Treat Your Sales Leads Professionally, Not Dramatically!

While getting sales leads is your marketer's job, that does not mean they should not (or cannot) express concern over how your salespeople are treating them. You may have already heard this before but you will still hear it here: sales and marketing work hand-in-hand.

Business Leads Are Valuable For Both Sides

Just because your marketers have outlined their responsibilities on paper does not mean they cannot chime in on the actions of salespeople. Your salespeople in turn should not be afraid of giving and sharing feedback. In short, this is a call for both parties to act professionally and not act as if they are characters in some business drama.

Many negative stereotypes surrounding the business world are spawned from what is actually unprofessional behavior. For example, marketers actually act the part of pushy salespeople when they are just supposed to only qualify interests for appointment setting. Meanwhile, your salespeople are exhibiting behaviors that turn off prospects simply because they cannot tell their business world fantasies from reality.

It does not even matter what method you use. The problem lies at the human behavioral level so therefore, your solutions should focus on fixing that behavior. Because whether you use telemarketing or email marketing, that behavior will kill all your campaigns.

Related Content: The Top 3 Ways To Kill Your Telemarketing Campaign

This might sound more like an HR problem but this is an HR problem that specifically involves the people who are bringing in your customers. They are a critical part, if not an entire half, of your whole business model. So knowing that, you should still view this with the perspective of both parties in mind. A few things you can look into include:

• Mode of communication – While it has been previously stated that form of communication does not matter, take a small note of how your marketers perceive the tools they are using. If you are outsourcing for example, do your provider's employees actually have their own belief in their chosen method? If not, then it is no wonder they do not deliver as many B2B sales leads. Obviously, you do not want a telemarketing call in the hands of someone who finds parodies of the approach more factual than the real thing. 

• Means of appointment – Like with your marketers, the bad behavior of your salespeople might be tied to the kind of meetings they have with potential clients. As ridiculous as this might sound, those who lack a sense of professionalism might have a tendency towards dramatic delusions. Still, it makes for an easy start. Do your salespeople see themselves as actual professionals or just characters from Gossip Girl? 

Related Content: Don't Waste Lead Generation On Bad Sales Processes!

There is no doubt you will encounter defensive responses (and you yourself might feel a pang of guilt) from conducting this kind of evaluation. Despite that, this is a basic truth that is accepted among marketers and salespeople from all over. Ask yourself, who would want this kind of unprofessional representation? Nobody.

Hence, make sure you treat your business leads are treated professionally whether it is in B2B telemarketing or in client meetings.