Sales Lead Management Strategy: What Does Marketing Know About Leads Anyway?

Basic Steps for a Solid Sales Lead Management Strategy

When considering your?sales lead management strategy, there is probably a feeling of blame between the sales and marketing departments – in relation to quality and quantity. One of the most common complaints we hear from Marketing departments, is the Sales department’s feeling that they are the experts on leads. The truth is thought, that these two are?intimately interconnected. If you believe you communication gaps between your Sales and Marketing departments, take out FREE Alignment Assessment. It will point to areas of improvement and provide actionable steps.

Respecting?Each Other

Sales lead management strategy begins with an appreciation for Marketing, and vice versa. After all, the Marketing department is what drives leads to the sales department, who in turn drives sales. ?Unfortunately, marketing is not the ultimate group that works beyond the development and implementation of the sales lead management strategy, so sales can often get the impression that marketing is not connected to the process. In this kind of case, Marketing may be generating?leads perfectly well, but their lack of understanding about what a Sales Qualified Lead might be lacking.

It is important that Sales respects Marketing and helps them to understand what makes a qualified lead. For a lead to be of high quality, there are certain factors that it needs to fit, and these must be custom for your company and product. For the Marketing department to know what these qualities are, they need to share data and findings on a regular basis.

Qualifying Leads

The qualification of leads is one of the most important functions of the Marketing department. Marketing relies on mathematical models. For example, if 1,000 prospects visit a given website, roughly 100 of them become leads. From there, 50 individuals take a demo and 10 will end up making a purchase. While Sales also can use these predictive models,?it tends to emphasize the human element and the art of closing a sale. Marketing also needs to qualify the leads it receives carefully, or its mathematical models will be faulty. When the sales and marketing departments do not carefully communicate with one another, either sales receives poorly targeted and under qualified leads or they do not receive enough total leads. This is the fine line that marketing must walk.

Building Brand Respect

Marketing also has another joint function along with sales — both departments are partially responsible for building the public’s respect for the brand. If your company’s Marketing department releases advertisements or posts web content that is not up to par, the sales process becomes far harder. By the same token, if your sales team is not connecting well with customers or treats them poorly, your company’s brand will also suffer. Working together to build a cohesive brand and voice, the Sales and Marketing departments can both advance the cause of the company as a whole and accomplish far more.

Percentages Over Raw Numbers

One of the key conflicts between Sales and Marketing is the number of leads and their conversion rate. The dogma of marketing is that a given percentage of customers will convert, or move to the next stage of the marketing funnel that culminates in becoming a customer. Sales departments historically claim that Marketing either supplies them with insufficient numbers of leads or plenty of under qualified leads. When Marketing and Sales work together, they can form a reasonable set of expectations for qualification, raw numbers and conversion percentages.

Marketing Matters Inbound?is an inbound marketing firm specializing in online conversions, content?strategy, PPC campaigns and traditional media placement. Our experience in?B2B digital?marketing?and?traditional media?allows us to deliver results through a strategic media mix. We believe in?aligning and merging marketing and sales/operations for optimal return on your marketing investment.