Lead Refinery Concept Re-Emerges As Marketers Emphasize Offer Optimization, Digital Dialog
- Written by John Gaffney, Senior Analyst
- Published in Feature Articles
When it comes to lead generation, the economy is irrelevant.
It is admittedly a stretch to put “irrelevant” and “economy” in the same sentence these days. However, if you buy into that concept, you agree with Russell Kern, CEO of the Kern Organization and one of the most visible proponents of the need to automate and consistently generate quality leads.
It is admittedly a stretch to put “irrelevant” and “economy” in the same sentence these days. However, if you buy into that concept, you agree with Russell Kern, CEO of the Kern Organization and one of the most visible proponents of the need to automate and consistently generate quality leads.
Along with David Green, CEO of PipeAlign, Kern is introducing some new thinking into the process of demand gen and lead gen. The
two have also evangelized the importance of the concept of a “lead refinery” to keep prospects alive. Both say the lead refinery concept is urgent, but not because of the economic downturn.
“Regardless of what is happening in the general economy companies need to maximize their sales opportunities,” says Kern. “The economy is irrelevant. What is relevant is the need for marketers to change the structure of their offers to prospective clients and refine their ability to find the good ones.”
Both Kern and Green feel marketers need fundamental shifts. Kern centers his message for change around the marketing offers that will engage a prospect and turn them into a lead. Green, who authored the lead refinery concept, focuses his message on changes in what he calls the “digital dialogue.” BtoB marketers can stray into totally impersonal, automated communication and he sees that as a danger.
“The market is totally saturated with information,” Green says. “Companies have all these databases and they need to figure out what to do next with the information. I think relevance and respectfulness need to return to the digital domain. The digital domain helps us scale lead generation, but it doesn’t mean we can’t keep some humanity and personal touch in the same process.”
To fully understand Kern and Green, some definitions are in order. First: Lead refinery. Green says every company has one whether they know it or not. From his perspective the lead refinery is a methodology that uses the metaphor of an oil refinery to describe a more efficient effort to go to market. Customers and prospects are the “oil.” Interactions with the marketplace are the way the customers are “processed” or refined. The main purpose of the refinery is to drive home the concept that some grades of customer are higher when they go into the refinery, and some therefore need to be processed differently. What comes out of the refinery needs to be as pure and efficient as possible.
Within that refinery reside the different interactions companies can initiate with their customers. That’s where Green brings the “digital dialogue” into play by emphasizing the ability to touch customers frequently with relevant messaging. However, he stresses that a customer needs change as the dialogue evolves. Different contact points may be involved as the dialogue continues. High-pressure sales tactics via digital means may not be appreciated.
“These challenges create the possibility of over-soliciting some customers, ignoring others, sending duplicate leads to sales, keeping customers and prospects in the cultivation track too long, having customers or prospects ignore messages because of their lack of relevance, and so on,” Green says. “To create an effective Digital Dialogue with your inquiries, your company needs to set up a single, centralized process. That clearing house function should clean up and enhance these new inquiries each day and then consolidate these transactions with whatever else you already know about the individual, the location, and the opportunity.”
The lead refinery and digital dialogue also sync with Kern’s emphasis on the offer. The offer also represents the “refinery” capabilities of an automated system. Green suggests marketers need to break down their silos, stop spending so much time on the scalability of their lead generation and scoring process and start spending more time on the offer being communicated.
“This is a very big deal to me,” Kern says. “Marketers spend a lot of time creating the concept of an offer, but they don’t change it as the campaign continues and as conditions change. The offer represents 40% to 50% of the success rate of a lead generation campaign. But the offer gets no respect from marketers.”
Examples: If a potential customer downloads a whitepaper, the subsequent offer to keep that customer engaged should center on dynamically-served content. If the free iPod offer works as a reward for attending an event, be prepared to react to a change in behavior after that reward is delivered. Kern compares this constant attention to changing the offer to basketball.
“Do you know why NBA teams still practice free throws,” he asks. “It’s not because they can’t do them well. It’s because they need to practice the fundamentals. Some things have changed in the lead gen marketplace, but it’s still about fundamentals.”
two have also evangelized the importance of the concept of a “lead refinery” to keep prospects alive. Both say the lead refinery concept is urgent, but not because of the economic downturn. “Regardless of what is happening in the general economy companies need to maximize their sales opportunities,” says Kern. “The economy is irrelevant. What is relevant is the need for marketers to change the structure of their offers to prospective clients and refine their ability to find the good ones.”
Both Kern and Green feel marketers need fundamental shifts. Kern centers his message for change around the marketing offers that will engage a prospect and turn them into a lead. Green, who authored the lead refinery concept, focuses his message on changes in what he calls the “digital dialogue.” BtoB marketers can stray into totally impersonal, automated communication and he sees that as a danger.
“The market is totally saturated with information,” Green says. “Companies have all these databases and they need to figure out what to do next with the information. I think relevance and respectfulness need to return to the digital domain. The digital domain helps us scale lead generation, but it doesn’t mean we can’t keep some humanity and personal touch in the same process.”
To fully understand Kern and Green, some definitions are in order. First: Lead refinery. Green says every company has one whether they know it or not. From his perspective the lead refinery is a methodology that uses the metaphor of an oil refinery to describe a more efficient effort to go to market. Customers and prospects are the “oil.” Interactions with the marketplace are the way the customers are “processed” or refined. The main purpose of the refinery is to drive home the concept that some grades of customer are higher when they go into the refinery, and some therefore need to be processed differently. What comes out of the refinery needs to be as pure and efficient as possible.
Within that refinery reside the different interactions companies can initiate with their customers. That’s where Green brings the “digital dialogue” into play by emphasizing the ability to touch customers frequently with relevant messaging. However, he stresses that a customer needs change as the dialogue evolves. Different contact points may be involved as the dialogue continues. High-pressure sales tactics via digital means may not be appreciated.
“These challenges create the possibility of over-soliciting some customers, ignoring others, sending duplicate leads to sales, keeping customers and prospects in the cultivation track too long, having customers or prospects ignore messages because of their lack of relevance, and so on,” Green says. “To create an effective Digital Dialogue with your inquiries, your company needs to set up a single, centralized process. That clearing house function should clean up and enhance these new inquiries each day and then consolidate these transactions with whatever else you already know about the individual, the location, and the opportunity.”
The lead refinery and digital dialogue also sync with Kern’s emphasis on the offer. The offer also represents the “refinery” capabilities of an automated system. Green suggests marketers need to break down their silos, stop spending so much time on the scalability of their lead generation and scoring process and start spending more time on the offer being communicated.
“This is a very big deal to me,” Kern says. “Marketers spend a lot of time creating the concept of an offer, but they don’t change it as the campaign continues and as conditions change. The offer represents 40% to 50% of the success rate of a lead generation campaign. But the offer gets no respect from marketers.”
Examples: If a potential customer downloads a whitepaper, the subsequent offer to keep that customer engaged should center on dynamically-served content. If the free iPod offer works as a reward for attending an event, be prepared to react to a change in behavior after that reward is delivered. Kern compares this constant attention to changing the offer to basketball.
“Do you know why NBA teams still practice free throws,” he asks. “It’s not because they can’t do them well. It’s because they need to practice the fundamentals. Some things have changed in the lead gen marketplace, but it’s still about fundamentals.”
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