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Study: Sales Organizations' Success Depends on How They Managed Leads

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Study: Sales Organizations' Success Depends on How They Managed Leads
 
October 09, 2014

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  By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor
 


“Sales automation” is one of those terms that can mean different things to different people. To some organizations, it may mean that the receptionist dumps a pile of pink message slips on the front desk of the sales department once a day. For other companies, sales automation is a sophisticated process supported by software solutions that help keep track of, rate and follow up leads.


There is a lot of confusion in the sales industry when it comes to automation. Some companies may go halfway with it, implementing a bit of lead management but leaving other processes to old-fashioned manual paperwork. Other companies may go the whole hog and implement automation across inbound and outbound sales and marketing. How effective a company is with sales and marketing automation will depend on a lot of factors, according to a recent blog post by Aberdeen (News - Alert) Group’s Katie Martell, who posted various highlights of an Aberdeen Group study titled, “State of Marketing Automation 2014: Processes that Produce.” Much of the success organizations experience depends on how successful they are in handling leads and transferring leads from the marketing to the sales department. Some of the most interesting points relative to sales automation included the following:

Nurturing leads carefully. Successful companies make every effort to nurse their leads through a careful process. According to the study, high performing sales organizations are twice as likely to use lead-nurturing with a marketing-automation solution than lower-performing companies (68 percent vs. 27 percent). In addition, nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of high performing companies have clearly defined lead management processes, compared with well below half of lower-performing companies.

Lead scoring. Lead scoring, or the process of assigning value to leads so they can be prioritized, is strongly correlated with success. According to the study, 68 percent of companies identified as “best in class” are using lead scoring, compared to just 28 percent of firms identified as “laggards.”

Routing leads. Once leads are scored, they need to be routed to the most appropriate sales contact. The Aberdeen report found that 88 percent of top-performing companies are effective in their ability to route “hot” leads to the sales department vs. 57 percent of all other types of performers.

Measuring close rates. Another thing that high performers do that laggards don’t is measure the close rates of leads. The study found that best-in-class companies are four times more likely to measure the close rate of marketing-generated leads the laggards (65 percent vs. 21 percent).

It seems clear that a company’s success is highly dependent on how effectively it handles leads. Lost leads represent lost opportunities, and mishandled leads can do more damage than just a lost sale. If you’re looking to make some serious changes in your sales and marketing operations, maybe your lead management is a great place to start. 

 

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