Why? And more important, what sales and marketing processes are recognized as best-practices?
First—so that we share common ground in this discussion—I offer this definition of best-practices from the U.S. Government Accountability Office:
"The processes, practices, and systems identified in public and private organizations that performed exceptionally well and are widely recognized as improving an organization's performance and efficiency in specific areas."
We are all too familiar with the inverse: Sales and marketing processes don't perform; they are inefficient, and they waste resources and dollars. In most companies, such a lack of productivity is rooted in the lack of alignment between Sales and Marketing.
Take lead definition, for example:
- Marketing "leads" are high volumes of unqualified prospects that have raised their hands and expressed interest by responding to marketing initiatives. But Sales requires leads that meet specific criteria and deserve attention from highly compensated reps in the field.
- Prospect databases are not segmented and tested to ensure that marketing programs target only high-value prospects most likely to close. Marketing doesn't have the resources or skill sets to qualify and nurture hundreds and thousands of names in the prospect database.
- Overwhelmed by the volume of names, Marketing falls back on mostly reactive initiatives for "nurturing" until prospects self-qualify as worthy of Sales' attention. Sales reps do not have the incentive or time to contact prospects, assess their value, and work them as qualified opportunities.
- When there is Sales contact, it tends to be infrequent, brief, and haphazard, as sales reps move on if they don't find short-term opportunities.
- And when it comes time to measure success, Marketing points to hundreds and thousands of names delivered at a low cost-per-lead, while sales reps shake their heads wondering why the names they receive are called "leads."
- The result: Most prospect names end up languishing in what SiriusDecisions calls "lead purgatory," where they lie unattended—until they magically reappear months later as a closed deal for a competitor.
Following are seven sales and marketing best-practices that address these issues and contribute to the successful alignment of the two groups.
1. Agree on the definition of a lead
It sounds so simple, but Sales and Marketing define leads differently based on their respective self-interest. A consensus on what a lead is must spell out required components, such as decision-maker title and role, business pains, buying process, and the sense of urgency—expressed as a buying timeframe.
2. Segment and test your market
Before spending on a lead-generation program, you must test your market, offer, and media. Start by enhancing test segments with data points such as SIC code, revenue, employee size, and growth rate.
Such added data drives sample calls that validate segments as high-value and most likely to buy. A full-court press should then be deployed against segments with the highest lead rates.
Use less expensive media to nurture lower-rate segments, and make periodic calls into low priority segments to monitor activity.
3. Use outbound initiatives in the right situations
Although there are benefits to using inbound marketing to nurture prospects until they self-qualify as sales-ready, make sure you include outbound calling to develop prospects in situations where inbound is less likely to be effective:
- Executive work styles and late adopters. Many C-level decision makers have not yet embraced—and may never embrace—inbound's self-service model.
- Timely market coverage. Because inbound works best over time, it's easy to miss opportunities that could quickly turn up deep in the current pipeline.
- Complex internal buying landscapes. Outbound calling and its emphasis on personal contact ensures correct assessment of decision-maker roles and influence.
- High stakes with long-sales cycle/high-investment offers. When offering long-sales-cycle, high-investment solutions, you should base nurturing strategies on personal contact.
4. Use dedicated resources for lead qualification and prospect development
Sales and marketing groups do their tasks well, but they are not the resources that should qualify and develop prospects. Marketing doesn't have the resources or skill sets to qualify and nurture. Sales teams don't have the time or incentive to deal with nonqualified leads.
Successful lead qualification and lead nurturing requires dedicated resources with deep expertise in building relationships and moving prospects to fully qualified status. These dedicated resources can be either an inside sales team or an outsourced lead-generation services provider. Both share a core approach: telephone use and proven teleprospecting skills to perform the tasks that neither Sales nor Marketing can or should take on, such as managing responses, qualifying leads, engaging prospects, and nurturing opportunities.
Best-in-class sales organizations that employ dedicated resources using a teleprospecting methodology stand out. According to one well-known industry analyst, they consistently achieve 90% of their sales team quota; they experience at least a 10% year-over-year increase in average revenue per sales rep; and they gain an average 7% year-over-year improvement in their bid-to-win ratio.
5. Nurture leads in multiples: multi-touch, multi-media, and multi-cycle contact
Results multiply when lead-nurturing strategies multiply. Successfully engaging prospects depends on a mix of tactics to maintain positive awareness of your offering until it's time to buy.
- Multi-touch: Frequency matters. Our clients' prospects need an average of 12 contacts to engage, and nurturing can take even more touch points.
- Multi-media: Use a smart mix of multiple media. Integrate outbound calls with voicemail messages, personalized email, direct mail, and landing pages.
- Multi-cycle: Most prospects buy at more than six months out, so expand planned contact from over a few days to over several weeks and across multiple sales cycles.
6. The sales-lead paradox: Fewer leads are better
There is a counter-intuitive relationship between lead volume and sales performance. Although it seems logical that more leads generate more sales, the opposite is often true. Standard lead generation's focus on quantity rather than quality floods the pipeline with a high volume of low-value leads.
Sales reps actually need fewer sales leads—or, more accurately, fewer raw, unfiltered, and unqualified marketing leads. Conversely, they need carefully qualified leads that have been correctly developed until they are ready to be delivered as high-value sales opportunities. Sales reps can then focus their time more effectively on the most likely buyers.
7. Measure your results, but look beyond cost-per-lead metrics
It is essential to track and measure the ROI of your marketing programs. Though a cost-per-lead metric may work for high-volume prospect acquisition, cost-per-opportunity and cost-per-deal indexes are better for measuring prospect-development initiatives. This is particularly true where there is a complex buying landscape, a long sales cycle, and a high-solution investment. Benchmarks here should be opportunity quality, conversion ability, and revenue generated on investment.
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Conscientiously applied, these seven sales and marketing best-practices improve performance by helping sales and marketing resources operate more efficiently, by improving lead and close rates, and ultimately by driving higher company revenue.
