E427: Developing And Managing Sales Leads
Manage your lead generation process to maximize your results.
Sales Leads = potential clients and opportunities brought to us through marketing
- Outbound versus inbound marketing – the difference in the leads
- Outbound = you go to customers – traditional marketing like print ads, trade shows, cold calls, etc.
- Inbound = customers come to you – word of mouth, referrals, search, content marketing
- The main difference is the state of the audience – in outbound marketing you reach many people but only a select group are looking for your services, the inbound audience is looking for your services which makes them better leads
- Determining the value of a lead
- Not all leads are of equal value
- Outbound – 1,000 people see your ad only 5 are in the market
- Inbound – 10 people see your content and all are in the market for your services
- A quick look at the math
- Spend $1,000 on ads and get 25 leads, 5 are real and you win 1 project – that project cost you $1,000
- Spend the same $1,000 on referrals and get 5 leads that are real and you win 3 projects – those projects cost you $333 each
- Not all leads are of equal value
- Focus on what delivers the best leads
- Review both you inbound and outbound efforts to determine that value that each channel delivers
- Rank them in order and focus on the channels that bring you the bet leads
- This will vary based on your business – maybe BidClerk brings you the best leads or maybe referrals do
- Continue to track and refine your efforts focusing on the top performers – remember the 80/20 rule