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October 20, 2006
The Best Sales Tactic You May Never Have Heard Of.
I saw an interesting link to a Marketing Sherpa study on Lead Scoring by Brian Carroll on his B2B Lead Generation Blog. I found the study of interest as much for the fact that it existed at all as for its content which was somewhat "self-evident." But...the speakers in the panel should still be considered thought-leaders for standing up and talking about lead scoring given the overwhelming majority of companies using primitive lead generation strategies and tactics.
Lead scoring, and related maturation or nurturing programs, are still rarely employed in B2B selling. In a nutshell, lead scoring brings an analytical approach to assessing the quality of a lead -- applying point values to items such as lead source, customer interaction level, nature of request, lead age, etc. It acknowledges the well-known fact that "all leads are not created equal." It takes on the issue that poor quality leads sent to a sales team are likely to reduce the sales team's confidence in marketing's ability to create any leads of value. As Brian notes in his blog, "...inquiries are not leads. A lead isn't a lead until it's been qualified." (This is why I so vehemently object to companies like SalesGenie who tout "unlimited access to sales leads." Says who??? They used to be called "prospecting lists" before some marketing genius at InfoUSA got hold of them.....)
Why don't more companies tackle the scoring challenge? For one reason, application vendors and service providers continue to make the concept more "complex" than it often needs to be. Scoring strategies can, and should, reflect the realities of a company's budget, sales sophistication, staffing and follow-up plans. While perfection should always be the goal, creating a situation where no system is implemented because the client could not afford or staff against perfection is ludicrous. Next, client's often tune-out before they give the concept a chance because the program "sounds complicated." I have been in more than one meeting with a marketing executive who quickly says, "nice idea, but I don't have the bandwidth for that right now..." even before the presentation was finished.
Effective scoring, and by extension, effective nurturing programs can be complex, but they don't need to be built all at once. Finding an iterative, ROI-driven approach can make the concept both intellectually manageable and budget-friendly.
Posted by jcioban at October 20, 2006 6:51 PM
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