Great B2B Lead Generation Webcast

Living life in a Web 2.0 world is very convenient! I just finished viewing the on demand webcast by Brian J. Carroll “How to Precisely Define a ‘Lead’ Before Marketing Begins.” You can listen to it yourself here. Some interesting info from the presentation:

5 Reasons for Lead Generation Failure
1. Most inquiries are not leads!
2. Leads aren’t qualified and prioritized
3. Sales organization isn’t held accountable
4. The baton gets dropped during hand off
5. Closed loop process is missing

Ideal Customer Profile Questions to Ask
-Who do we serve?
-What problem do they face?
-What do we enable them to do?
-What does that mean to them?

Map Out Trigger Events – Keep on top of market opportunities using tools like Google News Alert and Technorati to build the most relevant lists NOT the just the largest.

#1 Priority for Marketers – Lead Generation and Management (nurturing and cultivation)

Lead Nurturing – What are the 5-7 questions that Marketing needs to ask to make sure a lead is ready to be handed off to sales. The leads that have successfully answered those questions should then be defined as a HOT Lead.

Lead Grading with Shared Language-Marketing and Sales needs to use the same language to define a lead. Define a lead then score.

9 Ways to Ensure Sales Follow Up
1. Get buy in from sales team on program
2. Provide qualification information for each sales lead
3. Qualify and distribute sales ready leads immediately
4. Communicate hand off to sales person
5. If lead not followed up it will be pulled/reassigned
6. Regularly close the loop
7. What gets measured gets done
8. Sales management must audit and track rep follow-up
9. Make compensation depend on sales follow-up

Marketing To-Do List
Develop universal lead definition with sales team
Develop internal lead qualification process
Pass only qualified leads to sales team
Provide regular reports on the number of prospects available (by segment, by market, etc.)
Get input from sales on target companies and names
Get sales team input to co-develop campaigns
Connect sales and marketing data in CRM
Regular close the loop meetings

Sales To-Do List
Develop universal lead definition with marketing team
Provide marketing target companies and names
Pass back leads that are not active in your active pipeline
Regularly update lead records in your database/CRM!
Define how you will close the loop with the marketing team
Provide feedback to marketing regularly on your leads
Develop a lead nurturing plan (with marketing)
Regular close the loop meetings

Benefits of Universal Lead Definition
Higher qualified, sales-ready leads
Sales force has less frustration
Increased sales effectiveness
Better funnel management
More accurate and consistent ROI metrics

I just ordered his new book Lead Generation for the Complex Sale and will give you a review soon. Also, I just added his blog to my bloglines feed.

I hope you take the time to check it out too!