Direct Mail Still Delivers in 2018

Direct mail might seem so last century, but it has an enduring appeal, especially in this age of digital everything. Believe it or not, people enjoy taking a break, dimming their devices and picking up actual, physical mail. If nothing else, there’s an element of surprise, even though it’s sometimes tempered by disappointment. ...

Lead generation is a massive industry, with countless verticals capturing qualified leads that can be sold to companies looking to acquire new customers. But according to the Black Report, only 17.3 per cent of companies actually reach their lead generation targets. There are different lead generation verticals geared to different industries, but the most effective are ...

Being active and engaging with new leads and prospects is a good way to fill your sales pipeline and garner new business, but how often are you measuring the performance of your lead generation campaign? There are several metrics to track in lead generation. The key is to map out your goals and prioritize the ...

To thrive in today’s world, companies need to move beyond the customer journey.  To reach their full potential and earn loyal clients for life, companies need to maintain a permanent presence in the lives of their customers, an endless relationship not confined to separate episodes of actively considering a purchase. This is as true ...

With the summer vacation season in full swing, it’s understandable that most of us want to take a break. But it would be wrong to take your foot off the gas during the so-called “slow season”. For one thing, your competitors probably aren’t doing that, and will be happy to score a few ...

B2B sales lead generation comes in different forms. 360 Leads is fortunate to have varied means to support our clients in generating more qualified sales leads. One way that we’ve found success has been through the production of online video, usually part of a broader sales lead generation campaign. Great video can tell a ...

Everyone knows that getting as many sales leads as possible plays an extremely important role in having a thriving business. But, you shouldn’t focus all your attention on capturing new business leads, you should focus a majority of your attention on nurturing the leads you already have. Failing to nurture your current leads and ...

When generating B2B leads you'll need to go to where the leads are, and nowadays, that’s on social media. According to the Black Report, social media accounts for 26.8% of a B2B company’s success. Using it to tap into interested prospects for your business can be a powerful resource. But what's the ...

How many companies struggle with finding the answer to ‘how do I get my sales people to sell more?’ Maybe if I get them more sales appointments, get them more B2B sales leads, get them support from an inbound lead generation program – yes, then they will sell more. All of that is probably true. ...

A diverse marketing platform gets results Up until the great internet breakthrough, telemarketing was one of the most effective ways to connect with potential clients. Who would have thought that an innocent attempt of housewives trying to sell cookies over the phone, in the 1950s would now become a common marketing practice by a trained ...

It’s no big surprise that Canada’s biggest trading partner is the United States. And with Canadian currency being favorable relative to the US greenback, there is a great opportunity available to Canadian B2B companies who haven’t yet explored export sales growth south of the border. Exports from Canada to the US ...

Leigh-Ann Clarke is Vice President and GM at 360 Leads. And she knows a fake when she sees one. After more than 25 years leading sales teams and appointment setting campaigns at Yellow Pages and 360 Leads, it takes but a few minutes for her to quickly assess the attitude of a sales person and their willingness to ...

There are warm sales leads, hot sales leads and those that are just simply not really sales leads at all. So, how do you know the difference between what’s hot and what’s not? “There are three main things to consider when determining the quality of an initial sales lead”, says Christine Britsas, Regional ...

Quality sales leads are an essential part of every business, yet sales lead generation is ranked as the most important sales and marketing challenge facing 58.3% of companies right now, according to The Black Report. There are many challenges standing in the way of reaching lead generation targets; budget, manpower or poor data – the good news ...

Winning new business. It’s the holy grail of business success and a massive boost to employee morale. “A former boss once said that the best reward for people who do good work is to give them more work – and that means job security”, says 360 Leads CEO Stuart Lewis. Lewis is passionate about B2B ...

How much time, effort and money does it take to build a business? And how much of that can be undone with poor lead generation representation of your company and brand? New business wins, driven by effective sales lead generation can be the difference between flat revenue and hockey-stick-trajectory business growth. But it comes with ...

It’s amazing how many B2B sales people believe that it’s their mission to drop in on businesses unannounced with the hope of meeting the decision maker and building a new connection. Not to say this doesn’t work – photocopier sales people are notorious for getting the expiry dates on lease contracts with ...

In lead generation, low-tech tactics can offer serious upgrades to high-tech solutions – especially when it comes to results. Recently, Leigh-Ann Clarke, VP and General Manager of 360 Leads and our sister company, Clever Samurai covered this high-tech/low-tech topic in an article for Direct Marketing Magazine. Specifically, how e-mail campaigns and e-mail marketing can get a ...

Despite the cold weather, there is a lot to feel warm about in February. From Valentine’s Day to Family Day, Lunar New Year for some cultures and even cheering on our nation’s team at the Winter Olympics, there is a great sense of building community and nurturing relationships. In lead generation, relationships are ...

In our last 360 Leads blog, we dispelled the negative connotations around telesales and explained why it’s an effective lead generation channel. No one knows this better than a sales lead generator. They are on the front lines (and on the phone lines) putting this method into practice everyday for 360 Leads and our clients. From ...

Your next customer is only a call away. That is, if you or your lead generation company picks up the phone. Needless to say, because of this, telemarketing or telesales gets a bad rep; those poorly-scripted calls are made in the hundreds if not thousands, from disengaged people focused on quantity and not quality. It’...

It’s no surprise that living a healthier lifestyle often tops the list of New Year’s Resolutions year after year. Companies focused on B2B sales can also use this renewed focus to build a robust pipeline, garner more leads and improve sales making for a much healthier bottom line simply by committing to ...

There are five weeks left in 2017. Did you hit your targets? Have you increased your leads? Did you grow your business the way you envisioned? As the year comes to a close it may be time to re-evaluate your lead generation strategy – and it might start with partnering with a lead generation company. Only 17.3% of ...

The best direct mail campaigns grab the attention of decision makers and make them want to meet with you. A lead practically signed, metaphorically sealed and delivered. The process however, of sealing a deal with direct mail takes some due diligence – and it starts with a lead generation company that produces successful campaigns. At 360 Leads, ...

Whoever came up with that familiar saying what’s old is new again might have been talking about customer win-back campaigns – or not. Either way, when it comes to sales, a win-back campaign should be a part of your sales lead generation program. According to research by Bain & Company, increasing customer retention rates by 5% ...

An effective sales team turns leads into concrete wins, but a witch’s brew or a fairy godmother can’t make this happen overnight (no matter what time of the year it is). Monster sales effectiveness happens when there is a shift in thinking and not just by following a list of actions. How, you ...

Telesales can be the start of a successful lead generation campaign – when you have the right lead generation company working for you. The 360 Leads Black Report found that 44.7% of top performing companies rank telesales as their best lead generation channel. When you combine direct mail, digital marketing and a targeted campaign that gets your business ...

Winning new customers builds internal enthusiasm and turns sales champions into company heroes. A Bain & Company study highlights that increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profitability by 25% to 95%. Within the US credit card industry, Forbes reports that providers deal with annual churn rates of 20%. Imagine the massive profitability of retaining even the top quartile ...

Brilliant marketers understand that qualified sales leads often start in the marketing department. According to The Black Report™, a global lead generation study by 360 Leads, 72.8% of companies that excel at lead generation have a well-defined, clearly articulated value proposition. These companies know their story, and how to tell it. Articulating the difference that a company ...

If you're wondering how you or your sales force can do a little better, you might be surprised to learn that sales effectiveness isn't all about product knowledge. It's about sales knowledge. And a lead generation company’s most successful clients have sales cultures that get it. And in turn, they get big results. Do ...

There is no question that being the #1 brand in your category is what every company strives for. Some of our clients are exactly that and some are trying hard to be. And because we serve both types of clients as a lead generation company, we can tell you that if you're smart about your sales ...

A sales team is only as good as their pipeline. How your company obtains new business leads and grows existing clients is based on the opportunities, database and relationships your sales team has with qualified prospects. The biggest misconception is that a full pipeline is a healthy pipeline. That is not always the case. Lead ...

In The Black Report™, our global study on sales lead generation, marketers selected digital lead generation as their top lead generation channel, while salespeople selected outbound telesales as their top channel. We say they’re both right, but the important question remains: how do you turn digital traffic into real bona fide sales leads? The ...

Telemarketing. Some might classify it as the underbelly of sales and marketing, filled with companies using offshore low-cost, high-volume call centres and reciting poorly developed scripts trying to sell something that somebody doesn't really want. This lead generation stereotype has created a fear in many marketers of using the telephone as a sales and lead ...

To the uninitiated, direct mail is junk mail. It's simply flyers, postcards and papers that end up in the garbage. 'Light your money on fire', 'it's the digital age', 'direct mail doesn't work', they say. We hate to burst the naysayers' bubble, but they are just flat wrong. That isn't to say there aren't horrible ...

When it comes to new sales, the right data lists are crucial. Inaccurate data could mean an out-of-date list or worse, improper targeting. In The Black Report™, our global sales lead generation study, 36.8% of respondents rated data list quality issues as a key barrier to success. There is no question that the best prospect "list" ...

Quality sales leads come from quality data. The Black Report™ found that 36.8% of respondents think data list quality issues are a major reason company lead generation programs don’t deliver enough qualified sales leads. But that can change. For long-term company growth, it’s important to maintain your sales data health by scrubbing for quality ...

Sales leads are critical to every company's survival. Some buyers don’t require much effort to close because they know what they want, but these quick win sales are a small percentage of the larger whole. Most leads don't convert into sales, and poor lead nurturing can be blamed for that. Leaving new sales leads ...

What is the appeal of social media for brands? Engaging customers? Starting conversations? Building communities? Not quite. Till recently, social media attracted marketers in large part because it was a totally free form of lead generation. Of course, that’s changed. Now, if you want your brand messaging to get eyeballs and interactions, you’ve ...

The one thing sales and marketing departments agree on is their greatest challenge: generating more qualified sales leads. Still, many marketing personnel believe their role to be independent of sales or are unsure of how their role contributes to sales. Indeed, The Black Report found that marketers believe their sales lead generation activities are 35% more ...

In The Black Report, a recent global study by 360 Leads, senior executives and sales leaders responded to survey questions regarding their sales lead generation success. The results suggested that the foremost reason sales lead generation efforts miss their targets was their CEO not fostering success. 58.1% of respondents felt they were allocated insufficient resources and another 47.3% ...

The number of sales leads a business needs is a great point of contention between sales and marketing teams within an organization. Sales executives always find they could use more to keep the sales funnel flowing, while marketing executives believe they’re providing enough. In fact, marketing professionals say their lead generation activities are 35% more ...

A steady flow of sales leads is the livelihood of every organization. Whether it is top of mind in an organization or not, companies require lead generation to operate. Lead generation should be at the core of every business. Sometimes the marketing and sales teams face internal obstacles that don’t foster an environment conducive ...

To be effective in meeting annual sales targets, a salesperson often needs to focus on countless miscellaneous tasks to ensure a consistently full pipeline. There is a lot of legwork involved in generating leads that a sales person must do to drum up sales leads for a company, but has nothing to do with closing ...