A case study on how the “Pull” strategy drives 98% lead acceptance from a sales team
In my previous blog I commented on how demand generation goes beyond a leads database; that it involves nurturing true, qualified leads. I raised an important question about marketing strategy — Do you tend to push leads out to your sales reps? Or do you use a pull strategy where they can be productive and clinch the deal with home-grown prospects?
I could go on about how the ‘pull strategy’ initiates lead acceptance, capitalizes on hot prospects and drives quicker results, but since we’re talking about the role of effective lead management on sales results, let the following case study speak for itself.
In 2009, Carl Watane, Sales Manager for a technology company, getconnected was seeking a new approach to expand their reach into the SMB market. Since he had heard so much about the innovative Pull World of ALEA solution, he decided to incorporate it into getconnected’s lead generation efforts.
Here are the highlights of how the strategy was implemented and the results it helped achieve:
- Prospects rated “likely to buy” were posted daily as qualified leads on the company’s secure website to be previewed and followed up immediately by the sales teams.
- Pull World of ALEA (a web-based, CRM-agnostic platform) enabled management and sales to easily control and monitor the follow-up and reporting process on a daily basis. The process of being scored on how quickly they reviewed, accepted and rated the leads’ quality and status proved to be highly motivating for the sales teams.
- Being able to track leads back to the source in almost real-time allowed them to fine-tune their targeting and messaging on the fly increasing the program’s effectiveness.
- The sales reps were happy to be in control of the process, have direct access to the leads portal and be able to provide feedback on lead quality. They responded enthusiastically and wholeheartedly.
- Out of over 170 leads that were identified as warranting sales follow-up, only two were weak; in other words a phenomenal 98.8% lead acceptance rate!
Do you have an interesting case study or example to share about effective lead management using a pull strategy? I would love to hear it!
