Here is a key question for anyone who wants to grow their sales this year – what is more important for your sales success, lead generation or lead conversion?
I am sure it will not surprise many if I said that both were as important because one will not work without the other. However, most companies we come across will find it easier to invest in lead generation than conversion because it’s easier to measure and influence. It may also be because lead generation is often outsourced so it becomes somebody else’s problem then.
Whatever the reason, the problem with concentrating on lead generation alone is twofold:
- Once the initial excitement wears off, you realise that you have spent the money but not got any sales yet. It then becomes harder to justify the spend going forward
- Your initial conversion rate is likely to have gone down as you now have more leads and less time to develop and nurture all of them.
Clearly, lead generation alone is never going to make sales and bring growth, despite the fact that many think it will just happen automatically. So, to get the best outcome for increased sales you need to work on both lead generation and conversion.
Successfully improving conversion can be harder to achieve. To make a difference, you need to work on two key elements:
Your strategic planning:
In an increasingly tighter market where convincing companies to part with their money is becoming harder, a one size fits all approach is not good enough. If you are busy updating your business development strategy, make sure you go back to basics and define the following elements:
- Your target markets: ask yourself who are they, where will you find them, which companies are ideal clients for you and why.
- Their key issues: There is no question that alleviating pain sells but only if it’s specific and accurate. Ask yourself what are the problems that your target markets face which you can solve.
- The best solution for it: It’s important to consider the best solution you can provide which is based on their problem and not your original offering. Your leads will only take interest if they feel that what you offer has the capacity to solve their issue but also relates specifically to them.
Your sales process:
So many companies forget the importance of a well-defined sales process which is shared by the whole team. In the SME world most companies utilise their entire team to sell meaning that without a sales process, the lack of clarity and direction will often result in sales slowing right down. When you look at your sales process consider the following elements:
- Where do your leads come from, and which source is most successful in terms of conversion?
- What do you need to know about a new lead to ascertain it’s right for you?
- Do you use uniform sales proposals?
- How often do you follow up?
- How do you nurture existing clients?
If you have taken one thing from our blog, we hope it’s the recommendation to spend some time defining your strategy for both your lead generation approach and lead conversion approach. Being specific and considering the details will set you on the right course of action as long as you are putting together a process which everyone in the business can follow.
At YBDT we can help you with both strategic elements:
Click here to read more about our business development strategy creation.
Click here to read more about our sales process support.
Wherever you want to start, we will be happy to become a part of your sales success this year so get in touch to find out more.