Just how much should you demand from a lead generator?

This is often a question for those outsourcing them. It’s also a pitfall for those who think that outsourcing is a lot easier than generating sales leads yourself.

But reasonable as that sounds (that’s right, it is), there is also a limit to how much you can ask. Even if you were to assemble your own B2B marketers, you can focus too much on generating sales leads instead of closing them.

You don’t need this much to close a lead.

Kids aren’t the only ones who need to get back to school. Sales reps need to remember what the leads are for: Closing sales. It’s back to the age-old question of what qualifies a lead. At what point does a lead have enough information for a sales rep to start closing?

This little riddle often has marketing and sales departments running back and forth. Blogs upon blogs have been written about it every day. And yet, everyone out there is still ‘getting it wrong.’

Maybe the real problem aren’t really the answers being written about every day. Maybe it’s because professionals are ignoring the real source of it all: Experience. You can outsource a good company for your sales lead generation campaign and still don’t think the leads are good enough. Why? Because you or at least some of your sales reps don’t think the information isn’t enough.

Here’s the problem: They’re not supposed to.

  • It’s lead generation, not corporate espionage! – On the one hand, you have a process that engages prospects and gauges their interest in your product. On the other, you intrusively look into sensitive information, plant moles, and violate every law protecting consumer privacy. It is not professional to know too much about any business without said business even knowing!
  • You won’t know until you ask. – Don’t you think it’s a little too much to ask someone do your whole job for you? That’s not an outsourcing problem. That is a problem when you use outsourcing for something that it wasn’t meant for. In the case of sales leads, you do not expect marketers to solve all your prospect’s problems. That is the job of a sales rep and of the entire organization. You won’t know their problems until you finally pick up the phone and ask.
  • They’re already coming to you. – Thanks to the internet, prospects are more assertive about who they trust on industry issues. That’s why the focus of today’s B2B marketers is to establish a strong following, not just going about trying to create more sales leads. But when prospects already come to you, qualified and interested, why do you hesitate?

Throwing more money at a problem doesn’t solve everything. It’s not that different when throwing more knowledge. Sometimes all it ever accomplishes is complicate things. Don’t spend too much time thinking how much your sales leads are qualified. Remember what they’re for!