www.manuren.com

The secret to success in business-to-business direct
mail lead generation is testing. I have hunches. You
have hunches. But testing settles the debate. When
you test your package against my package and we
measure the results, we know for certain which
package performed better.

Assuming your list is good (in other words, assuming
you are mailing to people who are likely to buy), the
first thing you should test is your offer. Your offer,
after all, is the second most important ingredient of
direct mail success. And as Axel Andersson says, “If
you want to dramatically increase your results,
dramatically improve your offer.”

How do you “dramatically improve your offer?” By
creating an offer that is different from the one you
are using now, and testing both at the same time.
Basically, you mail two packages, one with Offer A
and one with Offer B. You test nothing else. Then
you measure which offer outpulls the other. Here is
how you do it.

Test a hard offer against a soft offer
A hard offer asks for an appointment. A soft offer
invites prospects to request more information (such
as a white paper).

Test a product literature offer against an
educational offer
Product literature includes brochures, catalogs, sales
sheets and technical specification sheets.
Educational offers include white papers, special
reports, books and article reprints.

Test one educational format against
another
Some prospects prefer their information on paper.
Others prefer going online to a special page on your
website. Still others prefer watching a video, or
listening to a CD.

Test offer descriptions
Should you say “Buy two for the price of one”
or “Buy one and get one free?’ Test and you’ll know.

Test a deadline against no deadline
Giving your potential customer a deadline for
responding might boost response. And it might not.

Test one premium against another
Offer an Apple iPod in one mailer and a Blackberry in
another. Offer a gift certificate to Amazon.com in
one letter and a CD player in another. See what
happens.

In all your tests, remember to test one thing at a
time and to make your tests big. Keep all the other
variables (timing, design, list and so on) the same
while you test just the offer. When I say “make your
tests big” I mean that you should test two very
different offers. If the offers you test are too much
alike, you will not be able to trust your test results.
And that’s not just a hunch.

About the author
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter and lead generation specialist who helps business owners and marketing managers generate leads, close sales and retain customers using business-to-business direct mail marketing. Learn more about his creative direct mail writing services and sign up for free weekly tips like this at http://www.sharpecopy.com.

© 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the “About the author” message).

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You’ve spent a great deal of time, effort and money putting together your business-to-business sales lead generation programs. How you handle B2B sales leads once you get them makes the difference between a happy sales team and new customers or an unhappy sales team and lost sales.

Here’s a checklist of questions to ask yourself to determine if you have the best chance of being successful with your sales lead programs:

Are you prepared to send requested information immediately?

Prospects have their own agenda and timeline, not yours or your firm’s. So, you need to be efficient and strike while you have the opportunity. Timing of your inquiry handling processes are of paramount importance. Your firm needs to respond to all inquiries quicklythe faster, the better.

Here are some questions to keep in mind:

* Do you know what to send in response to different types of inquiries?
* Do you have electronic versions for those who want the information by e-mail or via downloads from your Web site?
* Do you have adequate supplies of printed materials ready for those who prefer them?
* Do you have the people, systems and processes in place to get the requested
information out the door quickly?

Are you prepared to capture all inquiries in a database for ongoing nurturing and qualification efforts?

To avoid having any of the golden sales opportunities represented by your inquiries fall through the cracks, you need to capture all of your inquiries in a database so you can properly manage their fulfillment, nurturing, qualification and distribution. With this in mind:

* Do you have the database ready to go?
* Do you have the data entry people or outside services lined up to get the inquirers into the database?

Do you have a program in place to “qualify” sales leads before sending them to your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors?

If your business-to-business marketing-for-leads program is to succeed, marketing, sales and corporate management need to share a unified definition of qualified sales leads. If you all agree from the start on what a qualified lead is, then deliver leads that meet that definition, your sales team will be able to effectively and efficiently follow up and close more sales.

* Have you agreed with sales management on which questions to ask in order to determine which leads are qualified?
* Have you agreed what information is required to know which sales contacts to route the qualified leads to?
* Do you have proactive programs in place to contact and qualify your leads?

Do you have a process in place for distributing qualified leads to sales contacts as they are identified?

Sales leads are worthless unless they are quickly handed off to the right sales contact for follow up. Your lead distribution process has to be well defined and ready to goin advanceso as to prevent delays or misdirection when leads are qualified and ready for sales attention. It also has to be easy for your salespeople, reps, resellers and distributors to access the qualified sales leads and manage their lead follow up.

* Is your sales leads program designed to get the leads into salespeople’s hands without delay?
* Have you made it easy for your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors to use?
* Can they access leads over the Internet?
* Does it integrate with their existing contact management or email systems?

Do you have a program in place to nurture or cultivate your not-yet-qualified leads?

Salespeople generally focus on those one-in-four sales leads who are ready to buy soon. However, research shows that three of four sales come from longer-term prospects who are frequently ignored by sales. As these longer-term leads represent the lion’s share of the potentional sales, your sales lead management program must be designed to help nurture the longer-term leads until they are qualified as being sales-ready opportunities.

* Does your company have a prospect relationship marketing program in place to keep in touch with these longer-term prospects, using email, fax, mail and phone contacts, until they are identified as being qualified and ready for sales attention?
* Do you know what messages to send as part of your prospect relationship management program?
* Do you know how often to contact prospects with these messages?
* Do you know what offers to use to get them to further identify their needs and situation so you can determine if they are ready for sales?

Do you have a program in place to measure and track the results of your various sales-lead generation, cultivation and sales follow-up programs?

A marketer I know recently reported to her management on the results of the company’s lead generation programs: Awareness of their company and its products among targeted prospects more than doubled; the cost per qualified lead delivered to sales by marketing dropped by nearly 40 percent; 58 percent of the opportunities in the sales pipeline were found first by marketing; and 48 percent of the sales closed; and 62 percent of the revenue during the past 12 months came from marketing-generated leads.

The result? She got a bigger B2B marketing budget and senior management no longer doubts marketing’s contribution to the company’s success. Can you answer these questions and show your management how your lead generation programs are contributing to your company’s success?

* Can you determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead and cost per sale?
* Do you know which lead programs generate the highest return on investment?
* Do you know which nurturing techniques worked and which didn’t?
* Can you prove to management that your lead generation programs are paying off in increased sales and market share?

Refer to this checklist of questions to guide the development or improvement of your company’s sales lead management programs and processes and you’ll have the best chance of being successful.

M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is described by many as one of America’s leading B2B marketing consultants and an expert on the subject of sales lead generation. For the latest sales lead response-producing tactics that are working NOW to drive leads and multiply sales subscribe to Mac’s FREE Newsletter, Sales Lead Report

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If you want to increase your marketing results
and get more qualified leads, you will need to
improve the effectiveness of the copywriting on your website, print ads, emails and direct mail.

This is vital because copywriting is your “salesperson in cyberspace, in print and in the mail” and great salesmanship produces great sales average salesmanship gets only average or worse results.

Here are the copywriting tips that will improve your marketing results. These are proven based on our copywriting work for over 450 businesses since 1978.

This is a list of what your prospect is thinking as he reads your marketing copy. It’s important to make sure everything is addressed on this list. If you do this, your marketing results will improve dramatically.

1. You better have done your research to know what benefits I want most from your type of product or service.

If you don’t, I won’t even notice you, and if I do, I won’t even give you a hearing.

2. What do you do? How will it help me?
I need to know “what’s in it for me” instantly or I’m gone.

3. Why should I believe you?

4. I already have a supplier for that - why should I listen to you?

5. Make it easy for me to read, understand, navigate, and “scan” your marketing material.

6. I want a specialized expert in your field for my situation or my needs or my type of business.

7. Don’t bore me! I’m sick of corporate talk, business buzz terms and mumbo-jumbo. Almost all business marketing
is very dull and boring and I won’t read it.

8. I want ALL the details and specs, including product information, product applications, CAD drawings and plans, costs and shipping. A ThomasNet.com study finds a very large percentage of buyers say these details are not readily available.

9. I want to read copywriting from a real live person talking to me person to person, and not from some emotionless corporation.

10. I won’t admit it on the record, but I make purchases based on my emotions. Sure I need logic and features for verification, but if you can touch my emotions, I’m much more likely to buy from you.

11. I badly want more from my life than just work. I’m very interested in saving time, work and stress.

12. Make it easy for me! You list many different things I can do and I’m confused. What one thing should I do now and why?

13. Don’t overload your website or brochure with fluff - stick only to relevant
and helpful information I need. I’m tired of all the irrelevant “filler” information on the web and I won’t read through it anymore.

14. Compare your product or service against your competitors for me if it is really as good as you say it is. Be honest, as I’ll see through any favoritism.

15. Be specific; generalities go right into my garbage.

16. What’s your guarantee?

17. How can I test your product, service or company first,
in a low or no cost way, before I make a large commitment?

18. Help me justify the investment to my boss on an ROI basis.

These copywriting secrets applied properly are a main reason one website, direct mail piece or ad can pull 2 to 3 times the response as another for the same product or service. This is why the most successful marketers hire the best outside freelance copywriters they can afford.

(Mike Pavlish of Profit Boosters Copywriting has done the copywriting for hundreds of business-to-business clients since 1978. Fees start at $3,000.00 and up. He can be reached at http://www.ProfitBoostersCopy.com)

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