Sales Lead Management Today

Sales Lead Management Association Opens Voting for the ‘50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management’

Jim Obermayer, CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA), announced today that the association has opened the virtual voting booth to determine the 50 most influential people in the field of sales lead management for 2013. This is the fifth year for the election.

Obermayer said, “This election honors those nominated, and those who win, as generators of wealth. They know how to generate demand and manage the demand better than their competitors.”

Ron Goodman, Vice President, said “It isn’t enough to generate interest. In order to generate revenue, the marketing professional must be an expert at managing sales leads.”

The 4 biggest mistakes in managing your sales funnel!

Al Davidson is the founder of Strategic Sales and Marketing

Many sales people are familiar with the concept of the "sales funnel," with the idea that every sale starts with a large pool of prospects, which are eventually narrowed down by the various steps of the sales process (qualification, presentations, proposals, etc.) leading to a much smaller number of customers who actually decide to buy and close the deal. 

A big part of success in managing sales leads is developing a better way to understand and manage your company's sales funnel. Here are a few of the biggest mistakes that small business leaders tend to make in managing their sales funnels – and ideas on how you can get better results.

October 28, last day to Nominate a friend/client/customer for the Sales Lead Management Recognition Program

The Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) Nominations for its annual election of the ‘50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management’ ends 11:59 PM  Oct 28, 2013. 

The fifth annual election has a nomination period of October 1 through October 28, followed by a voting period from November 1 through November 30. Members or non-members of the SLMA may nominate people they think deserve recognition (membership in the SLMA is free). On December 5, the ‘Top 50’ winners will be announced in the order of highest votes received. The complete rules for nominations, as well as nomination forms, are available on the SLMA site.

Nominations Open for ‘50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professionals’ List

Nominations are open for the annual election of the ‘50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management’ - 2013. 

The fifth annual election has a nomination period of October 1 through October 28, followed by a voting period from November 1 through November 30.  Members and non-members of the SLMA may nominate people they think deserve recognition (membership in the SLMA is free). On December 5, the ‘Top 50’ winners will be announced in the order of highest votes received. The complete rules for nominations, as well as nomination forms, are available on the SLMA site.

“Being named a Top 50 Influencer in Sales Lead Management is a bigger honor every year,” notes Dan McDade, CEO of PointClear. “There are significantly more qualified thought leaders today as compared to just a few years ago, so the competition gets tougher and tougher every year.”

Ron Goodman, SLMA VP of Business Development said, “The Top 50 List is created in a two-stage process: nominating and voting.”

• Nominations: SLMA members and non-members may nominate one or more professional individuals for consideration through October 28th, which is a week after Sales Lead Management Week (October 21-25, 2013).  Membership is free.

• Voting: SLMA Members and non-members may vote for candidates listed on the SLMA site beginning November 5, 2013. The ‘50 Most Influential Sales Lead Management Professionals’ List will be published on December 5, 2013. 

Nominate A Deserving Professional Now

A story about the incomplete marketing manager

She said, with a somewhat quizzical look on her face, “What do you mean lead management? We have a CRM system; what else do I need?” This conversation was six months ago.

Elvira* is a marketing manager for a software firm. She’s been on the job for many years, has a staff, and is known for both her technical understanding of the company’s products and her writing skills. To her credit, she embraced the internet early and often. Social media in all aspects is another of her strengths, and she wields it aggressively in all outlets possible. She uses HubSpot, but suspects that it’s not entirely the marketing automation system she needs, but “it’s getting there.” She has SEO’d her website, but suspects that the agency she uses is weak on this work aspect. Her approach to lead generation has been moderate with trade shows, forms on the website, some webinars and pay-per-click. She left the choice and management of the CRM system up to a parade of sales managers, who unfortunately have come and gone to such a degree that she no longer names them…they are numbers. When I asked about the CRM system, she said that each new sales manager had his or her own favorite, and the cost and disruption of changing was something that had reluctantly been accepted.

So what’s the issue you ask? Most company presidents would be ecstatic with this profile, right?

These are the issues:

Never Underestimate the Power of Planning

Tom and I met at a Sushi restaurant yesterday, something we’ve done once or twice a year since I consulted with his company on sales/marketing and planning several years ago.   Tom is his company’s VP of Operations, and we try to meet regularly to discuss the company’s progress, but we had not had a meaningful discussion in nine months.

Two years ago I moderated their sales and marketing plan.  The end result was a full Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) assessment, a plan with Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics, etc.  As we started in on our pot sticker shrimp appetizer, I handed over the planning document and asked him, “Well, will you make the $X Million product goal for Z Product and $X Million for Y Product this year, as set out in the plan?” 

He smiled as he took the document, looked at the goals and said, “Yes, we will make these numbers.”  He beamed, and then looked more deeply into the plan. 

As he flipped through the pages he said, “Of course we worked the plan in the months after the planning meeting, but the review meetings faded away as everyone got busy.  Yet, as I look through the tactics, I see that even without the review meetings most of it got done, and here we are at the two-year mark having made goal. That’s neat.”