WHAT IS THE LEAD GENERATION PROCESS?

 

Lead generation is a process in which “a suspect” (contact that we suspect may be a potential client) expresses a specific interest in our service offering.

How does this process of converting leads into customers work? It is the subject that we will deal with in this note.

WHY DO YOU NEED TO GENERATE LEADS?

Leads are the fuel that keeps your business going. Without a constant flow of leads, there is no company that can survive. The generation of demand is the basis of a business that remains afloat and grows!

Never assume that interest in your services will remain the same. New competitors emerge all the time and market conditions change. The best time to generate leads is when you don't need them. 🙂

WHAT IS THE LEAD GENERATION PROCESS LIKE?

A Lead Generation strategy takes into account the same objectives and uses activities similar to Demand Generation , but differs from it by focusing its efforts on capturing the data of the potential client, leaving aside positioning (awareness).

Taking into account this key difference, the work of lead generation focuses on the first conversion: what we want the user to do after we capture their attention. 

In online marketing, most of the time the transition occurs when the user goes from being a visitor to your website or landing page, to leaving their contact information by submitting a form in exchange for valuable content. In its offline counterpart, it usually happens when those attending an event you organize (a breakfast or a workshop, for example) leave you their data or personal cards.

I ALREADY HAVE THE LEAD, NOW WHAT DO I DO?

Once you have the contact details of a person, the next thing is to guide them through the marketing funnel to mature as a Lead. With a mix of content delivery according to the stage of the purchase cycle in which you are and constant monitoring, we can aspire to turn you into a customer 🙂

This growing process needs some key elements to have the best chance of success:

A CRM or a marketing automation platform: having a tool to manage your leads is a must. According to VentureBeat , 77% of the companies consulted and that had recently implemented business management software, recorded an increase in the conversion rate of leads.

With a CRM, your sales and marketing teams can manage and track leads until they become business opportunities and sales.

Criteria for qualifying leads: the reality is that not all the leads that enter your funnel will be material for a potential sale. You need a lead scoring criteria to focus your efforts only on the most promising opportunities. There are many ways to qualify leads, but one of the best known (and the one we use the most) is the BANT model:

Budget: Does the lead have enough budget to purchase the solution?

Authority: Does the lead influence the purchase decision or is it the one who makes the final decision?

Need: Does the client need what you offer?

Time: How long does the lead expect to close the sale?

With these 4 questions, you will have a first approach to qualify your leads.

Content designed for each phase: in previous notes we have talked about the TOFU, MOFU and BOFU contents and the importance of putting together content for each stage.

The more personalized the content, the more effective it will be. To hook our potential clients we must generate valuable content that is located at the moment of each client.

The possibilities are many. Blog notes, business cases, product demos. We must ensure that we have material that responds to different levels of depth.

Speed: Last but not least, when a lead completes a contact form, you must respond as soon as possible. Brevity means within 2 business hours. If you do it before, much better 🙂

Remember, if they left their data it is because they want to be contacted, and if you don't do it soon, a competitor will.

At this point, marketing automation is an invaluable ally. By automating the sending of your messages and content via email, you have a large part of the race won. If the contact is by phone, it is key that you have a well-oiled business management process and a team trained to efficiently manage calls.

CONCLUSION

As we mentioned at the beginning: without leads, your business will not survive. That is why a well thought out lead generation process is essential for your business to expand.

In an entrepreneurial world where most of the companies founded do not survive for more than 5 years, those that manage to generate a successful sales dynamic survive.

Sales depend on leads. So the conclusion is very simple: You have to generate leads!

What techniques are you applying to generate leads? We want to know your experience!