| Convert Leads Into Sales. Why is it that so many | | | | gestation. |
| sales people fail to follow up on sales leads that are | | | | Most big, best in class companies in many industries |
| handed off to them by the marketing department? | | | | have now gone to an inside sales function whose job |
| It never ceases to amaze me how often I hear the | | | | it is to qualify and continue to nurture leads forward, |
| same complaint from sales managers and from | | | | until they're ready for the involvement of outside or |
| marketing managers who are working hard to drive | | | | field sales. If your company is struggling because it's |
| new opportunities in the door. Part of the issue with | | | | not capable of getting its field sales people to follow |
| sales people and their lack of willingness to follow up | | | | up on sales leads, think about changing the mix of |
| on sales leads is many sales people have large egos | | | | your sales organization and moving some of your |
| and believe that anything that has been brought to | | | | field sales resources into an inside sales role. Probably |
| them by others is probably not very good. | | | | this means that you're going to have to replace a |
| They have this, "I'm the king of my territory" | | | | few people and you're going to need to do some |
| mindset, which translates into them thinking that if | | | | recruiting because the profile and aptitudes of an |
| they haven't created an opportunity for the | | | | inside telesales lead generation person are quite |
| company, it must not be real. It's the job of sales | | | | different from the profile and aptitudes of field sales |
| management to dispel this notion and make sure that | | | | personnel. |
| your sales people are taking all of the leads that are | | | | We find that many companies are in the process of |
| coming to the company through its various marketing | | | | reducing their field sales head count and shifting some |
| programs seriously. A good way to convert leads to | | | | of that mix towards an inside sales model because of |
| sales, is to focus weekly attention on reviewing the | | | | the lower cost and increased efficiency, and teaming |
| sales leads that are coming in from marketing and | | | | those inside and outside personnel together is a much |
| from telesales efforts and categorizing those leads in | | | | more effective way to make sure that you're aligning |
| getting a quick report from each of your sales people | | | | your resources correctly and making sure that you're |
| on what they're doing to follow up on the leads that | | | | following up on every single lead that's coming in |
| are coming in. | | | | through marketing. Many companies are spending |
| Lots of sales people are still resistant to this process. | | | | money on marketing but they're not following up on |
| And sometimes, it makes sense to segment the | | | | leads. As a result, they've got huge leakage through |
| responsibility of following up on leads between field | | | | their pipeline and they're wasting resources on |
| sales people who don't believe they have the time or | | | | programs that are not being optimized. Think about |
| don't believe in the quality of the leads that they're | | | | how to make sure that each of those precious leads |
| getting, and inside sales people, whose sole | | | | that your marketing department's producing for your |
| responsibility it is to qualify and further advance the | | | | company is followed up on in 2006. |
| sale with leads that are still in fairly early stages of | | | | |