Department of Education

Sales Leads and Your Marketing Department

A major concern of the directors of companies selling products through consultative selling is the detection and generation of qualified business opportunities, also called leads.

The command of companies is that Sales Executive uses more time to address the opportunities ready for sale. The pressure that falls on the Sales Department of a business often forces sales people to ignore the opportunities that are not relevant in terms of providing immediate billing. In other words, the quality of the Sales leads is more important than quantity. Sales leads are even more important considering how scarce and costly Commercial Sales Executives are.

Is the Marketing Department really on your side? If you work in Marketing, are you aware of how important sales leads are for the sales department? Or are you just giving them information about customers that are only requesting information? The main difference here lies in the fact that some people only need assistance and they might not necessarily become customers.
A Sales Lead does not translate into real business until proven so.
Customers who only want to ask a question will be confused when transferred to your sales department. They, on their end, will try to close a deal but if the customer did not call to buy something to begin with, then your sales people would have only lost their time with him or her.

More than one sales person ends up distrusting marketing people due to their lack of training and skills when it comes to selecting quality sales leads. Failing to make this connection between Marketing and Sales departments is one of the most expensive and biggest mistakes a company can make.

More is not better, quality is not quantity.
More than one Marketing Manager thinks that generating more opportunities is the key to achieving the objectives of billing. This is not necessarily true. In fact, many companies need to improve the management process and qualification opportunities of sales leads. The characterization of opportunity is the key to building a healthy sales pipeline.