There are only 2 ways of generating leads. Both are valid. However one will produce twice the likelihood of a sale.
Generally, organisations operate from this paradigm.
You have a solution. You’re looking for someone who wants it. You tell your sales team to “go out and find them”.
Often this is undertaken in a completely scattergun approach.
Organisations insist their sales force “Make 50 calls a day”. “Book 3 meetings a day” and other forms of churn and burn.
This is a fine if you’re selling a low priced commodity like carpet cleaning where you don’t have to form relationships to sell.
However, prospecting this way is an extremely inefficient use of expensive selling resources when selling B2B or high end B2C products or services.
You can waste an enormous amount of effort just trying to locate prospects and qualifying them.
And even if you find the right person you have no idea if your prospect has the issue and looking for a solution or even open to a discussion.
Using this method can take months, even years to penetrate an account.
But there is a better way.
Over the last 14 years, having become a serious student of direct response marketing, we’ve implemented a method of lead generation which could double your conversion rate.
We have proved its effectiveness for clients ranging from solo operators to large organisations.
Here are two rules in sales we live by:
- People buy when they’re ready. Your job is to be in front of them when they are. Period.
- And someone contacting you regarding your product or service is twice as likely to buy than someone you reach out to cold.
Consumers report that they are 60% or more into the purchase decision before they decide to speak to a sales person.
Selling B2B? 87% of senior executives report that they will delve deeply into a potential supplier’s website and marketing material before making a decision to call.
So how does this translate into your business?
First, understand that marketing and sales are two sides of the same coin. And both are equally important in landing clients.
Marketing’s job is to raise interest in your target audience through education about issues they’re facing and solutions you provide. Prospects should qualify themselves in or out through your marketing process.
Marketing has done its job when qualified prospects raise their hands, contact you and say, “I’m interested, tell me more”.
Only then should “Sales” take over to deepen the relationship, eventually leading to a sale.
Given this, you’re probably wondering, “What material should I produce and how do I get in front of relevant prospects?”
The educational material should answer the following questions from your prospect’s point of view.
- Why should I be interested? Do I recognise I’m having an issue?
- What is your solution? Can I see myself applying it?
- How does your solution work? If it’s more trouble than the pain I’m in, I’m not going there!
- What results can I expect? How will this improve my circumstances?
You can create the material in many forms from video, audio and the written word. And once created you can re-use it for years.
We’ve written about this extensively in other articles which you can find at https://revealedresources.com/practical-tips
Getting it into your prospect’s hands can take two forms.
- You identify likely targets and send them the material.
- You advertise the material and invite prospects to request it. This could be online or offline advertising.
In all cases follow up with more valuable insights over time as well as phone calls as appropriate.
The key is to constantly provide value. This is not about you. It’s about them. You have to prove your worth. Build up a relationship of trust. And then, when they’re ready, they’ll contact you and be far more predisposed to cementing a deal.
This is a system we have used for years to grow both our own and our clients’ businesses.
Businesses we work with have doubled and in some cases tripled within a couple of years based on this methodology.
If you’d like more details on how we could implement it in your business, call us on (02) 9499-7958 or drop us an email.
