In this post “ALL B2B SALES LEADS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL”, author Garrett Hollander references a BtoB Magazine study according to which only 23% of sales professionals say marketers deliver sales-ready leads.
When I read this, it struck me that “sales-readiness” is fast becoming an outdated concept.
In today’s world of Buyer 2.0, the prospect has covered far more ground in their purchase journey by the time they call sales. It’s likely that, by then, they could end up being “sales ready” for a competitor.
So waiting for a lead to become sales ready is recipe for disaster in the Buyer 2.0 era.
According to experts, the key to success now is to reach out to the buyer earlier in the purchase cycle when they have “emerging needs” (CEB) or are “unware” of their pain areas (Gartner).
We agree. You can find our guidance in “Ensuring That Buyer 2.0 Contacts *Your* Sales”.
Ergo, a vendor must engage with the buyer well before a lead is sales-ready.
So the real question is who should do this: Marketing or Sales?
Marketing should own development of content that guides the buyer along their purchase journey. This content is different from feature lists, brochures and other standard marketing collateral supplied to prospects at the middle of the funnel. What is required is material that will resonate with prospects at the top of the funnel. Guidelines for developing such content are given in the following exhibit.
Marketing should ensure that this content receives wide circulation via website, analysts, industry journals and social media. In many cases, Marketing may also be able to step up to the plate and engage with individual prospects remotely via email and telephone.
However, some amount of face-to-face meetings may be required to walk the prospect through the content and deftly steer them towards the vendor’s specific offering, especially in B2B technology sales with $$$$$ ticket size.
Not all marketing people have the inclination or customer-facing skills required for taking these meetings on their own.
Therefore, Sales must get involved even though the lead is still not “sales ready” i.e. BANT-qualified.
If it sits on the high horse of BANT and other old-fashioned lead scoring approaches, Sales will lose these leads to competition. And hasten its demise.
On the other hand, if Sales wakes up to the new reality and reskills itself to engage with prospects earlier in the purchase cycle, it’d prove its worth. Doomsday prophets who predict the loss of millions of B2B sales jobs will be proven wrong.
Sales is not redundant. Just that it needs to sense the new realities of the market and adapt itself in order to stay relevant in the era of Buyer 2.0.
