It is becoming more common to find a lead qualification group in marketing. This group is recognized by various names, such as telemarketing, tele-qualifying, lead development, inside sales representatives, etc. In some cases, where they are encouraged to sell lower priced services and products, they belong more in sales than in marketing. But in cases where their role is to simply cultivate prospects, qualifying them before passing the lead on to sales, it is more valuable to keep them in marketing.
This further connects the revenue marketing team to their ultimate deliverable to sales and to the channel, which is warm, qualified leads and an accelerated funnel. For this team to be successful, it is critical to set up a defined and documented lead management process with clear lead quality rules, hand-offs, and service level agreements. Measuring the number of calls they make per hour, for example, is not an important exercise in measuring results. The real measure of results is the number and percentage of Sales Accepted Leads (SALs) they generate per month.
Debbie Qaqish, Rise of the Revenue Marketer
