Sales Modeling

An earlier post (December 5, 2009) suggested “referral leads” from your best customers can be your best leads.  How do you generate leads; who receives them, who follows up on them, and what is your organization’s overall lead distribution process?

These questions highlight critical alignment or lack thereof between Sales and Marketing, but we’ll expound on that topic in a future post.  We’ll also shelve the aspect and importance of “lead qualification” for a later date.  However, I cannot utter “leads” without a mention of the best “sales” movie ever, Glengarry Glen Ross…“I need the good leads!”

Back on topic, lead distribution and its importance is often under-estimated.  Does your organization consider immediacy of response?  I humbly submit it goes to “first impression” and everybody knows what that means.  Anecdotally, I have seen timely response typically begets a positive reaction; whereas a molasses-like response is often associated with lackluster impression.  It isn’t all about response-times; having the wrong person follow up could, would and should frustrate the prospect.  So, how do you ensure the right person follows up on the right lead?

Surprisingly, many organizations fail to document lead allocation workflow.  It’s a critical process and will translate into quantifiable value.  Analyze your process and compile all your lead sources; enable self-qualification (if possible) by prospects; map and distribute leads by roles, responsibilities and subject-matter-expertise.  Superfluous cycles and leakage related to lead management can be extremely costly!