How Many Leads are Enough?

How to Implement Lead Goals to End the Debate between Sales & Marketing

As a marketing professional, how many times have you heard someone from the sales group say this: “We could hit our quotas if we had enough leads.”
 
Or conversely, as a sales executive, how many times have you heard some derivation of this statement from your marketing counterparts: “We just had a ton of people attend our last Webinar/read our newsletter/visit our booth at the tradeshow, what happened with those leads?”
 
If you have been in the middle of this debate—as most of us in marketing and sales have—you know the frustration that results from both ends of the argument. But let’s be honest; sales will always claim that there are not enough leads, and marketing often confuses leads with people that downloaded an article, attended a Webinar or passed by the booth at a trade show, but they really have no interest in your product. So how can we all get on the same page and ensure that both sides are accountable and focused on the real goal–making sure the business is hitting revenue targets. Here is a strategy that I’ve been using for several years that will work for almost everyone. I’m going to talk about a way to agree on the number of leads that are required every quarter for the sales team to stop complaining (and it will actually be attainable). Many marketers I talk to don’t like this subject. Sorry, but it’s time for a wake-up call. If you don’t like the idea of being accountable for leads you are likely to be out of work soon. Co-setting lead goals with the sales team is easier than you might think and likely to help distinguish yourself as a positive agent for change. The sales team will also appreciate your sincerity and maybe, if you are lucky, they might even start to respect your marketing efforts.
 
I’m going to break this up into sections—partly because this topic is too big for one blog—but mostly because historically I have not been diligent about blogging and this is my transparent way of being lazy.

Here are the steps that I will cover:

> Defining Leads and Implementing Lead Scoring
> Creating Actionable Data that Ensures Lead Generation Success
> Using Historical Data to Gain Consensus on Leads Required
> Measuring, Managing and Making Lead Goals Work

Feel free to join the conversation by posting a comment.  I’d love to hear from others that have implemented similar systems and how they have worked.