Effective Lead Generation: A Must Have for Sales Teams
The process seems simple enough: you generate the leads, you follow your sales process, the sales come in, everyone is happy. However, lead generation is often an issue, and many teams view it with trepidation.
Lead generation is one of the most important components of a successful sales strategy. So why do sales teams find themselves struggling to make it work?
The process seems simple enough: you generate the leads, you follow your sales process, the sales come in, everyone is happy. However, lead generation is often an issue, and many teams view it with trepidation. So, let’s go back to basics, explore it a little, dispel a few myths, and get things into context. I have also dropped a little action point at the end of each area below as food for thought.
Telephone sales are still relevant
To be honest, this is a bit of a sore point with me. Let’s get rid of this myth right at the start. Despite what the doom-sayers tell you, telephone sales are not dead. In fact, the opposite is true.
Not only is the telephone still one of the best ways of generating leads, if anything, it is more relevant than ever.
If you look at the research, you will find that over 80% of buyers have accepted meetings following a sequence of contacts that included phone calls. When you take the telephone out of your sales process, you are actively removing a useful and productive element from your sales strategy. Not having an effective telephone lead generation strategy is like being a mechanic and throwing away half of your spanners.
To be effective, though, salespeople must ensure their approach is highly relevant. Overly generic scripts and untargeted outreach, for example, will tend to fall flat. I often find during training that teams who struggle with generating leads have had a bad experience with telesales because of this.
What will work, on the other hand, is a combination of doing the groundwork, researching the prospect, targeting the right customers, understanding your industry (and theirs in B2B sales), and then tailoring the conversation accordingly.
Let’s stick with B2B customers for a moment. Just something as simple as the right timing or knowing who the stakeholders are in advance could make the difference. Calling during the morning meeting or speaking to the wrong person is not only not going to produce anything, but it will also damage your confidence. A little bit of background research and planning will result in success.
Another big barrier to telephone lead generation can happen when a team are treating it as an individual effort. It isn’t a stand-alone tool! It is far more effective as part of a much wider process.
- Action point – If you do telephone lead generation, and have a call-out script, are your team confident enough with their sales skills to go off it as needed? Is the problem actually that they just need training in cold calling or telesales?
Social media can work, but not always the way you think
Social media has become an indispensable tool for reaching new audiences and nurturing leads. Different channels serve different purposes though, and a “one-size-fits-all” approach rarely delivers strong results.
LinkedIn, for example, remains the leading platform for B2B lead generation. If you have been on one of my LinkedIn training events, you will know that a well-optimised LinkedIn profile, combined with insightful content and direct outreach, can open doors to meaningful conversations with buyers.
Other platforms will be more effective in B2C. TikTok is better for younger audiences and industries such as food and fashion, but while Facebook has the lead demographic of the 25 – 34 age category, it also has a reach up into the higher age groups, where TikTok tends to fall off.
Social media can work very well for lead generation, but it needs to be targeted to work. It also has a more subtle role to play because it raises awareness and visibility. That can be just as important, and also explains why marketing people are so keen on regularity and consistency in the content posted.
- Action Point – Your customers will be looking them up, so are the LinkedIn profiles of every customer facing team member up to date and relevant?
Speaking of marketing...
Do not expect marketing to do all the heavy lifting, particularly if you don’t talk to them!
I sometimes see teams that rely on marketing to bring in the lead generation. Yes, raising interest and awareness is a marketer’s job, but they shouldn’t be working alone. The best lead generation happens when sales teams collaborate with marketing teams. The truth is that you have invaluable information from the front lines to pass back to marketing, and they have insight on customers to pass to you. If marketing is doing one thing and your sales teams are also going their own way, you are just hoping for an occasional hit where the two spheres happen to cross. Talk, collaborate, pass information back and forth, and create a sales strategy that informs and responds to the marketing one. You will get much better results.
- Action Point - How often does the sales team interact with the marketing people?
Networking works because it is all about people
Great sales teams build relationships and understand the customer. That always has been the case, still is, and probably always will be. Networking offers the opportunity for that human interaction.
Success in networking comes down to preparation and follow-up. Attending the right events, go to those where potential clients, not just competitors, are present. Practice how to clearly present yourself and your proposition. Showing genuine interest in others and using active listening to identify their pain points. After the event (and I almost want to shout this…), follow-up! A message sent soon after the event that references your conversation will help solidify the connection and lay the groundwork for future engagement.
- Action Point – Do you know what network events your customers hang out at? Are there local or national events they attend?
Stop the generic email sends
Personalisation works; generic responses rarely do. When you use email, use it as a sales tool, not just an administrative function.
When you are talking to the client, make sure you talk 'to' the client. Avoid the generic content trap and speak directly to their pain points. Look for ways to build relationships and add personalisation to your content. Again, this will come down to how well you know the intended reader. So, get to the point, say what you need to say, but also personalise where you can, and they are more likely to respond to a call to action.
Lead generation isn’t always about new contacts; it can also be about getting more from existing ones. Emails continue when the customer is in the sales process or has already purchased, so keep talking to them as individuals. There is no need for ‘Dear Customer, I am pleased to inform you we have now processed your order’ if you know the buyer. Go with something like ‘Hi Dave, just a quick note to let you know we are on the case with the order and the team are working on it now. By the way, did you also know we provide <product or service>…’
Never underestimate the lead generation potential of email to current customers.
- Action Point – Review the email touchpoints in your sales process to see if they could be personalised to act as lead generation.
Is automatic and AI driven lead generation the future?
You are probably regularly getting emails and direct messages offering you huge results from new ‘AI-powered’ lead generation technologies. Well, there are pros and cons to these, and there is a lot to be said on the subject. If we go down that rabbit hole in this article, however, it will be far too long to read. So, I will do another article later in the month on these new tools.
Pulling it all together and generating leads
Ultimately, successful lead generation comes from using a strategic blend of tools and knowing your customers. Telephone calls, social media engagement, networking, AI tools, and email marketing are all going to have a greater or lesser role to play. Most importantly, you will need a coherent strategy that targets the right customers, values relevance, and is personalised. Get that balance right and your strategy will consistently deliver high-quality leads and drive sustainable sales growth for your business.
If you are having an issue with sales, don’t forget to use our 'Ask The Sales Ace' page, where you can tell me your problem, and I will email back my ideas to help.
