(Part 1 of 3)

If you pay attention to the headlines, you might come to the conclusion that cold calling is dead. It appears all one needs to do today is to load email addresses in one end of a magic machine; then out the other end come highly qualified sales leads. Tough economic times and smart people make relatively inexpensive, quick and easy marketing solutions seem very attractive. However, I think a lot of C-level and senior marketing and sales executives are failing because they are giving up on what works in exchange for snake oil solutions that will apparently save money in the short run but will be very expensive in the long run.

To set the stage, I stipulate that generating highly qualified sales leads by investing in low-quality, smile and dial prospecting never has and never will be a viable or effective option in the B2B lead generation world. Yet, it is being used today by more companies than you can imagine; and the relative ineffectiveness of this medium is pushing companies toward snake oil solutions.

For a number of reasons, there are those who feel you can outsource lead generation for complex solutions domestically for $28-32 per hour and generate qualified sales leads. Others outsource to far flung parts of the world to save money and expect to generate quality B2B leads. In fact, large organizations that depend on channel partners for revenue are often the biggest offenders—sending poor quality, unfiltered and unqualified suspects to resellers and calling them leads.

The problem in many large companies, and even some smaller ones, is that one department demands a certain number of leads, another department budgets and a third department is responsible for generating the leads within the budget. Since marketing historically receives little or no feedback on a lead-by-lead basis, a cost per lead mentality pervades and results spiral ever downward.

There are hundreds if not thousands of discussions going on in the B2B market right now about "how buyers buy" and "what sellers should do to sell more". Every single market research report about lead generation that I read states that quality is as important, if not more important, than quantity; and that lack of lead qualification criteria and failure to nurture effectively sinks ROI—yet the vast majority of marketing and sales executives give their company low marks for lead quality, lead definition and nurturing programs.

Most senior managers I speak with understand why it is important to provide field sales with high quality leads. However, there is a disconnect between that understanding and what is needed to execute a solution to the problem. Next week we will talk about the source of that disconnect.

By Dan McDade