The quality of your clients and the size of your paycheck begins at the lead generation level. The way you prepare prospects to contact you via your ads, your website, your free or fee-based information products, your company logo and "look and feel" - all influence how quickly and effectively you can make sales.
High qualifying, ready to buy leads are those that are:
- Faster to close, easier to close
- Less price-focused and more value-focused
- More motivated to succeed
- Tend to understand what you do and why you're different - don't require a lot of time to educate
So, recognising that what you do at the lead gen level influences what happens further down your sales pipeline, here are five strategies for increasing the quality of your leads:
1) Correctly targeting clients
Unfortunately, there are a lot of entrepreneurs and business people who are insecure when it comes to focusing on a particular group of prospects that can be assisted the most. One example of this is an expert mechanic that restores old BMW's. He may mistakenly try appealing to all sorts of car owners rather than concentrating on his specific niche market prospects.
Targeting via psychographic profile can also be very effective - a psychographic factor describes consumers on the basis of some psychological trait, characteristic or lifestyle. I favour using pyschographics in preference to demographic (age and gender) targeting alone.
How do you target a particular group? Start with your headlines. e.g. "Does Not Having Enough Money to Retire On Keep You Up at Night?" A headline like the one above (for, say, a financial planner) would tend to bring motivated prospects into the marketing funnel.
2) Pre-Educate
Especially if your products / services are higher priced, intangible, complex or in a highly competitive industry, it's critical that you educate prospects about your offering and value.
There are many ways to do this including downloadable Special Reports; White Papers; Questionnaires, Surveys and Audits; Seminars and Events.
You can also monetize the education process by charging for materials. This not only generates a revenue streams but also forces motivated prospects to "self-select". Self-selection is a critical component of the most successful lead generation programs.
3) Pre-Qualify
Self-selection is one form of pre-qualification. Others include describing whom your product or service is for. e.g. "Our no-deposit first home loans may be perfect for you if you have been in steady employment for at least 2 years and have a income of $60K+ per annum." Phrases like these reduce unqualified buyers from your sales funnel.
4) Pre-Sell
You can actually make 95 percent of the sale before ever speaking to a prospective client, when your sales letters, ads and other relevant material are persuasively compelling. Simply answer one or two questions before finalising your paperwork. The eventual result of a successful lead generation program is a pre-sold lead.
If you have to arm-wrestle every prospect into buying from you, the chances are you're not doing enough pre-selling at the lead gen level.
5) Future Pace
When you apply future pacing you will show your prospective client what their life will be like in the future after they have been using your solution. This method is useful in print as well as in a sales setting. It creates immediate benefits from your offering.
Social proof is an intriguing and successful aspect of lead generation efforts. For instance, future backing is backed up well by including case studies and testimonials.
Although this article deals more with lead quality than lead quantity, by implementing some of the concepts above you should see a significant improvement in results. - 2364
High qualifying, ready to buy leads are those that are:
- Faster to close, easier to close
- Less price-focused and more value-focused
- More motivated to succeed
- Tend to understand what you do and why you're different - don't require a lot of time to educate
So, recognising that what you do at the lead gen level influences what happens further down your sales pipeline, here are five strategies for increasing the quality of your leads:
1) Correctly targeting clients
Unfortunately, there are a lot of entrepreneurs and business people who are insecure when it comes to focusing on a particular group of prospects that can be assisted the most. One example of this is an expert mechanic that restores old BMW's. He may mistakenly try appealing to all sorts of car owners rather than concentrating on his specific niche market prospects.
Targeting via psychographic profile can also be very effective - a psychographic factor describes consumers on the basis of some psychological trait, characteristic or lifestyle. I favour using pyschographics in preference to demographic (age and gender) targeting alone.
How do you target a particular group? Start with your headlines. e.g. "Does Not Having Enough Money to Retire On Keep You Up at Night?" A headline like the one above (for, say, a financial planner) would tend to bring motivated prospects into the marketing funnel.
2) Pre-Educate
Especially if your products / services are higher priced, intangible, complex or in a highly competitive industry, it's critical that you educate prospects about your offering and value.
There are many ways to do this including downloadable Special Reports; White Papers; Questionnaires, Surveys and Audits; Seminars and Events.
You can also monetize the education process by charging for materials. This not only generates a revenue streams but also forces motivated prospects to "self-select". Self-selection is a critical component of the most successful lead generation programs.
3) Pre-Qualify
Self-selection is one form of pre-qualification. Others include describing whom your product or service is for. e.g. "Our no-deposit first home loans may be perfect for you if you have been in steady employment for at least 2 years and have a income of $60K+ per annum." Phrases like these reduce unqualified buyers from your sales funnel.
4) Pre-Sell
You can actually make 95 percent of the sale before ever speaking to a prospective client, when your sales letters, ads and other relevant material are persuasively compelling. Simply answer one or two questions before finalising your paperwork. The eventual result of a successful lead generation program is a pre-sold lead.
If you have to arm-wrestle every prospect into buying from you, the chances are you're not doing enough pre-selling at the lead gen level.
5) Future Pace
When you apply future pacing you will show your prospective client what their life will be like in the future after they have been using your solution. This method is useful in print as well as in a sales setting. It creates immediate benefits from your offering.
Social proof is an intriguing and successful aspect of lead generation efforts. For instance, future backing is backed up well by including case studies and testimonials.
Although this article deals more with lead quality than lead quantity, by implementing some of the concepts above you should see a significant improvement in results. - 2364
About the Author:
Author: David B. Ascot shares the best sales lead generation methods that will give your business even more success through online lead generation.
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