B2B Lead Generation For Financing & Equipment Leasing Professionals

What Does This Mean For Financing Professionals?
Financing professionals can now easily identify new business opportunities that have been financed by competitive lenders.  The new database also gives equipment leasing companies the opportunity to serve businesses that might have previously been serviced by lenders that are no longer in business. See our quick YouTube video to learn more.

Commercial financing companies and lenders have now been categorized with the latest business to business prospect database. All captive equipment leasing companies have been categorized by the particular equipment that they sell & lease.  These categories include:

Agricultural Equipment sales leads, Aircraft Equipment Sales Leads, Automotive tools & equipment sales leads, Boat Dealer sales leads, Computer equipment sales leads, Construction equipment sales leads, Copier sales leads, Finance & Equipment Leasing Sales Leads, Fitness Equipment Sales Leads, Food Processing Equipment sales Leads, Golf Cars & Equipment Sales Leads, Landscaping Equipment Sales Leads, Laundry Equipment Sales Leads, Lift Truck Sales Leads, Logging Equipment Sales Leads, Machine Tool Sales Leads, Manufacturing equipment sales leads, Medical equipment sales leads, Phone System Sales Leads, Printing Equipment Sales Leads, Trucking equipment sales leads, Vehicle Sales Leads, Welding Equipment Sales Leads

Most commercial financing institutions, including major banks and community banks have been categorized and ranked with our latest BtoB database.  Financing categories include:

General Equipment Leasing, Business Loans, Agriculture Loans, Debt Collection, Entertainment Finance, Factoring & Merchant Cash Advance, Hospitality Leasing, Investment Banking, Money Transfer, Real Estate Backed Loans, Structured Settlements, Wireless Land Leases

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BtoB Targeting | Prospects Identified By The Specific Equipment In Use

Posted on September 15, 2011 at 7:23 pm in

ProvenProspects.com launches new National database giving users the special ability to target business prospects by equipment. The data allows users to quickly identify prospects based on the specific equipment that they currently using, and have used in the past. The new sales database has categorized most major types of business equipment.  Users can search by equipment category, or do custom searches for particular equipment keywords, such as brand and model names.

Proven prospects has over 30 main equipment and financing categories, as well as over 700 sub categories. This classification system is unique to Proven Prospects. They are the only company to classify all major types of UCC filings, in order to make finding the most valuable data easy to find. You can signup for a free account here

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Sales 2.0 Conference, Most Memorable Sale Competition

Make That Sale! – Most Memorable Sale from DreamSimplicity on Vimeo.

Hosted by Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder & CEO of SellingPower Magazine. You can follow his blog here

“Beginning in 1981, Gschwandtner took Personal Selling Power (Now called: Selling Power Magazine) from a Four Color direct mail piece that was sent to 25,000 sales managers to a highly circulated global sales publication providing rich sales content to its readers, with insight from key thought leaders from various industries.” The Full Wiki

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Top 9 Blunders that B2B Sales Reps Make

Posted on October 29, 2010 at 1:44 pm in

By Geoffrey James | October 26, 2010

Selling B2B is a difficult job, but it’s even more difficult if you keep making blunders that can scuttle the deal.  Fortunately, the most common blunders can be easily identified and avoided.

This post contains the 9 most common blunders that B2B sales reps make when working on a major opportunity.  It also contains easily-followed advice on how to make sure that YOU don’t make them.

Click to see the first BtoB Sales blunder »

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B2B Sales Leads: Don’t Get Trapped In Too Small Commitments

by S. Anthony Iannarino on September 24, 2010

alt text of image of a goldfish jumping from a small bowl to large bowlGetting in with your dream client can sometimes be the most difficult part of any deal. To get in, you may lower the commitment level so that you are asking for a commitment that is easier to obtain; you make it easier for your dream client to say “yes.”

The Big Value of Small Commitments

You want your dream client’s business. They know that you want their business. But if you were to say, “Hi, I’d like to spend time exploring the most challenging parts of your business with you, help you to create a vision as to how those things might be made better, then spend the next ninety days working with you and your team on a massive transformational change effort and become your trusted partner for life,” it might be a little more than your dream client can agree to, sight unseen.

So, you lower the commitment level. You say, “I’d like to spend 20 minutes with you to understand your business and to explore any future opportunity to help make some improvements.” Twenty minutes is something that is easier to commit to.

Lowering the commitment level is very useful when trust has not been established. It allows your dream client to agree to low level commitments that have little or no risk attached to them—other than you not making that time valuable for them.

Big Deals Require Big Commitments

Later, as the deal progresses, you need to ask for higher-level commitments. Lowering the commitments can and will unravel the deal you are putting together. If you are working in front of the deal, then you need access to the buying team members so that you can understand their needs and ensure that what you present reflects their needs and their vision of the right answer. You need access and information from all kinds of people in a complex sale, so that what you sell not only wins, but so that you can ensure that it succeeds for your client.

As the deal progresses, you have to ask for greater and greater commitments, never lowering the commitment level so low that you cannot obtain what you need to win and what you need to later succeed. The resistance isn’t usually a lack of trust; the resistance is usually the lack of time and resources. To obtain greater commitments, you are going to have a history of being a value-creator, and you are going to have to be able to explain the return you intend to generate on their investment of their time and effort.

You have to be prepared to say, “I know that other salespeople haven’t asked for this access to the members of the buying team in the past, but meeting with your buying team members allows us the opportunity to listen to them describe what they specifically need from any solution we propose, and we get a chance to talk through any issues that might prevent what we propose from succeeding. Ultimately, it allows us to work with your team to make sure what we do produces the outcome that you need, as fast as possible, with fewer missteps, and a lot less disruption. I promise I’ll make it worth their while.”

At the very end of our sales process, we have to ask for the big commitment: trusting us with their business. Along the way, you will have moved from commitment to commitment, increasing the level of commitment the whole way.

Not asking for the commitments that you need extends your sales cycle, decreases the likelihood of winning the business, decreases the likelihood of your solution matching their needs, and making obtaining the commitments you need for a real transformation later next to impossible.

Conclusion

It can be very useful to lower the commitment level early in the sales process, especially to get in. But you cannot get trapped in too small commitments later, when they will unravel your deal and cause you to fail for your dream client.

Questions

  1. What commitments do you ask for that you make easier to obtain by lowering the commitment level?
  2. At what stages of your sales process do you find it useful to lower the commitment level and make it easier for your client to agree?
  3. When do you need to ask for greater commitments in order to get what you need to win the deal and to succeed for your dream client should you win?
  4. What causes you to reduce the level of commitments that you are asking for as a deal progresses? What are willing to go without that, had you obtained the commitment you really needed, you would have better positioned to win and to succeed?
  5. How can you obtain the greater commitments that you need to win and to succeed? How can you make sure that your dream client knows how agreeing to those commitments benefits them in the long run? What language do you need to use to most effectively ask for and obtain the high level commitments that you need?

Read More:

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7 Steps to Building A B2B Social Media Lead Generation Pipeline

Posted on September 21, 2010 at 12:05 am in

By Kipp Bodnar

Social media is about selling and can be directly monetized. I understand that this goes in the face of social media purists, but it is true. However, selling happens differently in B2B social media than it does in other channels.

When examining the lack of B2B social media adoption one of the core hurdles I have found is that B2B marketing executives are unsure how to build a lead generation pipeline using social media. Sure, social media lead generation strategy is different for every industry and business, but I would argue that any B2B social media lead generation pipeline shares some basic steps.

1. Understanding Online Analytics

Many people get caught up in much of the “shiny” aspects of the web and forget that its key benefit is data. Individual and companies that can best understand online data and use it to optimize their social media pipeline will be far ahead of the competition. Not only is understanding data from the web key to the development of B2B companies, it is also the first step in establishing a B2B social media pipeline.

Before you start a social media lead generation strategy, it is important to have some types of analytics connected to your Web site. Like man things on the web there are both free and paid web analytic tools that can be installed on your site. Google Analytics is the most popular free version, though services like Woopra and Clicky offer different approaches to web analytics. However, Google provides really good online video that explains analytics and you should watch it even if you don’t use their platform. I have embedded an introductory video that is a good resource for people who don’t understand the data available on the web.

We aren’t done with analytics yet. One major mistake that is easy to make is the assumption that you are covered as long as you have a way to collect data on your corporate Web site. In the world of the social web data, and subsequently lead generation, is possible across the web. Looking at analytics could be an entire post in itself, and maybe it will be. But it is important to have analytics across social platforms, even if it is simple data collection tools like Bit.ly for Twitter and the built-in Facebook data provided for Fan pages. Data from across the web allow you to see a bigger picture and readjust efforts as needed.

2. Develop A Content Strategy
Social media lead generation begins and ends with content. Content is king. That is preached on the web daily, so I won’t harp. However, I am going to discuss the issue many organizations fail to prioritize. If the goal of social media for your business is to drive leads, then it is critical that you have a content strategy to determine what content drives leads and how to best distribute it. How do you do this?

First you need to use your understanding of your customers and influencers to begin to have an idea of the type of information they are looking for online. You need to then overlap this content with content distribution platforms: blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, User Forums, etc. In the first 90 days of your content execution you need to produce different types of content: text, audio and video and distribute them at different channels and at different times. During this period use the analytics as described earlier in this post to see which type of content, distribution methods and timing drives the most leads and engagement. Through this process you should be able to develop a content strategy that can be continually tweaked to drive lead generation.


3. Build An Infrastructure To Gather Leads

Content can drive qualified traffic, but if no infrastructure is in place to make clear calls to action and collect lead information, your content strategy is more of a branding play then it is lead generation. The first step is to determine what a lead is for your product. Is it an request for a sales call, a subscription to an e-mail newsletter, or maybe be a simple request for more information?

Once it is clear what the lead is, then it is important to plan how to best integrate this process in the simplest way possible across not only a blog or corporate Web site, but across all social outposts on the web. And don’t forget to coordinate this with offline distribution channels too. When putting this system into action, be sure to make it as easy as possible to change calls to action and messaging, as that will be continually optimized during the year.

4. Establishing Back-End To Manage Data
Leads don’t matter unless your business can get the information to the right person who can close the deal. So depending on the lead data, it may go different places, such as an e-mail list or a database of a CRM system. Beyond having a system like this established, a critical step is segmentation. If you are using a CRM system, then all the leads that come into the system need to be marked as sourced from social media. This segmentation is a key component of determining ROI of B2B social media, as it subsequently determines future investment in B2B social media lead generation. Though for many, these data systems seem basic, but it is how the data interacts with the system that is the true point of value.

5. Construct Workflow To Maximize Conversion
This step is about doing the daily and weekly steps needed to make lead generation better. When you are developing your content and lead generation strategy for leveraging social media it is important to plan how the tactics will be optimized. Think about the data you need to see from the web and the frequency in which you need to see it to improve the overall conversion rates of your strategy.

Social data provides information in real-time in many cases. The biggest mistake B2B companies can make when thinking about B2B social media lead generation is to think that this type of lead generation is like a Ron Popeil rotisserie “you set it and forget it”. This type of content focused lead generation is constantly changing and because of this a business must include this optimization step to see maximum ROI.

6. Institute “Social” Sales Follow Up and Nurturing
Leads are useless without an appropriately timed sales follow up and subsequent nurturing. The point of this step in the B2B social media lead generation pipeline is to realize that customers’ expectations are changing. While they may want a call to discuss a product, they also might want a question answered on platforms like Twitter, Facebook or their personal blog. In understanding these customer expectations, sales organizations need to make sure that they have team members who can facilitate these social interactions once the B2B social media pipeline has been started.

This is another part of the funnel where social CRM systems and social media monitoring systems become critical in facilitating social actions and providing the information sales teams need. Ask yourself what training your sales team needs to get “social.”

7. Establish An Autopsy
All good plans have a goal. All good plans can likely be done better a second time. When planning your pipeline development it is important to schedule an autopsy at the end of each goal time period. Though you optimize the pipeline constantly, it is this autopsy in which all stakeholders gather to discuss the successes and needed improvement at each point in the process. The lessons learned from the autopsy can then go to directly improving the process and establishment of new goals.

A B2B social media lead generation pipeline isn’t really that different from a traditional B2B sales funnel in terms of process. The biggest issue is speed. It happens faster then other lead pipelines and this timeliness needs to be supported appropriately.

Read more: http://socialmediab2b.com/2010/01/b2b-social-media-lead-generation-pipeline/#ixzz1094GTnxn

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B2B Lead Generation: Learn the New Rules for Selling to Crazy-Busy Prospects

Posted on September 20, 2010 at 1:46 am in

For those of us in marketing and sales, our jobs are even tougher thanks to the busy lives of the decision makers we’re trying to reach. Overwhelmed,impossible deadlines, crazy busy – these are just some of the words today’s decision makers are using to describe their lives at work – and probably outside of work as well.

The biggest hurdle we need to overcome is cutting through the clutter to show the decision makers information that is relevant and that will help them make their lives easier.

That’s why I’ve invited Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and her excellent new book SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business with Today’s Frazzled Customers (May 2010) to help us address these issues.

During this webinar, you’ll learn:

  • How being super-busy impacts your prospect’s thinking and their expectations of you.
  • What factors your prospects use to determine if they’ll continue the conversation or send you to the dreaded “D-Zone” where you’re deleted, delayed or dismissed.
  • The four new SNAP Rules for selling as applied to your prospect’s First Decision.
  • How to leverage the “mind meld” to increase your success rate significantly.

Watch recorded webinar on demand (no registration required)
Get the slides (no registration required)

Read more: http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/#ixzz103cPzLoB

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7 Habits of Highly Successful Sales Professionals

Posted on September 6, 2010 at 1:41 pm in

by: Maura Schreier-Fleming

Successful salespeople are different. That’s what I’ve noticed. You may have noticed this in your company, too. These behaviors seem to work for them. Don’t you think they should work for you, too?

1.  They have a huge Rolodex.
Selling is finding customers who need or want what you have to sell.  Successful salespeople find their customers differently than less successful salespeople. One sales manager found that salespeople were more successful when they had more people resources to tap into. It didn’t matter if salespeople had much sales experience or came from a non-sales area. If they had maintained contact with their mentors, peers and managers over the years they were able to use their contacts as a source of sales leads and information. They were also more successful. You can start by maintaining meaningful contact with your customers. What better people than satisfied homeowners to recommend you to new prospects?

2.  They read fast.
Customers value salespeople who possess knowledge and offer unique insights. To get these insights, you have to be current on a variety of topics. Business and non-business reading is essential. How do you process all that you need to? You’ve got to read fast. Taking a speed-reading course can increase your reading from 250 words a minute to almost 1000 words a minute. You’ll be able to acquire much more information that can be of use to your customers.

3.  They apply technology.
How do you use the information you acquire to serve your customers? Is it easy to access that information when you need it? Having the information and being unable to access it quickly is the same as not having it at all. Time spent looking for something is time that could be spent supporting your selling. Do you want to refer a past customer to a new client? The sales greats use technology to manage information. Their databases make it easy to retrieve information. With the data they can see where their sales are and what they need to do to meet their goals. They can quickly locate the information they need. They spend time selling with information, not looking for information.

4.  They’re naturally curious. When they talk with customers and prospects, they use the word “why” a lot. They intuitively know when to ask “why” to get more information. They know that information is more powerful if the reason behind it is known. They don’t guess why a customer prefers a certain location. They ask why and find out from the customer’s point of view. In addition to why, they also ask great questions learning far more about their customers than less successful salespeople.

5.  They love what they do. Ask a sales great what they love about selling and they say, “Everything.” Being around them is like being around an energy source. Their attitude of optimism and belief in the value of their work portrays this enthusiastic attitude to others. As one executive told me, “Passion is infectious. It’s more important than what you know.  Maintaining the passion is the biggest challenge in business.” Great salespeople are able to maintain their passion.

6.  They do the unexpected and more for their customers.
Salespeople can go out of their way to do something special for their customers. Getting customers for your customers, creatively showing a home if you’re a realtor, or making personal introductions for prospects are what talented sales professionals do. They think it is their job, not something extra.  In fact, most salespeople don’t make the extra effort.

7.  They’re very creative. Being creative means the process of coming up with new ideas for business. Sales greats see possibilities where others give up. Getting told “no” by a worthwhile prospect is not the end for great salespeople; it’s just the beginning. Using their creativity they find news ways to get to “yes” with the prospects who are a challenge. Creativity is the foundation of selling. It’s useful for questioning, presenting and strategizing.  Believing in your creativity is the first step to being creative.

You may have noticed these habits in other successful salespeople. When you adopt these seven habits, the success that others achieve can also be yours. read more

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New Intro Video With Updates

We have updated our homepage video to show what is coming next.  We have been very busy over here at ProvenProspects, working on a National data roll-out, and a much upgraded system.  The updates will offer a lot of added value to our existing customers at no additional cost.  As well as expanding our services to many new territories and markets.  Most updates are planned to be launched throughout the Fall.  We also, added some new music by Kevin MacLeod.  Please take a look and let us know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/user/ProvenProspects

You can even subscribe to our YouTube Channel while you’re at it. We will be posting a lot of videos demonstrating our new services and features.

Thanks so much for your contniung support.

The ProvenProspects Team!

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Reviving the Nobility of Sales

May 10, 2010
-By Mat Zucker

Gallup regularly ranks the most trusted professions and, year after year, near the bottom — below advertising practitioner — is the beleaguered car salesman. Admittedly, neither of us is as virtuous as nurses or police officers, but is this how we see what we do?

Sales, like advertising, is an easy profession to lampoon, but it’s a shame, especially now. Customers are overwhelmed with choices and brands need to do a better job guiding. A significant part of this is persuasion through the craft of sales. New tools and platforms are making it better for customers and salespeople alike to consider and connect over products. Social networks make it easier for peers to endorse a brand, databases can find patterns and tailor messages more intimately, ubiquitous and interactive video even updates the classic infomercial.

But for many of us in marketing who are supposed to be selling, there seems to be a reluctance to actually sell. It doesn’t sit well in our bellies, as if we’re doing something wrong. We as professionals — especially in direct marketing — must own up to what we actually do. And defend it.

Our agency founder, David Ogilvy, started as a salesman. He went door to door selling kitchen stoves, working on commission. “No sale, no commission. No commission, no eat,” he said. “That made an impression on me.” His relentless focus on sales was his crusade for us as an agency. “We sell, or else” is still our motto today.

Ogilvy had plenty of advice on selling. “You can’t bore people into buying your product,” he warned. “You can only interest them in buying it.” He also advocated the quality of one’s skill over the quantity of calls, and utter respect for the consumer. (“The customer is not a moron,” he said. “She is your wife.”). The principles of this wisdom are still true.

I believe we are all persuaders, wired to sell from the beginning. Growing up, we learn how to get a few minutes of someone’s attention, how to do our homework to find facts, how to turn no’s to maybe’s. We’re taught the value of a firm handshake, the politeness of maintaining eye contact and, hopefully, how to respect other people’s time and build a relationship that unlocks value over the years. Some people, of course, are far better than the rest of us. What do they know that we don’t? What does good salesmanship look like?

We certainly don’t know all the answers, but from our own experience and talks with experts, some guidance is emerging. Good salespeople know what makes their products special, but they start by listening. They focus on their customers’ successes — and how they can help them reach them. They prioritize creating value together rather than a quick yes. Sure, they try to make it easy for us to buy now, but they know better than anyone else that the most profitable and meaningful relationships are long term.

These are good lessons for us in marketing. There is much to learn from those who do it very well and much to celebrate about the value of good salesmanship together. If Gallup talked to customers of these great salespeople, I bet their ranking would be quite different. Ours too.

Mat Zucker, executive creative director at OgilvyOne Worldwide New York, is currently helping run the agency’s Search for the World’s Greatest Salesperson. He can be reached at mat.zucker@ogilvy.com and you can follow him at @matzucker.

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