“Closing the Loop” with Sales and Other Departments
May 2nd, 2007 | Melissa MarronI have attended hundreds of B2B marketing campaign performance presentations and asked numerous clients about their lead nurturing and lead conversion strategies. Some clients don’t have the infrastructure in place to map the ROI on leads delivered and others who do, don’t have complete confidence in metrics delivered. Plus, a lot of the metrics presented are more subjective than objective. As a marketer, what is the best way you can become more confident in your lead management system besides implementing the newest software?
If you do a search on the topic “closed loop lead management”, the results are typically focused on technology solutions or tools that can be used to implement a lead management strategy. But as Brian Carroll mentioned in a recent blog post, it isn’t only the tools that make a closed loop lead marketing successful. It’s the people and the strategy. I completely agree.
I agree that a lot of success comes from “closing the loop” with the sales team. Offering them ownership in developing the lead management strategy will offer them vested interest in making the process a success. But at the same time, we need to remember that sales isn’t the only department who touch leads. If you include your lead gen partners/publishers in the development of your strategy/process, they can offer recommendations based on past experiences and possibly offer seamless lead delivery options that can help shorten the sales cycle. In addition, channel and telesales groups can offer a unique perspective that your main sales team might not have line of sight into. And finally, bringing in the expertise of your technical team will not only help with improving efficiencies, but it will also give them a stakeholder role.
Do you agree, as marketers, that managing a group of internal stakeholders will offer a more successful closed loop lead management system in the end?
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:02 pm
I do agree with you. Involving more people who have a vested interest in the lead will help create better tracking and lead management results.
It starts with marketing/lead gen and the sales team collaborating on what a qualified lead is and then making sure the handoff is timely and seamless. The sales manager has it on his shoulders to provide the feedback necessary to track the progress and success of the campaigns.
Brian made a good point when he said it’s not only the tools but the people and the strategy that make the difference. Even with the most advanced software tools, you only get out of the system what you put into it.
May 7th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Wow..I could not agree more. However involving too many people can also create confusion and cloud the issues. In addition, some stakeholders need more time to understand the importance of info and what can actually be interpreted from it.