Author Archives: Jason Stegent

Lead generation is the life-blood of any sales force and the chief function of any marketing team. Unfortunately, too many B2B organizations aren’t equipped to do it the right way and what you’re left with are leads that aren’t qualified or ‘sales ready’, a dry pipeline and unaligned sales and marketing teams that are constantly playing the blame game. If you’re seeing this in your organization, here are three reasons you should consider outsourcing your lead generation to somebody that does it for a living

1. It’s more cost effective

Think of all of the costs involved to build an in-house lead generation engine – inside sales reps (ISRs) with their salaries, benefits and monthly expenses; sales managers to manage them with their salaries, benefits and monthly expenses; technology, both software and hardware, to help manage the process; offices to house them (they’ve got to sit somewhere don’t they?), etc. The list goes on and on. What if you could outsource it to a team that has all of this covered? What if you could have 1-2 (+) people dedicated to your account and you pay them on a retainer basis? Or what about performance-based contracts, meaning you only pay for the leads delivered to you that meet a pre-determined criteria? You’re not paying for garbage, you’re paying for quality. Sounds enticing, doesn’t it?

2. It’s not what you do…

“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” – Red Adair (and fellow Houstonian)

It’s simply not what you do. You don’t have the process or technologies in place; you don’t have the people that have the experience to get the job done; and a lot of the time the good people you do have are completely out of bandwidth, meaning you’re out of resources to do the job right. Outsource this function to professionals that can provide the horsepower you need while you and your team focus on closing business. “Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus.” – Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great

3. Your sales reps are entitled

That might sound aggressive, but it’s true. Today’s B2B sales reps, more often than not, want qualified leads delivered to them on a silver platter and they’re not willing to make the amount of touches necessary to drive leads. And when you tell them that’s a part of their role, they begrudgingly do it. This leads to resentment amongst your sales team, which leads to unenthusiastic calls (in terms of first impressions, having the wrong tone can be an absolute killer), poorly scripted out emails, and overall poor results. And for your sales reps that aren’t entitled, many times they’re getting poor training because their managers and supervisors don’t know how to implement an effective lead-gen strategy. Remember, it’s not what they do (see reason # 2). This is an instance where outsourcing this function to a lead generation partner is a necessity. Look at the commitment it takes to drive a sale. Ask yourself, “Is my team willing and ready to do this?”

If you’re current ISRs are doing a poor job of filling the calendar and the pipeline, and you’re looking to get more return on your lead-gen investment, outsourcing should be at the top of your to-do list. Just make sure you do your due diligence on your lead-gen partner of choice. There are a lot of swindlers out there that muddy up the waters for the rest of us!

Here at Elastic Solutions, our software solutions are all about visual marketing. From webinars to virtual events, the best ones are leveraging video and other visual components to tell a story, increase engagement and accelerate revenues at the end of the day. Ultimately, I look at webinars and virtual events as the ultimate content marketing vehicles, and content marketing as a whole is becoming increasingly visual.

YES!

With that being said, I came across an article in Forbes that sums this up perfectly – 5 Visual Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2016. It has a heavy focus on why video is so important in today’s marketing environment, which we’re completely onboard with since video has proven to increase webinar and virtual event engagement, ultimately leading to more qualified leads. Please click here to read on.

If you’re compelled, please share your feedback below. Talk soon

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

2016 is right around the corner (can you believe it?!) and marketers have one thing on their mind….what programs can I run to drive more leads for my sales force and look like an all-star in my CEO’s eyes? In today’s marketing environment, the options are endless. Webinars, email marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, digital advertising, 3rd party lead generation partners… and events. What events can we either attend or host that will get us in front of our target audience, strengthen our relationships with current customers and prospects, and drive greater pipeline value?

If you’re like the majority of the marketers out there, you’re most likely going to attend or host the same events that you always have. In most cases, these events are going to yield the same results as in years past. But if these events aren’t driving the results you want, why do you keep attending/sponsoring/hosting them year after year? If any other lead generation tactic doesn’t work, do you keep doing it the same way year after year? Of course not. Then why are you taking that same approach with your event strategy when there’s another option out there?

Virtual Events Have Been an Option for a Long Time

We all know the challenges of in-person events. Travel expenses can be a killer; you feel like the time away from the office puts you too far behind the 8 ball (the #1 reason people don’t attend in-person events isn’t because they’re not interested…it’s because they can’t justify the cost and time away from the office) and it can be incredibly hard to measure their effectiveness. So if you attend/host an in-person event, spend a boat load of money, and either don’t have a lot of leads to show for it or can’t effectively measure how engaged your end users are, that doesn’t seem like something worth repeating, now does it?

Enter virtual events. They’ve been around for a while, but marketers have been slow to adopt them. But why, especially when you look at the mainstream adoption of other online events such as webinars/webcasts? There’s really no clear cut answer. The only thing I can think of is organizations don’t think their audience is ready for them, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. If your target audience is consuming your content through webinars, they’ll consume it through virtual events as well. If your audience is digitally savvy – and in today’s world if they’re not, they’re watching the parade pass them by – they’ll attend your virtual event.

We did a study at the end of 2014 on B2B Demand Generation Effectiveness. Of the marketers profiled, 56% had not attended or hosted a virtual event. Of the 44% of marketers that had leveraged virtual events in some capacity, 88% said they would make them a part of their lead-generation plan moving forward. What this tells us is that marketers have been slow to adopt virtual events, but when they do use them as part of their lead generation plan, they’re VERY likely to use them again. The reason being? They see the benefits

• It’s a fresh, outside-the-box way to engage your audience and drive ‘sales ready’ leads for your sales force

• They’re more cost-effective than an in-person event, reducing event costs by as much as 75%

• They knock down the walls of geography and allow you to reach a broader audience. It’s a global economy, so why aren’t your structuring your events with that in mind?

• They’re a great tool to extend the shelf-life of a physical conference. Virtual doesn’t have to wipe out in-person events. Instead, they can act as a complement or extension to an existing show. How do you get engaged with all of those people that couldn’t justify the cost/time away from the office to attend in-person? Give them a virtual option to consume your content and thought leadership, and your pipeline will reap the benefits

• Virtual events are more measurable, plain and simple. They can measure everything a person does – how long they attended; rooms they visited; booths they entered and how long they stayed there; content they viewed/downloaded; links they clicked; presentations they attended and for how long; interactions they had with peers, sponsors and product experts, etc. The options are limitless. Don’t you think your sales team would rather have all of these engagement metrics at their disposal, as opposed to just knowing that Joe Schmo stopped by the booth? Of course they would, because it makes their job that much easier!

Bottom line – if you’re looking for a new way to execute events, extend your reach, and drive more qualified leads in the process, give virtual a try. The data shows that if you try them once, they’ll be a part of your lead-gen arsenal moving forward.

If you’re compelled, please share your feedback below. Talk soon

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

Nearly everything is digital – “Google” is now used as a verb; communication is primarily through texts and emails more than phone calls and in-person meetings; we’ll check YouTube for instructions before calling a manufacturer for help. The advancement of the digital world is fascinating and opens an infinite number of doors for businesses if leveraged the right way.

Webcasts are no exception! They’re time-efficient, budget-friendly, and present numerous opportunities that produce results down the pipeline… if properly executed. I’m sure you’ve attended a webcast that was ‘less than intriguing’ (okay, it was a total flop). As a platform provider we do everything in our power to make sure that this doesn’t happen, but we’ve seen our fair share of ‘flops’ as well; but we’ve also seen webcasts with extraordinary execution and outstanding results (a real WOW experience).

Here are 6 reasons why webcasts get stuck in the mud and how to get them rolling uphill:

Underdeveloped content

It’s great to focus on the content and avoid becoming ‘slide centric’. We encourage it! However, having underdeveloped slides is essentially sabotaging yourself by disregarding your visual support. There shouldn’t be a focus on strictly slides or strictly spoken content, but a comfortable balance.

The fix: One or two graphs relating to your topic, along with some bullets and images, can be a life-saver for webcasts! It doesn’t have to be intricate or fancy, but it does need to be relevant and insightful.

Inexperienced speakers

While it’s impressive to have particular individuals involved in your webcast, their contribution could potentially hurt your efforts if they are inexperienced or unenthusiastic about the topic. Keep in mind that the audience has taken the time out of their day to visit your webcast. If the presenter is monotone, speaks for a long period of time, or is reading directly from a script or slides, you run the risk of losing attendees who have lost interest.

The fix: Practice, practice, practice! Go over the information and have a rehearsal with your presenters. This provides an opportunity to give tips and opinions. It’s also a good time to make sure that your presenters stay on track and stick to their predetermined time frame.

Insufficient promotional period and content

It’s true that most registrants signup during the week leading up to the webcast, but that doesn’t mean that you should only do one week of promotions. The golden number is 3; AT LEAST 3 weeks of promotions. Think about it – most advertisements only have about 3 seconds to make an impression and emails have about 7 seconds, that’s just how the human attention span works.

The fix: begin promotions at least 3 weeks before your webcast, focusing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays around 9 AM and noon. These are shown to be the peak times to generate the best response from an audience. Also, try switching up the wording and visuals of your content to keep it fresh!

Lack of preparation

‘Winging it’ isn’t the best approach to events, and let’s face it, most of us aren’t usually good at it. If this is your style, bravo! But as a best practice and reassurance, preparation is key. Nothing is worse than stumbling and forgetting your part. You get flustered and embarrassed while the audience gets confused and impatient.

The fix: As a rule of thumb, have your content finalized and ready at least 3 days prior to the event. Also, always do a dry-run with your team and platform provider. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and there are no last minute confusions.

Low audience engagement

Talk about short attention spans – Yikes! Keep your attendees in the moment with your webcast, not looking at the clock. This happens when one or a combination of the above reasons is exhibited in a webcast without two-way communication between the presenters and attendees.

The fix: Use polls, chats, and Q&A sessions to give your audience a voice and a reference as a way of building a relationship.

No escape route

We’re all human and we make mistakes. Sometimes we’ll stumble or forget to change the slide, but it’s not the end of the world. You have to roll with the punches!

The fix: Make light of the situation and correct it. The audience won’t scrutinize you for a simple mistake and will be forgotten momentarily. Maintain confidence and focus and you will be fine!

If you’re compelled, please share your feedback below. Talk soon!
Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him at jstegent@elasticroi.com 

Webinars have become, quite possibly, THE most important tool for marketers to help drive demand and accelerate revenues for their organizations. There seems to be a common misconception that webinars are only for lead generation but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Webinars should be an important piece of your strategy for every stage of the funnel. The key is delivering the right webinar, to the right audience, at the right time. Here are the different types of webinars you should deliver at each stage of the funnel, ultimately turning prospects into wins.

Driving Awareness among Prospects (Top of the Funnel)

These are what we like to call ‘top of the funnel’ webcasts. The goal here should be to talk about industry challenges and typical pain points your target audience is faced with, and establish yourself as a thought leader/SME. You’re trying to build credibility, so now isn’t the time to demo/product pitch the audience to death. Instead, you should be able to provide your audience with actionable takeaways that leave them hungry to learn more. You’re not necessarily attracting prospects at this stage that are ready to buy immediately (although that would be nice!), but rather those that may be currently shopping for a solution. Provide an interactive experience and content that can help accelerate these prospects through the sales cycle. Give them the ability to ask your presenters questions; download content in the form of whitepapers, product briefs, case studies, etc.; respond to surveys and polls. And at the end of the webinar, have a very clear call to action in terms of next steps, from reaching out to the presenters directly with their questions or scheduling time for a product demo. Once the webinar is over, measure attendee engagement and determine which prospects have ultimately turned themselves into qualified leads for your sales force to pursue.

Turning Qualified Leads Into Active Opportunities (Mid-Funnel)

Your ‘top of the funnel’ webinar weeded out the contenders from the pretenders, and now these qualified leads are excited to understand exactly how your technology works and perhaps see some real-life examples of where a company/individual similar to them experienced ROI. While I’m always a big proponent of bringing in a third party when possible (I know it’s not always possible because customers can be weird about this kind of stuff, and industry analysts and academics can cost an arm and a leg), I believe it’s more important here than at any stage of the buyer’s journey. Make the customer, and their journey with you, the focus of the webinar. More often than not, your best sales tools are happy customers, so allow them to help you build your business case. Talk about the specific applications your customer leveraged to tackle their challenges and realize ROI, and if applicable, integrating a demo into the mix is a good play here. It doesn’t need to be the bulk of the presentation, but 10-15 (+) minutes of product will wet the appetite. If they want more, and if you’ve done a good job of building the business case they will, you can always schedule a more in-depth, one-on-one demo.

From Evaluation to Purchase

Here they are. They’re at the 5 yard line, and it’s your job to get them across the goal line. Remember, your audience for this webinar has a specific set of challenges. You’ve given them real-life examples of your approach to tackling those challenges and now you need to show them how you’re different from the competition. Lean on the advantages they’ll see in working with an organization such as yours and provide statistics that help strengthen your business case. A lot of times, buyers can experience ‘risk avoidance’ at this stage. They get worried. They worry about whether or not they’re making the right decision by moving forward with you, and whether or not you’ll deliver the results you’re promising. You need to re-enforce your business case, provide additional examples if necessary, and make them feel confident that choosing your solution is the way forward. Show them the risk they would be taking by NOT moving forward with you.

Even though we’re not going to go beyond the ‘Evaluation to Purchase’ phase of the funnel with today’s blog, the webinar strategy doesn’t stop there. Webinars have proven to be an extremely effective tool to upsell your customer base. Once a customer is on-board, they’re much more likely to purchase from you again…as long as they’re happy – but that’s another blog for another day.

Remember, for a truly effective webinar strategy that drives results, you need to tailor your webinar content to each stage of the buyer’s journey. Develop your webinars with the buying cycle in mind and you’ll experience accelerated sales cycles and greater revenue growth.

If you’re compelled, please share your feedback below. Talk soon-

 Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com.

Cold calling is dead…it doesn’t work…nobody picks up the phone anymore…it’s antiquated…outbound was so yesterday, only inbound works….yada, yada, yada. To be completely honest, to say that cold calling is dead is complete and utter BS! If it didn’t work, I’d be flipping burgers – not that there’s anything wrong with flipping burgers. More often than not, the people proclaiming that cold calling is dead couldn’t sell hot chocolate to an eskimo.

With all of that being said, I came across a Salesforce.com blog that I believe tackles this subject about as well as it can be tackled. So much so that for once, I decided to let my own thoughts on the matter take a back seat because this blog speaks exactly to my thought process. It not only talks about how cold calling isn’t dead, but how delivering an integrated, balanced approach is key. “Allbound” – a mixture of in/outbound – is the way forward. And yes, cold calling, done the right way with the right people, should be a part of that strategy. Click here to read on and happy selling!

If you’re compelled, please share your feedback below. Talk soon

Jason Stegent is the Founder & President of Elastic Solutions. Email him @ jstegent@elasticroi.com

The purpose of any top-notch marketing strategy is to continue building brand awareness and consumer engagement, with the ultimate goal of bringing on new clients and growing within your current customer base.

According to an IDG report, “59% of marketers are making lead gen their top priority in content marketing.” However, the outcome is only as good as the content provided; you get what you give. Appealing to diverse companies and industries in one piece of content can be daunting, especially when you’re at different levels in the relationships; from strangers to loyal customers.

Dana Rothman, Marketo, says “today’s consumers don’t respond well to self-promotion. They don’t want to be sold to; they want to be educated.” With that in mind, here are different types of content to get in front of your prospects at different stages of the buying cycle.

Content to boost recognition

Content to use: blogs, social media, keywords, press releases, web page, webinars

The prospect has no knowledge of your company, what it does, or who can use its products or services. On average, a person will only glance at a post for two seconds before they decide to click or keep scrolling. This makes the subject/topic of content crucial in order to grab and hold attention, enticing your target audience to engage.

Content to drive consideration and ‘sales ready’ leads

Content to use: eBooks, webinars, reports, whitepapers, guides, short videos

You’ve grabbed their attention. Great, now what?! Now you need to relate to where that prospect is in their buying journey. Show them that you understand the pains and challenges that they’re faced with, and that you look at solutions for those pains/challenges through a different lens than your competitors, ultimately separating yourself from the competition and helping your prospect understand why your approach is the way forward. This is a vital component in gaining prospects’ trust. And now more than ever, people buy from people that they trust.

Content to accelerate opportunities through the pipeline

Content to use: webinars, longer videos, podcasts, case studies, subscriptions, assessments

At this stage, you’re beginning to drill down into your business case. You’ve attracted the prospect and peaked their interest, so keep building. Dive deeper into how your products and services can help them with the challenges that they are faced with, ultimately allowing them to see ROI on the back-end.

This is a very important piece of the process. Unfortunately, too many marketers think that once they get to this point their work is done, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Having the right piece of content at this stage could be the difference between an opportunity getting stuck in the pipeline or one that crosses the goal line and becomes a win.

Content to up-sell your customer base

Content to use: virtual events, webinars, trials, demos, consultations, estimates/quotes, appointments, coupons and promo specials, emails

The most strategic B2B marketers today put a big emphasis on increasing relevance within existing accounts. Many times, your best prospect is already a client and unfortunately, too many B2B marketers forget that and miss out on an opportunity to substantially grow revenue.

If you’re currently driving value for your customers, they’ll be excited to hear about your next big idea. For instance, webcasts and virtual events have proven to be great platforms to touch your customer base in a more cost effective, measurable way, introduce them to the latest and greatest of what’s going on in your organization, ultimately creating new opportunities for your business in the process.

Sometimes the best opportunities are staring you right in the face. You just need to know how to market to them effectively!

Virtual Events are popping up more and more often, and it’s no wonder why; cutting costs, extending reach, and less stress in planning make the virtual world appealing to businesses of all sizes. So how can we compare the success of virtual environments to the traditional in-person event?

There are the obvious ways to measure success, like number of attendees and leads acquired. While these are quick and easy ways to assess events, these points alone do not show the full picture and therefore, the hosting organization misses essential information to measure the success of the event and what to build on for the next one. In order to fully understand how well an event has been implemented, we need to ask ourselves questions which analyze the event on a deeper level.

1. Did the attendees and presenters interact?
   A large portion of those attending an event do so for the networking aspect. Some may assume that the virtual world lacks this sort of person-to-person interaction, but there are actually more opportunities to communicate with one another. Attendees have the ability to engage in multiple conversations at once and feel more comfortable asking questions. They can also revisit these conversations after the event! Make sure to utilize and promote these features before, during, and after the event.

2. What percent of registered users actually logged on to the event?
   Whether someone forgets about the event or has a conflicting schedule, having 100% attendance is difficult at any event; so it is understandable that virtual events would have similar obstacles. Providing teasers and reminders will help keep the prospective attendees’ interest, but follow-up is just as important. Just like a good car, if it operates well and gets the job done, customers will return. Keeping updated, open communication pre and post- event will generate better outcome in attendance.

3. How long did the attendees stay at the event?
   Although attendance is a tried and true way of measuring event success, it doesn’t give an idea of how many attendees actually used the interface once they logged in. Generally, if attendees stay online for at least 90 minutes, they get a good feel for the materials and information provided. Interactive features and live communication engages the audience, prolonging their visit and allowing them to learn more.

4. How many people visited the On-Demand archive post-event?
   It’s always exciting to see the analysis after an event. The data says a lot about the success of the hard work put in, but don’t forget to add in the revisiting data at the conclusion of the archive period. This detail is easy to overlook but gives a broader idea of how your event was perceived.

5. Were there common trends in questions and suggestions?
   If there is a question or suggestion from the attendees that appears to be a theme, it may be useful to make this a section in future events. Listen to your audience. It will not only save time in the future but will also improve the quality of your attendees’ experience!

6. What was said about the event?
   Formal measuring tactics like surveys are always useful, but they only cover a limited area of the information. Monitoring social media platforms and comments left on forums can give an idea of the audience’s true feelings after they’ve had time to think about and review the experience. Responding to posts, whether it’s positive feedback or constructive criticism, will show that your organization values the feedback as well as provides another form of open communication.

Conclusion

There is no clear cut, right or wrong way to analyze the success of an event. The key is to collect as much information as possible to understand what works and what does not to build on in the future, as well as maintaining communication with the audience from beginning to end.

How do YOU measure event success? Let us know!

The fun and fireworks over the holiday weekend may have left some of us with a “case of the Mondays,” but who says the excitement can’t continue? We’re only halfway through the year and halfway to our goals. As you can tell, we’re a half glass full kind of company. So grab a cup of coffee and the leftovers from the break room, pull up your pipeline report and make it happen!
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