Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison’s OneFocus™ CRM Becomes Even More Effectual with the Addition of Task Manager

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Lead LiaisonAllen, TX – Lead Liaison announced this week that they have added a powerful new feature, a Task Manager, to their already impressive OneFocus™ CRM that has taken the industry by storm. This additional feature changes the game for salespeople everywhere by managing tasks like phone calls, follow-ups, lunch meetings, and more within the CRM. This feature was highly anticipated by current and prospective users of Lead Liaison’s CRM, which debuted earlier this Spring.

The task manager is located within the Sales area of Lead Liaison. Salespeople will be able to see all tasks in the system, which are color-coded. Tasks that are overdue are red, tasks due on the current day are green, and tasks in the future are grey. Sorting tasks is incredibly easy. Options include sorting by when the task is due or type of task (i.e. phone call, email, etc.). Tasks can be viewed by priority, as well.

Sales managers can view all tasks available in the system in order to monitor overall performance, as well as drill down into an individual’s task queue.

Clicking on the task allows the user to view notes, due dates, and the Prospect’s timeline associated with the task. Salespeople can see the last interaction with a Prospect and create new tasks from the current task screen. The Task Manager also includes an information card, providing all details for the Deal and Prospect associated with the task.

Salespeople and sales managers can access everything they need within one platform without ever having to leave the task window, saving sales managers and salespeople an incredible amount of time. And, it’s not just limited to sales. Tasks can be added by administrators, marketers, and more. Everyone can have access to the same Task Manager, in order to work together.

“The Task Manager is something our clients have been eagerly awaiting,” says Jen Worsham, Lead Liaison’s Director of Client Relations. “Our clients plan on using it to organize and keep track of the sometimes overwhelming amount of tasks that their sales teams have. In addition to sales tasks, clients also plan on using it for administrative and marketing tasks to keep everyone on the same page. We’re removing barriers that otherwise thwarted productivity. Now, entire teams can work within one platform, with one focus: driving revenue.”

OneFocus™ CRM is a part of Lead Liaison’s suite of marketing and sales solutions designed to help businesses drive revenue and increase performance. The CRM, also known as The Free CRM™,  complements Lead Liaison’s marketing automation platform, Lead Management Automation (LMA)™.  To learn more about OneFocus™ CRM and the Task Manager, visit this link or request a demonstration today.

About Lead Liaison
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).

 

Lead Liaison

3 Sales Tools I Wish I Had When I Was in B2B Sales

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salespersonLadies and gentlemen, account executives, and sales reps everywhere, I salute you. I have tried my hand in business to business sales and could just never get a rhythm down. They warned me going in that it’s hard to get your foot in the door these days – boy were they right!

In a market saturated with other office equipment suppliers, I could never quite read exactly how interested my prospects were. I’d knock on doors, get cards (or speak to someone if God was smiling on me that day), log them in the CRM, and then call or email back every few days. When I was super lucky I’d hit just the right person at the right time. Not so lucky I got their voicemail. Really unlucky and I was promptly informed I was literally worse than a murderer to these people. 

It was a numbers game, management would say. Well, that’s not a game I’m great at. I love interaction and nurture, not chasing unqualified leads for months before they finally let me down. But you know, I’ve learned a few things here at Lead Liaison. Things that might have made my short sales career much longer, and much more profitable.  

Here are a few of the sales tools I’ve recently discovered that could have made the difference. 

Send and Track™

I remember sitting in my sales manager’s office trying to figure out how to get a better response. I had a solid cold email template, but I struggled knowing when to make the next touch. I usually didn’t even know if my emails were being read, and I didn’t have any real way of knowing. (Pro tip: don’t use read receipts… well, unless you like getting profanity-laced responses).

“It would be so much easier if I knew when they had at least opened the content I sent them,” I’d say. 

Apparently, I could have known exactly that. Lead Liaison’s Send and Track plugins for Google Mail and Outlook add a tracking code to the links within a tracked email. The first time I tested it, I was pleasantly surprised by a chirping from Chrome and a pop up saying my recipient had opened the email. I logged in to our platform, checked the sales emails report, and saw that they had also clicked one of the links. 

To think, if I could go back in time and use this while I was a sales rep, I could know exactly who to focus on based on interest. I wouldn’t be hounding people just trying to ignore me; I’d be responding to people who actually responded to my communication attempts!

Visitor Tracking

Back then I would have been happy enough knowing which emails were effective, but this would have blown my mind. Imagine knowing the people and companies who are actively checking out your website. For a sales person, this is a huge starting point. What’s that? This person has been to the website 5 times and keeps looking at OCR solutions? Well, time to put on my OCR Expert Hat™ and give them a visit!

But it gets better. Lead Liaison’s ProspectVision™ doesn’t just through a cookie in the user’s browser and tell you what pages they went to. No, we’re able to see what content a visitor downloads, if they watch a video (and how much of that video). With every step, ProspectVision™ builds a more and more detailed profile. It comes down to learning what the prospect wants to know so you can make a real connection with them. You don’t have to spend all month wearing down a gatekeeper to get little bits of info on what this company might want. You get to see it all first hand.

Buying Signals

Now we’re talking leads. And I don’t mean a list of businesses in your area marketing has identified as target clients. I mean honest-to-goodness warm leads. Based on website activity, email response, and interaction with content on your website, we create a score for qualified leads. Once they hit a certain threshold, you get a buying signal.

Think about that for a moment. You’re probably a very busy person with a huge funnel to keep up with. It can be hard to really put together a roadmap of someone’s interest, especially when they prefer to research on their own. But now, without having to breathe down their necks, you know when they’ve exhibited purchasing behavior. That kind of insight would have been life changing for me.

If you’re new to the industry, information is power. If you’re already a sales superstar, you already know that. I won’t say cold calling is dead, but wouldn’t you prefer a warm lead to knocking on a door? I know I would have. And hey, with marketing automation as powerful as it is today, the early adopters are the long-term winners.

Request a demo of these tools and more!

 

Lead Liaison

Why Blogging Should Be a Key Part of Your Marketing Plan

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BloggingDid you know that 70 percent of the links that people click on online are organic?

In other words, 7 out of 10 internet users ignore paid ads and click on natural links, like blog posts and articles, instead.

While there are many ways to attract organic traffic, blogging is the best option. Companies that run blogs have 434 percent more indexed pages than companies that don’t blog. That means they have 434 percent more chances to get those organic clicks.

With amazing stats like that, you probably think that blogging is hard to do. In reality, it isn’t just effective. It’s also incredibly easy.

Easy Content Creation with Blogging

Blogging has never been easier than it is right now. Software like WordPress allows companies to create and manage their blogs for free. The simple interface is easy to use, and you can even customize the design without any technical knowledge. These simple tools have leveled the playing field and made it easy for everyone to blog.

Creating your blog is one thing, though. Running it effectively is another. Follow some tips so you can get the most out of blogging.

Tips for Blogging

First and foremost, you need to write blogs that people want to read. Use your social media channels to pick your followers’ brains. Find out what they want to read about and then write about those topics.

You can also repurpose some content for your blog. Take an e-book that you’ve written and break it up into blog posts, or turn an interesting press release into a blog. This will make it easier for you to keep coming up with new content.

Next, you need to remain consistent with your blogging. If you post once a week, post on the same day. Don’t miss a week or people will think your blog is dead.

You also need to use keywords in your blog posts. That way, people will find you. Use the AdWords Keyword Planner or another tool to find your keywords. Also, don’t go with simple keywords. Use long-tail keywords so you reach your target market.

Finally, use social media to promote your blog posts. Share your posts across all of your social media channels and write a short snippet of what each post is about. This is a great way to get more traffic.

Now, you finally are ready to start blogging. Download the software and fine-tune the design. Then, write your first post and introduce your new blog to the world. It won’t be long before you reap the benefits of blogging.

Interested in tracking the activity that your blog receives, and having the ability to continue to nurture those potential clients in new and inventive ways? Request a demonstration of our marketing automation software from one of our experts!

 

Lead Liaison

Social Media and Brand Awareness

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Social MediaThere isn’t just one key to success for a company, no matter the size. Success is usually a product of persistence, best practices, and even a little (or a lot of) luck. One very important key to success is creating brand awareness. We’ve talked about brand awareness several times on the Lead Liaison blog, but today we’ll be talking about the relationship between social media and brand awareness.

An Argument for Social Media for B2B Companies

I’m sure I don’t need to go into why brand awareness is essential for any company, especially a small-to-medium sized company. When another business has a need that pertains to your line of work, you want that company to think of you immediately. Brand awareness is the result of nurturing and education, both of which can be done via social media in small, easy-to-consume spoonfulls.

Why should B2B companies use social media to promote brand awareness? Example: in my off time, I occasionally (okay – more than occasionally) scroll social media. Even though I’m not “on the clock”, I’m still thinking about to-do lists, and I am aware of what I am consuming. I’ve usually got an even clearer head because I’m in more of a relaxed state of mind. When I see advertisements for tools that I could use at work, it doesn’t make me cringe. It makes me think. During the workday, I’m so busy with tasks and emails that I rarely stop what I’m doing to assess the situation and see if I could be doing anything better or more efficiently. That’s not good – but it’s fact.

What Should Be Different About a B2B Company’s Social Media Efforts?

As with most B2B marketing, it’s more about education than hard selling. Remember, the goal with your social media is brand awareness – not immediate sales. You want to help businesses learn to trust your company’s name as a resource. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be the first company that comes to mind when their need comes to fruition. Because of this, your social media marketing should not focus on selling, but rather on education. Share best practices, tips & tricks, or links to informative articles (yours or others’).

Where Should You Focus?

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are some of the most active social media sites. However, LinkedIn Groups can be extremely effective for B2B social media marketing, as well as a YouTube channel. As an introvert, I much prefer to skim YouTube videos about a software that I’m interested in purchasing, rather than speak to a salesperson on the phone.

But, it’s not necessarily where you focus your social media efforts. It’s more about how you communicate. A recent study from The MarketingProfs, The State of Social Media Marketing, shows that B2C and B2B social media marketers are mostly using the same social media approach, in terms of which platforms they utilize. The differences instead lie in how social media is used, not which social media are used.

In social media, small companies can act like big ones. Sure, there are paid advertising options for most social media sites. However, the reach is essentially the same, depending on the amount of followers a company has. Because of this, we see that social media activity does not vary much between large and small companies.

Social Media for Brand Awareness

The message is simple. B2B companies should use social media to help educate and nurture members of the marketplace. If done properly, that brand awareness will lead to increased trust, which leads to increased sales. This is a modern strategy for communicating with your potential clients, and it’s time to get on board!

Interested in how Lead Liaison helps you manage your social media presence? Contact a representative today for a free demonstration!

Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison Reveals Its Secret Sauce for Managing Leads

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Lead LiaisonIt’s not every day that a company pulls back the curtain and unveils the processes that make them successful. But Lead Liaison is different. Lead Liaison is known for unlocking the vault on marketing automation and lead management solutions. The decision to divulge their secrets is reflective of the company’s overall passion to support sales and marketing teams, to help businesses grow, and to be transparent in their developments. Their Automated Lead Flow Management Process, including a sample Qualified Lead Flow, lays the foundation for an ultra-successful nurture track intended to be carried out using marketing automation systems like their own. The company uses processes like this to help fuel growth in the marketing automation industry, since the company has the luxury of “drinking their own champagne” (using their own software), to achieve their goals. Businesses can do the same with the same exact tools in their own respective industries.

Sales and marketing tactics have evolved from a dialogue to more of a monologue in recent years. Potential buyers or customers have access to more information and more reviews – right at their fingertips. It’s time for companies to respond in a more relevant and meaningful manner.

How Does the Qualified Lead Flow Work?

There are many ways that businesses get inbound leads to their websites: web forms (Contact Us forms, Request a Demonstration forms, Free Trial forms, Free Consultation forms, etc.), content downloads, and explainer videos to name a few. The key is for a company to identify the primary ways that it’s website captures inbound leads. Lead Liaison identified its primary channels for inbound leads coming from key forms and video conversions.

Once the lead or inquiry comes in, that person will be sent through the Qualified Lead Flow process. First, there is an automation in place to distribute the lead to a salesperson. For Lead Liaison, that process is round-robin, because that’s how their sales team is structured. For other companies using this Qualified Lead Flow, that lead distribution could be based on other methods of lead distribution, like geographical location, performance, or any myriad of attributes about the person making the inquiry. Once distributed, the Qualified Lead Flow sends an email to the lead, giving them the contact information of their account manager. This message uses the lead’s name, making it personal, and in the case of Lead Liaison, includes the salesperson’s contact information. The automation then pushes the lead’s information into Lead Liaison’s CRM, OneFocus™.

Depending on the primary interest of the lead, which is typically gathered from the original inquiry, a company can set up very specific nurturing. Lead Liaison has identified their key areas of interest to be partnerships, CRM, or it could even be an agency interested in private labeling. The nurture track contains 8-10 emails with educational content that focuses on the lead’s area of interest. Once the lead has completed their interest-specific nurture, they flow into a mainline nurture and are added to the Lead Liaison Subscribers List. If, at any point in time, the lead become a client, Lead Liaison’s tool automatically moves them out of the respective nurturing tracks and adds them into nurturing tailored to clients. It’s here that messaging can focus on up-sell, cross-sell, and other opportunities. These strategies are discussed more in Lead Liaison’s Marketing Automation Playbook.

Lead Liaison’s Qualified Lead Flow has been proven time and time again, producing leads that are educated, familiar with the brand, and that are ready to move forward with purchasing a license. Director of Marketing, Jennifer Worsham, shares her experience, “Since implementing this Qualified Lead Flow, we’ve seen an increase of 68% in conversions. It’s something that took a little time and effort to set up, but has proven to be time well spent. Now, this flow runs in the background without us having to touch it. It’s fantastic!”

To see the diagram of the entire flow, check out Lead Liaison’s Library of Resources. The Automated Lead Flow Management Process is located under Guides.

About Lead Liaison
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation is for Universities

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Educational Institution

Educational institutions don’t often realize that marketing automation is for universities and colleges, too. The key to any department at your educational institution being successful is rooted in a foundation of strong communications with your stakeholders.

Unfortunately, small departments are often tasked to communicate with thousands of people. This can be time consuming and expensive. The alternative is often selected: a single emailed laundry list for all. The result is that your audience will quickly tune out.

Platforms like Lead Liaison position you to drive the interest and involvement of your key stakeholders. The more that they associate with being “part of” your university, the more likely they are to help you. And, it’s often without even being asked!

But wait – you say, “we don’t sell anything within my department!”  I would disagree. You are selling your brand. You are selling a connection. You are selling information to your audience, even if that information isn’t paid for with immediate dollars.

If you can do a great job communicating during a student’s life cycle with your university; you will see:

  • Higher Enrollments
  • Deeper support for academics and athletics
  • Enduring support through a strong alumni base
  • Increased fundraising opportunities
  • A stronger network

Lead Liaison is on a mission to be on the front lines of colleges and universities that want to strengthen the bonds between your message and all of your prospective students, students, and alumni.

Some of the areas that we have served in colleges and universities are:

  • Continuing Education
  • Athletic Departments
  • Alumni Relations
  • Fundraising for capital projects
  • Community Relations
  • Volunteer/Outreach

It doesn’t matter if your school is designated for profit or not-for-profit, Lead Liaison has an unique staff and set of functionalities that has been built to help you.

To learn more, contact one of our industry experts today!

Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison’s OneFocus™ CRM Goes Live to Early Adopters

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Lead LiaisonAllen, TX – The energy is palpable at the offices of Lead Liaison this week, as they release OneFocus™ CRM with several of their current Lead Management Automation (LMA)™ clients. In recent weeks, the marketing and sales software provider has slowly pulled back the curtains to unveil their most exciting project yet: a free CRM. Starting this week, Lead Liaison is officially provisioning OneFocus™ CRM with clients interested in being an early adopter. Because they want to launch and walk through the platform live with each early adopter, they have decided to do it on an individual basis.

OneFocus™ CRM pairs perfectly with other packages that the company offers, including their marketing automation solution, Lead Management Automation (LMA)™, and their visitor tracking solution, ProspectVision™. OneFocus™ CRM completes the trifecta, making Lead Liaison the most powerful marketing and sales solution provider in the world.

Lead Liaison’s goal was to complete the suite of services for their clients. For customers that weren’t happy with their existing CRM provider or did not have a CRM, it didn’t make sense to send them elsewhere. OneFocus™ is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that syncs seamlessly with Lead Liaison’s other offerings. Lead Liaison now provides all of the solutions needed for a company of any size to monitor website visitors, automate marketing efforts, and manage all interaction with clients and partners – in one place.

Lead Liaison end user Jim Westrom is the Director of Corporate Accounts at Lumen21, an information technology and services provider for the healthcare industry. He works with Lead Liaison’s Lead Management Automation (LMA)™ on a daily basis. “I’ve been eager for the release of OneFocus™ CRM,” says Westrom. “It’s exactly what our company needs, and we love that it comes free with our marketing automation license. The ease of use is incredible. It’s so intuitive! Our sales team is going to love this.”

This release doesn’t come as a surprise to Lead Liaison customers, as they are already familiar with the company’s stellar customer support and inventive attitude. In the past year, Lead Liaison has made significant strides in partnering with other industry experts, like GoToWebinar and Lob, to provide clients with the highest quality experience. Lead Liaison also released an extraordinary reporting and analytics add-on called Revelation™, which helps their clients understand and interpret data collected by the software. Lead Liaison customers consistently rave about the ease-of-use, modern approach, and overall satisfaction with the company as a whole.

OneFocus™ CRM is truly a free CRM. There are no hidden fees for additional users. Companies can maximize their dollars by streamlining all of their goals and accomplishments in one application. Salespeople that used to avoid outdated CRMs are clamoring to get their hands on this software. To learn more about OneFocus™ – The Free CRM, visit http://www.leadliaison.com/free-crm/.

About Lead Liaison
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).