James Obermayer, Executive Director and CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association and President of Sales Leakage Consulting is a regular guest blogger with ViewPoint.

When it comes to measuring marketing’s ROI most marketing managers hesitate to bite off more than they can chew. Undoubtedly, part of the hesitation comes from not having control over the entire process from lead generation to sales closure. If salespeople don’t or won’t close out the records and report on the disposition of a lead, what’s a marketing manager to do?

And yet, sophisticated, aggressive marketing managers find ways around these constraints and discover a way to prove the ROI (especially when they have little choice). They learn to take big bites in lead generation with no downside consequences and yet there are large personal and professional rewards by taking a moderate risk to generate the most response.

Maybe the analogy is a bit rough, but the tools are there to be aggressive and bite off enormous commitments which includes not just spending the company’s treasure, but adding to it and proving the ROI. How else can companies grow? Marketing management after all is said and done, is in charge of corporate growth!

To take a larger bite, you need larger tools!

80% of the companies have a CRM system (no comment on who is happy) which starts the initial measurement of the value of inquiries and sales leads. 15-20% of the most aggressive companies have a marketing automation system. This latter tool allows marketing to be co-owners of the follow-up process (a sweet place to be). The follow-up takes many forms, email, mail, and telesalespeople who qualify and push the sales ready opportunities on to salespeople.

What this means is there aren’t any excuses anymore. 

Marketing has, or can get the tools to generate qualified leads, do the follow-up and push sales ready leads into the sales channel. Salespeople have fewer places to hide because management is looking at quota and conversion performance by lead. When salespeople stop asking for more leads and request more qualified leads they are doing the right thing and marketing knows it is on the right path. Only salespeople who follow-up 100% of what’s given to them know that 50% of the inquiries are not going to buy; and yet 50% will buy someone’s product. They’ve known this all along; it’s a salesman’s secret (kind of like magician’s not telling how a trick is performed).

The bottom line is marketing management must make the decision to measure the ROI for marketing before management inconveniently asks uncomfortable questions such as

Some people say change such as measuring ROI comes slowly, but I don’t think so. Change comes when the “Changer” makes the decision. From that moment on, from that second going forward, a new world of building wealth for the company becomes a reality. Measuring ROI means that marketing will change tactics from lead generation that brings a mediocre return to lead generation that brings superior sales results.

Marketing management that is recognized as a builder of wealth!

Once programs are measured, marketing management can take credit as a builder of wealth. Prior to proving marketing ROI, the marketing manager may have been a wealth creator, but without hard data, why should anyone have believed it?

All of this is the result when marketing management stops worrying about biting off more than he or she can chew and realizes they are capable of measuring marketing’s ROI. Marketing management’s mouth is a whole lot bigger than they think. After all life is risky, but those who take calculated risks also know that risk is the multiplier in the creation of fortunes. Plus, the risk takers know, “that only the mediocre are always at their best."¹

Please pass this on to someone who is hesitant to bite off more than they can chew. Send it to someone that needs encouragement.