David Byrd : Raven Call
David Byrd
David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.
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January 2017

You are browsing the archive for January 2017.

Avaya Potential Bankruptcy is due to the Cloud

January 25, 2017

It was with great interest that I read the story of Avaya’s spending bankruptcy. The first thought that I had emanated from the summary of the story which stated that the owners of Avaya were having difficulty meeting the debt payments that they had incurred in purchasing the company. Avaya was purchased by Silver Lake and TPG Capital for $8.3 billion in 2007. The intent was to grow the company and take it public.

AB Testing should not be "Ready, Fire, Aim"

January 19, 2017

Although it seems that the world moves at a lightning pace, the best things are still done after some thoughtful research, planning and excellent execution. 

A/B Testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing) is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage, email or app against each other to determine which one performs better. For too many marketing people it has become an acceptable path to developing digital marketing and inbound marketing campaigns.


The simple concept behind A/B testing is to evaluate landing pages, emails and other digital lead generation elements by altering design, content or subject lines to improve conversions. After altering the lead generation elements, the conversion rates are compared and the best performing version is used to communicate with the larger number of prospects.

The Final Step to Marketing Excellence: Step Seven - Sales Qualified Leads

January 10, 2017

The Seven Steps to Marketing Excellence are:

  1. Strategy
  2. Product
  3. Markets
  4. Brand
  5. Communications
  6. Lead Generation
  7. Sales Qualified Leads

Sales Qualified Leads

The Marketing and sales funnel is most effective when buyers move from one buying phase to the next; inquiries to leads, leads to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), MQLs to Sales Qualified leads (SQLs) and SQLs to closed business. 

Moving buyers through each phase requires more than cold calling, advertising or digital marketing alone. If the objective is to build robust and growing sales pipelines with sales qualified leads, then the information communicated must progress in depth and relevance as the buyers moves from the inquiry phase to purchasing. This is referred to as lead nurturing.

Seven Steps to Marketing Excellence: Step Six - Lead Generation

January 4, 2017

The Seven Steps to Marketing Excellence are:

  1. Strategy
  2. Product
  3. Markets
  4. Brand
  5. Communications
  6. Lead Generation
  7. Sales Qualified Leads

Lead Generation


A business succeeds or fails based upon its ability to generate revenue. Revenue is generally thought of as coming from new leads or existing clients. Some businesses, depend upon referrals for their leads others, proactively look for new leads by advertising or sending email blasts. However, generating the most qualified leads with most effective use of resources is the top priority in lead generation.

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