Capturing and acting on leads was supposed to be one of the big benefits of CRM  and the crucial link in marketing automation success. For many companies, reality falls far short of expectations.
"Most companies lose track of between 40 percent and 80 percent of all leads somewhere along the sales cycle. Technologies are still struggling to close the loop," Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone told NewsFactor.
Into the Chasm
Lead capture is not difficult in most programs, say analysts. It is what happens after capture that leaves the effort wanting. "The chasm between collecting and acting still exists in most companies," Forrester vice president Erin Kinikin told NewsFactor.
Still, the method of capturing leads is crucial to effective use. "Lead escalation must be managed via business rules. If the rules are not set up or defined well, leads will be dropped. For example, the rules should include automatic notifications to management when leads are not being addressed," says Kingstone.
But the problem is not necessarily in the software. "No matter how good the technology, CRM strategy will never succeed without the staff adopting the technology and having the right business processes in place," Greg Gianforte, CEO and founder of RightNow, told NewsFactor.
Dropping the Ball
"Some of the world's largest companies don't have a common process for accurately tracking and managing leads," Bruce Cleveland, senior vice president of Siebel Systems, told NewsFactor.
In an effort to fill the void, the better-automated systems attempt to provide end-to-end visibility.
"CRM technology today is sophisticated enough to handle seamless communication across departments to ensure those valuable sales leads don't fall through the cracks," says Gianforte.
A Better Bridge
Best-of–breed programs have several commonalities, says Kingstone. They attribute leads to a specific marketing investment; treat hot, warm and cool leads differently and appropriately; assign high-priority leads to sales and low-priority leads to marketing for future promotions and offers; notify management when a lead is unaddressed; and, capture all costs and results for a more comprehensive evaluation of marketing activities.
"Enterprise CRM suites like Siebel and PeopleSoft have broadened their marketing footprint, but most are not as functionally rich as the best-of-breed vendors Channel 1, Marketsoft, Eloqua, and Aprimo. However, the suites offer broad functionality and potentially easier integration ," Kingstone said.
But, she warns, "it is important to understand that the trade-off is not necessarily ease of integration, since integration is necessary for both CRM suites and best-of-breed marketing vendors." (continued...)
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