Treat your company to new customers in 2005

Brent Leary 

Happy 2005! It’s time to focus your New Year’s resolution on a most valued asset – new customers.  If it takes a village to raise a child it definitely takes leads to grow a business…and lots of them.  Many lead generation theories state 4 in 5 leads go nowhere.  In other words only 20 leads out of 100 may become business opportunities.  Of those 20 leads only 20%, or 4, are considered hot leads. 

 

Businesses need to generate large numbers of leads in order to acquire enough good customers to sufficiently grow. Referrals are the ideal (and least expensive) way to bring on new customers, but chances are you won’t receive enough to sustain your business. Finding the 4 hot leads out of 100 can be a time consuming exercise, with most time being spent on leads going nowhere.  How do you improve your lead conversion opportunities?

 

The first step in setting up a good lead generation process is creating a profile for each customer segment your company targets. This will allow you to establish what pieces of information are critical in determining whether a lead is a prospect or a suspect. You'll be able to use your profiles to determine the best vehicles to reach your intended audience. This enables you to list the criteria necessary for determining the state of the lead (hot, warm, cold) and appropriate action to take (phone, email, meeting, nothing).

 

Having a thorough understanding of your customers will allow you to search intelligently for prospects. Professional organizations, publications and trade associations all rent their membership lists, allowing companies to jumpstart lead generation efforts. Make sure you study an organization's media kit, as more informed decisions can be made. Also, data providers like Hoovers and InfoUSA have collected huge amounts of information that can be purchased.  Pricing is key, but buying information that maps to your customer profiles is crucial. Equally important is finding data providers who continually update their records to insure accuracy. Additionally, government agencies have databases you can search for prospects. The Governor's Small Business Center's Vendor Registration Database is a good example.

 

Data is only useful if it's easy to manipulate, so make sure you're buying data you can quickly and effectively use. Many of today's affordable CRM solutions have made it painless to import lead lists and execute mass email campaigns, resulting in accelerated lead qualification and shortened sales cycles. Additionally, using a CRM system to automate your leads process makes it easier to determine conversion rates, allowing you to quickly calculate ROI from each data source used.  Use your corporate website to collect and qualify leads, then route qualified leads to the appropriate people.  Think of the time and effort saved by having your website and CRM system working to find those 4 hot leads in 100.

 

Having a well planned leads management process should increase customer acquisition success rates with efficient use of company resources.  Raise a glass to all those new customers!

 

About the Author:

Leary is a partner with CRM Essentials, a customer relationship management consulting/advisory firm assisting companies to formulate and implement profitable customer-focused strategies, including sales automation, web self-service and marketing automation. He can be reached at bleary@crm-essentials.com or www.crm-essentials.com.