Let’s face it; leads are the lifeblood of any business. Without them, any business struggles and will eventually withers away. For this reason, it’s vitally important that your business have a system in place for capturing leads on a consistent basis.
Now, there are many ways to go about acquiring leads and millions upon millions of dollars are spent annually in the hopes of doing just that. Unfortunately, many of those millions of dollars are being wasted on inefficient and ineffective lead generation methods.
As a small business, every resource is valuable. This means we don’t have the luxury of wasting even a single dollar on ineffective methods of generating qualified leads. So how do you go about determining what’s effective and what’s a waste?
Here are 5 critical elements to remember when creating your lead generation systems. Include these elements and you’re certain to have a system that consistently generates quality leads efficiently and effectively.
1. 1. Don’t Waste Any Bullets
This is the most common as well as the most costly mistake made by most businesses. You see, a large majority of businesses spend their marketing dollars on things such as yellow pages ads, newspaper ads, radio spots, or other mass media methods.
The problem with these methods is that for the cost per lead is so high because they use a shotgun approach in trying to reach your target market. While they do have a high ‘circulation’ number, the majority are not at all interested or qualified in what you have to offer.
A better use of those marketing dollars would be to invest in creating a highly targeted mailing list and direct mail campaign that you’re certain will be sent to prospects that are both interested and qualified to purchase what you have to offer. That way you know your spending dollars on ONLY those that could potentially be converted to a paying customer.
2. 2. Only Use Methods That Are Scalable
Another problem with many marketing methods used by small businesses is that they get locked into long-term commitments, whether it works or not. A perfect example of this is the Yellow Pages. For the life of the contract, a business is required to make the monthly payment regardless if anyone calls from the ad or not. On the flip side, if a decent number of prospects are calling, you can’t do anything to increase that number either.
So, by selecting methods that are scalable, you’re able to turn your marketing either on or off, depending on the results you achieve. This gives you control over where your dollars are going and also over the number of leads you receive.
3. 3. Be Sure To Track Your Results
This is a vital element to any successful lead generation program simply because it tells you what works and what doesn’t. If you don’t know where your leads are coming from, how will you know if you should continue to invest money in it? How will you know if you need to turn it up? Or worse, stop it completely?
Without tracking your results you won’t know where your leads are coming from and you seriously hamper your ability to generate leads effectively and efficiently.
4. 4. Remember, You’re Developing Leads, Not Making Sales
One of the biggest mistakes you could possibly make with any lead generation system is trying to immediately make a sale instead of just settling for a high quality lead. Marketing is a process and it’s very difficult to effectively move a prospect from interested in what you have to offer all the way to becoming a paying customer. There are of course exceptions to this rule, but in most cases getting the sale will take additional work.
So when you do get a qualified lead or prospect, it means your lead generation process has worked as intended. It’s now time for the rest of your sales and marketing process to take over.
5. 5. Have a Follow-up Process In Place
If your lead generation process has been effective, you should have a prospect that’s ready and eager to learn more about your offerings and how you can solve their problem, or fill their need, or provide for their want. Have a prepared process in place that answers all their questions, overcomes any objections, and presents them with an offer to purchase a product or service.
Building a successful small business can be a daunting task and without an effective lead generation system, it can be infinitely more difficult. However, if you’ll keep these 5 key elements in mind as you develop yours, you’ll soon be acquiring more than enough quality leads effectively, efficiently, and with less waste.
Filed under Lawn Care Marketing by Chestin
