With college games starting next weekend and pro games the following week, I can’t help thinking about how much prevent defense I will see this season.

According to Wikipedia, the Prevent Defense is a defensive alignment in American football that seeks to prevent the offense from completing a long pass or scoring a touchdown in a single play. Instead, the defense forces opponents to settle for short runs or passes. The theory is that present defense will prevent the offense from scoring and will eventually run out the clock.

The late winning coach and broadcaster, John Madden, didn’t quite agree with this definition. He has this to say about the prevent defense: "All a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning."

In marketing terms, prevent defense is comparable to waiting on inbound leads while permit offense is comparable to effective outbound. I am not an expert on football, but I can comment on three examples where playing prevent defense dramatically impacts sales and marketing spend and results:

1.       There are some who say that inbound/content marketing is king and outbound is dead. I don’t agree with those folks. Why? Inbound drives organic engagement and attracts leads, while outbound helps you target specific prospects more accurately. Very few B2B companies with a complex sale can survive on inbound alone. It’s common sense that if you wait for business to come to you, you are squandering some of the best opportunities, ceding them to more aggressive, agile competitors.   

2. Others in our industry contend that 70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before sales reps need to get involved. Unless you are talking about a pure commodity, this just isn’t accurate. B2B buyers want to engage sales before they finalize a short-list. In fact, buyers perceive that there is value interacting with sales reps at every stage of the buying process. How much money does playing prevent defense in this situation cost companies?

3. A lot of people will tell you that sales and marketing are aligned. Balderdash! They are not aligned until there is a process in place to consistently evaluate leads so that no lead is left behind. If anything, marketing automation has made it possible to get more poor-quality leads to sales faster than ever before. More leads end up in the black hole called CRM never to be seen or heard from again. It must stop. The prevent defense here is reacting to sales complaining about not getting enough leads and the leads suck by asking marketing for more leads at a lower cost each year.

Sending sales leads that suck is a lose-lose plan. Read “How Much Should a Lead Cost” to understand why.

In 30 minutes or less I can help you estimate what your lead cost should be. Just ask. Dan.mcdade@prospect-experience.com or 770-262-9021