Focus on targeting the right leads

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Only 0.75% of leads generated become closed revenue (Forrester).

No, I haven’t made this up, and as a marketer myself it’s a scary stat, isn’t it? It implies that the other 99.25% of what I do might be worthless, obsolete, a waste of time – well, is it? Surely not, what about all the time spent drawing in inbound traffic? What about all the CTA clicks? What about all the conversions from visitor to lead? What about all the eBook downloads? These metrics must count, if not, I best get my jacket.

As a marketer, if I’m doing all of the above (I am and have in the past) you could surely give me an A for effort. But let’s consider this: what if 2,000 people download my latest white paper, but of that 2,000, only two were actual leads, they were best-fit accounts. 

I’ve been working with sales professionals for a number of years now in a range of sectors, and the alignment in our relationship is key. The sales professionals have a lot to offer in terms of insight and approach, and OK, they may need some probing, but they can definitely give you valuable insight. As a marketer, it’s my job to keep the lead generation process evolving, which means analysing the data and probing the sales professionals for insight. All of this should allow you to improve your lead generation process. Don’t just focus on filling the pipeline with any leads, focus on targeting the right leads.

So, what’s the solution? Account based marketing (ABM). Account based marketing in my eyes is zero waste marketing, where sales and marketing work together to target key personnel in your key target accounts, rather than individuals.