Whenever I ask this question at a meeting, I get affirmations from all the marketing types. The sales people shoot back with, “But those leads aren’t any good.”
Can they both be right? Actually, yes. In many cases, the leads that marketing sends are not sales ready or even warmed up. They may be potential customers who dropped by a tradeshow exhibit, sent in a BRC, called an 800 number or clicked something online. They may be somewhat interested in learning more about your product or company, but most likely they will need lots of nurturing before a sale is made.
So, here’s my question:
The good news is that we can all stop the finger pointing and get the sales and marketing departments singing Kumbaya. All that’s needed is a good marketing communications strategy, technology (CRM and marketing automation), implementation of an effective demand gen program, and a willingness by management to get everyone focused on results—both short and long-term.
In B2B marketing and sales, the question, “What is the exact definition of a lead?” inevitably comes up. I believe the definition is constantly evolving, but it can be defined or categorized relative to its stage in your funnel. Here’s a description of the lead stages I use when developing sales and marketing alignment programs for clients.
Raw Leads: These are raw inquiries that enter the funnel (web form submissions, trade show leads, business cards, purchased lists, etc.).
Viable Leads: Once it’s determined that a raw inquiry is not a prospective employee, vendor or competitor, and they have some or all BANT (or SCOTSMAN) criteria, they are viable.
Nurtured Leads: These leads have received communications from your company, or been touched with marcom materials or telephone contacts.
Active Leads: Active leads have responded favorably to nurturing activities, such as clicking on e-mail links, attending webinars, etc.
Marketing Qualified Leads: MQL meet sufficient criteria to deliver to sales, usually via a company’s CRM solution.
Sales Accepted Leads: These leads have been passed onto sales, and they haven’t been rejected.
Opportunities: Leads become opportunities when sales has made contact and designated the lead as a likely sales opportunity.
Closed/Won: When sales has completed a transaction and a lead becomes a customer!
Does your business use other categories? What’s your company’s definition of a ‘lead?’ What does your funnel look like?
Sales slow? Sales people sluggish? Here’s a quick fix to jumpstart sales so you can have a happy 2010.
Try tele-prospecting—pick up the phone and systematically call your prospect database. Your sales team can do it, or for a small investment per call you can outsource a program that will get leads flowing to your sales team—so that all they need to do is close the sale.
Think about it. The average sales rep is able to log maybe four or five calls per day. A professional agent can rack up 10-15 per hour. That’s 80-120 contacts per day, or 400-600 per week that can be made by just one rep. Put a team on it and you’ll speed up the progress.
Even if just a message is left, you’ve imparted knowledge about your company that the prospect previously didn’t have. Better yet, when a person-to-person connection is made and a conversation begins, you’re one step closer to gaining a new customer. There’s very little downside and a whole lot of benefit to reaching out and touching prospects again and again.
One of our clients recently said that “the only customers they didn’t already have, were the ones they hadn’t yet called.”
How many new prospects do your inside/outside sales teams contact per day? Have you ever outsourced tele-prospecting to boost lead generation?
Most B2B companies look at face-to-face appointments as the end-all, be-all of the B2B selling process. I’ve often been told that good sales reps can close a deal if they get in front of a prospect, but teleconferences or Web conferences are not as valuable.
However, the fact is setting face-to-face appointments with B2B prospects is a time consuming and costly task. You’ve got to identify the decision maker, call them several times, leave messages, get past the gatekeepers and persuade them that they need your company’s solution.
The good news is: there’s a surefire shortcut to getting in the door and meeting face to face with your prospects—nurture your leads!
According to Sirius Decisions, nurtured leads result in 20% more sales opportunities than non-nurtured leads. In addition, a nurtured lead—one who has responded to your e-mail blasts, online surveys, Webinar invitations and asset downloads—will be a lot more open to taking a phone call from you and, eventually, setting a face-to-face meeting.
What has been your experience with appointment setting? Do you have an automated lead nurturing methodology in place for your business?
Technology provides unprecedented control and independence for consumers. Want to find a restaurant in your area? Fire up the Urbanspoon app on your iPhone. Missing your favorite TV shows? Set your DVR and watch them later—commercial free. Or, stream them online through sites like Hulu.
Consumer control and independence isn’t limited to the B2C world. Today’s B2B customers are empowered with countless options to search and evaluate products and services online. Demand Generation marketing methodology helps organizations lead customers and prospects to a Web site where they can find the information needed to make a considered purchase.
The benefits of Demand Generation programs are easy to understand, but putting it into practice requires careful planning and a deep understanding of your industry and channel. There’s a great white paper on Demand Generation available on the resources page of Canyon’s Web site to help you better understand new approaches to generating demand for your products and services. Take a look and tell us what you think.
Do you have a Demand Generation success story you’d like to share? Is there a B2B marketing topic you’d like more information about?
