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Ask for action!!! Want to get 10x more out of your marketing campaigns? Your eMarketing and email marketing? Your B2B lead generation? So many of the direct mail that goes out these days has a ton of information, maybe even a super marketing message that seems as though it should be a lead generation dynamo, but the call to action is merely the main phone number and their web address. No offer, no compelling reason to do something about it today, rather than tomorrow, next week or never. Please understand that this is not necessarily an easy undertaking. For professional services firms especially, most of your competitors can claim almost everything you can claim as a differentiator. The work that you put into creating a unique offer for your prospects can be a huge advantage in starting the conversation and winning the sale. If you take the time to put yourself in the shoes of your prospect thinking of what they would see as valuable and what they would want to take action on, something that they may not be able to get from just anywhere, you are on the right track. Then, if you can stretch even further and think of something so unique that any prospect has to sit up and take notice, you have a compelling offer - a no-brainer offer. Best of lead generation success in your marketing messaging.

Provide Proof Points! If you have followed the previous 4 secrets to Auto-Pilot Marketing you will be getting the attention of your prospect. Now, this is very important to understand...they will have a tendency to NOT believe you. That's right, we have all been a bit desensitized by all of the marketing noise out there, not only in our business lives, but in our private lives. We simply do not believe everything we see, hear or read. Therefore, you must provide proof points for your claims. If you are going to tell someone that your solution will save them 20-30% or more from what they are currently spending, don't tell them yourself, let your customers tell them! The best spokespeople you could ever have for your solution are the ones that would swear by it and want to tell everyone else about it. Why do your think that all of the big retailers have implemented Facebook pages and community sections on their websites? They want their fans to have a place to come and brag to everyone else. Develop as many quotes, case studies and customer endorsement letters as you can. Match the small company testimonials with the small company lead generation and nurturing campaigns and the large ones with the large ones. Match industries, match geographies, match the roles of each customer and prospect - as best as you can. This rule of sales NEVER CHANGES - PEOPLE BUY PROVEN SOLUTIONS (when their peers have already tested the waters and proven the case). They'll even pay more! They'll even pay more and pass up on a competitor's guarantee to select the "proven solution". So, Prove It!

What is something that companies can do to leverage their lead generation investment? Get more out of your prospecting by profiling your target market. In other words, use your B2B lead generation programs to gather intelligence about your prospects as you interact with them through teleprospecting or email or webinars or social media marketing. This strategy enables you to start ranking them to find out how good a prospect they are and updating that ranking over time to understand how good a prospect they are in future quarters and years. Then, target them based on that information to educate them over time. So, what are the qualification questions you ask every prospect to determine how strong of a prospect they are for your solution? Find those out as many time as you can each prospect interaction. Then, even add some industry trend-type questions, maybe formulate some multiple choice answers to all of these questions and use the responses to create a research report that can be published and used as a marketing asset for your future B2B marketing campaigns. Talk about effective campaign development. Here's an example (http://bit.ly/gVqS9l) of what it could look like. Set yourself apart as a thought leader in your industry. If you are interested in more, visit their website. Apollo's central hub for up-to-date B2B marketing, lead generation and nurturing information and best practices: http://blog.apollosmg.com Apollo Sales & Marketing Group http://www.apollosmg.com

The Most Interesting Stat in B2B Lead Management What is one of the most interesting stats in B2B lead generation? Of the prospects you connect with (conversation, in-bound lead, meeting, event, other direct response)… …15% are ready to engage with you regarding your solution to their need …70% are a confirmed fit for your solution, but not yet ready to engage with you …15% are not a good fit and are disqualified. We use these percentages which are an average from research from Miller Heiman, Sirius Decisions and our own findings at Apollo. Given that, on average, 70% of the prospects you spend soooooooo much time and money for the 1st contact are not yet ready to engage with you, it begs the question, "What is your lead nurturing or lead management strategy?". Are you using an e-marketing solution or an automated marketing solution? If your firm does not have the resources or expertise to execute an effective lead management strategy, do you know of a good partner that can help you with lead management/nurturing services? An outsourced marketing partner? The good news is that there are plenty of options and some very affordable and effective game plans that you can execute to nurture these leads over time to convert them into your pipeline. Some of our client campaigns find that after 4-6 months, as much as 50% of their pipeline is being produced by their B2B lead management strategy. Beats finding out they are engaged with a competitor after 6 months because you gave up on them. That's a sinking feeling. Apollo's central hub for up-to-date B2B marketing, lead generation and nurturing information and best practices: http://blog.apollosmg.com Apollo Sales & Marketing Group http://www.apollosmg.com