The efficiency of the old methods of obtaining information and appointments has been reduced by a factor of three in less than ten years. In the 2000s, a day's worth of calls would result in a minimum of two to three appointments.
Today, most salespeople who call in the hard way barely get one!
Why? Because the Internet has changed behaviour in depth! With search engines, the prospect does his or her own initial search for information and has access to almost all the available offers. They no longer need sales representatives to obtain information.
But the challenges of sales management for the company remain the same: how to get enough contacts with prospects? How to keep sales costs reasonable in order to continue to grow profitably?
To answer these questions a new approach has been developed: with "lead generation".
Literally "lead" means " track ". It is a term originally used in CRM software and is now commonly used to describe a sales lead. Lead generation is the set of actions toidentify potential customers.
Your market today is made up of hundreds or thousands of buyers who, once they have identified their problems and needs, will start searching for information using the most practical and profitable tool: the Internet. All these Internet users, as long as they have not clicked on your site, are unknown to you, invisible. You know that they exist, that at some point they will have a need that you will be able to meet, but for the moment you don't know them! The challenge is to get in front of their radar during their research phase and to make them switch from anonymous visitors to active visitors on your site. For this, two prerequisites are necessary:
- first of all, you must be well referenced and identified so that, whatever the search methods of the Internet user, he will end up on your site (see our article on the attractiveness of Internet sites on this subject),
- secondly, to offer attractive content so as to multiply the opportunities to obtain information from the visitor and invite him to interact.
To generate leads, you should therefore focus on quality and targeted content which positions you as a key player in your sector of activity and your geographical area. By doing so, you will increase the chances of multiple visits, as the Internet user will have associated you with their "favourites". You will generate leads that will follow varying levels of progress. The first is the "unknown lead", which is simply a location or even an IP address, but has too few qualifications to be exploited. The second is the "identified lead", for which we know the email address or telephone number, for example. The third is the "qualified lead", who has multiplied his actions: number of pages visited upwards, several articles read, visits that multiply... and has communicated usable information. At this stage, if this lead is entrusted to a sales representative, it can become a prospect.
To encourage the visitor to act, it is therefore necessary create triggers so that they leave their contact details, or even express their need. White papers, webinars, video conferences, online questionnaires to carry out a free audit... the solutions are numerous and must be defined according to your market and the specificities of your customers. After several visits, reassured by the quality of the content and the match between the offer and their needs, the Internet user will become an active visitor.
Generating a lead means taking a contact from unknown to qualified.
The problem for companies today revolves around the management of three strategic phases.
It is clear from this new approach that the upstream work of capturing contacts mobilises significant resources (technical expertise, available time, follow-up, information sharing, etc.).
Lead generation does not end with the qualification of a lead. There are three key phases of this business strategy that companies must master.
- Lead acquisition", which consists of qualifying the lead through a scenario, specific targeted actions, and which was described above.
- Lead nurturing, where we try to create and develop a strong link, by feeding the lead, getting them to react, offering content, inviting them to offline events, etc. The challenge is to make the right adjustments, not to be too pushy or too little. The link is a dynamic thread, but not too tight.
- The lead conversion is the critical moment, when the salesperson comes into play. It is a delicate stage because you enter into direct interaction and it requires the right sales skills and the right posture, the right distance not to do.
Steering and monitoring
Of course, all of these steps are taking place at the same time. A company at a given moment has before it leads, prospects, customers, a whole volume of contacts at different levels of progress, with numerous data to manage. All of this creates a complex, constantly changing situation that requires new skills and a different approach, a new way of looking at things.
Kestio LiveWith its pragmatic and tailor-made approach, we help SMEs to structure a tailor-made lead generation strategy and to be effective in the three key phases. We first help to describe the buyers personas, then to elaborate the most efficient interaction scenarios, and finally to help to pilot the whole, with regular contact, which favours long-term follow-up and performance.
Adopt a tool adapted to your activity and your expectations: choose the CRM... In order to better understand the usefulness of the latter and to choose an adapted CRM, watch this webinar:
