Interview with Greg Malpass (CEO Traction Sales & Marketing)
A lead is a seemingly simple concept. Yet it is one that causes much consternation between sales and marketers. There seems to be a constant sliding scale between quantity and quality and most organizations seem to struggle with nailing down what they consider to be a quality lead. Coming up with a common definition that works for both parties is the first step in addressing this issue.
In this interview, we will hear the thoughts of Greg Malpass, CEO and president of Traction Sales & Marketing, on the right approach to leads. Greg has a particular point of view on lead management that has helped 100’s of companies to re-energize their demand generation efforts.
Marcus: Greg, as a starting point, can you tell us about how you define a lead?
Greg: At Traction we define a “lead” as an expression of interest at a point in time. While of course there is going to be a person as part of that lead, and likely they’ll work at an organization, really what we’re most interested in is that particular interest of what they’re looking for at that point in time, and the question of course will be, “Will that result in an opportunity?”
Marcus: I’ve always been of the belief people don’t buy things, they buy solutions. I love the focus on motivation. It’s not just the person, but what’s motivating them. Do you find that to be a hard concept to preach or present inside the marketing organization?
Greg: No, in most cases the organizations we work with really embrace the concept. It removes a lot of the grey lines and it also brings a lot of clarity in terms of what is the role of marketing versus sales.
Marketing’s role is to solicit the interest and serve it to the sales organization for review. Where the sales organization will review it and qualify it into either an opportunity and convert it through into an existing account with no further action, or in some cases reject that, giving marketing an indicator that it is not a worthy prospect and should be pursuing it further.
Marcus: In this model, who is responsible for lead qualification? Can it be automated, or does it require the human touch?
Greg: It depends on the organization. It depends on the volume of leads coming in, the resources that are available, and even the complexity of the sale.
To start, sales and marketing need to be involved. And as some point the lead will be qualified by human times. At some point that interest will hit a threshold where it’s worth making a phone call or arranging a meeting with that prospect who is showing that interest. In the field, we are seeing many more situations like this. Organizations are using an inside sales qualification team to validate that interest and then pass it over to the sales organization.
What’s really important, however, is who creates the opportunity. It’s extremely important that lead qualifiers not have that capability. You want someone within the sales organization, someone who carries a bag to be associated with the opportunity. It also serves as an effective check and balance.
Marcus: Then you would argue that the qualification team should fall in marketing?
Greg: Very interesting question. I think the right role of the qualification team should be aligned to the sales organization. This, however, is a departure from status quo. Today, the team usually lands in marketing. Historically, when sales weren’t picking up the phone marketing took the responsibility to do what they thought was right for the company and started building up these organizations. That’s why we also saw a movement to outsource. Now, however, we’re starting to see this trend reverse itself. As organizations start bringing these skills back in-house they are being hired by sales.
A big part of the lead qualification function is also having an HR resource strategy. Where will these reps go in the organization and what is their development plan? I think we both would agree that a great lead qualification rep will eventually mature into a great sales rep.
Marcus: That makes sense. Developing the diagnostic process of engaging with the client and getting to the pain makes a good qualification rep and is a critical skill for a sales rep. Who said people were rational though? Just because it makes sense doesn’t mean people will easily accept it. Do you run into resistance?
Greg: Not really. We emphasize the system – the process. What we are really talking about is a through-put system. A system where traffic comes in, interest is passed to a qualifier, which is in terms pushes through to an opportunity evaluation. Just like we see in a manufacturing system, we see bottlenecks.
So what this system does is it brings pure visibility and accountability to processing leads. What we’re trying to do is take the grey out and clear the water so we have a clear path and determine who is channeling and funneling their leads through, where we’re maybe over-productive in producing leads, or where we might need to start splitting territories. So the biggest reluctance or resistance from the sales team is a laser focus on one thing, which is processing interest into opportunities. Some reps feel the art of the sale is compromised, but really I don’t think that’s a justifiable response.
Marcus: I agree. And at the end of the day we’re in a volume business, and if you’re going to push more revenue through you have to push through more leads and activities. It’s a pretty simple proposition.
Greg: Right, it does all end up in the pipeline. As a good sales rep, I basically know after my first conversation with the prospect whether there is an opportunity there. Even if I create it as a very early stage opportunity, maybe $0 and 0% to close, I’m going to id it and start working it. If not, I’m going to pass them through as a contact, not create the opportunity, and put that person back in marketing’s capable hands, until they generate or demonstrate further interest.
Marcus: So… a “lead” is an expression of interest at a specific point in time. Focus on the need, not the person. Well said Greg! That’s all our time for today. Thank you all for joining us today and hope you can join us for our next episode.
