How Leads Are Qualified
Today, lead generation has become essential more than ever. If you look at Google Trends, the search for “lead generation” sees continuous and consistent hikes, especially after 2015-
A similar hike is seen even for the query, “lead generation companies” on Google Trends-
The demand for lead generation companies have increased because of the following challenges faced by the most in-house sales and marketing teams-
- Finding and attracting high-quality leads in a short time
- Understanding their actual requirements
- Pitching them with relevant questions, messaging, etc.
- Getting a response from those leads
- Spending more time on administrative tasks
- And more
Businesses hire a lead generation company to achieve qualified leads faster, allowing their in-house sales team to nurture customer relationships.
Let’s find out how lead generation companies get you highly qualified leads-
1) They research and analyze everything about your business.
As the lead generation companies are going to generate business for you, they need to understand everything about your business.
They try to learn in detail about your,
- Products and services
- The terms on which you work
- Past and current customers
Once they have a clear understanding of this, they can communicate better with your potential customers.
2) They work on understanding your potential customers.
Without understanding who could be your potential buyers, lead generation is not possible.
The moment you share what kind of leads you want, the lead generation companies prepare their plan to understand the target audience in detail.
Let’s say- we do it by asking the relevant questions to your team-
- Who could be the key decision-makers in buying your products or services? Their demographics and psychographics differ based on the industries and segments.
- Have their competitors ever worked with us? If yes, who, why, and what were their words of appreciation?
- What can inspire them to spend more on your products or services?
Based on the answers, our sales team analyzes whom to reach out to and whom to avoid. This clarity allows our sales team to only pitch to the people who are more likely to convert, which increases the probability of conversions.
3) They understand why there is a need for your products/services.
Reaching out to your potential customers on behalf of your sales team requires a thorough analysis of what your products and services can do and how.
The lead generation companies don’t stop their research and analysis with the data you provide. Companies like us learn about your USPs, client feedback, and even weaknesses to make flawless conversations with your potential customers.
4) They learn what makes your offerings different in the target market.
Competitive analysis is one of the necessary steps of the lead generation process that most companies follow. Our lead generation team gathers answers to these questions-
- How many direct and indirect competitors do you have?
- How do your products and services differ from your competitors?
- What makes your products or services win over your competitors?
- What are the pricing strategies followed by competitors, and you?
- How do we justify the cost?
With these answers, our lead gen team can prepare a list of perfect scripts to tackle consumer queries during the entire lead generation process.
5) They identify the best people at the companies you should be speaking with.
If the lead generation is for small businesses, the key decision-makers and their approach to making conversations are different. And, when it comes to B2B lead generation with larger deal sizes, the process of product discovery and purchase differs from segment to segment.
In any of the cases, it is crucial to identify whom you should be speaking with. The sales team at Strategic Sales and Marketing, Inc. makes sure the people to whom we help you connect have the decision-making authorities so that your efforts are not wasted and the turnaround time is improved.
6) They reach out to your potential customers.
The entire process of understanding your business, target audience, products/services, competitors, and key decision-makers are now done. It’s time to put the pedal to the metal with a perfect lead generation strategy-
a. Database marketing
Say you already have a database full of business and professional contacts (either purchased or collected). And, you want the lead gen companies to use those contacts and generate leads for you. Even if you don’t have such data, the companies can arrange the same to get the right leads.
b. Telemarketing
Then the outsourced lead generation companies ask their in-house telemarketing team to prepare the ‘perfect’ script for making calls to those contacts that would get responses much faster.
c. Account-based marketing
In the case of B2B contacts, the sales team at B2B lead generation services provider identifies 5-6 people in a company to whom they can reach out because buying decisions in B2B are not done by one person.
This is how lead generation works utilizing these marketing strategies and techniques.
7) They interact with qualified prospects.
Most of the sales teams struggle with creating the right messaging that evokes a response. That’s the reason why most businesses outsource lead generation.
The lead generation companies use their above-listed research and analysis and prepare scripts based on their experience to interact with qualified prospects. For each of the queries, the team has its perfectly crafted message that cannot go unnoticed.
After all, one mistake, either in your email marketing or cold calling, can cost you a high-potential deal.
8) They nurture the leads.
Based on their first interaction, the lead gen team can understand what the prospects think, perceive, and consider. That’s the reason why the next step is to nurture them with the right piece of information either for product or service, company details, customer support, and more.
The team generating leads leaves no stone unturned to ensure your prospects fully trust your company and the value proposition.
9) They handover leads to your sales team.
The last step in this lead generation process is to provide end-to-end detail to you or your sales team to close the lead. The B2B lead generation companies like us even share the dashboard that gives you insights on the number of qualified leads with higher chances of conversions.
How to choose the right lead generation company?
Most businesses invest thousands of dollars in marketing and sales. And, when it comes to their lead generation ratio, it’s super-less. That’s the reason why outsourcing your lead generation is a wise decision. But, can you outsource to any company? No! You need a company with the following criteria to derive the right customers faster-
1) Lead generation experience across industries
When you want to hire an outsourced lead generation company, you need to look at,
- Diverse industry experience – this shows the company not only understands different businesses and industries but also knows how to deal with multiple key decision-makers.
- Relevant experience in your industry – this shows how easy and quick it is for them to generate leads for you.
- The size of businesses they’ve helped – if they’ve generated leads for larger companies, they know their work the best.
2) The expertise of the management team
The expertise of the management team can be found in the following ways-
- See how much influential any member of the management team is
- Check out how they bring innovations in their strategies and activities
- Look at the expert opinions they share among the other industry experts
If you feel the management team is well-known for its expertise, experience, and excellence in lead generation, that company is just the best for your business.
3) Length of time in business
Until you find the right, high-paying customers, you make losses. Hence, to find such customers, you don’t want a company that is new or unproven.
For example, Strategic Sales and Marketing Inc. consists of 32+ years of experience and expertise in generating over 7 million B2B sales leads.
4) Process and communication
Another two essential aspects you need to look at while choosing the right lead generation company are- process and communication.
Their process can help you look at how comfortable your team is while working with them, what practices they follow, and how accurate they are.
Communication shows how they’ve worked with what kind of people/businesses, their approach to handling communications with customers, valuing your business, and more.
Making a decision becomes much clearer here.
5) Turnaround time
No wonder we all understand how important the turnaround time is. We all want sales to happen faster. But, let’s be real- larger deal sizes take more time compared to the smaller ones.
Identify how much it takes for your team to generate leads and compare them with lead generation companies. Shortlist the companies with all the above factors as winners and faster turnaround time to be the cherry on the cake.
Conclusion
Lead generation is not everyone’s cup of tea. You need to understand what it takes and how you can overcome the challenges by hiring the right lead generation company.
What’s your turnaround time of lead generation? Let’s discuss how we can improve the same.