An important first step in creating a lead generation strategy is deciding whether to focus on the quality or quantity of leads. Of course, every lead generation strategy will produce leads of some amount, but you have a choice regarding lead quality versus lead quantity. Check out the lead generation balance guide.
What is the right lead generation focus for your business? First, let’s define lead quality and quantity to examine what’s best for your business with a lead generation balance guide.
What is lead quality?
Lead quality measures the value of the leads you are generating. High-quality leads are more likely to convert into paying customers, so the higher the quality of your leads, and also the more likely you are to generate revenue.
Quality leads need what you’re selling and have the budget and authority to buy them.
What is the lead amount?
Leads are the number of leads you generate through your marketing efforts. More leads mean more opportunities to market your product or service.
However, poor quality leads often waste time and money. Therefore, balancing lead quantity and lead quality is essential for any high-converting business.
Lead quality vs. Number of Prospects: Impact on ROI
Whether you focus on lead quality or lead quantity, your focus on lead generation will impact your ROI, and measuring it is essential. In a recent survey, 44% of marketers said better measuring his ROI on lead and demand generation activities is his top priority for 2021.
You want to generate the best possible leads with a high conversion rate at the lowest customer acquisition cost. That’s the earnings formula. But that is easier said than done. So let’s look at this example.
Let’s say you have two lead generation sources and allocate $10,000 to each source. The first source generates 1,000 leads for $10 per lead.
The second source generates 2,500 leads. That’s a cost of $4 per lead.
If you’re more concerned with the number of leads, the second source seems like a better deal. However, measuring ROI requires more than putting a price tag on the lead. You also need to assess the conversion rate.
If the conversion rate of the first source is 30%, convert 300 leads.
And if the second source has a 10% conversion rate, convert 250 leads.
We spent the same amount on each scenario but got fewer overall conversions from the second source. Even though the cost of leads dropped, we had to handle over 1,500 leads. You also had to process 1,500 more. Over time, this inefficiency multiplies rapidly. Companies often mistake opting for the lowest cost per lead solution, making the lead generation process less efficient.
In our example:
If you take $10,000 from the first source and put the full $20,000 into the second source, you will generate 5,000 leads for $4 per lead. 10% conversion rate, or 500 conversions. However, if you put $20,000 into the first source, you’ll generate fewer leads – 2,000 – but your conversion rate will increase by 30%. You’ll generate 600 conversions and process 3,000 fewer leads. In this case, a higher cost per lead can more effectively produce better results for the same net investment.
While it might be easy to see the difference in ROI between lead quality and lead volume in this example, it’s not always so obvious. So, This is because other factors also come into play. And for example, if you have a robust lead scoring process that differentiates high-quality leads from low-quality leads, you can eliminate inefficiencies in your system. In addition, if sales teams have more time to work on high-quality leads, their close rates can improve, making lower cost-per-lead leads a better investment.
Lead scoring automatically assigns scores to leads based on criteria you set, such as origin, product fit, personality, and behavioral match. Then, lead scoring automation measures the action taken by your leads to identify the high-quality leads most likely to convert. This allows you to pass the best quality leads to your sales team and reduce your overall acquisition costs.
Lead Generation Balance Guide: Look At The Data
Finding the right balance for your business requires careful data evaluation and the right marketing automation system. Then, you can refine your marketing and lead generation focus using insights from your CRM and marketing tools.
For example, analyzing your CRM and lead funnel can help determine which marketing efforts correlate most strongly with purchases. Of course, A-N-A l always be tradeoffs between focusing on quality and focusing on quantity. Still, achieving the proper balance is important to keep your sales pipeline full of qualified prospects.
It is possible to improve lead quality and quantity and find the right balance. First, however, you need the right systems, processes, and automation to capture, engage, and nurture leads.
Tips For Find The Right Balance For Your Leads Generation System
Finding this balance means having efficient systems to generate, analyze, and automate with as much focus on lead generation.
- Lead capture and scoring: You need an efficient way to capture and score leads as they enter your system. Based on the analysis and insights gained from your CRM and marketing automation, leads can then be assigned scores to determine the next steps.
- Fast pursuit of quality leads: Quality leads that enter the sales funnel and show the right buying signal should be immediately routed to the sales team for follow-up. For example, you need immediate attention when you ask for a quote or request a demo.
- Manage other leads: Other leads are evaluated and entered into the pipeline based on their value at the appropriate level.
- Lead nurturing: Automation customizes lead nurturing paths based on a prospect’s profile and behavior. Moreover, content marketing, email marketing, and other inbound marketing leads will continue to be passed on to prospects until they take the next step in the buyer’s journey or take action that indicates they are more likely to convert.
- Custom Actions: The more you customize your responses, offers, and lead nurturing strategies, the more likely you are to increase your conversion rate. And also, advances in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning have enabled mass customization that wasn’t possible just a few years ago.
Balance & Strategies Guide For Leads Generation on Scale
These strategies accelerate those most likely to convert. Meanwhile, you can continue to nurture other prospects and guide them through the buyer’s journey until they’re ready to be adopted by your sales team.
While companies understand the value of lead nurturing, an overlooked tactic is targeting stagnant or “dead” leads. While it can be inefficient to have your sales team follow up on those stagnant leads, marketing automation can work in the background, continuing to find leads and bring them back into your sales process.
And As many as 68% of businesses are now using marketing automation. But, if you’re not one of them, you may risk falling behind your competitors.
Lead Generation Balance Guide: Transforming Your Sales Process
To compete effectively, and you need to transform your traditional sales process to manage the lead quantity and quality of leads you need to grow your business sustainably.
Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) continue to rise. Over the past five years, CAC has increased by over 60%. Creating more efficient ways to manage leads can help mitigate these rising costs.
Aktify allows businesses to virtually replicate their sales teams without adding more salespeople. Virtual AI-powered agents can manage and interact with leads at different stages of the buyer journey, moving them forward with personalized attention.
The AI assistants understand the context and colloquial styles and interpret intent. As a result, prospects won’t know they aren’t dealing with real people when they get personalized real-time responses to inquiries. First, leads are captured and nurtured. Then, the AI takes the appropriate next step based on data analysis, automatically scheduling appointments, demos, and follow-ups.
Helpful Lead Generation Ideas To Benefit From The Balance Between Quality and Volume
Assign a single person
Combining the sales and marketing sides can make or break your strategy. Therefore, having a person responsible for managing both is crucial.
This leadership role requires someone with a broad understanding of what it takes to balance the needs of both teams. And should be able to formulate solutions and build consensus between the two teams. This helps you make all your lead generation decisions based on data and in the best interest of the company as a whole.
Set expectations
Objectives and objectives must be clearly formulated and understood by both parties. You must create realistic expectations based on facts, not just theoretical constructions.
So, a good way to do this is to implement a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the two teams. In this case, the marketing team is responsible for providing a certain amount of “qualified” leads. The sales team is also responsible for converting those leads within a certain period of time contact hours. You have to guide both teams on the process to optimize the lead generation speed and performance.
Define your audience and lead era efforts
Make sure you create lead definitions that everyone agrees on.
This can take time, as it’s hard to come up with a universal definition of what your target audience should be, what the buyer’s journey looks like, or what the process entails. However, don’t miss this step, as effective lead scoring is critical to unifying sales and marketing teams.
Follow a clear reporting structure
The reporting structure should be straightforward and clear for both teams. Moreover, reporting structures can be very different depending on the industry to which your organization belongs.
Decide what type of reporting framework works for you, but remember that transparency and information sharing facilitates better alignment within the company.
Make a concrete plan
This ensures that everyone is literally and figuratively on the same page when taking the next step. It also removes any remaining questions or assumptions about a call to action regarding lead generation strategies.
Provide a reward system for high achievers
Create a clear set of incentives for top performers to work. Moreover, this will motivate even the not-so-high performers to try their best to achieve their goals.
Create a system whereby those who achieve their goals are recognized and rewarded for their efforts. Employees want recognition for their work, so it’s a good idea to guide the team and encourage the lead generation/closing process.
Be proactive in improving your current processes
Take a closer look at your reporting process and current operating procedures.
Do not hesitate to raise questions about those who do not contribute positively and introduce process improvements as often as possible. However, don’t wait for mistakes before tackling any process that doesn’t help in the long run.
The post Lead Generation Balance Guide: Quality vs. Quantity appeared first on Visualmodo.
0 Commentaires