Why You Likely Aren’t Ready to Launch a Lead Gen Team

April 30, 2012

In case you missed it, OpenView recently released its first infographic entitled  “Are You Ready to Launch a Lead Gen Team? 6 Questions to Ask Before You Do.”

The concept came to OpenView Labs’ Kevin Cain and myself after numerous conversations within and outside of our portfolio regarding how much time, energy, money, and preparation actually goes into building a truly effective prospecting engine. It was quite apparent that most senior managers we’d initially conversed with — to no fault of their own — were having a hard time envisioning exactly what goes into setting up this type of operation. An infographic seemed to be the most appropriate delivery format, as it would serve as an easily digestible snapshot that could articulate our message.

For most companies at the expansion stage, building and managing this type of engine is completely foreign, so level-setting expectations and getting commitment of resources is key when engaging with stakeholders who want to build their company’s pipeline with this outbound approach.

Sure you could get a couple new hires, give them a phone and a lead list, and say, “Alright, start making calls now!”

But let’s be serious — that is NOT the right approach. It will only lead to failure.

And at the expansion stage — you don’t have time for failures that could have been prevented. 

In the last three years, over half of our portfolio companies have engaged with the Labs team for some guidance in launching a lead qualification/generation initiative.

LET ME BE CLEAR: They rely on our team not necessarily to do all the work for them, but rather to guide them down the right path and make sure that all the i’s are being dotted and the t’s are being crossed. We assist them in avoiding the common potential hurdles of building this type of team by helping them plan, accordingly.

This infographic, at a high level, explains what an initiative owner at a company needs to consider and/or build in order to set a lead gen team up for success. And quite frankly, if the questions it poses can’t be answered, you might as well hold off until you are comfortable and confident in each regard. Otherwise, your business will be drained of time, money, and resources taken up by backtracking.