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?
• Do you know what messages to send (and how often to send them) as part of your prospect relationship management program?
• Do you know what offers to use to get them to further identify their needs and situations so you can determine if they are ready for sales?
5. Do you have a program in place to measure and track the results of your various sales leads generation and cultivation and sales follow-up programs?
• Can you determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead and cost per sale?
• Do you know which lead programs generate the highest ROI and which nurturing techniques were the most effective?
• Can you justify your lead generation programs to management?
By preparing a plan that addresses these issues, you’ll enjoy a greater ROI as sales leads become active accounts.
BY M.H. “MAC” MCINTOSH, CBC
M.H. “Mac” McIntosh, CBC, is a business-to-business marketing consultant and publisher of the newsletter “Sales Lead Report.” McIntosh also teaches university-level courses in sales, marketing, direct marketing and telemarketing, and conducts seminars and workshops for leading corporations and associations around the world. He can be reached at (800) 944-5553, mcintosh@sales-lead-experts.com and by visiting www.sales-lead-experts.com.