Do you need to set up a process to generate warm leads for your sales reps to process? Then you've come to the right place. In order for a business to grow, there are several different elements that need to be in place to make this happen. A key part of this is creating an ongoing lead generation process that creates warm leads year after year that you can process.
In this post we will tell you more about how to do this. If you want help setting up a process to get your lead generation up and running, we will of course arrange that too.
Why is lead generation particularly important today?
In the last 10 years, the traditional sales approach has changed a lot. Today, potential customers want to find the information themselves before they contact a salesperson or a salesperson contacts the customer. According to Google, about 90% of all buying journeys start with a Google search. How do you go about buying a new service or product? Do you also Google?
With this new buying journey, it is increasingly important for businesses to have a well-functioning lead generation system in place to successfully capture new business. If you then combine traditional sales with lead generation, you have an incredible amount to gain.
What is lead generation?
When it comes to lead generation, I like to look at McKinsey's model of what the customer journey looks like. If you look at the picture below, there is an orange dot where it says trigger. A trigger is a situation where a decision maker at a potential customer encounters a challenge or where a need arises. It can also be an unconscious situation where a decision-maker is exposed to something and realises that they need help with it. It could be that they see a post on LinkedIn or an ad on Facebook and thus realise their need.
In the case where a need arises, the person does different things to try to solve their problem. Most often, people choose to start looking for answers on Google first or ask colleagues and friends.
It's when people start searching on Google that you need to be visible when they're looking around. An example taken from ourselves is when someone Googles "help with digital marketing" or "what is SEO?". Then we show up on the front page of Google and hopefully they click through to our site to learn more.
Once on the website, we answer their questions and offer them help to solve their challenges and needs. Maybe it's not time to start collaborating right away, but then the goal is for them to download some premium content that's behind a form and where the exchange becomes an email address.
Like the one below:
Download our guide to Inbound Marketing This allows us at Contitude to convert our visitors into leads that we can then process at the appropriate rate without becoming too salesy. What might a flow look like when it comes to lead generation? Below is an image of what a flow might look like for lead generation:
The image above shows how you can generate leads through e.g. organic search or Ads on Google, Facebook/Facebook Ads and LinkedIn/Linkedin Ads. The goal is to get a person to click through to a landing page/blog. Once on your website, we want to try to engage them enough to convert in some way. This could be anything from downloading an e-book to booking a demo or even making a purchase.
What happens when they have converted?
Then the visitor has gone from being lukewarm to a warm and concrete lead. The next step in lead generation is that they have become an MQL, i.e. a Marketing Qualified Lead that can be further processed using so-called workflows, such as follow-up emails with relevant content. This is done in order for a potential customer to go from hot to super hot and this can take anywhere from weeks to months. This is why lead generation should be something that goes on all the time for many years. This way you are constantly replenishing new warm leads that are automatically processed to become SQL which is a Sales Qualified Lead. In other words, a lead that is mature enough for a salesperson to make contact.
Lead generation and lead scoring
In order to determine when a lead goes from an MQL to an SQL, a lead score is usually set up. This is done by scoring each time a lead does something new. This could be anything from visiting the website again to downloading some new material or reading your newsletter. There can be several different triggers that give different scores. In order for you to set a lead score, a person first needs to have given up their email address so that you can, for example, start tracking what they do on your website. When a person reaches a certain score they become an SQL and the salesperson can then make contact.
Lead Generation and Marketing Automation
To make this whole process happen, it helps if you have a Marketing Automation tool. If you want to read more about Marketing Automation, please click here. Using a Marketing Automation tool makes it easier to set up these processes and automate these elements. Once it's set up, the process can roll on and you can spend your time refining certain elements and developing new engaging content. I can promise that your sales reps will find it a dream come true to work in a CRM that also has Marketing Automation so they can see exactly what a potential customer has done over time before they decide to contact them.
Lead generation summaryAsour buying habits have changed in recent years, we need to be visible when customers are looking for new services and products. Don't think of lead generation as a one-off campaign, make it part of your strategy that rolls on year in, year out. If you choose to use a company that does these elements make sure you own all the flows and processes and that they are set up in your own systems and accounts. In other words, you want to have full ownership and control of your own lead generation. Also, make sure the company you use understands your customers' customer journey and has an understanding of the entire Inbound Marketing process. Then you'll do great!
If you'd like help getting started or help setting up the entire process for lead generation success, feel free to schedule a meeting with us below.
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