The world of B2B marketing has changed dramatically with the advent of internet and the increased connectivity in today's world. Traditional marketing methods are getting increasingly ineffective as buyers become more informed and highly aware of the products or solutions they need.
2. The world of B2B marketing has changed
dramatically with the advent of internet and the
increased connectivity in today's world.
Traditional marketing methods are getting
increasingly ineffective as buyers become more
informed and highly aware of the products or
solutions they need.
The sales force is today faced with a situation
where the buyer has made 65% of the decision
journey even before talking to them. This puts
intense pressure on margins, the last
differentiator in an increasingly commoditized
and competitive market place.
The top 5 challenges in B2B marketing as
identified by HubSpot are:
1. Awareness/traffic (22.5%)
2. Lead generation (16.2%)
3. Social media (6.3%)
4. Targeting (5.4%)
5. Branding/brand recognition (4.5%)
If we look closely enough all the challenges are
about attracting and keeping customers. it boils
down to demand generation and sales in either
the short term or the longer term.
Demand management broadly and more
specifically lead management is a key marketing
priority and challenge as Sales organizations
aregenerally wary of Marketing driven leads. Sales
force is always spread thin and hence tend to
focus on the top accounts they know intimately
rather than obscure marketing leads which they
don't believe in.
The challenge for marketing then is to bring
quality leads and earn the respect of the sales
organization, show a good ROI on marketing
investments and demonstrate marketing's
contribution to the Sales funnel. To do this,
marketing organizations have invested heavily
in marketing automation and CRM systems
in the last decade. However generating quality
leads is still a challenge and most marketing
organizations are ill equipped to meet
that. This whitepaper demonstrates how
marketers can use Analytics to rapidly enhance
the Return on Investment (ROI) on their
marketing infrastructure.
Typical Lead Management Framework
Most lead Management frameworks have distinct stages as shown in the schematic below.
3. Lead generation stage:
Here is where the Marketing and Sales teams drive campaigns to prospects as well as existing customers
through a variety of media web, email, direct mail, social, events, tradeshows etc. The key here is to identify
the right profile to target with the right content at the right time in the right channel.
Some key statistics:
With direct mail, trade shows, telemarketing, and traditional advertising, the bigger the company, the
more likely they are to get leads from the aforementioned tactics.
Small companies are more than twice as likely to get leads from social media as compared to large
companies (18% versus 7%).
Large companies are almost three times as likely to get leads from traditional advertising as small
companies (11% versus 4%).
In the Banking/Insurance/Financial Services sphere, only 6% of leads come from PPC, but they are still
allocating 9% of their lead generation budget toward this lead source
In the Technology (Hardware) space, 16% of leads come from email marketing, and 12% of their
budget goes toward this source.
In the Technology (Software) industry, 13% of leads come from trade shows, and they are putting 17%
of their budget toward this source.
B2B companies have a significantly higher cost per lead ($43) in comparison to B2C companies ($15).
Medium companies have the lowest cost per lead ($19) in comparison to small ($31) and large ($38)
companies.
Marketing agencies have the highest cost per lead ($58) whereas the Retail/Wholesale/Consumer
Goods industry has the lowest cost per lead ($6).
U.S. companies have the highest cost per lead ($40); LATAM has the lowest cost per lead ($15).
Source: Prospectr Marketing. http://www.prospectrmarketing.com/where-do-marketers-get-leads#sthash.FMBcu9
Lead Scoring/ Nurturing stage:
In response to the marketing and sales campaigns, a lot of responses and inquiries come in, kick starting a
complex process of Lead management that involves capturing the inquiries, qualifying them and passing on
to sales teams. Both volume and quality are important here but controlling one impacts the other and hence
marketing needs to do a very delicate balance of lead qualification and passing on the best leads to Sales.
Marketing qualified lead which are not sales ready need to be carefully nurtured so as to be passed on to sales
when they are Sales ready.
Key Statistics
A whopping 68% of B2B organizations have not identified their funnel.
Just 56% of B2B organizations verify valid business leads before they are passed to Sales.
57% of B2B organizations identify 'converting qualified leads into paying customers' as a top funnel
priority. BUT...65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing. AND...79% of B2B marketers
have not established lead scoring.
50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. (Source:MarketingSherpa)
Only 25% of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales. (Source:GleansterResearch)
35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. (Source:InsideSales.com)
Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost.
(Source:ForresterResearch)
46% of marketers with mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow up on more
than 75% of marketing-generated leads.
Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Source:TheAnnuitasGroup)
4. Lead Pursuit
Lead pursuit is the final stage when a lead is either won or lost. Lead routing, scoring and prioritization are
critical for accelerated conversion rates. The typical consideration that go into lead routing rules are:
a. Pursue with direct sales force or through Channel partner
b. Geography (i.e., country, state, etc.)
c. Product Vs Solution Sell
d. Opportunity Size
e. Lead Source
f. Sales force strengths / weaknesses.
g. Overall sales pipeline backlog.
The rules could either be really simple or sophisticated based on the maturity of the lead management
process in an organization.
Key Statistics:
61% of B2B marketers send all leads directly to Sales; however, only 27% of those leads will be qualified.
(Source:MarketingSherpa)
The average sales cycle has increased 22% over the past 5 years due to more decision makers involved in
the buying process. That means more intricate lead nurturing towards more stakeholders.
(Source:SiriusDecisions)
Typical Lead Conversion and Waterfall rates in B2B space are shown in th graphic below:
5. The BRIDGEi2i Analytics Solution
BRIDGEi2i's technology agnostic Demand Acceleration framework can help Marketers accelerate their lead
quality significantly and rapidly. We understand that higher quality and quantity of lead generation is a key
priority of the Marketing team who invest heavily in marketing automation systems to accelerate leads. But
though these systems provide productivity, they are only as good as the underlying data and intelligence.
BRIDGE's unique framework attempts to solve these practical challenges.
BRIDGEi2i Demand Acceleration Framework
At BRIDGEi2i we realize the complexity involved in a good demand management process. Legacy systems,
disparate data sources, multiple workflow systems, various execution partners, internal functional
dependency, rapidly expanding data availability, reducing budgets and skill deficiency have put B2B
marketing organizations under tremendous pressure.
The schematic above highlights the complexity involved in Demand management process primarily
driven by:
Disparate data sources, a lot of them external to the organization, severely restricts the ability of an
organization to make meaning from the existing data without investing into an expensive data
integration effort. The irony though is that the integration takes too long by which new data sources
emerge, defeating the very purpose.
BIG data hype has made companies run after storing every piece of data without much direction on what
that data can do. The myth around more data is good is leading to a lot of frustration among marketers
especially when it's not actionable.
New age Marketing and sales Automation tools like Eloqua, Marketo, Aprimo, Salesforce.com etc. have
brought in the promise of transforming Demand generation process. Although these systems have
improved workflow efficiency, organizations still lack the Analytics capability to improve the
effectiveness of the process.
Dependency on external vendors for campaign execution and the whole shift to Digital engagement is
putting pressure on the process as well.
6. To help such marketing organizations BRIDGEi2 has developed a Demand Acceleration
framework that focuses on:
1) Quick deployment without high implementation costs.
2) A test and learn environment with best-in-class Predictive Analytics support.
3) Technology agnostic, we work with what you have or don't have.
4) A partnership model where we stay with you till the end, sharing your problems and
celebrating your success.
The Demand acceleration framework from BRIDGEi2i focuses on the intelligence that goes into the Demand
Management process. Each phase/process/ step is analytically driven and provides instant value to our
clients. We believe that there is no such thing as perfect data, and Analytics sophistication is a journey not a
destination. Our clients can begin their journey irrespective of what systems/ tools/ technology or capability
they have.
Lead Generation – BRIDGEi2i way:
The key objective remains the ability to answer the 4 basic questions :-
Who are the target customers?
What are their needs?
How can one engage with them?
When should one engage them?
BRIDGEi2i has stepwise Solutions to get to the questions above, in a very data driven way.
Step 1. Build Customer Intelligence.
We believe that behavioral segmentation is one of the most critical framework that companies need to
adopt for identify target customers. Although most companies have some kind of segmentation framework
it's often not in a shape to be used for targeting. At BRIDGEi2i we build segmentation that can be used for
targeting and help one test and learn.
The output of the segmentation exercise would be any of the following:
a.Generic segmentation to create homogeneous groups.
b. Value segmentation to Most/Least valuable customers.
c. Customer Lifecycle Models ( Retain, Acquire, Develop or Nurture, Acquire, Protect)
d.Propensity Models that predicts the likelihood to purchase in a specific timeframe.
7. Step 1b: Identifying Prospective Customers
Armed with an astute knowledge of the existing customers we help our clients identify prospects from a
much larger pool for population. This typically involves:
a. Lookalike Modeling where one identifies Prospects who are similar to existing customers and hence
likely to engage.
b. White Space and Profit pool analysis that identifies new segments that could be lucrative to target.
Step 2: Develop deep Campaign Insights
Once Customer Intelligence has provided us good insights on what groups of customers to target for a
specific purpose the next question is what campaign to run for them. Analysis of historical campaign
performance typically provides rich information on what kind of campaign would be effective on certain
segments. An ongoing schema of Design of experiment helps in continuous evaluation of campaign types
and customer segments.
8. After this the campaigns are executed. Typical campaigns will be multi-channel that will include email
marketing, digital marketing, tele-marketing, social media, events etc.
A successful lead generation program is fundamental to ensure that inquiries and responses come in both in
terms of Volume and quality.
Managing the responses that come in and ensuring those are qualified, routed , nurtured or passed on to the
sales teams is the next most important part of the Demand Management process.
Step 3. Lead Management
Lead management is fundamental to the process of Demand management and a well laid out lead
management process is a key differentiator in B2B marketing. There are distinct capabilities that need to be
developed under lead management:
Step 3a. Inquiry Filtering and Enrichment
Campaigns involve multi-channel responses and inquiries too are spread across multiple channels with
varying degree of information being provided. One of the most important aspects of an inquiry is
identification and ability to contact. Inquiry filtering primary involves:
a. Contact data quality checks and deduplication
b. Contact data enrichment that helps lead scoring in a big way.
c. Basic disqualification rules that keep junk out (e.g. Interest on the Career site should not qualify as
an inquiry).
A good inquiry filtering process bring in enormous amount of discipline into the lead management process
and helps de-clog the system.
Step 3b. Lead Scoring
Lead Scoring is essentially a prioritization tool which predicts the how interested an inquiry is in making a
purchase. An expensive way of doing that would be to call each inquiry and ask them a series of questions to
judge, the Business they are in, the Authority they have on the purchase decision, the Need they have and the
Timing they are looking at. To avoid tele-qualification costs or complement it lead scoring has become very
popular in the Lead management process.
Scores using Weights
This Lead scoring process look at two aspects of an inquiry, the profile and the engagement. Profile is
generally related to the account the inquiry is coming from and the engagement piece looks at what the
particular contact has done as part of the inquiry or before. Event attention, response to an email, website
visit etc. are indications of engagement by a particular contact.
9. Although popular this method forces one to pre-determine what aspects of engagement need to be
considered and is increasingly being accused of simplifying a multi-dimensional aspect of scoring
propensity.
Predictive Lead Scoring
A sophisticated lead scoring process involves looking at leads won and lost in the past and building a
predictive model that tries to model the multidimensional aspects of why a lead is converted. The data
elements which are used in the modeling process are extensive and the power of statistics is used to
determine what variables impact the conversion probability instead of having to second guess those
variables as in the Weightage method of lead scoring.
Data Used for Predictive lead Scoring:
1) Historic data of the lead funnel from Inquiries to Win / Loss.
2) Firmographics / Demographic data on the inquiries at an account as well as Contact level.
3) Campaign details on how an inquiry came in.
4) Nurturing history of a contact
5) Any Trigger data on accounts at the point of inquiry.
6) Any data related to the Sales Pursuit
7) The overall deal size, margin, timeframe taken for deals won.
8) Reason associated with losing a particular deal.
Analytical Models used for lead Scoring:
Classification methods of Statistical models, specifically Knowledge Models with response variable (in this
case the conversion of a lead will be the response variable) help address lead scoring. Popular classification
techniques we use include:
Logistic Regression
Decision Trees
Discriminant Analysis
Bayesian Techniques
Support Vector Machines
The above methods and few other adaptations are tested on each Scoring model to get the best fit.
10. Step 4: Lead Routing
Lead routing is very critical for an optimized Sales Pursuit. Broadly all qualified leads gets routed to either an
organization's direct sales force or to Channel partners.
Step 4a. Routing rules for direct sales force
In order to ensure that the lead routing is in Sync with the ground realities of the Sales force, lead routing
framework takes into consideration multiple facets of the sales force. The schematic below broadly captures
the considerations for a lead allocation logic.
Step 4b. Routing rules for Channel partners
Leads to channel partners are optimally routed based on the following factors:
1) Partner type
2) Partner territory
3) Partner performance
4) Contractual obligations
5) Breadth of Services.
6) Service history
7) Historical conversion rates.
8) Competitive considerations.
Routing algorithms here are basically linear optimization models with constraints.
11. Office
Bangalore: 389, 2nd Floor, 9th Main, HSR Layout, Sector – 7, Bangalore – 560 102
Phone: +91-80-42102154
US: 1013 Centre Road, ST # 403S, Wilmington, New Castle, DE 19805
Phone: +1 858 312 1075
Web: www.bridgei2i.com | email: enquiries@bridgei2i.com
Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn: BRIDGEi2i
BRIDGEi2i Demand Acceleration Framework is analytically sophisticated, designed for rapid deployment,
flexible for incorporating customization and is guaranteed to provide positive ROI.
We encourage any marketer struggling with point solutions, complexity of available tools/ technologies and
constrained by limited budget to reach out to us so that we can partner with you to help you meet your
business goals.
The Demand Acceleration Framework is powered by our Demand Analytics Architecture which provided as a
Managed Service to our clients. Hence we stay invested with our clients through their journey.
About BRIDGEi2i
BRIDGEi2i provides Business Analytics Solutions to enterprises globally, enabling them to achieve
accelerated business impact harnessing the power of data. These analytics services and technology
solutions enable business managers to consume more meaningful information from big data, generate
actionable insights from complex business problems and make data driven decisions across pan-
enterprise processes to create sustainable business impact. BRIDGEi2i has featured among the top 10
analytics and big data start-ups in several coveted publications.