“What do you call a banana that has no peel?”
B2B Marketing, Lead Generation, Sales Prospecting Add comments………yummy mush!
I have found that when we remove the “peel” and take a look at the process that a marketing organization uses as it approaches opportunity generation, we find very good content with a number of things that work well, but a finished product that does not appeal to the sales organization and ultimately feed the success goals of the organization as a whole.
Sorry for the analogy, but I find it easier to put it into this framework.
A number of my clients find that they are very adept at creating messaging, product awareness, interest levels, Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), etc. (the potassium/fiber/taste of the banana) but the process that these are transitioned to sales (further qualification to a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)) or the timing of that transition is something that causes a breakdown. (Lack of a peel to hold it all together into a nice appealing form) – does the analogy make sense now?
What I have discussed and worked closely with my clients on in a number of these cases, which has proven critical, is not only a clear definition of what Sales is looking for in a Sales Qualified Lead from Marketing but a feedback process that allows for the continued improvement of the quality of that MQL and transition of an MQL to SQL.
Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss specific examples of different feedback processes that I have found effective.
“My Two Cents”
September 19th, 2009 at 12:19 am
[...] recently wrote on one of the topics that the poll results highlighted – the importance of a closed loop feedback process while running an opportunity generation program. I could not agree more with how critical a feedback process is for both the constant improvement [...]