Marketing Profs

Do members of your company's executive team—along with your peers throughout the organization—see the connection between marketing and the cash flowing into your company's coffers? If not, they probably view you as merely a tactical tool (brochure writer, a trade-show participant, Web-site "put-it-upper"), not a true strategic partner. And they likely underutilize marketing.

To deliver maximum value for your firm, you'll need to correct their misperceptions of marketing's value. How? Avoid the 10 biggest mistakes marketers make.

Adapted from book I wrote with Allen Weiss and Dave Stewart, Marketing Champions: Practical Strategies to Increase the Power, Influence, and Business Impact of Marketing (Wiley, 2006), this article is the first in a 10-part series designed to help you demonstrate the link between marketing and hard, cold cash.

* * *

Harry sank exhausted into his chair beside SignalNet's trade-show booth. It had been a long week, and he was dreading the stacks of work he knew would be waiting for him in the marketing department when he returned to the office. But the sight of the glass bowl jammed with business cards from trade-show attendees instantly revitalized him. A sign on the bowl read, "Win a SignalNet 1200XS—drop your business card here." Not a bad haul, he thought to himself. The sales team is going to love this batch of leads.

As the events crew began packing up the booth, Harry poured the bowl's contents into his carry-on suitcase. Back at MegaMesh the next morning, he proudly handed the stash of cards to Martha, the sales manager.

He had no idea that he had just made a major mistake.

Promising Prospect—or Dead End? How Do You Define "Lead"?

To do their job, salespeople need leads, or prospects, who are ready to buy. As a marketer, you probably supply sales with leads. But what is a lead, exactly?

If you merely dump prospects on sales without first agreeing on the meaning of "lead" and then qualifying each prospect based on your definition, you and sales may end up at loggerheads when supposed leads don't become actual customers. At the very least, you'll confirm any assumptions on salespeople's part that you can't help them turn leads into cash.

Definitions of "qualified lead" vary across organizations. For example, in one firm, a lead may be nothing more than a prospect who demonstrates the characteristics of your company's target market. In another organization, it may be someone who has already put the firm on a short list for a lucrative deal. To clarify your company's definition of lead, ask yourself and your sales partners the following questions:

• How did the prospect learn about our offerings?
• Is the prospect a decision maker? A user? A check writer?
• Where is the prospect in the decision-making process? For example, are they aware of a problem? Have they compared our products to competitors' offerings?
• Is the prospect new to the product category we're selling?
• Is the prospect aware of our brand?
• What is the probability of closing the sale?