Every company aims to grow and grab market share from its competitors. Unless you have a magic wand or a secret boot, you will have to go through prospecting at some point to find new customers. But lead generation remains a complex marketing strategy, where it’s easy to go wrong.
We will therefore see the mistakes to avoid in order to have a viable strategy, while identifying the attitudes to adopt for this task.
Overlooking the importance of targeting
In prospecting, it is just as important to take care of your targeting work. Indeed, your goal is to acquire new customers, but not just any customers. Keep in mind that not everyone will be interested in your good or service. In fact, a basic principle in marketing is that « targeting everyone is like targeting no one ».
Therefore, you need to build a typical profile of prospects likely to be attracted to your products or services. There are 3 fundamental steps to go through.
Segmentation
Segmenting the market consists of cutting it according to criteria that you have chosen and that you consider relevant to meet your offer. They can be physical (interest, age, company size, industry) or behavioral (actions taken by the prospect on your website, on your social networks, in relation to your emails).
Targeting
By asking yourself the right questions, you will be able to accurately target the people or entities that could become your customers. Among the criteria you have chosen, is there a typical profile that stands out from the others and that would need your products or services? Are you able to add value to it? This is how you can properly target your lead generation strategy and ensure that it is based on a good foundation for the future.
Positioning
This step is often underestimated after targeting, while targeting and positioning go hand in hand. Unlike competitive position, the term refers to the image that the consumer wants to retain about your company, brand or product.
Generalize lead processing
Generalizing leads means not considering the position in which each prospect is in the purchasing decision-making process. Your communication will then become standardized, even if you think about including the name of the person in your message in the case of e-mailings. So, what consequences will this laxity have on your strategy of conquest? First of all, you lose efficiency, because you will propose content and arguments that will not necessarily be adapted since they are generalized. Then, you risk damaging the image of your brand, since your prospects will feel attacked and harassed by things that do not concern them. Finally, it is simply a waste of time and money.
Thus, it will be necessary to make a distinction between « hot » and « cold » leads. The former represent potential customers, those who are already convinced by the benefits they could make by buying from you. In this case, giving them a discount, even if only symbolic, could trigger the transaction. The second are those who discover, who may have already gone through all your offers, but who are not yet convinced enough. In this situation, the solution would be to accompany them to see with them the offer that best suits their needs. Of course, do not forget to argue about the advantages of your products and services compared to those on the market and highlight the points that make them unique.
Neglecting the importance of human relationships in favor of automation
Advances in technology have made it possible to set up specific actions that will be implemented automatically, depending on the behavior of a prospect on your company’s platforms (website, social networks, emails, etc.). Well mastered, it becomes, for example, possible to send reminders to leads who have abandoned their carts, all by software. This craze for marketing automation considerably lightens the work of human resources, but we tend to forget the human side, which is the very basis of marketing.
Remember, your leads will always need human contact. If 67% of the B to B customer journey is carried out online, the 33% will be done with old-fashioned sales support. But that’s not all. In the sales funnel, there will come a time when your prospects will have doubts to remove or obstacles to the purchase. Only a good salesperson will be able to turn the tide for your prospecting to be a success.
Have a fixed lead generation strategy
Marketing is not an exact science, so you could be wrong. Whether at the level of targeting, but also at the level of the channels used to reach prospects, do not hesitate to rectify in case of failure. The important thing is to know the reasons for your mistake and take appropriate action. Of course, these changes will necessarily involve expenses, but the main thing is not to lose sight of the reasons why you are prospecting. The important thing is to remain profitable in your approach.
Lack of communication between the marketing and sales department
Lead generation is nothing but a work of commercial conquest to acquire new customers. If you have read this article correctly, you will have understood that it is necessary for the marketing department and the sales department to work in symbiosis, and this, throughout the generation of leads, from the definition of the strategy to adopt, through its implementation, to the analysis of the results obtained. What for? Since it is the salespeople who will be in contact with your prospects. Marketers will constantly need their feedback for optimal lead generation.
Sources
https://mariawejman.fr/generation-des-leads-6-erreurs-eviter/
