If you define a lead as someone who is going to buy something you offer in the near future, naturally you’ll want to generate more leads. Yet, other definitions and buying stages exist for leads, such as “information gathering”. If you are becoming concerned about the time it takes to nurture leads and convert them into customers, maybe you’ll look for ways to get better qualified leads, convert them faster and engage them more consistently.
Are you on a path to improving your effectiveness, through altering and testing various media, messages and timing? You’ll know you are effective when you find ways to trigger the attention of your qualified leads. When you have their attention, you may be on the road to prosperity. But if you fail to gain their attention for an extended period of time, you may not know what to do.
What you may find especially frustrating is that you know enough to know your scenario is unique. It is unique, and therefore, you don’t want to blindly duplicate what others are doing because you don’t have unlimited time. Your prospects, their needs and behaviors, and your company’s products, services, people and budget are all distinct.
However, if your efforts don’t generate revenue quickly, you could find it difficult to adequately finance your lead generation activities, resulting in poor outcomes for the rest of your business.
Sales activities require financing. Prospecting, networking and cold calling are expensive. Therefore, cost/sales analyses should feature in discussions about lead generation. Consider the opportunity costs of sales outsourcing vs. developing and training in-house salespeople. Compare lead generation campaigns with results and costs. Which of the following costs should you quantify?
Know your audience:
• Finding out prospects’ names
• Learning about what’s important to them
• Figuring out where they go for solutions to their problems
Have your “best” people talking:
• Obtaining, developing and retaining professionalism, behavior and attitudes in salespeople
• Keeping the people best at lead generation from becoming too busy to do lead generation
• Creating and monitoring a successful hand-off process between marketing and sales
Develop successful strategies, tactics and offers:
• Developing a successful sales pitch
• Practicing delivery in order to sound comfortable, concise and natural
• Determining why prospects read your emails and yet do nothing
Qualify and nurture prospects:
• Finding prospects who are a fit
• Determining and agreeing upon criteria that defines a “qualified” prospect
• Developing processes to ensure salespeople follow up on leads generated by marketing
Measure and research:
• Software for tracking, measurement and analysis
• Ongoing market research
Are your offers, strategies and triggers getting the attention of qualified leads? At what cost? Are you worried about enduring weak triggers and extended lead generation costs?