This Classic Business to Business Lead Generation Program Hard to Beat

Written By Ted Grigg

Business to business lead generation strategies continue to evolve. The Internet plays an increasing role in building interest and qualifying prospects.

But setting up live appointments with C-level executives for highly compensated sales people still relies on the penetration tool of choice --- telemarketing.

No single medium alone will yield satisfactory results. Online, direct mail and telemarketing work synergistically to create high level appointments with a winning Return on Investment. But the core medium remains telemarketing.

If a program allowed the use of only one medium, I would select telemarketing as the most important and reliable medium for B2B lead generation.

Do not underestimate the challenge of securing appointments with C-level decision makers in today’s companies. Their time is valuable and they do not respond well to interview offers that do not promise solid opportunities to solve their business challenges.

It is not uncommon to spend $1,000 to $1,500 or more per qualified appointment with these executives. So the direct marketing lead generation program must yield both a consistent lead flow combined with prospect quality.

The following example represents a lead generation program I designed for a client in the health care industry selling two to three year contracts that could easily amount to one million dollars each.

Here is the program summarized in a simplified flow chart.

DMCG Results

The strategy calls for a personalized mini-proposal with case studies and key product benefits in a personalized direct mail package sent as certified mail. The telemarketers follow up every direct mail package with a call to the individual it is addressed to.

The call to action includes an 800 number, a response form with qualifying questions and a personalized url (purl) to complete the same questions and/or request an appointment.

After repeated, unsuccessful attempts to contact the executive or set up an appointment by phone, the strategy includes a follow up 9X12 package sent priority mail to these individuals in a last effort to secure an appointment.

The entire project works best with sales staff involvement when they contribute to the content of the direct mail packages and assist in the training of the telemarketers.

What modifications would you suggest for the strategy as laid out? What results did you achieve? Did you test your strategy? If so, what were the results?

Ted Grigg

Ted Grigg is a direct response strategist who helps growth-focused companies reduce risk by identifying weak assumptions before they become costly mistakes.

Over the course of his career, Ted has evaluated several hundred million dollars in direct response testing across direct mail, digital, print, television, telephone, and other channels. His work combines direct response strategy, acquisition economics, customer analysis, creative evaluation, offer development, and disciplined testing.

Ted has worked on both the client and agency sides of the business. That experience gives him a practical understanding of the pressures facing executives, marketing teams, agencies, and service providers—and of the problems that arise when activity, media volume, or creative preference replaces a clear economic objective.

His consulting work helps organizations examine such questions as:

  • Are acquisition goals economically realistic?

  • Is the allowable Cost Per Sale supported by customer value?

  • Are targeting, offers, creative, media, and response paths working together?

  • Are tests structured to produce reliable business decisions?

  • Are unproven assumptions being treated as facts?

  • Is the organization measuring sales outcomes rather than convenient proxies?

Ted’s experience includes the development of direct mail and multichannel acquisition programs for insurance, healthcare, financial services, technology, nonprofit, manufacturing, retail, transportation, communications, government, and business-to-business organizations.

For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, he developed a direct mail format that defeated established controls and helped expand the productive use of compiled prospect lists from less than 10 percent to more than 30 percent of total direct mail circulation within one year. He also planned Medicare lead-generation programs for more than 60 regional and national HMO and PPO organizations, with some programs exceeding sales projections by as much as 60 percent.

Ted founded Wyse Direct, a direct marketing division of Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, where he developed acquisition programs and helped launch a new technology product for Seiko Instruments by generating a predictable flow of qualified sales leads for its national sales organization. As vice president of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, he helped broaden the agency’s strategic capabilities and pursue new commercial and fundraising opportunities.

He is the author of The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan—A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Executive Enterprises, and has written numerous articles and conducted webinars on direct response strategy, testing, creative development, and marketing economics.

Ted earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Abilene Christian University and completed two years of graduate study at Texas Tech University. He is the founder of DMCG, LLC.

http://www.dmcgresults.com
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