What Will YOU Do During National Sales Lead Management Week?
National Sales Lead Management Week is June 9-13th and it is just a month away.
Many companies are reporting that they will hold seminars and webinars during this week. Firstwave Technologies, Inc just sent me an email about a webinar they are hosting on Lead Nurturing & Scoring, June 11th, during National Sales Lead Management Week. They are stepping up and walking the talk. Depending on who you are, you can do a lot.
If you are a B2B or B2C Marketer…
What you will be doing during this week to highlight your own work in the field of sales lead management? Will you get the best reports from your CRM system that proves how much wealth you create for your company? Will you write an article, host a webinar, train your salespeople on lead follow-up, and talk to your agency about ROI reporting? The only way to prove the wealth you create for your company is to manage inquiries, report on the results, and take the credit.
If You Are A CRM Company…
What will you do to help your customers prove the ROI for the marketing dollars they put at risk? What white papers and articles have you published? What are you doing to help them spend their corporate dollars in the most efficient manner to drive sales? How can you train your marketing customers to use your campaign module to the max? How can you help their salespeople to improve inquiry follow-up? I know you’re trying, but try harder, do something different during Sales Lead Management Week.
If you are an Agency
Are you having meetings with your clients to discuss ROI reporting for the campaigns you create for them? Have you asked your clients for reports showing the raw inquiry cost and the closed lead cost? What about total sales from your campaign? You create wealth with every dollar they spend with you, are you proving it? You deserve the credit. Prove it.
National Sales Lead Management Week is a unique time to stand up and be counted. Are you up to it? Do something June 9-13th.
James W. Obermayer
Sales Lead Management Association
Target Account Profiling & Pre-Qualification: Why Don’t We Just Ask The Questions?
Some weeks come and go without major, or even minor revelations, and some weeks have the those exhilarating and sometimes humbling "A-Ha!" moments in them. Those moments that expose a simple truth & basic solution to a problem that we have created complex, and often times expensive, solutions for. (Picture the expensive and complex wine opener, can opener, or bottle opener in your kitchen that does not work as well as the basic opener you have had for 20 years and cost 1/10th the price of the “fancy” new one)
This week for me, offered one such A-Ha!. This may be an A-Ha you realized long ago, but none the less it is a basic solution that has been ducked, dodged, and avoided by almost everyone at the front end of lead life-cycle management for the past decade (since about the time much more complex, and often costly, solutions have become en vogue)
The "A-Ha!": If we want to know if a targeted account and contact is a fit for our products & services we should call them and ask!
B2B sales and/or marketing organizations like to spend little time and less money these days calling (yes actually speaking with) targeted accounts to validate and profile the companies and contacts they are targeting. Worse yet, many of us fool ourselves into thinking someone else, "a 3rd party expert," has figured out the secret to validating & profiling our potential users, influencers, and decision makers for us without actually speaking with them. Assured these 3rd party experts have it figured out we spend 10's of thousands of dollars for the data generated by "3rd party expert's" and their highly sophisticated profiling systems.
Hope is not a Strategy
We essentially "hope" ourselves into believing someone else has come up with the answer. An accurate and targeted master database and set of algorithms which filters on our company's specific user, influencer, and decision maker contacts. Stealing from the title of a book I recently read, "Hope is not a strategy."
My intent here is not dismiss or de-value the services provided by database and list service providers. Their services are a critical component in the lead lifecycle management process and all of our jobs would suffer without their services. My "A-Ha" is a rip on those of us, myself included, who have relied on database and list services to deliver results they are not intended to, or capable of, delivering. Specifically, the list and database service providers cannot deliver Contact Validation, Target profiling, and Pre-qualification. Unfortunately we fall into the trap of believing that if a Contact has the title we are targeting, works for the "right" organization, within our targeted industry, and has an annual spend of $X on services we provide that the contact is pre-qualified, is the decision maker, and Sales just needs to call them and start the sales process!
The result is almost always the same when we fall into this trap. Sales, and especially the good sales people, will rarely call a "target account and contact" generated from a list or service provider. In Sales defense, why would they? If they are worth their income they have a strong pipeline, referral network, and incremental revenue opportunities within their existing accounts.
Marketing Opportunities Have to be Better
Don't get me wrong, sales people are more than open to engaging in new opportunities delivered from marketing. However, marketing delivered opportunities need to be at least as good, or better, in quality than the opportunities sales can, and do, create for themselves. At a bare minimum this means marketing needs to deliver a validated current contact which has been profiled and has been pre-qualified by parameters outlined and defined by the sales organization. I have not found a list or database service that can meet this standard, but we as marketer's continue to send contacts from these lists and database service providers directly to our sales teams.
Why? We won't make a simple phone call and ask some simple questions because we have sophisticated segmentation, profiling, analytics, and algorithms to do this simple work for us!
Marketing Budget Vs. Sales Expense
To be fair, another reason we purchase lists and database services as a replacement for phone based contact validation, profiling, and pre-qualification is the perceived cost delta and ill conceived budget constraints. What do I mean by ill conceived budget constraints? While a list service may cost $5,000 up front for very good database information on 2500 contacts it may cost $25,000 up-front to speak live with the 2500 contacts to perform validation, profiling, and pre-qualification. The $20,000 delta is a big hit to most campaign marketing budgets and they opt for the less expensive option. Unfortunately, the $20,000 saved in the marketing budget is spent twice over, not including opportunity costs, by the Company's sales force as they now must perform, in a non-process driven fashion, the same steps of contact validation, profiling, and pre-qualification. That is, if the sales team calls them at all after finding out the first (5) calls lead to dead ends.
Brian Steel – Performark’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing
Brian Steel is responsible for driving Performark’s overall sales of lead life-cycle management solutions encompassing database services, inquiry management, lead generation, lead nurturing and program performance measurement. Leveraging his 14 years of experience and his days as a pioneer in the area core business process outsourcing sales and marketing, working for industry leaders Kodak and Xerox, Brian is focused on sales growth through new client acquisition, evangelizing the value of process driven lead lifecycle management, and leading the company into new target markets.
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Book Giveaway - May 2008
Each month Racom Communications, or other publishers or authors, will give away two copies of a recently published marketing or sales book to two SLMA members. Winners will be drawn at random. You must be an SLMA member to win.
This
month's selection is
"How
to Write Great Advertising" by
Randall Hines and Robert Lauterborn.
Print matters still. In fact, it matters more than ever, even – maybe especially – in a world of continuous rapid-fire media innovations because it provides the standard – the acid test – for relevance and communication power.
Why print? Because it’s the purest form of advertising – an idea given power visually and crafted to move people with words. If you don’t have an idea, it shows. If you can’t write, people know. You can’t hide emptiness behind a mesmerizing glare of glitzy TV production or trade on the familiar voice of a spokesperson to make a connection for you. It’s just you and the reader. So print is the acid test for advertising as well as advertising people.
Unlike electronic media, print requires our attention. If you lose your concentration when you’re reading and your mind wanders, what do you do? Why, you read the sentence or paragraph or page over again – too often more than once. A woman named Evelyn Wood built a speed-reading franchise on this simple truth. Her instructors don’t teach you to read faster; they teach you to concentrate better so you don’t have to reread. That’s why Evelyn Wood graduates not only seem to read faster, they also remember better.
People process print differently, too. An Israeli researcher demonstrated this with an often-cited experiment. He exposed a group of young people to a simple story, half of them in a video mode, the other half in print. Tested at similar intervals – two days, two weeks, two months or whatever – the subjects revealed fascinating differences not so much in their ability to recall the basic story, but in the connections they had made with the material. Their relative ability to repeat the plot line differed only slightly, but when asked questions such as, “What do you suppose Rachel’s life was like before this story began?” and “What do you think is going to happen next?” the TV kids went “Huh?” The print kids, however, had developed entire scenarios that combined material already in their heads with the story they had read. “I think Rachel grew up in the city, in a house near the harbor,” said one. “Rachel and Ben are going to get married and have three children, two boys and a girl,” said another. IN short, Print—as a discipline and as a medium—matters to advertisers more than ever. This book shows how to harness its principles for greater profit.
Order "How to Write Great Advertising" Now.
About the Authors
RANDY HINES is a professor in the Communications Department at Susquehanna University. He has received three professor of the year awards during his 25-year teaching career. His doctorate is from Texas A&M in public relations, a profession in which he has obtained universal accreditation (APR). He has a B.A. and an M.A. in journalism from Kent State University. He also earned an M.Div. at Bethel Theological Seminary.
Prior to joining Susquehanna in 2002, he taught in the University of North Carolina system, where he served as chair of the Mass Communications Department at UNC-Pembroke. He has also taught at East Tennessee State University and Kent State University. He has been active in the American Advertising Federation, starting a chapter at ETSU where he also served in the local AAF professional chapter, holding several positions, including first vice-president.
His consulting work has included such clients as: American Water Heater Company, Creative Energy, Doe River Gorge Conference Center, Duke University, Eastman Chemical, Georgia Press Association, Hotel Günther, Johnson City Medical Center, Mid-Atlantic Newspaper Advertising Marketing Executives, New England Newspaper Association, Nuclear Fuel Services, Siemens, Sire Advertising, Tennessee Press Association and Wyoming Press Association.
He publishes articles in various consumer, professional and academic publications. Since 1993 he has written monthly columns for 20 state press associations. He is also a regular columnist for the Southern Newspaper Press Association. He is lead co-author of The Writer’s Toolbox: A Comprehensive Guide for PR and Business Communication (Kendall/Hunt, 2005). He also co-authored Feeling at Home in God’s Family in 2006 with Dr. Stewart Brown.
Locally, he provides pro bono services for regional nonprofits and serves as copy editor of Susquehanna Life Magazine.
ROBERT LAUTERBORN is the James L. Knight Professor of Advertising in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication, a distinguished chair made possible by a million-dollar grant from the Knight Foundation “to improve the teaching of advertising.” Bob is a co-author of the best-selling book Integrated Marketing Communication: Pulling It Together and Making It Work (NTC, 1993), now translated into 13 languages.
Prior to joining academia, Lauterborn was Director of Marketing Communication & Corporate Advertising for International Paper worldwide. He also spent 16 years with General Electric, principally in creative functions. As creative director of GE’s 400-person house agency, he developed the FOCUS approach to improve creative performance and consistency across the group’s 15 U.S. and overseas offices.
In 2004, he was named “Advertising Educator of the Year” by Advertising Club of the Triangle, which set up two scholarships in his name, and in 2005 he received the Silver Medal Award, the American Advertising Federation’s highest honor. Always active in the industry, he has been vice chairman of the Association of National Advertisers, chairman of the Business Marketing Association International and the Business Advertising Research Council, and a board member of several organizations, including the Advertising Research Foundation.
In 1999, he was presented with the G.D. Crain, Jr. Award (named after the founder of Advertising Age) for “lifetime contributions to the development and improvement of business marketing,” and inducted into the Business Marketing Hall of Fame.
Over the past dozen years, he has consulted or conducted seminars and workshops for more than 50 organizations in 21 countries on five continents, including IBM, General Motors, ExxonMobil, Hewlett Packard, Monsanto, AT&T, Bank of America, BASF, Kellogg’s, Eli Lilly and Philips.
Marketing: The Builders of Wealth
"Nothing happens until the sale is made," is most often quoted as a lead-in to praising salespeople. And the speaker is almost right, but we know that deep in our B2B marketing hearts, it all starts sooner than that.
In B2B, nothing happens until the marketer creates demand. Without the marketer most B2B companies would be regional door knockers; they would not be able to go beyond the reach of their salespeople. Marketing in B2B companies creates Wealth. I mean real wealth. Hardcore, measurable, bottom line profitable dollars that drives the growth of our 11,000,000 plus businesses in the US.
On any given day the average marketer knocks on more virtual doors, delivers more messages, and is read by more people, than any sales force could possibly accomplish. Marketers and their surrogates, the agencies (on-line, branding, direct marketing, PR) and telemarketing and trade shows are the hammers by which B2B marketers create wealth.
Company presidents use, as a common measurement, their company’s performance by the amount of revenue per employee or per salesperson. But if they were to measure the revenue per marketer in their company they would be astounded. For every 100 salespeople there is a single marketer, sitting in a cubicle late at night, rewriting the words that will create a response on the part of thousands of potential buyers.
For every 5000 salespeople there is an agency creative director who is wrestling with an idea that will ultimately bring in millions of dollars in wealth to the client he or she represents.
But the credit for these creators of wealth seldom makes its way to their office door or to the meager paychecks they bring home. The reason is that too many of them cannot measure their contributions to the wealth of the company. And no one will do it for them.
Marketers must not only create wealth, they must prove it to management. This can only happen if they have a system to verify and pursue beyond all reasonable doubt, that the demand they create, the millions of potential buyers who knock on every B2B company door each day have bought something from their company.
There is one simple answer to this conundrum. Marketers must have the best Sales Lead Management System money will buy. The paltry cost for an accountability system is the only way the real creators of wealth, the marketers, can take their rightful place in B2B society.
My challenge to you, the midnight toilers, and the creators of wealth is, "When will you decide that enough is enough? When will you measure what you manage?"
Closed Loop Lead Systems = Lead Quality and Lead Management
One of the hot topics in marketing is "how do we get closed loop lead management?" Companies spend millions of dollars generating demand in the form of leads, yet most have little or no idea what really happened to the leads once the went to the sales channels. There is no effective measurement or ROI.
The assumption is that; if you only had the latest SFA system (Siebel, Blue Roads, Salesforce.com….. take your pick, you will suddenly have the means to close the loop. Will systems solve your problem? It’s not that easy. Having spent the last 8 years working with Siebel and Blue Roads, the routing / SFA system is essential to routing the leads to the right sales channel in a timely manner. It also provides the medium to reply and update the status of the leads. However with out two additional elements it still won’t work.
The most important elements in getting your sales channel to provide timely and accurate feedback are:
1. The quality of the leads
2. The management process to monitor the lead reporting and establish sales accountability for leads.
Lead Quality:
There is a wide range of what companies categorize as a "Lead" from someone putting a business card in the fishbowl at the trade show to a fully telequalified lead that meets a specific " BANT" type criteria. Most leads as perceived by Sales are "junk" Speaking as someone who spent over 30 years in sales and sales management, I don’t know if I ever got a qualified lead. During those times you had huge direct sales forces and you generated your own leads through sales prospecting. Those mega sales forces are gone, and now it’s critical that marketing help drive sales productivity through qualified leads.
What I do know is that sales people will not waste their time on poor quality leads, about the 5th time they follow up on a bad lead, it is the time that they will not even look at future leads. There is no lead routing system that will get them to provide you closed loop feedback on "Junk" Your direct or indirect sales channels are a very expensive way to qualify leads. They may do it initially, but they will not do it for long. It is marketing’s responsibility to provide quality leads and the sales channels responsibility to follow up on them.
At Avaya, we have developed a sophisticated database driven "Lead Refinery" process, where our marketing inquiries (not leads) are captured in a standard data format, matched and deduplicated and entered into the marketing database. There the inquiry is matched up to other data like Harte Hanks and D&B to enhance the record.. Scoring the inquiry based on its data, we identify it as SMB or Enterprise and put it through the appropriate telequalification process to qualify the lead.
We have various lead quality criteria for both SMB vs. Enterprise leads. For enterprise size leads which are 100% Telequalified, we have been consistently delivering to our direct and indirect channels leads that are graded by the sales force as 70 to 80% qualified. They are not inexpensive, but we have earned the right to expect the sales channel will provide us with accurate and timely closed loop feedback.
For smaller SMB opportunities, the qualification process is shorter and less expensive. However we make sure that even this lower quality lead is classified / graded so the sales channel is fully aware of the lead quality. By insuring the sales channel knows what kind of lead they are getting results in higher lead credibility and sales follow up.
Lead Management Process:
The second element that is required is a lead management process to hold your channel accountable for lead tracking. We have proven that even with great leads and a lead management system, that with out an active management process you still will not get closed loop feedback. I look at the lead routing / SFA systems simply as "pipes", they can deliver the lead but they must be managed effectively to get the closed loop results.
What we found that works well is a condensed reporting view of the lead status that can be easily broken down by the channel organization. We measure direct sales results by regions, sales teams and sales reps or by channel manager channel partner and channel sales rep for the indirect channel
We extract the data from Siebel and Blue Roads, pulling it into a series of Excel pivot tables. Key performance indicators include viewing the % of leads in a "pending" status, "active" status, and % of leads marked as "unqualified". Once leads are in a qualified / active status we then measure the pipeline revenue value assigned to the leads. For full ROI analysis you would then measure the leads as they move through the sales cycle to the ultimate won / loss status with revenue.
We publish these reports out to the channels weekly identifying the 20% that are not updating their leads. The accountability for lead management becomes a channel responsibility to insure that leads are being managed effectively.
With indirect channels it’s important to insure that the partner clearly understands the expectations from the manufacturer. Our policy is that we expect the partner to be able to successfully sell from the leads and provide accurately and timely feedback including win / loss utilizing the lead management system. The consequences are clear; partners that comply should get more leads, for those partners that are not willing / able to sell and report on lead status they will get less leads or be removed from the lead program.
Will it work? It all depends on the lead quality, if you have quality leads that the partners want, this approach works, if the lead quality is not there, no system will fix the problem.
Dennis Head
Avaya North American Marketing
(303) 538-3400
dehead@avaya.com
What Can You Do For Sales Lead Management Week?
As short time ago, an agency friend of mine said, "I like the idea of a week devoted to spotlighting how sales leads are managed; what can I do? I sent him this list. The idea behind this week is that Marketing Managers, Sales Lead Managers, Communications Managers, agencies, and vendors can show how they create wealth through better sales lead management practices.
A few things you could do are:
1. Articles in your newsletter about managing sales leads.
2. An article (still have some time) in other publications.
3. Your Blog. Brag about the wealth you or your agency has created.
4. Have a seminar (live).
5. Give a speech during this week (June 9-13th) or earlier on this subject.
6. Have a webinar, during this week, or in May.
7. Introduce a new product tied to managing responses.
8. Produce a case study.
9. Do a podcast.
10. Encourage your clients to prove the value of their inquiries and leads.
11. Create reports for senior management on the results of inquiries you have generated.
12. Contribute articles to the SLMA.
13. Send your press releases to the SLMA.
14. Add articles and an announcement on your site about the National Sales Lead Week.
15. Billboards.
16. Bumper Stickers: "It’s never too late to do what you should have done: follow up your sales leads."
17. Download the SLMA member logo for your site: www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/memberlogo.htm
18. Associations should have Inquiry Management Topics for their monthly meeting.
19. Corporations: Speak to your salespeople about sales lead follow-up.
20. Agencies: Speak to your clients about reports that prove the wealth you are creating.
21. Oh yes, join the SLMA.
PointClear Hits Milestone in CenterBeam Relationship with 50,000 Dispositions
ATLANTA (March 11, 2008) – Sales and marketing services firm PointClear, LLC, announced today that it has completed 50,000 dispositions with targeted prospects on behalf of its client CenterBeam, a leading provider of outsourced IT services. PointClear delivers high quality sales opportunities, effective and efficient market coverage and actionable market intelligence to help companies increase revenue.
The 50,000 detailed conversations, conducted with targeted CFOs of mid-sized businesses, generated over 2,000 qualified leads that were passed to CenterBeam sales representatives. Leads developed by PointClear have ultimately converted into millions of dollars in closed business.
“Over 50 percent of our closed new business has come from PointClear leads, with the dollar value of those deals typically twice that of any other lead generation programs we’ve used,” said Kirstin Burke, Vice President of Corporate Communications at CenterBeam. “Our program results and the strong ongoing relationship we’ve developed with PointClear are indicative of their value as a service provider and strategic business partner.”
“PointClear programs have resulted in a 12:1 ROI for CenterBeam to date,” confirmed Dan McDade, President of PointClear. “We’re proud of the important milestone we’ve reached and the success we’ve had in helping CenterBeam to identify and cultivate their higher-value prospects and drive revenue. At the end of the day, our goal is bringing the right message to the right prospects at the right time, and getting them to engage further in CenterBeam’s sales process.”
CenterBeam provides a portfolio of superior, managed IT services that deliver compelling economics and value-add to the midsized market. Its sales efforts are focused on reaching CFOs in target organizations and offering them a persuasive value proposition for CenterBeam services that drives action. PointClear business development associates help CenterBeam identify the top prospects across its core industries, and reach CFOs who are typically on tight schedules and difficult to contact.
PointClear qualifies and prioritizes leads while establishing communication through a variety of “multi-touch” methods – telephone, voicemail, email and direct-mailers – that help build familiarity with Centerbeam services over time. PointClear associates are highly knowledgeable and work as a seamless extension of the CenterBeam sales team, building rapport with the prospect until he or she is ready to engage in an actual phone conversation or face-to-face meeting with a CenterBeam sales representative.
CenterBeam initially signed up for a three-month pilot program with PointClear in August 2003. Since then, it has continued to work with PointClear for ongoing sales lead qualification and management programs.
Over the course of the relationship, CenterBeam has participated in PointClear webinars and seminars that help other B2B companies improve their lead generation and business development practices. “We’ve found something very good in PointClear and we’ve been happy to share the success of our programs with other companies seeking similar accelerated results,” said CenterBeam’s Kirstin Burke. “We feel that strongly about what they do and just as important, how they do it.”
PointClear has also been named Partner of Year by CenterBeam for the past four consecutive years.
About CenterBeam, Inc.
CenterBeam, Inc. is an award-winning North American-based IT managed services company that delivers more than 140,000 daily services in a SaaS architecture for mid-sized clients with end users working in forty-five countries across six continents. Founded in 1999, CenterBeam pioneered the application of quality management techniques to IT and currently earns a 100% client satisfaction rating as measured by Quality Resource Associates. CenterBeam is headquartered in San Jose, California and can be reached at (408) 750-0500 or www.centerbeam.com.
About PointClear
Headquartered in Norcross, Ga., PointClear, the sales and marketing services firm, provides Sales Lead Management solutions that fill client forecasts, not just their pipelines. PointClear's expert sales and marketing professionals provide clients with forecastable sales opportunities, actionable market intelligence and effective market coverage. For more information about PointClear's products and services, go to www.pointclear.com.
CRM Success Is Reduced To The Saleperson’s Acceptance: How Have You Done It And Lived?
This SLMA Blog will be dedicated to asking and seeking the answers to difficult questions. We will challenge you to step up and provide answers, tips and insight to controversial issues.
Our first discussion is: How do you get salespeople to cooperate with a CRM installation? Everybody talks big on the subject but not everyone can deliver.
No matter what software companies use, installed or SaaS; no matter what it is called, CRM, Contact Management, Sales Force Automation or Marketing Automation (everyone says they are a CRM solution), without the full cooperation of the salespeople using it, you will fail.
Many years ago I helped my sales manager make every typical mistake in the introduction of an SFA system. We failed miserably. We were rejected by our 40 salespeople in a medical device company. We did inadequate training on the new computers and even less on the software. We talked big, demanded cooperation, threatened, begged, whined and failed.
Today, we know we have to train; we start and end with "what’s in it for them." But even now I see companies make the same mistakes I made 20 years ago. Just a short time ago I saw a company president take it upon himself to design the process for their CRM system. He created the sales stages (forgot to ask the salespeople how they sold). It didn’t fail completely, but he admitted his mistakes and eventually made several significant changes before the salespeople accepted his version of the sales world. It was a rough start and delayed real implementation by 3-4 months.
My challenge to you is: how do you introduce a new CRM system to your salespeople and do it successfully? Give us the short version. Break it down into the six steps of a successful CRM introduction. How can a company do it? Have you done it successfully?
SLMA members receive a 15% discount on books from RacomBooks.com
- Ordering online at www.racombooks.com: place your order and write "SLMA" in the Comments Box at closeout.
- By mail, write "SLMA" on your order
- By fax, write "SLMA" on your faxed order.
- By toll-free phone call, mention "SLMA' to the sales rep.
Visit RacomBooks.com
Discounts are a courtesy of Racom Communications. Questions about book shipments, delivery, discounts, etc., should be directed to Racom Communications. Racom Communications is a separate corporation and not owned by the Sales Lead Management Association or Sales Leakage Consulting, Inc.
Sales Lead Management Association Declares June 9-13, 2008 to be National Sales Lead Management Week
January 28, 2008--Los Angeles, CA--James W. Obermayer, executive director of the Sales Lead Management Association, announced today that SLMA has declared the week of June 9-13, 2008 as National Sales Lead Management Week. Obermayer said, “Less than 25% of all inquiries are followed up and closed out by salespeople, which leaves both marketing people and the inquirer frustrated. Salespeople who have no inquiry management system, or have inferior systems, are also discouraged.”
Obermayer further stated, “In light of the millions of inquiries and leads which are the result of billions of marketing dollars spent each year on marketing activities, June 9-13 will be dedicated to the subject of properly managing sales leads.”
SLMA Challenges Corporations and the Press
The Association challenges chief marketing and sales officers and the press to create events and articles around lead management to make marketing ROI a common practice rather than the exception. SLMA co-founder Mark L. Freidman encourages marketers to contemplate how they distribute sales leads, how inquiries are nurtured, and most importantly how marketing measures the return on investment for the inquiries they create.
Friedman added, “There are hundreds of CRM, marketing automation software firms, inquiry management providers and lead nurturing firms that have the expertise to speak up about inadequate sales lead management practices. Marketing dollars are wasted because of a lack of sales lead follow-up or even the measurement of marketing’s ROI. I challenge these companies to make the week of June 9-13 memorable as the beginning of a serious ROI measurement effort for their sales inquiries and leads.”
Support for Sales Lead Management Week
“Often, it is not that firms need more leads, it is that they need to be better at managing the leads they have and nurturing them. Small changes in lead management can yield big results in ROI,” said Mike Schultz, Publisher of RainToday.com and President of Wellesley Hills Group. “In our effort to help firms become better at lead management, we will run a special issue of Rainmaker Report this week, including articles with tips and tools for better lead management.”
Jim LaBelle, the president of LEADTRACK Software, an inquiry management software company said, “The emphasis this week should encourage marketing, sales and executive management to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing investments. The common issue in corporations is the lack of a process to manage sales inquiries and measure investments in marketing programs. Without these tools it is impossible to measure how marketing contributes to sales success or how the combined effort contributes to the bottom line.”
Erik Madsen, AdTrack Corporation’s Director of Marketing and Strategic Planning, said, “We believe marketing ROI starts with properly managing sales inquiries, and that means shining a light on this subject which will help everyone be more productive.”
Co-founder Susan Campanale has asked those that will host events in this period, seminars (live or on-line), submit articles for publication, focus their newsletters and blogs on the subject, or create white papers are encouraged to publicize those events on-line at the SLMA by filling out the following form. These events will then be published in a calendar of events. Events do not necessarily have to occur during SLMA week (could occur the month before or after). This week is an open forum for thought leaders who will step up and be heard on this vital subject.
http://www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/Sales_Lead_Management_Week.htm