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Compressing the

Prospect-to-Customer Lifecycle

Business-to-Business Selling

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INTRODUCTIONIt’s a simple fact. Qualified sales leads are the lifeblood of any sales organization. So why are so many leads ignored or underutilized?

In this paper we will make the case for three possible changes in your thinking:

•Salesandmarketingorganizationsarebetterservedbyspendingmarginallyless

onleadgenerationandmoreontheprocessofleadmanagement.

•Allsalesleadsarenotcreatedequal—identifying“sales-ready”leadsisacritical

stepintheleadgenerationandmanagementprocess.

•Leadsthatarenotsales-readytodaycanbenurturedandcultivatedto besales-

readyinthefuture.

There are two general stages in the prospect-to-customer lifecycle: lead generation and lead management. Most organizations spend significant time and money on the first stage, but don’t devote enough to the lead follow-up process, which is often overshadowed by the perceived need to generate a higher volume of leads.

As a result, the lack of information and feedback about the steps involved for quickly moving a lead to a closed deal, and the support materials required, leave many open questions as to what works in the process and where to find opportunities for improvement.

A well-defined process for the qualification, fulfillment and management of each step in the lifecycle will shortensalescycles,providehighercloseratios,and activelyengageyoursalesandchannelpartners. It will also help build an information-rich marketing database and greater marketing ROI.

Prospect-to-customerlifecycleoverviewThere are a wide variety of terms used to describe various aspects of lead generation and lead follow-up activities. For the purposes of this paper, we will use the following terms and definitions:

1. Prospects— Large categories of industries and functional contacts that may be able to

buy your services.

2. Targets— The prospect base narrowed to a precise and finite group of companies and

individuals that meet more stringent qualification criteria.

3. Leads(inquiries,responses,etc.)— Prospects that have “raised their hands” and

shown interest, either as a result of outbound initiatives or inbound engagement

(websites, thought leadership, etc.).

4. Sales-readyleads— A subset of those that have raised their hands, qualified to have

current need, application, money, timing and decision authority to buy.

5. Opportunitymanagement—The process of actively managing sales-ready leads

through the buying cycle to a close (customer).

80% of all sales leads

are never followed up1

~ yet ~

45% of all sales leads

will buy someone’s product2

1. BtoB Magazine, CMO Council Survey

2. Sales Lead Management Association

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6. Customerretentionandexpansion—The process of actively engaging existing

customers to grow share of wallet.

This paper will focus on steps 3 to 6 of the above cycle, the process of managing sales leads. For information on other aspects of the prospect-to-customer lifecycle, see our white papers on:

• Developinganinformation-richmarketingdatabase

• Leadnurturing—movingaleadfromcasualinteresttosales-ready

• Customerretention—frominitialpurchasetoravingfan

COMPRESSING THE CYCLEKey steps we will explore to compress the lifecycle include:

1. Understanding the mindset of your sales force

2. Mapping the sales cycle of your best customers

3. Capturing lead data consistently and promptly

4. Fulfilling leads appropriately

5. Identifying sales-ready leads

6. Distributing sales-ready leads to your sales force or channel partners

7. Getting your sales force to update the status of leads

8. Managing the sales pipeline through reports and metrics

9. Nurturing non-sales-ready leads for future benefit

10. Ensuring continuous improvement so the process does not “rot” over time

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UnderstandingthemindsetofyoursalesforceFrustration with the sales force, whether about lead follow-up, order processing, communication of activities, or organization and attention to detail, seems to be universal. It’s not uncommon to hear statements about salespeople being overpaid, not hard workers, unfocused, “prima donnas,” etc. It is also very common to hear “edicts” on prospecting and lead follow-up, as if making such proclamations actually means they will happen.

The fact is, most sales people are hard-working, well-intentioned folks simply doing the best with the situations, processes and tools they’re given. It’s also a fact that most sales people will focus on what they believe will net them the most money, even if that means servicing existing customers or spending significant time developing opportunities deep into the pipeline, at the expense of following up new leads.

The challenge for your organization is to recognize the “blockers” that keep the sales team from promptly and effectively following up sales leads, and to develop processes and support materials that break those blockers down.

MappingthesalescycleofyourbestcustomersBefore you can compress your prospect-to-customer lifecycle, you should document how this process works now in your organization. We recommend interviewing some of the more productive members of your sales team — including direct sales and channel partners — to determine best practice follow-up methods. Draw out a simple flowchart to illustrate the process.

Consider asking your sales team the following questions:

1. Who are the key decision makers and influencers in the sales process?

2. What are the key criteria you use to determine if a lead is worthy of follow-up?

3. How do you define a sales-ready lead?

4. What is the decision process by which a lead determines who to buy from?

5. What support materials do you use at each step of the sales process?

6. What questions or objections arise at each step that would help move the contact along the cycle, or take them out of the cycle?

7. What is the typical length of time between each step?

8. For longer-term prospects, what is a typical time frame for future follow-up, and how do you keep in touch with them in the interim?

9. What are the biggest “blockers” to aggressively following up sales leads?

This mapping exercise will help you determine your process options and discover what works best for your organization. It will also help you uncover the largest gaps. Common process disruptions include overlooking leads due to perceived quality, slow follow-up timing and lack of time for ongoing contact.

CapturingleaddataconsistentlyandpromptlyAmazingly, the most fundamental and simple part of the lead management process is often the most overlooked. The old saying of “garbage in, garbage out” definitely applies to the capture and follow-up of sales leads. The mapping process will have identified key criteria needed to understand the quality and timeliness of an inquiry (type of company,

Integrating Sales & Marketing Strategy into Your Process

While understanding how your sales team sells is important, it only represents a portion of the process. Overlaying information from your overall strategy, such as growth markets, margins on prodcuts, competitive threats and the like, must also be looked at as you lock down your processes.

Don’t just sell more, sell more of what you want to sell.

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size of company, scope of opportunity, urgency of interest, functional responsibility, specific requirements, etc.) and these criteria should be engineered into every possible touch point of prospect interaction. This would include:

1. Website “contact” forms

2. Trade show lead forms

3. Direct mail response cards

4. Landing pages for all marketing initiatives

5. Call-in inquiry capture guides

In addition to having prospects “self-qualify” with important criteria, there are many other commonly used tools to overlay basic information on industry, size and contact data, such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses. In short, the more complete the data is on every new lead, the stronger the foundation for quickly identifying the appropriate follow-up.

FulfillingleadsappropriatelyFulfillment refers to the methodology and process of providing what the contact has requested as part of the lead generation process. Over the years, this process has evolved from “one-size-fits-all” postal fulfillment (of, say, a catalog or capabilities brochure) to today’s far more personalized and customized postal and e-fulfillment based on area and level of interest, media source, quality scoring and the like. In the end, the purpose of your fulfillment should be to:

1. Quickly acknowledge the prospect’s response.

2. Take the prospect deeper into the interest / buying cycle, providing more detailed information on products or services of interest.

a. Product information and data sheets

b. Links to interactive sales or product demos

3. Establish credibility for your organization through higher-level brand positioning.

4. Provide another opportunity for the prospect to self-qualify as sales-ready.

5. Identify the specific individual or organization responsible for sales follow-up.

While the world continues to move toward everything online, we believe that there is real value to both e-fulfillment and delivering hard copy materials to your most qualified prospects. This is for a variety of reasons; first, because it serves as a more tangible and constant reminder; second, because many of your competitors have probably discontinued the process, which can then serve as a differentiator; and third, because it protects against spam filters and / or simple e-mail fatigue.

Identifyingsales-readyleadsTypically, the biggest disconnect between the marketing and sales groups is over the generation and follow-up of “qualified leads.” Marketing thinks “We spend lots of money and intellectual effort to generate these great leads…” and Sales states, often emphatically, “These sales leads @#%*.”

The truth is, both are right. Studies show that making a lead sales-ready will dramatically increase your overall close rate from the same flow of leads, and dramatically enhance the level of engagement and responsiveness from your sales force or channel partners.

Studies show that making a lead sales-ready will dramatically

increase your overall close rate

from the same flow of leads.

~ so ~

What makes a lead

sales-ready? • Need• Application• Money• Timing• Decision authority

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Processes for sales readiness screening might include:

1. Automatedorvisualscreening— Based on established criteria and the

information provided by the prospect in the lead gen response mechanism.

2. Telephonescreening— To validate information already provided, or to provide

context and detail as an enhancement to that data.

3. E-mailordirectmailscreeningandsecondaryqualification— Performed

through additional response mechanisms provided in fulfillment.

The frequent complaint is that this is “doing the sales person’s job” or “isn’t this what we pay them for?” We will not argue the merits of that thinking here, other than to state, unequivocally, that you will more than recoup your investment in making leads sales-ready vs. simply generating more leads that go uncontacted.

Distributingsales-readyleadstoyoursalesforceorchannelpartnersLead comes in, forward to the field, end of story, right? But what is the correct territory or sales rep? What additional information have you given them to provide context? How will it be updated? And what level of transparency do you have in order to know the effectiveness of follow-up?

Even those organizations with fairly homogeneous direct sales organizations and robust CRM systems seem to have trouble when it comes to the totality of this function. Overlay the use of independent reps and / or distributors and you can imagine the complexities.

Regardless of technology platform, distribution rules and processes should include the following:

1. Rep assignment based on geography, industry sector, account or other documented business rules.

2. Information about the lead, including:

a. All contact information, such as phone, e-mail address and website

b. What marketing initiative they responded to

c. What fulfillment they have received and when

d. What qualifying information they provided

e. Other qualitative notes available from phone qualification

f. If there was a previous response, how that response was resolved

3. A method of communication that allows for portability, easy access and updating.

4. An ability to quickly reassign the lead, if necessary.

5. Parameters for turnaround (we recommend real time, but no more than two days).

The key to all of this is speed, useful information and the absence of “blockers.” Speed is important to the prospect, as they will gravitate to those that can solve their problem today. Accurate and useful information allows the sales person to spend less time researching or going down unproductive paths, and more time addressing customer needs.

A Word About Technology...

There are myriad technology solutions designed to help organize and manage prospect and customer data and relationships.

Whether you use a contact management program like ACT!, a more robust solution like SalesForce.com, or an even more complex and fully integrated set of tools from your business management system, technology alone will not compress your cycle.

Determining the right combination of technology, process, logistical supportand management oversight is key to executing at a high level. In addition, not all prospects, targets or even sales leads necessarily belong in your CRM system.

For more information on ways to view this specific issue, see our white paper on the topic.

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GettingyoursalesforcetoupdatethestatusofleadsThis is, of course, the holy grail of successful lead management. Compressing the cycle is a function of many things, but closing the feedback loop and allowing for aggressive management of the sales function with reliable metrics is key.

Many will not want to hear this, but given a well-thought-out process and basic technology tools for distribution and update, the single largest issue we see is a lack of real commitment on the part of management to establish and reinforce good habits. Sales people will naturally resist any attempt to formalize a disciplined feedback loop. Some of this is for the obvious reasons: it takes too much time, or they don’t want to use the technology or system required. But much of it comes from a salesperson’s innate desire to be independent, to follow “their” system, and to let their performance speak for itself. This becomes particularly difficult when the salespeople showing the most resistance are your top producers.

But management that allows this behavior to continue can be short-sighted. What are the opportunity costs of poor follow-up? What example does it set for others on the team? And what level of transparency and reliability really exists in the function, especially when the economy turns down and you’re scrambling for every piece of revenue you can get? We all know that some become top producers as a function of their territory, or a particular customer, and not because of great salesmanship, so why let them dictate your posture on this?

All of this said, possible ways to ensure timely and successful lead updates include:

1. Clear communication of the short- and long-term benefits to the salesperson

2. Committed management that reinforces good behaviors regularly

3. Regular reviews of relevant reports with each member of your sales team

4. Update options that are fast, easily accessed and limited in scope

5. Linking of estimating and quoting tools to actual lead information

6. Incentive rewards for meeting interim sales goals, including lead updates

7. Tying compensation and expense reimbursements to fully updated lead data

8. Termination for non-compliance

ManagingthesalespipelinethroughreportsandmetricsThere are many variations or flavors of sales follow-up reporting, and the recommendations here will by no means be exhaustive. There are two key reporting functions that provide the basis for many other drill-downs and direct conversations with your team.

1.Initialfollow-up— A summary of how quickly leads are being contacted and the

percentage that go into the quote pipeline. This is typically by sales rep and then

rolled up into regional managers. The active management of this activity will help

identify territories that are under- or overstaffed, and will quickly identify where

leads are slipping through the cracks.

2.Opportunitymanagement— Both summary and details of the active quote

pipeline, allowing for meaningful, forward-looking projections, comparative stats

on close rates, escalation opportunities to help close and an understanding of “why

lost” if that happens. Active management of this function will increase close rates

and identify opportunities for training, process refinement or other remedial activity.

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Managing the Pipeline

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Understanding these ratios in your organization will help to compress your selling cycle.

Prospects to leads• Leads to sales-ready• Sales-ready to quote• Quote to close• “Lost-to” whom•

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Nurturingnon-sales-readyleadsforfuturebenefitAll too frequently, a lead that has been deemed “unqualified,” or not sales-ready, gets relegated to the bowels of your database, never to be contacted again. This is a mistake — remember the statistic that 45% of all sales leads will buy from someone — and it has been our experience that this number is much higher if measured over an extended period of time (years, as opposed to your standard selling cycle).

Part of the qualification and capture process must be to build an information-rich database of people who have contacted your company, know your product line, have expressed interest in buying and can be engaged in an extended dialogue and nurturing process to ultimately become a sales-ready prospect. This engagement can come in many forms, including e-mail, direct mail, telemarketing, social media and direct personal contact on the part of the sales reps. Communications themselves can be driven by:

1.Time-specificcontinuums— Typically consisting of a series of momentum-building

messages to make the case for your company and products.

2.Event-drivenfollow-ups—Geared around data such as a specific budgeting cycle,

fiscal years, defined replacement cycles, trade show attendance, etc.

3.Generalbrandawareness—Typically highlighting customer case studies, new

products and services, thought leadership and financial credibility.

4.Promotionaloutreach— Frequently promoting specific products or services that are

relevant to their past interest and are packaged and / or priced attractively.

When put together in the aggregate, this consistent and ongoing communication ensures that your company is there and positioned appropriately when the prospect moves into a serious buy mode. It should be noted that all of these types of prospect engagement initiatives are relatively inexpensive vis-à-vis generating new prospects and leads.

Ensuringcontinuousimprovementsotheprocessdoesn’trotovertimeIn the end, it’s all about execution. Technology by itself, no matter how robust, will mean nothing if there are not back-end processes and reviews in place to make sure it’s all working. Each step outlined here is as important as the next, and we’re sure you’ll identify others that are specific to your organization.

We recommend, at minimum, a review of the entire process every six months. Initially, we believe that quarterly is appropriate. Invariably, you will encounter obstacles that are unanticipated or difficult to resolve — do not let this discourage you, as the first sign of process degradation will signal to your entire team that this is not important, or that you are not committed to it. The flip is also true — if your team sees that you are always working to refine and improve the system, they will climb on board and become highly participative in the process.

AboutMarketEffectMarketEffect provides industry-leading business-to-business sales and marketing services that empower

our clients to reach new levels of profitability and market share. Services include Data Management,

Prospecting and Nurturing, Telemarketing and Telesales, Channel Management and Response

Management. With more than 20 years of experience, MarketEffect has developed insight into what

works, and has built the processes, procedures and team to put those programs into action. Based in

suburban Chicago, the agency’s client list includes small and large business marketers from a wide array

of industries. MarketEffect is part of The Mx Group.

For more information, contact MarketEffect at 800-827-0170 or visit us at market-effect.com/Compress

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