Don’t make me feel like a lead….
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In an earlier post, I compared lead generation to dating. I said that many companies take to lead generation like they do the singles scene, except instead of buying drinks and saying hello to strangers, they go around the room asking anyone and everyone to marry them right off the bat. It’s a ridiculous way of doing things, and it hardly ever gets the kinds of results you want or need. Just like no guy/girl is going to accept a marriage proposal from a total stranger (and even if they did, what does that say about them?), no customer is going to get sucked into a complex B2B sale right off the bat.
At the other end of this extreme is what I call the Bachelor Syndrome. The Bachelor is a reality TV show in which the producers set up a guy to look like this prize catch and then parade a bunch of candidates in front of him to see if one of them can win his love. The guy is usually young, studly, and apparently wealthy and quite a catch. The women on these shows are the usual combination of beauty, brains, and what have you–from pretty much all walks of life (except for their inability to resist this kind of denigrating experience, apparently).
Just like companies can’t succeed by running around the room asking total strangers to marry them, they’re not going to succeed by putting on a Bachelor-type competition. If your customers feel like they’re on some kind of gameshow or contest to win your love, then it’s really not lead generation. I’m not sure what you call it, other than counterproductive, but it isn’t in the true spirit of providing valuable information to the marketplace to attract suspects and then nurturing those suspects into prospects and then transacting some business with them at a future time.
How do you know if your programs are more Bachelor game show than actual lead generation?
* If you have to keep reminding people that they need to make a buying decision now, you don’t have a lead generation program. You have a let’s-coerce-them-to-buy program. The analogy: if you tell your dates that you need some kind of next step in the process, then you’re just looking to score, not trying to be with that other person. If the person you’re with thinks you’re worth another date, then whatever it is you’re doing is working.
Try being a bit more subtle. Here’s where an automated lead nurturing program (like you find in Marketo or other tools) really helps. If they sign up for the white paper, invite them to the webinar. If they come to the webinar, invite them to the demo. At the demo, invite them to buy. If they don’t do these things, have different offers for them. Keep them in the loop, but if they don’t express immediate interest, don’t just keep asking them to buy with a louder voice.
* If the only reason you talk to people is to discuss money, a sale, or the status on a transaction or deal, then you don’t have a lead generation program. Listen, you have to spend a lot of time educating people. Giving them the power to make a good decision. We’re talking special reports, podcasts, demos, and the like.
If you’re in the jewelry business, then this won’t relate to you. People either buy or they don’t (at least, to my extremely limited knowledge about jewelry). Same goes for things like cars or groceries. Yes, people may want to research MPG or whether to buy organic or not, but the decision cycles pale in comparison to say, CRM software, where there may be hundreds if not thousands of decision points that need fleshing out.
Therefore….flesh them out! Don’t just hammer away at price or TCO. There’s lots more to talk about!
* If you’re not talking to the 95% of your database that hasn’t purchased yet, then you don’t have a lead generation program. The vast majority of your list will be people in wait and see mode. They’re trying you out. They’re examining your product or service from every angle. They’re talking to others who have bought from you. So why not give them a hand? Talk to them. Answer questions. It doesn’t take a glitzy approach. Just host a teleconference and answer questions. Or hold a workshop and take lots of questions.
This is right on. For small enterprises, I recommend Goldmine CRM which is what i use for dripping on prospects (any CRM with true workflow will do this). If they get the email and attend the webinar and then have an individual call and still don’t buy, they get an email every 10 days, each email explaining a different virtue of our product. So we keep building value and hopefully uncovering a desire that matches with our service. Amazingly, many “sell ‘em now” oriented businesses have no system to drip.