Phil Lauterjung

I know, the title won’t be as clever after this Easter weekend; but let me have a little fun will ya? Oh, and happy Resurrection Sunday to all those who celebrate that event this weekend.

OK, back to the business at hand. Lead Generation. How hard do you work to get leads? Pretty darn hard I would guess. I don’t actually know any company where leads overflow all on their own. Let’s assume you all work very hard to get leads, and you want to make sure you convert as many as possible into sales. No brainer, right? So, what’s your process for doing that – converting leads to sales? Don’t have one, or at least one that’s real effective? Answer these 6 questions and get that process in place.

• Do you send the requested information immediately? Immediately, like right away? Do have electronic versions you can send via email or let them download from your web site? Do you keep sufficient supplies of printed material on hand, or have the ability to print on demand? Can you get the request to the right person as soon as it comes in?

• Do you have a database in place to capture those inquiries? Do you have people or outside services to enter the data quickly?

• Do you have a process to evaluate leads before sending to sales? Statistically over 75% of all leads are not “sales ready”, and sales people will usually let them fall through the cracks eventually. Do you have a process in place to prevent that? Do have agreement with sales management as to what qualifies as a sales ready lead?

• What is your process to distribute sales ready leads? Sales ready should equal “hot”. How do you get them into the proper sales hands quickly? Can they gain access over the internet? Does your lead system integrate with your contact management or email systems?

• Do you have a lead nurturing process? That should take care of the 75% of inquiries that are not sales ready. Does your marketing program include a process using email, fax, mail, and phone to keep in touch with those prospects and feed them educational material until they’re ready to talk to sales?

• Do you have the proper measurement and tracking systems in place? Do you know which lead generation campaigns deliver the highest sales results? Can you determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead, and cost per sale? Can you track which nurturing tactics worked best? Most importantly, can you show the big boss how all of this gives him increased market share and sales?

Develop the programs and systems to provide the answers to these questions and you’ll be well on your way to growing your business. Have I left anything out? What has your experience been with lead generation and follow up?

Still looking for answers? Try my company site: Integrated LeadGen Results.

Photo Credit: Fotolia.com

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