Marketing employees complain that sales doesn't follow up on their leads, and sales employees argue that they don't follow up because the leads are no good. The true problem is that each wants the other to qualify and develop the leads first, but someone has to bridge the gap. The reality is that today's sales force has precious little time to qualify leads. They're too busy covering large territories, dealing with current customers, making presentations and closing sales. Ultimately, lead management is a responsibility of the marketing department.
Marketing has to show accountability.
Marketing must also manage the process and close the loop, including maintaining a system for prospect feedback and ultimately, results. But the problems go deeper still. According to Harvard Business School research, it now takes 5 presentations or meetings to close a sale. The statistics reinforce the obvious notion that salespeople prefer making presentations to better qualified leads. Another major concern is the horrendous state of the data in most company files.