When sales says “the leads are bad”, the problem is often what happens after the form is submitted: slow replies, no owner, missing context, broken tracking, unclear definitions, no SLA and no feedback loop. Fix the handoff before you change the campaign.
“The leads are bad.” If you work in B2B marketing, you have heard that sentence. If you work in sales, you have probably said it. Most of the time the leads are not the problem. What happens to them after the form gets submitted is.
The pattern looks like this: marketing reports 40 leads this month, sales says they were all bad, and leadership asks why cost per lead keeps rising while revenue stays flat. Open the CRM and the picture often looks different. A handful of leads were contacted, some got a reply days later, some were never assigned, and nobody wrote down why the rest were “bad”. (Illustrative example, not client data.)
What is a lead handoff?
A lead handoff is the moment responsibility for a new enquiry moves from marketing, which created the demand, to sales, which follows it up. A good handoff means the lead arrives quickly, with one named owner and enough context for a relevant first conversation.
7 handoff leaks, and how to fix each one
1. Slow speed-to-lead
A B2B buyer fills in your form and then compares you with two competitors. If you reply three days later, the conversation is already happening somewhere else.
Fix: set a clear target, for example a first personal reply within one working hour. Send an instant automated confirmation and alert the right salesperson at the same moment.
2. No owner
Leads land in a shared inbox or a generic “marketing” pipeline. Everyone assumes someone else will pick them up.
Fix: every lead gets one named owner automatically, based on simple rules such as region, company size or product. If the owner does not act within the agreed time, the lead goes to a backup person.
3. Missing enrichment
Sales gets a name and an email address, then spends fifteen minutes working out who the person is, or skips that step and calls unprepared.
Fix: enrich leads before they reach sales with company size, industry, role, website and the campaign or content they came from. A short AI-written summary on the record helps, as long as a person checks it.
4. Broken tracking and no offline conversions
Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads optimise for form fills because that is all they can see. So they find more people who fill in forms, not more people who become customers.
Fix: get GA4 and conversion tracking right first. Then send CRM outcomes such as qualified lead, meeting booked and deal won back to the platforms, through Google Ads offline conversion imports and LinkedIn’s Conversions API.
5. No shared qualification criteria
Marketing calls it a lead when the form is submitted. Sales calls it a lead when there is budget and a project. Both are right by their own definition, so both are frustrated.
Fix: agree one written definition of a marketing-qualified lead and a sales-qualified lead, with three to five criteria such as company size, role, need and timing. Put them in the CRM as required fields, not in a slide deck.
6. No SLA between marketing and sales
Without an agreement, follow-up depends on how busy sales is that week. Leads that arrive on a Friday afternoon quietly die.
Fix: write a simple service-level agreement. Marketing commits to a volume and quality of leads; sales commits to a reply time and a number of follow-up attempts. Review it monthly. Issue 2 gives you a one-page template.
7. No feedback loop
Sales marks leads as “bad” but never says why, so marketing keeps buying the same audience.
Fix: add a required disqualification reason with a short dropdown: wrong company size, student or job seeker, competitor, no budget, no response. Review the reasons every two weeks and adjust targeting, forms and messaging.
For tracking help, see GA4 and conversion tracking.
Your 15-minute self-audit
Open your CRM and pick the last 20 inbound leads. Check each one against these six questions.
| Check | Question |
|---|---|
| Reply time | How many hours between the form submission and the first personal reply? |
| Owner | Was a named person assigned within an hour? |
| Context | Did the record show company, role and source without manual research? |
| Follow-up | How many contact attempts were made? |
| Outcome | Is there a clear status and, if disqualified, a reason? |
| Feedback to ads | Did the outcome go back to Google Ads or LinkedIn Ads? |
Count how many of the 20 pass all six checks. If it is fewer than half, your next euro should probably go into the handoff, not into more ad spend.
Get the free LinkedIn Lead Handoff Checklist to share with your sales team.
What readers raised
The discussion on LinkedIn surfaced two leaks in particular: nobody clearly owning a new lead in the first hours, and source data getting lost between the form, the CRM and the sales sequence. Issue 2 turns that into a one-page handoff SLA.
Frequently asked questions
Why does sales say the leads are bad?
Often because leads arrive late, without an owner or context, or under a definition sales never agreed to. Check reply times, ownership and disqualification reasons in the CRM before changing the campaign.
What is a good speed-to-lead target in B2B?
There is no universal number. A practical starting point is a first personal reply within one working hour during agreed coverage hours, adjusted to your team’s real capacity.
What is the difference between an MQL and an SQL?
An MQL meets the criteria marketing and sales agreed for passing a lead on. An SQL is one that sales has confirmed, through a real exchange, as having a relevant need and fit. Write both definitions down together.
How do I send CRM outcomes back to Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads?
Use Google Ads offline conversion imports or enhanced conversions for leads, and LinkedIn’s Conversions API, so the platforms optimise towards qualified leads and deals instead of form fills.
Want help finding where your pipeline leaks?
Sina Dadmehr is the founder of Samsina in Utrecht and the author of The Pipeline Quality Playbook. Get the next fix every Tuesday by subscribing to The Pipeline Notes on LinkedIn.
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