It has been widely documented that most sales and marketing professionals do not adequately qualify and manage the leads they receive. Hence, researchers such as SiriusDecisions, a leading source of B2B sales and marketing intelligence, have found that as much as 70% or more of leads become missed revenue opportunities. When marketing works so hard to generate leads, it's a shame to leave those opportunities on the table.

Consider two leads for the same IT product. Both leads are from mid-level decision makers working with budgets of about $100,000. Company A says its decision is one month away. Company B, on the other hand, is eight months away from making a decision. Which is the better lead?

Understandably, most sales people will pounce on the lead from Company A and ignore the lead from Company B.

Yet by ignoring Early Stage leads, companies are missing out on future selling opportunities. Research from KnowledgeStorm shows that a high percentage of leads that begin their research on the Web ultimately result in an active project. The technology vendors that nurture these Early Stage leads are often in a better selling position than those vendors that later "pile on" to more advanced, but also more competitive, leads.