Lead generation system and activities to boost sales and business growth

Do you have a clear sales process map, lead generation system and goal?

Your sale process map includes choosing the most appropriate channels for getting your message directly to your ideal customers and choosing the right marketing strategies and tactics for delivering that message effectively. It is simply a sequence of specific sales related activities that when performed properly will result in a predictable and measurable outcome.

Lead generation system is the second part of this sequence.
It entails precise targeting, to find highly responsive prospects and sleeve them through to ideal customers. encouraging qualified prospects to send you messages, connect with you and eventually ask specific questions that you can respond to with the precise answers that they need.

The internet has various platforms and channels to generate new customer interest and leads through social media, events, and promotions. Depending on your business model and how you to deliver your product or service offering, you may have chosen to put more emphasis on direct selling, or take an integrated approach and include content marketing, inbound search marketing, and social media promotions as part of your lead generation efforts.

The typical components of this sequence on how to grow your business and your profit include sets to:

STEP 1: Define qualified leads

1) Identify your ideal customer

STEP2: Develop lead management process

2) Generate leads from various marketing channels

STEP 3: Prioritize leads

3) Qualify prospects according to category

STEP 4: Nurture leads

4) Present to and interact with these prospects,
5) Convert prospects to customers with sales transaction and or contract agreement

STEP 5: Close sales
6) Service customers and follow up with them on delivery, experience
7) Deliver oustanding service

STEP 6: Optimise lead for further business
8) Ask for referral
9) Upsell on other services as appropriate.

 

Setting clear goals for lead generation

What qualities and sources of “leads” are you trying to generate? Is a lead someone who immediately fills out a subscription form? Is it someone who registers to a newsletter? Is it a request for a callback?

Most businesses do not have clear goals for their lead generation activities. By setting and defining lead generation goals, you can exactly determine the response or actions you would expect the target prospects to take as they go through each step of your sales process map and define conversion goals accordingly.

There are numerous lead generation tactics you can use but these three most cost effective methods to help your business grow sales pipeline.

• Referrals. One of the most effective and tested methods to generate new leads is through a referral system. But like all business strategies, nothing can happen if you do not initiate to get the ball rolling. Start by asking your current loyal and satisfied customers for leads. It could be a friend, a family member or a business colleague.  A single 3rdparty endorsement is more than enough and absolutely more powerful than doing a hundred proposals to generate leads.

• Search and inbound marketing.
  When a consumer or business person searches the Web through either a text box or by clicking through a directory hierarchy, he or she is in “hunt mode.” When someone is researching a product or service to satisfy an immediate or future need they desire relevant information and are open to digesting and acting on the information at their fingertips, all made possible by a search engine. Putting efforts into search and marketing information that is search friendly can result with some of the best sources of targeted traffic, and qualified leads.
• Network & Event Marketing. 
  Birds of a feather flock together. Your ideal and existing customers tend to gather at events and occasions. Conducting an event such as a party invitation, trade conference or business networking events are great occasions where there is the opportunity to tell your story, gather sales leads and transactions.

• Social media interaction and sales appointments generation.
  Using social media platforms to connect with groups, friends, customers and prospect has been a growing new way of doing business on social. People and companies post about their thought leadership,   
  

Check-in Questions for online lead generation  Yes/No  

1. Are you actively engaged in social media accounts for marketing? _______.  

2. Are you getting constant online traffic, viewers or prospective customers? _______.  

3. Are your viewers translating into increased sales revenue? _______.  

4. Set a monthly/weekly target of new viewers to get ______ number of new enquiries/ proposals/ quotations/ workshops/ training/ client bookings.

What are the significant steps you undertake on both online and offline tracks to attract new customers?  

1. An interactive website with interesting and fresh content and increasing database

2. Newsletters sent to existing customers and prospective clients 

3. Personal outreach of sales and follow-up

4. Promotions with clear network marketing, partnerships marketing

5. Prepare digital assets that prospect can subscribe to, gain valuable information and product usage tips, followed by call for action to sell or upsell suite of services or solutions to solve their problem.

6. Others 

No time or expertise to think of SMART ways to generate leads online?

We can potentially help with training and coaching you or your staff.

As marketers, we thrive on the pressure to deliver quality leads because we understand its importance. Coming up with effective and fresh ideas for lead generation is our business. Reach out to us if you would need some assistance to help you prepare lead generation actions and generate an excellent sales process map.

Here are a list of channel, tools and techniques that could make up your communications channels to deliver your sales message and lead generation system. 

Tools and potential sources to generate leads

1. Websites / Landing pages

2. Web content (organic relevant articles)

3. Warm calling

4. Viral Marketing

5. Video Demos / Infographics

6. Uberflip – maker of lead-generating social hub

7. Twitter cards

8. Testimonials

9. Television (for mass audience with bigger budget or online ads with specific tv on-demand regional)

10. Telemarketing

11. Sponsorship

12. Special Events and Promotions

13. Speaking engagements

14. Social Media Visibility (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others)

15. Social listening on Twitter, Instagram

16. SlideShare traffic to landing page

17. Set Buying Criteria

18. Seminars

19. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

20. Sampling

21. Sales Agents

22. Resellers

23. Quora

24. Quizzes

25. Qualified Lists

26. Public Relations, Press Release and Publicity

27. Promote tweets

28. Product video

29. Product Placement

30. Identify influencers

31. Premiums and Gifts

32. Postcards

33. Pop-up links

34. Podcasting

35. Paid Search

36. Optimized ‘About’ page

37. Old Leads

38. Newsletters / Subscriptions

39. Networking

40. Monitor Social Media Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others)

41. Mini Media

42. Magalogs

43. LinkedIn posts

44. Link Building

45. Line Extensions to upsell existing customers

46. Leaflet Drops or Inserts

47. LaunchBit

48. Host Beneficiary Relationships

49. Google+ communities

50. Franchising

51. Experiential Marketing

52. Exhibitions and Trade Shows

53. eBooks

54. eBay

55. Downloadable posts

56. Direct Mail / Email

57. Data.com

58. Corporate Hosts

59. Contests and Raffles

60. Competitors Resources

61. Brochures and Corporate Literature

62. Blog posts

63. Affinity/Affiliate marketing

64. AdWords

65. Advertorials and News Stories

So you see, there is a who mix of ways to generate leads and interests. The challenge is deciding which efforts will give you the most continuous return of your time invested to produce and with committed consistency to produce results. Some will come over time, some are more immediate. For a discussion to develop a lead generation plan and system for your business, we have a coaching and training program ‘Appraising New and Growing Markets’.