Why Lead Generation Is Critical to the Sales Process

Why Lead Generation Is Critical to the Sales ProcessWhy Lead Generation Is Critical to the Sales ProcessLead generation is the method ofgetting inquiries from potential customers. In the old pre-Internet days of sales, lead generation occurred at places like trade shows visitors to a companys booth would fill out a card with their contact information and turn it in to receive a call back from that companys sales team. Since the rise of the Internet, many businesses use their websites as a lead generation option. schmelzglas also offers lead generation potential, since companies can buy another companys email marketing list or pay them to promote the company on their own marketing emails. Most marketing experts recommend that companies use at least 10 different lead generation methods to ensure that their pipelines remain full. Quality Is as Important as Quantity Because lead generation is the first step in the sales process, both quality and quantity are important factors. Qual ity leads are leads that a salesperson has a good chance of closing, which means they must at least have the potential to become customers. Every lead list will have a number of junk leads people who are not qualified to buy the product for some reason but the smaller the percentage of bad leads, the less time salespeople will waste while processing that list. Quantity is also important because even a salesperson with a list of 100% good leads wont be able to close every one of them. A salesperson with 100 good leads might be able to make 10 appointments, out of which 4 will close the sale. Therefore, if a salesperson has a quota of 40 sales per month, she will need 1000 good leads per month just to make the minimum required number of sales. Each lead generation technique usually has a tradeoff between quality and quantity. For example, a form on the company website that visitors can fill in to request a call back will generate high-quality leads these visitors are very likely t o buy since theyre interested enough to want to hear more but probably wont generate a lot of leads. On the other hand, a lead list thats based on a newsletter subscription list from another company may generate a lot of leads, but they wont be nearly as interested or qualified. This tradeoff is another reason why companies are wise to use many lead generation methods. Lead Generation Services Many marketing agencies offer lead generation services for business that dont wish to develop their own systems. These agencies will often have a network of companies and websites that it uses to promote its client businesses. When a visitor expresses interest in one of the agencys clients, the agency passes that lead back to the client. Often agencies will promote their clients through a directory or list of providers, and when a visitor requests a quote for a specific service, the agency alerts the appropriate client. Most agencies will allow clients to specify the type of leads they would like to receive. For example, a company might choose to limit leads to a certain geographic region. Search engines also provide lead generation options. Any business with a website can appear on a search engine listing for related searches, and visitors can then click a link and be taken to that companys website. However, some search engines also offer a pay-per-click lead generation option. The search engine posts a link to the companys website at the top of the search results form, making it much more likely that prospective customers will choose to visit that website. However, when a visitor does click the link the search engine charges that company a small fee, as opposed to the free general listings. Companies that use pay-per-click advertising are advised to move cautiously at first, as an overly successful campaign can end up costing far more than expected