BY CHRISTOPHER HOSFORD ing, sales thinks the other 95% are THE NURTURING OF leads is a junk,” said Jim Lenskold, president classic marketing responsi- of marketing consultancy Lenskold bility. In the process of un- Group. “But marketing can take covering and qualifying best practices that 95%, pull out sets ales leads, some of the that shouldn’t be in most potentially productive ones al- there and pull out another set that ready are directly under marketing’s needs nurturing.” nose in the form of lost, discarded or The result can be a very large ignored prospects. chunk of leads that can be recycled
“If just 5% of all leads are clos- and eventually brought to a success-
ful sales conversion.
“Sales re-engagement is one of the single most powerful ROI tools marketing managers have available to them,” said Brian Carroll, CEO of lead-generation company InTouch Inc. “You’re getting more out of the money you’ve already spent by going deeper within the opportunities you already have. It seems like common sense, but the reality is [that] I
know of very few companies that think about it because they assume it’s the salespeople’s job.”
The lead-recycling process is one of those marketing chores that hasn’t really been affected by technology, and thus can appear dauntingly complex, requiring a phalanx of communication activities such as direct mail, e-mail, events and phone calls. But the process can be worth it.
“Those leads that don’t close are potentially a better group than brand-new prospects,” Lenskold said. “Well-nurtured leads represent an unbelievable opportunity.”
While the lack of specific re-engagement automation might seem a problem, there are associated support systems that exist today. Technologies from companies such as Aprimo, Eloqua and Unica can help identify leads initially through Web activities—if, for example, 10 executives from the same company have visited a vendor’s product pages over the past quarter, that company might be identified as ready to buy.
After such leads are handed off to sales, other processes, such as those provided by companies like AdTrack and Blueroads, manage leads and provide appropriate feedback to marketing, closing the loop. And with CRM monitoring keeping track of the process or with automated campaign services, leads that didn’t pan out the first time can be cycled back for re-engagement.
Autodesk drawsup blueprint integration
BY CHRISTOPHER HOSFORD
AUTODESK INC. is familiar to most every architect and interior designer for its Auto-CAD design software. The company also supplies software for such diverse industries as construction, manufacturing, mapping, media and entertainment.
San Rafael, Calif.-based, Autodesk went through lean times between case study 2001 and 2003. Sales stagnated, income slumped and the company’s marketing and sales leadership blamed the underperformance on a misalignment between the two functions, said Mike Colombo, senior director of worldwide sales execution.
One culprit, Colombo said, was Autodesk’s dispersed marketing groups. The groups were in separate geographic divisions focusing on metrics that weren’t particularly important to sales. “Those measurements, such as impressions, eyeballs and click-throughs, might have been valuable to marketing in their geographic areas, but we really wanted to have a field sales organization that was focused on driving revenue,” Colombo said.
The company decided to take action. In 2003, the unit Colombo leads was formed. It straddles marketing
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