Lead Conversion Top Lead Generation Challenge for B2B Firms

Business-to-business firms, and professional services in particular, have a number of challenges when it comes to lead generation, but one rises to the top as the biggest concern: converting leads to revenue.

According to a poll by InTouch, 33% of B2B marketing professionals said lead conversion was the biggest challenge, followed by figuring out which names are valuable (24%) and closing the loop on every lead (23%).

When you look at the results by company size, you get a slightly different picture. Small and mid-size firms say lead conversion is the top challenge (36% and 30%, respectively), while enterprise and large firms say closing the loop on every lead is the biggest issue (46% and 50%, respectively).

Those two challenges go hand-in-hand, says Brian Carroll, CEO of InTouch and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.

“Overall, I think it’s fair to say that if these individuals were closing the loop, they would be able to understand how to improve lead quality, which would in turn raise conversion,” he writes on his blog, B2B Lead Generation Blog.

In our experience with professional services, a variety of things can go wrong, whether it be not recognizing valuable names, not converting, or not closing the loop on leads. Some of the common causes are:

Client projects taking priority, resulting in leads dropping out of the pipeline,

Not promoting a culture of commitment to lead generation,

Lack of a clear process, where leads are placed on a specific path once they enter the firm,

Having an ambiguous target profile that makes it difficult to know which leads to pursue, and

Having a poor (or non-existent) lead rating system that makes it difficult to know which leads deserve the most attention.

There are many reasons why leads are not funneled to the right person or place, but the fact is these reasons are excuses. Lead generation is an essential connector between marketing and sales that decides how successfully a firm can bring in new business and grow revenue.