Jill Konrath | Selling to Big Companies

Web Leads: Pounce, Pause, Nurture or Wait?

Mike Damphousse, CEO and CMO of Green-Leads approached me with a great question the other day. Leadlander, a Sales 2.0 company, tracks when people visit your site and lets you know when it's happening.

Here's what Mike asked ... Within a day or two of sending an initial email to someone, leaving a phonemail or posting a blog article or tweet, I see they (or someone from their company) have visited our site.

How aggressively do I go after them?
Do I pounce immediately? Do I pause and call shortly thereafter? Do I just nurture them? Do I wait a couple days then call?

Great question! Mike sought the opinions of a number of lead generation experts. Check out the article on his site that includes commentary from:

• Anneke Seley, author Sales 2.0
• Craig Rosenberg, Funnelholic
• Jeff Ogden, Fearless Competitor
• Me, Selling to Big Companies
• Mac McIntosh, Sales Leads Insights
• Miles Austin, Fill the Funnel
• Trish Bertuzzi, Inside Sales Experts Blog
• Nigel Edelshain, Sales 2.0
• Mike Damphousse, Green-Leads
 
What would you do? Pounce, pause, nurture or wait?

Must Watch Video: Triumph of the Human Spirit

In a Chinese modern dance competition, one unique couple won a top prize. The lady was a dancer who'd trained since she was a little girl. Later in life, she lost her entire right arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression.

Someone then asked her to coach a children's dance group. From that point on, she knew she needed to dance again. It took a long time before she could even make simple turns or spins without falling. With only one arm, it was hard to balance.

Then she heard of a man who'd lost a leg in an accident and fallen into a depression. She was determined to persuade him to be her partner. Since he'd never danced before, he turned her down. But she didn't give up and ultimately he agreed.

She started to teach him to dance, but he had no concept of using muscle or how to control his body. When she lost patience with him, he'd walk out. Eventually, they started training seriously.

Here's their performance in the competition.



What do you think? And what are the messages here for sellers?

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Which B2B Database is Best for Prospecting Purposes?

That's a question I get asked all the time. Which is better: Jigsaw, ZoomInfo, Zapdata or ...?

To find out the answer, check out Online Sources of B-to-B Data: A Comparative Analysis.

This excellent study by Ruth Stevens & Bernice Grossman looks at 10 vendors to assess the quantity, completeness and accuracy of their data.

First they identified 10 industries and asked each vendor for the number of companies in each SIC code.

Next, they selected well-known firms in each industry. Each vendor supplied the number of contacts in each firm, plus the # of "complete" contacts (full name, address, title, phone, fax & email).

Finally, they persuaded ten businesspeople to be their guinea pigs as they evaluated the accuracy of each vendor's data.

The results are interesting. You see, the answer depends on what you're looking for!  Click here to download their analysis.