By M. H. "Mac" McIntosh, CBC

Only one in four of the prospects that eventually buy have short-term needs, according to research done by my clients and other marketing communications organizations serving the business-to-business marketplace.

I'll bet that most of your salespeople, reps, resellers or distributors are only following up with the business-to-business sales leads they believe represent short-term sales opportunities. Why? Because most salespeople need to focus on shorter-term sales opportunities to meet their monthly and quarterly quotas and earn commissions.

If this is also the case with your company's salespeople, you may be missing three out of four sales!

To avoid missing these three out of four sales represented by the longer-term sales opportunities, try changing the measurement and compensation system to reward salespeople for following up and nurturing longer-term prospects, too. Turn those unsold business-to-business sales leads into sales.

And use some of your sales budget to fund programs designed to keep in touch with longer-term prospects until they are ready for sales attention.