Focus:  Lead Generation

1.     Establish lead generation objectives. Specify the purpose of your lead generation program and who will follow up on the leads. Is the objective to acquire new customers? To sell products or services to existing customers? To introduce new products to the market and set an appointment for your sales representatives?

2.     Develop a Lead Generation Process or System. The system includes processes such as: who is answering the lead calls and emails, what system is in place for tracking the response and getting the leads to the right person to follow-up, how did you gear up for these extra calls or emails, who is responsible for literature/information fulfillment, what reports are in place to review the results, how are the sales representatives closing the loop so close rates can be determined?

3.     Establish lead generation quality measurements, quality versus quantity. You could have one of two objectives:

a.     Generate as many leads as possible even if they aren’t really qualified and hope that someone can sell them. If you offer something completely free with no qualification, you may get responders who just want something free. Most likely, your conversion rate is going to be lower than you need for your ROI target.

b.     Generate highly qualified leads. The response quantity may be much lower but if they are highly qualified, the conversion rate will be higher. You will have spent less money spinning your wheels on following up on non-qualified leads and put more focus and resources on the qualified leads.

4.     Establish a conversion plan, determine who is responsible and hold them accountable.  First, you would have established a baseline of the lead generation programs you have implemented in the past with all of the details including the resulting ROI. Then you would establish a conversion plan based on past experience and your targeted objectives. The accountability should be established at the onset of the program, just as in all marketing and sales programs.

5.     Plan, Implement, Track, Measure, Analyze and Make Informed decisions on how to spend your lead generation budget. Focus on lead effectiveness and make sure the employees responsible for generating the leads (marketing) have the same objectives as those employees responsible for converting the leads (sales.)