SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — A survey of 527 B2B sales and marketing professionals found that a majority have serious reservations about the effectiveness of the lead routing process at their companies. More than 57 percent of respondents to The State of Lead Management expressed doubts that their lead workflow is allowing them to create an ideal experience for customers. In addition, they said that one out of every four leads is routed to the incorrect account owner, resulting in lost leads and reducing the efficiency of their sales teams.
LeanData conducted this first-of-its-kind survey to gain a better understanding of how B2B companies manage leads, which are the lifeblood of every organization. Businesses invest heavily in lead generation and enrichment. But the results indicate organizations struggle with another crucial step — ensuring leads reach the right people so they can create the best customer engagement.
“It’s mind-boggling that so many businesses feel like they’re not having quality interactions with their customers,” said Christine Maxey, director of enterprise solutions at LeanData. “That should be terrifying. What this survey uncovered is that the problem is not unique. It’s widespread and businesses are aware that they haven’t yet figured out their lead management challenges.”
Other key findings from respondents include:
- Less than 34 percent said sales always follows up on marketing-generated leads
- About 38 percent wish they had the ability to connect leads to accounts in the Salesforce CRM
- Almost 80 percent said they are not completely satisfied with how their organizations route leads.
“Organizations spend countless resources identifying innovative ways to drive higher conversion rates and build bigger pipelines,” said Craig Rosenberg, chief analyst at the research firm TOPO. “The truth is they often miss the low-hanging fruit — their lead routing process. Lead routing isn’t glamorous and is often ignored. As a result, leads aren’t followed up or are followed up by the wrong person. At TOPO, we have had scores of organizations report finding immediate upside just by fixing their lead routing issues. And in most cases, they had no idea it was an issue.”
The survey also identified divisions between how sales and marketing teams view the lead management process. For instance, 61 percent of sales leaders said their teams always follow up on marketing-generated leads. But only 30 percent of marketing leaders said they believe sales always work their leads. Also, nearly 48 percent of respondents indicated they are concerned the two teams are not aligned at their companies.
Learn more about The State of Lead Management by viewing the survey results.
About LeanData
LeanData’s best-in-class solution simplifies the complexity of the B2B sales process through intelligent lead management. LeanData makes revenue-generation teams more successful by matching leads to accounts and then automatically routing them to the right rep, every time. More than 250 fast-growing businesses such as Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Marketo and Cloudera use LeanData to maximize marketing ROI and close more deals.