Are Your Sales Leads Worthless?
by Paul DiModica
* Does your marketing
expenditure have a return on investment?
* Does your sales
team waste its marketing leads?
The number one complaint
by salespeople today is that they don't get enough leads
from their marketing department? Yet when salespeople
get their leads, how quickly do they respond to them?
| Percent of
Marketing-Generated Leads that Sales Acts on
according to US B2B Marketers, September 2006 (%
of respondents) |
|
32% |
75% and higher |
| 17% |
Between 50% and 75% |
| 16% |
Between 20% and 50% |
| 10% |
Less than 20% |
| 11% |
Don't know |
Source: Forrester Research October 2006
Provided to Paul DiModica by eMarketer.com under
contract. |
How much time does it take for
the average salesperson to respond to leads once they
receive them?
| Amount of
Time that Elapses between When Sales Receives
and Follows Up on a Marketing-Generated Lead
according to US B2B Marketers, September 2006 (%
of respondents) |
|
10% |
Less than a day |
| 41% |
More than a day, less than 3
days |
| 18% |
More than three days, less than
a week |
| 6% |
More than a week |
| 8% |
Don't know |
Source: Forrester Research October 2006
Provided to Paul DiModica by eMarketer.com under
contract. |
How often does your marketing
lead turn into a sale?
| Percent of
Marketing-Generated Leads that Result in a Sale
according to US B2B Marketers, September 2006 (%
of respondents) |
|
38% |
Less than 4% |
| 13% |
More than 4% but less than 10% |
| 17% |
More than 10% but less than 25% |
| 5% |
More than 25% |
| 18% |
Don't know |
Source: Forrester Research October 2006
Provided to Paul DiModica by eMarketer.com under
contract. |
Does your marketing department measure
their lead development efforts?
| Methods
Used by US B2B Marketers to Measure the Results
of Lead Development Efforts, by Business Size,
September 2006 (% of respondents) |
|
|
<50
|
50-
499
|
500+
|
All
Respondents
|
|
No reliable means for measuring |
14%
|
16%
|
21%
|
16%
|
| Track responses, but can't tell
which activities lead to sales |
12%
|
10%
|
12%
|
11%
|
| Track activities, actively
working to "close the loop" with sales |
33%
|
45%
|
33%
|
37%
|
| Have "closed loop" processes
and can track the final disposition of all leads |
41%
|
30%
|
35%
|
36%
|
Source: Forrester Research October 2006
Provided to Paul DiModica by eMarketer.com under
contract. |
Does your marketing budget
investment affect your business success?
| Impact of
Marketing on the Success of the Business
according to US Marketers, 2006 (% of
respondents) |
|
34% |
Impact is significant |
| 64% |
Some impact |
Source: ITSMA, October 2006
Provided to Paul DiModica by eMarketer.com under
contract. |
Today, marketing is a line position
that should be linked to sales and corporate strategy as
one integrated revenue capture model. Spending money on
fancy web sites that don't create inbound leads for the
sales team or on pretty brochures that don't turn
prospects into buyers is wasted effort.
Yet time and time again, companies
spend a disproportionate amount of funding on marketing
that has no measured Return on Investment (ROI).
Yes, you can blame salespeople saying
that they are burning qualified sales leads and losing
deals supplied by marketing because they lack sales
skills, but that cup of water only holds so much. In the
end, marketing must align their actions and their
funding usage to help the sales team create more
qualified sales leads.
Is your marketing department a
partner or a competitor?
"Marketing is an Attitude -- Not a
Department." Phil Wexler
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