Let’s talk a bit about sales leads, and more specifically, the quality of leads that we get from different sources.
I think this is the best method (aside from referrals) for getting prospects that can afford to invest in your services…
What got me thinking about this was a recent marketing conference I attended. As is often the case, one speaker after another proudly proclaimed that a certain method generated the most leads. But after a while that got me thinking.
Sure it’s good to have lots of prospects interested in who you are and what you do, but it’s even better if your prospects actually have the budget to invest in your services. While that may seem to be a blinding grasp of the obvious, the reality is that lots of people are spending lots of time attracting prospects who, quite frankly, never will never become good clients for them.
I mean it’s wonderful to have a gazillion (real number) followers on Twitter and Facebook but the likelihood that those people are going to convert into clients, willing to pay substantial fees for your services is…well, not real good.
But I understand the appeal…the primary one is that it’s free. But the old saying that there is a relationship between the level of investment and the quality of prospect is true. I have yet to see any hard evidence that ether of these social media methods attract the types of clients the majority of my readers want.
Google is a better lead generation source but I’ll admit that it’s changed over the last couple of years. Whereas the quality of prospects that myself and the majority of my clients attracted two years ago was quite high, the percentage of “Qualified” prospects has dropped of precipitously. That’s okay, since (for now) staying in touch via email is free, but there’s a lot more separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff.
So where are the best quality prospects coming from? There are two methods I think you should consider but the one that I want to focus on today has consistently yielded the highest quality of prospects. Interestingly, as Google has diminished in the quality of leads it provides, this has actually gotten stronger.
Now in all candor I will tell you, that it will not generate anything close to the largest volume of leads for you. So if you have a sales team with a voracious appetite for new people to call, this may not be right for you. But if quality is what you’re after, this is where I would focus.
I’m referring to direct mail.
Now, direct mail has a lot of moving parts to it and it’s easy to mess up.
When you’re doing direct mail you need to keep in mind that you need 1) a great offer (and “call me for a free consultation” is not a great offer) 2) a great list (InfoUSA is OK but their lists get hit a lot so I stopped using them a while back) and 3) great sales copy in the letter.
Yes, I said letter not postcard, but that doesn’t mean that a postcard won’t work. But if your mailing is going to go through a screener, I would not use a postcard.
If you offer B2B consulting services, nothing beats a 1-2 page letter in an envelope with a first class stamp (lots of people-myself included-look at the postage before deciding whether to open something.)
And there are lots of other considerations. Should you put promotional copy on the outside of the letter? If so, what? Should you force people to go to a website or offer other methods to take advantage of your offer? What offer works best? What’s the #1 thing you can do after the mailing to increase conversion? Ect. Ect.
Yup, there’s a lot of things to consider but if you’re willing to do so, direct mail is still the best way to get the quality of prospects that you want.
Or at least that’s my opinion. I welcome yours.
Talk soon
Mark
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Tags: business development, drip marketing, guerilla marketing ideas, lead generation, marketing coaching, marketing strategies, new clients, selling services
