In today’s world of inbound marketing, cold calls (and cold leads) are no longer considered as the most effective way to generate sales. Mostly, they simply end up annoying prospective leads rather than attracting them. This is why you have to know the efficient ways on generating leads that will benefit your business in the long run. Keep in mind that you should do the right processes to ensure that you can achieve great lead generation.
By the way, there are different types of Leads...
Let us segment them into different categories...
PROSPECTS Identified people / organisations that have experienced a cursory touch point with your brand, including adverts and search.
LEADS Someone that has interacted with your brand, usually at first visit, a phone call or has identified interest in particular solutions.
Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)
A lead that by virtue of their position, industry, or any set of specific parameters matches an ideal prospect for sales outreach.
Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
A lead that has been filtered or evaluated by a salesperson to be both sales ready and mapped to potential products / services.
From ideal buyers to leads to loyal customers, every individual who interacts with your business can be placed somewhere along the sales funnel, and they need to be handled differently depending on what stage of the funnel they are likely engaged in.
Once a lead completes certain actions or qualifications, they move down the funnel, becoming marketing or sales qualified leads.
It’s like a transition from a cold audience to a warm audience.
That is the goal for acquiring leads to turn them into loyal customers.
Finding the right leads for your business brings us to the process of lead generation – how do we get those leads we need and want? These are the smart ways you can get new leads!
Your Buyer Personas
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional, generalized representation of an ideal customer based on market research and real data about existing clients. Buyer personas enable you to attract the most valuable leads by understanding their challenges, goals, and demographic traits.
Generally three personas are sufficient to get you going. Try out the free HubSpot tool for creating buyer personas: quickly and easily.
Watch out for the next post to find out more!