Demand Generation Machine

Online leads through white paper downloads, online registrations and forms are among the most popular lead generation tools used by marketers today. Strangely, salespeople are not always thrilled when they get a big list of online leads to pursue and its not surprising given how many online leads turn out unqualified prospects or leads which are not really in the buying stage as yet. With the age old question on how much marketing has to do and where sales takes over there is a gap in the process which could make both of them happy with the results. Lead qualification.

When most of these leads come through online channels, they sit and collect for a while till they are sent to sales. By simply having a qualification process wherein the lead is contacted and qualified its possible to understand is it really a lead or just a registration? Is it really sales-ready or does it need to be put back into the nurturing cycle? Qualified leads are marked and passed onto sales, leads which need nurturing are put back into the nurturing process and followed up while unqualified leads are dropped from the cycle. This is usually the gap in the process which costs time & quicker results. While who should do this is still debatable, if you don’t have an inside sales or pre sales team, then have someone else qualify & filter your online leads because the fact is someone needs to!