1) Timely response
A qualified lead should be taken care of as promptly as possible. Prompt responses and actions for the needs and inquiries of visitors and clients, especially those large industries demanding compound products, will generate positive impressions and credibility to the customers.
Prompt response is applicable not only for more complex products and transactions; it is also an influential strategy in convincing even smaller groups of traders to make purchases.
2) Routine communication to relay significant information
Keeping in touch with prospects on a regular basis with relevant, value-added information is critical. This may include newsletters, white papers, technical updates, audio interviews or video presentations, invitations to events and so on. The key is to stay on message with high-quality information that is offered as a service to prospects.
3) Strategic conversion process
Your distinctive style of converting visitors into regular clients is a major turning point. The 80/20 policy indicates that definite ways of dealing with prospects may tend to yield productive results.
One client was who was selling six and seven figure software systems for an international software company in a past career made the very interesting discovery that ALL new clients had at some point attended a 2-hour evening workshop. Getting bums on seats in those seminars thus became the focus of lead generation activities, yielding exponential results.
What step or steps of your conversion process are responsible for most of your completed sales? What could you add to boost your conversion rates and speed up your sales cycle? What could you take out without any loss of results?
4) Various ways of contacting customers.
If you are confident that your leads are positive, plan more ways of communicating with them. Exceed the usual newsletters and use your free time by making phone calls, emails, webinars and meetings.
Mechanical and electronic mailing may seem advantageous; these are also limited to some restrictions. Large established industries may also face piles of similar emails from competitors.
One significant word is worth remembering: VALUE. Give importance and treasure your communication with your prospects and customers to maintain your productive conversion of leads.
5) Approach them with different VAK learning techniques
Various people gain knowledge by utilising their VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) views.
Most of us are visual - we learn things by visual perception.
Others are "auditory" - they learn best by hearing.
Some people are Kinesthetic - which means they discover things by performing.
Modify your ways of communication to customers by using different learning styles appropriate for each of them to strengthen your efficiency of generating leads.
For the visual facilities, take advantage of diagrams, charts, power points, and videos.
Consider audio programs, video streams with audios, and live presentations for auditory types.
Utilise interactive webinars, surveys and live workshops for kinesthetic types.
In the past, my own lead nurturing activities have been mainly print-based (specifically, wordy newsletters and articles). While these have produced good results, there's no excuse in this day and age not to offer other delivery formats including audio and video, which is what I'm doing now.
The best way to start
Sales and marketing procedures and tactics start from a good "lead nurturing" system. If you are preparing for a more intense way of nurturing leads you may use these helpful ideas:
1) Is your CRM system efficient and working well with your sales and marketing policies?
If your system is lacking an essential CRM system, your nurturing procedures will not be effectively carried out by the sales and marketing team. Most of the industrial-strength CRM that suit the needs and sizes of any organisations are offered by established organisations such as Salesforce.com.
2) Are your "closed loop tracking" properly organised?
That is, are you able to track your marketing progress right from the lead through to the sale and lifetime value of each client? Depending on the size of your organisation, this can either be relatively easy to set up or a major IT project, but the value that this provides is enormous - it allows you to concentrate on the lead generation activities that lead to the greatest number of sales conversions.
3) Are you giving your sales and marketing divisions a clear and understandable designation?
Classifying the qualified leads and focusing more on them would reduce disappointments for your team and prevent additional expenditures not only on finances but also on efforts and time.
4) Have you identified where your leverage points are?
If you know the key drivers for qualifying and closing sales (e.g. a seminar, an onsite demonstration, a product trial), you can focus your marketing efforts on driving these high-yield activities.
5) Do you have all your prospects' contact details?
Have you acquired your clients' email addresses and street and billing addresses? You might want to consider employing a database-sorting expert or well-trained telemarketers to do the cleaning and sorting of your data, and in turn, utilise it for productive generation of leads.
6) Do you have a documented lead nurturing system?
Even if your sales nurturing system is one 6-monthly followup call, that's a starting point. Which one or two things could you do to add the most value to the customer experience?
Try these:
* Convey some updates through emails and printed papers.
* Share a video stream of presentations from your CEO or other executive.
* Conduct an industry survey and report back on the results.
* Hold an event or seminar.
7) If you do have a documented followup system, are your salespeople following it?
Compliance with a documented followup system is just as important of having the system in the first place. Many CRM systems have "compliance" functions built-in, but ultimately having a system that works effectively is the surest way to get salespeople to stick to the system. - 15478
A qualified lead should be taken care of as promptly as possible. Prompt responses and actions for the needs and inquiries of visitors and clients, especially those large industries demanding compound products, will generate positive impressions and credibility to the customers.
Prompt response is applicable not only for more complex products and transactions; it is also an influential strategy in convincing even smaller groups of traders to make purchases.
2) Routine communication to relay significant information
Keeping in touch with prospects on a regular basis with relevant, value-added information is critical. This may include newsletters, white papers, technical updates, audio interviews or video presentations, invitations to events and so on. The key is to stay on message with high-quality information that is offered as a service to prospects.
3) Strategic conversion process
Your distinctive style of converting visitors into regular clients is a major turning point. The 80/20 policy indicates that definite ways of dealing with prospects may tend to yield productive results.
One client was who was selling six and seven figure software systems for an international software company in a past career made the very interesting discovery that ALL new clients had at some point attended a 2-hour evening workshop. Getting bums on seats in those seminars thus became the focus of lead generation activities, yielding exponential results.
What step or steps of your conversion process are responsible for most of your completed sales? What could you add to boost your conversion rates and speed up your sales cycle? What could you take out without any loss of results?
4) Various ways of contacting customers.
If you are confident that your leads are positive, plan more ways of communicating with them. Exceed the usual newsletters and use your free time by making phone calls, emails, webinars and meetings.
Mechanical and electronic mailing may seem advantageous; these are also limited to some restrictions. Large established industries may also face piles of similar emails from competitors.
One significant word is worth remembering: VALUE. Give importance and treasure your communication with your prospects and customers to maintain your productive conversion of leads.
5) Approach them with different VAK learning techniques
Various people gain knowledge by utilising their VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic) views.
Most of us are visual - we learn things by visual perception.
Others are "auditory" - they learn best by hearing.
Some people are Kinesthetic - which means they discover things by performing.
Modify your ways of communication to customers by using different learning styles appropriate for each of them to strengthen your efficiency of generating leads.
For the visual facilities, take advantage of diagrams, charts, power points, and videos.
Consider audio programs, video streams with audios, and live presentations for auditory types.
Utilise interactive webinars, surveys and live workshops for kinesthetic types.
In the past, my own lead nurturing activities have been mainly print-based (specifically, wordy newsletters and articles). While these have produced good results, there's no excuse in this day and age not to offer other delivery formats including audio and video, which is what I'm doing now.
The best way to start
Sales and marketing procedures and tactics start from a good "lead nurturing" system. If you are preparing for a more intense way of nurturing leads you may use these helpful ideas:
1) Is your CRM system efficient and working well with your sales and marketing policies?
If your system is lacking an essential CRM system, your nurturing procedures will not be effectively carried out by the sales and marketing team. Most of the industrial-strength CRM that suit the needs and sizes of any organisations are offered by established organisations such as Salesforce.com.
2) Are your "closed loop tracking" properly organised?
That is, are you able to track your marketing progress right from the lead through to the sale and lifetime value of each client? Depending on the size of your organisation, this can either be relatively easy to set up or a major IT project, but the value that this provides is enormous - it allows you to concentrate on the lead generation activities that lead to the greatest number of sales conversions.
3) Are you giving your sales and marketing divisions a clear and understandable designation?
Classifying the qualified leads and focusing more on them would reduce disappointments for your team and prevent additional expenditures not only on finances but also on efforts and time.
4) Have you identified where your leverage points are?
If you know the key drivers for qualifying and closing sales (e.g. a seminar, an onsite demonstration, a product trial), you can focus your marketing efforts on driving these high-yield activities.
5) Do you have all your prospects' contact details?
Have you acquired your clients' email addresses and street and billing addresses? You might want to consider employing a database-sorting expert or well-trained telemarketers to do the cleaning and sorting of your data, and in turn, utilise it for productive generation of leads.
6) Do you have a documented lead nurturing system?
Even if your sales nurturing system is one 6-monthly followup call, that's a starting point. Which one or two things could you do to add the most value to the customer experience?
Try these:
* Convey some updates through emails and printed papers.
* Share a video stream of presentations from your CEO or other executive.
* Conduct an industry survey and report back on the results.
* Hold an event or seminar.
7) If you do have a documented followup system, are your salespeople following it?
Compliance with a documented followup system is just as important of having the system in the first place. Many CRM systems have "compliance" functions built-in, but ultimately having a system that works effectively is the surest way to get salespeople to stick to the system. - 15478
About the Author:
About the author: David B. Ascot can assist your business' sales lead generation approach and give you the edge you are seeking via your online lead generation.
