To quote The Profit’s Marcus Lemonis, “Business success is about the three P's: People, Process and Product." That applies to your company’s lead generation strategy for its growth goals too. How so? It takes the same combination of elements and discipline to really drive sustainable growth by continuously bringing in great leads.
So what is a lead, exactly? While this definition can vary in technicalities depending on which customer relationship management (CRM) system you're using, a lead is generally someone who has expressed interest in your company’s product or service.
How do you find these people interested in doing business with you? Leads can come from all sorts of places. To name a few sources:
Original source = marketing:
- Direct mail flyers
- Telemarketing campaigns
- Webinars
- Social media campaigns
- Email marketing
- Blogs
- Magazine advertisements
Original source = sales:
- Networking events
- Church
- Conferences
- Referrals
So what’s the best approach to find these people? How do you prioritize your time and resources to find these leads? Generally, you start with a somewhat combined approach, continuously learn what works, and adjust your strategy. You want to keep the pipeline full, and the more people ready to “buy now” the better. But that can often be a long, dating-like process before someone gets to that point. That’s why a combined approach that proactively seeks out interested prospects and keeps filling the pipeline is the best way to grow fast and see continued growth.
An Example of an Outbound + Inbound Lead Generation Strategy
Software Sales Rep Mark wants to hit the ground running and grow at his company. His company allows telemarketers to record calls to improve quality control and conversion rates for their clients.
What does he do after he defines his target persona and sets some goals? Lots of things:
Outbound:
- Goes through his digital Rolodex, reaches out to the right people, and starts a conversation
- Joins relevant groups and associations to build the right relationships
- Registers for events that make sense for his goals and where he can be of help to others, as well
- Searches online for companies of which his product can potentially solve problems and reaches out
Inbound:
- Updates his social media profiles
- Answers the phone when it rings with leads calling from marketing efforts
- Responds to emails from leads reaching out to the company
By combining the two strategies and treating them accordingly, he’s not just twiddling his thumbs and waiting for someone to run a Google search that brings them to his site. But he’s also not running around town trying to convince people they should buy from him now and driving them crazy. Instead, every day he has people to talk to who might be ready to buy today, next week, or next year. He’ll be there when they’re ready, but in the meantime, he is growing his relationships and his business or career into something rich, rewarding, and long term.
Wondering how you can get more qualified leads in yours and your sales reps' email inboxes? Register for our webinar to get an overview of the inbound marketing methodology.
Posted by Jackie Connors
Jackie Connors is the Founder & CEO of Digital Marketing Direction, a HubSpot Solutions Partner agency based in Texas. She provides inbound training, consulting, and content marketing services to mid-market companies.