Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers (Que Biz-Tech) [Paperback]

Ruth P. Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0789741148 | ISBN-13: 978-0789741141 | Edition: 1

The Hands-On, Up-to-the-Minute Guide to Generating Better-Qualified, Quicker-to-Close B2B Leads!

 

Lead generation is “Job One”: B2B marketers’ single most important objective. Maximizing Lead Generation brings together everything you need to know to do it right. Fast-paced and 100% practical, it will help you achieve outstanding results in any B2B marketplace—from enterprise technology to industrial equipment to professional services.

 

World-renowned expert Ruth P. Stevens helps you bring science and systematization to all facets of lead generation, building on process, best practices, continuous testing, and ongoing improvement. You’ll learn how to maximize the value of tried-and-true B2B tools and the newest social, web, and search technologies. Stevens offers indispensable insights for the entire lead lifecycle, including qualification, nurturing, measurement, and tracking.

 

Organized for clarity, usability, and speed, this book will help you supercharge salesforce productivity—and company profits.

 

You’ll Learn How To:

• Develop and refine rules that consistently lead to higher-quality leads

• Gain deeper insights into your customers and their buying processes

• Build sophisticated, accurate marketing databases

• Identify the media most likely to work for you

• Execute highly effective campaigns

• Drive huge ROI improvements

• Use BANT and other qualification criteria

• Apply new “nurturing” techniques to convert “duds” into “diamonds”

• Track results and quantify the business value of campaigns

• Utilize best practices content marketing and marketing automation

• Integrate continuous improvement into lead generation

• Discover 10 trends that will transform the way you prospect

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

RUTH P. STEVENS  consults on customer acquisition and retention, and teaches marketing at Columbia Business School. She is past chair of the DMA BusinesstoBusiness Council, and past president of the Direct Marketing Club of New York. Crain’s BtoB magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing, and the Sales Lead Management Association listed her as one of 20 Women to Watch in lead management. She is the author of Trade Show and Event Marketing and has been a columnist and feature writer for DMNews, DIRECT, and EXPO magazines. Currently a director of Edmund Optics, Inc., she has held senior marketing positions at Time Warner, Ziff-Davis, and IBM. She holds an MBA from Columbia University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Que Publishing; 1 edition (July 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789741148
• ISBN-13: 978-0789741141
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,162 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Industrial

More About the Author

Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition and retention, for both consumer and business-to-business clients. She has held senior marketing positions at Time Warner, Ziff-Davis, and IBM, as well as two Internet startup companies. Ruth teaches graduate students at Columbia Business School, and is past chair of the Business-to-Business Council of the DMA. Crain's BtoB magazine named Ruth one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Marketing in 2002. She is the author of 2 business books: The DMA Lead Generation Handbook, and Trade Show and Event Marketing. Ruth serves as a director of Edmund Optics, Inc. She has studied marketing management at Harvard Business School and holds an MBA from Columbia University.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lead Generation for the New Millenium July 30, 2011

By Catherine E. Shearer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

In the last 10 years, the Internet and Social Media have altered the marketing landscape. However, some things remain the same, including the reality that lead generation is how a company motivates prospective customers to make a purchase.

In her engaging, almost conversational style, Ruth Stevens provides a clear definition for what is and isn't a lead. She explains the science behind lead generation and outlines clear steps that any marketer can follow.

Rather than inundate the reader with endless case studies, those chosen are targeted to showcase how a company used a specific concept to achieve success. The samples of what made a specific campaign work are both interesting and informative.

Once she demonstrates the necessity to plan a lead-generation campaign, Stevens provides information on the tools a marketer needs in his or her arsenal of tools in order to achieve success.

In our ADD-world, Stevens promotes use of lead-generation basics such as databases and paying attention to best practices to develop the most effective plan. She provides ample charts and tables the reader can replicate to measure the cost, effectiveness and rationalization for each metric or media chosen. One of my favorite points at this junction is that Stevens does not advocate any one metric or media choice as the Holy Grail; instead, she clearly delineates the uses and best use for a plethora of choices.

Embracing the changing vista in marketing, Stevens explains how to use content as a valuable source of advice to entice potential customers to raise their hand. She demystifies the landing page and promotes the use of several to extend your reach and attract a broader range of leads.

She then explains how to measure the potential of the lead and provides clear steps on nurturing the lead throughout the buying process. She goes so far as to offer three easy steps for lead qualification success.

For a thin book (just under 200 pages), the subject of lead generation is dissected and diced so that both the neophyte and expert will find something new and exciting. By embracing how the Internet has changed marketing, Stevens demonstrates how certain social networking tools can be used to help develop prospective leads. What I specifically enjoyed at this junction was the clear explanation for what social media tools could and can't offer you lead generation efforts.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential B2B Marketing Resource July 18, 2011

By Steve

Format:Paperback

So many marketing books these days are long on theory, but short on practical how-to tips. Ruth P. Stevens' new book explains the what, how and why of modern B2B marketing.

Ruth is a database marketing expert, so it's no surprise that her book goes into great detail about how B2B marketers need to segment their database and plan outbound communications according to the needs of groups of customers. And unlike other B2B marketing books out there today, she goes into detail about how to take a campaign from the planning stages through to execution.

I really like how she explained how to determine what a lead is (essential for sales and marketing alignment), how to get great work from contractors and agencies and what to think about as you plan to buy marketing automation technology.

Any B2B marketer could do themselves a big career-boosting favor and keep this book close at hand.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Want to learn how to generate leads in this crazy-busy marketplace? July 28, 2011

By Will Crist

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

When you have great sales people, don't burden them with the task of generating highly qualified leads. That is one of the messages from this timely book. Ruth Stevens knows whereof she speaks. She has had plenty of experience in the marketing world, having been at the senior management level in several major companies like IBM, Ziff-Davis, and Time-Warner. What if your sales people could spend 90% to 100% of their time building trust, identifying the painful problems, discovering the budget of time, resources, and money to fix the problems, and getting to a decision about solving the problem?

Stephens makes the case for marketing's responsibility (or the company's responsibility) for generating the quantity of high-quality leads that will allow the sales person (and the company) to meet their quota of sales. Highly competent sales people have learned to use a selling system that will consistently lead to decisions. The better a sales person is at building trust quickly and leading the conversation to a truthful decision based on facts, the more focused their skill set. Lead generation requires a different skill set. Marketers should be equally proficient, but in their own skill set.

Stephens gives very clear directions on what lead generation is and how companies can go about it. If you want to hear the author discuss her ideas in greater detail, go to the Sales Lead Management Association's website: [...] and listen to the Juy 28th SLMA Radio Show.