I bet I already know. I had a conversation recently with my business development executive who has become highly suspicious of "free" white paper downloads. There are some sites that he refuses to download from because not only was the prior information unhelpful, but he knows he will receive a call from a telemarketer - even after he's made it clear he's not interested. Why do we continue to force people into being "leads"?

People download content often to answer questions. Don't assume that because they downloaded something that they are ready to talk to a sales person. You need to first connect with your potential lead.

I've found that calling people is the best way to qualify leads, and if that phone call is conducted correctly it can be the start of a really good relationship. If there is an initiative invariably people will tell more about their project and what they are trying to do. The nuance matters and it helps you sound less like a pusher and more like a relevant resource.

A good example of a follow up comes from Endeca. When my colleague downloaded a white paper from their site, Endeca's follow-up was very professional. The call opened with questions about what led him to take a look at their paper. They asked what he found particularly interesting about the download.

When InTouch handles inquiry/lead qualification for our clients, we typically start off with something like, "A lot of people download our white papers to get their questions answered. I was wondering if you got a chance to read (insert title of the download), and if your question got answered. Or, is there some other way that I can help?" 

Also, rather than asking, "Are you the decision maker for the company?" ask something like, "Were you trying to answer this question for yourself or another member of your team so I can help you get the needed information."

There has to be a balance between collecting information and providing value. If you'll think of Lead Generation as a process of micro-conversions that build opportunity profiles over time, you'll be successful. With that in mind, here are some things to think about when offering 'free' information:

• Downloads that are thinly-veiled product brochures and technical documents of the offered product are not only unprofessional, they're ineffective.
• Be careful about requiring registration to receive anything worthwhile.  Request an email address first, then later on a first and last name. Requesting a phone number should be later on in the process.
• Sales teams should never receive Web inquiries directly and unqualified (truth be told - sales people only want to talk to people who actually WANT to talk to them)
• Contacts should be established with potential customers to prime them into the lead-nurturing program
• Web site forms should be to the point for maximum response
• All inquiries should be responded to with a prompt note of thanks (how good is your "thank you" auto reply?)
• A supplementary email thank you should be used to share value added relevant data

Related Posts:

On Lead Nurturing: Looking for a "hot" date?

Why Most B2B Sites Fail to Convert Sales Leads

So what do you wish companies/sales people would stop doing when you download a free white paper or other "free" content?

Others bloggers named to Craig’s 2008 Top of the Funnel List include Jon Miller, the author of Modern B2B Marketing blog, and Michael Stelzner, the author of Writing White Papers Blog and many other great resources. I feel privileged to be in such great company. Thanks Craig. Check out the Craig's 2008 Top of the Funnel List

I just finished up the MarketingSherpa Demand Generation Summit in Boston where I was given the opportunity to present my ‘Playbook for Effective Lead Management.’  And, we’re doing it all again in San Francisco October 26-28. Check out the full agenda. I hope you can make it.

If you attended MarketingExperiments’ recent Web Clinic on September 24th you've already got a glimpse of my five-step ‘playbook.’  By applying the ‘playbook’ as a tool to identify, evaluate, and address the underlying issues, we show how a company benefited from a 325% growth in sales ready leads and a 200% growth in lead-to-sale pipeline rate.

What you need to understand is that this client did not spend any more budget to achieve these results. Rather, a greater focus was put on developing and executing an optimized lead management process.

Watch the presentation on demand including slides and audio.

If you don't have time to watch here are summaries written by others:

Hunter Boyle: Lead generation playbook

June Li: Go Beyond Website Conversion: Nurturing Sales Ready Leads

Jeff Ogden: Demand Generation grows up -- finally

Here’s a quick look at the process we took the company through:

1. Refine the universal lead definition of “sales ready.” It’s imperative that both marketing and sales agree on the definition of a lead. Each time you hire new staff, use that as an opportunity to visit the definition again.
2. Qualify leads based on universal lead definition. When you qualify leads against a universal lead definition you’ll get higher lead-to-opportunity conversion rate and start to overcome some friction.
3. Nurture early leads until “sales ready.” This is where marketers can apply a measurable process to create relevant, consistent dialog with viable potential customers. Position yourself as a reliable resource for folks and when they are ready to buy, they will come to you.
4. Define hand-off process from Marketing to Sales. Make sure leads are sales ready, confirm that leads are ready to speak with a sales representative, and provide qualification information for each lead. Agree on a turnaround time to get feedback from sales. Study the documentation process chart included in the Webinar. It shows the steps a lead should go through from marketing to sales.
5. Close the loop via Sales and Marketing “huddle.” Huddling once a quarter is not enough. Examine often what’s working and what’s not working. Know the status of every single lead at all times.

I’ve already fielded questions from the presentation, but would love to hear from you as well. View the clinic and send me your thoughts.

The true value of lead nurturing comes from the technique of staying in touch with prospects while providing them with the relevant information as they move through the evaluation and buying process. But, how do you get that delicate balance just right? 

I’ve gotten the okay to highlight 5 Nurture Campaign Time Factors from MarketingSherpa’s new B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook that will help you to fine tune the nurturing timing. MarketingSherpa uses real-life examples and charts to hit home these five factors, but here’s a quick look at them:

1.    Immediate welcomes
As soon as you receive a response to a lead generation campaign, you should rush out a welcome message in reply. It’s just good manners to acknowledge someone’s interest in your brand promptly.

2.    Lead Qualification Telemarketing
The velocity of follow-up matters. As soon as possible use telemarketing (aka teleprospecting) to qualify each lead.

3.    Interest-level Timing
Most prospects go through a variety of interest levels in your brand. Without being annoying, you need to stay in their radar until they decide to make that buying decision. Identify where they are in the buying process so you can share relevant information at the right time (i.e. should you share a case study vs. white paper? etc).

4.    Industry Timing
It’s a given that you may need to adjust your campaign timing to reflect your industry’s annual rhythms.

5.    Job Function Timing
Data shows that a decision maker is heavily involved at the very start and the very end of the process, but leaves the middle of the process up to the influencers. For your niche, you’ll need to investigate who gets involved at which point in the process so that you can segment your messaging. 

I encourage you to check out MarketingSherpa’s B-to-B Lead Generation Handbook. It is a  monster of a book, but I assure you it’s jam packed with practical, hands-on advice for B-to-B marketers.

Readers of my blog can save $250 off the book at
http://leadgenhandbook.marketingsherpa.com/

I’ll address this proverbial black hole between your company’s sales and marketing efforts during a MarketingExperiments’ Web Clinic on Wednesday, September 24 at 4 p.m. EST. I’ll outline ways to build an operational ‘playbook’ with your sales department to better manage and nurture the leads you generate.

By using this approach I will share how we helped one client increase their sales-ready leads by 375% and increase their lead-to-sales pipeline conversion rate by 200%. I’ll be answering your lead-gen questions as well.

Watch the presentation on demand including slides and audio.

If you don't have time to watch here's a summary

Lead generation playbook: 5 steps to a 375% conversion lift by Hunter Boyle

Four bloggers have all agreed to post their answers to the email question simultaneously, each offering a different perspective, with all responses linked.  They are:

1. Ford Harding, student of selling professional services.
2. Tom Kane, specialist on marketing and selling legal services.
3. Mark Buckshon, prodigious blogger and specialist on marketing and selling design and construction services.
4. Yours Truly

I could make affirmative and negative arguments for email, phone calls and face-to-face meetings depending on the situation. But I think the answer to this question really revolves around the “maintaining and developing relationships.” In the end it all comes down to relationships.

I've found that emails, phone calls and face-to-face meetings all can help you start or continue conversations but they won't do the hard work of building relationships for you. 

My research shows that executive buyers choose the sales person who has been a resource and developed a relationship with them regardless of their timing to buy. 

Average sales people think they are most effective when they talk with someone WHEN they are ready to buy, but top performers seek to build relationships with the right people in the right companies BEFORE they're ready to buy.

Today’s prospects have a general lack of trust and they simply don’t want to be sold. They are weary of pitches, hype, pushy sales people and manipulative marketing tactics. They are time constrained and too busy to think. So what do they do with most of our sales and marketing messages)? They simply ignore them.

Time and time again it is proven that customers want the salespeople they deal with to understand their business, their needs, and the pressures under which they operate. These people are called trusted advisors. 

For this reason, I think it’s critical to contact and have initial conversations with our future customers that are devoid of sales pitches. Quite literally when we begin a conversation with them, their attitudes and beliefs are being shaped, primed by the information they have already soaked up through various sources. 

Be a resource to them regardless of their timing to buy. Otherwise, they are likely to get information from the internet or uninformed colleagues, trade publications or heaven forbid your competitors.

And I think a perfect way to do this is through lead nurturing. A key aspect of lead nurturing is the ability to provide relevant, valuable education and information to prospects up front. In this way you will be able to position yourself as a trusted advisor and perhaps even a thought leader.

Again, it’s about relationships. The key I think is putting the interests of our current or future customers first. That’s not always easy especially when we’re trying to meet objectives, growth goals etc. But when you do that, you don’t have to sell to people. You'll start to find they even will come to you first when they are ready.

On September 22, four bloggers will post their answers simultaneously.  They are:

1. Ford Harding, student of selling professional services.
2. Tom Kane, specialist on marketing and selling legal services.
3. Mark Buckshon, prodigious blogger and specialist on marketing and selling design and construction services.
4. Yours Truly.

We hope this attention to the issue generates conversation on the subject with all of our readers.

This year's the summit will have 19 new case studies, which will show how to increase lead volume, optimize webinar attendance and effectiveness as well as show you the effectiveness of multi-touch campaigns, closed loop measurement and more. I hope you can make it!

Register here for the event before September 5th and save $300.

In the article titled, "Building a Marketing Funnel and Other Lead Management Tips," I give the following five tips on how you can make your B2B lead management more effective, which are:

1. Create a marketing funnel.
2. Create a universal definition of a lead.
3. Use the phone.
4. Ask about goals—don’t sell.
5. Define lead nurturing—and the right people to nurture.

Here’s a short excerpt from my interview.

1. Create a marketing funnel.

Most organizations don’t have a marketing funnel; they have a sales funnel that looks more like a bucket with lots of holes in it where leads leak out. Marketing needs to create its own funnel to understand whether leads are sales ready or not.

The purpose of the marketing funnel is to bring leads into one spot and qualify them. By qualifying them, I mean that the leads are ready to talk to someone from a sales perspective. Then there is the hand-off process between marketing and sales. I find that connecting the marketing and sales funnel together is really a big challenge. You have to understand your sales process to know at what point the sales team views a lead as an opportunity and begins actively pursuing it.

Lead generation really is about building relationships. It’s how can I help my sales team build relationships with the right people and the right companies. The marketing funnel creates sales-ready leads and nurtures the leads that aren’t sales ready.

The bigger and better you make your marketing pipeline, ultimately the bigger and better you make your sales pipeline. In the end, this isn’t about generating more leads; it’s about generating actionable leads.

Continue reading Building a Marketing Funnel and Other Lead Management Tips

• Using multiple tactics rather than relying on email only.
• Timing of teleprospecting response to web inquiries – the velocity of follow-up dramtically impacts lead conversion.
• Measurement of lead quality and the impact of lead nurturing.

I encourage you check out their advice. Read MarketingSherpa: Lead Nurturing Best Practices: New Data, Charts, Tips to Put More Punch in Your Cultivation Tactics

When it comes to lead nurturing, I find that marketers lose their momentum because they lack enough edu-focused content. My advice is to start building your lead nurturing library now. Here's a post where I share content ideas for lead nurturing and the best tactics to use. I hope you find it useful.

Related posts:
Lead Nurturing is about Relationships, not e-mails
Lead Nurturing as trusted advisors with the Human Touch

I like what Ford Harding, author of Rain Making, Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field, 2nd Edition and President of Harding & Company had to say about rainmakers.

Harding writes, “A rainmaker, as we define one, brings in leads and converts them into business at such levels that she leaves her colleagues in awe.  Of the two talents, lead generation and lead conversion, the former is much the rarer.  That is, professionals who can sell, once given a lead outnumber those who can generate leads, but can’t convert them into business.”

Ford cites my book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale in his post, "Lead Flow Part #1: How It Makes the Rainmaker," along several good ideas, which I’ll summarize.

1. Try what’s worked before. Look for patterns of success, ask your clients for advice and ideas on how they have been approached by other professionals (even your competition) to find out what worked and what didn’t.
2. Experiment and adapt.  Some trial and error learning is inevitable as you try to master lead generation. Develop a plan and use multiple tactics.
3. Don’t let up.  Be consistent. Try to do at least one lead generation thing every day, even if it is something small, that will help you get into a conversation with a prospective client. If you use calling, resolve to make an extra call a day before you leave. If you do networking, resolve to meet one more person at an event.

• What works to get sales and marketing alignment
• How the marketing funnel impacts the sales funnel 
• Reengaging and optimizing past sales leads
• Teleprospecting and nurturing tactics

Listen to podcast now

Also, Check out Dave Stein's Blog for Sales Leaders. Dave is an internationally recognized thought leader in the area of sales performance, sales effectiveness and especially sales training. Whether you’re in B2B marketing or sales or mangement, you’ll find his commentary on what’s happening in the industry relevant.

That's why I found this chart What Causes Webinar Attendees to Bail? by MarketingSherpa useful.  According to their research here are the top reasons attendees say they bail on a webinar.

1. Content was not as advertised
2. Presenter(s) read directly from the slides
3. Webinar began with company/sales information (pitches)
4. You were familiar with the information in the first few slides
5. The webinar was an hour long
6. Presenter(s) spoke slowly 

Avoid these turnoffs and you'll increase the odds of return visitors to your webinars.

Please share your comments on other reasons why you bail from webinars and hopefully we help reduce the number of cruddy webinars out there.

Relevant Post: Tips for getting more ROI from webinars and webcasts

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council's latest study, “Driving the Bottom Line from the Front Line,” assessed the go-to-market processes and capabilities of global companies. According to the study, "Surprisingly, over 46% of respondents gave themselves failing grades when assessing their own go-to-market effectiveness, with only six percent giving their capabilities the highest marks, and just 29% calling themselves quite effective." 

The study concluded that poor collaboration between sales and marketing is a key reason for go-to-market failure and this is where the leadership from upper management plays a vital role in successful execution. Todd Ebert over at the BAD Marketing Blog gives some additional insights on the CMO study here.

I agree with their findings. With that said, it requires more than just effective upper management involvement. I believe that effective collaboration requires each of us to better managers ourselves. 

Becoming an effective marketer goes far beyond creativity and careful campaign management. Like any other functional role, marketers will execute successfully, more often, if we are first and foremost good managers.   

Collaboration between sales and marketing and go-to-market execution will come more naturally if we each focus on our basic management skills: Leadership, communication, planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling.

I encourage you to check out The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done. If you only read one book about how to improve your personal effectiveness I think you will find this book to be a good choice. It was written quite a while ago but it's a wonderful resource.

Related post: Why CEOs Must Be Actively Involved in Lead Generation

Here's the problem with that model... long and detailed web forms often cause people to lie or simply leave altogether.

So what should you do instead? Start by creating a lead generation form that balances your need for information and potential buyers need for not being hassled.

Testing and optimizing even a few key aspects of your landing pages can provide major gains for your lead-gen efforts to improve lead conversion and ROI.

Recently, I was a guest on a web clinic Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments that examines three tests they conducted to demonstrate how you can use Incentives and Friction to generate more leads through your site.

The webinar was titled “Filling the Pipeline: How a LeadGen Test Strategy Achieved an 86% Increase” You can watch the webinar (no registration required) or read the synopsis. 

I highly recommend you check it out. It has a lot of studies, expert columns, market statistics and vendor lists that are worthwhile.

Also, I wrote a guest column on Putting the human touch back into lead generation for the guide.

You can watch the webinar recording here. Because the webinar was a brief 20 minutes, we held all audience questions for a podcast interview right after. Steve Gershik VP of Marketing Innovation for Eloqua and the Innovative Marketer Blog interviewed me for his podcast on the subject of lead generation.

During the interview we talk about lead nurturing and how marketers can add the human touch to B2B lead generation programs. You can listen to our Q&A interview here.

When you have a complex sale, it can be easy to think of lead generation as only a process for acquiring new customers rather than a process that can also be applied to generating new or more business from current customers.

A while back I was in a meeting with a marketing leader of a Global 100 software firm.  He shared a story about their new CEO at the time. The CEO asked 10 members of the executive team to write a list of their top-10 customers. Amazingly just 4 of the 10 executives got 5 of more of the customers correct!  Their VP of Sales faired best, with correctly listing 8. 

In the same meeting it was pointed out that the top-10 customers accounted for over 50% of their $300 million in revenue. The CEO immediately declared that, “we're focusing on our customers first!” From that meeting they dubbed their new initiative as, “The Customer First Plan.” 

As a result of reaching out and talking to their customers, they saw a net revenue increase of 15% from current customers and their customer referrals increased by over 100%.

Still, I’m amazed at how many marketers seem to only emphasize new account acquisition when they could also be going further with their existing customers.

According to research by the CMO Council, “Marketers Are Flying Blind When It Comes to Leveraging Customer Data.” The study showed, “just 6 percent of marketers say they have excellent knowledge of the customers when it comes to demographic, behavioral, psychographic and transactional data, while over 50 percent report they have fair, little, or no knowledge of the customer.”

Conducted in late 2007 and early 2008, the CMO Council's “Business Gain From How You Retain” study undertook a wide-ranging evaluation of where and how marketers are "operationalizing" customer intelligence and insight to reduce customer churn, increase lifetime value, improve the customer experience, and increase the effectiveness and targeting of marketing spend.

The CMO Council concluded, “Only 50 percent of global marketers report having a strategy for further penetrating or monetizing key account relationships. In addition, a surprising 45 percent rate the effectiveness of customer relationship management (CRM) systems as deficient or needing more work, with only 15 percent of companies rating themselves extremely good or effective at integrating disparate customer data sources and repositories.”

The solution to solving poor customer management is to leverage a processes that you already have (or should have!). A lead generation program that includes teleprospecting, lead nurturing and lead management.

Adding a customer program to the lead generation mix can be fairly straightforward. The messaging is a bit different, but ultimately we still need to be a relevant resource to people. 

Often the first task in a customer program is to update the database. How long has it been since the database was verified? Are your contacts still there and are they in the same role? If you don’t already know the condition of your data, you can pull a random sample of data to test. Make sure you pull enough data to insure the test is statically valid.

Once the database is in working order, then question becomes, “How can we educate our current customers and affirm their decision to be working with us?” Nurture those all important relationships. Just like when reaching out to prospects, positioning you and your organization as trusted advisors is essential to building trust that starts AND maintains AND expands relationships.

From this point forward you should look to your current customers with the same energy and optimism as you do with your prospect and you’ll be amazed with the results.

So, do you have a Customer First Plan?

Michael Stelzner wrote the following comment on my post back then, “I have been giving away my trade secrets for years (against the advice of advisors). The results have been amazing. The fact is that folks look to you as a thought leader when you share your secrets. In addition, the discussion that comes from sharing results is a better idea.”

Today, Michael just launched a series of videos on how he is leveraging educational techniques to pull in inquiries and generate leads. Michael told me he's got a bunch of videos he plans to release over the next few days telling how he generated over 60,000 inquiries and leads for his business by giving away his ideas.

Watch his first video, "How To Generate Mass Interest in Your Business During Tough Times." (No need to do anything special, it will just start playing.)

Update: I just did a teleseminar on generating leads via white papers Michael Stelzner and you listen to the recording here.

I came across Manoj Jasra post, "B2B Web Analytics: Deeper Dive - Web Analytics World" and thought it was relevant to share.   

Jasra writes, "in order to be successful in a B2B world, marketers require a strong understanding in regards to their potential customers. Things such as lead qualification, targeting in the sales cycle, and testing content/collateral are all areas where analysts can push the envelope in order to provide more insight for their marketing team."

Jasra's post outlines four key analytic areas which include: quality of leads, sales cycle, optimizing your content (for SEO and conversion) and conversion rates and funnels.

Here are some posts that give more suggestions on analytics.

Related posts:

Tracking ROI From Web Generated Leads
Improve your online lead generation measurement

I still think there is a lot of improvement that needs to be made in this area. Are you satisfied with your ability to track your online lead generation ROI? If so, what's been working for you?

Pacifica Group: Part II: How to Select and Optimize Outsourced Teleprospecting

You're invited to join me at ITSMA's (IT Services Marketing Association) upcoming Marketing Leadership Forum May 6-7, 2008 in La Jolla, CA. I’ll be giving a keynote on “The Playbook for Effective Lead Management” and I'm looking forward to meeting the other speakers.

Please note is there is a fee for this event. ITSMA has extended a their member rate discount to B2B Lead Generation Blog readers. To register this way, select “My Company is an ITSMA Member,” and in the Comments field enter “Brian Carroll Offer.” Register here

They have a great line up of speakers including:

• John Aiello, CEO, SAVO
• Brian Bakstran, SVP, Field Marketing, North America, CA
• Paul Dunay, Global Director, Integrated Marketing, BearingPoint
• Janis Fratamico, Director, Marketing, Global Business Services – Americas, IBM
• Ajit Maira, Senior Vice President, ITSMA
• Julie Meyers, Vice President, Global Marketing, Xerox Global Services
• Jean Ostvoll, Global Marketing Director, Products, Accenture

That said, it’s vital for us to think before we execute. It’s not about doing more campaign activity… it’s about doing the right things repeatedly better.

The simple act of a sales and marketing team finding time to think and collaborate together is vital to developing a solid lead generation program. Our results will improve because we're following this approach: ready, aim, aim, aim, and then fire. 

Mike Gospe wrote a great piece for MarketingProfs, "Lead-Generation Blueprints in 30 Minutes." I like the article because it shows how one marketer took time (just 30 minutes) to think out a problem with his sales team and develop a game plan before they executed. The ROI results of this approach are truly remarkable.

My sales and marketing meets together weekly via "huddles" it really helps them get the same page and collaborate. It's amazing what can be accomplished in just 30 minutes.

Here’s a list of 35 other ways that Marketing and Sales can collaborate together.

I just interviewed Sridhar Ramanathan, President of Pacifica Group, on how to evaluate and optimize outsourced teleprospecting partnerships (aka inside sales, telesales, telemarketing). 

Sridhar is an industry thought leader in marketing and former HP executive that grew HP's Managed Services unit to $1B in revenue. He has spent that last seven years advising his clients at Pacifica group on how to implement successful marketing strategies that increase revenue. 

If you are involved in lead generation for a complex sale, this podcast offers practical information you won't want to miss.

During the interview you will hear Sridhar discuss:

• Why his client's decide to outsource
• What to have ready before engaging a firm
• The criteria companies should use when hiring a firm
• Success metrics used to evaluate effectiveness
• Pitfalls to avoid in a partnership
• Co-sourcing or Outsourcing?
• Best practices that make teleprospecting partnerships very effective

Listen to podcast now (27 minutes MP3 9.58 MB)

Podcast: How to Select and Optimize Teleprospecting Partnerships

One of the most difficult and consistent challenges for sales people is getting their foot in the door with the right people, at the right companies. Here's 5 more lead generation tips I’d recommend for new sellers.

1. Define your goals – Be clear on what you want. Do you want 20 more leads in your database? Do you want to generate $995K in net new customer in revenue this year? Do you want to add 15 new clients this quarter?

2. Develop a lead generation calendar - Map out your activities for each month and then really follow it! Don’t just make irrelevant pitches more often! Create a plan to add value every time you touch your future customers with relevant ideas, content and resources.

3. Build your personal prospecting engine - Leverage these activities by communicating with your prospects, customers, networks and alliance partners in a consistent manner by using traditional direct marketing methods such as direct mail, phone calls, and personal email messages.

4. Use your CRM - Don’t create the biggest database of contacts possible. Instead, seek to create the most relevant database possible that contains the right companies and contacts that influence the buying decision. In the beginning, you won’t have all the data you need. Be patient and you'll build the opportunity profile over time. See each conversation as an opportunity to build a relationship.

5. Be consistent - Remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare? Dig your well before you’re thirsty. No matter how busy you are, be sure to make time to do lead generation activities, especially if you don’t have a marketing team supporting you.

Your suggestions please...what else would you add to this list?

This basic question is overlooked by so many and yet it’s the leading cause of failure in what would otherwise be effective lead generation programs.

The common-sense answer to this challenge is easier said than done: Have your best people respond to them quickly and consistently in order to qualify them into sales ready leads. The ones that aren’t qualified yet (but are a fit) you put into a lead nurturing process.

The need to better manage leads and inquires has given rise to a slew of new software companies offering a variety of lead management or marketing automation solutions. 

An interesting conversation was started recently by Laura Ramos on the Forrester Marketing blog about lead management software. I’m really glad to see an analyst giving their opinion and I look forward to more insights. Ramos’ post, “B2B Lead Management Market Heats Up,” is definitely worth checking out.

According to Ramos, there are four primary buckets of technology solutions aimed at solving the “how do I make lead generation activities more effective?” They are:

1. Web analytics
2. Database services
3. Marketing automation
4. “Pure play” lead management

With that said, I think it is important to realize that lead management software and marketing automation tools are only one part of an effective process. Here's what I've learned...

Software will not spontaneously generate collaboration between sales and marketing, nor will it create solutions that match your processes and it certainly will not generate sales-ready leads on it’s own. However, for many the allure of easy execution and fast results are difficult to resist. It’s easy to overlook that these systems require a great deal of hands on input and maintenance to be fully appreciated.

My company has spent well over a million dollars and almost ten years to develop our lead management software system that we use as part of our services and we’re learning what works (and what doesn’t) everyday through testing and trial and error. That said, I can say that developing a good process takes more time than you think and developing people to execute the process consistently is even more difficult.

I regularly encounter organizations that invest in expensive software before they fully understand the fundamental operational processes that it will be supporting. This was and still is true of CRM and SFA systems. Lead management software has turned out to be no different. If you want to fully leverage your lead management software, you’ll first need to develop operational discipline and focus on good execution.

Start by understanding your lead generation requirements and design a suitable process to support it and insert the software into the process where it will be most effective and actually used. Most importantly, don’t under estimate the need for a dedicated team of people that will drive the process and make the inputs into the system.

Begin by mapping out a clear process. At InTouch we use process flow and data diagrams to collaborate with clients when designing lead management programs.  Make sure you involve and collaborate with everyone who will be part of the process. Their buy-in will be key to the programs success. Then identify if there are still any gaps in staffing. Finally, once people and process are mapped out, select the tools or systems that will help your people efficiently manage the process.

Lead management is the bridge between sales and marketing that connects the beginning and middle of the customer acquisition process. It requires engaged people to execute the right process, which is then supported by the right software.

Salespeople have become the second choice for information among buyers who'd rather just go to the Internet. This trend actually creates an opportunity for those who think and act like trusted advisors.

You can listen here

In the interview, I share how I got my start and how the Internet has shifted control away from marketers and salespeople. I also describe how today's sales people can add value to the buying process by becoming expert content filters for prospects. This is the key to lead nurturing with a human touch.

What's The Customer Collective? It's a new business outreach community for sales and marketing executives. It was built in collaboration with established media companies like Business Week, ZDNet and BNET. I see it as a social media site (that doesn't focus on social media) but rather looks at real meat and potatoes sales and marketing. We need more sites like this.

In years past, marketing has been favorite target for cuts by CFOs and CEOs as they look to conserve cash and reinforce their balance sheets for tough times.

I’m less concerned about budget cuts and more interested in opportunities for him and other B2B marketers who choose to bring focus to their marketing efforts. We have to remember that regardless of the economy, sales people are still expected to perform. I seldom find sales quotas are lowered to fit the news headlines.

If you want to flourish regardless of the economic conditions, you need to look for ways to help your sales team execute and improve performance.

I’m convinced that one of the best ways to do that is to focus on lead generation. Yesterday, I read a Kate Maddox's article in BtoB Magazine, "IDC: Tougher times for tech marketing," which supports that other B2B marketers are doing just that.

Much like a savvy investor who buys when the market is down, smart marketers can capitalize on this opportunity (and beat competitors), by bringing focus and attention to their lead generation efforts.

Maddox’s article highlights IDC's recent tech marketing barometer research. IDC showed that fewer tech marketers are increasing their budgets this year compared to last year. But I think the bigger story is how those dollars are being allocated. Maddox writes, “According to the [IDC] report. Lead generation is the top marketing priority for tech marketers this year…”

According to studies, the single biggest issue for contemporary business-to-business marketers is effective lead generation.  Conversely, it has been pointed out that 80% of marketing expenditures on lead generation and collateral are wasted because the leads are ignored by sales people.

For this reason, marketers should direct their budgets away from traditional awareness building campaigns that quickly eat up budget and instead expand and optimize lead generation programs that bring measurable results. Finding better tools and processes for managing the leads or inquires that they already have is also a good investment in a turbulent economy.

You will optimize lead generation immediately if you can honestly answer “yes” to all of the following questions:

• Do sales and marketing agree on what the word “lead” means? 
• Are you tracking the conversion rates of leads to sales opportunities?
• Can you/Do you close-the-loop on all leads that are being passed to sales?
• Does your sales team pass back early stage or "cold" leads back for lead nurturing?

You may also want to check out my complementary webinar archive based on the ebook "The One Piece Of Advice You Can't Generate Leads Without" by RainToday titled, “More Is Not Better If You Don't Know How To Nurture”

The truth is that sales people care very little about the cost of the leads we generate. What they really care about is how many of those leads will actually become viable sales opportunities.

For this reason, I think cost-per-lead measurements are irrelevant unless we can answer another fundamental question first, “What is our rate of lead acceptance (a.k.a. sales pursuit) into the sales pipeline” and then “What is the cost per opportunity?”

Sadly, I find that a lot of marketers tend focus on cost-per-lead because they really don’t know what happens to their leads after they hand them off to their sales team. This is why closed loop feedback and lead management are so important.

B2B Marketers must start measuring cost-per-opportunity now! Why? It’s the one metric that can help you understand how well your sales team accepts and pursues leads.  Ultimately, it shows if your leads are actually helping our sales team sell and if we’re positively contributing to their pipeline.

Lead acceptance into pipeline is primarily a function of lead quality.  There are other influences such as sales training and refining the lead handoff process, but lead quality stands out as the single largest factor driving the real ROI of our lead generation programs. 

In a cost-per-lead model there is a tendency to drive down the cost of each lead by generating more leads, which is good if the quality does not suffer.  However, this is rarely the case since there are a finite number of high quality sales ready leads in your target market at any given time.

The real question is, “Are these leads helping our sales team sell more and will these leads become profitable customers?” 

In most cases in order to get more leads to sales (as they demand more leads now!), marketing is forced to send early stage leads, often at the inquiry stage in order to meet quota or cost per lead requirements. Of course, the need for more leads does not come with a commensurate budget increase!

Simply sending more leads over the fence to sales will only result in more early stage leads being lost, ignored or discarded.  And if your early stage leads are not being cultivated with lead nurturing and given the attention they need, they will go to waste. Unfortunately in a cost-per-lead scenario this waste will not be measured, rather only your lead production costs.

There is no doubt that a cost focused mindset is a lot different than a value driven mindset.  The cost focused mindset often drives decisions that are arbitrary to the objectives of a lead generation program. The most valuable leads are those that your sales team can convert to viable sales opportunities, not just leads that drive more activity.

Pushing more leads and creating more activity can give marketers a false sense of security in the short term, but in the long term the cycle of failed campaigns will continue as past failures are dismissed, overlooked or as fingers are pointed.  To break the cycle, we must close the loop with sales and start measuring opportunities.

The following are real-world metrics that every marketer should track in their lead generation program:

• # of inquiries? 
• # of leads? (qualified as "sales-ready")
• # of opportunities (leads in moved into sales pipeline)? 
• # of closed deals from marketing leads?

If you know those metrics you can start to track the following key performance indicators:

• Inquiry to lead ratio
• Lead to opportunity
• Lead to proposal ratio
• Lead to sale (win) ratio

A value driven mindset requires leaders and marketers to plan and budget for the long term and to take a more holistic view that goes beyond cost-per-lead budgets. Cost-per-lead budgets are irrelevant unless you can first measure cost-per-opportunity or cost-per-lead-pursued and lead quality is a key driver in insuring that those leads are pursued.

What do you think about cost-per-lead budgets or sending fewer high quality leads to sales people?