Company: Bulldog Solutions, Inc., Austin, TX
Company Description: Bulldog Solutions is an online marketing agency that changes the way BtoB companies define demand generation strategy, engage prospects and convert leads to customers. We power demand generation and demand management programs for many of the best business brands in the world.
Nomination Category: Sales Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Demand Generation Program of the Year

Nomination Title: Executive Benchmark Assessment Generates Opportunities with Decision Makers

Tell the story about your organization's demand generation program since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Bulldog Solutions’ sales team, in alignment with Bulldog’s marketing
organization, created a powerful benchmark assessment tool designed to meet
three critical goals:

1.Engage decision makers at the C-level, who are typically difficult to reach
with traditional online marketing such as Webinars and e-mail.
2.Generate information on the decision-makers’ shortcomings and strengths
regarding key areas of demand generation, in order to drive compelling solutions
presentations by the Bulldog sales teams
3.Generate a source of original benchmark data to be used to validate key
selling points.

RESULTS
In the first five months of the Executive Benchmark Assessment, 68% of those
who completed the assessment agreed to take a meeting with a Bulldog Solutions
business development executive. By comparison, the number of BDE meetings
resulting directly from a standard campaign driven by a Webinar is less than
10%. Of those meetings driven by the Executive Benchmark Assessment, 14% turned
into opportunities.

PROCESS
The driving strategy behind the Executive Benchmark Assessment is the offer of a
high-value call to action for decision makers at the Senior VP- and C-levels.
The online assessment consists of a series of questions in four key areas:
strategic planning for demand generation; content creation; database strength;
and marketing automation implementation. After taking the assessment via a Web
interface, participants are given an immediate ranking of how they compare to
the best practices established by global research firm Frost & Sullivan,
Bulldog’s partner in the assessment tool. The participants receive highly
valuable benchmark data and recommendations; in return, Bulldog receives insight
into their weaknesses and strengths to feed a consultative sales presentation.

When an assessment is submitted, a Bulldog inside sales representative contacts
the participant for further qualification, recording information in the
Salesforce.com CRM system. If the participant is qualified for BANT, a meeting
is set and the Bulldog business development executive creates a custom report
with recommendations based on the information shared in the assessment. The
Eloqua marketing automation platform is used to track and record e-mail
communications around the meetings.

WHY IT WORKS
The Executive Benchmark Assessment is powerful because it offers a high-value
report in exchange for information shedding insight on prospects’ challenges. It
brings a broader value offering together with consultative selling. It creates
urgency around an exclusive, executive-to-executive engagement between the
organization and the target prospect. The use of Frost & Sullivan as a third
party to validate best practices adds credibility to the report. Additionally,
the data collected from the assessments is compiled and used as original
research to feed content creation such as Webinars, newsletter articles and blog
posts.

List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

New Assessment Tool Engages Elusive BtoB Decision Makers:
http://events.bulldogsolutions.com/KnowledgeBase/press_release_bds_EBA.pdf

Reach the Decision Maker: Building Calls to Action That Drive Sales Engagements
http://www.bulldogsolutions.com/node/495

Executive Benchmark Assessment Description
http://www.bulldogsolutions.com/solutions/engage-audience/eba

The Executive Benchmark Assessment Tool
http://eba.bulldogsolutions.com/

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated sales organization:

Johnny Anderson is VP, Sales and Client Services, for Bulldog Solutions. Johnny
is a seasoned sales and marketing executive and a leader in the Austin
Community. Over the past three decades, he has developed, marketed and delivered
some of the industry's most innovative solutions in the eMarketing automation
and IT management markets. Prior to joining Bulldog Solutions in 2007, Anderson
was the president of nVision Software -- an applications management startup.

Prior to nVision, Anderson was the president and CEO for HotData, Inc., a
leading provider of Internet-based, real-time customer intelligence solutions
for the customer relationship management market. In May 2001, Anderson
successfully orchestrated the merger of HotData with Group 1 Software, the
leading provider of data quality solutions, and then spent a year doing
non-profit work as the Executive Director of the AeA, a high-tech industry
association.

Prior to HotData, Anderson was the founder and CEO of e2 Software in Dallas, one
of the first eMarketing automation SaaS providers.

Anderson has also held executive and management positions with Saber Software,
Novell, Inc., Excelan, and Digital Equipment Corporation.