Hitting your monthly sales goals is not always easy. You are always being challenged to think outside the box to generate leads, making sure that no stone is left unturned.
I can relate first hand to this, as a couple of years ago I was in your shoes. Back then cold-calling was one of my only options, but it was one of the best ways for me to get a sense of my market, and it never disappointed!
Of course, I didn’t sign any deals on the spot, or even get many meetings. However, by listening to the market and what they had to say, I came up with a checklist that I’m happily sharing with you!
How do you generate a lead?
Before jumping in, we need to be on the same page concerning lead generation. You and I both know that a lead is a contact whose business has the potential to become your customer. Since contact information is the currency for lead generation, you should ask yourself repeatedly; “Is my offer valuable enough that people are going to pay for it with their information?”
If the answer is “Yes” then you’ll generate leads! Simple enough.
Here are 8 checkboxes where the answer was “Yes” for me.
The lead generation checklist: 8 things to do
☐ Our existing customers are happy with our business
Your company has to be meeting expectations. You’ll end up closing more deals in the long run if you have a detailed structure on how to keep your customers happy. Here are a few things that you can do to keep track of their satisfaction:
- Have a clear follow-up structure to make sure you’re not missing any issues. I would advise that you set a meeting every 2 months or so where you go over their current challenges and goals.
- Make sure your customers understand the value of your service and are not solely focused on the price;
- Conduct a Satisfaction Survey once a year to make sure you’re still performing well in your customer’s eyes.
☐ Our website describes our products and services clearly
Prospects will use your website to evaluate your brand and form an opinion before you ever get the chance to speaking with them. Here are a few statistics to drive home the importance of a well-crafted website:
- 82% of buyers viewed at least 5 pieces of content from the winning vendor.
- 57% of the buyer’s journey is completed before the buyer talks to a sales team.
- 68% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after consuming content from it.
These stats clearly show how worthwhile it is to spend time making your website appealing and useful. On every single page you should be asking yourself; “How is this helping my prospects to understand what I do?”
☐ I’m attending events for networking
Networking will help build up your contact list, plus make you more recognizable in your market. There are 2 types of events, high value and low value. If you have had a few bad experiences networking, you might have inadvertently been attending the latter. There are a few things you can do to make sure you’re not wasting your time and only attending high value events:
- Have a clear objective when attending an event;
- Make sure the topics and the speakers are of interest to you and your market;
- Only attend events where there are fewer than 100 attendees (the quality of the networking will decrease drastically beyond 100 people).
☐ I’m giving presentations in seminars
Presenting in seminars can be a valuable way of gaining visibility in your market. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind to make sure you’re giving outstanding presentations:
- Have one clear goal for your presentation and keep coming back to it. I use this sentence when I want to make sure I’m staying focused on a particular topic: “Remember, this is to make sure [Name the topic] is done right”
- Connect with your audience. Tell them about yourself, how this topic relates to you and how it is helping your business.
- Keep your visuals light and non-distracting. A general rule of thumb is that if it isn’t essential, don’t use it. Presentations can distract your audience from the main focus of the presentation – you.
☐ We offer free webinars
By offering webinars, you’ll be strengthening your unique value proposition. This will help you to gain visibility and build trust with your prospective clients.
Webinars are a fantastic way to generate leads as well! In fact, Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs found that 61% of B2B marketers rate webinars as the most effective content marketing tactic.
So ask yourself, what can I present to my customers to help them in their work and then advertise it.
Adding a line in the confirmation email saying “In the meantime, let your friends and co-workers know you’re attending our webinar by sharing it across your social networks” can help increase the number of webinar attendants.
☐ I’m spending time on social media
Sharing ideas on social media can serve you well. Spending some quality time answering questions and participating in communities where your leads hangout will give you an edge over your competitors.
It’s no coincidence that 78% of salespeople using social media outsell their peers and are 23% more likely to exceed their quotas. Once you’re getting recognized for your great work within a community, you’ll start getting good referrals; which is where 84% of B2B decision makers start their buying process.
☐ We have one or more landing pages with forms to complete
Remember when I said that contact information is our currency of choice? You should have a place where your leads can fill out a form (also known as a landing page). Here, you can ask for their information (name, email, title, etc.) in exchange for downloading the content you’ve created or the webinar you’re hosting.
When setting up a landing page, you should answer these 3 questions directly in the page:
- What will they learn from this content?
- How will this content help them achieve their goals?
- Why is this content a must read?
Quick tip, try to avoid asking for a phone number in the form. Most people are comfortable with leaving their name and email address, but a phone number is the line they aren’t willing to cross. Anyway, you’ll be able to search for their phone number on search engines once you have their name and email.
☐ We have various types of content that we can use for lead generation
Obviously, you need valuable content to offer your target customers to go with your landing pages. This is key to a strong lead generation strategy. Here are some types of content that you can create for them:
- eBooks
- Free courses
- Videos
- Free webinars
If you’re struggling to create fresh new content, a great place to look for inspiration is your inbox. Find the most frequently asked questions you receive from your customers, and create an eBook on one of the topics that requires a more detailed explanation.
How to make sure your lead generation strategy works?
Finally, you need to keep evaluating your strategy as you go. These checkboxes above worked well for me, but that doesn’t mean each and every one of them will work for you. You need to keep a track of your initiative and review them periodically. Some key metrics that you can follow include:
- % of customers that answered the satisfaction survey;
- Number of leads generated from:
- Networking Events
- Presentations in Seminars
- Webinars
- Other
- Number of sales generated from leads acquired through:
- Networking Events
- Presentations in Seminars
- Webinars
- Other
- Conversion rate on Landing Pages
Once you have some data to analyze, you’ll see which is most profitable for you to carry on with; what costs the least to implement but generates the most?
