“We do some great marketing…but what we really need are sales leads….”

“We do some great marketing…but what we really need are sales leads….” 

Sound familiar?  Here’s your situation: Your marketing team have just produced a great customer case study, and it’s all printed out in a great layout on your desk. You have just come back from a really busy trade show, where the team put on a great stand, showing off your brand and company in the best possible light. You send out regular emailers and get reasonable open and click through rates. You have put some resource into social media, and have increased your following by 100% in the past year…….But despite this activity, your sales pipeline still looks weak and unpredictable, and your expensive sales team are still moaning about the lack of good, qualified sales opportunities they are getting.  You have insisted that they should do their own lead generation, and encouraged them to do more cold calling and telephone work to old prospects – but their enthusiasm lasts for a few days, before you hear the grumbles from them: “waste of time….cold calling doesn’t work”. 

If that sounds like your organisation, then it is time to take stock and review your lead generation strategy and tactics.  

You are not alone. Many organisations at some time in their development find that they have a disconnect between their sales and marketing teams. In an effort to build the organisation’s brand and profile, investment has been made in marketing, and as the team and activities have grown, somehow their focus has been lost and, although they are busy and seemingly doing great work, the end result- qualified sales leads - are missing or not increasing.  The sales team, often bolstered by enthusiastic new recruits who brought with them their own contacts and prospects, and initially spent time calling and nurturing them, get involved in complex sales negotiations and their lead generation activity fades as does their enthusiasm for “cold calling” . They start to blame marketing as the leads dry up, and disassociate themselves from their activity because of their perception that it is not doing the job for them. 

However, all is not lost, as you probably have all the right parts for a great lead generation engine – it’s just that it needs fine tuning, or perhaps a strip down and rebuild, with a few new components. The key is to get your sales and marketing teams aligned, in tune with each other,  and working together to the same objectives. 

You can start putting things right yourself by just considering the following:

1.     Do your sales and marketing teams agree on what is an ideal prospect for your company?

2.     Have your sales and marketing teams agreed on the definition of a “qualified sales-ready lead”?

3.     How are you measuring the outcomes of the marketing and sales teams activity?  Are these metrics related to activities (bad) or sales results (good)?

4.     How do the sales and marketing teams communicate? Are there regular meetings, and is there a process where sales can provide feedback on the leads they have received from marketing?

5.     What are you doing with all the prospect data you are gathering from your marketing and sales activities? Do you have a CRM, and are both your sales and marketing teams using it? Who is responsible for data management?

 

Of course, it is probably best to call in an expert to get that objective viewpoint and insight, and help you manage the change process, as there are going to be some egos bruised here. But you will find that by taking a step back and considering how your sales and marketing teams are working together, and then taking some remedial action so that they are more closely aligned, you can generate more sales leads with the same marketing spend.  And that should help you realise a step-change to your business growth that you so desire.

What is the fear that people have in talking to a stranger

I recently attended a local business seminar aimed at growing your company and the one issue that seemed at the front of everyone’s minds was how you find new customers. It seemed that most people were fairly comfortable  with meeting prospects face to face providing that someone had introduced them first.

In some cases people were going to extraordinary lengths in searching for a magic solution that would deliver them leads without having to contact a prospect “cold”. I spoke to one person who was paying thousands of pounds per month in Google pay per click. He had acquired no new clients in the previous 12 months. I spoke to another, a senior partner in a firm of solicitors, who proudly spoke of his one hour spent every day on tweeting. He had been doing this for over 12 months. When I asked him how many sales he could attribute to that investment of time (and at £280 per hour billing fee that was an investment approaching £50,000) he admitted that he hadn’t had a single new client but he was sure that he would do one day soon.

It made me wonder what is the fear that people have in talking to a stranger ?