It’s an age-old battle that nobody seems to win. Marketing generates many leads, and sales reps aren’t following up on them.
Why aren’t outside sales reps following up with marketing-generated leads?
Several reasons stand out, and, of course, each side blames the other. But that blame game doesn’t help anybody. Sales sputter, revenue forecasts are reworked, and people get fired because the company isn’t hitting its numbers.…
If you are measuring the effectiveness of your marketing programs by the number of leads produced without answering the question: “ What is a quality sales lead ”; you’re not only wasting your time and money, but that of your sales organization.
For years marketers have had to deal with the stereotype that what we do is smoke and mirrors.…
What to do when sales follow-up isn’t happening
It’s a familiar refrain, you’ve identified 100, 500 or 1000 potential sales opportunities from an event, advertisement or through website downloads, but sales follow-up is not happening. And honestly, you don’t blame them. The quality of these opportunities is suspect and the majority are simply not sales ready.…
You’ve certainly heard the term “elevator pitch”; that 30 second statement that grabs attention as you describe your company and what you do. Closely related to the elevator pitch is the more detailed value proposition. The major difference between the two is an explanation of the benefits of what you do that is integrated into the value proposition.…
Building successful B2B lead generation programs require anticipating requests and integrating into your response both an answer and an incentive to help the prospect take the next step toward making a purchase decision. This is particularly true for B2B organizations that have a complex sales process. For these organizations, an inquiry from a prospect is only the first step in the lead development process.…
As trade show season quickly approaches, companies all over the country are opening up their storerooms. They are pulling out boxes of literature printed over the past year (or more) to take inventory of what is available as handouts for prospects who visit their booth. This is the perfect time to develop a better method to manage literature at trade shows.…