When is an Opportunity not an Opportunity?
If a lead lands in the forest but there is nobody there to hear it, does it still make a sound?
Let’s try a different approach. If you get a lead that comes from a prospective new customer – they have expressed an interest in a product or service – that becomes an opportunity once qualified, right? Now, if perhaps through the same demand generation process a lead comes in from an installed account – an existing customer expresses new interest in a product or service – that also becomes an opportunity, once qualified, right again?
For those of you that answered, “wrong”, to the second question I confess I am baffled.
Lately, a lot of the work I have been engaged with clients has been focusing on lead management, especially the process of moving leads into the opportunity pipeline for the sales function. Over the last several months I have encountered some organizations that don’t like to include installed accounts in their opportunity pipeline – they want to treat them differently.
So, I confess, as I am confused by this. Why is an installed opportunity different from a prospective account opportunity? Oh, you might say that because there is a different sales force assigned to each, then we need to treat the leads differently. Hardly. The opportunity pipeline is the opportunity pipeline.
If we don’t afford the same attention to leads coming from existing customers we run the risk of letting those leads disappear through cracks in the process. They are potentially viewed as less important, or the process controls do not extend to these leads and they can silently vanish because of inattention.
An opportunity for new business is an opportunity for new business whether new or old. The processes we build, the methods we follow, and the technology we used to enable each must manage all the leads and not give second class treatment to those from a friendly old customer.
If for no other reason, keep the process consistent so you don’t screw up your forecast. Opportunities that come from existing accounts are measured in the same currency as new accounts – why make your forecast complicated?
Consider this posting as a declaration for equal opportunity marketing.