You can spend a considerable amount of time thinking about lead generation with a strong emphasis on the generation part – and many companies do. Unfortunately with such a focus on generating leads, when are you going to spend the time actually thinking about converting those leads into sales?

The cold, bottom line is sales form the success of a business so generating leads for the sake of generating leads doesn’t create revenue. You need to shift your focus to how you can make the most of your leads and, in turn, maximise the opportunity and conversion to a sale.

Take a look at six steps that will help you create a good ROI on your lead generation activities:

STEP 1. QUALIFY LEADS

Sorry to state the obvious here but you’ll know if you’re in sales that bad leads cost both your time and money! It’s so important to validate leads way before they reach sales staff. There are a number of ways to filter out bad leads. Why not use third-party services to verify contact information or design a detailed lead form that will reflect a good or bad lead from the offset?

STEP 2. SCORE LEADS

Don’t assume that all leads are equal. Some are hot, some are not, and some have the potential to be much bigger than you first thought. Therefore it is beneficial to establish a methodology for scoring leads in accordance with their potential. You can do this by either establishing a home-grown method or adopt a lead scoring service that has developed its own methodology.

STEP 3. SEGMENTATION

Scoring the lead is just the beginning – it’s what you do with it going forward that really matters and potentially dictates the entire outcome of the lead. You may wish to consider segmentation at this stage depending on the structure of your sales team. It may be appropriate to classify them by region, industry, company size, or some other specified category. Regardless of the type of segmentation you use, and remember to evaluate this as closely as possible, the goal remains the same: you want to ensure the lead gets to the right member of sales staff – the one who is best positioned to convert a specific lead into a sale.

STEP 4. QUICK FOLLOW-UPS

As mentioned in step number two, some leads will be hotter and more attractive than others and therefore these are the ones that are worth prioritising.  Automating the process of scoring, segmenting and handing over leads might just help keep you a step ahead of the competition in the crucial early stages of buyer engagement.

STEP 5. BE VIGILANT!

Don’t spend too much time worrying about lead volume. I know it sounds scary to think that your pipeline doesn’t seem to be as plentiful as it could be but it's quality over quantity that counts when it comes to lead generation success. Remember to ditch those poorly-performing lead sources that are zapping both your time and resource as quickly and as often as possible because that time could be put to better use pursuing a hotter lead.

Put in a process to constantly evaluate the productivity of your lead sources and being vigilant in eliminating those sources that fail to consistently provide you with quality leads.

It’s the quality leads that convert into sales…

STEP 6. KEEP GOING!

Lead generation should be a constant theme. A process. Something intrinsic to the operation of the business. Sporadic “one-hit wonders” in terms of lead generation campaigns can work, but a consistent drive will take you further in the long run.

Want to find out more about how Intellegentia can help you improve your return on investment? In order to be effective at generating leads you need first to establish your buyer personas. To find out more, download our Researching and Developing Buying Personas Mindmap below!