Why Salespeople Throw Away 97% of Their Leads
We’ve all seen this scenario many times: trade shows, ad campaigns and direct mail pieces generate leads and prospects who say they are “interested,” “may be buying soon,” or check the box that says “I’m interested, have a salesperson call me.”
These sales leads are then handed off to the sales team. The designated salesperson calls the first three leads out of his stack of 100, gets little or no response, and dismisses the entire batch as unqualified. The stack of leads sits in an office, undiscovered, until the salesman moves, gets fired or is promoted to sales manager.
So where does the responsibility lie for lead follow-up? With the salesperson? Absolutely not. A lead isn’t any good until it’s qualified and it’s not qualified until marketing makes the call that establishes if there’s a real fit and if the lead should be further processed and nurtured or if it should be turned over to sales.
Each step of the lead qualification process is designed to take the prospect to the next step – not to close the deal. Salespeople want to go straight from the prospect raising his hand to a signature on the bottom line.
The lead qualifying process doesn’t work that way. If you try to take a buyer down the sales path too far, too fast, you’ll create natural resistance. Develop a process in your marketing department to manage your leads before they’re handed off to sales and you’ll be much more successful.
Seems like a lot of work and time when you just want to make the sale, doesn’t it? But let’s go back to those 97 leads that never get qualified. The research shows that 60% of them will actually buy within the next six months, so don’t throw them out. If you use a system for follow-up, it’s a guarantee that you’ll end up selling more. Call us to see how you can set up a lead qualification system so you don’t lose 97% of your leads.
North Star Marketing is a unique marketing and branding firm with 16 years of marketing, branding and public relations services. Call (717) 392-6982 for an information packet on our PR program “Newsmakers”, or visit www.northstar-m.com.
For more information, go to www.northstar-m.com or e-mail Kae Groshong at kgwagner@northstar-m.com or call (717) 392-6982.
