The title of this post is an age-old battle much like lions and hyenas, isn’t it? Brian Carroll has an interesting post on his B2B Lead Generation Blog – Optimizing Lead Generation – What’s the Payback?
The dilemma he addresses is where should executives invest resources – in more salespeople or into lead generation programs. I suspect many executives view salespeople as lead generation programs.
Granted, some salespeople are relentless prospectors who generate many new leads. This style usually comes at price, that is, their ability to retain customers is usually degraded. A strong hunter normally requires a back-end support team since they tend to move on to the next prospect. This fact of life seems to escape many hiring companies.
Brian references an interesting white paper:
Among other things, CSO Insights data from 1,275 companies shows that those excelling in lead generation gain the following advantages over companies that do not:
Win rates are 7 percent higher Number of sales representatives making quota is 9.3 percent higher Conversion rate from leads to first calls is 16.5 percent higher More than 10 percent decrease in ramp up time for new sales people
I was surprised by the last bullet. One of our tasks is to help new salespeople ramp quickly in their new sales position. Shaving 10% from that ramp to revenue time would have an immediate impact on any company’s bottom line.