Second in a series…
The sales "Gunslinger"!
Most sales people are like Gunslingers, interested in the “quick kill.” This should come as no surprise to anyone who has worked with sales people and looked at the forces that motivate most of them – their assigned sales goals linked to compensation and the thrill of finding and closing a deal. With the ability to seek out needed information on the web, customers are more in charge of the buying process and qualifying themselves more than ever before. Sales people want to call on qualified prospects that offer the greatest chance of producing sales. One job of marketing is to identify and target the right prospects and generate bonafide leads that sales people can follow-up and “close.”
Effective Sales Lead Management (SLM) is an important but often overlooked “partner” to CRM. Failing to recognize and address SLM in an overall CRM strategy will lead to a lot of unhappy cowboys. Let’s examine why.
Successful CRM starts with a strategy. Determining what makes a “good customer” is important part of developing that strategy. The marketing challenges then become: 1) Cultivating more business from existing customers and, 2) Finding more customers like them. This leads to lead generation and effective management of sales leads in order to capitalize on the business they offer. While CRM by definition focuses on managing contacts and content delivered to “customers,” effective lead management enables companies to keep new opprtunities from slipping through the cracks. It feeds CRM and requires its own set of “rules & tools.”
Consider these scenarios: Your marketing department has identified who your “good customers” are. You have profiled them by SIC, employee count, annual revenue, geography, and the key buying influences have been identified by job title. An email and direct mail series touting your company’s products has been carefully created and sent to the target prospects. You begin receiving inquiries from this promotion via your website, phone calls and emails. Or…
You make a major investment in redesigning your website with advanced SEO and an Adwords campaign. All of your promotion efforts direct inquirers to your site for information. Your website traffic goes up, Google Analytics reports increased ”stats” and you generate a bushel of leads and requests for more information. You forward the leads to your field sales people and cross your fingers. Then things start to fall apart.
How many times have you heard these common complaints? “These leads are nothing but literature collectors, tire kickers, non-buyers.” “They are a waste of my time.” If you sell through distributors you probably hear nothing at all. What is the pay-off for you and your company? Frustration, wasted time, energy, and marketing dollars.
Why the big disconnect between marketing and sales?
The disconnect is primarily the result of a lack of understanding of the respective roles and challenges of marketing and sales. It can produce a lack of confidence in each other’s efforts. This can greatly undermine both your SLM and CRM programs. Why? Because it boils down to a simpler, more basic question. If sales people don’t believe in the value of leads they are sent, and it is difficult to get sales people to follow-up and provide basic feedback on sales leads, why would anyone think that they would work more effectively with a more complex CRM program?
Educate your sales force…and stop “horsing” around!
Sales and marketing often work in this state of tension. Much of it can be relieved by educating the sales force about the following:
- Marketing’s goals and objectives
- The marketing plan
- Underlying research and marketing rationale
- Why the marketing targets and tactics were chosen.
- The value of leads
- Management’s expectations
By soliciting the input of the sales force when planning the marketing effort, and by educating the sales force about how marketing is working to support them in their sales efforts, companies can foster a closer more synergistic, team effort.
Equally important is educating your sales people about the value of leads and how to properly and more effectively follow them up. For years publishers and researchers have studied the value of leads generated from advertising and trade shows. The Advertising Research Foundation Study of inquirers found that:
- 67%, had real needs
- 34% had needs that needed to be addressed within six months
- 72% of leads NEVER received a call from a sales person.
- 20% or 1 of 5 inquirers purchased the advertised product.
These numbers were reinforced by similar research conducted by Penton, Thomas, McGraw-Hill and Reed Publishing companies. The fact is inquirers buy! Plus, ask yourself a simpler question. Who would inquire about your products simply for fun?
When and why do salespeople give up on prospects?
According to research by Reed Publishing’s CARR reports, it takes an average of 5.12 calls to close the average sale. However, their studies also found that 50% of sales people stop trying after the first call. That percentage increases to 65% after the second call and to 80% after the third. A whopping 90% of all salespeople hang-up their spurs after four calls. Here is the real problem. Professional relationships don’t normally begin to grow until you’ve made contact with a potential customer at least six times. This demonstrates the importance of making sure that our sales people are well trained regarding marketing plans, industry research, good follow-up technique, how to cultivate customer relationships, and management’s expectations. If proper follow-up isn’t understood and required, it won’t happen.
Success stories are good tools!
A customer of mine recently reported to me on a lead we had processed and delivered to one of his sales people. As a result of the immediate delivery of the lead to the sales person and his quick follow-up, an emergency $50,000 order was received within two days of the receipt of the lead, and they won a customer worth sizable annual revenue. While this sale was out of the ordinary, it proved a good example to the rest of his sales force that not all leads are “literature collectors.”
Not long ago, I was asked to speak at the national sales meeting for a Fortune 500 client. I was please to report in that meeting a list of more than thirty orders received from leads over a 12 month period ranging from $250,000 to over $500,000. Reporting success stories like these can open your sales people’s eyes to the opportunities leads represent and breed greater success.
Leads generated from promotion efforts can and will lead to new customers and business when followed up properly. The training and knowledge required to ensure that leads are followed up effectively is not complicated. Ultimately, your leads should end up in your Customer Relationship Management program for further cultivation into long term, profitable relationships. But before that can happen, it is crucial to ensure that your sales lead management game plan is in top form. If your sales leads aren’t follow-up properly, then it is a given that generating more promotions and offers to your customers and prospects will be a wasted CRM exercise and marketing expense.
Sales Lead Management (SLM) is an important aspect of CRM.
Yet, it is often an overlooked, important function with different drivers that can be overshadowed by the other CRM components. An effective lead management program will capture detailed information about a prospect, his interest and specific needs. It will deliver the most qualified leads possible to the sales force immediately and with an easy-to-use system. It will also provide your sales force with an easy method of supplying follow information and provide management with tools to track results. If your sales lead management needs are addressed in your overall CRM strategy, you will likely end up with a stable full of new customers and a more productive, profitable posse of successful sales deputies!
