If you’re a marketer, you likely have a constant headache regarding salespeople not effectively following up on leads.
If you’re a salesperson or sales leader, your headache comes from marketing’s expectation that sales should drop everything to attend to and close out marketing leads.
Managing marketing leads can be challenging, but you can alleviate common headaches with the right approach.
Here are three essential steps to help cure lead management headaches:
1. Define Clear Lead Criteria. Lead management problems originate from this often missed activity. Marketing and sales must develop criteria that include ideal lead characteristics, the information needed for effective follow-up, preferred lead sources, and what lead management activities should occur. The requirements must be in writing and refreshed yearly to ensure correct lead quality and attributes.
2. Develop Lead Management Training and Onboarding. Lead management training is less about key-mashing and more about the tools, resources, and processes to support effective lead management. Most salespeople have different lead management disciplines, so your organization is unlikely to achieve consistently optimal lead management outcomes. Marketing and sales enablement/sales operations should work collaboratively to develop lead management training and onboarding that ensures consistency and effectiveness.
3. Create a Feedback Loop That “Speaks Truth To Power.” Lead management is critical to drive revenue growth in most organizations. Sales and marketing must establish trust and processes that ensure sales feedback (positive and negative) is shared as quickly as possible. The feedback loop is precisely that: a “loop.” Sales can’t afford to spend valuable time following poor-quality leads, so the sooner they provide feedback, the better. Marketing must acknowledge the input and continue to refine lead generation efforts to improve lead quality.
Here’s The Bottom Line
Lead management is the essential business function that bridges marketing and sales through a combination of people, processes, and automation.
It’s more important than ever to ensure the sales and marketing teams align on the lead management process.
Your organization can achieve meaningful improvements in sales pipeline growth if you address the areas that contribute to poor lead management outcomes.