Can it be that 72.4% of direct marketers have no marketing dashboard or performance measurement system? So says a new survey by the CMO Council. While general purpose marketers (those with broad responsibility, not just direct marketing) at big companies probably have and can afford these systems, I would guess that the vast majority of small-to-medium sized businesses share the plight of the direct marketers in the survey. Scarier still, 36.1% have no formal system for evaluating and scoring leads — a recipe for marketing malnutrition that ultimately leads to an anemic opportunity pipeline.

Having a systematic approach to lead generation is simply too important to a business’ long-term health to be put off by the seeming enormity of the task and it need not be an expensive endeavor — especially if you’re chasing quality and not volume (although encountering both is a happy problem to have). Assuming you’ve already done your homework and know your value proposition and understand who your customers are, you can get a good deal closer to a “formal” system to evaluate leads by creating a basic lead scorecard. The lead scorecard can always be embellished, dumped into databases and made sexier later, but for starters keep it simple so it’s easy to use every day.



Do this part right and not only will you have a better sense of how well your marketing initiatives are driving qualified leads (you are already tracking qualified vs. unqualified leads, right?), but your sales people will love the Marketing Department for sending them leads primed and ready to follow up on — and that’s a pill just about any marketer can swallow.

Sources:

Survey: “Select & Connect: Strategies for Targeted Acquisition and Retention.” CMO Council. April 2006.

1 Comments:

 Buzzoodle Ron, at 10:56 PM, June 20, 2006  

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