Sales Leads

What is a sales lead, and how do you generate more qualified sales leads?

1. Start with Success: Identify Your "Ideal Prospect Profile"
Analyze your sales data to uncover your most profitable customers. Building an "ideal prospect profile" enables sales and marketing teams to focus on the sales leads most likely to convert.

2. Agree on the Definition of a Qualified Sales Lead
Once your sales and marketing teams agree on the definition of a "good" sales lead, establish lead management and nurture processes that will allow sales reps to identify and prioritize the best opportunities.

3. There's No Free Lunch: Give to Get
In exchange for personal information prospects expect something of value -- a white paper or software trial, for example. Don't request detailed demographic information at first contact; explore progressive profiling. Engage with prospects over time, requesting more information as they explore new content.

4. Build Your Relationship
Most sales leads are not purchase-ready inbound calls. If a lead has the right title, and is from the right type of company-take time to warm them up. This is especially critical as sales cycles lengthen in these tough economic times.

5. It's Not About You
Remember prospects have a business problem to solve. They want to understand if you offer the best/most affordable/complete solution to their business challenge. Focus on the problem you'll solve-not the product that you're pitching.

6. Hit 'Em While They're Hot
Unlike fine wine, leads do not improve with age. Respond as quickly as possible; research shows that only 20% of leads are worked-even though 80% of un-worked leads buy within 24 months.

7. Maintain a Marketing Mix-Hedge Your Bet
There are many reasons to "mix it up": different venues provide exposure to different audiences, a diversified mixing marketing can stabilize and even drive down your overall cost-per-lead, different platforms enable you to use different marketing vehicles... It can take 8 or more "brand exposures" to build momentum with a prospect before they respond to an offer and become a viable sales lead. Seeing your brand in a variety of venues builds brand equity, and also increases your chance of hitting a prospect as they enter an active buying cycle.

8. Take Advantage of Low-Cost/No-Cost Lead Generation Mechanisms
Web-based lead generation, employing sound SEO techniques, especially when coupled with social media drivers like Twitter, builds traffic and lead volume, driving down your overall cost-per-lead metrics.

9. Nurture, Don't "Toss"
Remember: because a sales lead has little interest in purchasing now doesn't mean that sales reps should simply disqualify the prospect and move on. As we said, 80% of prospects will buy from someone within 24 months; nurture those sales leads to ensure that they buy from you.

10. In Tough Times You Need Marketing More, Not Less
Lead generation requires increased dedication, work and attention in tough times. A recession is not the time to cut your marketing spend.