For any sales-focused business, the top of the sales funnel can often be the one area that causes the most ‘discussion’ among sales teams and senior execs.
When the sales are converting at the bottom of the funnel, everyone is happy. Often, a sales team’s focus is on conversion from quote to contract, quite naturally, as bonuses and success are measured on revenue realised. But what tends to happen is the top of the funnel loses focus. UNTIL the bottom section dries up or lags.
SUDDENLY the focus is back up the funnel ‘WHERE ARE THE LEADS COMING FROM?’ Sales look at Marketing; Marketing looks at Sales, and Sales looks at Sales.
Unless there is continued and equal prominence on the whole sales funnel, then there is inevitably a cycle of feast and famine. Consistent, high-quality lead generation is as important to the sales process as the ink (or digital signature) on the contact.
Yet Lead Generation is the one part of the sales process that is less ‘glamorous’. It can be a bit of a dirty word(s). Marketing is charged with generating ‘marketing quailed leads’ (MQLs), and Sales want ‘sales qualified leads’ (SQLs). And the difference between the two is often where friction between sales and marketing can manifest. Often, the significant difference between the two lead types is ‘QUALIFICATION’.
Qualification is perhaps the single most important aspect of the lead generation process. Get it right, and your leads stand a chance of converting downstream. Get it wrong, and lead generation is simply a total waste of money, energy and resource. Qualification is the difference between quality, sustainable, powerful lead generation and crappy ‘stack it high, sell it cheap’ telemarketing. One is an ongoing driver of sustainable, dialable revenue growth, the other, well, it gives lead generation a bad name.
If your lead generation team isn’t asking the right questions, then they won’t feed the sales funnel with good quality opportunities. Simple as that. If you want to get your sales moving and need leads that convert into meetings, and meetings that convert into sales, it’s time to talk to CONVERTA.
CONVERTA is a specialist lead generation agency that operates in the high-value manufacturing, energy, automotive, professional services and logistics sectors. Our clients include Shell, IVECO, Linde, Lotus, and Morgan. The average length of our client relationships is over 5 years.
We help our clients Create More and Convert More.