Last week, I attended a marketing presentation which revealed that 80% of qualified leads never get followed-up by sales personnel. That really shocked me! After all the increased investment in marketing communications and social media to generate leads, the return on that investment is dismal.
Most of the businesses I know are dissatisfied with their lead generation so they keep investing in different methods to increase leads. But if there is no prompt sales follow-up to convert leads into proposals and orders, all of this marketing investment is wasted. Why is lead management failing?
Lack of Sales Commitment – Chasing raw leads is time-consuming and frustrating. Sales personnel become discouraged when following-up contacts yields nothing, so they move on. They are busy chasing quotas, making calls, serving customers, fixing problems, etc. It’s more productive, less expensive and more comfortable to increase transactions with existing customers than it is to pursue leads that could produce new customers.
Lack of Process & Tools – Many sales teams have no process or tool to facilitate lead follow-up. Raw leads are dumped on the sales team with no assigned follow-up direction or goals. Most leads are dead within 90 days. With no feedback from Sales to Marketing to help refine the lead generation process, opportunities to identify new customers are lost.
Lack of Leadership – Increasing throughput and profitability begins in Marketing, but most organizations don’t evaluate the ROI on marketing initiatives – it’s just a budget line item. “Qualified” leads are assets that are wasted if not pursued. Few companies set goals for securing new customers and including new customer acquisition in their sales compensation plan.
To improve the ROI on your marketing and related sales investment, consider the following:
- Qualify raw leads before you assign them to the sales team. Use an inside sales person or team for this, or outsource it. If a salesperson is unable to follow-up on “qualified” leads, then that person’s selling competency should be assessed.
- Invest in an affordable CRM tool and build a database to identify new opportunities and improve lead management from lead generation to new orders.
- Evaluate the ROI on your marketing investments and establish new customer goals tied to sales compensation to improve your return.
What’s your ROI on your marketing investment?
How can you improve lead follow-up in your business?
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