Pointclear

MAY 3, 2012

The introductory post in this series addressed the problems and costs of applying the cost-per-lead metric to measure the success of B2B lead generation investments. In the second post, we looked at elements of a complex sale that impact B2B lead generation costs. Not seeing the forest for the trees.

Cost per Lead 162

Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Lead Lead Generation Lead Rank 162

Pointclear

DECEMBER 14, 2010

The value of a lower cost-per-lead approach may have merit early in the funnel where inbound marketing and marketing automation can be helpful in moving large numbers of sales prospects to raise their hands and express interest.

Cost per Lead 145

Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Marketing Qualified Lead 145

Pointclear

MAY 11, 2017

PointClear was recently given a verbal approval for a pilot program by the SVP of Sales for a technology solutions provider. What else, besides labor costs, factor in to the costs of lead generation? He liked us. Trusted us. Told us we had the deal.

Lead Generation 140

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Lead Cost per Lead Leads 140

Pointclear

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Finally, the lead definition was being driven by the objective to reduce cost per lead and not by the objective of providing real value to sales. Neither one of these marketers were buying leads for low-cost commodities. In the first case, the maximum allowed cost per lead was $125.

Lead Rank 157

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Lead Leads 157

Pointclear

OCTOBER 3, 2017

If you are paying (just as an example) $750 per appointment, and on average 40% or more of those appointments are with someone who cannot or will not buy, then you are actually paying $1250 per appointment—if you consider, as PointClear does, that unless it’s a qualified prospect it doesn’t count.

Top of Funnel 140

Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Lead Cost per Lead Lead Nurturing 140

Pointclear

FEBRUARY 7, 2018

While most people wouldn't quibble with the above reality, many still measure marketing success based on the cost per lead. Take a look at the following cost per lead comparison. These numbers show what goes into generating a high-quality lead—and what it costs.

Cost per Lead 204

Cost per Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 204

Pointclear

JUNE 5, 2017

These sales professionals accept responsibility for working all leads to the finish, win or lose. In both camps there's a transparency that hasn't always been present, characterized by a realistic measure of revenue impact of leads--and realistic forecasts. At PointClear, we facilitate accountability that translates into results.

Account 124

Account Sales Qualified Lead Top of Funnel PointClear 124

Pointclear

JANUARY 13, 2017

You need full visibility into how many touches it takes to generate a lead, your lead rate, and your cost per lead at every stage in the funnel. You need to measure which leads are rejected and why. And you need to know at what rate your leads progress. Analyze, Analyze, Analyze. Are you using ABM?

Account Based Marketing 100

Account Based Marketing Account PointClear Cost per Lead 100

Pointclear

DECEMBER 9, 2010

For an in-depth look at the concept that sales benefits from receiving fewer, more highly-qualified leads, I encourage you to download the PointClear white paper, Why Your Sales Force Needs Fewer Marketing Leads.

Sales Qualified Lead 145

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Generation Lead Rank Lead Scoring 145

Pointclear

AUGUST 14, 2012

Leads and expected metrics are defined in carefully created and detailed program plans and lead rates are impacted (particularly in 2010) by the mix and quality of inbound dispositions. For example: 6,000 out of 9,000 leads generated by one client’s marketing department had a 1.28% lead rate resulting in a cost per lead of $2,662.24.

Lead Generation 247

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Lead Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 247

Pointclear

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

At PointClear, we apply agile to what we do for clients to save time, save money, prevent frustration and get better results. This scenario is in stark contrast to what others in our industry do, which can be encapsulated as follows: Send me a list, send me a script, send me some money—and we’ll send you some leads. (Of

Sales Qualified Lead 100

Sales Qualified Lead Forecasting Outsourcing Services PointClear 100

Pointclear

JUNE 16, 2015

We attribute it to the fact that the outbound work does much of the screening and vetting and sometimes even the first steps of selling, thereby increasing the quality of the lead. Focusing on the number of leads and cost per lead misses the point. Absolutely right, Mike! A very fine line makes the difference.

Lead Rank 100

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 100

Pointclear

JULY 17, 2012

This would include everything from the cost of the media (in the case of inbound sources) and the cost to qualify the lead (assuming that your company is not making the mistake of sending raw, unfiltered, unqualified leads directly to the sales force). This is not an anomaly. What you learn will probably surprise you.

Inbound 217

Inbound Sales Qualified Lead Marketing Qualified Lead Outbound 217

Pointclear

MAY 24, 2016

Understand the price you are paying for your leads and then optimize. Document the cost per lead is the fourth of 7 Truths about Sales and Marketing that CEOs need to know. So while the leads were cost effectively generated, none panned out, and all money spent was wasted.

Sales Qualified Lead 145

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Marketing Qualified Lead Lead Scoring 145

Pointclear

MAY 23, 2017

One of the biggest software companies in the world has a division that spends over $200,000 per year on leads that sales refuses to follow-up on. Because a few years ago the sales group asked us (PointClear) to validate those so-called leads and it turned out that only 1.8% Why don’t they follow-up?

Sales Qualified Lead 160

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Marketing Qualified Lead Closing 160

Pointclear

SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

To do that you have to generate a lot of leads to get there. Run CPL campaigns! The only exception is regarding his statement about why lead generation has become a numbers game: “[Companies] are trying to get the most, qualified leads, for the cheapest price.”. Buy more lists! We need more in the top of the funnel!”.

Account Based Marketing 100

Account Based Marketing Lead Generation Cost per Lead Sales Qualified Lead 100

Pointclear

MAY 16, 2017

That is, by not using a cost-per-lead metric.) Message: Compelling "silver bullets" (conversational points) about your prospects' specific challenges, problems or concerns (vs. a scripted "blast them all" approach) let you truly interact with prospects - and progress the funnel.

Lead Rank 169

Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads Marketing Qualified Lead 169

Pointclear

JUNE 28, 2018

During the year, marketing spent a lot of money driving thousands of so-called leads—while sales reported that they got absolutely nothing of value from marketing. I asked him what percentage of leads delivered by PointClear were considered high quality and he said 100%.

Sales Qualified Lead 113

Sales Qualified Lead Revenue Lead Rank Cost per Lead 113

Pointclear

OCTOBER 5, 2018

This blog about lead cost summarizes a lot of research I have done on the subject. There is a table in that blog that recaps the cost-per-lead based on lead source. cost-per-lead—which at first glance sounds like a great deal for a B2B lead.

Lead Generation 113

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 113

Pointclear

MAY 10, 2016

Document the cost per lead — and the cost per sales accepted lead, -sales qualified lead, -closed deal. Keep leads from being ignored. Only with an allbound approach will you be able to efficiently meet your revenue goals. Make marketing accountable for sourcing revenue.

Sales Qualified Lead 177

Sales Qualified Lead Cost per Lead Marketing Lead Rank 177

Pointclear

MAY 8, 2013

We can always calculate cost per lead, acquisition costs and other related metrics. Yes, the web and social media provide metrics and, that enables marketing to show results, ROI and possibly gain value with regard to the marketing mix that use these media. Yet, still, marketing budgets get cut first.

Quota 201

Quota Cost per Lead Marketing Salary 201

Pointclear

FEBRUARY 8, 2017

Lured by the promise of easy money — "sales-ready" leads pouring in — many well intentioned b2b marketers have jumped on the "inbound marketing" bandwagon with both feet. Management is measuring marketing on the number of leads turned over to sales and on a cost-per-lead basis.

Inbound 100

Inbound Pipeline Direct Mail Cost per Lead 100

Pointclear

DECEMBER 16, 2010

Focus on qualifying and developing leads more thoroughly prior to hand-off. Deliver fewer of these more highly qualified leads to sales representatives. Part 7: Measure Beyond Cost-Per-Lead. Use cost-per-opportunity and cost-per-deal as measurement indexes.

Lead Generation 170

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring 170

Pointclear

MAY 1, 2012

In the first blog on the fallacy of using the cost-per-lead metric to measure the success of B2B lead generation investments, we looked at the nature of the problem and associated costs to the organization. B2B sale complexity impacts cost-per-lead.

Cost per Lead 181

Cost per Lead Lead Rank Lead Generation Marketing Qualified Lead 181

Pointclear

NOVEMBER 29, 2016

And, somehow, the cycle appears to be the following: CEO’s demand revenue; CMO’s crank up the lead generation machine; sales reps getting poor quality leads dumped on them; more leads are demanded at a lower cost per lead; the leads end up in a black hole sometimes called CRM.

Lead Rank 100

Lead Rank Account Marketing Qualified Lead Sales Qualified Lead 100

Pointclear

MAY 26, 2016

Keep leads from being ignored is the fifth of 7 Truths about Sales and Marketing that CEOs need to know. In the last blog we discussed the importance of cost per: Lead, Sales Accepted Lead, Sales Qualified Lead and Closed Deal.

Sales Qualified Lead 157

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 157

Pointclear

APRIL 14, 2017

Contact me at dan.mcdade@pointclear.com to discuss sales close rate, cost per lead and other topics of interest to you. However desperate you might be, doing nothing is going to get you anywhere, and doing something on the cheap is not the answer either. Doing the right something is. I promise to help.

Lead Generation 147

Lead Generation Sales Qualified Lead Outsourcing Services Pipeline 147

Pointclear

MAY 19, 2015

And there is still time in 2015 to get them right if you inspect your processes and find that these critical keys are missing: Shared (between marketing and sales) definition of a lead. Hence, marketing defaults to number of leads and cost per lead and sales ignores them for the most part.

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Cost per Lead Cold Calling Marketing 100

Pointclear

MAY 20, 2016

What percent of your organization’s leads are sourced by marketing? In the next blog in this series we will show you how to document and then optimize cost per: Lead, Sales Accepted Lead, Sales Qualified Lead and Closed Deal. How do you measure marketing’s accountability?

Marketing 133

Marketing Sales Qualified Lead Demand Generation Demand Generation Targets 133

Pointclear

MAY 30, 2012

Lead Evaluation Metrics: A Leaning Curve to Relevance in Reporting. Click to start video at this point — In response to a question on marketers defaulting to lead quantity and cost-per-lead metrics, Andrew talks about a measurement maturity cycle.

Cost per Lead 154

Cost per Lead Top of Funnel Outbound Sports 154

Pointclear

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Read Introducing the 7-Part Series Read Part 1: Agree on Lead Definition Read Part 2: Segment & Test Your Market Read Part 3: When to Use Outbound vs Inbound Read Part 4: Dedicate Qualifying Resources This blog is Part 5: Multiply Touches/Media/Cycles Stay tuned for Part 6: Fewer Leads Are Better Stay tuned for Part 7: Measure Beyond Cost-Per-Lead (..)

Sales Qualified Lead 170

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Generation Media Lead Rank 170

Jonathan Farrington

JANUARY 5, 2013

Once we expanded the analysis to include cost to qualify the leads and fully loaded cost per sales qualified lead, it was not too surprising to find an inverse relationship between cost per lead and cost per fully qualified lead. The book was published in 2011.

Data 43

Data Sales Qualified Lead PointClear Inbound 43

Pointclear

JANUARY 12, 2012

“This month we generated 1,278 leads from all sources—that’s a 30 percent gain over last year! And in spite of higher ad rates, we continue to keep our cost-per-lead under $100!”

Sales Qualified Lead 189

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Leads 189

Pointclear

JANUARY 17, 2012

They are filled with brand builders or communicators who do not possess lead generation skills and technology, or they are measured on “response rates” and “cost-per-lead,” which are the wrong metrics.

Lead Qualification 133

Lead Qualification Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Lead Leads 133

Pointclear

JUNE 10, 2016

Document the cost per lead. This needs to be documented along with the cost per sales-accepted lead, per sales-qualified lead, and closed deal. The call for ROI is getting louder from the C-suite, too.

Sales Qualified Lead 160

Sales Qualified Lead Marketing Face-to-face Inbound 160

Pointclear

AUGUST 2, 2017

Completed Companies per Week. Lead Rate. Number of Leads per Week. Cost per Lead (based on $61.50/hour Break-Even Close Rate (1 / (Margin per Deal / Cost per Lead)). . $250,000. hour and 40-hour week). Close Rate Required for 10x ROMI*.

Sales Qualified Lead 160

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Closing 160

Pointclear

MAY 17, 2018

Create a table like the one below for all the major lead generation activity at your company. It is the only way to first understand your actual cost per lead and then you can go on to calculate the cost per closed deal: Summary. 50, $1.00, $23.15, $850 and $1,235 per “lead,” respectively.

Sales Qualified Lead 100

Sales Qualified Lead Lead Rank Lead Scoring Marketing Qualified Lead 100