Next chapter. Read part 5 below
(you can find part 1-4 on our GF&Z website:
- Part 1: https://www.globalmarcomm.com/?p=2850
- Part 2: https://www.globalmarcomm.com/?p=2937
- Part 3: https://www.globalmarcomm.com/?p=2992 )
- Part 4: https://www.globalmarcomm.com/?p=3045
or on my LinkedIn profile site: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwflossmann/, or on GF&Z’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/globalmarcomm or on our Twtter site at https://twitter.com/GFZglobalmarcom.)
This series of articles should help you to get an understanding about how to leverage the huge, mostly still untapped potential of valuable leads for your salesforce. And how to do it in the right way.
So far, we’ve talked about the conflict between sales and marketing, the need for integration, the potential that a lead generation strategy has for growing your business, how to integrate the leads into the sales funnel, and about generating leads for the different stages of the sales funnel.
When you look at lead generation programs nowadays, you do not infrequently get the impression that those seem to be more often, surprisingly enough, planned and designed just for the sake of generating a mass of leads. The messaging is confusing, the offer is unclear, there is no dedicated landing page, etc., etc. It´s not really clear what the purpose should be. And the metrics are corresponding. It´s been counted what the number of leads is generated by day, week, month, and year, by what source, by what cost per lead, etc. Questions like number of leads by status in the sales funnel, conversion rates from leads to opportunities to orders, or ROI, are mostly not really asked.
This is because, on the one hand, there is no expertise to generate the leads according to the sales funnel, and, on the other hand, the technological and structural infrastructure and the equipment to measure all this are missing. What is usually overlooked is that the right strategy and the right campaign and program design brings you a competitive advantage and helps you to really grow your business. Finally, we all know that, of course, it´s revenue dollars that count. These do not come by themselves.
So, it is extremely important that you make the right decisions and make the right investments. Basically, you need to consider a variety of things when it´s about lead generation:
- Define your marketing strategy along your corporate and sales strategy: what is your product portfolio–do your products need a lot of explanation with personal interaction or isn`t there much explanation needed? What is the price range of your product (this determines how many resources you should allocate, among other things)? Are your products Me-Too products or do they have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition)? What is their market position and their competition, etc.? Clear answers to all of these questions let you develop a tailored startegy.
- How do you need to integrate your sales system–is it direct, indirect, with a distribution channel, without it, or mixed? Do you have a field salesforce, do you have inside sales, etc.? Develop your marketing strategy accordingly: determine what the balance between brand development and lead generation should be and assign resources.
- Get a clear idea of who your customer is. What is the profile of your customer? If you don´thave a profile of your customers, develop one. This helps you to develop a customer and nurture him or her from a buyer into a high-value customer.
- Have a clear understanding what your market share is. Also, know what your target market(s) is or are. This shows you how much underdeveloped potential you still have or tells you that you must take market share from the competition. Do you have high enough market penetration and reach?
- What is your potential to grow in existing and, potentially, in new markets?
- Do you handle leads generated in the best way: database entry, integration with other functional areas in the company like sales, accounting, service, lead follow up and nurturing, customer behavior and customer journey, CRM, etc.? You need to have a first-class lead entry system, including the technical infrastructure and automated and personal follow-up and nurturing processes.
- Define what the balance between customer retention and new customer acquisition should be. There might be huge potential among your customer base that is not nearly exhausted. You might want to focus on that one, or you might say that you need more new customers. So, the focus will be a different one, and the campaigns and programs will be different.
Et cetera, et cetera. This and many other questions and their answers will all help you to develop a dedicated and tailored demand and lead generation strategy that supports your salesforce in the best and most effective way and definitely helps you to grow your business.
Still interested to learn more? Stay tuned for more about leads to come soon in part 6 ….
Josef W. Flossmann, EMEA Managing Director and Senior Consultant at Gilbert, Flossmann & Zhang Worldwide Marketing Consultancy.
Contact GF&Z at solutions@globalmarcomm.comm (www.globalmarcomm.com ) or the author directly at jwflossmann@globalmarcomm.com in order to discuss.