Recently, industry leader and mentor, Jim Obermayer of the Sales Lead Management Association asked for thoughts about marketing myths. So my staff and I  put our collective heads together and came up with our Top 16 Marketing Myths (or shall we say self-deceptions!). The SLMA, in turn, offered its opinion on reasons behind each myth. In some cases, we countered or elaborated. Here are the last five myths from our list.

12. BANT qualification doesn’t help.

SLMA: Every sales rep wants to know if there is a budget, if the buyer has authority to buy, if there is a genuine need (not a student, competitor or prisoner), and the time frame for delivery. Without BANT, you know very little.

DMP: Keep in mind that we strongly suggest you customize your version of BANT. Don’t use anyone else’s qualification criteria. Create your own. Without your customized BANT criteria, how can you define a qualified lead, let alone find one? Click here if you need some fresh ideas on improving your custom BANT criteria?

13. Yesterday’s reports don’t affect tomorrow’s results.

SLMA: Yesterday’s reports guide tomorrow’s decisions.  If the report says lead follow-up is only 15%, the report drives the decision for mandatory follow-up going forward.

DMP: One of the most useful by-products of a lead gen campaign is the intelligence gathered in the process. We’re not only talking about productivity metrics, but answers to all sorts of critical questions. Front lines information garnered about list/source productivity, market feedback on messaging and value propositions, competitor info – these are highly valuable and critical to making good decisions about future go-to-market activities. Click here to see some examples.

14. Marketing automation diminishes the need for staffing and human intervention.

SLMA: Marketing automation is an efficiency multiplier, not a replacement for the need for someone to ultimately speak to a prospect.

DMP: Au contraire, MA can drive the need for more IT talent, more marketing staff, and more people to qualify and triage the outfall. We find it necessitates more staff, not less. Attend an industry conference and you’ll hear this reality check over and over.

15. Prospects will self-qualify; all a company needs to do to nurture prospects is send email drip campaigns with content. (Or restated, to profile and qualify prospects, all a company needs to do is track digital content and score it.)

SLMA: Prospects have one universal trait, they lie. They don’t feel obligated to tell the truth, especially to a database. Only human intervention can elicit the truth.

DMP: We agree with the SLMA findings here. As a metrics based organization, we have the benchmarks to back it.

16. All B2B buying is done online now and minimal human (sales rep) interaction is needed.

SLMA: Certainly a lot of B2B buying is done online, but products with optional, technically challenging features, and big ticket items with variable pricing models, need human interaction to complete the sale.

DMP: Consultative selling for high value solutions will never fade.

So now we have posted our Top 16 myth busters. We invite you to share your comments and favorite marketing myths – please weigh in!

If you want to learn more about Sales Lead Management Association, please click the link.