For our funnel to consistently look like a funnel we need to fuel it with effective lead generation.
Many organizations think they have an effective lead generation strategy, but come to discover that their lead generation "strategy" is more a collection of tactics that don't necessarily align or payoff for the business in better inbound leads.
Take this quick survey for yourself to evaluate how well your funnel is being fueled by your current lead generation.
For each statement score your organization on a scale of 1-5 where "1" is "totally under control" and "5" is "costing me time, money and effort. Must change now!" and 2-4 are degrees between 1 and 5.
- Don’t have a clearly defined “ideal client” profile that everyone agrees upon
- Are uncertain as to the right way to get in front of enough of those ideal clients
- We struggle to sound different than the competition
- Have too much revenue coming from too few accounts
- Feel reactive to our industry and economy
- Are getting the “low hanging fruit”, but can’t seem to crack the tougher accounts that would be ideal
- We struggle to displace competitively held accounts
After adding up your scores where do you fall?
- >14 – the top of my funnel is full of “qualified” leads, but is the ratio of “leads to closes” where I think it should be and where I want it to be?
- 15-21 – lead gen is solid, but unspectacular. Might be making me sound like everyone else
- 22-28 – my lead gen is a combo of hopium, outbound prospecting and the occasional lead who stumbles through our “contact us” form
- 29+ – I’ve heard of “lead gen,” but I paid thousands of dollars to land on the first page of Google, which will bring in lots of leads any day now (any day)…
If you're in the first group ask this question - "if I asked my salespeople individually to answer the same questions what would they score?" Even better ask them to take they survey privately and share with you. Often leaders discover a material difference between their scores and the scores from their team.
If you're in one of the other groups that's okay. No one's perfect.
To prevent the fuel for your funnel from running out and increase the quality of the fuel going in implement the following:
- Co-create 3-5 ideal client avatars with all client facing groups in your organization - anyone who touches a prospect or client in your organization can provide valuable insight into what an ideal client would be. Involving other groups like marketing, customer success and operations also reduces tension between those groups and sales, which ends up creating shorter sales cycles and more long term, profitable client relationships.
- Shift your content from "self-centered" to "they're the star" - when we create content that prompts our prospect to say "yeah, I feel that way" or "that problem resonates with me" the friction that is usually present in an initial conversation between prospect and salesperson is reduced because the prospect has a small emotional connection to your company already. No prospect will great an emotional connection from statements about how long you've been in business or the awards you've won.
- Publicize your process from "hello" to "look forward to working with you" - publicizing our sales process creates enough friction to remove some of the poor quality "leads" who would otherwise waste the time of our salespeople. This also builds rapport with a prospect even before they get to "hello" with a member of your team because your prospects usually don't know how to buy what we're selling so by giving them a path from "hello" forward they feel more comfortable interacting with your salespeople whether they end up working with your company or not.
Despite what you might read online no lead gen system is perfect. We're still selling to humans who sometimes lie, don't know what they want initially or who are seeking to do the best they can with limited information. By creating a lead generation program that supports our prospects and our salespeople out funnel will have the fuel to stay full consistently.
Until next time... go lead.
