It’s a very common question asked by businesses of all shapes and sizes, and across every sector and industry: How can we get more qualified leads? Your pipeline might be full (or at least, full enough) of leads – but for many businesses, the majority of them aren’t converting into profitable customers.
As you’d expect, the issue here isn’t a matter of quantity, but of quality. That is, many of the folks in the pipeline either aren’t qualified leads to begin with, or they aren’t being cultivated and nurtured into qualified leads. As a result, business owners and sales professionals waste an inordinate amount of time and resources doing and saying the right things, but to the wrong group of people.
Obviously, the goal here is to fill the pipeline with qualified leads, which are people -- either individuals or businesses -- that have a legitimate problem to solve/objective to achieve, and have the intention to enter into a transaction within a reasonable timeframe (“reasonable” is determined by each business’s sales cycle – for B2C it’s often days or weeks, while for B2B it’s often weeks, months, or for some major investments like engineering equipment and medical technology, it can take over a year to close).
Less obviously, however, is how to get more qualified leads. While there’s no magic wand, there are a handful of practical and proven strategies – all of which we’ve successfully used here at Leap Clixx, and just as successfully implemented and managed for our clients. We share these insights on how to generate qualified leads below.
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Use Inbound Marketing
The smartest, simplest by far the most cost-effective way to get more qualified leads is to use inbound marketing.
Unlike conventional marketing, inbound marketing can track engagement and behavior, and thus separate qualified leads from those who are “just looking” (which is fine, because they may turn into qualified leads later). These qualified leads can then be specifically targeted with content and offers that move them along the customer journey, and into a relationship – which ideally culminates in a transaction. What’s more, this targeting can be fully automated, so businesses don’t have to hire staff to facilitate or coordinate communications, or manage campaigns.
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Build Referral Partnerships
Another smart way how to get more qualified leads is by building referral partnerships and networks. While this can be effective for all businesses, it’s particularly beneficial for those in the B2B space.
Essentially, the idea here is to identify partners who will be open and willing to send along referrals when they identify a client need that they cannot solve. For example, family lawyers often enter into referral relationships with career counselors, since many of their clients need vocational guidance and support during and after a divorce. Naturally, the referral relationship is reciprocal.
Many businesses that generate qualified leads this way provide their referral partners with information that they can provide to their clients, such as brochures or small .PDF ebooks. This is not classic sales collateral. Rather, it’s useful information that referral partners can hand to their clients as a way of offering more value.
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Involve Employees
All employees – and not just sales professionals – can help generate qualified leads. This doesn’t mean that they start making cold calls. Rather, it means that everyone should be trained to identify potential sales opportunities, and understand how they can most effectively route qualified leads to the sales team. Some businesses incentivize their employees as well by offering a commission, handing out awards, offering prizes, and so on.
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Involve Customers
There’s a right way and a wrong way how to get more qualified leads when customers are involved. Let’s start with the wrong way.
The wrong way is to come across as aggressive (“you need to help us here”) or desperate (“we really need to drive sales and was hoping you’d help”). Both of these approaches backfire for obvious reasons.
The right way is to make it simple and easy for satisfied customers do what comes naturally to them: spread the good news. One tactic that works well here (and doesn’t come across as aggressive or desperate) is to generate a customer satisfaction survey, and at the end have a small blurb that allows customers to “invite” someone in their network to solve a problem/achieve a goal.
All that customers have to do is put in the recipient(s) email address(s), and click send. The short blurb is already pre-written (though they can edit it if they wish – most won’t bother), and so there’s no hard work involved.
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Attend Events, Meetups, and Workshops
All of these can be good sources for qualified leads. Just remember to make it as easy as possible to capture information. Some conferences put QR codes on badges that can be scanned. When this option isn’t available, running a contest (free iPad giveaway or some other attention-getting offer) can give leads the incentive they need to part with their contact information.
Learn More
To learn additional ways how to get more qualified leads – or for a deeper discussion of any or all of the above tactics and strategies – contact Leap Clixx today. Your consultation with us is free, friendly, and we guarantee that you’ll learn something valuable that you can apply in your business immediately.
If you're looking for more ways to generate leads, start by turning your website into a lead generation machine with our FREE eBook:
Topics: Lead Generation
