Five Keys Marketers Need for Sales to Work Their Leads

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things for a marketer is trying to get sales reps to follow up on leads that Marketing generated. In many ways, it’s like giving a gift to someone that they never open. 

It’s not that the marketer didn’t work with sales to figure out what kinds of leads they wanted. The marketer…

 · Solicited feedback from the sales team about the kind of leads they need.

· Created messages that spoke directly to generate interest based on sales input.

· Executed market research to find the best places to reach this audience.

· Implemented a lead distribution process to quickly get the leads into the hands of the reps.

Then, the reps either don’t bother to follow up on leads or report the result. How do you fix this? Here are the five key components for sales follow-up: 

1. Marketing must promise, and then deliver, qualified leads to sales. You’ll waste your time and marketing dollars and the rep’s time if you simply send names and contact info with little other information (such as the buyer’s level of interest or budget). Don’t hurt your credibility with sales. And If the leads aren’t yet ready to buy, nurture leads until they move from a luke warm lead to a hot lead. Then, pass only the hot leads to sales.

2. Use an efficient lead management system that’s easy for the reps to use. If the system isn’t easy-to-use, chances are low that they are going to follow up and even lower than they will report what happened.

3. Make the statistics of your lead generation campaigns visible to everyone. Everything from who received leads to the lead follow-up statistics for each rep. There will be pressure to follow up but there will also be good visibility to the value that you are delivering to the sales group. 

4. Implement programs to check in with sales reps on leads that are not being worked. Sometimes this is as simple as sending reports to sales management on status or as involved as reassigning leads that are unopened after a period of time. 

5. Last, but most important of all, you must SELL the reps on the fact that the better job they do on following up with leads and reporting results, they are in fact helping themselves receive better (and possibly more) leads in the future. How? Their reporting tells the marketing team what kinds of leads are valuable and where they are coming from. Marketing can then focus more dollars on those sources as well as tweak and improve qualifying mechanisms. These two crucial items contribute directly to better leads. So, the reps are actually helping themselves by closing the loop.

Follow these steps and your sales team will see Marketing as an ally and not an obstacle. For more guidance, contact us at 1.800.735.3237. info@smartlead.com