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Lead Management

Sales lead management is a term used to describe the overall process by which potential buyers are identified, educated, engaged with, qualified, and passed to sales. It is a term that is very similar in meaning to demand generation, which also focuses on this overall process.

As a comprehensive strategy for generating revenue, sales lead management falls between broader marketing initiatives such as branding and advertising, and direct one-on-one efforts such as direct or channel sales. Sales lead management begins when interest is first identified, whether through awareness efforts (social media, PR), discoverability efforts (search optimization, search marketing, in-person or online tradeshows) or direct connection efforts (outbound calling, list acquisition).

From the start sales lead management efforts focus on building buyer interest through education and lead nurturing efforts. Educational efforts such as webinars, breakfast events, whitepapers, and eBooks are promoted through a variety of marketing means, including through the use of marketing automation to remain engaged with potential buyers.

Over time, as prospective buyers remain engaged and begin to educate themselves on a market space, they may begin to display signs of buying interest. As they do so, lead scoring allows marketers to identify interested buyers and get them engaged with the sales team. This aspect of sales lead management involves building an objective definition of what makes a lead qualified that is agreed to by both marketing and sales. Then, based upon this definition, a process for handing the qualified leads to sales and a service level agreement with sales can be built.

Sales, in its role in managing leads, can then follow up with the lead and either begin to work on it as a sales opportunity, or hand it back to marketing for further nurturing after an initial conversation discovers that the lead’s level of qualification is not as high as originally determined.

Lead management, as a discipline, requires a marketing mindset whereby the way in which buyers become aware of a solution category, educate themselves, and validate which solution is correct for them, is understood and facilitated by marketing. With a publisher’s mindset, marketers can identify what content is needed by each type of buyer in each stage of their buying process, and ensure it is available and discoverable.

By facilitating buyers, rather than pushing outbound messages, marketers focused on lead management are able to generate more qualified leads, and more revenue for their businesses. Lead management software is used to aid in this process by allowing for campaign automation and tracking.

Lead Management Resources

Aberdeen Group: Crossing the Chasm with Lead Management
Learn how automated lead management can improve your company's annual revenue with this downloadable Aberdeen Group white paper from Eloqua.

25 pages

Marketing Superstar Q&A: Mark McCary on Platts’ Revenue Strategy
One of Eloqua's most successful clients, Platts, shares their experience with RPM and the strategies they use to improve revenue performance.

4 Questions Likely to be Keeping Marketers up at Night
MarketingSherpa editor Sean Donahue, and Eloqua Best Practice Consultant Jennifer Horton teamed up to address some of the most common questions about lead management.

7 Habits of Highly Successful Marketing Automation Operations
Guest poster Jocelyn Brown, Manager Strategic Customer Success at Eloqua, has spent pretty much her whole career in Digital Media.In this post, she looks at 7 elements that help drive continued success

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