The ultimate goal of business is to grow in revenue. A main component in that is gaining new customers, so marketers spend both money and resources to educate prospects about why their company’s products and services are the best out there. The problem is that most of the time, people seeing your ads or reading your whitepapers and press releases aren’t entirely ready to commit.

Customers need guidance, encouragement. The application in your case study is really interesting, but they may not have that specific application right now. The sales cycle has changed in recent years, not just with the digital revolution allowing more people to access information in new ways, but also with how we understand the buyer’s journey . The guidance potential buyers need has changed, and marketing needs to change with it.

Where the Breakdown Occurs

Too often, leads generated are quickly passed on to sales without a second thought about whether or not all critical data has been obtained. A salesperson may get incomplete information or a contact that isn’t ready to move to the sales-side of the deal, so the customer journey stops cold. How do we move on from here? It’s these situations that expose the gap that exists between broad marketing techniques and closing a sale.

When you generate leads, you’ve met your marketing communications goal by targeting the right audience and gaining interest, but you aren’t quite ready for the sales team to take over and the prospect may not be ready to take the next step. You’re stuck in the “in-between” where there isn’t one specific person responsible for the next phase.

How can you turn an inquisitive reader into a real buyer? By employing a solid nurture program that meets the prospect at different stages of the journey, gathering information for your sales team, while facilitating a deeper relationship between the prospect and your company.

How to Improve Cooperation

Fortunately, this grey area of lead management can be easily overcome with some tried-and-true steps to follow. Lead management can educate buyers, help you understand your customers’ needs and ultimately generate revenue when a comprehensive and effective strategy is used.

These simple steps can turn that weak link into one of your most effective strategies by coordinating efforts between the marketing and sales teams.

1.  Capture

Start taking names! It sounds so obvious, but it’s often overlooked. If you’re paying for advertising positions, especially online, you should know who is seeing the ad, whitepaper, e-newsletter or other medium you’re using.

While it varies significantly from company to company, chances are the publications have most of the raw data you’re looking for. This can range from the number of impressions or click-throughs to geographic and demographic data or be as detailed as company name, position, contact name and contact information.

Employ gated content on your owned media sites and utilize paid media tools that gather this information as part of the advertising program or can at least provide reputable statistics and help lead prospects to your own gated content..

2.  Score

First, determine what criteria are necessary in a prospect before they should be given a sales pitch:

• Should they have certain decision-making responsibilities or work for a specific industry?
• Does their company fit your business profile?
• Where are they coming from and what content do you have available at that source?
• Have they downloaded certain types of content pertaining to a specific product or technology you offer?

Once you know the base level for a qualified lead, you need to monitor your data to look for trends. Find the person, company or market niche that continually opens your email blasts or goes to your website for follow up information. Update your information until the prospect has reached your base level.

3.  Nurture

Build a relationship with prospects that aren’t quite at the optimum level for a sale yet by providing educationally focused materials that solve problems or provide insights to industry trends and hot buttons. Even if they aren’t ready to buy from you now, becoming a trusted resource will increase your chances of them seeking you out later.

Don’t just rehash your ads, but rather send personalized (and most importantly!) useful information. Showcase your expertise and the value you can bring to the table when a purchasing relationship unfolds.

4.  Give

Having the lead ready for a sales call doesn’t make marketing irrelevant. The sales team can use the same information you tracked to determine if the prospect was ready for a sales call to establish their own approach. Make sure you give them this information so they don’t call a contact about product X when you know they showed more interest in technology Y.

Be sure to ask the prospect about the marketing activities they responded to. If they were interested in the whitepaper on technology Y, most likely they will have questions based on the information that was presented in it.

5.  Evaluate

This step closes the loop and shows the true importance of sales and marketing working together. Just because a lead ended in a sale doesn’t mean the process couldn’t be improved or that the same approach will work next time.

Evaluate the progression of the lead through to the end sale to see where the process may have struggled. If a lead doesn’t end in a sale, send the prospect back to the nurturing stage to learn more about your company and aim to provide them with the knowledge they need to commit to the sale next time.

Reevaluate your scoring criteria as well. If leads aren’t turning into sales as expected, maybe a different base level is needed.

Turn Leads into Sales

Lead management doesn’t stop once a sale is complete. You should be learning as much about the success of your marketing techniques as you are about the people responding to your communications. An effective campaign will be evident, as will an ineffective one, so make sure you look at both sides to properly evaluate your own approach. Properly managing leads should not only turn them into sales, but should also give you an education about your tactics along the way.