Inbound Lead Management Best Practices [Updated]
This is an updated version of the "Never Waste A Lead" post from September. Back then my partner and I presented at a BMA (Business Marketing Association) event. Here was the event description:
Your marketing programs are generating plenty of leads, especially from your emarketing campaigns, but are they getting followed up on? How effective is your sales organization at contacting your leads? How many never get called, or get only a token effort? Lost or ignored leads is one of the most common bottlenecks of marketing executives trying to maximize revenue from marketing-geneated leads. Instead of getting frustrated with sales, learn best practices of how to work with them to make sure no lead is left behind and wasted.
What you'll be able to take away from this RoundTable:
- Why salespeople don't follow up on leads
- Learn the best practices of aligning with sales to eliminate pipeline leakage
- The most useful key metrics
- Relevant CRM best practices
Three Common Mistakes
These are the most common mistakes that companies (especially young ones) make in managing their inbound leads:
1. Diluted ownership of the "marketing-to-sales baton pass."
Who has clear ownership of the "qualified pipeline generated" metric? It tends to end up as a stepchild, falling in between marketing (focused on quantity of leads) and sales (focused on closed revenue). Yet 'qualified pipeline generated this month' is the most important metric/driver of predictable revenue! There needs to be a clear owner.
2. Under-investment in Sales Development (salespeople dedicated to either qualifying inbound leads or doing outbound prospecting.)
Sales Development is a lot less sexy than marketing budget or quota-carrying salespeople, so it doesn't get the investment it deserves, but it vital! If your company receives more than about 200-300 inbound leads per month, you should have at least one inside salesperson dedicated just to qualifying those leads. Having salespeople qualify raw, unfiltered inbound leads in addition to closing deals is highly unproductive. You're having your most expensive sales resources doing much lower-value work. "Insource" it to a junior inside rep, and make sure that rep only passes qualified opportunities to the salespeople.
3. Tasking the same reps to both qualify inbound leads and attempt outbound prospecting.
The qualifying inbound leads role should be distinct from the outbound prospecting role. When reps try to do both, their productivity drops like a rock! We experimented with both models at salesforce.com, and the 'mixed model' of reps doing both inbound qualification and outbound prospecting was a disaster - I'll explain why in a future post.
6 comments:
As a marketing manager tasked with generating leasds, your insights are right on the money.It's very frustrating to see good leads left on the table.
Hey this blog is a goldmine, great info, great blog. Keep up the good work.
TWT
Good information. I have seen small businesses struggle with the "marketing-to-sales baton pass" issue as well.
Also... get a good CRM system. There are some good free ones out there now so it doesn't have to cost anything... try Zoho or www.octopuscity.com. It's essential for excellent lead management and follow up.
The company that I work for has definitely had troubles with the 'baton pass' as well. I'm very intrigued to see the future post of the explanation of why its a disaster when reps try to do both inbound and outbound calls.
I think you're probably right, and it may have something to do with the 'rythym' of the sales process and sales cycle. I am a rep at a start-up company and it is increasingly difficult to juggle my roles- in bound and outbound calls to businesses and consumers, customer service, managing outside sales reps, trade shows, etc.
We'll be hiring a new sales person soon, and I think that how we decide to split up responsibilties is important. I never considered the impact of inbound vs. outbound might have on my (or anyone else's) productivity or motivation.
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So when is the post on productivity level with reps doing in and out bound calling going to be posted?
I truly believe that a company also needs a dependable lead manager. There are a lot of them that are already web-based, so how it can be accessed by many will never be a problem. It can organize leads and what sales agents have done to them since the program can be updated in real time.
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