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Countless companies end up with poor sales-marketing alignment because they suffer from bad lead generation. Bad lead generation can destroy marketing\u2019s credibility, waste demand generation dollars, and damage your company\u2019s brand reputation.
\n\n\n\nIt is important to learn to recognize these signs that tell you that you\u2019re doing lead generation wrong. If you notice that you suffer from any of these, you may want to consider consulting and partnering up with lead generation services professionals.
\n\n\n\nProspects know that if they fill out a registration form to get to content, then they\u2019ll get a phone call or email from the company. If that prospect is still early in her buying cycle, she doesn\u2019t want the contact but she does want the content. She\u2019s likely to give you bogus information, perhaps \u201caccidentally\u201d mistyping her phone number or perhaps lying outright.
\n\n\n\nImagine going on a second date with someone, and needing to repeat all the initial \u201cget to know you\u201d small talk from the first date because your companion forgot everything you said. I bet there wouldn\u2019t be a third date!
\n\n\n\nThe same applies to online marketing. Once a prospect takes the time (and risk) to give you personal information, she expects you to remember it. Next time she comes to your website, you should remember what she already told you. This creates a great opportunity to get to know her better by asking additional questions (only a few at a time). As a way to learn about prospects, this progressive technique is much more realistic than forcing prospects to fill out a long, intrusive form right off the bat.
\n\n\n\nRelated: Industry Insights: Fixing What\u2019s Wrong With B2B Healthcare Marketing
\n\n\n\nThe vast majority of the visitors on your website want to research your product and your industry, usually very early in the buying process. They probably don\u2019t have the budget or a project yet and are still trying to evaluate whether they even have a need. They want to keep control of the process and fear they will lose that control if a quota-hungry sales rep gets involved.
\n\n\n\nThe way to build a relationship with these prospects is to let them educate themselves. This B2B marketing process, called lead nurturing, consists of making informative whitepapers, seminars, case studies, and demos available to the prospect. The goal is to earn permission to stay in touch and progressively deepen the relationship so that when the prospect does become \u201csales-ready\u201d, she will want to engage with your firm. I can pretty much guarantee that your sales reps won\u2019t ignore such a high-qualified opportunity.
\n\n\n\nDiscover what a lead generation agency should provide.
\n\n\n\nNot all leads are created equal. As many of 70% of the visitors on your site will eventually buy a product from you \u2013 or your competitors. It\u2019s the other 30% that we need to worry about. They may be students or competitors; those are easy to identify. The tougher cases are the unqualified tire kickers that want to suck you dry or the blowhards that want to tell you how smart they are, all without any intention of ever buying.
\n\n\n\nThese are perhaps the worst kind of leads to pass to sales since they use up precious time and resources that are better spent on real opportunities. What\u2019s needed is the ability to know when to \u201cqualify out\u201c. This is a term sales reps use when they decide not to pursue a deal they think is un-winnable or otherwise unworthy of their time. In a B2B marketing context, this means measuring the depth of your relationship with each lead so you know when you\u2019ve reached the point of diminishing returns. If this happens, don\u2019t throw the lead away \u2013 since you never know what may happen in the future \u2013 but you should consider using only low-cost channels to further nurture that lead.
\n\n\n\nRelated: Ultimate Lead Generation Kit to Jumpstart your Business
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIf you notice that you\u2019re suffering from any of these signs, don\u2019t worry! There is always a remedy available. Don\u2019t forget that it is okay to ask for information from your leads early on in the buying process, deepen your relationship with them over time, and know when to stop investigating additional resources in bad leads.
\n\n\n\nSo, whether you\u2019re using a lead management software to automate these processes or you\u2019re implementing them manually, by preventing your lead generation from going south, you\u2019ll be on your way to an improved alignment between marketing and sales, shorter sales cycles, and better prospect relationships.
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