2B or not 2B

You’ve spent much time, effort and money putting together your B2B sales leads generation program. The way B2B sales leads are handled once you get them determines whether you will have happy salespeople and new customers or unhappy salespeople and lost sales.

Ask yourself the following questions to evaluate your chances for success:

1. Are you prepared to send requested information immediately?

• Do you know what to send in response to different types of inquiries?

• Do you have electronic versions for those who want the information by e-mail or via downloads from your website?

• Do you have adequate supplies of printed materials ready for those who prefer them?

2. Do you have a program in place to qualify B2B sales leads before sending them to your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors?

• Do you and sales management still need to agree on the appropriate questions for determining which leads are qualified?

• Do you know what information is necessary for properly routing the qualified leads within the organization?

• Do you ask these questions on all response devices?

3. Do you have a process for distributing qualified leads to sales contacts as they are identified?

• Is it designed to get the leads into salespeople’s hands without delay?

• Have you made it easy for your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors to use?

• Can they access leads over the Internet?

• Does it integrate with their existing contact management or e-mail systems?

4. Do you have a program in place to nurture or cultivate your not-yet-qualified leads?

(Salespeople generally focus on those one-in-four sales leads that are ready to buy soon. However, research shows three of four sales come from longer-term prospects who are frequently ignored by sales reps.)

• Does your company have a prospect relationship marketing program in place to keep in touch with these longer-term prospects until they are identified as being qualified and ready for sales attention?