Sales & Marketing Formally Define A Qualified Lead, 2011 vs 2014 [CHART]

Chart - Sales & Marketing Formally Define A Qualified Lead

If sales and marketing are to work better together, it might help to have an agreed-upon formal definition of what a qualified lead is. And yet only half of the firms responding to CSO Insights’ 2014 Sales Performance Optimization Study, underwritten by Velocify, say that that’s the case – and that percentage hasn’t shifted much in the past 3 years. Not surprisingly, the study finds that those with a formal definition tend to enjoy higher lead conversion rates.

Among those with a formally agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a qualified lead, some 29.8% claim a lead conversion rate (leads converted to opportunities) of more than 75%. By contrast, only 18.2% of firms that lack a qualified definition at all boast conversion rates at that level, as do 20.8% of firms with an informal definition. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.