Stop Flooding Your Sales Team, Control the Flow with Quality Leads

No matter where you live, you’ve most likely been impacted or know of someone impacted by the recent storms. Here in Northern California, we are experiencing areas of severe flooding, that will likely continue until spring. While following the impact closely on the daily news, I’m also preoccupied with flood prevention at work. Specifically, lead management and aligning lead flow to sales capacity. Though not nearly as damaging as flash floods, the impact of lead volume exceeding sales capacity is a very real concern.

Many factors, both internal and external, are contributing to rising lead volume.

• Recent consolidation in the data space has companies reevaluating their data strategy.
• The rising popularity of Account Based Marketing has companies placing more emphasis on high-quality data.
• Increased content marketing and investments in other marketing channels are driving a lift in inbound leads.
• New product offerings and partnerships are boosting the top of funnel demand.

If your company is experiencing similar conditions, consider it a good problem.  The solution simply requires a renewed focus on sales capacity planning. Just like water resource management, lead management is the activity of planning, developing, distributing and managing the optimum utilization of resources.  A holistic and well-defined approach must be thought through just as carefully as California’s water management system which impacts not just flood control, but also land use improvement, electrical energy generation, transportation, drinking water and food production benefits etc.

When it comes to companies, the benefits of efficient lead management are also far-reaching, specifically:

• Better use of valuable sales time.
• Improved top of funnel metrics leading to opportunities.
• A more predictable funnel and more accurate financial forecasts.
• Optimized marketing spend based on lead conversion metrics.
• Increased quota attainment, retention, and sales recruiting.

With so many compelling benefits stemming from optimal lead management, it’s surprising how many firms simply say “we need more leads” without a careful examination of lead quality, process, and reporting.  In fact, it’s a surefire way to generate a flood of leads resulting in missed opportunities.

So how exactly do you align lead flow to sales capacity?

Aligning lead flow to sales capacity is a nuanced process that requires a strategic and methodical approach. It begins with a clear understanding of your organization's revenue objectives and the resources at your disposal to achieve these goals. This alignment is critical for ensuring that your sales team operates at peak efficiency, without being overwhelmed or underutilized.

Starting with the End in Mind

The journey to aligning lead flow with sales capacity starts by setting clear revenue targets. Knowing your revenue goal acts as a north star, guiding all subsequent strategic decisions. From there, it's essential to break down this overarching goal into actionable insights by understanding key metrics such as your Average Sales Price (ASP), the average length of your sales cycle, and your lead-to-closed-won conversion rate.

These metrics provide the foundation for establishing well-defined stages within your sales cycle, from the initial inquiry through to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), Sales Accepted Leads (SAL), Sales Qualified Leads (SQL), and the various opportunity stages that follow. By delineating these stages and defining conversion rates for each transition, you can create a more predictable and efficient sales funnel. This granularity allows for precise targeting in terms of the number of MQLs needed and subsequent targets, ensuring that your sales team's capacity is fully leveraged without being overstretched.

Bridging Marketing and Sales

The alignment process extends beyond internal analytics to include a harmonization of marketing and outbound sales efforts. Marketing initiatives, such as events, can often generate a large volume of leads, but the quality of these leads can vary significantly. To prevent overwhelming your sales team with leads of dubious value, it's vital to implement a robust lead scoring system. This system can help prioritize high-potential leads for immediate follow-up, while lower-scoring leads can be nurtured over time, ensuring that each lead is engaged with appropriately according to its potential value.

Conversely, there may be instances where your sales team's capacity outstrips the available lead flow, particularly when new representatives are being onboarded. This mismatch can hinder the ramp-up process for new hires, potentially delaying their contribution to revenue targets. In such situations, partnering with a flexible vendor capable of supplementing your lead generation efforts with high-quality leads can be invaluable. Choosing a vendor that understands your business's specific needs and can deliver leads that meet your precise criteria ensures that every member of your sales team has the resources they need to succeed.

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Prevent flash flooding with a controlled flow of high-quality leads.

List purchases and subscriptions to bulk data providers are other common sources of flash flooding.  In both cases, sales is asked to follow up with cold records that either have no intent to purchase or miss the criteria of your ideal customer profile (ICP).  Don’t settle for list sources missing key data that defines your ICP. Instead partner with a consultative provider that works closely with you to align high quality leads to your sales team’s capacity.  One that has the flexible resources needed to throttle lead flows as you see fit. Want to learn more about how LeadGenius can help you engineer your pipeline to hit your goals? Get in touch with us here.