Suddenly I’ve received and see a score of free travel deals. That’s free for qualified buyers, of course. Typically two days and nights, including airfare, lodging, and meals, with a conference, networking, and one-to-one meetings with sponsors. That’s one way to bag a qualified lead. I’m waiting for the Hawaii offer that applies to smart-ass consultants who don’t live on a coast.
Sponsored executive trips, often oriented around golf or a cruise, have been around for decades. What’s new is that the trip offers now have multiple sponsors to share the cost and blatantly advertise in mass media.
Does it work?
It’s tough to find a prospect in a recession. Marketing is producing fewer leads. You quantified the results and noticed that it’s actually costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a qualified lead. Why not just cut out the marketing in the middle and pay for the leads in a sponsored meeting program with free travel?
My gut is that it smacks of desperation. Marketing from market validation to lead management is a process that can’t be short-circuited. Didn’t your mother tell you there are no real shortcuts in life … or business?
Freebies mask intent and corrupt results, especially when you’re talking about a $1,000 trip to hot sunny Miami to a bored buyer stuck in blizzard in Rochester. I wonder how truly qualified these leads are. Be sure to include a huge fudge factor in your budget. That said, the math may still work in its favor.
What do you think? Have you tried it and how has it worked for you?
Marc
The 
Printing Money – The Revenue Typhoon
Published February 1, 2010 Blue/DallasBlue , Business , Commentary , Marketing , Sales Leave a CommentAt Tribe Blue and our on-on-one consulting we teach that building your business is a process. Strategize, plan, execute, measure, and reload. Generating revenues is the same.
Sales consultants like to talk about the funnel. A bushel of leads enters the funnel. The leads are winnowed after qualification and prosecution until only a few exit the funnel as actual sales.
But the focus on a funnel is short-sighted. Let’s say you’re the guy in charge of sales. Your goal is 10 sales this quarter. You’re damn good and know that you can close 20% of qualified leads. Marketing generates 50 leads. So you’re set, right? No. That’s a separate funnel. If 20% of gross leads are qualified, you can only expect 10 qualified leads and to close 20% of that, or 2 sales. Marketing actually needs to generate 250 leads for you to make quota. Uh-oh!
Tactical funnels don’t exist in isolation. There are a series of operational marketing and sales funnels that encompass and qualify markets, prospects, leads, and accounts. Indeed there is one huge funnel that stretches from mass markets of tens of millions of business or consumers customers to the individual customers that trickle out the other end.
When you build a manufacturing plant, you don’t just engineer one machine. You design the entire layout, including machines and production line, from raw materials to finished product.
It’s the same in marketing and sales. Each step in the master funnel must be managed to ensure maximum sales. We call it the Revenue Typhoon because it’s the secret to printing money.