Gray Matter at White Space

While we all work through learning how to sell during the new world environment, it’s still vital to keep your eye on developing quality leads for your sales executives. Change and pressure have a way of forcing companies to lower expectations on deliverables. 

Remember, even though you may refine lead definitions over time, sales will still reject leads if they aren’t “sales ready.” No matter the situation we’re in now, it’s important to keep demanding quality from your lead generation teams.

Why Volume Isn’t the Answer

We all know that the definition of a “qualified lead” varies from business to business and even changes as your business evolves. I think back to a situation I was in with a large software company, where I managed their lead management organization. 

Navigating the sales funnel can seem more like a roller coaster than a smooth top-to-bottom transition if you don’t have a solid content strategy in place. Last week’s blog on this topic discussed why top of funnel content is no place for a “Buy NOW!” message. Instead, the initial stage (TOFU) should be focused on building awareness about your company and educating targets.

As you move down the funnel towards the middle (MOFU), you may become anxious to dig into active selling tactics.

Not so fast.

You can’t boil the ocean.

We say this a lot in marketing. With only so much time, energy, and resources, you’re lucky to boil even a bucketful at a time. This is particularly true when it comes to attracting a base of customers for your product. Short of running a Superbowl commercial—which you probably can’t afford—you’re not going to reach everyone. Better to aim smaller and smarter.

That’s where buyer personas come in.

Cold calling and other outbound marketing techniques are solid marketing strategies, but they can’t stand alone. Combining inbound efforts with outbound conversations and lead follow-up is the most effective way to grow your business. The tricky part is generating a sufficient volume of quality leads.

But, even more problematic is understanding what truly constitutes a “quality lead” — a conceptual dichotomy that increasingly prevails between marketing and sales teams.

I recently dug out a bookmarked New York Times article from several years back: Small Players Seek an Alternative to the Expense of Pay-Per-Click. 

The article profiles a few business owners who learn an expensive lesson. While early PPC (pay-per-click) results can be seductive, this initial success is often followed by diminishing returns. In the hunt for other avenues to qualified lead generation, the authors find inbound marketing, a path to generating more leads at a lower cost.

Today, twice as many growing businesses are using inbound marketing as when this article was written. Driving inbound marketing traffic to your website - driving unpaid traffic - is practically a mainstream philosophy. 

In the early days of White Space Marketing Group, we drank that Kool-Aid, too -- but today, I have a slightly contrarian view to share. 

We've found that paid ads - carefully tested and measured - can augment your inbound programs with efficient lead conversion. Here's how.