By M. H. "Mac" McIntosh, CBC

Although leads tracking isn't always fun for the creative types in your marketing team, it really isn't difficult to track and measure marketing results. Start by telling your team that you can live with the fact that they won't be able to track and measure every activity, result, or dollar in revenue. Ask them to focus on those activities and results that can be tracked and measured, and don't worry about those that can't. If your sample size is large enough, you can confidently project overall results from the measurable segment.

Here are some questions to ask yourself

When designing the leads tracking process, these are the questions to ask:

• How do we best deliver messages to the people who will influence or make the final buying decisions?
• How do we stay with them as they move through their consideration and buying processes?
• How can we communicate in a way that addresses the prospects' issues and reduces the perceived risk of buying from your company?
• What can we offer that will cause the prospects to engage when they are ready to move forward with their buying processes?

In today's bottom-line environment, most technology CMOs cite an increase in B2B sales leads as a key objective of their marketing programs. To be successful in improving your marketing results and justifying your marketing investments, you must have answers to the questions noted above.

Tracking many types of leads

When developing a leads tracking plan, include any type of contact with the customer, including:

• Word of mouth leads
• Search engine/website leads
• Email leads
• Pay-per-click leads
• Phone leads
• Direct mail leads
• Trade show leads
• Advertising leads
• Face-to-face sales leads

Leads tracking software and CRM

Lead tracking is one aspect of a complete CRM solution. Leads tracking software that combines the quality of focused applications with the versatility of the all-in-one packages are becoming available at prices that even the budgets of smaller companies can handle. The ideal leads tracking software package won't just tell you where the sales are coming from, but will help increase revenue by directing salespeople to segments of your customer base that are most profitable.