Marketing Ops Journal

Insights & Tips

Already a subscriber? Login

Become a subscriber and unlock an information arsenal focused on building effective marketing operations.

Most Sales Teams Are Throwing Good Leads Away!

As you’re looking at the big number for this quarter and wondering where all those new sales opportunities are going to come from, consider this…

For every 10 leads your sales team deemed worthwhile to pursue last quarter, they threw away 10 leads that could have bolstered your number this quarter.

And it gets worse…because they also threw away another 10 leads that would’ve been worthwhile to pursue next quarter.

That’s right…for every 10 leads pursued in a given quarter, most sales teams are trashing 20 other leads that will be viable within the next two cycles!

In a Playbook diagnostic, Dan McDade, the author of The Truth About Leads, shares data and insights gleaned from 250,000 prospect interactions, and explains how most B2B sales teams end-up leaving a full two-thirds of their sales opportunities just lying on the table.

But here’s the thing…the fault doesn’t lie with the salespeople…not entirely, anyway.

Sure, salespeople will sometimes give-up on a lead too quickly, or make hasty decisions about a lead’s qualification and interest. But as Dan makes clear, this problem often exists because salespeople are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do—i.e. focusing on opportunities they can close this period.

So…does that mean that all these wasted opportunities are inevitable? That there’s nothing you can do to reclaim and recover them?

Not at all.

In fact, if you take the self-assessment that Dan provides in the diagnostic, you really can’t miss the solution. Just turn the assessment around a little bit, and a fairly straightforward solution for getting two to three times more qualified sales opportunities is revealed.

(Hint: The third answer is the key!)

Discover the exclusive tools and research that subscribers get access to.

Take Our Quick Tour

Related Resources

  • Creating More Powerful Sales Proposals

    Delivering a proposal is often the final "yes/no" step that every other sales and marketing activity is leading up to. We spoke with Reuben Swartz about how to create sales proposals that win more business at higher margins.

    View This Interview
  • The Revenue Marketing Center of Excellence

    With revenue marketing gaining popularity, many are wondering what kinds of organizational structures will best support the transformation. In this interview, Debbie Qaqish of the Pedowitz Group explains why the Center of Excellence model makes so much sense for revenue marketing.

    View This Interview
  • How to Deal with Other Internal Departments

    As a B2B marketer, there is a limit to how much you can accomplish on your own. This tutorial shows you how to leverage your marketing skills in a different way to influence and motivate the other departments that can have an impact on your efforts.

    View This Tutorial
  • Anatomy of a Competition-Crushing Sales Strategy

    The better your sales strategy, the easier it is for your sales team to achieve their objectives. But sales strategy is often misunderstood. In this on-demand training session, learn how leading sales operations are improving their sales strategies to win more business, while actually competing less.

    View This Webinar