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Aug 11, 2009
Article

New Chart: Generating High-Quality Leads is B2B Marketer’s Number One Challenge

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SUMMARY: The call from the sales force is not “Give us more leads,” it’s “Give us better leads.” Marketing is aware of this issue, as this chart shows, and is responding to the challenge.

Generating High-Quality Leads is B2B Marketer’s Number One Challenge


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Depending on your lead generation process, lead quality may be the result of either the original state of the lead or of a nurturing process to determine if and when the lead is sales-ready. The latter case "a nurturing process" also addresses the second most significant challenge shown in the chart above: marketing to a lengthening sales cycle. A strategic nurturing process not only identifies when a lead is sales-ready, but can pinpoint at what stage the prospect is in the lengthy buying cycle for forecasting timely opportunities.

When the quality of a lead is dependent on its original state, this usually means that all but the most obviously disqualified leads are simply handed off to the sales force as they are generated. Surprisingly, this practice is still very common in B2B marketing.
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Comments about this Article

Aug 12, 2009 - Margo Volterra of B2Buzz says:
I suspect that the #1 "challenge" is caused by the old school idea: "bang out the calls, and that more is better". Having been at professional lead generation for two plus decades, I know what it takes to get high quality results and marketing to lengthen sales cycles.


Aug 17, 2009 - Sergio Balegno of MarketingSherpa says:
Thanks for your comment, Margo. You're right, when it comes to leads, more isn't better - better is better! Sergio


Aug 18, 2009 - Nicole Filiatrault of IT World Canada says:
I also agree - it's all in the definition of what "high quality" is... usually, sales and marketing will agree that it's way better to have 10 truly great leads than 1,000 mediocre ones.



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