Increase Sales Blog

Posts Tagged ‘sales leads management’

In what is a never ending quest to understand why businesses continue to struggle with the goal to increase sales, I came upon this research conducted by the Aberdeen Group.  From one of their many research surveys on sales leads management, they revealed these interesting sales statistics:

• In B2B selling endeavors, 80% report a disconnect between sales and marketing functions
• Only 16% of qualified leads actually increase sales
• How firms process the 84% of qualified leads that fail to increase sales separate the best from the not so good

This research confirms other sales research that suggests 50% of all leads are left withering on the vine.

What is interesting to note is if people would learn that the sales process combines both marketing and selling activities and stop substituting sales for selling, then possibly this gap could be close.   The use of these words goes beyond semantics because the result is confusion and the inability to increase sales.

Many whose role is to be engaged in the sales process actually begin selling while marketing.  This is a big, NO, NO! Marketing is all about gaining attention (positive) and building a relationship.

Qualifying sales leads begins within the actual marketing action plan based upon demographics and psychographics research.  Better qualification leads reduce misdirected efforts such as not speaking with the actual decision maker.

The most revealing statistic in the Aberdeen’s research was the final one.  What happens when you do not convert the lead to an actually earned sale?  My sense is those companies who return those leads to their marketing activities through nuture marketing or education based marketing probably are better able to demonstrate positive attention and a solid relationhip allowing the potential customers or clients to feel more comfortable in buying B2B products or services at a later time.

Lesson Learned and Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Just because the client said No the first time does not mean the client will say No the second or third time.