Nothing happens until a sale is made. You can’t make a sale without a qualified sales lead. These two simple statements explain why sales leads are the lifeblood of every business organization, regardless of product or service. And the author, James Obermayer, President of Sales Leakage Consulting and a 25-year sales and marketing veteran, gives real, everyday practical meaning and utility to all of the typical sales and marketing aphorisms.

Obermayer begins by emphasizing the importance of making the case to everyone in the organization so that lead generation, qualification, and management can be integrated into all key business functions. In addition, he provides “business rules to operate by” as standards everyone in sales and marketing and the entire organization can use. And he shows how to measure the declining value of sales leads, giving managers the ammunition necessary to establish realistic and relevant standards.

In the second section of the book the author details all steps in the management process, including:

• Defining and identifying the different kinds of leads.
• Rank-ordering and valuing different kinds of leads.
• Reading, understanding and using the numbers to manage the entire process.
• Matching the inquiry-handling process to the type of product or service.
• Special inquiry handling concerns, such as business-to-business inquiries.
• Making the in-house or outsourcing decision.
• Minimizing leakage.
• Handling all backroom operations, such as fulfillment, tracking and distribution.
• Closing the inquiry loop.

The third section covers estimating and forecasting inquiry and lead generation, while the fourth section lists 11 essential rules for inquiry handling and management and pointers on how to get buy-in from the sales force and the rest of the organization.

All in all this the one book sales and marketing executives will refer to and use every day to manage the inquiry and lead management in their organizations.

Introduction

Section One – Making the Case

Chapter 1 Sue Makes the Sale

The Marketing Manager Presents Her Plan

Chapter 2 Business Rules to Live By

The Rule of 45: How to Predict the Future

One Exception
Identifying Sources and Leads and Converting Them

Two Business Rules
The 100% Follow-up Rule
How Marketing Complies with the Accountability Rule
The Six Ways to Prove the ROI for Sales Inquiries
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 3 Sales Inquiries: An Asset with Declining Value

How the 100% Follow-up Rule Increases Corporate Profits
Marketers as Creators of Wealth
Actions to Take from This Chapter 


Section Two – Managing the Process 


Chapter 4 Defining and Identifying Inquiries, Suspects, Prospects, and Leads

Inquiry vs. Sales Lead
Profile Questions: Understanding Buyer Intentions and Potential
Why Profile Questions Are So Important
Grading the Inquirer
Creating Questions and Answers and Coding the Results
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 5 Speaking in Numbers

Process Control in Sales and Marketing
ROI Reporting: The Proof
Benchmark Where You Are Now
Did You Buy (DUB) Studies
The Methods Used for DUB Studies
▪    DUB by Mail
▪    Email DUB Studies
▪    Telephone DUB Studies
Lead Management Reports You Can Use
▪    Total Inquiries by Representative and Region
▪    Campaign Report
▪    Inquiries by Source Type (Media)
▪    12-month Inquiry Summary by Month
▪    Inquiries by Product
▪    Inquiry Sales Closure Reports
▪    Inquiries by Region, Follow-up
▪    Return on Investment
▪    Sold vs. Lost to Competitors by Source
▪    Sold by Media Campaign (Sale by Source)
▪    Sold by Source Type
▪    Sold by Original Rank
▪    Inquiries by Rank, 12-month Total
Profile Questions and the Reports
▪    Profile Question: How Soon Will You Need This Product?
▪    Profile Question: Are You Budgeted?
▪    Profile Question: How Will You Acquire This Product?
▪    Profile Question: What Is Your Role in Evaluating This Product?
▪    Profile Question: What Is Your Application?
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 6 Managing Inquiries

Fulfill and Forget: Low Touch
Considered Purchase: Continuous Touches, Some Nurturing
Nurture Processing: Inquiries for Long, Technical Sales Cycles
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 7 B2B Inquiries: Special Handling

Marketing and Sales Stages
Marketing Qualifications Stages
Sales Stages: Funnel, Opportunity, Deal, or Pipeline
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 8 In-House or Outsource?

Pluses and Minuses
Criteria for Making the Decision
Software Providers for In-House Systems
Taking It Outside
Inquiry Management Service Providers
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 9 Inquiry Leakage

Typical Points of Inquiry Leakage
Allowing the Prospect to Reach You Their Way
Capture the Source or Lose ROI
Source or Media Types: Categories of Primary Inquiry Sources
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 10 Fulfillment, Inquiry Tracking, and Distribution

The Literature Package
▪    The Envelope
▪    The Letter
▪    The Literature
▪    Where to Buy and the BRC
▪    Common Mistakes in Fulfillment Packages
Don’t Send Literature to Competitors
Duplicate Inquiries
Tracing Inquiries from the Same Company: Historic Trace
Distributing Inquiries to Sales Territories
Sending Inquiries and Leads to Direct Salespeople
The Importance of Getting There First
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 11 Closing the Inquiry Loop

Giving Salespeople Reasons to Comply
Seven Ways to Motivate Salespeople to Follow up Inquiries
Reseller Compliance
Making It Easy to Report: Compliance, the Key to Success
Actions to Take from This Chapter


Section Three – Estimating the Number of Inquiries Needed and Finding Hot Sources

Chapter 12 Estimating How Many Inquiries Is Enough

Too Little, Too Much, or Just Right? 
The Good News: A One-Year Lead Generation Plan Gives You Sales for 18 to 20 Months
The 60% Factor: Marketing Pipeline
Why One Source of Inquiries Isn’t Enough
Gaining Market Share at an Extraordinary and Predictable Rate
Actions to Take from This Chapter 186

Chapter 13 Hot Inquiry Sources: Telemarketing and Trade Shows

Telemarketing Uses: Benefits for Marketing and Sales
Inbound—Toll Free
Inbound Telemarketing: Benefits for Marketing and Sales
Inbound Telemarketing Costs
▪    Program Setup Fees
▪    Program Management
▪    Reporting
▪    Calling Fees: Vendors
Outbound Telemarketing
Outbound Telemarketing: Benefits for Marketing and Sales
Outbound Telemarketing Costs: Vendors
Four Reasons Why Telemarketing Programs Fail
Telemarketing and Inquiry Management
Trade Show Inquiries: One of Your Hottest Sources
▪    Trade Show Best Practices
Actions to Take from This Chapter 


Section Four – Rules—Formal and Informal 


Chapter 14 Business Rules for Inquiry Management

Rule 1: Database
Rule 2: Profiling
Rule 3: Qualifying
Rule 4: Inquiry Grading
Rule 5: Information Fulfillment
Rule 6: Competitors
Rule 7: Inquiry/Lead Assignments
Rule 8: 48-Hour Opening
Rule 9: 100% Closeout
Rule 10: ROI Reporting
Rule 11: Retention of Inquirers on the Database
The Reason for Rules
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 15 Getting Cooperation from Sales

Sales Management: What’s in It for Them?
Salespeople: What’s in It for Them?
The Importance of Ease of Use
Training Salespeople: The Ongoing, Never-Ending Job
Showing the Cost of the Inquiry
Actions to Take from This Chapter

Chapter 16 How to Keep Things Dynamic and Proactive

Step One: Benchmark Your Current Follow-up and Closing
Step Two: Perform an Inquiry Handling Audit
Step Three: Create a Road Map to Fix the Problems

I've known Jim Obermayer for close to 20 years. Jim is, without doubt, the number one expert in the area of lead generation, lead management, and literally all aspects of the science of finding prospects that are interested in buying your products. His new book will help the reader develop and implement a systematic approach to generating high quality, profitable leads.

Gilbert E. Cargill
CEO
Cargill Consulting Group

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Finally, a book that gives the facts for “sales engine” success by showing marketing what they need to do to serve the sales organization! “Managing Sales Leads” shows you the procedures and numbers required to meet your quotas through defined lead generation and management metrics, leading to accurate forecasting. Regardless of the talent of your sales team, this is a sales and marketing blueprint for understanding their true capability and a factual basis for holding them accountable to sales objectives and goals.

John B. Hasbrouck
President and CEO
NewLeads, Inc.

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I have been waiting for a book like this for a long time. Whether you are just starting a lead management system or you want to make your existing process more effective, Jim Obermayer’s, Managing Sales Leads is the one resource that offers everything you need.

From designing a lead management process, to justifying a new and improved lead management system, to presenting an air-tight case for a lead management system, this book covers it all. It will help you generate more sales.

Matthew Hill
President
The Hill Group

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Generating sales leads and the management of those leads is the true test of marketing ROI. Jim Obermayer is one of the few who not only understands that but makes it easy for the rest of us to comprehend. And this is the book that clearly maps out the entire process from start to finish for beginner and pro alike. If you’re at all concerned about getting more prospects, turning more of them into customers, and improving your Marketing ROI, you must read this book.

Rick Kean
President
The Business Marketing Institute
Former Executive Director, Business Marketing Association

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Finally, someone hit the nail on the head. If you want to know the real inside strategies used by successful marketers to managing sales leads from someone who’s been in the field and seen what works and what doesn’t, read this book NOW!

Russell Kern
Founder/CEO
The Kern Organization
Author of S.U.R.E. Fire Direct Response Marketing

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Executives today are tired of marketing efforts wasting their company’s valuable resources. In Managing Sales Leads, Obermayer provides a measurable method of marketing guaranteed to gain market share at an extraordinary and predictable rate.

Pamela Wasley
CEO/President
Cerius Consulting