LeadLife Co-Sponsors Aberdeen Group Research On Lead Lifecycle Management

Without a formal Lead Lifecycle Management process in place, organizations may be foregoing real revenue opportunities, according to a new research report from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company. Entitled "Lead Lifecycle Management: Building a Pipeline That Never Leaks," the findings are available through September 30, 2009 as a complimentary download from LeadLife Solutions, a provider of on-demand lead management software.

The report is based on the lead management practices from 223 organizations. Among its findings, the report uncovered three critical components of "Best-in-Class" lead management processes. These include lead scoring (practiced by 91 percent); lead nurturing (practiced by 70 percent); and segmentation (practiced by 77 percent). This "trifecta" of strategies and capabilities empowers Best-in-Class companies to maximize revenue and generate far more leads than all other organizations. The study allows organizations to benchmark current practices and performance against peers and competitors and delivers actionable recommendations on internal processes, organizational structure, performance management, knowledge management, and technology.

"Best-in-Class companies are two times more likely than all others to segment and target their customer database and use lead scoring to identify how opportunities should be marketed to, and more importantly, exactly when they should be talking to sales," said Aberdeen Research Director Ian Michiels, who is also the study's author. "Furthermore, one of the benefits derived from a more comprehensive lead lifecycle approach is the ability to identify and nurture prospects and customers who are not yet ready to purchase, but represent real revenue opportunities for an organization. The study revealed that Best-in-Class are more likely to leverage a more comprehensive nurturing program that captures revenue opportunities across the entire lead lifecycle, from acquisition to retention. In the current economy many prospects are stretching the buy cycle, so having a process in place to nurture longer-term opportunities is critical to maximizing revenue."

Best-in-Class organizations are also two times more likely than all other organizations to leverage demand generation or lead management technology, according to the report.

"The research makes it clear that the most successful companies have a deeper understanding of the lead lifecycle and can map their marketing content and interactions based on prospect behavior," said LeadLife President Lisa Cramer. "Even though your company may not be considered ‘Best in Class' today, it doesn't mean that you can't implement lead lifecycle management in a small, manageable way and drive more revenue from your sales and marketing efforts."

The report indicates that 82 percent of Best-in-Class organizations use customer behavior to map the most appropriate interactions with prospects and customers.

LeadLife Customer Transplace Profiled in Aberdeen Report
In 2008, Transplace, a leading provider of transportation management services and logistics technology, evaluated its lead acquisition process to determine if a lead management solution would help increase lead-to-sales conversion rates. The company's old process involved sending out mass emails and having a pre-sales business development team follow up on prospects that showed interest, qualify the opportunity and pass it to sales. "We were really looking for a more efficient way," said Transplace VP of Marketing Bill Hale.

LeadLife lead management technology helped Transplace automate the flow of leads from initial marketing to the time they were passed to sales. "Before, we weren't applying any scoring mechanism to the leads. We would send out a mass-market email to about 1,000 people and follow up with all the ones who made contact with us, which could be hundreds. It was a lackadaisical approach to a situation that really needed a defined process," said Hale. "Marketing automation lets us narrow down the possible opportunity so every time the prospect takes a step, we apply a score. Now we can focus on making 125 meaningful phone calls."

With the LeadLife solution, Transplace was able to double the conversion rates on qualified opportunities in the first month.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, visit: http://www.harte-hanks.com.

About LeadLife
LeadLife Solutions, Inc. is a provider of on-demand lead management software that generates, scores and nurtures leads for B2B marketers. LeadLife offers flexible and intuitive marketing software that enables marketers to automatically track, score, prioritize and nurture leads, thereby increasing the value of lead generation dollars (online and offline). LeadLife enables organizations to work smarter, not longer, increasing marketing ROI while maximizing sales resources.

SOURCE: Aberdeen Group