The Complete Guide to Lead Generation Service
Lead generation is the process of generating leads for an organization or business. A lead is an individual or organization evincing interest in your products or services. This interest may have been shown by sharing their contact details with you through your website, on social media, in person at an exhibition/trade fair, or in a meeting with your representative. Business lead generation is thus the process of identifying and cultivating leads for your business with the end goal of converting these leads to customers who will generate revenue.
Types of lead generation
There are various types of lead generation activities that can be carried out to create leads. These include:
a) Telemarketing:
Telemarketing lead generation is one of the oldest and most popular forms of lead generation. In telemarketing lead generation, the telephone is used as the medium to establish contact with leads. The telephone numbers obtained from various sources are used to contact them. This may be done through outbound telemarketing or inbound telemarketing. In outbound telemarketing, telemarketing executives would call the leads and provide information on your products/services and try to convince them to become customers. In inbound telemarketing, telemarketers answer calls from enquiries who are calling for information. They provide information and try to persuade leads to buy the product/service.
b) Online:
In today’s digital world, online lead generation is becoming popular. Here, digital modes are used to generate leads. This involves online promotion of the brand and products. This can be done through posts on social media platforms. It can be through articles/blogs (content marketing) or through advertisements. All these would direct people to the website of the company. The details of the people visiting the website or social media page of the company can be captured and thus leads can be generated.
c) Cold calls:
Apart from cold calls made on phone, the process of business lead generation involves making cold calls in person. This is where the sales executive would visit people at their homes/offices and share the details of the companies and provide information on the products and services. If they show interest, their details are recorded so they can be nurtured as leads.
d) Events:
Events are conducted by either the business or by a trade body/association. These can include exhibitions/trade fairs/seminars, etc. At these events, a business would have a stall where they would interact with visitors. They would display their products, distribute brochures and provide information. Details of visitors are recorded so that they can be cultivated as leads later on.
e) Networking:
This is a popular method of lead generation in B2B (business to business). Here, sales executives meet with potential leads at different places. This may happen at conferences, workshops, or even at social gatherings. During such occasions, they interact with others and share information about themselves and their business. This is a good way to identify and acquire leads who can later be nurtured.
Why lead generation?
Organizations can either generate leads or their own using in-house resources or can use the services provided by professionals. Lead generation services are important for an organization to generate quality leads that can lead to conversions. The following are the reasons why organizations should give importance to lead generation.
- Lead generation helps to promote the brand of the organization and create awareness.
- Lead generation is the process of creating interested customers, who can then be persuaded to buy the product.
- The ultimate aim of lead generation is to create sales and earn revenue for the organization; this is why lead generation needs to be given importance and focus.
- An organization can have enquiries from many sources, they need to be qualified and nurtured as leads who will result in revenue gain. This is the reason why lead generation services need to be given importance.
- Companies that follow an effective process of lead generation have been proven to achieve 133% more sales than others. They also spend 73% of their time in sales as compared to those businesses that don’t have an effective lead generation process, who only spend 55% time in sales with the rest of the time on non-productive activities.
- 60% of all marketers have identified improved lead quality as their main challenge.
Lead generation process
When an organization uses lead generation services, it would follow a structured process for lead generation. The process would include the following:
- Lead acquisition: The first step of lead generation is to identify and acquire leads. This is the process of getting leads through the various sources as described above – telemarketing, events, networking, online, etc. During this stage, the public at large or a particular segment is provided with information on the company, its activities, and offerings. Anyone who shows interest will be considered as a lead.
- Lead nurturing: Acquiring lead is easy but nurturing them requires lot of effort and time. Nurturing is ensuring continuous interaction with leads to provide them the information they need so they become interested in making a purchase. This can be through establishing contact through emails or through telephonic calls. The end goal of nurturing is to convert the customer into a customer. Constant follow-up and patience is needed for this to happen.
- Lead scoring and qualification: Lead scoring is where leads are rated or ranked on a numerical score. Based on pre-defined parameters, scores are allotted. This helps sales personnel to prioritize leads, which will make it easy to follow-up. Lead qualification is to analyze the lead and determine if the lead fits the profile of the customer the business wants to target. It is a good way of sorting out through the lead database and deciding who are worth following-up.
- Forward to sales: The qualified leads need to be forwarded to sales so that they will start interaction and work to convert the leads to customers. At the same time, analytic can be used to measure the effectiveness of lead generation.
Undoubtedly, an organization that focuses on lead generation can help achieve their sales goals in a smooth way.
