What to take into account when calculating Sales Qualified Lead generation goals based on company objectives *

Article part 2 of 2

What to take into account when calculating SQL objectives

So you have your calculator ready to go (download it here if you missed my first article, How to calculate Sales Qualified Lead generation goals based on company objectives, on the topic).

There are a few different elements to be taken into consideration when you play around with the calculator and in order to get to the most realistic and achieve-able scenario for your company.

Here are some elements you may want to think about:

1. Maybe you thought the average deal size for product 1 was EUR 50 000, for example, but come to find out once your campaign gets going that it is actually EUR 30 000. That change will change the lead requirement to meet the same amount of TCV
2. How long is the sales cycle for each product? If some products have an average sales cycle of 18 months, that is not TCV you can count towards your objectives for the current year
3. You may have been a bit bullish concerning the Opportunity to Win conversion rate. If it turns out to be lower than you had estimated, you may need to consider any of the following:

• generating more leads than expected for that product
• shifting focus on generating leads for a different product which sells more easily
• reviewing the BANT criteria for said product or solution — working closely together with the sales and product team for this is crucial
• working on increasing the conversion rate by training sales people in closing deals for that product. Get the sales expert for that product, the one who closes the most deals for said product, to put together a training for the sales people

4. Marketing campaign resources: what is the capacity of your marketing team?

• How much budget is available and how will you split it per channel/tactic? What is the CPL (Cost per Lead) per product and channel?
• What channels and tactics will be used in your campaigns and what resources do you have to have available in what time to get all campaign assets ready?
• Do you need social or display banner creative?
• Do you need landing pages built?
• Do you need an agency briefed?
• Do you have a go-to agency or do you need to start from scratch launching an RFI and auditing agencies plus going through pitches to find one?
• How much time will this all take ?

5. Your product-mix. Should all products really be in focus or just two or three? Do not hesitate to push back to management if their initial decision is sub-optimal and you can put together a proposal which makes more sense.

6. The sales team’s lead-management capacity. There is no sense in delivering 1000 great leads to a team of five sales people.

• How many sales people are there in the team?
• How many leads can one sales person speak to per day?
• Do sales people travel to meet customers or do they schedule calls with them?
• Are you focusing on any low-touch products which don’t require taking sales into account at all?