Lead. Prospect. Potential Client. Shopper. It all starts here. No matter the title, customers are a crucial lifeline for any business, and for many companies, attracting (and qualifying) quality customers through lead generation is a top priority and challenge for marketers.
A successful marketing campaign can produce a substantial amount of leads. Turning over a high volume of unqualified leads to your sales team can be detrimental to your company’s bottom line and morale as these leads are unlikely to convert, resulting in wasted time, money, and energy.
Repeated large numbers of unqualified leads to your sales team create unfavorable challenges you’ll want to consider.
- Little to no ROI on market/lead gen spend
It’s estimated that companies spend an average of $129 billion on lead generation across all advertising formats combined. This number is expected to rise to $209 billion by 2023, accounting for a large percentage of any company’s overall budget. A smart marketing plan incorporates additional resources to strengthen lead generation results and maximize return on investment (ROI). - Company profit loss increases
Revenue is lost when efforts to produce sales from marketing campaigns return leads that can’t be converted, or money spent to purchase third-party leads doesn’t produce desired calculated results. On repeat, this inability to produce revenue from lead generation streams can affect your bottom line and in extreme cases, low sales can become a precursor to a company’s closure. - Sales team productivity, quotas, and income is affected, resulting in low morale
Your sales team thrives on quality prospects to sell to. Supplying your team with unqualified leads slows down productivity, and their ability to meet quotas and KPIs which in many cases are directly tied to salary, commissions, and bonuses. A decrease in their ability to convert can result in lower morale on your sales team. If your marketing and sales departments are separate, this may create discord between both entities that need to work in tandem. - Low productivity in sales can harm other departments
A well-run company is connected by each department. Low sales, productivity, and morale can harm other departments such as order fulfillment, client relations, and customer service, etc. as these departments thrive on the volume and quality of the customers obtained through the sales and marketing departments. For a business that relies on sales from leads, inadequate leads can force management to make decisions to cut costs in other areas. - Employee retention decreases/employee turnover increases
Changes or disruptions in an employee’s job performance, income, or workflow that are out of their control can push even the best salesperson to look elsewhere for opportunities. It questions a business’s bottom line and ability to retain its workforce. Employees build and maintain trust in leadership when they know their best interests and success are treated as a priority. One way to do this is by ensuring you equip your sales team with tools to meet their goals and work to simplify the sales process with qualified leads. - Unfavorable employee reviews on online job boards can result in an inability to attract new high-quality sales representatives
Job boards are a popular way many companies attract new employees. Job listings invite both current and past employees to leave reviews on their experience working for a company. If you’re hiring candidates for your sales team, repeated mentions of “company supplying bad leads but expecting sales” can reduce the number of qualified applicants you attract.
Companies spend an average of up to just under $200 per lead. They have limited control of lead capture, however, they can avoid a vast number of fake, fraudulent, incomplete, and unqualified leads from reaching their valuable sales team by incorporating outsourced lead screening into their sales flow. Lead screening acts as an extension of your existing sales team by qualifying leads before the initial sales call. Responsive Call Center has developed a system in which only the most qualified leads advance to your sales team. Our service includes asking basic questions to verify lead information is correct and ensure they are a candidate for your product or service based on your company’s target market. If lead generation is a numbers game, lead screening is the lottery pick.
While some businesses use IVR or automated dialers to screen leads, Responsive Call Center provides real live representatives to interview your leads and create a personal human experience from the start, resulting in a better response rate, accurate warm leads, and fewer hang-ups than automated dialers. We also provide customized call scripts to gather information, warm transfers to your sales team, and data relevant to help improve your conversion rate and reduce cost.
Companies invest a lot of time and money into their marketing strategies through lead generation. Qualified leads are a sales team’s tools for success and it’s important to maximize your efforts and make certain your sales team can leverage their leads and stay motivated to convert sales calls into revenue for you and income for their families. Outsourcing your lead screening allows you to focus on production and internal operations without the hassle of adding a new department and hiring for new roles. It’s just as important to entrust a lead screening service you can count on to represent your company. Responsive Call Center can help. Contact us to learn more about our lead screening and qualification service for your business.
Receive Your Free Consultation