. 

The article has sparked a robust and relevant dialogue among our strong and supportive base of high-tech clients, industry watchers and others, many of whom congratulated us on officially “coming out” and allowing a larger segment of the business world to see what they are experiencing from their own engagement with us – an alternative, socially responsible way of doing business that creates direct and measurable benefits for society by positively affecting the lives of a disenfranchised group of women. 

Without question, our business model’s all-around economic benefits are enormous. At an average annual cost of $22,650 to house an inmate, we save the State of Arizona and its taxpayers over $20 million annually by having successfully kept hundreds of women from returning to prison as a result of providing them with marketable business skills and jobs on the outside upon completion of their sentences. Add to this amount a difficult to calculate yet undeniably significant savings resulting from the women who are now able to financially support their families without depending on welfare and other government handouts. 

On the revenue side, the women who successfully re-integrate with society generate state and federal tax dollars on the incomes they receive and on the goods and services they consume. More significantly though, over the past 15 years Televerde’s prison-based workforce has generated an estimated $2 billion in net new sales revenue for our clients. This is revenue on which taxes are paid, on which business is expanded, and on which the U.S. economy is strengthened. 

Yet also without question, we have our detractors, namely those who focus on unsubstantiated business risks where others see immense rewards. This group also includes those who emphasize that the currently incarcerated women are taking away jobs from those who haven’t committed crimes instead of focusing on the fact that it is because of the situation these women are in that they are generally much better qualified and poised to create a higher level of performance for our clients who clearly recognize this as a competitive advantage. 

In these uncertain economic times, with the help of our forward-thinking clients (many of whom are among the top technology firms in the world and others who are leaders in their respective categories), Televerde has generated one certainty: That corporate social responsibility goes well beyond “being green” and that it can and does have a far-reaching positive impact on government, business and society’s pocketbooks.

According to the Bureau of Justice and the U.S. Probation Office, an unemployed ex-offender is four times more likely to return to prison than an employed ex-offender. In the U.S., one in every 746 American women is imprisoned and between the ages of 35-39 one in every 265 women is imprisoned. Can we really afford not to reduce these numbers? 

Thank you Forbes for calling attention to a national problem and a solution that some members of corporate America are helping us to solve. 

We encourage you to read the Forbes article and then return to our blog if you’d like to share your opinions about what you’ve read. Don’t hold back – we welcome all comments.

Kudos to the Community Builders

By Larry Fleischman, Practice Director, Branding and Go-to-Market Strategies & Solutions

Televerde joined SiriusDecisions last year after hearing references by multiple clients to the research firm. In the midst of so much incoming information from groups like MarketingSherpa, CMO Council, DMA, Gartner, Forrester and others, keeping up with all market chatter was, and frankly still is, a little overwhelming. Probably similar to how many of you keep up the pace, we tend to listen to the conversations that appear to rise above the rest. Sadly, sometimes that’s a function of volume – literally the companies generating the most amount of information. Because we all have email addresses, they’re just hard to avoid. 

But what should reallygenerate the most attention are those conversations that appear to be the most sensible, relevant and timely. (Old school I know. But hey, if 50 is the new 40 (or maybe the new 30, then Old School is the new New School!) These conversations are sometimes hard to find but generally worth the effort. We found that sensibility when we engaged with Sirius. While the initial attraction was simply a result of how often their name was coming up in dialogues with our current and future customers, the thing that encouraged the formal relationship and that is sustaining our interest is the relevance of what they’re saying. 

Now we don’t always agree with everything SiriusDecisions says (again, relevance is the thing), but we’re okay with that. We all have different perspectives of the world, unique experiences, and our lenses aren’t always focused on the same things. And disagreement can be a good thing, especially when it forces a conversation about a topic that really does need to be more deeply examined. In the end, we may realize it’s worth changing a previously closely held belief, or standing even more strongly by a long-held conviction, or simply agreeing to disagree and move on to another topic. We’ve had some of those moments as I’m sure you have too around your own conference room discussions. 

After joining SiriusDecisions, we downloaded and voraciously read all the research briefs we were entitled to. We discussed them amongst ourselves and others. We spoke to and questioned some of their analysts and other execs about the things we were reading. We attended some of their events to network and listen more closely in intimate settings to issues that sales and marketing execs in the high-tech market were experiencing. We engaged in the conversation when appropriate. Some of what we heard was new, some of it was information we already knew but with a fresh twist that re-stimulated the conversation and gave us the platform for engaging more people – more of our own staffers and clients – in the conversation. It has given us a water-cooler to gather around.

A Blend of Right Practices Makes the Biggest Impact

By Larry Fleischman, Practice Director, Branding and Go-to-Market Strategies & Solutions, Televerde 

With a schedule of 50+ demand creation campaigns that Televerde implements for our clients on a monthly basis (650+ annually), undoubtedly we learn some things along the way about what works and what doesn’t. Clients rightfully expect us to share our knowledge with them and are never hesitant to ask us lots of questions about what we know that they should know. The question we’re probably asked most often is “What are the one or two practices we can engineer into our campaigns to improve the performance?” 

The answer is never really as simple as “Just change this question or message in the discussion guide/script” or “Just add this data to the campaign.” Since each program is unique in some way, there really isn’t a one-size-fits-all set of solutions. However, across all these implementations, one theme is common, which is that it’s typically a mix of several right practices in multiple areas of the strategy that makes programs more successful.  

Along with some of my colleagues, we recently evaluated one recent client experience that particularly stands out in terms of initial performance improvement. All the program results aren’t in yet, but the early diagnostics indicate more favorable results are expected. MQL to SAL conversion metrics have increased from 10% to 24% and SAL to SQL conversions have increased from 20% to 58%. It’s important to note that this evaluation wasn’t of just one specific campaign for this client, but rather was an assessment of a series of collaborative changes implemented over time by the client and the Televerde team during the duration of an ongoing program. Which leads us to over-arching strategic learning experiences numbers one and two… 

1.     No One-Off Quick-Fixes
Improving demand creation program performance isn’t a one-time event contingent upon doing just a single thing better or implementing a change in just one strategic area of the program. Instead, the improvements are gained by embedding a set of refinements in several areas. These modifications are learned by trending and analyzing practices and results, then experimenting with new approaches. 

I realize that this suggestion probably appears to be against the grain amongst those who feel it’s important to isolate variables one at a time to truly measure the impact of one vs. another. But in reality several variables can be isolated and measured concurrently when each is executed in a different area of the program. This is why it’s important to pick apart marketing programs, segment them in stages that are most relevant to your organization, and evaluate each segment. For example, examine what could be improved in the marketing stages of campaigns vs. what can be modified in the lead hand-off stage. Or look at what can be refined in early nurture stages vs. nurture approaches later in the cycle. Or examine sales rep practices in mid-stage vs. late stage selling to see if a practice is weaker/off the mark in a particular area. 

If you can identify the stages and segments in the lifecycle of a new sales opportunity, then you can make adjustments where they are most appropriate. Yes, it requires precious time to do this analysis, but if the end-result is measurable performance improvement then it’s worth the effort for a long-term, annuity payoff. One more point on this topic: You don’t need to take on the daunting task of evaluating all sales opportunities; rather, pick off a few recent ones that have been closed/won in your favor and a few that haven’t, then put them in your marketing lab and conduct the assessment. Chances are that you’ll quickly find some commonalities among them that can serve as proxies for many others. 

2.     Alter Mindsets
Another important learning from this experience is the need for a paradigm shift. We all know the discussion about the Sales-Marketing gap isn’t new. But it doesn’t seem to be going away either. Our assessment of this recent client experience revealed that an objective participant in the Sales-Marketing gap evaluation and resolution process is valuable, even essential. 

Obviously, the objective participant needs to have proven expertise in both the Sales and Marketing areas as well as a practical methodology for bridging the gap. Televerde has the ability to provide this objective consultation and we often do for our clients within the campaign planning stages and throughout its implementation. But in some situations the client may determine (as in the case we evaluated) that they want to have someone completely outside their own organization and ours to conduct the assessment and facilitate its resolution – this can work too. 

There are really three important points here… First, be willing to step back and give someone permission to open the hood of your Sales and Marketing engine and examine all the parts that make it work (or that aren’t allowing it to work like it should). Second, be willing to accept criticism of your process and experiment with new ways of doing things. And third, bring all key stakeholders into the assessment and make them part of resolving the issues, even if this means they have to admit responsibility for being a part of the problem to begin with. The stakeholders include not just your Sales and Marketing teams, but also any third-party players in the process; for instance, your outsourced demand creation partners (in this case it was Televerde). 

So if you’re able to make progress on understanding that typically several issues need to be resolved over a longer period of time and throughout several programs (vs. just looking for the simple fix in an isolated area), and if you’re able to see the value of commitment to a change in the Sales and Marketing mindsets, then you should be ready to implement the more tactical aspects of improving the performance of your demand creation programs. 

Our evaluation of the client experience and our active participation in helping to resolve the issues helped us to validate our own thinking about several more key improvement opportunities… 

3.     Create Warmer Opportunities by Acquiring and Sharing More Insight
This is accomplished in an ongoing exchange of knowledge that takes place between the inside sales person or marketer who may have generated, qualified or nurtured the lead (in this case it was Televerde as the outsourced demand creation partner); the sales rep who is managing and forecasting the opportunity; the inside sales support person who is helping the sales rep to work the opportunity; and the sales executive who is responsible for ensuring that the forecast is achieved. What is the insight? In addition to the usual criteria (budget, authority, need, timeframe), insight sharing should also include other critical elements related to ongoing qualification of the opportunity and assessment of sales momentum. In this particular client scenario, we worked with the client and the consultant to take a “BANT on steroids” approach. Some examples: 

• Relationship-mapping and determination of all the decision-making/influencing contacts and multiple access points across the organization, including IT and other lines of business. (Establishing relationships with the other lines of business represented a Sales and Marketing paradigm and learning shift in our client’s experience.)
• Reality-checking that your company’s solutions really do fit the needs of the prospect as originally thought.
• Knowing if there are competitors positioned within the opportunity and how they are positioned compared to you.
• Ensuring that the company’s current technology install base can support and/or complement the need for your solution.
• Having a clear understanding of the prospect’s budget to make sure it’s realistic to fund the cost of your solution. Also know if the budget will/could/has changed. 

This isn’t a one-time exchange of information among these stakeholders intended to simply move a lead from an MQL to SAL or SQL stage, but rather should be dynamic and ongoing since sales opportunities are never static. Checkpoints should occur on a regular cadence in all of these areas and others. The intentional objective should be to know when to migrate a sales opportunity into a different stage of nurture. 

4.     Assign More Accountability
The sales rep and other stakeholders need to be held accountable for ensuring that the momentum for key sales opportunities is not allowed to lapse. Regularly scheduled checkpoints on all key activities should occur. If a critical piece of information is missing or a step in the process has been missed then the sales rep needs to be held accountable for getting things on track quickly. There’s no time for displacing blame or pointing fingers. Accountability is key, and in this particular client experience when accountability was stepped up, the results noticeably improved. 

5.     Don’t Treat All Deals the Same
Creating and discovering demand for some products is tougher than others. Complex sales require more collaboration and nurturing. In this particular client experience, prospects don’t generally have an existing budget for our client’s solution; the funding needs to be created based on effective positioning of the need for the product. As a result, the sales cycle is extended. And the product is not inexpensive. These complex sales need more energy and focus, so more robust collaboration and nurturing techniques are needed. More collaboration is needed between all stakeholders, especially with Marketing and/or an outsourced demand agency if an account-based marketing approach is being deployed. The lines of communication between Sales, Marketing, Product Engineers and outsourced partners must be kept open throughout the sales cycle. In terms of nurturing complex sales, ensure that all the tools and content assets are available for all key stages of the sales cycle, including demos, client references, case studies, fact sheets, research, testimonials, etc. When working with an outsourced marketing or sales support partner, make sure they are enabled with all of these tools too. All boats rise when there’s more water in the ocean! If collaboration and nurture are overlooked and underestimated, deals will inevitably suffer. 

6.     Train, Train, Train!
Of all the many high-value learnings we’ve acquired over the past 15 years, the importance of ongoing, in-depth training is among the most critical – especially when an outsourced demand generation partnership is place. Our calling agents are incredibly good at what they do. Their dialogue-based marketing skills are very well-honed. And they’re terrific at leveraging their experiences from previous campaigns and clients with whatever program they’re currently working on. But their experience and skills cannot be optimized without proper training from our clients on their brands, their products, their value propositions, and their markets. And just like every other piece of advice in this article, the key to success is to make it collaborative and ongoing. When the client and Televerde collaborated to enrich the training initiative, we saw improvements in the confidence level of the callers and the speed in which they were creating more productive relationships with prospects that in turn results in producing more qualified leads. A one-time training session at the start of a campaign isn’t nearly as effective as regularly scheduled reviews of calls with prospects, role playing scenarios, reading materials galore, Q&A, and other types of training. So the key here is not to skimp on training – it makes a big difference. 

Let’s recap… 

No One-Off Quick-Fixes – Approach your demand creation challenges holistically and strategically.
Alter Mindsets – Take a step back, let an outsider look in, and be willing to accept change.
Create Warmer Opportunities – Acquire and share more insight.
Assign More Accountability – Don’t let any stone in the sales process go unturned.
Don’t Treat All Deals the Same – Give complex sales opportunities the resources they need to be nurtured.
Train, Train, Train – Optimize your internal and outsourced marketing resources by giving them the tools – and time – they need to be informed and confident. 

Stop looking for the silver bullet -it’s a blend of several right practices that make the biggest impact!

Dawn Coppens

B2B buying behaviors and preferences have changed dramatically. I know this first-hand since the gamer generation (including my son the video kid whiz) are now the CEOs in the organizations we want to buy from us. This is a generation that was raised on the web. Often, most of their research and evaluation is completed before any human interaction occurs.  

Many of my clients have invested heavily in second-generation Web technology to support social networking and video sharing. There are many pages of content assets and brochureware that inform and educate the general population and web visitors. So today, when knowledge is “king,” how do you direct potential customers to the specific information they need to make buying decisions? 

Enter marketing automation and nurturing strategy. 

Savvy marketers are leveraging a digital + dialogue approach to drive individuals (like my son) to the information that is specific to their needs, interests and roles. I’m not talking about email blasts. Rather, this is about using very specific strategic thought leadership content and approaches designed to address your ability to solve business problems. 

The purpose of nurture is to build relationships, enhance the customer experience, and create brand identification in your markets. Nurture is an ongoing dialogue via both digital and human contact that provides relevant and actionable messaging to the purchasing execs and other specific titles you’re seeking to engage with. The buyer wants to be in control of the buying process, but they’re willing to exchange information with you if the nature of the conversation is reciprocal (i.e., value given for value received). A well-planned nurturing strategy (if necessary deployed by a partner who has the expertise and bandwidth to execute it correctly) can accelerate pipeline conversion and eliminate the dreaded marketing lead leakage.   

Well-managed data, marketing and nurture activities are most successful when they can be repeated and predictions can be drawn, so when I do speak with people (like my son), I know they are already well-informed and further along in the sales cycle, perhaps even at the much-desired “ready to buy” point. 

I would love to hear about the nurturing strategies that you are using and how they are working for you.

Why is it important to me as a 30-year sales veteran to understand this movement to better align these departments? Four words:  “More highly qualified leads.”  I consult daily with all size organizations whose sales departments all want what I want.   The research delivered at this seminar clearly demonstrated that sales and marketing departments must achieve minimum standards of alignment in order to increase productivity, generate more revenue and improve processes. 

Alignment with processes involves discipline, collaborative planning, data standards and governance to analyze, diagnose and improve.  Using Televerde as an example for best practices that we implement for ourselves and for clients, we support these processes from beginning to end – starting with lead management SLA’s to our scheduled campaign performance reviews discussing campaign metrics. 

Technology alignment must occur through process automation, reporting integration and information access.  As an example of this, data integration with our clients’ CRM applications enables them access to real-time sales opportunity information and the ability to measure our performance to deliver high-value sales opportunities directly to their sales team. We also deploy this practice internally for our own sales team.  Another relevant example of technology alignment that we use ourselves for clients is lead nurturing which prevents opportunities outside of the “low hanging fruit” category from being left behind for the competition to pick off.  The time has come to take some of the nurturing responsibility away from sales through automation of relevant messaging. 

How does your company predict, plan and measure?  Data & Analytics will reveal valuable information about your marketing and sales opportunities, accounts and sales cycle.  Where we have found success in this area is through ongoing research services which have proven to impact our clients’ pricing strategies, territory distribution, sales personnel assessments, and account relationship-mapping.  Accurate data is a critical element to support successful sales and marketing efforts, and it’s not just about the data used to implement a marketing campaign; this also must include embedding the business intelligence and other data that results from studying each and every sales opportunity, even those that aren’t ready to buy in the next 30-90 days.  We are strong believers that with data comes wisdom, with wisdom comes insight, and insight delivers new possibilities for optimized sales and marketing performance. 

Lastly, does your sales team have the proper toolkit to improve their performance month after month, year after year?  What Sales Enablement marketing and measurement tools are available? Probably the most meaningful enablement tool is having a strong set of product and solution content that is relevant to a variety of buyers at all stages of the sales cycle – early, mid and late-stage. This is an area I’ve often found to be lacking at many organizations. It’s an opportunity for improvement that can have a tremendous positive impact on sales effectiveness. 

I returned from the seminar with validation that sales and marketing alignment is as critical as ever. It’s incumbent  upon all sales and marketing professionals to collaborate well in order to close the gaps.  When we’re successful at this, we will all benefit from receiving more highly qualified leads.

As a Strategic Account Manager for 10 years, clients often rely on me for information and insight about how they are marketing compared to their competitors or peers in the high-tech industry. I’m always grateful for their confidence in my experience and always willing to provide my candid observations. So it’s in the spirit of “knowledge transfer” I’d like to share with you a common observation.

I’ve found that that the most recurring flaw in effective marketing programs is a lack of attention given to the marketing data – the contact records that comprise the foundation of the marketing campaign. It’s quite common to receive a client’s data that is either missing key information or that contains inaccurate information. Examples include data we receive from responder campaigns where it’s typical to receive records populated with “John Doe” who attended an event, or the name “Mickey Mouse” in a record for someone who has downloaded content from the clients’ web site. And more often than not we find clients are marketing to non-purchasing locations or contacts who are not involved in the decision-making process.

Best-in-class clients are often looking at the data in aggregate to identify buying patterns and opportunities to segment that information in order to create a more informed marketing strategy. My personal review of over 150 client marketing programs that were implemented in the last 90 days revealed a yield of a much greater ROI and overall results in cases where a data quality improvement or data enrichment program (including standardization and cleansing) were implemented before the marketing campaign began. This seems so sensible yet often campaigns are rushed to execution despite the lack of data quality.

Many of our clients tell us that data quality improvement is a top investment priority for 2010, and my hope is that this priority is not ignored in-lieu of the rush for quick results. This is something I continue to advise my clients about. Accurate data is critical to making certain that a targeted program or message is actually reaching the right customers and prospects.

Please share your thoughts on the importance of data integrity.

Next discussion…”Buyer preferences and the importance of a nurturing strategy.”

As part of our Sales & Marketing Executive Insight Series, Televerde is please to publish the following interview with Stuart Long, Vice President of Sales, North America, Capsule Technologies. Based in Paris, France and Andover, Massachusetts, Capsule is the leading, vendor-neutral medical device connectivity provider, and has been for over 12 years. Their proven solution is FDA 510(k) cleared and features the largest number of installed medical devices.  Over 500 hospitals worldwide have chosen Capsule for their device integration needs. 

What company or companies do you admire most (besides your own) and why?

REI because of how they are committed to the environment and their employees, their business model, and their passion for outdoors. 

When customers and prospects consider the Capsule brand and the key value proposition of your products and services, what is that you want to come to their minds and resonate?

Nursing efficiency and patient safety through bio-medical device connectivity. 

What are the three most important topics of discussion currently taking place within your sales and marketing organization?

Achieving quarterly quota, demand generation, sales methodology and reporting via salesforce.com. 

Why are these topics important?

Prior to my arrival, we had a record of inconsistent sales performance, or at least not well-documented performance. I’m building a world-class sales team so this topic has taken on significant importance and is being addressed. In addition, my funnel to quota is currently 1:1 and I need it to be at least 3:1. 

What are the most important metrics that your sales and marketing organization cares about and why?

Order intake and invoicing, performance against plan and previous years, qualified lead generation and market awareness. These metrics are important to drive market penetration and increase sales. 

Recognizing that all sales and marketing organizations occasionally have “relationship issues,” how are you overcoming them?

Weekly integrated meetings, revamping marketing’s mindset that sales is their customer and everything they do must relate or convert into a sale. Weekly ‘what’s working & what’s not working’ deep dives. Implementation of inside sales and integrating marketing to create effective lead conversions and lead nurturing programs. 

What are some of the practices you’re using that are effectively enabling a stronger flow of better quality leads for your sales organization?

Televerde profiling campaigns, lead generation, as well as the above mentioned processes. Ideally treating converted leads to unqualified opportunities and using inside sales to get them to qualified at 10% or even 25% before turning over to the field. Ensuring no opportunity is neglected, or in other words, No Lead Left Behind! 

What is the biggest impact you’re seeing from your social media activities?

Excellent marketing awareness. Our CNO is now named in top 10 nurses to follow on Twitter. Numerous blog and tweets bring many leads now from hospitals and surprisingly many consulting firms. Additionally, viral video distribution via YouTube is bringing about greater awareness. We track and measure everything social media does for us. 

What specific impact has the economic adjustment had on your sales and marketing strategies and programs?

Reduction in awareness programs and a highlighted need to focus dollars on increasing qualified funnel. 

What are some of the biggest changes that have taken place in your sales and marketing organization over the past three years and why have these changes occurred?

We’ve seen significant growth, even in a downturned economy. To me this demonstrates that technology that truly aids in efficiency, productivity and ROI will remain top of mind in our industry as healthcare institutions are driven to increase patient safety, do more with less and adopt government mandates for electronic healthcare records. Interestingly, much of our view has changed from demonstrating our ability to enable meeting these demands to creating a new market segment where we see new competitive pressure from upstarts and validation of major healthcare vendors. This has caused a spin-off of division and/or solutions to meet these developing market demands. In summary, we’ve seen not only growth, we’re seeing different buying behaviors and learning how to market and sell to a very dynamic market keeps us on our toes. 

In terms of allocation of energy and resources to sales demand creation and sales pipeline acceleration, which area is getting most of your focus and why?

Both have our highest attention with awareness campaigns directly behind that. I have a probablized funnel that is 40% of my annual quota. I absolutely must increase the funnel with qualified opportunities as well as mature my lowest percentage probabilities as just over 50% of my funnel is in the 10% stage.

What is your process for evaluating demand creation activities in your organization and determining what changes are necessary?

None, I have used Televerde at four different companies for many years – I simply make a call. 

The term “lead nurturing” is sometimes tossed around too easily without clear definition. When you discuss the topic internally with your sales and marketing staff, what parameters do you put around it?

Two steps: 1) Converting a marketing lead (irrespective of source) to an unqualified opportunity and using inside sales to determine the right party contact (RPC) and buying analysis. Mature the opportunity to ‘qualified’ and either hand it to field sales at a hot 10% or warm 25%. (Eliminating much of the ‘busy work’ from field sales and give them a pure license to hunt real deals.) 2) Determine lead/opportunity viability, if not viable as an opportunity then convert to marketing for a process in which the lead is tracked and we create a relationship with that prospect in numerous ways (Tier 1 through 5) like email campaigns, white papers, blogs, social media, webinars, etc. The goal is to convert those leads back to opportunities in the future. Ideally, we will increase conversion and close rates of what would have been abandoned leads to opportunities and ultimately won deals. 

With increasing industry attention on marketing automation and social media tools, do you feel that the impact of and need for traditional human dialogues between vendors and their customers and prospects will diminish?

No, I think it will increase. Social media creates a ‘convenient’ method of communication, in which prospects and companies can respond to methods (and at their convenience) that are best suited for them. 

What do you feel is the strategic-focused thought process that companies should go through when considering to outsource their demand center activities?

Proof is in the pudding – find a company that has walked the walk and can prove it. 

Recognizing the critical importance of marketing data to the success of your demand creation and lead nurturing programs, what key talking points would we hear in your “State of the Data” speech to your sales and marketing organization?

Utilize best practices. Study leaders vs. laggards and implement what the leaders do. Excellent is as Excellent does. 

What is your crystal ball revealing to you about the future state – let’s say 2-3 years from now – of your sales and marketing organization?

We’re a small company. If we were to be looked at for an acquisition, our processes, data, methodology, discipline and proven success is what would raise eyebrows. 

What book are you reading now or have you recently read that you would recommend to others?

“Why Work Sucks, and How To Fix It”

As part of our Sales & Marketing Executive Insight Series, Televerde is please to publish the following interview with Kirk Reid, Executive Vice President, Chamberlin Edmonds. Based in Atlanta, Chamberlin Edmonds provides services to over 200 clients in 30 states and have 13 people in their sales and marketing organization. Kirk has been with the company for seven years. Chamberlin Edmonds provides eligibility and enrollment services to hospitals, governments, and managed health care organizations. On behalf of its clients, the company helps disabled, indigent and uninsured patients navigate the often-complex application processes necessary to receive Social Security disability benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, crime victims’ compensation, and charity care. Founded in 1986, the company operates through about 10 regional offices across the U.S.

What company or companies do you admire most (besides your own) and why?
Med Assets – they aggressively promote, execute flawlessly and their leaders operate with the highest levels of integrity.

When customers and prospects consider your brand and the key value proposition of your products and services, what is that you want to come to their minds and resonate?
High quality, customer-centric services delivered in the most efficient manner possible – provided by the industry leader with unquestioned integrity.

What are the three most important topics of discussion currently taking place within your sales and marketing organization?
New product development, expanding addressable markets, and strengthening client relationships

Why are these topics important?
We have a long, consistent record of organic growth, and healthcare reform discussions and the economy are creating significant issues and causing many competitors to take desperate measures to grow share. It is essential that we hold tightly to our customers and find unique ways to leverage existing customer growth opportunities and discover/exploit new markets.

What are the most important metrics that your sales and marketing organization cares about and why?
Qualified leads, pipeline additions, decisions and wins. We have a very predictable model – as long as we can keep our pipeline filled with quality leads we will drive new business

Recognizing that all sales and marketing organizations occasionally have “relationship issues,” how are you overcoming them?
We have a very robust client management protocol that creates an early detection system. The entire organization is involved in ensuring that we build strong relationships throughout all constituencies within our customers. The program includes establishing clear performance metrics, managing and communicating on our performance against those metrics consistently while also building strong personal relationships at senior levels. Additionally we use an outside third party to do random client interviews and post mortems on lost deals as well as survey tools that provide us objective feedback on client perceptions.

What are some of the practices you’re using that are effectively enabling a stronger flow of better quality leads for your sales organization?
Establishing distinct initiatives and efforts on four fronts – Televerde, direct sales force, channel partners and client referrals. Close management and communication around goals and performance is critical

What is the biggest impact you’re seeing from your social media activities?
An increase in public relations opportunities – we have used these media on a very limited basis up to this point but are increasing significantly in 2010.

What specific impact has the economic adjustment had on your sales and marketing strategies and programs?
Our business remains strong and we are committed to continuing to invest at historical levels or above.

What are some of the biggest changes that have taken place in your sales and marketing organization over the past three years and why have these changes occurred?
Inconsistent production on a regional basis. We have much less presence in certain geographic areas of the country and it is tougher to grow at desired pace without the solid reference base. This leads to more dependence on higher share markets where addressable markets are smaller.

In terms of allocation of energy and resources to sales demand creation and sales pipeline acceleration, which area is getting most of your focus and why?
Our Televerde partnership is certainly one – they have proven to be a reliable, consistent channel and they are proactive in assessing our needs and offering creative services. As mentioned before we are investing in social media this year as well.

What is your process for evaluating demand creation activities in your organization and determining what changes are necessary?
We use ROI analysis. If it doesn’t meet expectation within a prescribed timeframe we stop investing and look at alternatives.

The term “lead nurturing” is sometimes tossed around too easily without clear definition. When you discuss the topic internally with your sales and marketing staff, what parameters do you put around it?
Keeping a potential opportunity warm and in the incubator if timing or our current services don’t offer a good solution for their needs.

With increasing industry attention on marketing automation and social media tools, do you feel that the impact of and need for traditional human dialogues between vendors and their customers and prospects will diminish?
Not at all – analyzing and discussing inputs from these new tools is critical determine their value.

What do you feel is the strategic-focused thought process that companies should go through when considering to outsource their demand center activities?
Evaluating ability, capacity and opportunity costs of internal resources.

Recognizing the critical importance of marketing data to the success of your demand creation and lead nurturing programs, what key talking points would we hear in your “State of the Data” speech to your sales and marketing organization?
History and experience is the best predictor of future results – hope isn’t a method.

What is your crystal ball revealing to you about the future state – let’s say 2-3 years from now – of your sales and marketing organization?
A larger direct sales force leveraging effective channel partners and client referrals armed with new products attacking new markets and supported by outsourced services and new medias.

What book are you reading now or have you recently read that you would recommend to others?
“Hope is Not a Strategy”