Adopting Six Sigma in B2B Lead Generation - Manage Gaps in Sales & Marketing

A harsh truth prevailing in marketing borderline, there still lays a pertaining gap in B2B sales and marketing teams when it comes to lead generation. Moreover 73% of business sales leads transferred directly by marketing to sales are not sales ready and only half of the remaining 27% eventually end up being qualified.

Six Sigma principles in B2B lead generation

But things do not have to be in this way, effective B2B lead generation requires a tight symphony between marketing and sales and while closing the gap between them is certainly impossible, focus on the grounds of shared similarities of the two functions.

Let’s check out a five step process for solving the mismatched differences of both functions:

• Introduce common criteria for qualified leads

Any alignment is possible only when both parties are on the same page. The entire process of criteria selection for lead identifying, scoring and qualifying should be the same throughout organization.

• Communicating information and feedback

Enable free flow of information and data on leads, once your in-house team or lead generation and appointment setting services provider transfer a lead to sales, key prospect information should be handed as well.

• Align engagement with buying cycle

Ever interacted with a lead they would have different informational and interactional needs that mean meaningfully integrating marketing and sales together to provide worthy engagements.

• Use Strategic Goals as guideposts

Marketing as a process have a long term perspective while sales team focus more on the near term. Strategic goals are ideal references in reconcialiting this major difference while coping up with your lead management approach.

• Attach each aspect with CRM platform

Once you have accomplished all the above four steps, it’s time to synchronize marketing and sales in lead management. A credible CRM platform can be the minimum requirement is you dream of achieving seamless sales and marketing integration.

Every organization faces similar problem and fine tuning the processes between these departments would help to bridge the gap and see better lead management results.