Interesting thing about sales people. They always want something. Keeping the sales funnel full is a priority. One of the things which they always desire are way more leads.
And we all desire more leads, right? Keep on reading for some valuable sales tips you can use right away to help increase your business.
This article will present 3 overlooked lead generation mistakes and what to do instead. How do I know? To confess, I made these very same blunders when I was in my first marketing executive job running marketing programs for HP in the NJ/NY market. It didn't take particularly long to establish what I could have done differently and done better. It was wonderful to see the improvement in lead generation results after making some straightforward changes I hope these 3 tips help you, as well.
istake 1 Laying out cash on marketing activities that do not generate results. Often companies think that they need to implement certain marketing activities just because 'everybody else ' in their market is doing them. This can include trade shows, Internet advertising, seminars, etc. While all these marketing activities 'could ' generate a good ROI for your company, there's no guarantee that they can generate a good ROI.
What to do instead . Remember this, all marketing activities will generate activity. The question is, will that activity generate interested and qualified leads that you can finally convert into a client? Look backwards at your prior marketing activities and determine which produced the most leads. Then identify what number of those leads actually were converted into clients. Qualify your lead generation activities exactly like you would qualify a prospect. Only invest in those activities that produced a good results. If that is only one or two types of lead generation activities, and you stop doing 10 other ones, that is OK. Apply your fire power where you get a good ROI.
Mistake 2 Expecting marketing activities to produce results without a clear call to action. Here's a trade marketing secret. Pay very close attention. Ready? Ok, here goes. "If you do not ask your prospect to do something, they won't do anything." Makes sense, right?
What to do instead . Have a clear goal in mind when designing your marketing activities. Always have a clear 'call to action ' in your lead generation activities. If you want an advert to generate incoming calls, then close the ad with a 'call xxx-yyyyy for more information'. If you're giving away some valuable information (white paper, report, etc) at a trade show, only give away part of the solution.. Require the prospect to meet with a sales person to get the 'rest of the answer on how you can help them'. You get the point, right?
M istake 3 Not following up on leads. The biggest marketing sin of all times is not following up on leads produced by effective lead generation activities. After all of the energy that went into making and implementing the marketing activity has been finished and the leads are handed over to the sales team the leads go cold. Why? Because they were not made contact with.
What to do instead. A typical reason that I've heard from sales people on why they were not in a position to follow-up on their leads, is perhaps because that were looking after their current customers. "Real business, comes before lead follow-up", they assert. But, time, cash and effort was invested to generate the leads and it's a duty for sales to follow-up on them.
Make sure there's a documented and required 'lead follow-up process'.. Create liability. Have an obligation that every lead be contacted with in 'x day'.. Keep an eye on the follow-up process. Keep track of the outcome of the follow-up calls. Make success visible.
In summing up, a well thought out lead generation program and follow-up process makes filling the sales funnel far easier. Instead of a sales person spending their valuable time prospecting for possible clients, a good lead generation programme supplies them with 'warm prospects'. Give these leads the attention they deserve and they'll reward you with new clients and elevated sales.
And we all desire more leads, right? Keep on reading for some valuable sales tips you can use right away to help increase your business.
This article will present 3 overlooked lead generation mistakes and what to do instead. How do I know? To confess, I made these very same blunders when I was in my first marketing executive job running marketing programs for HP in the NJ/NY market. It didn't take particularly long to establish what I could have done differently and done better. It was wonderful to see the improvement in lead generation results after making some straightforward changes I hope these 3 tips help you, as well.
istake 1 Laying out cash on marketing activities that do not generate results. Often companies think that they need to implement certain marketing activities just because 'everybody else ' in their market is doing them. This can include trade shows, Internet advertising, seminars, etc. While all these marketing activities 'could ' generate a good ROI for your company, there's no guarantee that they can generate a good ROI.
What to do instead . Remember this, all marketing activities will generate activity. The question is, will that activity generate interested and qualified leads that you can finally convert into a client? Look backwards at your prior marketing activities and determine which produced the most leads. Then identify what number of those leads actually were converted into clients. Qualify your lead generation activities exactly like you would qualify a prospect. Only invest in those activities that produced a good results. If that is only one or two types of lead generation activities, and you stop doing 10 other ones, that is OK. Apply your fire power where you get a good ROI.
Mistake 2 Expecting marketing activities to produce results without a clear call to action. Here's a trade marketing secret. Pay very close attention. Ready? Ok, here goes. "If you do not ask your prospect to do something, they won't do anything." Makes sense, right?
What to do instead . Have a clear goal in mind when designing your marketing activities. Always have a clear 'call to action ' in your lead generation activities. If you want an advert to generate incoming calls, then close the ad with a 'call xxx-yyyyy for more information'. If you're giving away some valuable information (white paper, report, etc) at a trade show, only give away part of the solution.. Require the prospect to meet with a sales person to get the 'rest of the answer on how you can help them'. You get the point, right?
M istake 3 Not following up on leads. The biggest marketing sin of all times is not following up on leads produced by effective lead generation activities. After all of the energy that went into making and implementing the marketing activity has been finished and the leads are handed over to the sales team the leads go cold. Why? Because they were not made contact with.
What to do instead. A typical reason that I've heard from sales people on why they were not in a position to follow-up on their leads, is perhaps because that were looking after their current customers. "Real business, comes before lead follow-up", they assert. But, time, cash and effort was invested to generate the leads and it's a duty for sales to follow-up on them.
Make sure there's a documented and required 'lead follow-up process'.. Create liability. Have an obligation that every lead be contacted with in 'x day'.. Keep an eye on the follow-up process. Keep track of the outcome of the follow-up calls. Make success visible.
In summing up, a well thought out lead generation program and follow-up process makes filling the sales funnel far easier. Instead of a sales person spending their valuable time prospecting for possible clients, a good lead generation programme supplies them with 'warm prospects'. Give these leads the attention they deserve and they'll reward you with new clients and elevated sales.
About the Author:
An in-depth resource for more lead generation systems would be to visit the web site PinnacleSelling.com. There you'll find a good source of sales tips and sales strategies. These are brought straight to you by Joe Mangano, PinnacleSelling's Founder and Editor. He specializes in helping sales folks, sales management and entrepreneurs improve their sales performance.
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