5 factors to fail Lead Generation
I was posted blog of ‘Top 5 Reasons Why Lead Generation Programs Fail‘ days ago, and got informative replies and comments by some Marketing Pro on what’s the top 5 factors to fail Lead Generation , very worth to share
1. Talent shorfalls (Dont know how, wrong skill sets, etc.)
2. Lack of vision (executive sponsorship and preferred future)
3. Lack of definition of success (sales-marketing alignment and pipeline responsibilities)
4. Process design (designed to do what its doing today, not what you want it to do tomorrow)
5. Strategic myopia (lack of bigger marketing and sales picture and demand generation vs. lead generation)
- Peter Tennis
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1) Weak strategies, no best practices (how often, how long and what if scenario’s, email and voicemail) and inefficient prospecting system (spreadsheet, crm etc.).
2) A messenger that is does not know how to and does not see the benefit or believes it can be done successfully.
3) A message that is difficult to deliver, make sense of and to act upon.
4) The wrong audience for the message - The informant (knowledge), the influencer (gatekeeper) and the decision maker
5) Unclear objectives and no plan on how they will be achieved.
- John Chepyha
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1) The leads are sent to the field improperly qualified. A couple leads that you have graded “Hot” which are not can quickly jade a sales person and give him/her an excuse to not call on any more from your campaign.
2) The leads are sent to the field late - after the prospect has forgotten about the interaction they had with your company.
3) The sales person does not know what to do with the lead, or how to conduct the next conversation.
4) the sales person has no context of the lead history. How did and why did this prospect interact with your organization?
5) The lead is sent to the wrong sales person or channel to begin with and they do not forward the lead in a timely manner.
6) Sales tools are not easily available to help move the lead to the next step in the buying cycle. This is particularly important with third party selling channels since they have too much on their plate to know where your tools are since they are dealing with many different manufacturers products.
- Greg Wilkinson
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1. Most companies are not willing to invest the time, money or resources needed in the short-term to develop a long-term lead generation and nurturing program that may take anywhere between 6 to 18 months to begin paying off.
2. The wrong prospects are targeted and as Neeraj said, the list is not properly built.
3. Lead generation is done as cold calling and not as part of a bigger program or campaign that speaks to the needs/pain of the prospect vs. the “how great our company is and this is why you should buy from us” message.
4. The right quality of person is not hired to do lead generation. A good lead generation program uses skilled sales professionals vs. recent college graduates with no business experience.
5. A continuation of point #4, lead generation is seen as a high-pressure, entry or low level job with no room for advancement. Thus, the high burnout and turnover rate.
- Carla Joye
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Bad database - majority of companies have database integrity issues
Lack of follow up - by sales and marketing
Poor program management - what are you trying to accomplish??
No nurturing - hit and run marketing
Lack of a definition of a “lead”: hate to say it - basic blocking and tackling
- James Waters
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1. List building is not done properly.
2. Lead generation is still not taken as a serious profession, so generally people take it as a time pass.
3. Top three mistakes, which managers make as per a survey, are: -
a. Providing product training not sales training.
b. Not providing a documented process supported by compelling sales tools.
c. Not providing coaching
4. High attrition rate, reps stay for an average 2.2 yrs as per a survey.
Top three reasons they leave are A. Money B. Lack of career path (most imp) C. No challenge, No mentor & not learning anything.
“Lead generation is taken as a fashion not a way of life”
5.Finally companies should understand Lead generation got nothing to do with closing, they should be paid, appraised, recognized according to the quality of leads they give.
79% of all the companies compensate their reps based on revenue.
Experts recommend that no more than 20% of the compensation be tied to revenue.
Its like pay them for what they control.
1. Doing a great job of targeting the right prospect.
2. Getting the prospect on a conference call or Demo (its not a joke)
3.Asking great questions
- Neeraj Taneja
I went through the post and quite agree with it.
I believe that at the current situation best way to generate leads is to Outsource it…
Today there are a few companies which can help in building a qualified and verified list of your desired contacts..
This definitely helps in concentrating on your core job i.e. sales.
Once you have an accurate to pitch to a lot of your time is saved.
Hence I believe outsourcing the list building part makes sense.
Outsource lead generation.?.?. I disagree. I believe if company sales, marketing and executive leaders understand and support lead / demand generation outsourcing is not always a good idea. As long as you build a good process and the sales reps understand the process and criteria for a lead this groupo will prosper. I am not saying that outsourced leads will not get anywhere, but an internal person(s) will know the (selling) company a lot better. Knowing who in the company can answer questions, help in close to real-time as you can get the better off the sales numbers will be.
We are trying to create a best practice and further develop means in which to generate leads. Our problem seems to be that that there is so much conflicting information out there, I was wondering if you knew of a place to start so we can learn this ourselves. Outsourcing is not an option and our money is limited as we are a small business.
Key pain point I see in most of our B2B vendor clients is structural - sales and marketing teams reporting to different line management. Marketing create the ‘leads’ often raw response from white papers, exhibitions etc without considering whether sales can convert them and over what period of time. Sales trash the leads as they are only interested in opportunities that can be converted in under three months. The best solution is making these teams work together to achieve objectives as both have valuable and necessary skills to bring to bear. Having one overall manager is a good place to start.
There is also a massive skills deficit. Marketing people are managing telemarketing nurturing teams - effectively a sales discipline, without the benefit of any sales experience, let alone sales management experience. The end result is a really badly trained and briefed lead follow up, pitches I’ve heard are often as bad as ‘you downloaded our WP, so, do you want to buy?’. Bad training, targeting and use of PRP lead to heavy turnover of people and wasted marketing budget
If you get the teamwork right, your telemarketers become a prime asset, its a fantastic learning ground for future field sales people a pipeline of new reps which eliminates succession planning issues in sales and reduces recruitment costs.