Problem: Inbound lead flow is delivering a high volume of low value opportunities

In the pursuit for operational excellence, it can be prudent to really scrutinise your processes.

A simple, but effective way of doing this is with the 5Y Analysis technique. You can find out more about the 5Y technique here: 5Y Analysis

By repeatedly asking the question “Why” (five is a good rule of thumb), you can peel away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem.

In this scenario, we have a common problem experienced by many marketing leaders and their teams; Inbound lead flow is giving us a high volume of low value oportunities.

To address this here is a common series of 'Why's' that could apply to your business:

• Why 1: Inbound campaigns are targeted to deliver a high volume of qualified sales leads or MQL's
• Why 2: Inbound is seeking to find new prospects with a common issue that we solve
• Why 3: Because we don't know who our customer is
• Why 4: Because we don't know how to profile them better
• Why 5: Becasue we have pursued a volume lead model (inbound) rather than an account specific sales and marketing strategy (ABM).

If you can be really honest, you'll come up with a logical solution to your issue.

Solution:

Using the example above, it would be prudent to identify the high value oportunities who you want to work with from within the Inbound leads generated and form an Account Based Markerting program to target those identified prospects accounts. Use inbound to create the target list.

Use ABM to approach the target list and win higher-value business.