The importance of following up on leads can never be emphasized enough. Effective and consistent lead management and follow through often makes the difference between good sales organizations and bad ones or in good salespeople and bad salespeople.

Give random salespeople a good lead and propose this question one week later: “Did you follow up on that lead?”

Good salespeople will say some version of the following:

• “Yes. I left a message Monday, talked to her on Tuesday, and sent an email this morning.”
• “We talked Monday and have been exchanging emails since.”
• “We are shipping the product today.”

Bad salespeople will tell you some version of:

• “I am waiting for him to call back.”
• “I sent an email.”
• “I didn’t get a chance to.”

The second set of responses makes me cringe in sales meetings. Read how I really feel about bad salespeople in companies. Yes, I understand people can be trained or motivated or whatever but until that is done, they are B-A-D, bad.

Leaving leads on, or in (see below), the table is something of a worldwide epidemic among the populations of salespeople and the types of leads generated. Michael Hatch at ExhbitorOnline writes about the importance of following up on leads from trade shows and other marketing events. He discusses three main points for better lead management of trade show leads:

1. Have a plan for leads before you go to the show
2. Assign responsibility for the leads to one person
3. Pick up the phone and call them

I especially like this part of this article:

Recently, the Freeman Decorating Co. tracked its rental properties for over a year and found that more than half of its rented exhibits were shipped back with the leads left inside the rented reception counters - completely forgotten.

VladS proposes automation of the follow up process as a valuable driver for sales success in his post Automating Lead Qualification and Follow Up. His list in the article is mostly about lead qualification but he says this about lead follow up:

The first step in automating lead qualification is to hold sales accountable for every lead, and this means tracking it through the pipeline and the forecast. Sales automation tools should guide, or sometimes even force the sales person to follow a particular methodology when the lead fits certain criteria. Examples include sending an automated e-mail, or creating a “to-do” task for the salesperson to contact the lead within 24 hours.

Leads are assets. Require your salespeople to follow up with sales leads. You paid for your sales leads through marketing and other lead generation efforts so follow up to make them pay off.

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