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Too often, when marketing leaders sit down with their counterparts in sales to discuss lead definitions, the first and only factor that is considered is what sales wants. While this discussion is relevant
and valuable, the result is typically one of the following two scenarios:
These leads may fulfill all the requirements of BANT (budget, authority, need, and timeframe), but they are so expensive and difficult to generate that marketing exhausts their resources delivering a very low quantity of them. Ultimately resulting in a shallow pipeline.
When sales teams have a lack of faith in the nurture process they ask for demographic specific leads and for an immediate hand off without any marketing TLC. This may be a quicker tactic on the front end, but leads to low productivity as sales must sift through a high quantity of very low quality leads. Essentially cold calling everyone.
To avoid these scenarios and increase sales productivity, consider the following factors to help sales and marketing define and agree on lead quality:
A shared understanding (between marketing and sales) of the type of demand being created significantly impacts the level to which leads can be qualified.
Inside sales teams usually sell lower-priced products, therefore, they can handle a higher quantity of lower-quality leads. Field reps target bigger, more complex deals and are rarely in the office a lower volume of higher-quality leads is more appropriate. Finally, reps who focus on large, named, enterprise accounts aren’t necessarily looking for leads from marketing as much as they are looking for sales enablement.
If marketing wants sales to value and follow up on the leads it delivers, they must have a clear understanding of other lead sources - e.g. partner referrals, customer referrals, etc. This insight can guide marketing and sales to better define the quantity and quality of the leads marketing should deliver.
Everybody knows that highly qualified leads cost more and take longer to generate. Less obvious are the sales costs associated with leads that are qualified too deeply or not deeply enough. It’s best to establish the happy medium up front so that you are optimizing productivity on either end.
What is possible. Too often, marketing agrees to deliver leads of a quantity and quality it can’t possibly produce. Whatever the reason might be, when defining lead quality, marketing commitments must reflect an honest assessment of what can actually be achieved.
By taking the time to consider the factors described above, sales and marketing leaders have a much better chance of defining lead quality and quantity goals that are appropriate and balanced. Keep in mind at this stage we are looking for increased accuracy, not perfection.
Prior to SiriusDecisions, Jay was chief marketing officer at EDR, a b-to-b information company, where he led all marketing, communications, market research and events activities across the company’s six business divisions. Before that, he was vice president of online marketing and privacy at META Group where he had global responsibility for all aspects of online marketing strategy, advertising, email marketing, Web site development and management, privacy practices and online business development. Jay was also director of business development and online marketing for EDGAR online, and head of marketing development at Times Mirror Magazines.
Jay has been a featured speaker and panelist on a variety of marketing topics including content and email marketing strategies, online advertising and privacy best practices. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology from Columbia University.
Learn more ways sales and marketing can work together to generate great leads with the free Salesforce e-book below.
