1781 – How to Double Your Leads in 90 Days with Mark Osborne

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0:59with us right now mark osborne mark you are the founder of modern revenue strategies you're found on the web at modern revenue strategies.com mark it's great to have you it's a pleasure to be here josh thanks so much for having me absolutely you're also the author of the book are your leads killing your business we're going to talk about that so mark i'll just kind of have you share just a bit about your superpowers, the work that you do and impact that you have in the world today. Absolutely. So I work with CEOs, founders, and even sales leaders, typically at early stage B2B firms. So in the SaaS, B2B services, technology companies, and really where I add the most value and have the most expertise is companies that are dealing with really long sales cycles and complex buying committees, lots of different influencers on that buy for large average contract value.

1:53And I really work to help them build systems for generating revenue. And those systems include attracting the right prospects, so they're really bringing the right people into the orbit, accelerating those deals through their sales pipeline so that they can close more deals faster without having to lower price, and then activating their existing clients for more renewals, upsells, referrals, and testimonials. Yeah. So Mark, I suspect that you've got some strong opinions about where a lot of B2B marketing is today. Either this is because maybe this is an SMB founder, maybe they're only a year or two into this.

2:33And there's a lot of competing ideas on what that should look like. But I think you and I both agree that there are some foundational things that if you don't have these things in place, you're just asking for a world of, I don't want to say hurt, but I mean, it's just, you know, you end up really giving a subpar experience to potential customers and or existing customers, and you end up losing a lot of revenue. Let me just kind of hand the stage over to you and give your mini TED talk here, if you will. Sure. Yeah. And you're right, Josh. It's funny. You know, I've been in this space for more than 20 years, but the pandemic sort of lockdowns and the B2B space, I think as McKinsey said, that it accelerated trends by more than 10 years and less than 10 months.

3:22So some things that were happening really accelerated. And a lot of businesses sort of put things on pause, but then went back to what they had always been doing. And they're finding that it just isn't working at all. And so actually, the whole premise of the book is on really sort of creating a framework for real success in approaching the B2B landscape. And like all marketing, marketing begins with the market. So what we see is a big miss that a lot of companies have is they don't really take the time to understand their ideal customer. And not just, well, who are their customers, but who's their ideal customer?

3:58Who are the ones that buy into their product and buying vision? Where the market is heading? Who you want to be building solutions for? And when you start to isolate on that tier one ideal customer and then go a layer deeper and think about what's the persona or avatar of those decision makers, the champions, the influencers against that decision, how do they go about becoming aware of problems that they have? What are the information sources that they seek for evaluating different options? And then how do you sort of influence that buying decision? That's what really sort of leads to really innovative solutions that allows you to grow your marketplace without just spending more money on ads.

4:42And oftentimes ads that don't work, if you haven't taken the time to understand the customer and their context and why they're evaluating different solutions and what they're looking for in those solutions, you oftentimes will just sort of throw money after money when it comes to buying ads. But there's oftentimes much more efficient and effective ways to do that when you take the time to use some systems to really understand those customers. So, Mark, let's talk maybe a little bit about the very, very top of the funnel, right? And so, you know, some people would kind of put that under the lead gen bucket, which I don't really like that term for a number of reasons.

5:21I think it just, you know, I think if we're empathic to where consumers' brains are, and everyone's a consumer today, you know, I think that there's been historically some systems that used to work that maybe don't work by default the way that they used to, would you mind maybe just kind of addressing that very, very top initial awareness of like what you see working well and what would you advise to be a little skeptical of if some guru is telling you to do this, if you just want to drum up more business? Sure. I see you smiling by the way as I'm talking. That's right. That's right. Well, can I just tell you like some of my favorite conversations on this podcasts are like true, like, you know, B2B leaders, marketing leaders who get it like they're and they've been there, done that.

6:08They're adults. They're not the, you know, the flashy gurus that are just trying to enrich themselves. But when someone truly understands trends and are very, very honest, like these are my some of my favorite because this is where I get really geek out on. So I just want to mark. I just that's a compliment. I just want to say thank you so much. And just your reactions like, oh, yeah, do we need to grab? a drink together and like talk about the industry that's right well and that's also why we put a lot of focus on building systems uh because you know gurus will sort of keep you dependent on them for that next morsel or that next silver bullet idea that next algorithm they're gonna you know game or whatever it might be the next growth hack and oftentimes even agencies don't really take that strategic systems approach they just say buy more ads and so we really sort of take more ownership of our clients' success by helping them build and install systems in their business that can take them to that next level.

7:04But you talked about the very top of the funnel. One of the things that we see as a real challenge is that many companies will sort of either rely on advertising or it might be content or whatever their go-to-market strategy is to sort of say like we exist, but they haven't taken the time to understand a really differentiated positioning strategy. And it's with that differentiated positioning strategy that says we are different from our competitors in these meaningful ways. And here are the reasons to believe that those ways matter and they will sort of change the outcomes that you'll get from choosing us as a partner as opposed to choosing some other provider.

7:46When you really understand that through the lens of your customer and the context that they're living in, then you're creating awareness while generating demand. And that's what we see as the sort of most powerful way to generate leads at the top of the funnel in a way that's really efficient and effective instead of just, you know, kind of taking a shotgun blast approach. And of course, building in systems to measure the response rates and to measure the effectiveness of different channels and to maximize different channels. All of that's important. And all of those sort of mechanisms have to be in place, too.

8:23but no amount of growth hacks or mechanisms or gaming and algorithm is going to make a difference if you're not telling the right story. That's absolutely correct. Yeah. The line on that story is really thinking through from the lens of your customer, how to create a differentiated positioning strategy. Yeah. You know, I love this idea of having patience and empathy for what's going on in our clients' lives and what is their experience right now. They might be, if they're shopping around for something right now, they are likely getting bombarded with ads and all sorts of things. If they're a decision maker within a particular, you know, I was just talking with someone who's an administrator with a healthcare system.

9:03She oversees over 20 ,000 employees. And she said, you would not believe the crappy stuff that these salespeople do to me, where they'll just put events. Somehow they will find my calendar, just put events on my calendar without my permission. It's so maddening that I now am just so on guard and I keep myself so protected and I feel badly about that, but it just, you know, it's kind of this idea that marketers ruin everything. So again, I think it's very smart. Like what you're talking about is, you know, having this holistic view of the customer journey, right? Any other tips on that concept about, you know, maybe just where the general environment is right now?

9:45Yeah. So that's one of those big trends that the COVID lockdowns accelerated was buyers of B2B services really wanting to distance themselves more and more from the vendors or providers of those services. In fact, the statistic I heard the other day is 70 % of the buyer's journey is now completed before a buyer will even contact a provider in the space. Whereas it used to be once upon a time, just even a few years ago, when a buyer was looking to evaluate something, they'd call the top three providers, talk to them about what they were looking for, look to them for suggestions on what they should evaluate.

10:22And so that makes it all the more important that you use just what you said, that empathy to understand what is the context that is sending them to market? What is their business context? And when you look at your ideal customer profile and that a tier one customer that really represents 80 % of your revenues? What is the context that is similar among all of those different customers and what sent them to market and what they were looking for for solutions so that you can then craft messaging that really brings that out so that you're not trying to be a perfect fit for everyone in the category.

10:59You're trying to be a perfect fit for your tier one customers, those customers that really get your approach and why your difference is meaningful and valuable. And by putting that into the marketplace, that's what really sort of attracts those right prospects for you so that you get the right leads, then move faster through the sales pipeline and then do more renewals, upsells and referrals, which is how you really dominate a marketplace. Yeah. So Mark, how do you work with your clients? Like, what does that look like? Yeah. So, you know, the first thing that we do is kind of a diagnostic. And I talked earlier about these sort of three revenue systems of attracting the right prospects, accelerating them through the sales pipeline, or sort of activating existing clients for renewals, upsells, and referrals.

11:44And having worked with hundreds of brands and advertisers over the years, we have some benchmarks that we use to sort of diagnose where are your strengths, where are your weaknesses, so that we can see where's your biggest opportunity for growth in the next 90 days. and through diagnosing where you are today, we can then identify where those gaps are and then come up with that initial 90-day plan that's going to really accelerate growth. Oftentimes we see our clients experience double their leads within those first 90 days. And we actually offer our 10X ROI B2B growth guarantee where our clients experience 10X return on their investment with us within six months or less.

12:25And so it's by diagnosing that first area of opportunity and then diving in there that we can really make that immediate impact for our clients. Now, your book is called, Are Your Leads Killing Your Business? Do you mind describing what you mean by how your leads could be killing your business? That's right. So there's so much of a focus on quantity of leads that a lot of customers or really sort of B2B providers get sort of swamped in quantity and they aren't focused on the right quality. And what happens is when you don't have systems in place to attract the right prospects and then work them through the process, you wind up with sort of the leftovers in the marketplace.

13:06Well, those leftovers are people that are never really convinced that your approach is right. So they ask you to customize your solution for them. They don't really understand the value you provide. So they want lower pricing than everyone else. And in the end, they ultimately churn out of your business and don't make renewals, upsells, and referrals. Those types of customers create a death spiral for your business. And in fact, lead to distracting you from building the products that the rest of the market wants. And when you're not building those products, well, then you're getting further and further behind your competitors.

13:38And your competitors that are winning the market are those that are using data and technology to build the systems that attract the right prospects, move them through the sales pipeline, and then really activate them for renewals, upsells, and referrals. Without that, we've really seen a number of businesses get into that death spiral where they chase the quantity, they miss the quality that's hidden within that because they're chasing that quantity. And so then they don't wind up really closing the deals that leads to the market domination. Yeah. You know, that same principle I think is applicable in a lot of different areas.

14:11You know, my background is a media consultant PR. That was one of the very first things that clients would come in and say, okay, so we're going to pitch to a thousand different producers. I'm like, nope. We're going to spend way more time with far fewer people where we're going to really focus on human connection and relationship in this case. Because guess what? The default of the lazy marketer or the lazy PR person is just spray and pray. And I think that we've all received what clearly is just some spray and pray campaign. How much do you feel like that other person cares about you? Or does it really just feel like it's all about them.

14:54And I think all of us could answer that question is we don't feel very cared for. We feel like, okay, great. I get that you're just trying to pitch your thing or sell your thing. And that's not real attractive, by the way. That's right. Well, and the old phrase is people do business with people they know, like, and trust. And even in the B2B space, although it's a business decision, it's a human on the other end of that phone making a business decision. And so they, of course, will use logic and they'll use reasoning to make those decisions. And they're not going to do anything that doesn't make sense from that perspective.

15:30However, they want to do business with other humans that they know, like, and trust. So building that rapport is really important. Yeah. And talk about the role of content. Like, how do you see that fitting in, whether it's demand gen or, you know, again, just being empathic throughout the customer journey, I suspect that there are things that many of us may not be doing that might be some low-hanging fruit here. Yeah. So one of the main things is really understanding the job to be done by each piece of content. And so if you think through that customer journey and what we guide our clients to do, and again, as part of a system, is we really map out in both a visual and a descriptive way, what are the informational needs at each stage?

16:15So being aware that this is a problem that they could tackle, deciding this is a prioritized problem we should tackle, evaluating, well, what are the different ways to tackle it? And then what are the different vendors that work within those different ways? You never want to sort of jump ahead of the process. And oftentimes what we see companies do with their content is they try to answer every question in one piece of content, knowing that it's a three-month long decision cycle for our average customer to decide to solve this problem, evaluate different ways of solving it, evaluate different vendors that do it in those different ways.

16:50Focus on just that next gate that they have to get through. They've got to decide to solve this problem. So focus on the ROI of solving the problem, not different ways to solve it, not different vendors that are available, but the importance of solving the problem and how it's going to make an impact to their business. Once they've moved through that stage, now advocate for the three different ways to solve it. Here's why this is the right way to solve it. Don't talk about how you're better than your competitors yet. Just talk about why your way is the right way to solve it and move them through that stage of the sort of informational journey.

17:25And then they'll build trust and familiarity with you along the way and understand that you're really sort of advocating for their best outcomes by, again, focusing on what they need at that stage of the journey, not what you want to do, which ultimately what you want to do is get them to buy from you. But jumping ahead those steps isn't doing anyone any good. Yeah. So Mark, your website, let me, I understand like you're going to hook people up here. That's right. And this is nice of you, by the way. So I think you were going to share your book or you're going to share some resources here. Yeah.

17:59For the first 50 listeners to your podcast that go to modernrevenuestrategies.com slash free download, All one word, no caps, nothing to worry about there. Pretty easy to find. You'll get a free download of the book. And with that will come templates, calculators, all the materials to build these systems in your own business so that you can start to build these attraction, acceleration and activation systems for revenues. And with that, I'll actually send hours of free training. So I've done videos on how to build this differentiated positioning strategy that creates demand while generating awareness, how to build these systems that bring together marketing, sales and customer success so that you're aligned on shared KPIs and really sort of growing the business overall to create a lot of that harmony in the business.

18:49All of that training comes free with it. Yeah. Again, the URL, I just pulled it up here. Oh, gosh, now I lost it. What was the URL one more time? I'm so sorry. I lost my tab. ModernRevenueStrategies.com slash free download. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. Awesome. Well, Mark Osborne, again, you're the founder of Modern Revenue Strategies. Again, that website, ModernRevenueStrategies.com forward slash free download. Grab the book for free. Are Your Leads Killing Your Business? And Mark, listen, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Josh. It's been a real pleasure.

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