If you’re finding that programs aren’t yielding the expected results, its possible a critical success factor is missing. Here are five ideas to optimize the capture, management and conversion of your new leads or what we prefer to say new opportunities.

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We’re all looking for ways to accelerate the sales cycle. A key part of Marketing is to add value by aligning our internal processes to the customer buying process.  Typically B2B customers are trying to solve a business problem. As a marketers you have several goals to support your customers’ journey:

• Educate buyers on the problem and how your solution solves the problem better and differently.
• Aid them with their investigation and help them narrow their solution choices.
• Persuade your customers and prospects you are the best option.
• Motivate them to complete the consideration and consumption phases.
• Transform your customers and prospects into loyal advocates.

Each of these connects to aspect of your customers journey and creates an opportunity to move a potential buyer forward in their buying process. Marketing owns moving customers and prospects from one stage to the next. Management of later stages in the process reduces sales cycle time and increases close, share of wallet, and referral rates.

Five Ideas to Optimize the Lead Conversion

Incorporate these five ideas into your capture, management and conversion efforts:

1. Design capture-forms carefully and create a scoring methodology. Test forms to help identify the reasons people might not complete the form. Keep your qualifying attribute fields to a minimum.  Acquire the information you need to determine how to disposition the contact or suspect.
2. Set up tracking methods and conduct the response analysis for all marketing campaigns and programs. Tracking should be real-time so you can instantly see response results and make any needed campaign adjustments on the fly. What should you track? We suggest the following at a minimum:
   • The quality of each captured lead
   • The breakdown of leads attributable to each component of the campaign
   • Effectiveness of the list, offer, creative and other test cell elements within each campaign component
   • The breakdown of lead quality by sale region and individual sales rep
   • Total contact history
   • The productivity of sales reps cultivating the leads
3. Understand the next incremental behavior that needs to be exhibited. Capture information needed to make that possible. If the next incremental behavior involves asking them to opt-in for an upcoming program, then be sure this key piece of information is captured; otherwise the opportunity will come to a screeching halt.
4. Collaborate with Sales. Revenue is at stake and in this economy we need to put finger pointing aside and work together on the common goals – survival, growth and profit. Both sales and marketing must jointly assume responsibility for lead qualification and development.
5. Decide on your follow-up plan in advance. Have a cultivation plan in place at the start. This will make a big difference in how quickly suspects can be converted to prospects. This seems obvious, but it’s surprising how often this step is overlooked.

Read Don’t Waste Your Bullets: Customer Engagement To Accelerate Revenue And Improve Alignment to learn more about optimizing conversion.

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