Why Won't Sales Follow up on My Leads?
The age old complaint from marketing professionals and inside sales managers is inevitably that the organization's sales reps don't adequately follow-up on the leads that marketing has invested much time and money in developing.There are typically a few reasons for this:
- Sales has gotten a few leads that they didn't feel were qualified enough and they are now disregarding them
- Nobody holds the sales team accountable for providing feedback on the leads they have received
- The organization has not come up with a universal definition of what a "qualified" lead is
- The sales leads that were received did not have an immediate timeframe and ended up not being nurtured appropriately
I want to talk more about each of these and some ways to ensure that they don't happen within your sales organization.
Sales has gotten a few leads that they didn't feel were qualified enough and they are now disregarding all leads from that source*
I equate this to trying out a new trendy restaurant in town and ending up having a terrible meal. You might think that you ordered the wrong item and try out the restaurant again - with the same disappointing outcome. You might even give the restaurant one last try - thinking that your server was to blame. If you are still less then thrilled you will most likely never go back. Even if your friends try to convince you that it's the next Nobu you are going to have a negative image of the restaurant. The same goes for getting a few leads in a row that aren't qualified or don't go anywhere. Even if your colleagues have gotten leads they are raving about you will view the lead source as ineffective and will not prioritize leads from this source - perhaps disregarding them all together.
A sales rep will often times stop proactively following up on leads after the 4th or 5th "unqualified" lead that they receive. The rep has to feel excited about the lead and motivated to follow-up in a timely manner. If, in their attempt to engage with the prospect, they realize that there really is no level of interest or are blown off all together, they will begin to distrust the source of the lead.
In order to mitigate this situation from happening to your sales team, it is imperative that the focus is on the quality of the leads being passed and not the quantity. An open line of communication between marketing and sales must be established so that marketing can understand what made a lead unqualified and work to tighten up the qualification parameters.
My Business Development Reps will often times listen in (as a silent participant) on the first few calls that they schedule for a client's sales rep. I have found that this gives the BDR visibility into any changes that should be made to the qualification process and helps them to understand how the sales reps judge what is and isn't a qualified sales opportunity. It also makes the sales reps feel engaged in our process and comfortable communicating with us directly should they have any questions regarding one of our leads. This provides a mechanism for us to gauge feedback and make sure the sales reps are accountable for following up on the leads that we pass.
I will be talking more about accountability and feedback next week, so be sure to come back!