Lead Management – Its about Your Process

Lead Management. It’s the new buzzword in B2B marketing today. And it seems like everyone can provide it. Agencies, consultants, telemarketing firms and even technology companies are all claiming that they can help their clients implement “lead management”. Granted, there are many effective marketing service and technology providers out there. But the reality is that their products and services don’t provide a lead management process, they simply support the process.

At The Annuitas Group, things are different. We talk about lead management because it is all we do. We’ve spent years developing a detailed methodology and service offering that specifically addresses the lead management process needs of B2B companies. We call it the Lead Management Framework™.

So what exactly is lead management? Before we answer that question, let’s be clear on what lead management is NOT:

• Lead management is not about filling the top of “the funnel” with as many names possible. A study by Marketing Sherpa showed that 80% of all respondents are not in a buying mode when they first respond. Yet too many B2B companies immediately forward every “lead” to sales. These leads yield very little in the way of return and most end up decaying in a CRM system. The results? Significant loss of return on marketing expense.
• Lead management is not technology. Many B2B marketing organizations adopt marketing automation solutions to streamline and automate their marketing efforts with the hope of increasing prospects and customers. Technology solutions can surely improve the efficiency by which marketing communications are delivered, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into improved marketing and sales effectiveness. Technology supports lead management, but it doesn’t create it.

Then what is lead management? We define it as the PROCESS of receiving, qualifying, routing and closing of sales leads. Think about the life of a lead. What do you do with that lead once its received? How do you integrate the information from that lead into your marketing database? How do you qualify it? When is it sent to sales? What do you do with it if it’s not ready for sales? Without a detailed lead management process to address these questions, sales and marketing will be challenged every step of the way.

A sound Lead Management Process has the following characteristics:

• It’s a Process
  Lead management is first and foremost a process for managing a company’s sales leads from the time they are generated to the time they are closed and beyond. It’s a framework, the foundation for marketing and sales programs.
• It Focuses on Quality of Leads, Not Just Quantity
  Effective lead management sends only the highest quality leads to sales, while nurturing all other leads until they are ready. To achieve this, an effective lead management process will have a “map” for every kind of lead that is generated: hot leads, warm leads and cold leads.
• It Engages the Buyer
  Effective lead management creates one-to-one relationships with a prospect. And it maintains that engagement throughout the customer lifecycle. Engagement has proven to be a key differentiator. A report by Aberdeen showed that closed deals that were nurtured returned a 47% higher order value than non-nurtured leads.
• It Yields Measureable Results
  Companies that implement a lead management process will achieve, and be able to measure…
  • Higher marketing campaign effectiveness
  • Higher conversion rates of their prospects
  • Better quality leads sent to sales
  • An increased return on their marketing and sales investments

So how do you get started? It starts by working through the steps of building a Lead Management Framework.