Proven Success Formula for Lead Management:
How to Overcome Five Common Challenges
H
ow frustrating is it that over 50% - 70% of leads
sent from marketing to sales never receive
sales follow-up? This is a well-researched statistic
that has not improved for the last five years. As a
result, the time, money and effort applied to
generating sales ready leads is often much more
impressive than the actual revenue results realized
from this activity. The primary culprit in this missed
opportunity is how marketers execute lead
management. Most marketers treat lead
management as a series of ad-hoc, poorly
coordinated marketing activities rather than an
intentional, cross-functional business practice.
I recently facilitated a focus group on the topic of
lead management. As part of a pilot for a lead
management course, 11 different companies and 16
marketers at a manager/director level from a range
of industries and company sizes gathered to discuss
the topic. Not only did this one-day training serve
to pilot our lead management class, it also acted as
a focus group to highlight common challenges and
validated a practical framework for effective lead
management.
This article presents the challenges most often
experienced by marketing and details a practical
framework for addressing these challenges. This
approach will re-energize your lead management
practice, ensure the leads you send to sales are both
appreciated, acted on, and deliver the attribution
and revenue results you have worked to earn.
Defining Lead Management
Let’s begin by establishing a working definition for
lead management. Lead management is a
methodology whereby marketing generates
qualified leads, passes them seamlessly and
efficiently to sales and sales/marketing processes
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them through to close. It is a combination of people,
process and technology, a shared capability for
marketing and sales and applicable to both
prospects and clients.
Five Most Common Lead Management Challenges
In working with the pilot group described above as
well as with my B2B clients, I see five common
themes or challenges for an effective Lead
Management practice.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Everyone is “doing it.”
Not managing as a practice.
Run as a marketing-only capability.
Lack of best practices and structure.
No business case.
Everyone is “Doing It”
Anyone with an e-mail system or a marketing
automation system and a goal to produce leads for
sales is “doing” lead management. Yet, “doing” is
not enough. “Doing” is the reason that 50% - 70%
of all leads go unprocessed and untouched by sales.
The first thing that has to happen for effective lead
management is to realize that the current ad-hoc
approach to lead management is not enough.
Marketers need to move from “doing” to “practice.”