Lead management: only successful with close cooperation between sales and marketing

Working against each other instead of with each other: unfortunately, this is the norm in many companies. This has to do with territorial thinking, misunderstood responsibilities, incorrectly set up incentive programs and a lack of exchange between the individual divisions. However, demarcation strategies are incompatible with a networked business world: for the customer, a company must function as a single entity. They are not interested in responsibilities and coordination problems. Whether a solution comes from service, marketing, the online team or the sales department is ultimately irrelevant to them. The main thing is that it works reliably and smoothly synchronized at all touchpoints, but within the company, customer-relevant activities usually fall apart in an uncoordinated manner. Advertising here, the call center there, sales there. Such a fragmentation of tasks is disastrous from the customer's point of view: many things are done twice, some are not done at all and most are done to varying degrees of quality. And the right hand often doesn't know what the left hand is doing.

The tiresome trench warfare between sales and marketing

The trench warfare between sales and marketing is legendary. It's often about who "owns" the customer. Of course, this is also about leads. If no deals are closed, then the prospective customer addresses that were obtained by marketing were simply garbage, says sales, while marketing is angry because the new leads were generated with a lot of effort and this is "once again" not appreciated by sales. In addition, it is suspected that the sales department is not taking "proper" care of the leads handed over. Or, even worse: internal disputes are carried out on the backs of the customers: "I would love to, but unfortunately our structures don't allow it." Irritated or angry, the prospective customer, quite understandably, leaves. And he tells everyone online why this is the case.

Understanding purchasing processes: Customers buy differently today

If marketing passes on unqualified leads to sales, nobody should be surprised that sales success fails to materialize. Nowadays, people no longer want to be pushed onto them by customer hunters and product explainers. Instead, they inform themselves in advance. Up to 95 percent of all pre-purchase decisions are now made on the web, and ideally suitable content that is played out with the help of automated processes prepares the customer for a purchase. In this case, we speak of "nurturing". At the best possible time, the customer is forwarded directly to the online store. Or the sales department takes over to initiate a telephone or face-to-face sales call. Someone who has already dealt with a specific topic and received detailed information via appropriately displayed content will be much more receptive to a sales contact than someone who is just starting to research the topic. The first prospect is "ripe" for the deal, whereas the second is not yet.

Nurturing: making the new lead management a success

"Nurturn" means to nourish or enrich. In other words, a prospective customer is provided with relevant, consecutive information at the right place and at the right time in order to lead them step by step towards a purchase decision, by developing customer journeys, specifying touchpoints and constructing buyer personas. Suitable pieces of content are then designed for each of these. For example in B2B: the purchasing manager needs different information than the production manager or IT. Someone who downloads a tender form is in a different phase of the decision-making process than someone who initially just wants some general information, and unsuitable leads must be sorted out in advance so that they do not even reach the sales department. This applies, for example, to competitors who request documents and also to consultants who want to access content. Customer data and preliminary information that the sales department needs for its work can be queried and optimally enriched during the nurturing process.

The common approach to lead management

For lead management to bear rich fruit, all necessary measures must be discussed in a goal-oriented manner and defined in a joint plan:- the phases in the buying process and the definition of the lead stages,- the prospect development process, i.e. lead nurturing,- prospect qualification and the lead scoring model,- the parameters for the handover from marketing to sales,- the material that sales needs from marketing,- the feedback from sales to marketing,- the interaction between marketing automation and the CRM system,- the key figures for measuring results and success.These points are documented in a so-called Service Level Agreement (SLA), which defines common processes and responsibilities. How this all works well in detail is explained in "Marketing automation for existing customers".The book on the subjectAnne M. Schüller, Norbert SchusterMarketing automation for existing customers:Up-selling, cross-selling, referral marketingMore sales with the watering hole strategyHaufe Verlag 2017, 280 pages, €39.95ISBN: 978-3-648-09542-3* Anne M. Schüller is a management thinker, keynote speaker, multiple award-winning bestselling author and business coach. With a degree in business administration, she is a leading expert in touchpoint management and customer-focused corporate management. She is one of the most sought-after speakers in the German-speaking world. In 2015, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the German Speakers Association for her life's work. She was named Top Voice 2017 by the business network LinkedIn. Her clients include the business elite. Her Touchpoint Institute trains certified touchpoint managers.