So you've done the hard work and got your sales leads - why does
it all go wrong from here?
Managing sales leads to deliver results
So you've done the hard work and got a stream of qualified sales
leads - why does it all go wrong from here?
After much gnashing of teeth and hours spent justifying the
investment and calculating your required return on investment,
you have spent your hard-earned marketing money to generate a
stream of sales leads - whether telemarketing, exhibitions,
seminars, online or offline advertising, direct response
advertising or directory listings they all have one thing in
common, they are expensive and the investment has to be
justified.
Now you have your leads
Whatever the source, you are now the proud owner of a stream of
(hopefully) qualified sales leads, unfortunately our experience
is that this is just the beginning and on its own it does not
mean that this will automatically translate into sales.
A CRM system is key building block
Perhaps the most critical task you can do once you have got the
leads is to make sure that you capture all the information about
these leads onto a database in a way that is going to allow your
sales team to easily access and update this information and in a
way that is going to allow you to track and monitor the progress
of these leads as they are developed. This can be done using any
one of the many sophisticated CRM systems that are available or
by developing your own database. Now is not the place to
evaluate the various CRM systems that are available or to assess
the relative merits of using an off-the-shelf package vs. the
DIY approach, suffice to say that either way it must happen!
Many companies fall down on this - wasting time and money!
Unfortunately many companies appear to skip this key building
block in their sales management process and as a result they are
inefficient in following up leads and they lose visibility of
progress causing many expensive and hard won leads that could
have converted into business to be lost. This is nothing short
of a criminal waste of precious marketing resources but our
experience is that it happens all too often in organisations of
all shapes and sizes.
Not all leads are created equal
You must classify your leads depending upon their potential
worth to the business and your probability of winning the
business. If you do this you can allocate your resources and
prioritise accordingly. There is little point having your
expensive field sales people chasing up business that your desk
sales people could do or that you have little chance of winning.
Somebody has to be accountable for every lead
You can not fudge ownership of leads, this is where sales and
marketing teams come together and it is where they have to work
effectively to prevent potentially good leads going cold. In
cricketing parlance somebody has to shout "mine" and catch the
ball. To some degree it doesn't really matter who does this as
long as somebody does and they take accountability Without this
clear accountability, the urgency in the follow up will be lost
as different team members look to each other and nothing gets
done!
As somebody once said ..."I didn't plan to fail but I failed
to plan"
For all leads you must have a contact plan that is appropriate
to the class of lead. Equally important is the ability of your
sales team to plan and prepare for the sales meeting or sales
call itself - the ability of your sales team to close the
business once in front of the prospect is another story!
Keep records so you know where you are
Every contact with a lead should be recorded on your database /
CRM system. The status of the lead should evolve throughout the
sales development process, accurate records must be kept.
This is in activity where most sales people singularly
fail!
By nature sales people are generally not good at administration,
they are too busy pushing on with the next prospect or out
meeting their existing customers - whatever the excuse this is
rubbish - you must hold them to account and make them update the
system otherwise you are flying blind and you are reliant upon
somebody's memory which is all too frequently selective!
And finally, as somebody else once said ..."you get what you
measure"
Never was a truer word spoken in sales. If you are to maximise
the return on your sales leads you must track and report
progress and hold people to account! It is unrealistic to expect
all leads to turn into business but we have to know that this is
not because we haven't effectively managed that lead. Knowing
which leads converted and why and which leads didn't convert and
why is precious information for future campaigns - record it,
nourish it and cherish it!