BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - June 11, 2008) - All companies are pressured to maximize sales
and marketing effectiveness to increase conversions, lead to sales revenue,
and top-line revenue growth. As a result, lead generation and management
have become top marketing pains for Chief Marketing Officers (CMO). A
recent survey conducted by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS),
revealed that Best-in-Class are 80% more likely than all others to leverage
demand generation or lead management technology. As a result, 77% of
Best-in-Class companies experience year-over-year improvement in
lead-to-sales revenue, compared to 0% of Laggards.
The top objectives causing all organizations to implement a lead management
strategy was to improve the quality of leads that are passed on to sales
(78%). The need to optimize conversion or profitablity from various sources
of leads was also identified by 64% of respondents as a top objective.
Best-in-Class companies indicated that they currently utilize customer
databases (96%), lead management/demand generation solutions (92%),
customer segmentation and targeting (88%), and scoring and prioritization
tools (77%) to automate lead management. These enabling technologies help
Best-in-Class companies experience a 192% higher average lead qualification
rate than all other organizations.
"Ultimately, Best-in-Class demonstrate a relentless focus on optimizing
lead qualification and lead management. Best-in-Class invest heavily in
processes and technologies to streamline lead management across all
business functions that interact with customers and prospects," explains
Ian Michiels, a Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen. "As a result,
Best-in-Class are able to achieve superior sales and marketing
effectiveness because they can immediately react to customers and new
prospects as these individuals interact with their sales and marketing
channels."
The report demonstrates the value of collectively leveraging organizational
practices in process, performance measurment, knowledge management and
technology to provide a foundation for lead scoring and prioritization. By
combining processes to freely pass leads between marketing and sales (81%)
and ensure that high priority leads are followed-up on first, Best-in-Class
companies are able to approach lead scoring from an organizational
perspective and optimize processes holistically across every
customer-facing function in the organization.
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the
following underwriters: Eloqua, Magnify 360, and Vtrenz. To obtain a
complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4878.
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 call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to
http://www.harte-hanks.com.
© 2008 AberdeenGroup, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617)854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Ian Michiels
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(925) 264-1824
ian.michiels@aberdeen.com