Sales Lead Management Association Blog: Recent Comments

Comment on An Interview with one of the "50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professionals": Ruth Stevens, eMarketing Strategy

2010-03-12T12:03:48Z

Great interview and some very useful thoughts and ideas. I particularly like "The company with the best process wins". There's so much opportunity to educate and coach people on what they can achieve in lead nurture through marketing automation. Thanks for championing the cause Ruth, and James.

Comment on PRACTICE! The second fundamental success factor is Practice, Practice, Practice.

2010-03-09T18:03:07Z

Patrick - this certainly gets the point across! Enjoyed reading it.

Comment on Advanced B2B Sales Lead Management Strategies: A Report for CMO’s on what’s really working today.

2010-03-06T23:17:36Z

Wow. great blog. Keep up the good work

Comment on An Interview with one of the "50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professionals": Trish Bertuzzi, The Bridge Group, inc.

2010-03-06T12:55:43Z

"There is not a "one process fits all" strategy that works for every solution and market."

Never a truer word spoken!

Comment on Winners Win and Losers Lose. Time to decide!

2010-03-04T07:14:24Z

I agree too. It's tough, but when you really face up to yourself and make the hard decision to push for that extra ounce, you'll end up with more than just a sense of achievement. You'll prove something special to yourself so that next time it'll be a natural response.

Comment on How does Occam’s Razor Apply to Increasing Sales?

2010-02-24T20:09:55Z

You're right Jim. An increase in sales can immediately result from an attitude change that lead follow-up is an option. It cost the company nothing. At the opposite side, only 25% follow-up means they are not getting the opportunity to sell to 75% of the buyers. It is wasting 75% of the company asset called the investment in marketing. Marketing ROI can increase by 75% if the leads are followed-up to a closed sale, or closed lost condition. But none of this is known, one way or the other if a CRM or Marketing Automation tool are not employed.

Comment on How does Occam’s Razor Apply to Increasing Sales?

2010-02-24T17:04:51Z

Occam's Razor is new to me but makes complete sense. Following up will increase sales. By having a CRM system, and a database of contacts/compnies/socialmarketing/linkedin. (salesfuel.com) will also help sales staff close deals.

Comment on How does Occam’s Razor Apply to Increasing Sales?

2010-02-23T04:05:26Z

We find on average after three different research studies (Omniture Summit 2007, Dreamforce '08, Dreamforce '09) that only about 45% of leads every get followed up on. Your policy would more than double sales.

Comment on How does Occam’s Razor Apply to Increasing Sales?

2010-02-23T03:14:27Z

I must admit that until 5 minutes ago I wasn't familiar with Occam's Razor but am suitably impressed with your knowledge of 14th century theology.

100% follow up is not only the quickest way to increase sales but the cheapest. A change in the attitude of sales management to make inquiry follow up an imperative doesn't have to cost a thing. Although there are a number of affordable tools (like LEADTRACK)on the market -an immediate increase in sales can result from nothing more than a change in attitude. Sales leads are important but tracking and follow up are critical. Work those leads and succeed!

Comment on Study finds 64.9% of B2B Marketers Cannot Track ROI

2010-02-12T22:42:54Z

I'd like to say that I'm surprised ("I'm shocked to find that gambling is going on here") but the lack of measurement has been a consistent problem for B2B marketers for some time. This is also true regarding the dissatisfaction with sales automation. In fact these two issues are linked. If you have a lousy CRM system, you can't measure. And what you can't measure, you can't improve. The fix is simple (but not easy) and the result is better optimization of both marketing and sales.