Give Your Leads a Regular Check-Up

by on 10 September, 2009 - 21:45

Would your leads get a good bill of health? Marketers need to give their leads a regular check-up to ensure continued sales success. Review this short list to see if your leads would pass a quick health review or if they would be sent to critical care. 

What is the source of most of your leads? Does it match where you are having the most sales success?
Look at the last quarter or six months of new leads by source and compare these to the lead source of the deals you are winning. Do these match up? 

• If they answer is yes, it's a sign of a healthy list. 
• If not, and your leads are coming from places that don't typically yield positive results, your list may not generate sales in future quarters. 

Has your flow of leads changed?
Look at the last year by month to see if the number of incoming leads has changed. 

• If this hasn’t changed or if they have increased this is good news. 
• A decrease may be cause for concern, especially if your conversions from lead to opportunity have not increased to compensate. 

Do your leads match your target market?
Lead count does not necessarily indicate sales success, especially if your leads aren't ones who will eventually purchase your product. Look for common traits between current customers to identify characteristics of potential ones. Do your incoming leads have these same traits? 

• If they do match up then you are in good shape. 
• If not, this may mean trouble and you should try to adjust your lead generation practices to attract more of these target prospects.

Where do you acquire your leads?
Leads that are not opted-in or are acquired from co-marketing opportunities are often less successful then ones that are generated from calls to your sales team or who opt-in through your website. An example of this is list purchases, lists from trade shows or other events where the lists are shared between many and are easily acquired by your competitors. 

• If you are generating your leads from opted-in source not shared by others your leads are likely in good health.
• If not, you should help your lead health by ensuring a healthy mix of lead sources. Also, try to generate the majority of your leads from sources where the leads are not shared. 

How often do you ‘talk’ to your leads?
The frequency in which you engage with your leads is correlated with the chance of a sale. For example, calling a lead too much may frustrate the prospect and not calling them may cause them to forget about your brand. 

• If you are staying in touch with lead nurturing and adjusting your sales interaction based on campaign influence you are in good shape.
• If your sales reps contact leads until they block your number or if your sales email inbox is ignored and leads are just kept in a big database without regular contact your lead generation efforts may be wasted. 

Keep in mind that these are just symptoms, and like any diagnosis one symptom alone may not give you the answers you need. By regularly checking the health of your leads you will be able to identify that your leads may not be well long before they end up in the ICU allowing you to adjust your lead management practices before it’s too late. 

Original Post: http://blog.marketo.com/blog/2009/09/give-your-leads-a-regular-check-up.html