By Jen Doyle, Senior Research Analyst

Chart: Information required before passing a lead to Sales


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Lead qualification is an area that presents great opportunity for B2B marketers. As represented in the above chart, not many organizations are using multiple forms of qualification.

For example, 80% of respondents indicated that a lead must provide basic contact information. The highest level of participation after that is 42% for an indication of a valid business need. From there, the participation levels continue to decline. Furthermore, the average number of qualification criteria selected (per respondent) to this question was only two criteria.

What is surprising about this data is that fewer than half of all respondents verify that a lead actually has a valid business need for their product or service before passing the lead to Sales. For the majority, these leads may not even have a valid business need for their product or service, and they are being delivered to their sales teams to close.

This fundamental issue can lead to number of challenges, including a lack of alignment between Marketing and Sales, reduced Sales efficiencies, and an ultimate barrier for an organization to reach their full revenue potential.

For additional research data and insights about B2B marketing, download the free excerpt from the MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Advanced Practices Handbook.

Useful links related to this chart

MarketingExperiments Web Clinic -- Converting Leads to Sales: How one company generated $4.9 million in additional sales pipeline growth in only 8 months

Members Library -- B2B Lead Generation: Increasing leads 296% by analyzing Web traffic

Members Library -- Lead Generation Optimization: 7 'must-haves' to improve your campaign planning process

Members Library -- Fostering Sales-Marketing Alignment: A 5-Step Lead Management Process

MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Advanced Practices Handbook