Lead generation is the #1 barrier to growth. Marketers see generating high-quality leads as their number one business challenge according to the 2015 Lead Generation Trend report. Yet, if sales and marketing were a manufacturing operation starting with raw materials — leads — and ending up with 5% to 20% in deliverable product — won sales — it would soon be shut down to determine what is wrong. However, companies continue to spend untold dollars on lead generation efforts ultimately doomed to fail. MARKETING AUTOMATION ALONE DOESN’T EQUAL LEAD MANAGEMENT. Marketing automation tools just enable lead management, but they’re only part of the solution. There are more fundamental aspects of lead management that often get overlooked. Review this presentation and learn the steps to effective lead management for the complex sale.

1. Lead Management for the Complex Sale
A lead optimization process that goes beyond lead capture
Brian Carroll

2. About me
Brian Carroll
Brian Carroll is Former Chief Evangelist of MECLABS and founder of
InTouch, part of the MECLABS. Author of the bestseller, Lead
Generation for the Complex Sale, Carroll is a leading expert in lead
generation and he's profiled and regularly quoted in numerous
publications.
He has been profiled and quoted in numerous publications such as BtoB
magazine, Selling Power, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Target
Marketing, Inc., Marketing News, DM News, MarketingProfs,
MarketingSherpa, Software CEO and CMO Magazine.
@brianjcarroll

3. Biggest B2B Marketing Challenges
Source: 2015 Lead Generation Trend Report © 2015 Crowd Research Partners.
Marketers see generating
high quality leads as their
number one business
challenge.

4. 64% of marketers send
all leads directly to Sales.
What’s the Problem?

5. What’s the Problem?
59% of marketers do not have
lead nurturing programs in
place.

6. Background: A small IT management firm ($80M in annual revenue, 100 channel
partners) who had an ongoing lead nurturing program (27 salespeople, 10 marketers).
Objective: To improve the efficiency of the lead management program.
Test Design: A/B sequential test between two different approaches to lead
management (principles and processes).
Case Study on Lead Management

7. • Experiencing a < 2% lead-to-sales pipeline
conversion rate
• Sales didn’t pursue majority of leads
• Marketing felt as if their leads were going
into a ‘black hole’
• Marketing was not able to measure ROI
Marketing-Driven
Leads
Customer
Sales
Handoff




THE MARKETING
& SALES FUNNEL
< 2% lead-to-sale
pipeline conversion
Case Study on Lead Management
The current situation from a Marketing perspective

8. • Leads weren’t being qualified and prioritized
• Sales felt that the leads they were receiving
from Marketing were not leads at all
• Sales felt that low lead-to-sale conversion rate
was due to poor-quality leads from Marketing
• Sales people cherry picked leads that
requested demos
Johnny Johnson
ABC Software
CEO
555-1234
jj@abcsoftware.com
Mickey Mouse
The Mousketeers
Director
111-2233
mickey@mouse.com
Jane Adams
Adams & Company
-
-
jane@gmail.com
Case Study on Lead Management
The current situation from a Sales perspective

9. 1. Aligned Sales and Marketing on Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Universal Lead Definition (ULD)
2. Disciplined their database to clearly understand the specific motivations of each lead
3. Analyzed lead data to prioritize lead nurturing efforts (who to include and exclude)
4. Added a responsive lead scoring system to score leads based on key behavior triggers
5. Implemented lead nurturing via emails and phone calls matching prospect’s role and motivations
6. Sent only “sales ready” leads off once they qualified at the optimal intensity (as defined in the ULD)
7. Started closed-loop huddles between Marketing and Sales to balance lead quantity and quality
Case Study on Lead Management
Tactics to address these challenges

10. Closed Loop
Feedback
Marketing
Sales
CUSTOMERS
CHANNEL A CHANNEL B CHANNEL C CHANNEL D CHANNEL E
Sales-Ready
Leads
LEVEL X, Y, Z
LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
INQUIRIES
QUALIFYNURTURE
CAPTURE
Content
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMACY
LEAD MANAGEMENT MAP
Case Study on Lead Management
Building a lead management process map

11. Closed Loop
Feedback
Marketing
Sales
CUSTOMERS
CHANNEL A CHANNEL B CHANNEL C CHANNEL D CHANNEL E
Sales-Ready
Leads
LEVEL X, Y, Z
LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
INQUIRIES
QUALIFYNURTURE
CAPTURE
Content
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMACY
LEAD MANAGEMENT MAP
What were the results?
Case Study on Lead Management
Building a lead management process map

12. Closed Loop
Feedback
Marketing
Sales
CUSTOMERS
CHANNEL A CHANNEL B CHANNEL C CHANNEL D CHANNEL E
Sales-Ready
Leads
LEVEL X, Y, Z
LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
INQUIRIES
QUALIFYNURTURE
CAPTURE
Content
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMACY
LEAD MANAGEMENT MAP
375% Increase in sales-ready leads
200% Improved lead-to-sales opportunity
$4.9M Additional sales in 8 months
Case Study on Lead Management
Building a lead management process map

13. CUSTOMERS
CHANNEL A CHANNEL B CHANNEL C CHANNEL D CHANNEL E
Sales-Ready
Leads
LEVEL X, Y, Z LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
INQUIRIES
QUALIFYNURTURE
CAPTURE
Content
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMACY
Closed Loop
Feedback
Marketing
Sales
LEAD MANAGEMENT MAP
We’ll focus on two critical areas of
lead management:
1. QUALIFYING LEADS
Lead Management: Qualifying

14. CUSTOMERS
CHANNEL A CHANNEL B CHANNEL C CHANNEL D CHANNEL E
Sales-Ready
Leads
LEVEL X, Y, Z LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
INQUIRIES
QUALIFYNURTURE
CAPTURE
Content
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMACY
Closed Loop
Feedback
Marketing
Sales
LEAD MANAGEMENT MAP
We’ll focus on two critical areas of
lead management:
1. QUALIFYING LEADS
2. NURTURING LEADS
Lead Management: Nurturing

15. Internal Alignment
Disciplined Data
Responsive Scoring
1
2
3
Qualifying Leads

16. 1. Lead Qualification is the bridge between the Marketing and Sales teams
2. First step in Lead Qualification is forcing clarity (alignment) between Sales and Marketing
concerning two defined standards:
 Ideal Customer Profile – What is the optimal capacity of a sales-ready lead?
 Universal Lead Definition – What is the optimal intensity of a sales-ready lead?
3. Internal alignment is a process – requires constant, closed-loop feedback between Sales and
Marketing
Internal Alignment
The key principles for success

17. ACCURACY
COMPLETENESS
Industry ChangeHumanComplacency
Data Hygiene
DataAppending
Disciplined Data
Ensure data is complete and accurate

18. LEAD MANAGEMENT FLOW WITH SCORING
Lead enters
system
Lead is scored by
intensity level
Lead IS optimal
intensity
Lead IS NOT
optimal intensity
Lead delivered
to Sales
Lead nurtured to
optimal intensity
Responsive Lead Scoring

19. Background: Provider of professional management services for technology assets for
mid- and large-sized companies.
Goal: To increase the total number of leads generated.
Research question: Which lead qualification process will generate the greatest
number of leads?
Approach: A sequential test of the qualification process.
Case Study on Responsive Lead Scoring

20. Leads Enter
System
Leads are Sent
Directly to Sales
Sales “cherry-
picks” best leads
Many leads are
overlooked
Case Study on Responsive Lead Scoring
Original lead qualification process was very linear

21. LEVEL 3 LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
0 – 19 Points
20 – 39 Points
40+ Points
Sales-
Engaged
Leads
• Organization set up a responsive
scoring system – leads assigned
numeric value based on role/behavior
• Scoring system had 3 levels – once lead
scored enough points to enter third
level (40+ points), Sales would engage
Case Study on Responsive Lead Scoring
Testing out a responsive scoring system

22. Profile Score
CEO, Owner President, VP of Sales 10 pts
Target Market ID – IBM BP 10 pts
Email Campaigns Score
Open an Email 5 pts
Clickthrough an Email 7 pts
Web Metric Scoring Score
Visits Any Webpage 1 pts
Visits Offering Page 5 pts
Visits Thought Leadership Article 5 pts
Visits Thought Leadership Video 10 pts
Views a Previous Webinar 15 pts
Visits Testimonial Page 5 pts
Visits Demo 15 pts
Web Metric Scoring Score
Contact Us 25 pts
Webinar Registration 20 pts
Web Demo Request 25 pts
Promotional Dialogue 25 pts
Webinar Playback 25 pts
Case Study on Responsive Lead Scoring
Building a lead score card
LEVEL 3 LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
0 – 19 Points
20 – 39 Points
40+ Points
Sales-
Engaged
Leads

23. • Leads sent marketing content matched
to their particular score
• Aim was to nurture leads up the funnel
and provide more opportunities to
increase lead score
Case Study on Responsive Lead Scoring
Building custom nurture campaigns

24. Increase in Lead Generation75%
New process increased total number of leads engaged by Sales
by 75% over previous year
“If you look back three years ago, we were doing all of this work and we weren't
seeing any results, but we didn't really have the system set up to really be able to
measure our success. So, I think for us it's really been looking at and revising
processes and procedures, and just being smarter about how we operate.”
Trish McLoughlin
Marketing Manager
Case Study on Responsive Lead Scoring
The results

25. 25
Touch points
User-tracked behavior
What have they engaged?
Explicit Information
Meets Universal Lead
Definition
Contacts Companies
Ideal
Customer
Profile
Hand off
possibilities
to sales
Implicit Information
Does it meet
the ULD?
Rep call
to qualify
Assign to rep
Inquiry comes
into DB
Responsive Lead Scoring
Qualify leads based on Universal Lead Definition (ULD), not lead score

26. 1. Most leads are not sales-ready leads. Understand when a lead achieves optimal intensity
(ULD) – handing a lead off too soon (or too late) is biggest issue
2. Lead scoring is a responsive mathematical approach to assessing the intensity of leads
2. Lead scoring is not meant to replace human touch, but rather to prioritize it
Responsive Lead Scoring
The key principles for success

27. Closed Loop
Feedback
Marketing
Sales
CUSTOMERS
CHANNEL A CHANNEL B CHANNEL C CHANNEL D CHANNEL E
Sales-Ready
Leads
LEVEL X, Y, Z
LEADS
LEVEL 2 LEADS
LEVEL 1 LEADS
INQUIRIES
QUALIFYNURTURE
CAPTURE
Content
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMAC
Y
Lead Nurturing
Focus on how to create and deliver messaging to move leads up the funnel

28. Understand
Audience
Organize
Content
Track Results
and
Engagement
Execute
Tracks
Messaging
Strategy
•Touch
•Track
•Follow-
Up
1
•Touch
•Track
•Follow-
Up
2
•Touch
•Track
•Follow-
Up
3
•Touch
•Track
•Follow-
Up
4
Interest Intimacy Intent
Progression Across Buying Stages
What is Lead Nurturing?
Relevant, consistent conversation with potential customers, regardless of readiness to buy

29. The Right Message
The Right Prospect
The Right Time
1
2
3
Nurturing Leads

30. Case Study on The Right Message
30
Background: ActiveNetwork is a large event management software provider
Goal: To increase total lead inquiries (phone calls + form sign-ups) from visitors who
abandoned the free trial sign-up process
Research Question: Which email tone will result in a higher rate of lead inquiries?
Test Design: A/B single factor split

31. Standard Sales Tone
Control
Empathetic/Service Tone
Treatment
Case Study on The Right Message
Using A/B testing

32. Treatment
Empathetic/Service Tone
7.08% Conversion Rate
Control
Standard Sales Tone
1.58% Conversion Rate
Case Study on The Right Message
Using A/B testing

33. Control
Treatment
Case Study on The Right Message
Using A/B testing
!
By addressing the customer’s anxiety through the tone of the
email copy, they saw a 349% increase in total lead inquiries

34. 1. People don't want to be marketed “to”, people want to be communicated “with”. Lead nurturing
is not a monologue, it is a dialogue. People don’t buy from companies, people buy from people.
2. Effective messaging requires one often overlooked skill on the part of the marketer: empathy
3. If the marketer can participate in the prospect’s conversation, they can guide it (with messaging)
toward a satisfactory conclusion (the purchase)
The Right Message
The key principles for success

35. In one lead nurturing effort, you might be dealing with multiple
prospects before the lead becomes a sales-ready lead:
So how does the marketer ensure that the
right message gets to the right prospect?
CEO Practitioner Manager IT Admin
The Right Prospect

36. Sample Persona
Diagnosis
Prospect-level Persona Diagnosis – The Business Manager (finding
solution)
The Right Prospect
Build persona diagnoses for each prospect persona

37. • Use responsive scoring to help you
assess the level of intensity for
particular leads
• Scoring systems vary based on industry
and organizational differences – but
research suggests 3 common phases in
the intensification process
Sales
Engaged
Leads
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMACY
Three Phases
of Lead
Intensification
The Right Time
Focus on the three phases of lead intensification

38. 38
Background: TAB helps organizations store and manage print and digital documents.
Goal: To increase the overall response to email lead nurturing efforts
Research Question: Which lead nurturing program will generate the greatest number of
email responses?
Test Design: Sequential test of lead nurturing program
Case Study on The Right Time

39. • Company loosely defined a sales lead as anyone who downloaded a whitepaper,
attended a webinar, or completed one of a range of other actions
• Number of leads generated was overwhelming for a salesperson – average
salesperson did not have enough time to call or email all leads, so many leads were
getting wasted
• Only nurturing effort in place was a regular generic email newsletter
Case Study on The Right Time
Challenges faced by the organization
Marketing decided to test a more targeted
lead nurturing program to help qualify and
nurture leads before sending to Sales

40. Prospect #1: If I am a decision-maker looking for paper
management solutions (paper only), why should I purchase
from you rather than any of you competitors?
Prospect #2: If I am a decision-maker looking for hybrid
management solutions (paper and digital), why should I
purchase from you rather than any of your competitors?
Case Study on The Right Time
Approach to building targeted lead nurturing program
Focused efforts on the two main prospects:1

41. Prospect sees problem
w/record management
Prospect desires to learn
more about solutions
Prospect considers
different providers
Prospect encounters
resistance to solution
Prospect makes a
selection
2. EDUCATION1. RECOGNITION 3. EVALUATION 4. OBJECTION 5. DECISION
Interest Intimacy Intent
Mapped decision sequence average prospect
experienced during purchase/nurturing cycle
2
Case Study on The Right Time
Approach to building targeted lead nurturing program

42. Interest Intimacy Intent
Interest Intimacy Intent
Nurturing
Track #1:
Nurturing
Track #2:
Email #1 Email #2 Email #3 Email #4
Email #5
Email #1 Email #2 Email #3 Email #4
Email #5
Score: 15 Score: 30 Score: 45 Score: 60 Score: 75
Score: 15 Score: 30 Score: 45 Score: 60 Score: 75
Case Study on The Right Time
Organize and build the nurture tracks

43. Sales
Engaged
Leads
INTEREST
INTENT
INTIMACY
Email #1
Email #2
Email #3
Email #4
Email #5
Email #1
Email #2
Email #3
Email #4
Email #5
15
30
45
60
75
15
30
45
60
75
New Lead
Nurturing Initiative
Case Study on The Right Time
Integrating responsive scoring into nurture tracks

44. Overall increase in lead conversion rate of 32.6%.
650% Increase in Email Clickthrough
“Going forward, we are expanding the number of campaigns to
reach other topics and we are going to use more complex decision-
tree logic to dictate the next message in the cycle.”
-VP, Global Marketing
Case Study on The Right Time
The results

45. Lead Management for the Complex Sale
A lead optimization process that goes beyond lead capture
Brian Carroll

46. Free Lead Scoring Tool
• Lead Score Card Template is a basic lead
scoring guide to help you begin scoring leads
• Most common qualities and triggers
included – you simply have to assign scores
• Extra space included to customize score card
with own qualifications and triggers
• Template simply designed to help you get
started – may be helpful to fill out with Sales
Lead Score Card Template
Free Resources