How Do I Generate More Qualified Leads?
Dan Mahony
CEOs Unlock Business Value by Building Scalable Sales Systems | Increase Revenue. Reduce Owner Dependency | Secure a Strong Exit. | Fractional Chief Sales Officer
In a world where businesses are faced with increasing competition, it is more important than ever to maintain your lead generation. Whether the company's in good times or bad you still need an effective strategy for generating leads so that sales go smoothly and meet long-term revenue goals
Maintaining healthy pipelines isn't just about meeting present-day needs - if anything happens tomorrow everything can change quickly.
The integration of marketing and sales functions is essential in today’s digital business climate. Prospects have become more savvy buyers. This has resulted in the need for marketing and sales to partner so sellers are equipped with more targeted, intentional, and impacting content resources.?
Custom, creative messaging is what captures the attention of new qualified buyers in today’s information-rich environment.
If you’re feeling uncertain about how to navigate this new complexity, or are pressed for time to focus on it, I’m happy to help. Guiding small and mid-sized businesses on how to generate more volume for their sales pipeline is at the heart of my Fractional VP Sales specialization.
Understanding the Buyer’s Journey
When looking to improve your lead generation approach, you should first consider the journey each new lead embarks on before becoming your customer. When laid out stage by stage, this journey is commonly illustrated as a Marketing Funnel.?
Your salespeople are the key to future business success. They'll help you win new customers and retain existing ones by ensuring they're confident in their purchase decision right from start to finish, every time. The people who work for companies like yours play an integral role not just in making leads turn into buyers but also in helping them become long-term loyal clients with repeated purchases.
Let’s add some context to these Marketing Funnel stages through the eyes of your buyer. It’s important for your sellers to recognize the various stages of the buyer’s journey so they understand how to tailor their approach as the lead transforms into a prospect, and ultimately, into a loyal customer.
A solid lead generation strategy will also serve as an attractor when recruiting top sales talent. In my previous article, Why Can’t I Find the Right Salespeople? I highlighted how top performers strive to stay in the roles that highlight their strengths, such as high-value sales activity. Having lead generation tools ready for them to use is crucial in their ability to hit the ground running.
Defining Your Target Audience
In order to get the strongest ROI when investing in lead generation, you’ll want to be intentional by capturing the attention of key contacts within businesses that align with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).?
The first step is defining your ICP. A good starting point is to analyze your current customer base by defining what stands out in your “best” customers. These may not be your highest revenue producers.
We typically find that our client's best customers have these baseline attributes…
In this critical step, you want to be sure that your contact list includes all the people who could potentially purchase from you. This means finding out which titles are most relevant for their industry, then designing a lead generation methodology with those inroads so it's easier than ever before!
Designing Sales Messaging that Resonates
Now you know who you want to contact. But, do you know what to say in order to capture their attention? How can you attract them to your company versus all the other options out there?
This is where the strength of your value proposition and your effectiveness in converting it into compelling messaging is put to the test.
With so many pieces of information coming at us from all directions, how do you stand out? The answer is simple. You need to design your unique messaging that aligns with the various stages in a Marketing Funnel- which will help guide prospects through their decision-making process and ultimately lead them towards purchasing whatever it was they were looking for.
Assume readers are viewing your content on a mobile device and committing just seconds to decide if they will finish reading a sentence or two.
I facilitate a Value Proposition Workshop that has proven itself a productive exercise to strengthen and uniquely package a company’s key points of differentiation. I’ve found that most businesses greatly benefit from getting outside perspectives to help them improve and expand their value proposition in order to uniquely separate themselves from their competition. It’s the old adage that one cannot see the forest for the trees when they are so close to it.
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Developing Lead Generation Methods
You’ve determined your target audience and designed the perfect messaging, now it's time to develop channels that will generate as many leads for you.
Here are the various lead generation methods I assess to develop the right mix of lead flow for each unique environment. To enable us to move quickly when outside sources are justified, I maintain an arsenal of lead generation resources that are fully vetted, actively utilized, and proven to generate results.
ON-HAND, OWNED DATABASE
REFERENCES / REFERRALS
OUTBOUND CAMPAIGNS
INBOUND CAMPAIGNS
Key Takeaways
? Consistent, daily focus on lead generation is essential, even during the good times.
? Attract “the right” new business by defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
? Sellers will be more effective by understanding how to engage in the buyer’s journey.
? Design high-impact sales messaging by being clear, concise, and differentiated.
? Utilize a mix of lead generation methods to create a healthy, diversified lead flow.
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If you’d like to discuss additional ways your salespeople can sharpen their skills to generate and convert more leads, contact me through any of these methods: (404)271-6767 or [email protected] , or book a?call through my Scheduling Tool.?
Another helpful resource I offer is a custom report you will receive after?investing 2-minutes taking my Sales Agility Assessment.?
Also, invite you to follow me on LinkedIn to gain exposure to future article posts that will offer more valuable selling insights.
I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.