Power tips for Salespeople: Are leads costing too much?

Are leads costing too much?  The adage of you get what you pay for was definitely true most instances, but is this necessarily true today with lead generation?  With all that the internet has brought to marketing and sales, what has technology brought to the value of lead generation, especially when we consider the generation of quality leads?

Each business industry and methodology has a different cost to gaining leads to get new customers.  Businesses work diligently on how to get better qualified leads at a lower cost, as this has a direct impact on profit.  In the last week I have heard of leads costing $25, $52, $129 – depending on the technique and industry, the cost is varies, but the cost is real.  This is such a topic that there are even summits held to discuss this matter.

Most companies are very aware, that it costs money to make money.  This means investing in your company to keep helping your company to grow.  Without leads, there are no sales, and without sales, there is no profit, so no business.

The end goal is to get Sales, and sales need quality leads.  This Blog will look at ways to gather leads.

TeleMarketing

Telemarketing has been used for many years now.  My recent direct research has shown that 75{c36baba5c73b6c9a0b80d5e7ba0a8acbfd233dc9453b651cdb653391d31dba51} of companies are now not finding telemarking just “not working” for them as it used to.  This is related to so many reasons: Call filters, Do Not call registers, education in not “being caught” etc.  However for the 25{c36baba5c73b6c9a0b80d5e7ba0a8acbfd233dc9453b651cdb653391d31dba51} that find telemarketing they have really improved the science of this form of marketing.  For example better scripts, better training for callers, positive encouragement to keep the telemarketers on track.  Many companies are also outsourcing their telemarketing to lower the costs of leads.  The science of telemarketing is not necessarily using generic call lists, but filtered call lists, for example, these could be people that have already shown some form of interest, e.g. they have put their name down on the internet, or at a public display etc.  Blogs expressing how to use telemarketing are numerous and quite informative.

Online Marketing

Online Marketing when used as a call to action to get people to commit their intention to consider the advertised product is a great way to get a filtered list, and possibly even a direct lead.  Some webs are actually allowing the user enter the date and time of a requested visit.  So online marketing can bring either a filtered list for telemarketers, or it can create direct leads themselves.

Promotions / Displays / Advertising – Call to action Marketing

Sales teams go to trade shows, perform advertising, have testing/tastings and a range of other direct – call to action forms of marketing.  Quite often these direct call to actions bring in a lot of interest, but they can be very expensive and exhausting.  However, they generally do more than just one function.  For example they are a call to action, but they can also be promotional, educational and positive for existing clients.

Repeat Sales

This is generally one of the highest quality leads generators over all.  A client that already loves their product is very keen to purchase another product from you, or upgrade their product as they already have confidence.  So caring for your customers and creating repeat sales should really be important.  It is also good business management to have products that can create back to back sales.

Upselling

McDonalds has certainly taught all of us about up selling.  This is not generally seen as a lead generator. However if up selling, is selling another product along with the initial sale, then this can be seen as a form of lead generator.  This is very common when a company has many departments and they interact.  For example your department may sell kitchens, but another department may sell electronic equipment for kitchens, and other one sells kitchen flooring.

Sometimes creating the ability to up sell, needs a business that has been well established, has a lot of funds, and good solid management.  Even if your business is not in the position to have multi departments your sales people can still increase profits if you have the ability to up sell. The end goal is to increase profits, so being able to up sell can still achieve the main goal.  Good managers need to make sure that you have more than one product, or one level of a product.

Side Selling  – Lead Generation

This is the latest form of lead generation. This form of lead generation has not been taught, however this is probably the least understood form of selling, however this is also probably one of the best ways to gain quality and economy in lead generation.  I have been researching this concept for ages, and find no direct term for this form of lead generation, however my experience leads me to believe that this is by far the most effective in form of lead in regards to cost, quality and Sales value.

Women are known for being multi-tasking guru’s, but side selling is not actually about Multitasking, in the true sense of the word.  It is about being efficient and using your time to the best advantage of sales for your company.  Today, as business demand efficiency, productivity and cost effectiveness, side selling will soon be the new catch phrase.

So how does one side sell?  It is well known that sales often occur in pools. These pools could be related to location, age, interests, geography etc.  So if a sales person is selling in a pool, and during the process (arriving, during, leaving) this same salesperson documents and notes other potential sales.  This is side selling – especially if this information is not lost.

An example of this could be selling house solar panels.  The sales person has a presentation.  While driving to this presentation, he notes on the same street, which houses have panels and those that don’t.  During the sale, the sales person asks for referrals or takes note of information given freely by the prospect.  At the conclusion of the sale, the team then would contact the properties that don’t have solar panels and let them know that your company is the one that installed the panels on the house at no 23.  So instead of calling every house, your call center operator is only calling possible prospects.

I analyzed the most profitable and enjoyable sales I had experienced.  I also chatted to other successful business men about their easiest and best sales.  Over 80{c36baba5c73b6c9a0b80d5e7ba0a8acbfd233dc9453b651cdb653391d31dba51} of these came to these companies via Side Selling. However, these business people referred to it as Referrals, Great Watching by a Sales person, being in turn with the market etc.  However, they were all talking about Side Selling.

This is why I founded our new Google Maps tool CRM Map.  It is because I could see the advantage of being able to record and note possible sales and information, at the touch of a screen just on a map that finds exactly where I am right now.  Using tools like this is a great way to get really high quality leads, at virtually no cost.

I hope with these ideas, you can consider some of the ways that your company can lower their costs of lead generation.  I hope this blog has given you some ideas that will fuel the challenge of you lowering your costs on lead generation.