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If you want to be successful as a business or organization today you need to have created a clear process for the generation of leads. This process is a mix of online marketing efforts and traditional offline efforts. That along with using a sales pipeline management tool will move you your business to a lead position in your industry in lead nurturing and generation. Maximizing lead generation There are some key things to develop in marketing and sales to get to the point where you maximize everything. First of all, you need to be able to judge whether a new contact is a real lead, a prospect or a suspect. How do you treat someone at your booth at a trade show, as opposed to someone who subscribes to one of your downloads? Are traditional referrals treated differently to web site queries? Your sales staff need to focus on real prospects. Marketing efforts should catch or create a contact and that needs nurturing so it moves from suspect status to prospect status. Key to a successful sales lead process are; - Make sure as a business you agree on a definition of what a lead is. Until that criteria is met it stays with the marketing team and cannot move on to the sales team.
- For marketing contacts, you should develop a communications map and make sure it aligns with purchasing cycles. Using that map then automate the process of lead nurturing.
- Every contact interaction needs recording and kept using CRM sales pipeline software to score those leads.
- Assign priorities to each contact and score the leads and move them accordingly.
- Make sure you route leads to the sales team when they are ready after they meet the criteria and make sales do a follow-up.
Lead definition What your lead definition is depends on the contact's actions. Most people who become a part of your marketing are not ready to become a customer or client. Straight away marking them as a lead gives a false impression. A lead can be classed as someone who has a problem they need solving within a certain time. They have the budget and they also have the purchasing authority. With a sales pipeline management tool, you can better build a marketing relationship with those contacts. See that they have material that is compelling regularly sent so that when they do decide to take action, or buy something, it is you that is top on their mind. Conclusion The key tips to take away to get the best from your lead generation are; - Use a CRM sales pipeline software to record all communications. You can use one that is web-based.
- Make sure you have great material that you can send to contacts on a regular basis.
- Make sure you as a company define and are clear about what a contact is, what a suspect is, what a prospect is and what a lead is.
- Make sure that every interaction that happens is measured so you can determine whether it is ready to move up the marketing line, eventually to where it is a lead that sales take over.
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