Clawbacks and Funnel Leakage

Sometimes even the best process goes awry.  The lead is nurtured, tracked, scored and handed off to sales.  But how do we close the loop and ensure that no one drops the ball?

The handoff to sales is not always successful.  Sometimes sales rejects the lead despite having passed lead scoring.  The salesrep might be unwilling or unable to connect.  But marketers must ensure the ball is never dropped.  That's where clawbacks come into the picture.

With a clawback, marketing revokes the lead that has already been passed to sales.  After a pre-defined period of time, say 30 days, if no action is taken or the lead has not reached a certain status, the lead is pulled back to marketing and reloaded into lead nurturing to ensure that tailored communications continues.

Marketers need to work to minimize funnel leakage.  Reasons why this happens can be due to several factors:

1. Assuming a prospect is ready to close, when they, in fact, are not.
2. A failure to use the right message with the right person at the right time.
3. A failed handoff to sales.
4. Fundamental loss of interest.
5. Overcommunication leading to disengagement.