Don't Pass The Lead To Sales...Yet

A common mistake that I often find with handling leads are when they are handed off to a salesperson without going through anyone in the marketing department. What happens when the salesperson realizes they aren't qualified yet? Or the prospect is a long ways away from buying? Or they aren't yet sure of their need for software.

They eventually get thrown out. And I can't really blame the salespeople. There are only so many hours in the day and they have to dedicate those hours to the leads that are closest to buying - the most qualified ones.

Instead of being thrown out, they should be nurtured...and its the marketing department's responsibility to do this. Whether it is white papers, case studies, success stories, webinars, or some other marketing piece, there is a lot that the marketing department can do to stay in touch with those leads.

Does your marketing department run email marketing campaigns to handle this? Are you hiring top-notch marketing people and holding them accountable for generating, tracking and nurturing leads? Better late than never...