Unless you are selling via your website, be it products or services, the most crucial function of your website is likely to be lead generation. Even if you are selling online, lead capturing is still the second most vital function of your website. If you are a business that is spending money on any kind of advertising or marketing, your aim is simple; to generate leads. What people don’t realise is that there is a science behind attracting and capturing quality leads. If you are a business looking to grow, don’t leave lead generation to a chance. Understanding lead generation is the first step. So, let’s get started with basics.
What are leads?
Leads are in essence the contact details of a potential customer who may be interested in your product or services. However, just because someone is interested in your product or service, doesn’t mean they are ready to buy from you. This is where quality of lead comes into play. Obviously, the hotter the lead, the better the quality. This is where most businesses go wrong. They let go of their cold or even warm leads and simply focus on the hot leads; i.e. the ones who are ready to buy now. The problem with that is that it’s exhausting in terms of both money and efforts to generate hot leads all the time. The alternative is simple. Use the hot leads for sales and other leads for educating and grooming them till they are ready to buy from you.
What is lead generation?
Well, I have kind of answered part of the question above but it’s important for you to understand the process of lead generation, so please allow me elaborate. Lead Generation is simply a method of customer acquisition; the step before your sales. You are already doing this in your business. All you need to do is replicate it online. Typically, a sales cycle would go something like this. Your business would advertise for two primary reasons – brand promotion or service/product offering. When you offer a product or service, the interested potential customers either call you directly (hot leads) or visit your website or a specific landing page for discover further about your offering. Depending upon your landing page, some of them would submit an enquiry form with their contact details (i.e. a lead). You can then discuss further details with the lead and if they are happy with your offerings, they will buy. This completes a typical sales cycle. Businesses often forget that those who didn’t buy from you, could still be a potential lead in the future – especially if they haven’t bought anything or if the product life-cycle is relatively short. This is where the opportunity lies.
Marketing Leads vs Sales Leads
There are two types of lead generation; Marketing & Sales. If you imagine a leads funnel, Marketing leads sit on the top (wider) part of the funnel, and sales leads sit towards the bottom (narrower) part of your funnel, ready for a sales decision. Most businesses act proactively towards converting sales leads into sales, however fail to do the same when converting marketing leads in to sales leads. To generate a steady supply of sales in your businesses, it is important to focus on both types equally to even out the ebb and flow of sales in your business.
Just like anything else, you may not get it right the first time. The key is to commit yourself to constantly improving it, one step at a time.
If you are looking to improve your lead conversion, email me for a free 1-hour consultation: [email protected]
Sam Gupta is the managing director of Synapse Worldwide. Sam would love to hear your thoughts on this advice column.
Tel:1300 785 230 Email: [email protected]
Web: synapseworldwide.com