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Lead Generation Best Practices: Dedicate Qualifying Resources
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| Guest post by: Dan McDade |
Article Overview:
- Use internal or external dedicated resources for lead qualification and lead nurturing.
- Heavily integrate the use of the telephone into the qualifying and nurturing efforts.
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Free Download - Marketing Tip: If You Only Do One Thing, Qualify Your Leads By Dan McDade |
Lead Generation Best Practices: Dedicate Qualifying Resources
As lead qualification and prospect development have never been as important as they are now, a question arises. Should the tasks of lead qualification and lead nurturing be assigned to marketing teams or sales representatives?
Marketing is incented to generate and pass to sales high volumes of contacts as quickly as possible. Marketing's success generates hundreds and thousands of these names, but very few are fully qualified as sales-ready buyers. Overwhelmed by the volume, marketing falls back on inbound initiatives for "nurturing" until prospects self-qualify as worthy of sales' attention. Without the resources and skill sets to properly qualify and nurture prospects, sales is flooded with unqualified leads that waste time and dollars. Lead qualification and prospect development processes are too complex and time consuming to use marketing resources focused on high volumes.
Sales reps don't have the time or incentive to contact, qualify and nurture all the names passed from high-volume marketing programs. When there is sales contact, it tends to be infrequent, brief and haphazard as sales reps want to focus on closing fully qualified opportunities deep in the pipeline. And when reps don't follow up, the contact—who will buy at some point in the future—falls into that bottomless gap between marketing and sales...magically reappearing months later as a closed deal for a competitor. The sales cycle is too long and sales resources are too valuable to use developing mid- and long-term prospects.
Successful lead qualification and lead nurturing require dedicated resources with deep expertise in building relationships and moving prospects to fully qualified status. These dedicated resources can be either an inside sales team or an outsourced lead generation services provider. Both share a core approach with use of the telephone and proven teleprospecting skills to perform the tasks that neither sales nor marketing can or should take on: managing responses, qualifying leads, engaging prospects and nurturing opportunities.
Best-in-class sales organizations that leverage dedicated resources using a teleprospecting methodology stand out. How? According to one well-known industry analyst, they consistently achieve 90 percent of their sales team quota; they experience at least a 10 percent year-over-year increase in average revenue per sales rep; and they gain an average 7 percent year-over-year improvement in their bid-to-win ratio.
Article Tags: Developing Prospects, Lead Generation, Marketing Strategies, Prospect Development, Sales Lead Generation, Sales Lead Management
Referred by: http://www.findnewcustomers.com
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About the Author: Dan McDade RSS for Dan's articles - Visit Dan's website Dan McDade founded PointClear in 1997 with the mission to be the first and best company providing prospect development services to business-to-business companies with complex sales processes. He has been instrumental in developing the innovative strategies that drive revenue for PointClear clients nationwide. In addition to serving as president and CEO of PointClear, Dan is the author of The Truth About Leads, an insightful book that sheds light on the little-known secrets that help focus B2B lead-generation efforts, align sales and marketing organizations and drive revenue. Prior to starting PointClear, Dan served as president of UST, The Business Marketing Group, a high-tech B2B marketing services firm. The company, serving leading technology companies including Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, Oracle and SAP, grew over 500% during his tenure. From 1989 to 1991, Dan was an independent consultant providing direct marketing, telemarketing and new business development consulting services. Clients included Sears, Exxon, Rodale Press, R.J. Reynolds, and The Ritz-Carlton. Dan also served as vice president of marketing with Jackson & Perkins in Medford, Ore. Dan is chairman of the board of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) Education Collaborative, an organization promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education in Georgia's middle and high schools. He is a member of TAG, and also serves on the boards of TechAmerica Southeast (formerly AEA); the Business & Technology Alliance, a TAG society; and TAG Marketing. The Sales Lead Management Association named Dan one of the 50 most influential people in sales lead management in 2009 and 2010. Dan is also the author of ViewPoint | The Truth About Lead Generation, a blog exploring issues related to B2B sales, marketing and lead generation. Click here to visit Dan's website Lead Generation Best Practices When to Use Outbound vs Inbound Lead Generation Best Practices Measure Beyond CostPerLead Driving Revenue Ten Actions Senior Management Must Take Immediately Lead Generation Best Practices Multiply TouchesMediaCycles All Sales Lead Generation Strategies Are Not Created Equal |
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