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Statistics show that the number one issue business owners face today is not having enough qualified prospects. In any industry there are many potential lead sources that can be used to supply business with qualified sales leads. Some of them are simple and inexpensive to set up, while others require more involvement. Below, we will go through the best practices for lead generation that can be applied with the least effort.
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Clik here to view.“The economic uncertainties today cause marketing and sales organizations to take fresh look at effective lead management. They also focus on lead management strategies that have a greater impact on short-term revenue.” says Rick Faulk, the President and CEO of LandslideCRM. He has great experience in marketing management and sales and has worked with the world’s most successful SaaS and technology companies. In his opinion it is essential firstly to understand how to manage sales leads, before implementing certain strategies:
- Define qualified lead – Rick says that in his experience more than 75% of the leads sent to sales departments never get actively worked. For better sales effectiveness, the sales and marketing organizations need rules of engagement. The parameters vary from company to company, but generally include: buying horizon, budget, title, geography, size of opportunity, size of company, etc.
- Nurture suspects and prospects – the leads generated by marketing usually are not ready to buy after their first interaction with a service/product. The best practice for generating revenue is to run multiple campaigns that stimulate the interest of the clients. For this, Rick recommends the usage of special offers, new product announcements and promotions.
- Respond and distribute leads quickly, implement CRM solutions – “sales close rate goes up dramatically” if you respond a prospect 24 hours later. To distinguish yourself and your company from the others on the market, you need to maintain personal contact. CRM systems like Landslide CRM and Salesforce.com are great tools for this purpose, as they will provide your sales department information about each interaction with your prospects and customers. In addition they capture the lead source and help business to:
- understand the ROI (return on investment) on lead management activities;
- save data entry time and offers complete visibility to all leads
- maintain an efficient sales process by converting more leads and assure that the right prospects get the right information to prevent losing their interest.
- maximize sales efforts – CRM systems report the quality of sales, showing where the beast leads come from and the time it takes to convert leads into active opportunities.
The top strategies for significant increase of sales leads :
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Direct mailing is the fastest and least expensive way to target “the best buyers”, which has helped many businesses double their revenues in 12 to 18 months. It uses the so called laser approach, whose target are the clients expected to buy the most of what a company offers. It consists in sending professionally copy written marketing copies to prospects monthly.
Buying leads from lead brokers and leads companies is another tactic to generate “ready to buy” leads. These types of companies are focused in setting up leads databases and sell them to companies which look for sources of consistent new business. This strategy increases business revenues by 50-75% and more. Matt Hockin, president of business marketing consulting company gives the following example for one of his clients:
“I have a client who is a very successful life insurance professional. His main source of business and income comes from buying leads from the leads companies. Since this is a “numbers game” with ebbs and flows, he always buys leads from 3 different sources to keep his leads and sales numbers consistent. On average, each lead costs about $25 and he closes about 20% of the leads that he buys. This strategy alone has makes him a top producer that makes a very nice living for himself and his family.”
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Attracting targeted traffic to your website with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Engines should be an indispensable part of each business lead generating arsenal. PPC is a paid mechanism that enables you to list your site at the top of the search engine results in Google. You don’t have to pay to be listed; you only pay when your customers click through to your site. The best PPC systems are Google Adwords and perhaps Yahoo. Before setting up a PPC campaign every businessman should first:
- Select proper key words and phrases – if wrong key phrases are sleected, they will cost too much and hardly convert into leads or sales
- Create attractive targeted ad copies to drive the loads of prospects to your website and convert them into customers
- Develop a nice landing page, where visitors come to after they click on your paid listing. It has to reflect what has been advertised in the search engine, prompting visitors to take the action you expect from them. Using home pages as landing ones is not a part of a successful PPC campaign.
More info on how to use Adwords here.
Matt Hockin gives the following real life example: “The owner of a small, highly-profitable software firm has built his business success almost entirely with only 2 marketing tools:
1. Having a Website where he offers a free 30-day trial version of his software.
2. Purchasing traffic from Google AdWords and Yahoo.
He spends up to $3.50 per click for precisely-targeted keywords and makes a high return on his investment. In fact, for every dollar he spends on keywords, he makes $5.00 to $7.00 back. This works out to a 500-700% return on investment.”
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According to Jupiter Media Metrix the quickest and easiest marketing method for a dramatic increase of sales leads is by attracting targeted “pre-sold” prospects through referral marketing systems. Referral-generated customers are the least expensive, most profitable and loyal source of new business; they negotiate less and buy quicker in larger quantities. Referral systems increase the results generated from the other marketing tactics by spreading the word about your product/service. Some statistics: Software companies get 35 % of new business from referrals and make $200,000 from just one direct mail piece sent to his referral prospects; An e-mail publisher who uses referrals as marketing promotion technique has 165,000 subscribers and receives additional 2,400 subscribers each month with no extra investment.
And finally, we should not omit advertisements. 50 % of all purchases are driven via this method. It also helps businesses to build name recognition in the market and find their niche easily. A good tactic here is to place ads in publications, blogs, or e-mail newsletters that your target audience prefers the most. Some tips here:
- use direct response ads, in which the reader has to respond to gain more information;
-use a attractive headlines that introduce the biggest benefits of your product/service;
-if you are targeting an older audience, newspaper ads are the way to go.
Continue reading:
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- “Decorate” your Business with the Art of Delegation.
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