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Best practices improving b2b lead management

Best practices improving B2B lead management are what every company is hoping to find.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from other marketers goes something like this, “I keep sending leads over to Sales. First, they don’t respond and then they tell me that my leads stink.” Does this sound familiar to you? It’s a clear case of what I call “bad lead-itis”.

The treatment for this disease is pretty straightforward, but it can seem like climbing Mount Everest. First, you must know that a typical Marketing Manager can’t fix this problem alone. The root cause lives higher in the organization, usually at the Director-level of BOTH Marketing and Sales. I have seen many instances where well-meaning individual contributors have attempted to resolve this issue. It doesn’t work. Why? Because in the end, if revenue goals are not being met, Sales will claim that it’s because the leads they got from Marketing were bad.

So, you ask, “What’s the cure?” First, the key decision-makers in Sales and Marketing must sit down together to negotiate goals. Marketing goals need to be in line with revenue targets. So, rather than a typical goal of x number of leads per month, the new goal is a specific dollar amount attributed to Marketing-provided leads. Now, I can hear the fear in your voice, “So, you’re saying that now I am going to be responsible for actually selling our product?” No, that’s not what I’m saying. This is a multi-step treatment – sort of like with getting a new hairstyle where first there’s the color, then the cut, and finally the styling. This system does not work unless you do all of the steps.

The second step in this treatment is agreeing to lead criteria. This is a clear definition of what constitutes a lead. Since there is no standard definition, each organization must define its own. And it could be different for different products or services. We usually recommend a grading system based on prospect responses to a set of qualifying questions. The criteria should evaluate the following elements (We use the acronym PPRA):
Pain – What conditions exist that are causing pain for the prospect…and that you can resolve…to ensure they are good fit for your product?
Position – What level of decision-making is required for sales to consider the prospect valid? Do they want leads that are influencers, but not decision-makers?
Readiness – Where in the purchasing cycle should the prospect be before they are considered sales-ready. Should they be ready to engage with a sales rep to learn more? Ready to send in a purchase order? Has the prospect decided that he/she needs to do something to end the pain they’re suffering…and that you can solve?
Attributes – What information about the prospect either increases their qualification grade or disqualifies them as prospects or simply is information that's good for Sales to know when they make their call on the prospect.

The third step involves defining a best practice for improving B2B lead management processes. Essentially this is the Sales side of the agreement. If Marketing provides sales leads as agreed upon, the lead management process defines what Sales will do to ensure that the leads receive appropriate attention. These are the “rules of engagement,” if you will, for Sales on the leads provided by Marketing. The questions that can help you formulate this are: How soon after Sales gets a lead, must they contact the prospect? How often should Sales contact non-responsive prospects and for how long? What happens if a sales rep doesn’t keep their side of the bargain? How and who will monitor, track and enforce this? This step is important and, if overlooked, will have high lost opportunity cost. It will also keep the target squarely on the backs of the Marketing folks who are supplying the leads to Sales.

Finally, these decisions should be documented and signed-off by the heads of both Marketing and Sales. This “contract” should include a clause that states a time period where the goals, lead criteria, and lead management process will remain static to allow the new best practices improving B2B lead management processes to be implemented.