Whether you’re roping a calf or roping a prospect, if the rope doesn’t have a loop on it or you don’t have a sales lead management system in place the results will be the same, no calf, no prospect, no beef, no sale.
There are a lot of companies and solutions that say they are complete sales lead management systems. Most of them address a portion of the process but not the whole process.
In fact, no one solution addresses all aspects of sales lead management; there are too many departments, people and functions, regardless of the hysterical claims by some that they are a complete solution.
It takes a singular leader with a cradle to grave vision of managing prospects to have an impact on a company’s sales lead management process.
CRM, marketing automation, and telemarketing companies, are all part of the solution, but efforts can be futile without sales and marketing management coming to an agreement on the final vision and expectations from both parties. It takes leadership to close the loop.
There is an article on the SLMA website, 1 accessible by members (free membership), that discusses the people, departments and vendors who must work together.
It is important to understand what must happen for a team to put in place a competitive sales lead management system that has the potential to bring in more sales for a company than their competitors. The solution isn’t a single software product. It isn’t just an automated nurturing system. It isn’t just a telemarketing vendor. It is smarter and deeper than just spending money on tools. It is the process that must be thought out and in detail.
The issue at stake is getting the most from what you spend on lead generation. Relying on a single tool reminds me of the phrase, “When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.” 2 To solve this issue you need many tools and solid unflinching leadership.
Building a sales lead management process, takes a strong, single minded, gutsy, take no BS from anyone leader. Is that you?
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| 1. | No Wonder Inquiry Management is Difficult - Look at the Departments Involved! - By James W. Obermayer - Sales Leakage Consulting |
2. Reference Wikipedia: The Law of the Instrument or Law of the Hammer. The first recorded statement of the concept was Abraham Kaplan's, in 1964: "I call it the law of the instrument, and it may be Formulated as follows: Give a small boy a hammer, and he will find that everything he encounters needs pounding."[2] Maslow's hammer, popularly phrased as "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" and variants thereof, is from Abraham Maslow's The Psychology of Science, published in 1966.[1]
Photo: iStock Photo
Being a sales manager isn't easy, but neither is being a marketing manager. Both have salespeople to feed and nurture.
No matter how much you feed them they always want more. Give them more and they want better quality. Give them quality (a qualified lead) and they want it only from the largest possible prospect. Give them qualified leads from the largest possible prospect and they want more.
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Maurice Sendak was certainly given accolades before he died this week at 82 years of age. And now they continue as people remember him as the likeable curmudgeon . Here are some of his thoughts that I enjoy. (and of course you’re right this has nothing to do with sales leads).
“Live your Life. Live your Life. Live your Life.”
“Children are tough, though we tend to think of them as fragile. They have to be tough. Childhood is not easy. We sentimentalize children, but they know what’s real and what’s not. They understand metaphor and symbol. If children are different from us, they are more spontaneous. Grown-up lives have become overlaid with dross.”
“Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.”
“And Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all.”"One fo the few graces of getting old--and god knows there are few graces---is that if you're worked had and kept your nose to the grindstone, something happens: The body gets old but the creative mechanism is refreshed, smoothed and oiled and honed. That is the grace. That is the splendid grace. And i think thay is what's happening to me."
"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!"
Photo: Where The Wild Things Are" graffiti, in Kelsey-Woodlawn, Saskatoon, SK, Canada (Freedom of panorama) |Source=[http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodsfehr/4294122453/ Where The Wild Things Are]
A marketing manager has to create qualified sales leads. There must be answers to questions that marketing can ask when the inquirer fills out a form on the web site, stops by a trade show booth, or completes a BRC from direct mail. There is no excuse from giving salespeople inquiries and leads without qualifying profile information (BANT is a start).
Dan McDade in his Linkedin Group: The Truth about Lead Generation is questioning the qualified lead issue and has 14 responses in just a few days. He has a survey going...go give your opinion or see what others say.
Buyer in target market willing to meet. 12 (42%)
Budget, authority, need, time frame 13 (46%)
Authority, need backed by trigger event 2 (7%)
Contract and pen in hand, 1 (13%)
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You can copy this cartoon and use it as long as you leave the attribution within and attached.
See more cartoons from our Humor Relations Department, all provided by CartoonLink, go to the SLMA site.
If you're not a member of the Sales Lead Management Association, join now. Join SLMA
The marketing and sales cartoons are sponsored by HubSpot
At the end of my February 26th blog entry (one of the best read so far) entitled “All know the way; few actually walk it. ~Bodhidharma,” I quoted Giraudoux’s famous saying, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”
As typically happens when we read something like this, we assume “the mediocre” is always someone else. It’s certainly not us. Now maybe that’s true in your case, or maybe it isn’t; maybe there are many mediocre managers, or just some with mediocre traits and results. Maybe its just someone who continually cuts corners.
I offer the following thoughts on what a mediocre sales or marketing manager can most often be accused of as it pertains to their work. I think “the mediocre” marketing and sales managers (as regards to sales leads) possess these traits:
Continue reading "If only the mediocre are always at their best*, who are “the mediocre?” " »
Choosing the right search terms is more science than art; more than the opinions of the company president. It is more than simply picking the phrases that are searched most often.
See more cartoons from our Humor Relations Department, all provided by CartoonLink, go to the SLMA site.
If you're not a member of the Sales Lead Management Association, join now. Join SLMA
The marketing and sales cartoon is sponsored by HubSpot
SLMA Radio Interviewed Nick Hedges, CEO of Leads360 and Nick discussed the Lead Industry Report which was released in mid-March. Get a copy of the report here.
First a little about Mr. Hedges.
Nick is President & CEO of Leads360 and a 15 year veteran of the Internet and Software as a Service industries. He joined Leads360 in 2008 as SVP of Business Development and has since held various responsibilities at the company including Head of Sales and Chief Revenue Officer.
Nick has been on SLMA Radio before but this year he came to discuss the Lead Industry Report of 2012.
Hear Nick talk about the B2C consumer lead management and lead generation industry.
Three options to listen:
Listen to this episode Download this episode (right click and save)
The 26 Page Lead Industry Report covers:
1. Mortgage Lead Market Review, expectations and Lead Provider awards. This includes qualification and conversion Rate Awards.
2. Insurance Lead Market Review, Expectations and Lead Provider Awards. This includes qualification and conversion Rate Awards.
3. Education Lead Marketing Review, expectations and Lead Provider Awards. This includes qualification and conversion Rate Awards.
Leads360 is the custodian of an immense amount of outcome data from thousands of lead sources across even more lead buyers. The company likes to think of this report as a helpful, data-rich, point of departure for discussion about what is happening in the B2C lead industry.
During both the analysis of over 20 million leads and their outcomes across approximately 1,500 lead buyer databases and through conducting almost 90 surveys and in-depth interviews with lead buyers and sellers, the company found good reasons for both optimism and pessimism in the lead industry based on what occurred in 2011.
While the report findings vary widely from industry to industry, data confirms consumers focus on line when it comes to finding products and services they consume. The lead industry is a beneficiary of and catalyst for this trend; yet, it struggles to regulate itself in a highly effective manner.
Leads360 noted a decline in lead quality in several of the industry verticals that it covered and a trend towards an increasing percentage of leads being self-generated by many of its larger customers.
Leads360 said that this is a fairly benign trend with lead providers interviewed highlighting aggressive and proactive steps to monitor the quality of organically generated leads. While 2011 was a tough year from a regulatory perspective in both Mortgage and Education, there is less on the horizon that would negatively impact the businesses of lead buyers in 2012 and beyond.
About Leads360
Leads360 is the market-leading consumer sales platform, that delivers smarter, more efficient sales processes and increased conversion rates for companies that sell to consumers. With unmatched expertise, drawn from managing over 40 million prospects for more than 10,000 clients, Leads360 is the platform of choice for the largest and most successful consumer-focused sales organizations. Last year Leads360 processed 25 Million leads a lead for its 1100+ clients.
Leads360 is a sponsor of the Sales Lead Management Association.
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