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Test Your Lead Generation Business Knowledge

There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to lead generation business.  Below, Vendere Partners tries to dispel some of the common myths.  Test your knowledge by taking our quick, six-question true or false quiz.
 
1. True or false?  All lead generation companies are the same.

False.  Just as some doctors, lawyers, educators, and other professionals are better than others, some lead generation companies are better than others.  Don’t assume that all of them are the same because they appear to offer similar services.

2. True or false?  You can get the same results with a lead generation company as you can get by hiring additional employees.

True AND false.  If you’re dealing with a bad or so-so lead generation company, yes, you can get similar results from outsourcing as you might from hiring additional employees.  If you’re dealing with a company like Vendere Partners, you are apt to get much better results than you would get from hiring additional staff, particularly if you don’t already have an expansive sales and marketing support system in place.

If you hire additional reps, but your basic sales needs remain the same, you can actually create more problems than you solve.  Vendere’s cost-effective services are designed to empower your current sales staff and maximize their efforts.  When you receive quality leads and launch successful campaigns on a regular basis, you can grow your business organically.  Businesses that grow organically hire additional reps because company growth requires it—not because a lack of revenue makes it seem necessary.

3. True or false?  All lead generation companies gather, use, and deliver similar leads lists.

False.  There are a lot of fly-by-night lead generation companies that use the same leads lists over and over again, and/or simply access leads from resources they find on the Web that can provide them with leads lists that fit their budgets.  

Reputable companies will provide you with lists of leads that have been qualified according to criteria that your company has helped set.  At Vendere, we have an extensive proprietary database of contacts.  We continually perform the in-house functions required to make sure that any and all leads delivered to clients meet specific criteria, and that all leads lists are customized according to the needs of the client.

4. True or false?  Some lead generation companies will try to turn a quick buck by insisting you need services other than the ones really needed.

True.  Some lead generation companies will insist you need services other than those you requested without proving that you actually need those services.  Instead of doing a proper analysis of your business, they use sales speak and slick tactics to convince you to sign up for services that may or may not bring you a lot of value.  

Vendere, on the other hand, will always provide you with accurate analyses that reveal precisely which services you need as well as identify the areas in which you’re excelling.  No Vendere prospect signs on the dotted line without having a very good idea of how each service to be rendered will fit their needs.

5. True or false?  Lead generation company employees will always try to make leads seem more promising than they really are.

False.  The only reason an employee at a lead generation company would strive to score leads inaccurately is because the company rewarded them for doing so.  At a reputable lead generation company like Vendere, we reward employees for accuracy.  The psychological and technical criteria we use make it virtually impossible for employees to qualify or score leads inaccurately.  We never reward employees for trying to make leads appear more sales-ready than they are in actuality.  Our internal philosophy regarding lead qualification is simple:  accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.  

6. True of false?  All lead generation companies hire project/prospect managers and telemarketing agents that have experience selling within their clients’ industries.

False.  Run-of-the-mill lead generation companies routinely hire inexperienced telemarketers rather than experienced sales representatives in order to save on costs.  They don’t take into consideration how well versed potential sales representatives are in the industries they will be serving prior to hiring them, and rely on basic training to get the most out of “green” employees.  

One of the reasons Vendere stands apart from other lead generation companies is that its managers strive to hire employees who have a deep understanding of the industries Vendere serves.  In addition, Vendere does more than simply provide employees with preliminary training.  Ongoing training occurs throughout the year.

Not all lead generation companies are the same—not by a long shot.  It can be difficult to determine which ones have the stuff that will get you the results you desire and which are simply mimicking their better counterparts, but if you put aside your assumptions and ask the right questions, it can be relatively easy to separate the wheat from the chaff.  Vendere isn’t the only choice, but it’s a better choice.  Contact Vendere today to find out how our team can make a difference in your company.

Should You Always Meet Resistance with Persistence in #B2BSales?

In general, the rule is: Persist when it’s in the prospect’s best interest.

In other words, persist when you recognize that a prospect would benefit significantly from
your products or services; don’t harass a prospect that isn’t interested just because you’re desperate for sales.

If you can point to areas in which prospects need assistance, chances are that your urge to persist in order to make the sale are warranted. When prospects have a problem that you can solve, it is probably in their best interest for you to keep talking to them and presenting them with ideas and solutions.

It is also more likely that you will actually make the sale. It is much harder for prospects to deny you an opportunity to explain what it is you can do to help them when you can keep pointing to the areas in which they need help.

If you keep bothering an uninterested prospect that doesn’t need what you have to offer, you not only make a nuisance of yourself, you risk damaging your company’s reputation. You also waste time you could be spending talking to valid prospects.

In addition to the prospect having no real need for your offerings, there may be other indicators that you’ve been barking up the wrong tree. With a wink and a smile, here are some of the more obvious clues that it might be in your best interest to cease to persist:

- You include the prospect in yet another e-mail campaign, and instead of simply unsubscribing, he replies, “Argh!”

- You show up at the prospect’s office for the umpteenth time to drop off your company’s latest marketing materials, and find the receptionist has been traded for San Francisco 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis.

- The first couple of times you suggest to the prospect that you meet at this or that restaurant for lunch, she claims she’s allergic to the food. The third time you suggest a restaurant, she claims she’s allergic to YOU.

- Your last telephone conversation went like this:

You: Please.
Prospect: No.
You: Please!
Prospect: No.
You: Puhleeze!!
Prospect: Uh, no.

- As a sales manager, you’re chagrined when instead of simply scoring leads as hot, warm, or in need of nurturing, your reps start delivering their lead scoring reports to you in coolers marked: FROZEN.

- You suspect that one or more of your prospects has recently entered the witness protection program.

- You added your mother to your prospects list, and even she has begun sending you straight to voicemail.

Salespeople are used to managers and trainers saying things like, “Don’t take no for an answer.” The truth is that taking no for an answer is sometimes the very best thing you can do. Instead of sweating it out and making call after call and sending e-mail after e-mail to the prospects who’ve been saying no to you for months, or even years, stop beating your brow and start outsourcing your lead generation needs.

One of the reasons Vendere Partners has been so successful is that it has targeted the right prospects, turned them into leads, guided them through the sales funnel, and earned their respect along the way. Don’t diminish yourself or your company by persisting when persistence isn’t warranted. Vendere can do the same thing for your company that it has done internally: win accounts by offering the appropriate services to the people and companies that truly need them. When you do that, no badgering is necessary.

Ten Key Indicators You’re a True Sales Professional

If you’re a true sales professional, chances are you:

• consider sales a way of life,
• don’t just sell from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but whenever you see an opportunity, whether you’re out getting coffee in the morning, standing in line at the grocery store, or riding in an elevator,
• have made multiple sales simply by striking up conversations in unusual places and spotting opportunities where others see closed doors,
• never stop engaging in strategic account planning and execution,
• routinely work on closing opportunities that have a high business value while simultaneously moving opportunities through or out of your sales funnel,
• regularly replenish your sales funnel with new opportunities,
• regularly add new prospects to your lead database to prepare for future prospecting, and
• spend more time working on sales than anything else.

However, there may be a few other, more definitive ways to determine whether or not you’re a true sales professional. At Vendere Partners, we’ve come up with the following 10 key indicators:

1. You once used clippings from your summer lawn-mowing gig to make hula skirts, which you later sold door to door.

2. The non-profit organization you started began making profits.

3. You’ve actually sold a bridge in the desert.

4. You don’t clip coupons to save money, but to remind yourself to add certain companies to your prospects list.

5. You dressed up for Halloween as Donald Trump every year for 10 years—with the exception of that one year you dressed up as Oprah.

6. Before you got married, you didn’t ask your fiancée to sign a prenuptial agreement, but you did insist upon signing a joint non-disclosure agreement.

7. You watch TV just for the commercials, and later base sales scripts on the best ad campaigns.

8. Your spouse threw you a surprise party, and you turned around and surprised everyone invited by giving an impromptu presentation on how they, too, could cut a soda can with a knife for only $19.99.

9. You might not have come up with the Internet, but you’re reasonably certain that it was you who first came up with the idea to sell Web-based software.

10. You believe that if the bottled water industry only knew you were available, it could start turning a real profit.

Vendere seeks out sales representatives who don’t just focus on sales from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but at all times. This is one of the reasons Vendere sets a large number of appointments and has some of the best registrant-to-event attendee conversion rates in the B2B lead generation business. It is also a big part of the reason we are able to qualify and score leads accurately, and to deliver lead qualification and scoring data to our clients in a timely fashion.

The Vendere management team is passionate about recruiting, hiring, and developing true sales professionals. If you need true sales professionals on your side now, contact Vendere today. We’ve got the people and processes in place to help you make the most of your company’s internal sales efforts.

Social Media: Four Tips to Getting Started

Overwhelmed by social media management and monitoring? Don’t be. A little practice is all it takes to learn how to use social media analytics to increase sales and build customer relationships.

Below are four tips to help get you started on the right social media track.

1. Jump on in. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube are the social media sites that get the most traffic. Start your social media initiative by joining those. You don’t have to use them all equally. Create a profile on each of them, and when you determine which ones are paying off the most for your company (i.e., which sites are yielding the most click-throughs and generating the most interest), focus more of your efforts on those. If your business is already getting a number of reviews on other sites, such as Yelp, you’ll also want to have a presence on those sites right away. As time goes on and you become more comfortable with social media, you can branch out and expand your social media reach.

2. Choose an analytics provider. Most social media sites provide basic, free analytics that can help you measure your progress, monitor comments, and track visitors. However, if you want to get higher-level data and reports from one place, there are companies and tools out there that are dedicated to high-level social media tracking that can help, including: Radian6, Visible, Webtrends, Collective Intellect, IceRocket, Lithium, BuzzLogic, and many more.

Many social media analytics providers are specialized. If you’re in a niche market, consider using an analytics provider that specializes in your field. FreemanGroup, a service solutions firm that specializes in the hospitality industry, provides its customers with FG Pulse, an online social media monitoring and reporting tool that not only monitors social media sites, but allows hotels, casinos, and other service-oriented organizations to view and compare their social media results with those of their competitors. It also allows customers to track reviews on social media sites specific to the hospitality industry, such as TripAdvisor.

3. Use your time wisely. A lot of smaller and mid-size companies, in particular, don’t engage in social media simply because they don’t think it will be worth the time they will have to put into it. In reality, social media doesn’t have to take a whole lot of time to manage. If you schedule your status updates to post on future dates, you can set aside time each week or month to do the initial work and then sit back and watch your updates roll out. Of course, you’ll still want to respond to comments and requests to connect and to gather information on potential leads along the way.

4. Collect your leads. Don’t just engage in social media for the sake of having a presence on social networking sites. Use your social media pages to collect leads the same way you would use sales and marketing tools like direct mail, e-mail marketing, and sales events to collect leads. Communicating with prospects and current clients via social media is just another way of talking to people that have an interest in what it is you’re offering. For some companies, engaging in social media is as important to their business as picking up the phone and making sales calls.

And just like a sales call, social media is only as powerful as your sales team makes it. You’ve got to be able to collect the leads you gather from social media, qualify and score them, nurture the ones that need nurturing, and push valid social media leads through your sales funnel the same way you would leads gathered from other sources. Unfortunately, these processes, as any sales professional knows, can be extremely time-consuming.

The good news is that Vendere Partners can help. If you’re starting a new social media initiative, contact Vendere to learn how we can help turn your social media and other leads into immediate and ongoing returns.

Why IT Manufacturers Should Invest in Sales and Marketing

By Sean O'Neil, Vice President, Vendere Partners
As recently feautured in Manufacturing Business Technology

Whether you suspect you need to outsource a few or the majority of your sales functions, if you’re a technology manufacturer, the time to make some forward-thinking decisions regarding your sales and marketing practices is now.

Much ado has been made of Hewlett Packard’s first quarter 2012 results in recent weeks. The results, outlined in a February 2012 press release, revealed that the technology giant’s revenue and GAAP diluted earnings per share had both gone down from the prior-year period.

Even more attention has been paid to Meg Whitman, chief executive of Hewlett Packard, and her hopeful response to mixed opinions regarding the results and what they mean.

In my opinion, Whitman has good reason to be hopeful. The US economy may still be in recovery, but the outlook is good, particularly for technology manufacturers.

At Vendere Partners, my team and I recently completed an analysis based on 100,000-plus sales conversations that we had on behalf our clients from Q3 2010 to Q1 2012. We concluded that purchasing interest in IT, which was highest in Q3 2010 and lowest in Q3 2011, began rising significantly in accordance with market trends and the overall economy in Q4 2011 and Q1 2012. While we still haven’t reached the levels we reached in Q3 2010, it looks like we will get there.

Among the potential solutions to Hewlett Packard’s problems, Whitman listed “upgrading our sales tools and systems to respond more quickly to customers and increasing the productivity of our sales force by rationalizing our go-to-market" as priorities. These priorities struck a chord with me, not only because I recognize that IT manufacturers that make the deliberate choice to invest in sales and marketing now will stand a much better chance of growing their businesses at faster rates, but because I recognize that that their investments could actually shorten the amount of time our country remains in economic recovery.

First Steps

You don’t have to be part of a large corporation like Hewlett-Packard to improve your sales tools, systems, and sales force’s productivity in a way that makes a positive impact on your business and on the economy. However, whether your company is large or small, you do have to take certain steps to ensure that a new sales and marketing initiative will be a success. These steps include:

• Assessing your current sales-related assets and strategies
• Evaluating your sales force’s strengths and vulnerabilities, including:
  ◦ Gaps in performance
  ◦ Holes in sales funnel
  ◦ Growth potential
  ◦ Sales pipeline capacity

• Determining systems integration opportunities when it comes to:
  ◦ Telesales
  ◦ E-sales
  ◦ Customer response management systems

• Determining best sales staff recruiting practices
• Establishing list-building and prospect-targeting guidelines
• Determining cold calling best practices
• Assessing sales presentations and anticipating future needs
• Determining sales best practices based on the current market, like companies, and            competitors

Once you have clearly defined the areas in which your sales department is excelling and the areas in which improvements need to be made, you can better determine how to maximize assets, adjust operations, and implement new processes. You should also be able to determine which functions you should continue to perform in house and which tasks ought to be outsourced.

Insourcing vs. Outsourcing

All manufacturers have to invest in lead generation to some degree. At the very least, large-scale lead generation engagements usually involve ongoing appointment setting, lead qualification and scoring, and participation in or hosting sales events. Whether your IT manufacturing outfit is big or small, you should invest in all of these things to varying degrees according to your company’s pre-determined needs.

If your goal is to develop and grow members of your inside team into outside team members (i.e., traveling or roving salespeople), it is generally better to insource more heavily than you outsource. Insourcing allows you to groom your own people. It also makes sense to insource heavily if you already have a strong marketing team and tools to support an outside team in place.

Even with an extremely strong internal sales team, it can be in your best interest to outsource certain sales functions, particularly if performing those functions would make it difficult for your inside team to achieve its primary goal, which should to be to support your outside sales team. Often, sales managers make the mistake of charging inside team members with meeting hefty inside sales goals and supporting the outside sales team. If you do charge inside team members with meeting their own quotas of inside sales, make sales goals reasonable in order to allow them enough time to adequately support outside sales. It is generally recommended that inside sales teams sell lower-cost solutions.

It is very difficult to juggle managing and monitoring both inside and outside teams. Making sure that everyone understands which tasks are priorities, which people are responsible for completing what tasks when, and that all team members are meeting their sales and other goals is often more than even the most capable sales manager can handle. It is very easy for inside teams to become overburdened by inside sales tasks. When they do, everyone suffers.

In addition to becoming easily overburdened by inside sales tasks, inside sales teams can be set back significantly by events. Sales event management and event audience acquisition aren’t jobs for your inside sales team. It is almost always smarter and more cost-effective to outsource the bulk of sales event-related tasks to a trusted third party.

Any time a sales function would overburden your team or be too time-consuming and resource-draining for you to manage, you should outsource it. Adding even one relatively simple sales function to your team’s list can take 10 hours or more away from each individual on your team every week. If you don’t have list resources, high-level customer relationship management processes, scripting experience, and vast marketing capabilities, nine times out of ten, outsourcing is going to be your best option.

Whether you suspect you need to outsource a few or the majority of your sales functions, if you’re a technology manufacturer, the time to make some forward-thinking decisions regarding your sales and marketing practices is now. Like many B2B sales professionals who’ve worked within multiple industries for some time, I have seen other markets follow the lead of technology manufacturing when it comes to sales efforts and results. If technology manufacturers today begin to take more calculated risks when it comes to sales and marketing, I believe that other markets will follow their lead, and that the trickle-down effects will benefit us all.

When Selecting a Lead Generation Partner, Watch Out For Elmer Fudd

Lead generation is one of the most effective ways to acquire new customers. Whether you are running a B2B or B2C company, you can benefit from lead generation through telemarketing.

There are four main elements to consider when choosing a lead generation/telemarketing firm: 1. trained staff, 2. integration capabilities, 3. cost vs. value, and 4. results.

1. Trained Staff

To save on costs, some lead generation/telemarketing firms simply hire college students or workers with limited sales experience who are willing to work at a low pay rate. When it’s a company’s policy to hire inexperienced staff, inevitably, high turnover occurs. That there is a general lack of commitment on the part of the sales staff is a given.

It is important to look for a company that is committed to hiring the right individuals for the industries it serves, and that provides adequate and ongoing training. No one wants to learn they’ve been relying on Elmer Fudd when they’ve been paying for Hamlet. Work with a company that has high standards when it comes to hiring and training practices; otherwise, you will wind up giving your money away to a firm that is less than top-notch.

2. Integration Capabilities

It’s true that Hamlet went a little crazy in the end, but at least he was eloquent. At Vendere Partners, what makes us crazy are lead generation companies that don’t bother to get to know their clients and how best to serve them.

Outsourced telemarketers should not act as a separate part of your company. To generate quality leads, work with a lead generation firm that will make a concerted effort to understand your business and what it is their telemarketers will need to be able to help you build it. Any outsourced sales team should be equipped to work with your internal sales team to deliver the leads that will convert into sales. After all, turning leads into paying customers is the name of the game. If your current outsourced sales team doesn’t understand your big picture or don't have the expertise, technologies, or processes required to help you meet them, ditch it and partner with a lead generation firm that does.

3. Cost vs. Value

When it comes to lead generation, Hamlet might say: To be, or not to be gouged by billing— that is the question.

As far as Vendere is concerned, whether or not you will be gouged by billing shouldn’t be a question, but out of the question.

Any business owner wants to maximize the return on his or her investment. If the cost of a sales campaign or telemarketing initiative is exorbitant, the leads you get may not be able to justify the investment you’re considering making. The rate you’re charged should always be reasonable.

4. Results

Many telemarketing lead generation firms will gladly accept your business—even when they aren’t capable of meeting your needs. Watch out for firms that claim that they can do the work, but can’t provide proof that they have the capacity to handle your requirements. If a firm that isn’t able to meet your needs does hoodwink you into entering an agreement, you’ll know it’s time to end the agreement when its representatives start making excuses instead of offering solutions and delivering results.

Shakespeare may be challenging to interpret, but what shouldn’t be difficult to interpret are the results of your investment in lead generation through telemarketing.

 

What Do Salespeople and Jerry Seinfeld Have in Common? They Hate Cold Calling.

You've heard the old saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

The same is true about sales leads. You can lead prospects to your offerings, but you can’t make them ready and willing to buy—especially if you haven’t assessed your prospects’ needs.

Know Your Target Audience

The only way to properly determine the value of your leads is by qualifying them. The only way to know which prospects you ought to be targeting when is through lead scoring.

Whether you use telemarketing, e-marketing, direct mail, or a combination of lead qualification and scoring tools, you need to be able to determine how much prospects need your product or service, how often they need it, and whether the product or service you’re offering is something they’re considering out of idle curiosity or something that they’re actively pursuing because they see a real value in it. You also need to know which prospects are the hottest, thirstiest prospects.

Lead qualification allows you to determine the value of a lead. Lead scoring helps you determine how ready and willing the lead is to buy. You need to perform both in order to target the right leads at the right times.

Why Outsourcing is a No-Brainer

Did you ever see the episode of Seinfeld in which Jerry Seinfeld picks up his home phone and converses with a telemarketer? The scene plays out like this:

Jerry: Hello.

Telemarketer: Hi. Would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance
service?

Jerry: Oh, gee. I-I can’t talk right now. Why don’t you give me your home
number, and I’ll call you later.

Telemarketer: Uh, well I’m sorry. We’re not allowed to do that.

Jerry: Oh, I guess you don’t want people calling you at home.

Telemarketer: No.

Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel.

Jerry promptly hangs up.

The scene above is a funny one, but when you’re the salesperson on the line trying to make the sale, being hung up on is far from funny.

Lead qualification and lead scoring put an end to cold calling. Consider outsourcing these sales functions. By enlisting a qualified third party to take care of your lead qualification and scoring needs, you can not only avoid wasting time trying to sell people who don’t want to hear from you and have no interest in what you’re offering, but focus on the leads that are going to yield the highest returns at the fastest rates. Outsourcing lead qualification and lead scoring allows your sales team to focus on sales rather than on trying to determine the value and readiness of leads.

As the world becomes a “smaller” place as a result of the ease with which we are able to connect with one another through technology, it makes less and less sense for companies’ internal sales teams to spin their wheels performing sales functions that outsourced sales teams are trained to do more quickly and cost efficiently. The recent recession has taught us that being specialized and focusing on our core competencies has distinct advantages. In order for companies to remain competitive, their sales teams have to be able to focus on the sale rather than on the time-consuming tasks that may or may not lead to sales.

When it comes to sales outsourcing, sales professionals have a lot of options. They can choose from an endless variety of services and select packages and options according to their immediate and long-term needs. The two sales functions that should be considered less like outsourcing options and more like outsourcing no-brainers are lead qualification and lead scoring. In this day and age, there is virtually no company in existence that would not benefit from outsourcing both.

Texas Rangers Manager Reminds Us to Keep Our Eyes on the Ball

The Texas Rangers are about to go up against the teams that had the top four records in the AL last year. In quick succession, they’ll be facing the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, and Tampa Bay Rays.

Rangers team manager Ron Washington learned of the new game schedule this past Sunday. He stood up and responded, “Look at my knees. You see them shaking?”

His knees were perfectly still.

Ron Washington knows that being intimidated won’t do his team any good. It won’t do your sales team any good, either.

When salespeople feel threatened by the competition, they tend to concentrate on the competition’s strengths rather than on their own. As a result, they play up products and services that ultimately can’t compete with those of their competitors instead of playing up those things that set their offerings or company apart—or worse, promise things they can’t actually deliver.

In baseball, you can’t win if all you do is worry about the other team’s win/loss ratio. The same is true in sales. When you allow yourself to be intimidated by the numbers or past experiences, it’s easy to focus on getting players out rather than on actually crossing the plate and scoring runs for your team. Is keeping tabs on your competitors important? -Of course. But it’s more important to keep your eyes on the ball.

Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Washington!

Below are a few other quotes by veteran baseball managers that you might find useful in the face of competition.

“Some guys are admired for coming to play, as the saying goes. I prefer those who come to kill.”

- Leo Durocher, The Sporting News, February 1961

"Nobody likes to hear it, because it's dull, but the reason you win or lose is darn near always the same—pitching."

- Earl Weaver, Los Angeles Times, June 1978

"Slow thinkers are part of the game too. Some of these slow thinkers can hit a ball a long way."

- Alvin Dark, Baseball Digest, 1968

"I guess more players lick themselves than are ever licked by an opposing team. The first thing any man has to know is how to handle himself.”

- Connie Mack, Unknown Source

"It's no fun playing if you don't make somebody else unhappy. I do everything hard."

- Hank Bauer, New York Times, February 2007

"If you have to choose between power and speed and it often turns out you have to make that choice, you've got to go for speed."

- Sparky Anderson, TV Guide, April 1982

When your eyes are on the ball, you try to get the most out of every resource available to you. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to set appointments, host effective sales events, qualify and score sales leads, market to the right audience, maintain effective sales processes, etc., and still find the time to close.

It’s safe to assume that one of the reasons Ron Washington stood firmly this past Sunday is because he knows he’s got a team that is up for any challenge. (The Rangers did have the fifth top record in the AL last year, after all.) Can you say the same thing about your sales team? If not, contact Vendere Partners today. We’ll help you hit your sales goals out of the park.

What to Expect from Your Event Promotion Partner

When a company hosts an event, the to-do list can seem endless. There are committees to be formed, press releases to be written, venues to book, people to invite, and much, much more.

In her article, “How to Get the Best Crowd at Your Event,” Inc.com columnist Gabrielle M. Blue makes this recommendation: “If you're holding a large-scale event, you might need to think beyond your company's own customers or your natural audience to draw a significant crowd.
So, enlist help."

Some of the things you can expect a professional event promotion company to do include:

• offer you a choice of venues that are relevant to your particular company event,
• negotiate contracts and develop budgets for all areas of the event,
• take care of the décor, entertainment, food and beverages, and
• provide event promotion services, event marketing services, and event registration services.

The most challenging aspects of event management are undoubtedly event promotion, marketing, and registration. Attempting to perform the tasks associated with these functions without the assistance of a qualified third party can be exceedingly difficult. Fortunately, when you know what it is you’re looking for in an event promotion company, it is relatively easy to find a partner that will make planning your next event a breeze.

Event Promotion Services
When choosing an event promotion partner, look for professionals who understand your business and are experienced in promoting events similar in scope to the event you’re going to be participating in or hosting. Event promotion professionals who know how to promote your type of event will be able to use their existing relationships and resources to market your event more effectively than a partner that is only vaguely familiar with your industry.

Event Marketing Services
Event marketing services aren’t about attracting as many people as possible to your event; they’re about attracting the right people. They’re also essential for acquiring enough qualified, sales-ready leads and potential partners to make your event worthwhile. Seek out event promotion professionals that practice high-level marketing and have processes in place that will enable them to reach your target audience versus a company that provides minimal or blanket marketing services.

Event Registration Services
You can’t expect to host an organized event if your registration process isn’t organized. Things you don’t want are too few people to fill your venue or a venue full of people that are only there for the free giveaways, live music, or shrimp puffs. What you do want is an impressive list of registrants that will convert into actual attendees who are expecting to get a value out of the products or services you’re exhibiting. Event registration takes careful planning. Before you hire an event promotion partner, learn about their registration processes. Do they register attendees by phone, e-mail, via the Web, or direct mail? What information is gathered about each registrant? How will the information be used? Do they send event invitation reminders?

You need to focus on the products and services you’re promoting—not event promotion details. An event promotion partner that has experience working within your industry, understands your target markets and how to market to them, and has a high conversion rate (a solid record of turning registrants into attendees), can help you get the return on investment you deserve by allowing you to focus on what’s most important.

Lead Generation: Tough, Funny Business

Lead generation outsourcing can make the tough business of lead generation a lot easier. Unfortunately, like most people, sales professionals tend to be resistant to change. Here are few tips, tricks, wisecracks, and lead generation truths to get you thinking about your company’s lead generation processes. Change might be difficult, but it’s also necessary—particularly if your current leads aren’t empowering you and your team to bring in the results that you know they should.

A Few Tips, Tricks, Wisecracks, and Lead Generation Truths

Trying to locate leads by performing Google searches for hours on end is like using your shinbone to find furniture in a dark room.
Painful!

Choosing between two lead generation vendors can be like trying to decide between two puppies.
The difference is that when it comes to vendors, basing your decision on things like hair length hasn’t been considered professional since the invention of the request for proposal.

To determine whether or not you’ve hired the wrong lead generation company, review your lead qualification data.
If how many prospects “like long walks on the beach” was included in the lead qualification criteria, you know you’ve chosen the wrong company. On the upside, you might just find true love.

Another indicator that you’ve hired the wrong lead generation company?
Leads are scored as hot, warm, nurture, or extra spicy.

It's not the fall that kills you; it's the sudden stop at the end.
If you’re pushing leads through the sales funnel, but falling flat when it’s time to close, you’re probably pushing through the wrong leads.

You're never too old to be smart about something that sounds stupid.
Just ask the folks over at Twitter.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Wise sales professionals don’t dump leads outside of their target markets into their sales funnels. It’s no recipe for success.

Light travels faster than sound. This explains why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
Know your product or service. Qualified leads will quickly disqualify themselves when sales professionals have a fantastic approach, but don’t truly understand the value of what they are presenting to their customers.

When do you know you need to outsource lead generation?
When your call center sounds more like a library than a call center, it’s time to outsource.

Remember the teakettle. Though up to its neck in hot water, it continues to whistle.
Didn’t meet your sales goals this month? Don’t get mad; get better leads.