Every business around can benefit from more qualified leads. As Scott Smith of lead generation company Launch Leads reminds us, “Lead generation is the life-blood of almost every growing business. In today’s competitive landscape, qualified lead generation saves a company’s resources, time, and effort through the benefits of mainly working with prospects who have a higher propensity to be more profitable.”
Great things happen when your sales team has enough qualified prospects to speak to every day.
However, it’s getting tougher to achieve success with lead generation, even though more companies than ever are working at the same goal.
Consider these ten ideas that will streamline your lead generation process.
Putting It All Together with the Proper Mindset
It’s crucial to understand that modern lead generation requires an integrated, comprehensive digital funnel. That means you need to put plenty of pieces in place first before you can expect a steady stream of revenue-generating prospects to roll in.
If you adopt the proper mindset and begin to view this process as part of your overall marketing framework, it becomes easier to snap in the fundamental components.
Integrate CRM and Marketing Automation Functions
Right off the bat, you need to integrate your CRM and marketing automation. You’ll want to have the ability to warm up prospects in your sales funnel, and automation will be the tool that allows you to.
Integration between apps is relatively straightforward these days, but you may need to set several configuration options to complete the process. Arm yourself with an overview of how all the pieces fit together before you begin setting sales stages and setting up all your automated rules.
This step will give your team unlimited power to customize follow-ups. They will be able to close more sales efficiently with the new features.Â
Use Content Marketing to Generate Leads
At the heart of any lead generation strategy, is the method used to gain the prospect’s interest. Content marketing is a popular way because it allows potential customers to engage with content before entering your sales funnel.
With well-written content that provides potential leads with a lot of information on making the purchase decision, they arrive warmed up and ready by the time they enter your funnel.
Content marketing allows you to advertise anywhere online. With a landing page and an ad, you can generate leads 24 hours per day. Content pieces will enable you to educate and persuade people as they begin to engage with your brand.
If they value the content, they are likely to want to deal more with your organization. This strategy is affordable and sustainable, especially for teams that are willing to optimize the campaigns as needed.
Collaborate with the Sales Team
Sales and marketing must work hand to hand to build the best lead generation system. Your sales and marketing teams can work together to unearth valuable insights that help define a program that produces consistent, positive results.
Work together to create a system that is flexible and powerful and customized for your enterprise’s specific needs. Sales and marketing require competent technical support and a positive attitude from management.
If the company is willing to invest in this area, they stand to earn substantial returns in the form of qualified prospects and new customers. Remember, you’re all in this together, so combining efforts is a winning strategy.
Segment Leads for the Best Results
You may get leads from a wide range of sources. That’s fine, but for best results, keep them segmented. That way, they can receive precisely timed offers from the sales team to help close sales.
A bit of perfect timing goes a long way, especially for customers who are actively in the market for your products or services.
Segmentation is a way to lower your expenses by keeping all offers on-target. Keep each contact and prospect in their proper categories to understand which segment is most profitable and actionable.
If you find specific sources perform much worse than others, you can remove them and look for increased lead quality. The source of leads and the program are two crucial factors that determine eventual success or failure.Â
Score Leads to Determine Importance
Scoring leads refers to the process of adding and subtracting points based on actions. For example, customers who click on a page on your site may receive 10 points. Another, who downloads a use case file, may gain an additional 10.
These scores will help you prioritize leads by giving precedence to those with the highest ranks. You can set the scoring however you like, so it’s an entirely flexible system that helps your sales team sort through the most valuable prospects quickly.
Nurture Prospects Who Aren’t Ready to Buy
Face it; some people won’t be ready to buy on the first contact. They may need a lot more information, or perhaps they are in a contract until a later date.
You don’t just throw these leads away; you will nurture them until they buy. Use an automated system to warm them up over time, and then you can turn them over to sales at the right moment.
Sometimes people need extra information before they push through and buy. A quick phone call or follow up email has a way of bridging the gap and closing the sales fastest.
Nurturing prospects is not always easy to understand the process, but with practice, you can turn a percentage of the “maybes” and “no’s” into definite wins.
Turn Hot Leads over to the Sales Team
If for any reason, you decide to move a prospect to the top of the priority list, you can do so easily.
You may want to in the case of someone who follows a specific “buying intent” pattern in your sales funnel. You can allow the lead score to trigger any event you want, including a quick outbound phone call from the sales staff.Â
People who are in the mood to buy act fast. Make sure your sales team follows up quickly anytime you designate a “hot lead.” If they’re far into the sales cycle, they could just as easily purchase an alternative from a competitor.
A large part of your lead generation success will come from the ability to find the hottest prospects quickly.
Once you do, turn them over and let the professionals close the sale. A great lead gen program should not just keep salespeople “busy,” it should keep them selling!Â
Close down Sales in a Timely Manner
With a robust lead generation system in place, it becomes less difficult to close sales. Your team should be able to supply prospects with all the information they need, without losing sight of their place in the sales process.
Some of your leads will develop much quicker than others. Don’t be afraid to ply them with the attention they need.
Since it’s your criteria that defines every aspect of the lead generation strategy, you can dial things in until you reach a level of peak efficiency.
Use Analytics and Reporting to Increase Conversions
It takes a bit of learning to understand analytics properly. However, if you want to generate targeted prospects, it’s a technique worth mastering.
Analytics reports help you identify ideal candidates for your products with age, locations, and exact demographic data. You may want to add both Facebook Pixels and Google Analytics tracking code to get the most out of your system.Â
This addition becomes even more crucial if you’re paying for social ads or PPCs. In that case, you cannot afford to ignore tracking and conversion data. You need to know what you’re paying for each prospect and sale. Without that information, it’s nearly impossible to earn a profit by generating leads.
No Reason to Ever Run Out of Leads
The fantastic thing about generating leads is that you can track the costs and improve results. You never have to settle for fewer points than you need. You can build more content and ad funnels to deliver leads to your company CRM.
If you focus on keeping the ad costs reasonable, your sales team will never run out potential buyers. Tracking and monitoring are the primary methods to determine what’s working and what needs scrapping.
