If your biggest problem is ‘more leads,’ you might be chasing the wrong ones.
Invariably, when I ask CEO’s and CRO’s about their biggest sales challenge, the top answer isn’t accelerating sales rep ramp up or recruiting talent, but “more leads.”
When I then ask about their current lead flow, conversion rates from leads to opportunities and closes, as well as the percentage of new opportunities that come from inbound inquiries versus outbound marketing, I get blank looks and indignant responses.
My next question is, “If the inbound leads are so bad, why don’t you do more outbound lead generation?” Ironically, the conversion rate of outbound lead generation is far better than that of inbound, which begs the question, “Are inbound leads even leads at all?”
The next dilemma is which comes first: more leads or implementing a business case-led sales process?
Further, without a strong sales process, getting leads without an effective way of qualifying those leads squanders potential opportunities. Business Development Reps (BDR’s) generally are interested (and often goaled) in setting appointments for sales reps versus actually qualifying the inquiry based on a strawman business case.
Vetting leads with a business case would either quickly disqualify the lead or verify that the lead is worthy of a sales rep of spending time on them. That said, why be so dependent on inbound inquiries, when it is widely accepted that outbound leads are of higher quality?
A healthier mix is to improve outbound lead generation so that it accounts for at least 50% of new leads. Outbound lead generation (either by Marketing, sales reps, or BDR’s) should be better qualified, since we can control the message. Well executed outbound lead generation focuses on the potential business value our product can generate.
If your SaaS organization struggles to generate qualified leads and convert them to closed bookings, go to www.moicpartners.com to test Pipeline Grader as a mechanism to generate higher quality leads, vet them based on the expected delivered business value and close more and larger deals.
