A small number of good leads will always trump a large volume of mediocre or bad leads. Generating reliable, convertible leads is vital to the success of b-to-b, as well as b-to-c marketing and sales teams. Knowing who customers are and how to segment them allows organizations to quickly move potential clients through the sales funnel. While it’s indisputably important to generate a large quantity of leads, the information’s accuracy and freshness are what ultimately determine how many sales are made.
The value of good leads, however, goes beyond just wins and losses; knowing the difference between leads that have shown slight interest, leads that are on the verge of being closed and leads that joined an email list only for the chance to win a free iPad allows marketers to more efficiently develop and target their campaigns.
The least valuable 20% of customers drain a company’s profit by 80%, while the most valuable 20% of customers generate 150% of revenue, according to Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin’s book, Angel Customers & Demon Customers. Knowing which leads will turn into which customers allows organizations to save time, money and resources when developing their marketing strategy.
“Some people who you consider a lead are no longer in jobs or don’t do functions you’re trying to sell into,” notes Dave Frankland, VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research. “The next level of bad leads, which I don’t think everyone is thinking about, is the right individual with the right contact information. His information may be accurate but does that mean he’s good business for you to chase? People overlook this. The cost of someone like that is the amount of money and time wasted chasing [them].”
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