On a cold rainy day in Boston, we attended a Silverpop b2b University. The event objective was to educate their customers on the benefits of Marketing Automation. We are in a time of transition and the marketing of tomorrow looks a whole lot different from the marketing of yesterday.

Jay Hidalgo from the Annuitas Group set the tone, highlighting that a b2b marketers have several pain points, including; generating quality leads for sales, measuring the leads (linking the marketing to the ROI), shrinking budgets, pressure to justify their marketing spend and the shift from traditional to digital mediums. Jay went on to discuss the idea of Lead Management, addressing how marketers fears can be squashed. He homed in on two key points; Buyer Power and Process, that were echoed by speakers throughout the afternoon.

Buyer power has shifted. In the past, business purchases would almost solely be based off a conversation with a well rehearsed sales representative. But now, as times are changing and the world is becoming more interactive, decision makers have a wealth of knowledge at their finger tips. Now studies by several research houses (namely Equiro and Sirius Decision) show that potential buyers within the b2b space will initially research their purchase online, then continue through social media sites and finally turn to the sales representative as a final step. This means that potential buyers could write-off a purchase decision based on the quality of an organizations website content and their reputation through social media. Tech Target and Google have also proven that business decision makers and not consulting Twitter and Facebook for these research, but referring to business or IT specific communities such as ITKowledgeExchange. Content it seems really is king and marketers really should be focusing their efforts towards their websites, whitepapers and blogs as opposed to traditional advertising. Adam Needles of Silverpop points out that potential buyers are making decisions based off education not interruption methods.

By focusing their marketing digitally with a heavy lean on content, Marketers are more likely to reach their intended target audience and monitor their leads much better than ever before. And let’s not forget that digital marketing is likely to be a lot cheaper than back-to-basics traditional advertising.

All of today’s keynote speakers talked of the requirement of a close-loop lead management process. Marketers aim to drive leads through all activity, but how are they measured and at what point are they handed to sales? The ever-hostile relationship between sales and marketing can be pushed to its limits when marketers hand over leads that are not yet ready, therefore ruining the sales trust and leaving a giant pool of leads, that need nurturing, untouched. So how do we prevent this? The Anuitas Group have identified several steps to implementing a close loop process and maximizing your interaction and therefore your profit.

Step 1) you must conduct and audit, with members from all units of your company simply to learn what you don’t know and where you have gaps.

Step 2) look closely at your database, who accesses it, how old is it, who cleanses it. Make sure a database is filtered based on your target profiles.

Step 3) how many leads are you trying to win? Create a lead plan, based on how much revenue you are looking to make and work backwards.

Step 4) What are you looking for from your lead? Determine at what point it is ready for sales or whether it needs more attention from marketing. Qualifying your lead enables you to take the lead to the next level.

Step 5) Build a relationship with your lead, nurtureyour lead until you understand exactly what they’re looking for. Research shows that if you build a relationship with a potential buyer before their purchase, they are likely to spend 47% more on their initial order.

Step 6) How will a lead get to sales when it’s ready? Have a lead routing plan in place to avoid the black hole situation.

And finally, step 7) What are you metrics? Make sure you have a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve so you can take the learnings and apply them to later programs.

This process is built of a solid alignment between sales and marketing, but do expect some push back. Change is scary for many organizations, particularly if teams or individuals feel they are being blamed for past processes not working. This can be a lengthy process, so remember…..never eat a whole elephant in one sitting.