Client Quote
“Within the last 18 months, we moved from being a company that didn’t know where leads were coming from or where they were going, to becoming a company that can track every lead by source. And we can now also route the leads to the proper channel.”
-- Lizbeth Tommy, Strategic Marketing, Dematic
Lead Routing – Which Way Do They Go?
Lead routing is probably one of the most overlooked areas in the entire Lead Management Framework™. Lead routing can be defined as the documented process that determines how qualified leads will be routed to sales, nurturing campaigns and/or how sales will send not-ready-to-buy leads back to marketing.
A lack of a lead routing process exists when organizations have a uni-directional lead routing process (leads only go from marketing to sales). This one-way, linear model results in the following:
- The inability to build a relationship with the buyer via lead nurturing
- Sales being inundated with responses instead of qualified leads
- The continuation of the ever widening gap between marketing and sales
- Loss of revenue as potentially qualified leads get lost in the glut of responses
According to several recent research studies, up to 80% of buyers are not ready to purchase at the time they respond to a marketing program. As this is the case, best-in-class organizations must develop a routing process that allows for leads to have multiple routing possibilities:
- From marketing (via campaign or marketing activity) to sales
- From marketing (via campaign or marketing activity) to a lead nurturing campaign
- From sales back to marketing for further nurturing and development
As organizations grow and campaigns become more complex, it may be necessary for more routing rules to be established. But to start, utilize the three outlined above.
Service Level Agreements
Documenting your lead routing process is a good start. However, in order for the process to work, marketing and sales need to define and document business rules and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Business rules are agreements between sales and marketing that define how lead routing will operate. SLAs are time periods affixed to the business rules. Business rules and SLAs should be put in place for each of the three routes listed above, as well as any others that may be developed in the future.
Organizations that are serious about implementing an effective lead management process will not forgo this important piece of the puzzle. It’s too important to overlook and is often one of the key areas that allows the other components of the Lead Management Framework to function fully including Lead Nurturing.