Lead Generation

What your business needs the most to survive and thrive!

You have advertised using Search Engines as well as Print Media.

Then why are you not getting any customers? Why are you not selling any products?

Let's face it.

If you are not actively into Lead Generation, Nurturing and Conversion, your business will not bear fruit as early or as much or as long enough as you would like it to.

Lets discuss the first of these activities here.

What exactly is Lead Generation?
Its the process of identifying qualified prospects for your business' products or services so that such prospects may be targeted with an appropriate sales message now or in the future.

Lead Generation is not without its cost. Usually, lead generation takes place for non-commodity type products or services.

In most cases, lead generation is the function of marketing while converting those leads into actual sales or customers is the job of the sales team.

Ok, now that the official business is out of the way, lets get on with what you need to do to grow your business through the roof.

It is a great feeling to go to work on a Monday morning and know that you have a bucket full of leads just waiting for you to convert to sales. So how do you get to that point?

How do you get those leads to fall into your bucket?

Ok, I hope you are taking this down. 

• You offer a product as a sample or at a reduced cost.
• If you are purveyor of physical goods, you may actually give away something solid.
• You offer a download via a website in return for an email address.
• You offer to send a sample of your product.
• Your customer may download a trial version.

In return, the prospect expresses his interest and gives you a way to begin a communication preferably a phone number or email address.


Co-registration: When a prospect signs up for a service or even a free product from another company, he is presented with an option to sign up for your messages too.

Loss-leader:You may offer one of your products for a reduced price to get the customers contact information in the hopes of selling him more profitable goods at a later date. This product offered at a lower price is called a "loss leader".

Discounts:You may offer a product for free/or a discount when the customer buys from a complementary business.

 eg. I set up sharing agreements with two of my clients: one who has an Italian restaurant and the other one who owns an upscale Chinese place. They each give out coupons for the others place to their paying customers. For most people these two may seem competitors. But as soon as the customer walks out of the Italian place, he is making plans to go to the Chinese place the next time he eats out; and vice versa.

Bird-dogs: Someone in a strategic position tells you about someone who is in the market for your kind of services. The real estate business has seen a lot of this kind of lead generation.

Competition: This is one of the most unused avenues to generate leads. You go to your competitor and buy the list of customers who are no more buying from him or who have continuously ignored his offers.

Trade Shows: This is one of the oldest methods but still quite effective up to this day.

The following modes are used mostly by Lead Generation companies.You may also use it but effectiveness is less unless you are mostly targeting your existing customers. 

Surveys: You let people fill in surveys in return for a free coupon or something quite inexpensive. Then you study the database and sell the segregated lists according to customer interest to businesses.

Competitions:  You send in the label from your empty can of soup along with your contact details. The lead generation company uses it to provide leads to FMCG(Fast Moving Consumer Goods) companies. 

Lotteries:  You are strolling in the mall and suddenly you see a shiny new  car in front of you. "Now how did this get here", you think. But soon, you are gawking at the metal beauty sitting there in all its glory. You peek through the windows and drool over the dashboard with all sorts of switches and gizmos. Then you see that there is a form you can fill in which makes you eligible to win this car in a lottery. Boom, brother ! You are now a lead for somebody's business.

Becoming a trusted authority: You become the foremost authority in your niche. People come to you for advice and eventually they hire you. You set up a web-site, you do PR and be in the news. You announce trends, you provide expert comments etc. When you are established as an authority, people  call you up for advice. Yup, you have generated a new lead for your business.

Credit Agencies: Banks, Mortgage brokers etc get their lead from the credit agencies.

Trainings, Seminars, Podcasts,Webcasts  : These are all lead-generation media. The prospective customer attends a seminar/training in a subject of his interest free of charge. This establishes that he is interested enough to spend time and money to learn more about this product or service.

1-800 Number : Make available a piece of information that is scarce elsewhere. The only way the prospect can get this information is to call you and leave his details and you will send him the information he requests by email(or postal mail).

And last but definitely the greatest: Referrals. This is the greatest of all leads in terms of your chances of converting it to a sale. If you have been referred to someone through a mutual acquaintance, you are as good as pre-qualified. 
 

What benefit does Lead Generation provide your business?

The idea behind lead Generation is to identify your prospects.  You are interested in knowing as to who is currently in the market for such goods. Or at the very least, who has thought about buying your goods, or recently bought goods similar to yours.  This will help you target your limited marketing money at those people instead of throwing it out into the wild open world.

What is the difference between Lead Generation and Advertising?
Advertising may or may not end in Sales, but Lead Generation is explicitly intended to bring in names & phone numbers or email of prospects. Advertising may be used as a means to Lead Generation.

Now that you understand Lead Generation, what do you do?
When you plan your marketing strategy, you need to decide what percentage of your yearly marketing budget will be spend on Lead Generation.