Recently, I’ve seen much more talk about lead follow-up than lead generation. Where have y’all been??? For years I’ve been shocked at the fact that marketers have concerned themselves with generating leads yet couldn’t care less about where the leads go. What a waste of money and time! Most marketers admit that once the lead is generated, it goes into the black hole called their CRM system, never to be seen again.

Now I am aware of the centuries old feud between sales and marketing. The ol’ blame game. This doesn’t have to be. There can be peace and in fact, the relationship can improve immensely with just one small shift. Marketers, care about your leads and stop blaming the sales team. You worked hard to get those prospects interested in the product or service you provide. Why would you just throw them away?

Let’s take the webinar. You planned the topic, found a presenter, created the message, collaborated on the deck. You may have rented one list or more, partnered with an analyst or a publication (or both), advertised, contacted your in-house database, etc. You’ve received a phenomenal response rate knowing that 50% or so will attend. This has taken weeks if not months. The day arrives, you get a great turnout and several interested parties. Then you do the final step in the process, you dump the leads into your CRM system. Shhh… can you hear it? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. A bottomless pit.

There are several actions that are critical to your business that you must take once you have delivered a webinar, or all of your lead generation efforts are for naught. Remember, the attendees to your webinar have already expressed interest in your product or service. Not only have they opened your email or responded to a banner/text ad, but they have clicked through, signed up, AND attended. I’ve outlined 3 critical actions that must be taken in order to achieve a successful campaign, justify your ROI and ensure that you will get budget next year, quarter or the next round of reviews.

1) For those who attended the webinar and asked questions, deliver these names directly to your sales force with the questions asked and the answers provided if any. These prospects should be responded to immediately, the same day, while the information is top of mind. Send an email and copy the sales team ASAP.

2) For those who attended, a thank you email should be sent out immediately with a link to the archived recording AND a PDF of the slide deck so that they can forward this and/or use it to speak about your solution to others, perhaps the decision makers who have asked them to research your product or service. This prospect should also be contacted within 24 hours by your sales team as this prospect is ‘hot’.

3) For those prospects who registered and didn’t attend: Send them a thank you email immediately following the webinar with a link to the archived event. You should also add these names to your ‘house list’ and use them for further marketing efforts as they were interested enough to register yet for some reason couldn’t attend. I recommend that your sales team follow up with these folks within 72 hours and remind them that the event is archived and invite them to view it. Don’t just take my word for it, check out this report that by the Artemis Group and Knowledgestorm (now TechTarget), The Fine Art of Lead Management and Follow-Up: What Research Shows About Lead Qualification and Nurturing, where they discuss why immediate personal contact is critical to closing leads.

Imagine this: You are selling a car. You meet the prospect on the lot and talk to them for an hour about all of the features of the car, and even take them for a test drive. They love the car and are ready to talk to you about the terms and write you a check. Then you walk away and leave them standing in the lot while you go and talk to someone else who has just arrived on the lot. Would you do this? No you wouldn’t. It’s crazy, isn’t it? But you are doing this if you don’t follow up on your leads. Now you might say, “But I’m not a salesperson. This is not my responsibility.” Websters Dictionary defines marketing as:

1) the act of buying or selling in a market

2) the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling

It IS your responsibility. If you are spending the money, building the strategy, and staging the execution of these programs…it is your responsibility. You are selling the product, as a marketer it is your job. Follow up with your prospects. Work closely with the sales team, folks, it is critical for your business. Not only with you see sales improve but your marketing ROI will increase and you will guarantee that budget for another round! Whew!

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