TheLead MachinePain Points of Sales Management and How to Overcome Them

Nikolaus Kimla

Email: n.kimla@pipelinersales.comWebsite: www.pipelinersales.com

CEO at Pipelinersales Inc.

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Changes in Lead Generation and ManagementGoing back 10 years, leads were a considerably different game. You obtained leads for people that might be interested in your product or service, and followed them up. Usually your prospects knew relatively little about your products, and relied on you

to provide them the information.

Changes in Lead Generation and Management

Because information on your product or service is now so freely available online—along with that of your competitors—it is very easy for potential buyers to compare products.

60 to 70 percent of the decision making in B2B sales is made before the decision maker approaches the supplier.

Changes in Lead Generation and Management

These changes don't mean that all of the old ways for obtaining leads and selling are obsolete—many certainly still work. They just need to be adjusted to take the new buyer role into account.

The New Industry

This radical change has given life to marketing automation companies such as HubSpot and Marketo—and has helped create an entire new industry: Inbound marketing. Along with Inbound marketing came a whole new universe, that of social media.

In Inbound Marketing, the prospects are qualifying you first, instead of the other way around.

Sticking to SaaSSince my company is in the SaaS business, as are many of our prospects and

clients, we'll stick to SaaS and how a successful lead machine operatesin that industry.

Sticking to SaaS

In SaaS, the web site is central to everything. Much like the sun is central to the solar system, everything revolves around that web site and feeds into it.

All of the “orbiting” elements—such as Google AdWords, banner ads, articles, blogs, press releases, product reviews, white papers, and many more—feed leads back to the web site. All of these elements must convince seekers of your type of solution that yours is at least one they should check out.

Sticking to SaaS

Taking care of all of these inbound channels, providing them content and making sure they are current and performing, is considerable work,and is never-ending.

The New Sales Model

One leading sales company demonstrates how Inbound marketing works organizationally:

● Marketing executes campaigns, which bring in marketing-qualified leads

● Sales Development Reps further qualify the leads for sales, and set up meetings for account executives

● Account Executives close orders● The Customer Success Manager handles customers after

they have purchased, makes sure they're happy and interested in buying more of your product line

Different Peoplefor Different FunctionsBack in 1776, Scottish economist Adam Smith observed that division of labor would increase productivity. Today we still see this observation in action: It takes completely different people with different skillsets to perform inbound and outbound lead generation.

Why So Important?

I strongly believe if you have a predictable lead generation machine, and enough leads, you can practically screw up everything else, and you will still do well. You will never run out of business.

Said another way, you can have the best-built rocket in the world. But without the right rocket fuel, it will never leave the ground, let alone connect with a space station. Your sales force is the rocket. Leads are their rocket fuel—and without them, they will get nowhere.

So make sure you've got your lead machine in working order. Because unlike

other factors—yes, folks, this isrocket science!

NEXT SLIDESHARE IN THIS SERIES: Keeping That Customer—It’s Called

Account Management

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