Who is “The Lord of the Leads” (TLOTL)?

1) Short-answer:The Lord of the Leads is the personal brand of me, Tom Scearce, the author of this blog. TLOTL is a moniker I was given by a colleague on the management team of Speakeasy, a B2B communications company, where I served as Vice President of Market Development, with responsibility for all direct and indirect demand generation programs. We sold Speakeasy to Best Buy in 2007, and in 2010 Speakeasy merged with former rivals Covad and Megapath. Best Buy maintains a minority stake in the new company.

2) Long answer: TLOTL is a call to action for the participants in this blog — author, guest posters, and readers – to share information and inspiration that promote mastery of modern marketing and sales techniques; to create more Lords (or Ladies, if you prefer) of the Leads.

But why do we care about something as (seemingly) tactical as leads? Well, let’s work backwards from the desirable outcome of a sustainably successful business.

In order to serve customers, retain employees, and drive shareholder value over the long term, a business must be consistently profitable.

Consistent profitability occurs when a firm learns how to predictably manage revenue, cost of goods sold, and expenses.

Most of this blog’s readers are primarily charged with growing the customer base and driving revenue.

Revenue occurs when a salesperson sells a product (or service) to a buyer.

To drive revenue, most companies invest in all three legs of this stool: salespeople, products, and buyers. Many successful companies have adopted rigorous methods for measuring their return on investment (ROI) in salespeople and products. The ROI on attracting buyers (marketing and pre-sales spend) has gotten comparatively less scrutiny.

For some budget-holders, this relative ambiguity may not be an urgent problem to solve. But if you’re at all like me, the squishiness of the status quo is uncomfortable.

Sales and Product executives are expected to deliver against revenue targets, forecasts, feature lists, release dates, and customer satisfaction scores. But you know that if not enough people want to engage your salespeople, the product won’t be sold, and none of those other measures will matter. And because you don’t usually wait for an invitation to act (or an axe to fall), you proactively look for ways to improve how buyers connect to your salespeople.

So, naturally, you see leads not as a tactical marketing or pre-sales activity, but as a measurable business process that can help predict revenue growth And you work to build a better “revenue mousetrap” by answering all the hard questions you can about leads.

What exactly is a lead for our business?
Where do leads come from? And why do they come to us?
Do we pay for leads now? Should we pay for leads? And if so, how much should we pay?
What is the “useful life” of a lead?
How long is a lead a lead before it becomes something else? And what is that something else?
Do all leads become something else? And if not, why not?
What does the person who we call a lead expect to learn or do before he/she engages a salesperson?
Do all leads get handled correctly by marketing and/or sales? Or do some leads occasionally “fall on the floor?”
How can we help sales avoid wasting time on the leads that aren’t ready to engage?
How do we help the sales team maximize the value, or the “yield”, of the leads we generate?
How should we communicate with leads who have talked to a salesperson but — for whatever reason — aren’t ready to engage further right now?
How should we communicate with leads who are not a good fit for our product/service, so that our long-term business interests are served?
How many leads of what quality do we need to buy/develop now, so that sales can make quota later?
What kinds of tools, methods, and vendors can help us manage leads more effectively?
How do I effectively explain what I know about leads to top management, to my peers, and to my staff?
How does my understanding of leads make me an asset to the sales team?
How will becoming an expert on leads enhance my career prospects?