8 Tips for generating high quality leads that sales people love

Ask most executives and marketers what sales people need to sell in this economy and they will say, "more leads." So their marketing and lead generation focuses on getting MORE leads to their sales team.

But do you know how many of your leads are actually impacting the sales pipeline? We've done numerous lead qualification programs that have shown as little as 5 to 15 percent of all marketing inquiries turn out to be truly sales-ready opportunities.

This is why sales people don't want MORE leads. Sales people want is MORE effective selling time with BETTER leads that have high odds of converting into pipeline opportunities and customers.

According to MarketingSherpa's data, generating “high-quality leads” is the B2B marketer’s number one challenge. Developing high-quality leads requires work but it's worth it.

Here's 8 tips I use at InTouch that you can implement to drive higher quality leads now:

1. Develop a Universal Lead Definition (ULD) with sales and marketing together
2. Co-develop lead generation programs with your sales team's input
3. Get input from sales on target companies and contacts
4. Rigorously qualify ALL leads against your ULD and pass only qualified leads to your sales team
5. Leverage effective lead management practices
6. Close the loop with sales on leads via feedback huddles
7. Connect sales and marketing data in CRM especially to measure conversion
8. Start lead nurturing now!