Let’s face it, in your world, qualified leads are or should be the holy grail of marketing. According to a report by Marketing Sherpa, 78% of B2B marketers biggest challenge is generating qualified leads.
Here are some tips on how you can improve your process:
- Create a plan – that will include message, method of delivery, when to hand lead to sales and measuring ROI.
- Define your USP – What is your unique selling proposition? What makes you or your offer different from the competition?
- Offer them something of value for free – If you want them to start an engagement, you need to show some good faith and give them a tool they can use everyday (conversation chart, smart phone button, competitive parts interchange).
- Match the offer to the audience – Not all messages are for all audiences. A concrete tool offer to a HVAC contractor probably won’t get much return.
- Capture and nurture leads – Once you get a lead, there has to be some qualifications done before sending it to sales. We’re not trying to overload the sales department with leads, rather we want to give them qualified leads that they are excited about calling on.
- Handing off the lead to sales – Depending on the criteria that you’ve developed, you need to forward the lead and what you know about it (in the sales funnel) so when sales calls on them, they know what to talk about, i.e., initial evaluation stages, engineering comparison questions or ready-to-buy type of questions.
- Close the loop on the lead – Did they buy? If not, why? This should be documented in a CRM system so we know why you’re gaining or losing sales.
- Review performance – Repeat what’s working and stop what isn’t.
