When the sales team needs help boosting pipeline, the request of marketing is usually either: 1) more leads, or 2) better leads, or 3) a combination of the two.
However, if demand generation isn’t producing the number of opportunities that the company needs, simply ramping up leads at the top of the funnel isn’t always the solution. In fact, a lack of marketing-generated pipeline is rarely a lead generation issue. It’s more often a problem in lead conversion – i.e. that leads aren’t being converted at a sufficient rate to sales-ready opportunities. Improving that lead conversion rate, and the Lead to Opportunity process as a whole, can generate returns, and a measure of improvement, far greater than simply generating more leads.
If one of your key priorities for the new year is improving marketing-generated pipeline, don’t overlook ways to improve the conversion rate from raw leads to opportunities. Here are 9 areas to consider:
1. Align Sales and Marketing Teams
Is marketing generating the types of leads that sales really needs? Is there a common understanding of target markets, buying personas? Collaboration and shared goals are imperative if marketing is going to help sales meet their revenue goals. Establish Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to define roles, responsibilities, and expectations (including how and when sales follows up on leads). Ensure regular communication between teams to assess lead quality and conversion rates.
2. Define and Refine Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
No amount of leads will increase pipeline if they’re not from the right companies. How well do leads on average match up with your ICP? If even a significant fraction aren’t really a fit for your solution, that alone can be a major drag on the rate at which leads convert to opportunities. Start by defining an accurate ICP, perhaps using data from successful deals, and ensure that marketing and sales are aligned on that definition. Revisit that ICP regularly to adapt to market changes. Consider a tool like Rev that can analyze your best customers and spot common attributes to help inform ICP definition.
3. Score Leads Effectively
It’s not uncommon for lead scoring systems to go months or years without adjustment or optimization. The result can be lead scores that prioritize the wrong leads, or generates data that sales simply ignores altogether. When was the last time you audited your current lead scoring schema? Does it reflect not just demographics, but also prospect behavior or even intent? Once revamped, regularly audit and adjust the scoring system to ensure relevance.
4. Optimize Lead Qualification Criteria
Poor or outdated lead qualification criteria can misdirect sales resources and result in a lack of sales productivity and, ultimately, conversions. Is there a clear, consensus understanding of what defines a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)? When were those definitions last examined and how much do they reflect your current business? The key difference lies in their readiness to engage with sales; MQLs require further nurturing, while SQLs are primed for direct sales interaction. Definitions that don’t reflect the way your business operates and how you sell can lead to inefficiencies and lost opportunities.
9 Tips for Improving the Lead to Opportunity Process Share on X5. Define Funnel Metrics
Bottlenecks can occur anywhere in the Lead to Opportunity process. Sometimes it’s at the very early stage when leads are first captured and responded to. For other companies, the inefficiency may be later in the sales cycle. Knowing what parts of the process to improve starts with measuring and documenting conversion rates – and time-to-convert – at every stage of the funnel: Lead to MQL, MQL to SAL, and so on. Knowing those numbers, and comparing them to industry standard metrics, is a critical first step in knowing what to solve for.
6. Shorten Response Times
Studies have long shown that rapid response to marketing leads significantly enhances conversion rates. Some data suggests that simply responding to a lead within the first five minutes increases the likelihood of conversion by up to 8 times. That doesn’t mean necessarily that sales – even an SDR team – should be engaging directly with raw leads. A well-crafted email sequence that responds immediately to new leads can have a dramatic effect on the rate at which those same leads ultimately engage with sales. Consider deploying a chatbot that provides active buyers the opportunity to request more information immediately.
7. Develop Long-Tail Nurture Campaigns
It’s a fact of life in business that not every lead is ready to buy, or even ready to talk to sales. If your nurture program is built simply to identify sales-ready leads and discard the rest, you’re wasting demand generation investment and also missing out on those prospects who may be ready to engage months or even years down the road. A modern, best-in-class nurture program maintains brand awareness over the long term, building trust and credibility to where your solution is top of mind when a need occurs.
8. Engage with Leads at Every Stage
Every sales professional wants leads that are ready to buy. But if marketing is chartered with generating ONLY sales-ready leads, it ignores a whole subset of potential customers who may have precisely the problem your product solves but simply aren’t ready to engage. Furthermore, by only appealing to late-stage prospects, you’re abandoning the rest of the sales process to your competitors, who may have already built a relationship with that prospect. A “full-funnel” approach generates leads at every stage of the buying cycle, and then nurtures those prospects who aren’t quite ready to engage.
9. Continuously Improve through Feedback Loops
A Lead to Opportunity process is never perfect. Business conditions change, markets change, new products come online, competitors come and go. To ensure your leads are converting as efficiently as possible, schedule regular alignment meetings with sales to discuss pipeline performance. Collect insights and feedback on lead quality and handoff processes. Emphasize accountability on both sides and encourage collaboration in reviewing and optimizing processes. If there’s a difference in opinion, introduce A/B tests to determine what works best.