I haven’t heard of Infusionsoft, but I’ll definitely take a look. Thanks for the comment, and good luck with your business!

Regards,
Ingrid

Best,
Jordan

Thanks for your kind words. :) I am absolutely up for learning about other demand gen technologies, so do drop me a line sometime and we can set up a call.

I’m also intrigued because the way you market your company is very similar to what we do with regard to a certain competitor of ours. We like to think of ourselves as the “low-cost alternative” as well, and I really do think it will be a great message for both of us during the current economic crisis.

Regards,
Ingrid

Thanks again for your comments. I totally agree with you about getting personnel and processes in place prior to utilizing these tools. This is why I never refer to things like Eloqua or Salesforce.com as ’solutions.’ Eloqua undoubtedly offers some great systems from which our sales team – and, ultimately, sales – can benefit, but if we didn’t have a) a fantastic, experienced team of sales people, b) a tight methodology upon which they base their contact with potential clients, and c) solid marketing messages, having Eloqua and any lead scoring/nuturing programs in place would assuredly not have as much use or as much of a good effect as it does.

It’s good business sense, really, to ensure that you have the solid sales foundation in place before really using a tool like Eloqua to its full potential, but once you’ve reached that level having a marketing automation machine like this really does save time and effort on the part of the sales team, and allows them to focus only on those leads which really do have a good opportunity to become a sale.

Eloqua has been in use at our company since its inception, so it has become a fixed part of the sales cycle. That being said, I only started putting lead nurturing and scoring in place relatively recently, only about a year ago. But, because we had the sales system in place, the sales team has actually embraced what we on the marketing side are doing with this, because it really does cut down on their workload as well as people saying “Not interested” to them during the first call. To be quite honest, the system in place is such that most of the scoring is done before the sales team even sees the lead in Salesforce.com, so I think the fact that the scoring is happening is completely in the back of their minds. They never really need to think about it.

What are you seeing with your clients? Are many of them using marketing automation tools, or is this something that a lot of people are thinking about but haven’t quite made that step?

Great questions, by the way!

Regards,
Ingrid

That is great for both your career and your business that you have mastered a demand gen solution. Many congrats on that. Maybe at some point however you will agree to sit down with me and let me show you why I think Manticore is the way to go.

Until then – cheers and happy marketing.

Justin England
VP
http://www.ManticoreTechnology.com

Thanks for the reply back about the impact of implementing the Eloqua lead scoring and the integration with salesforce.com. Sounds like having Eloqua could be having a very positive effect on your company. Somewhat a rethorical question, but I wonder how much of the increase in average deal size and pick up of services and training can be attributed to using Eloqua (kind of a correlation vs. causality question). As your relatively new company continues to establish its reputation and your salesfroce progresses prospects further through the buying cycle, average deal size and interest in services and training would likely pick up naturally. This kind of goes along with the comment from Fred. As you and many others know, technology is only part of the solution. I’ll grant you it can be a very big part of the solution, but getting other things in place before is critical — such as the right personnel and clear established processes — makes all the difference about the impact of technology such as Eloqua. Trying to shoehorn in the processes after installing a new tool or system can often have the effect of turning people off, in a way, encouraging them to go with the tried and try old process rather than the new processes and new system. What have you found during your experiences?

Alden

Thanks for the insight! I’m inclined to agree with you on your final point: marketing tools like the ones mentioned in this post, and sales tools like Salesforce.com, for example, will undoubtedly become a staple in the workplace going forward.

Ingrid

Interesting post and confirmation of how we perceive the market. I wanted to bring to your readers’ attention http://www.activeconversion.com. We were one of the first 3 into this market along with Eloqua and Manticore. We don’t get as much airplay because we have focused on the SME market. However, because of that focus, we are much more affordable, run with few marketing resources, and is considered very easy to use.

Your company is very enlightened to have the sales and marketing teams aligned as you described. It should make for a successful company, especially in these difficult economic times.

BTW, We like to think that marketing tools like this, will be like accounting software to accountants, a fixture that sales and marketing professionals will all have eventually.

Thanks for this post.

Thanks for the comments! I do actually track the ROI, and from the time I implemented the lead nurturing program and integration with Salesforce.com, we have seen our average deal size increase by 20-30% for our main product. Also, we are seeing more and more pickup of our services and training as well. It’s amazing what can happen if you massage the leads a little before they reach your sales team.

Regards,
Ingrid