By: Ed Trachier – July 28, 2014

Handing a lead over to sales can be a bit tricky in B2B marketing. As the old cliché goes – timing is everything!

There are several factors to examine when deciding the timing of handing off a lead. These include:

– The amount of time the sales team has available to deal with new leads
– The experience level of the sales team
– The ability of a sales team to inform, educate and nurture new leads
– The number of leads at each level in the sales funnel 

Many of our larger B2B clients use the terms “sales qualified lead” (SQL) or “sales accepted lead” (SAL) to designate a lead that has been handed over to the sales team from marketing. In many instances, the B2B marketing department is judged and measured by the quantity of SQL's or SAL's delivered.

At OnTarget, we believe the best measure of the success of a B2B marketing campaign is SAL's, sales accepted leads. These are leads the sales team and sales executives agree match the criteria necessary for sales to take over and spend time on. That’s the kind of timing everyone wishes they could have, all the time!

– Ed

By Ed Trachier, Founder & CEO of OnTarget Partners, a B2B marketing, sales, and research solutions firm that provides Intelligence for Business. He can be reached at 469-200-4901 or at trachier@ontargetpartners.com.