Stop asking for more sales leads

OK, times are tough, sales are slowing, and management are worried. Just at that time when the marketing budget is being cut, sales are demanding more sales leads. Their theory is that if they have twice as many leads they will close (almost) twice as many sales. Good theory, but of course, completely wrong.

Firstly, unless you are a miniscule company, you cannot simply double the number of leads you produce. The law of diminishing returns comes into effect in the marcom department and your cost per lead is likely to increase unless your brand awareness can be grown at the same rate (tough for a small or mid-size company). Doubling the marcom spend will not double the number of leads you produce. Once those extra leads reach sales it will become clear that the extra leads are not always of the same quality as those produced before the budget was doubled overnight. Because you have worked hard to reach the outer limits of your target market and your brand awareness and credibility is now being stretched, sales will find themselves having to cherry pick those leads they feel are closable. Result; sales will not increase as forecast.

A much better way to grow sales (at anytime, not just during a downturn) is to look at the sales cycle from beginning to end and make sure marketing fully supports each step of the sale. Most complex sales (sales that go through multiple stages and involve multiple decision makers and influencers) require a very tight integration between the sales and marketing functions within an organization if close rates are to be optimised.

How many companies still let sales people produce their own presentation materials? How many companies still allow sales folks to write their own sales proposals? How many sales folks deliver their own demonstration to their own script? The answer is far too many. By getting sales and marketing more tightly interlocked, sales will be have access to higher quality materials that are on message and work to support each stage of the sale. The brand can be developed to deliver credibility at each part of the sale giving the customer the comfort they need to move onto the next stage.

Instead of asking for more leads, companies need to close more of those they already have. Improve sales performance by tightening the link between sales and marketing, not by asking for more sales leads.