The Funnelholic

Ok, call it a comeback. One thing I will admit is that I have been very inconsistent in updating the funnelholic. That is not good. (considering I claim to be an expert in b2b marketing, )

The long of the short of it is that the funnelholic is making a comeback. The goal for the rest of 2008 will be to update the funnlholic 1-2x a week. As I gear up for some prolific blogging, I finally started to read all the posts and watched all the webcasts I had been putting in my queue over the last couple months. This Saturday, I looked at every blog on Jon Miller’s Big list of b2b marketing blogs. Check out his post, that was a big task///138 blogs. By the way, great linkbait by Jon there but nonetheless a great list of the B2B marketing blogosphere.

In sum, the funnelholic is back.

I thought this was a good article on InsideCRM.com where the editors looked up as many valuable SFA links on the internet and tossed them into one article…Great for research, the editors did all the work for you.

Insidecrm.com: The Ultimate Guide to Sales Force Automation

As you know, I write for Inside CRM…we have just launched into a webinar series in conjunction with Microsoft. I thought the first one was really good, I would check it out in archive form, ie, watch at home whenever. Click here and watch: It was a primer for CRM…really good stuff.

The second webinar is coming up on Sales reps not actually using the CRM at their companies. I love this topic…as a guy who used to run around the valley and build sfa process for VPs of Sales and watch him/her struggle to get their Field Reps information, I know this pain. I would call the Field Reps and they complained how it slowed them down, too many clicks, etc. Microsoft is trying to solve this and the guest speakers make the presentation very relevant.

Click here to sign up, make sure when you get your confirmation you put log an Outlook calendar item.

Convince your sales reps to use your CRM

This was another funnel sent to me by one of my friends. . This funnel was taken from the Sales2.0 blog, the poster is David Thompson, the CEO of a great up-and-coming marketing automation company Sales Genius. (who I owe a long post about) Anyway, the impetus for this funnel was a meeting David had with Geoffrey Moore of Crossing the Chasm fame.

Their goals was to show:

how many of the Web 2.0 technologies are driving a faster, higher volume, incredibly efficient (measurable!) customer acquisition process, from Google AdWords providing anonymous inquiries to a customer’s web site, to on-demand CRM systems making it easier to track pipeline progress, to real-time web site monitoring helping qualify customers faster and offer personalized service, to online communities of customers and sales people trading leads, and web conferencing making it easier for Sales people to “connect and close” with customers on the Web.

Here is the cliff notes to what we have here:

• Top of the funnel:

• “Anonymous Visitors” - SEO, search, etc
• “Named Visitors” — Online contact databases
• Qualify Named Prospects:
• Tools for your sales team/inside team to connect with and qualify customers
• Track/Manage
• SFA/CRM
• Close
• Companies like Echosign that have automated order forms
• Loyalty

Ok, now for my commentary:

1. I like it, whether I agree with it or not. Obviously this was built with the idea of being able to put their partners into a puzzle.
2. I could say: “where is so-and-so” but being what I know from #1 above….this isn’t about that.
3. This does not fully represent process (again this is ok) but anonymous visitors have a second step that should be part of a company’s automation funnel which is optimized landing pages, etc.
4. We need a place for DRIP/Nurture on there. Always hard in a funnel, but if we are talking about true Sales 2.0 than that part of the process HAS to be accounted for
5. For Named Visitors, I would include buying targeted registrations on the internet via whitepapers or other offers. This is also very much in the repertoire of the new-age sales and marketer.
6. So is metrics and reporting…that should probably run across the side of the pipeline next to the process arrow. (PS dont think you can use Salesforce.com for this)
7. Im still not feeling the EchoSign and Nsite part of the process.
8. All in all, I think this is a start and a good one at that. Of course, my company is not on here, but I am game with that…that will change. In the funnelholic.com, I am an editor not a shill.