In part one of this series we outlined how to map the client journey and in part two it was about how to best use the technology and data tools at your fingertips. So, you have generated a bunch of leads for your sales team to speak to. Job done, right?
Not quite…
The way these leads are handled after the marketing team has generated and nurtured them is often an afterthought, but it shouldn’t be. After all, what’s the value in generating leads for the business if they aren’t then qualified by sales and converted into new business?
Agreeing a handoff process
As with deciding on a lead scoring model, the handoff process between marketing and sales should be agreed between the parties involved.
There are some key questions to be answered, including these:
- Once a lead reaches the given score ‘threshold’, how long will the sales team have to review that lead to qualify them and/or contact to them?
- How exactly will sales be notified the score threshold has been reached for a particular lead?
- Will marketing vet the leads before they’re handed over to sales?
- How will marketing know how many leads were successfully qualified by sales vs those that were either rejected or sent back to marketing to continue nurturing?
- Will leads be assigned to individual members of the sales team?
- How will marketing be notified of the leads that are converted into clients?
- And how will marketing measure the new revenue or AUM that they contributed to?
All of these questions should be discussed and the answers defined ahead of the campaign. Then, this entire process should be documented.
Technology’s role in business process
Depending on the sophistication of your technology, the handoff process and associated reporting can either be quite painless or painfully manual.
Consider the following:
- Will the handoff be automatic once a lead reaches the score threshold? Or will someone need to manually pull a list of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and pass these to the sales team?
- If a lead should be assigned to a particular individual within the sales team, can the process be automated?
- Will the tech enable the sales team to see every interaction a lead has had with the firm before they reach out for a sales conversation?
- How will marketing know the proportion of MQLs that the sales team accepts vs rejects?
- Of those that were rejected, how will marketing know which converted?
Reporting
While your tech and data may be set up to record all the interactions a lead has with your firm, and specifically your lead generation campaign, that data won’t be of much use if it isn’t proactively studied.
Automating reports for different stakeholders is a great starting point to ensuring the data doesn’t stay buried in your analytics platforms.
Consider automating reports with data points such as:
- MQLs generated by the campaign
- MQLs accepted or rejected by the sales team
- Average time between a lead reaching their score threshold and a salesperson contacting them
- Percentage of sales-accepted-leads (SALs) who are converted into clients
- Time taken to convert an SAL into a client
- Average AUM or revenue a converted SAL represents
It’s also important to create a feedback loop between sales and marketing. Ensure you have a forum where you’re able to discuss opportunities to improve campaigns, processes and reporting.
Ensure you get feedback on the lead scoring approach – do any interactions need to be up- or down-weighted? Are leads coming across too early or too late?
What next
After reading this three-part series you’re hopefully feeling ready to embark on your first lead generation campaign. If you think you could benefit from our experience, get in touch here to see how we can help.