Every salesman will tell you that generating leads is in their view, the main purpose of marketing.
When companies approach us for our services, they usually ask if we do prospect generation and in the same breath ask us how we do it, as if it were some magic formula, as if we could generate leads in a few days … Our answer to that is: It’s methodological.
What are your goals?
You have to read between the lines. These companies mainly want to generate a larger amount of prospects relative to their current situation. But before talking about quantity, you have to talk about the characteristics and quality of these leads; about what makes them a good prospect.
Also, how many leads per month, per semester, per year do you need to achieve your goals, to attain your sales and opportunity objectives?
4 key questions
To be effective at prospect generation, you have to answer these four fundamental questions:
- What market or market segment is your offer for? How big is the segment? How is its network of intermediaries structured? Are there any obstacles to getting in? What are the key success factors? What is the market perception of your offer and those of your competitors?
- Who are your potential buyers and what is their buying cycle? What motivates their purchases and what unmet needs do they have? How can you reach them effectively? Through what online and traditional channels, and with what value proposition?
- Who are your competitors and where do they come from (strategic business area, region)? How does their marketing, sales, services and product development perform? What are their strategies, their strengths? Do they have notoriety?
- Are you launching you offer into a technologically, economically, sociologically and legally prosperous environment?
Once you analyse the answers to these 4 questions, then you can develop strategy and tactics to generate leads.
Generating quality prospects
Lead generation requires that you establish and execute of a set of tactics. Although a website optimized for search by keywords (SEO) is essential, content marketing (inbound) is a must.
It would also be a mistake to underestimate the direct approach, either though print, telephone or in person at industry events. In many B2B sectors, traditional direct marketing gives very good results.
Our experience has shown that a combination of traditional and online tactics provide the desired outcomes. It’s all in the dosage and execution.
There is no miracle recipe and it’s very unlikely that you can generate any quantity of qualified leads within days. It is more realistic to expect to get there in a few weeks.
To see an example of a successful lead generation campaign, download our case study on the subject and discover how a website coupled with a relationship marketing campaign generated 877 sales opportunities in the U.S., within 5 months!
Then contact us to discuss your goals … for growth!
