Cost of a Bad Lead

Over 53% of marketers spent at least 50% of their budget on lead generation, with each lead costing an average of $198.44. However, 79% of them never convert into a sale because 40% of these leads are duplicates.?

Your sales teams are probably reaching out to these leads only to find out that they are already in conversation with another rep. It results in inefficient use of your sales team’s time, poor buyer experience, and a potential hit on your brand reputation.?

So, you might be wondering “Why bother spending the precious marketing dollars on duplicate leads?” Well, for one, marketing is often measured on leads generated rather than the revenue influenced.

Furthermore, marketing runs a lot of campaigns to fill the sales pipeline. But the constant flow of lead data makes it challenging to keep the database clean and updated. It eventually results in sales teams receiving a less-than-optimal quality pipeline of leads.

Let's see how bad leads in your CRM impacts your business goals.

Types of Bad Leads

Cost of a Bad Lead

Poor-quality leads have a substantial financial impact, affecting your budget and resources in various ways. At every stage of a lead's journey, you invest valuable resources including but not limited to utilization of marketing and sales automation tools, your CRM, creating and sharing nurturing content, and the time dedicated to engaging them. While the direct costs are evident, there are also hidden expenses that aren't as easily quantifiable.

They are a bigger problem for your business than the immediately visible ones. They don’t just hurt your revenue. They hurt your customers and your brand.?

Marketing and Sales Misalignment

As Discover Org says, “When reps don’t trust their contact data, they spend time double-checking it or disregarding it altogether in favor of their own research”?When marketing solely focuses on filling the top of the funnel and pushing the problem of bad data downstream to sales, it doesn’t just undermine the effectiveness of the marketing. It becomes much tougher to prove marketing ROI and demonstrate its value.

Buyer Experience

Poor data quality can lead to customer frustration. Inaccurate information and repeated inquiries erode the buyer experience, leaving lasting negative impressions.

Brand Reputation

Your brand reputation takes years to build but moments to shatter. Incorrect customer data, irrelevant communications, and misaligned messaging can hurt your brand reputation.?

High Acquisition Costs

When you target the wrong leads due to bad data, your customer acquisition costs can increase. It takes more effort and resources to convert low-quality leads into customers.

Bad lead data is a multifaceted challenge, but with the right tools and strategies in place, you can minimize its impact and maximize your pipeline ROI.