Lead management at a company that sells over 15,000 products to more than 10,000 customers is never an easy feat. Alex Ballering, global lead management and direct marketing director at NXP semiconductors, can vouch for this. But still, in the past two years he, and his team, has ensured that leads are followed up more efficiently and this has led to deals being closed more often.
A deep dive into our complex marketing process
“Our customer journey is complex with many decision makers in between. Two years ago we decided to re-asses the definition of a qualified lead. We wondered; what information are we able to share with sales, that will tell them: ‘this is a lead you should follow’.”
With a large number of market communication channels NXP semiconductors was assured of plenty of customer and prospect data. In order to ensure smooth running’s of the process, NXP needed to determine which data needed following up and nurturing. For example; when a customer asks for a sample, sales needs to follow up on this lead. This used to be easier said than done. So how do we do it now?
A customer is a person, not a company
“We don’t profile companies, we profile individuals. We have ways of measuring their behaviour. Based on this behaviour we trigger a profile of interesting products. We can aggregate this type of information so our sales teams have a full view of all the products their customers are interested in. If a lead asks for a sample, we get their full details and furthermore we can determine what product they will most likely need and want. We decide which channel needs to follow this up. This can range for either one of our direct account managers, one of our channel managers or a partner that created this lead.”
External and internal challenges
The company started this process of change two years ago. “We thought that once the system was in place, people would abide by it and start working accordingly. Reality however, is slightly different. It is vital to engage, not only with the external customer, but also with your internal customer. Everybody needs to be aligned on this. You need to constantly evaluate: are we happy? Are we getting what we need and want? Does this make sense?”
Automating our marketing helped us on our way
Initially the biggest challenge was to automate the process. Once that was in place, people were able to appreciate what NXP had done, and how the new process worked. There is still a lot to improve. Alex will share the most important learnings and valuable tips during B2B Marketing Forum. But before he goes on stage, Ballering already shares his top three tips with the B2B Marketing Forum blog.
- Enthuse sales with the information you capture as a digital marketer.
- Show management it is one chain and not just a marketing chain or a sales chain.
- Continue to enjoy and share success, so everyone can celebrate.