Tweet

WHY ISN'T UPPER MANAGEMENT FURIOUS about the 600# Gorilla in their living room named -- sales lead "Follow-up?"

Written by: Richard Erschik

Article Overview: The Marketing department gets sales leads to the Sales department faster... so nothing can be done with them sooner. WHY is that behavior tolerated? Or is the reason obvious?

WHY ISN'T UPPER MANAGEMENT FURIOUS about the 600# Gorilla in their living room named -- sales lead "Follow-up?"

The older I get, the more obvious it is that most business related decisions are being made in companies today for NON-business related reasons. Keep reading and you'll know what I mean.

Let me begin by stating that on my desk is an article from the (then) editor of Control Engineering magazine dating back to 1979. While both the editor and magazine are gone, I look at it every day.

In the article (from 30-years ago, mind you) the editor states that a CARR (Cahner's Advertising Research Report) identifies that less than 20% of sales leads ever get followed-up.

Today (remember, it is 30-years later) there are countless references being made to that exact same statistic (less than 20% of sales leads ever get followed-up.)

So again I ask... WHY ISN'T UPPER MANAGEMENT FURIOUS that after countless hundreds / thousands / millions of THEIR company's dollars are spent on print advertising, trade show exhibitions, Internet websites, company events, CRM installations, contact management software programs and other marketing campaigns -- more than 80% of resultant selling opportunities are being missed in the majority of resultant sales leads that don't get followed up? Are you beginning to see the Gorilla?

To back-up what I'm about to say, I need you to know that back in 1986 I founded a national sales lead response management service organization that American Airlines named "One of the most innovative companies in the country." And, I developed a process of managing sales leads that they also called a "Best-Practice" in trade show marketing as it related to a company's selling process. WHY? Because any company that used our service, and its process, was assured of 100% lead follow-up. GUARANTEED!

I should also make clear that over the course of my 2+-decades in the service business, my company processed more than 1,000,000 sales leads, made more than 1,600,000 telephone calls, transmitted more than 127,000 faxes and emails, and shipped more than 370 tons of client literature around the world. And yours truly actually made more than 1,000 personal sales calls trying to sell my company's service to people that couldn't care-less about the fact that less than 20% of their company's leads were being followed up. And I mean COULDN'T CARE LESS. Many even said that their follow-up rate was less.

In fact, when the 20% follow-up statistic was brought up during most of my sales calls, marketing people reacted as though they were happy to be within the "norm," rather than motivated to fix the problem. When I quoted that statistic to sales people, they naturally came up with excuses and got defensive. And when I quoted it to upper management they took the position of... "That isn't happening in my company. And if it is... you need to talk to so and so." (Who I eventually found couldn't care less.)

I could write pages about other push-backs I got during sales calls, for the obvious threats I made to the status-quo over the course of the 1,000+ sales calls. But instead, I'll fast-forward to today and simply state, here, that based on a lot of my own personal experience (some might call it street cred) I found that clearly... VERY FEW people really want to take ownership of the poor lead follow-up problem, or even consider taking the initiative to solve it. And here is what this writer suspects are reasons why.

Upper management people seldom wanted to look into the problem of poor lead follow-up. Especially if it meant they would eventually have to get involved in solving it, because they wouldn't be able to visit their company's trade show location where the leads are being generated. Especially when the trade shows are located in the 3 biggest playgrounds in the country... Orlando... Chicago... and Las Vegas.

BTW - If you have ever experienced upper management visiting your company's trade show... how long were they in the booth? Usually only long enough to make their presence known, then they disappeared, right? And maybe it was just a coincidence that they had their grandkids with them in Orlando, their wife in Chicago, and/or who-knows-who in Las Vegas with them. I'm just sayin...

I recently saw attendance figures from a significant trade show stating that 24% of the show's overall attendance was made up of Senior Management. I challenged the show organizer to verify how many of the (Senior Management) names appeared in exhibitor sales lead counts. They didn't want to do that, and I'm not at all surprised as to why. Because I doubt that the Senior Management walked the show floor and/or expressed interest in buying anything. They just wanted everyone to know they were there.

Further... I found sales people and/or their sales manag ers that certainly didn't want anyone to "rock their boat" with the reality of poor lead follow-up. Because they already had their budgets in place, lifestyle built around their income, and favorite dealers, distributors and reps to fish, play golf, and party with. Is the reason for the Gorilla becoming more noticeable?

And lastly, I found marketing people that certainly didn't want to take ownership in fixing the poor lead follow-up problem, because they are measured by the "numbers" of leads generated. And any process changes would have to involve their personal interaction with the sales force over in that "other silo", who would throw marketing under-the-bus in a heartbeat for muddying their waters of status-quo.

So marketing just throws the leads over the fence to the sales department and hopes for the best. And there's the 600# Gorilla just sitting there in the living room. And everyone chooses to ignore it.

If you have awareness of this situation, today, you well know that in most companies today, sales rules and marketing drools as the all too familiar blame-game marches on. Hup, two three, four.

Marketing has been blaming sales for poor lead follow-up, and sales has been blaming marketing for poor quality leads for more than 3-decades that this writer has actually experienced. And it will no-doubt continue. All while companies continue to invest jillions of dollars in CRM and marketing programs that get more leads to their sales force faster, so they can do nothing with them sooner.

Due to barriers of communication technology, today, sales people can't even reach anyone. So they are forced to live with their existing customers and ignore their prospects, all while pipelines, hoppers, sales funnels, CRM and contact management are all nothing but buzzwords, fluff and distractions from the Gorilla that's getting bigger and bigger.

The fact of the matter is that VERY FEW people want to fix the problem of poor lead follow-up, because God forbid someone might have to do something different, make a sales call, or actually talk to someone they don't already know.

The answer to the pervasive problem of poor lead follow-up and sales "prevention" is deeply rooted in "people" and the difference between sellers and order takers. Leads simply have to be processed differently in the marketing department to make it easier for sales people to follow-up. So... WTF?

WTF = What's The Future in lead generation, handling, and conversion to sales when individual self-interest is being put before company prosperity in every company but yours - right?

Related Articles
  The 600# Gorilla named sales lead "Follow-Up."
  The 800 Pound Gorilla Problem
  Increase Sales Means You Must Confront Those 800# Gorillas
  Real Nightmare - Finding a NYC Apartment
  Sales Training Should Cost You Nothing, Nada, Zip

Article Tags: advertising research, american airlines, cahner, contact management software, control engineering magazine, countless hundreds, countless references, hundreds thousands, innovative companies, management service organization, managing sales, marketing campaigns, print advertising, response management, span style, style text, text decoration, trade show marketing, upper management, websites company



Related Forum Posts
My success this week - Congrats Jen, a New house is exciting - I know how you feel. I waited 3 years for my place to get built and now living in it is amazing. Success this week... I sent out three birthday cards to business owners last week and I received calls of Thanks which lead to a conversation of what I do and then lead to 9 new referrals for me to followup with.
Problem with networking events - Another benefit for shy people who use the internet to promote is that it's also much easier to build rapport and genuine relationships. For instance, it's a more effective way to reach the largest audience possible by simply participating in a forum like this, than to walk around at an in-person networking or social event and ask superficial questions like "So what do you do for a living?" Most of the people who attend business/networking events are usually only there to sell something rather than buy. They ONLY care about what you do for a living IF you can help him/her out and then you're stuck in a room full of people competing for talk time as SageMediaDesign pointed out.
Video conference system for families living in different cou - I have got idea from the situation I am now in. I live in the US while my family is located in Europe. Many times I was thinking that it would be so nice to have a dinner with my parents from time to time. But the problem is that I they are so far away from me, 8 hours to fly across the Atlantic. So here is my idea... There are video conference systems which are widely used in business. Why not to use them to be in touch with parents and relatives living in other countries? Technically it looks as follows. One of the existing video conference systems is installed in my apartment in the US and in the apartment of my parents in Europe. It must be a big monitor in a living room, video camera and a loud-speaking system that allows you to talk from any place of the room. This will creates an effect of physical presence - you can see and hear your family members all the time while you are in the room. It means that you can chat, have dinner or just spend time together with your family. There might be expensive or affordable solutions based on one of the existing video conference system and Internet connection. The company that provides this service will specifically market it as a system for people who live away from their families. There also will be delivery and support of this service in different countries and in different languages. The technology behind this idea is well known and widely used but it mostly targets business/corporate clients. Nobody markets this service at this angle. One more thought... I don't want to use a PC to provide this service. There are a lot of systems like that when you use a computer, you can use Skype or any other system, even for free. The disadvantage of this is that you have to have your computer turned on. But, my mother, for example, doesn't know how to use a computer at all. My idea is to provide service that will be as simple as TV. You come home, press a button and can see, talk and spend time with your family that is far away from you. I appreciate your comments and suggestion regarding my idea. Thank you, michael.j2ee@gmail.com
Homepage Promotions CAN work - I've also noticed with items that are popular, make them easy to find on the homepage. For example on a car sales website I made up an icon for a particular type of car and placed it on the homepage. Instantly we had a lead contact us within a week of the new icon being placed on the homepage when we had NEVER had 1 lead for this car in the last 12 months. Previously users would have to navigate through 2.5 webpages to find this car so it's definitely worked for us. Place priority products or services on your homepage in a convenient and attractive format. Try not to over do it either, maybe stick with 1 - 3 products max promoted products on the homepage to start off with to see if sales/leads increase. Also another idea (for an online bookshop) is if you stock a book that author is currently advertising themselves, place it on your homepage and take advantage of the Author's own marketing so if a visitor comes to your online bookshop looking for the advertised book, they will instantly see it on the homepage and may buy under impulse.
Re: 7 Ways to Improve Sales Results Without Hiring New People - Hi Evan, Thank you for your post and link to 7 ways to improve sales results. I agree with you that many of the recommendations can equally be applied to affiliate marketers although at first glance it would be easy to dismiss them as only relating to direct office contact with sales staff. In this hi-tech world that we live in it is just as easy to support, coach, motivate and evaluate results with our downline or team by using modern media gadgets as if we were all in the same room. regards, Mal.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How To Be Happy at Work? Acknowledge Yourself

Selling What Sizzles vs. Delivering Real Value

Are You My Mentor

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.