In the world of marketing automation, it has become the role of the miracle-working Marketer to keep the sales pipeline healthy and clean. The days of throwing leads over the wall to Sales are long gone and in its place is lead management, more specifically, segmentation and progressive profiling.

Those sound like a bunch of fancy buzz words used to confuse consumers instead of educating them, and for someone who isn’t familiar with the process it could be. However, in terms of B2B Marketing and marketing automation proper lead management, segmentation and progressive profiling can make all the difference to having a clean pipeline.

Let’s start with Progressive Profiling. In short, progressive profiling allows you to set rules to capture of information through surveys or registration pages. It automatically changes the questions on a survey form as the prospect answers the questions. With each new interaction, a profile of the prospect is building, steadily, requesting more information as the interactions increase.  For example, if a prospect comes to your site to download a white paper, then your registration asks for their name and email address. The prospect returns to download a product brochure, then the registration form asks for their job title and location. In the ability to ask less of the prospect at the first interaction, you are more likely to receive accurate information and increase conversion rates. By requesting for more information during the course of several interactions, the prospect feels less threatened by the request of personal information as opposed to obtaining it all right off the bat.  As a result, the prospect enters a trusting relationship with you and is only followed up on by Sales when it’s most appropriate.

After the collection of data, Marketers have the responsibility to make sure each contact receives information about your product or services at the right time and place. This process is crucial in helping Sales get only leads that are interested in buying; a benefit of marketing automation is the ability to build lists by segmenting different criteria. Marketers want to know who had responded to a campaign, what their next moves were, and if they passed on the information to their colleague. To do this manually is a waste of time and resources. I’ve spoken with many marketing managers who have had to physically look up the IP addresses of their prospects to get the same kind of data. Who has time for that? Automatically segmenting data based on certain criteria you’ve gathered is what helps keep the sales pipeline clean and healthy. Only collect the information you need from prospects, when you need it and deliver material to the right people at the right time.

For more tips about lead management, you can download a copy of our white paper.