Sales Lead Management Today

Are you giving your salespeople naked leads?

 

 When you ask a salesperson what they need, at first they will say, “I want more leads.”  A few months later, they will correct themselves and say, “You misunderstood, what I meant to say is that I want more qualified leads.”  Unfortunately, it is not as simple as getting a show of hands on those that want more qualified leads.  Everyone does. 

How to find qualified leads for the sales channel is the issue.  In this instance, the salespeople mean leads that are qualified to buy someone’s product.    Salespeople sometimes call the unqualified person who has not answered any questions about intent, naked leads, but they often give up after the first phone call says Gil Cargill:48% give up after the first call).   But there are several ways to get qualified leads. 

Why it’s important?

Qualified sales leads shorten the sales cycle and

increase sales while reducing marketing spending.

Marketers: Stop Hypothesizing and Start Testing

Guest Author: Jenny Vance 

Before embarking on a lead generation program, companies often believe they must have all the answers: who is the ideal customer, which market is the most ripe, what message is best.

 Companies can spend months hypothesizing about the perfect calling lists, messages and strategies before launching an appointment setting campaign and making the first call.

 I won’t go so far as to say that this is a waste of time; however, the law of diminishing margin returns takes effect very quickly sitting around a boardroom table hypothesizing about how the market will respond.

 There is a better way: let the market provide the answers.

 It’s time to start looking at your lead generation efforts differently. Lead generation is the greatest live dialog you have with prospects, and can be a powerful tool in spotting trends, honing messaging and identifying areas of market opportunity. In other words, lead generation can answer all your campaign questions without guesswork and delay.

 Lead generation campaigns provide two different kinds of data that can help you refine a lead generation campaign: call center metrics and conversation level information.

 

SEO is a lead generation technique.

James Obermayer the host of SLMA Radio interviewed Judy Key Johnson from the Key Marketing Group as she discussed Lies, Myths, Falsehoods, Deceptions and Snake Oil promises surrounding discipline of search engine optimization.  Judy covered:

• What to expect.
• What not to expect.
• What not to do.
• How much doing it will cost.
• How to choose someone to do it.
• And how long it takes to see results.

Judy Key Johnson, KMG’s founder, has been a company president and a chief operating officer of several companies and has served on a board of directors and raised venture capital.  Everyone on the KMG team meets her high standards of performance.

Some show highlights included: 

SEO is a lead geneation technique.
It's more like PR.

What NOT to expect:

• You MAY influence getting a nice spread in the paper about your business, but that doesn't guarantee a front page mention or interview.

Pitching when you aren't on your mound and other networking missteps

"It's the wind up, and the pitch!

There is a time and a place. I realize that many sales professionals, consultants, and others professionals are in a constant state of hyper-alert opportunity-seeking mode in most situations. Sometimes you have to give it a rest. Make more mental notes or voice memos if you have to. There are times when you should look to set up an opportunity to continue a conversation later. This way both of you can focus and your victim isn't walked by you and your wild-out-of-place pitch.