A recent survey revealed that only 40% of B2B technology marketers have a closed-loop process for tracking leads from inquiry to close. With all of the tools available, one would think that this would be a completely buttoned-up process for most technology marketers. Closing the loop is critical to ensuring that not only your company is following up with inquiries, but also helps you allocate your hard earned marketing budget on the best performing programs.
How do you get there? Here are 5 questions you must be able to answer before you start your quest to close the loop:
1. What are the sources for all of your inquiries? Sit down and think of all the possible sources for an inquiry. Make sure to consider all online and offline points of entry.
2. What happens to these inquires? How are they distributed? Added to an Excel file? Sent to a salesperson via an email? If you find yourself stuck here, you are not alone. This may be early in the process, but this is where I see most closed loop processes break down. There is an inconsistent flow of data, through various channels, without a central point of record.
3. What do you want to track/measure? You should consider defining some basic metrics for success, and using those as a standard measure across the enterprise. Here are a few examples for measuring ROI:
a. Cost per inquiry – What is the cost per raw inquiry?
b. Cost per lead – What is the cost per qualified lead?
c. Cost of marketing – What is the cost per opportunity created?
d. Acquisition cost – What is the cost per deal closed?
4. Based on what you want to track, are you capturing the right data? Furthermore, is that data standardized to make reporting easier? Standardize every point of data input. From web forms to manual data entry, make sure the data is input consistently and as completely as possible.
5. Do you have an in-house tool that can help you centralize and manage this process? Can you easily track lead flow from inception, to pipeline, to close? I’m not talking about Excel spreadsheets – you need something much more robust. Seriously consider implementing a CRM system that can help you manage the process.
About the Author:
Kirk Crenshaw is CEO of RevCatalyst, a marketing services company focused on helping growing B2B companies develop, plan, and implement a high quality lead generation operation that sets your sales organization up for success. For more information, visit www.revcatalyst.com or contact Kirk at kirk@revcatalyst.com or via phone at 415.887.7649.
1 comment:
One of the most overlooked source of profitable revenue growth is company's existing customer base. Many business are very focused on prospecting and have well-defined plans to acquire new customers. While this is very important, it is equally important to have a strong plan in place to retain and grow your existing customers, Unfortunately very few companies have a comprehensive current customer growth strategy that is communicated, monitored, and enthusiastically embraced by the entire organization.
Appending is a solutions which in concentrated on working with your existing in-house database and appending or adding the missing information which means business or new sales.
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Appending is a process of working with your existing incomplete in-house database
Check the following types of appending solutions which are customized to your needs. Appending is a NEW Revolution in maximizing your sales
Email appending - Appending missing emails for existing contacts
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Target appending - Appending contacts based on your specific job title needs
Data appending - Appending any missing information other than emails like name, company name, job title, telephone numbers, addresses, web addresses etc.
Reverse appending - Appending other contact details like name, company name, job title, telephone numbers, addresses, web addresses etc. on the basis of the email addresses.
Cloning your best customers / Customer Profiling: You may have heard of the 80/20 rule - 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clients, the Pareto principle. So you need a way to get more of these ideal clients. And the best way to do that is by selecting the top 20% clients and finding out what they all share in common (Industry, Employee Size, Position, Sales etc.).
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