I’ve become a salesforce.com expert in my company and have to admit that my interests in the system are motivated by a competitive drive to prove with nice charts and graphs the value that marketing brings to the sales process. (The Postal Service lyrics “I’ve made charts and graphs that should finally make it clear” comes to mind.)

I’m lucky enough to be in an organization with many salesforce.com experts, including a woman who was recently hired to work with our system on the sales operations side of things. In her first week on the job we had an informal meeting where I showed her how our marketing department uses the system. When I told her my ultimate goal of tracking closed/won opportunities to my campaigns she laughed and said something along the lines of, “ah, yes, but that never happens.”

So, if CRM isn’t the answer, then what is?

A collection of ideas from a blogger and podcaster I like, Brian Carroll have helped me get my head around a non-CRM approach to tracking the success of lead generation activities. Here’s my summary:

1. Work with the sales team to define a universal lead definition.

2. Launch campaigns designed to secure leads that fit into the definition.

3. Implement a closed-loop feedback program. This can be as easy as a weekly phone call with the sales people that are touching the leads.

4. Provide a mechanism for sales to return leads that aren’t sales ready to the marketing department for further cultivation.

Once in place, I expect the marketer would have, at a minimum, data on total leads generated, percent of leads that are sales-ready, and percent of leads in need of cultivation. That would be a pretty chart and gets things closer to the ideal.

Or, if you want to try things the South Park way, do this:

1) Implement closed-loop feedback

2) ?

3) Profit

Let me know which system works best for you.

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